My students and I both love Brain Breaks in the classroom! It's time to take a break from all that learning, so that we can stretch, dance, or just laugh for a minute or two before we get back to it!  Here are some things that I use in my classroom that you might want to try, but please post anything that you have used in your class as well!

1) Go Noodle!  This is an online website that is *free*! You sign your class up, and then you have access to tons of fun videos that can jazz your kids up, or calm them down! You choose! Go Noodle!

2) Brain Breaks on a stick! From one of my favorite 3rd grade bloggers, I have used these in my class for a few years.  I had some friends and volunteers help cut them out and glue them together, but all the time was worth it. The activities are short, fun, and the kids LOVE them! They are well worth the few dollars your spend! Brain Break Sticks!

3) Play-Doh!  If you have some Play-Dough, give a can to a few partners, and give them challenges like: create a sculpture of your shoe (or favorite animal, or insect, or family member, etc.) in five minutes! It's hilarious, and also can be used for vocabulary review!

4) Funny memes, videos, or cool pictures.  I especially use this Brain Break during state testing when everyone is just worn out, and we need to relax for a few minutes.  These are some of my favorites, but I warn you that you must be willing to tolerate some goofiness to show these! ;-)
*The Duck Song  (There are also sequels)
*It's Raining Tacos! (There is also a 10 hour version if you *really* like tacos!)
*How Animals Eat Their Food (I don't think the sequels are as good, and definitely view the other videos from these same people before you show them to the class. Some are not as appropriate).
*Inspire kids with these 3D Chalk Art Paintings (Again, preview this before-hand to make sure you click on the images that are appropriate for kids.)
*Start the day with my favorite Inspirational Sloth:

Close Reading #1- Trying Something New

Close Reading... Have You Tried It?

I'm going to start this article off by saying that if you are a teacher that uses Close Reads in your class, please leave a comment with any tips/tricks/ideas that you have that work in your class! Thank you in advance!

This is the first year that I'm really going to try to do Close Reads in my class. Last year, I did 10 minute reads (read the same short passage everyday for 10 minutes with a different focus). I loved this repeated reading strategy to help with fluency, basic text structure and vocabulary understanding, but I found that I wanted to go deeper into my students' thinking.  We already have a lot of programs that help with fluency, but comprehension and independent thought are very tough.

Enter Close Reading... repeated reading of a text over a period of time to derive meaning from the text.  I took a training on this over the summer, and feel finally ready to dive in to it.

I'm going to start with this lesson that I found on the good ol' Interwebs, using Oreos to help kids understand why we read something more than once:

http://whoswhoandnew.blogspot.com/2014/12/close-reading-with-oreos.html


Here are some anchor charts that were shown at my district training. I will use some, but definitely not all, of them, but here they are if they can help you!

Forehead Math

Forehead Math!

Maybe it looks like a game you might have played in college (eh hem?) :-) ... but this is actually a fantastic game that helps kids practice their basic math facts and basic algebra skills.

The game is simple:

3 players (4 can also work for 3 addends)

Materials: A deck of cards.

1. Take the face cards out of a deck of cards.

2. Shuffle the remaining cards. One person is the dealer, the other two are the guessers.

3.  The dealer secretly gives a card to each guesser.  The guesser may NOT look at their own card, and has to hold or stick it on to their forehead, face out.

4.  The dealer adds up the two guessers' cards, and tells them the answer.  Each guesser looks at the other guesser's card, and has to guess the value of their own personal card.  The only clues they have are the other person's card, and the answer that the dealer gave them. The first guesser to guess correctly, wins! The winner takes both the cards as their points.

5.  Players then shift the role of the dealer to the next person.  At the end of the game, the person with the most cards wins.

This game is hilarious and incredibly fun. Try it in your class today!

Plant Categorization

Science is one of my favorite subjects to teach, because it most lends itself to get kids thinking about, and interacting with, the world around them.

I have a wonderful student teacher this year, and when we were thinking about our plant categorization lesson, she instantly thought... let's take them outside!  The goal was to take them around our campus, and have them observe and examine the plants we have to place them in to categories (flowers, no flowers, deciduous, etc.).

She typed up informational pages ahead of time that gave kids enough clues about each plant that they were looking at. She hung those up near the plants she wanted them to categorize.  They read the description, looked at the plant, and then chose what category the plant went in.

Because we live in the desert, any category that we didn't have a plant for in real life, she simply printed an extra page with a picture of a plant on it with its description.  Super fun!  The kids got to move around, debate with each other (sometimes very heatedly!), and learn a lot of plant names!

Here is what a plant station might look like:

Kids with their clipboards and papers, categorizing the plant on a graphic organizer:

 A plant we don't have in the desert:

Block Printing #1, Collagraphs, & 21st Century Grant

My school is a Title I school. We won this AMAZING grant (half a million $ over 5 years!) that provides funds to pay teachers and other volunteers to lead kids in before and after school clubs, to help bridge the gap between parents that can afford to give their kids a variety of experiences, and those that cannot.  

Here is a link with more info on the grant if you think your school could qualify: 21st Century Grant

I decided to lead an Art Club and a computer coding club. Our kids are lucky to get PE and Music classes taught by separate knowledgable teachers, but don't have Art classes yet, so I thought that my club would be a great opportunity for them.

