Gold Frame Work

Our first Gold Frame piece of work went up today!

If you need an easy way to recognize your students, this is the one for you! Find some frames, spray paint them gold, put them up in your classroom, and VOILA.... a beautiful way to celebrate your kiddos!

Working on Positive Actions

We all like to hear positive things.  And children are no different.

After reading and having discussions about working towards a more trauma-sensitive classroom, I continued to think about what I can do in my small groups to highlight the positive actions that occur.

After a running record, I have always talked to my students about what they are doing really well and what they can work on.  Always emphasizing that they are not alone and I tell them what I am going to do to help them with that skill.

But I wanted to do a bit more.

I am still having this conversation with them.  But I am also writing down one positive thing they are doing in a card to their families.  I write it quickly as I am taking notes on their reading. The note may say..."Ruby was looking at beginning sounds when reading today!" So this is not taking a lot of time.  But my students are really excited to have a little note to take home!

We use LLI as an intervention in our school.  Every other day, students write about the text during our small group lesson.  It is so easy to point out everything they are doing incorrectly when writing.  But, of course, this would be so deflating and pointless.  So this year I started pointing out some of their positive actions with little stickers in their books.

It is really simple.  And probably a bit silly.  But I want them to feel good about what they ARE doing so that hopefully they will keep paying attention to those details.

I also want to share something I observed in Maria's room.

These are golden frames that hang on one of her bulletin boards.  She hangs up work and writes down what the student did well.  I love how specific it is and it models the behavior for other students.  It is a simple, quick, and easy way to point out the positive for a student.

I completely recognize that none of these ideas are ground breaking.  But I know I needed a little push to add more of these actions into my daily routine.

Now I just need to just keep it up!

Em

A Love of Paper: Big and Small

What seems like forever ago (but it probably wasn't) I wrote about the EDExpo2015 and that I did formulate some ideas from this trip.  There were so many products and so many ideas floating around that my brain had to clear a bit before I could "act" on any of these thoughts.

Well Spring Break has come...my house has been purged, reorganized, the girls have been playing/dancing/singing.  My head has started to clear.

When I was walking around the Expo I came to Pacon's exhibit.  There is just something about paper.  Notebooks, post-its, graph paper, notepads....it just does not matter...I love them all.  My eyes immediately fell on a small composition book.  The representative was so kind and offered to send me one in the mail.

Well, they did not send me one, but TWELVE!

Currently I use composition books to take running records on my students during guided reading.  Problem. They are pretty thick, take up quite a bit of space, and I waste a lot paper. 
These have only 24 sheets of paper in them.  They are skinny and just the right size for my guided reading groups.  But I could not wait until next year to try them out.  So I have been using them with my new RtI group.  It has been perfect.  It fits right into my binder that holds all my materials.

So my thoughts for next year....I want to use these in my guided reading groups with all my students.  Maria is thinking about also using these for her writing notebooks because she feels that the students need a smaller composition book that is more manageable. 

I am always so grateful to be able to try out new ideas in the spring.  It allows me to get excited about the changes I will make for the upcoming school year.

When I received this box of small composition books another long, tall, skinny box came.  Inside I found four rolls:

They are backdrops from Ella Bella Photography and Pacon thought I might like to try them out.  Oh my goodness!! I had never thought about using backdrops before.  But my team has already decided that we are going to have these backdrops up next year at Open House with props for families to enjoy. 

I could not wait to next year to bust these puppies out!  We had a writing celebration on Friday to show off all the great animal research our firsties have done.  We decorated with a zoo/safari theme.  I set up the backdrop with some props for students.

 
 My firsties thought it was so cool that it looked like real wood planks. I think I need to come up with some more creative ways to use these backdrops.  Do you have any ideas?

Thanks to Pacon. You have sparked my creative juices!

Celebrating Authors in our Classroom



Who here doesn't LOVE a celebration?!?!?!?  Our first graders LOVE to party, especially when they get to show off all their hard work! 

We try to have a celebration after each writing piece is completed.  Some of these celebrations take place with parents, some with other school friends, and some with each other. 

While we thoroughly enjoy watching the faces of our firsties when they read to their audience, we just feel like we need to celebrate them more.  We want each firstie to know what he or she does daily, is noticed.  This is how our next idea was born. 

 

What kid doesn't love a bracelet?  Our girls get them EVERY time we visit Kings Island.  They are so proud each time they put one of these guys on, ESPECIALLY when they get a new color.

 

 

On this day our youngest moved to a new color bracelet and she's now able to ride the Blue Beastie AND the Viking Ship!  I think she smiled for about 8 hours this day! :)

  Our girls also  get bracelets when we go to the gym so they can go down the slide and swim by themselves.  Now if you notice the bracelet on the left.... it's so worn down.  When I ask our oldest to take it off, she says, "Mom, I can't.  It's a part of me." What?!?!?!  A part of you?  Yikes! 

I see how much my girls love these bracelets, I mean my oldest won't even take hers off, so my wheels started turning.  I started thinking.... how can we incorporate this into our classroom.  So... BAM! I made bracelets.  Yep!  These were made so our kids know how proud we are of the steps they are taking in becoming authors.  We want our firsties to know that their hard work IS NOT going unnoticed, even though we give verbal praise often.  We are also thinking this is a way to keep our parents informed. 

What do you think?

 

 

I've printed them horizontal and vertical.  Both seem to work on my daughter's arm, but her arm is so skinny.  It was loose, but that's ok.  I also tried both on my arm.  They worked, but most first graders aren't my size.  :)  I decided to stick with the words going vertical so you will be able to fold a little over if you need to make it fit better without losing the words.  :)  Thinking about adding the vertical bracelets later, but I was just so excited, I wanted to show you these guys.

ps.. Sorry about how they look.  Our printer needs new ink desperately and I need our printer to not drink it so quickly. :)  Do you feel my pain?!?!?!?

 

 

 

 These guys would also look great on backpacks or lunchboxes.

Em also thought you could print them on Post-It paper or label paper and just stick them on a folder, clipboard, or child. :) 

 

We're so, so, so excited to use these guys in our classroom that I'm giving away two packets. One is for first grade authors and the other (which will be finished tomorrow) is for first grade readers.  Lots of other bracelet packets will follow.  So... if you want to win one of these guys, enter the Rafflecopter below! :)

 

                

 

 

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck our sweet, sweet friends! Keeping our fingers crossed for all of you! :)

A Whole Lot of Research Going On

Friends, prior to spring break we were KNEE DEEP in research and informational writing.  There is something to love about informational writing.  It's so...... factual.  hehehe  I think I say this about every writing unit when we finish, "It's my favorite."  So why change it now, this one is "My favorite!"  :)

Em collected books from our bookroom, I raided my daughter's books, and here's what my classroom bookshelves looked like when we started.

 

We spent  time as a class researching sharks.  We tried to find what they looked like, where they lived, what they ate, and how they moved.  This was in support of what our firsties would later research. 

We also transformed our hallway into a "jungle"  (thanks to our student aide and Em) that would later be the entrance to our Safari Walk.  *SQUEAL*  You're going to love it, just hold your horses.  :)  Our firsties absolutely love, love, LOVED our Safari Walk.  Here's the hallway..

 

Lots of excitement was in the air which made writing so easy.  We browsed the books, listed our top three choices

















and then the magic book fairy (Em) matched each student with a book at their level.




















 Next, we tabbed our info with tabs that corresponded to the colors of our chart.  Here's what the chart looked like.  This chart was inspired by a presentation we heard at Reading Recovery last year. 

 Once all the information had been tabbed, students then had to go back and transfer that information onto the organizer in "note form".  They willingly did this after I told them they were like HIGH school and COLLEGE kids.  :)  After the transfer was complete the writing began and all I can say is WOW.  Like fifty shades of WOW and I know we've done shades of meaning, but like  Fancy Nancy says, sometimes... there isn't a fancier way of saying it, so WOW it is! :)  Apparently, some (well most) of my pictures need to be rotated so I'll have to do a Part 2 post. 

I'll leave you with a few pictures of our Safari Walk.  We made Safari Hats from paper plates and bowls which was of course inspired by Pinterest.  CLICK HERE to see.  :)  Our classroom desks turned into four person Jeeps.  Again, we were inspired by Pinterest.  CLICK HERE to see this one.

 

I'll be back with more later.  I hear a crying  babe upstairs, so I'm off to my "other job".  :)

Three cheers for research!

Doodle... Doodle... Doodle... Freebie!

I wish I could do this whole post in speech bubbles.  :)  It would be so much fun! We had the BEST.DAY.EVER. today!  Today was our *DOODLE PARTY*!  WE have been working feverishly for weeks on our Mo Willems inspired stories.  Our firsties did an UH-MAZING job and they were so proud of themselves. (We were proud of all of them too!) I LOVED watching them shine today.  It was a group effort preparing for this day, so THANKS to ALL who helped!  We couldn't have pulled this off without our FANTASTIC team, student aide, aide to the first grade, janitor, and support of our Principal for all our crazy ideas.  Big thanks to Em for her continued efforts to inspire me to be creative as all heck!  She helps me run with the crazy ideas that pop into my head. 

Here's a peek at what we did today.

                                   The invite...

The work.....

 

 

The Decorations....

 

 

Our Cafeteria before....

Our janitor cleaned this guy super fast after lunch so we could get in there to decorate. Thanks!

 

The Cafeteria after.....

A few doodles...

I have a few more, but they are on my phone and it's getting harder and harder to keep these old eyes open. :)

My partner in crime....

 

 

 We also had Pigeon, duckling, Gerald and Piggie hanging from the ceiling.  Totally forgot to take pics of those guys. 

 

This is what I walk into everyday.  One of the best reasons for having my daughter goes to school with me.  :)  She's been LOVING all the Piggie and Elephant books in my room .  :)  Don't get me wrong, she loves the Pigeon too!

And for sticking with me.... Click on the picture to grab your freebie cover!

If you like this freebie.... CLICK HERE to see it in a packet. 

 

I will give this packet FOR FREE to the first three commenter's! :)

 Here's to a weekend filled with Doodles!