The grant also provides the funds for clubs to get amazing supplies... which as someone who loves art, had me salivating instantly. Think of all the materials and supplies that we could get to do some really cool stuff!!!!!

This summer in our summer camp, I did some block printing with kids on styrofoam in grades 1-6. 

The kids etched a drawing into a piece of styrofoam, and used it to print.  I loved this, because kids could roll their own ink, and print with multiple hues simply by cutting out shapes from their styrofoam image.

This year in Art Club, my 4-6 graders are starting with a collagraph poster.  They chose a quote that they liked, and drew/cut the letters out of foam.  They then glued them on to cardboard to make a stamp.  You can use a mirror to have kids check their image to make sure their letters are arranged correctly.  

Then, you have the kids roll printing ink on them, and stamp on to paper.  We haven't finished them yet for stamping, but I will post the pictures when they are all done!

Keep Calm and Mine On! (All the kids are MineCraft OBSESSED)

Reach for the Stars!

Most of my ideas I steal- I mean borrow- from other teachers.  Here are the pages that I used to help me with these projects: 

http://thomaselementaryart.blogspot.com/2014/03/3rd-grade-collagraph-quote-prints.html

http://calvertcanvas.blogspot.com/2012/05/cardboard-collagraph-quotes.html

Number Talks- Daily Mental Math Lessons

K-6 teachers!  Are you frustrated at your students' lack of number sense?  Do you struggle to fit  more basic math practice into your already jam-packed day?  Do your students struggle to discuss their math thinking? NEVER FEAR!  Number Talks is here!!!!!! :-)

I have used Number Talks for over 2 years, and it has helped me address some problems I was having in my math teaching.  I felt like my students could follow steps to math problems, but were unable to manipulate and use numbers with a true understanding of what they were doing, or what they could potentially do, with numbers.

What is Number Talks?  

Number Talks is a book from the Math Solutions folks. It is a 15 minute/day routine (minimum 3 days/week) with your class that focuses on their mental math skills. The book scaffolds the different math skills and strategies that the kids need to know.  Also, the program builds in conversation frames and hand signals, so that the kids learn how to discuss their thinking with others!  The program also coaches you, as a teacher, in how to facilitate these types of discussions.  It is simple, yet very powerful.  

Here are some videos to watch you see how it is done.  You might have seen something like this on Teaching Channel, but were at a loss for how those teachers could become so awesome.

Here is the book. 

The book has a DVD with much better videos (I think) than the link above.  This book is pricey, so talk to your principal, PTO, or some other source to purchase it for you if possible.  My principal loved this so much when she saw me do it, that she ended up buying one for each grade level, and we implement this program now K-6! Imagine 6th grade teachers how amazing your students could be once they get to you...

Here are my conversation frames, and some addition strategy posters from last year's class. The kids love it when a strategy is named after them!

 

Here is an example of what my easel looks like after a Number Talks session (this was one of my first ones this year).  I also gather kids on the floor in front of my side white board sometimes.  

How to set it up:

1. Find a gathering spot in your class where you have access to an easel or board to write on.  Do not have students stay in their desks.  This is a cozy class family math time type of scenario. 

2.  Post conversation frames on the wall.  You may also have a number line, 100s chart, etc. posted if that will help your kids. 

3.  Poster making supplies.  You will post strategies that the kids develop to refer back to. Be prepared to make some posters for each skill that your class uses. 

4. Read the book.  I know... duh... but it's important to read the pages in between the lessons.

5. Trust in the recommended starting point. Starting at adding tens or reviewing ten-frames in fourth grade? Say what?! Trust me, your kids need that review, and adding up all those columns of numbers in long multiplication will be sooooooooo much better down the line!

I can sing the praises of Number Talks  to you all day, but for now, I hope I have piqued your interest!

Have a great day!

Teaching? Blogging? Why?! :-)

This definitely is going to feel like a diary entry, so I've decided to write it as one! Bear with me here...

Dear Teaching Diary,

Summer is waving its sad good-bye, while the new school year is running up to give me a high-five!  After 8 years of teaching, getting the classroom set up STILL sets off this chain reaction of emotions.  I'm excited, then nervous, then overwhelmed, then excited, then stressed, then excited...

When I was a kid, being a teacher meant that I got to keep being a part of the learning process. Knowing about things was fun, the pursuit of knowledge addictive, and being able to share that with others, while hopefully being able to finger-paint a bit... sign me up! (Seriously, finger-painting was probably my #1 reason.)  Now that I've been doing it awhile, I sincerely believe that this is the biggest contribution to society that I will be able to make, one small unit of tiny people at a time.

These perspectives dilute themselves with the demands of the job.  Difficult students and parents, lack of curriculum, more data demands, standardized testing/politicians, lack of pay, mounds of hours of work while trying to have a life... it feels like the whole world is on top of you!  I think it's true for most teachers that we expect a lot out of ourselves... and that is the hardest thing about a job that already demands so much.  Unfortunately, the job doesn't always give back in equal amounts.

Thinking about all of this brought on the inspiration to start a blog.  Why?

1. To remind myself that hanging out with 8-9 year olds all day can be pretty amazing! Focusing on the good things that high-school-me loved.

2. To refine my practice.  If you're a teacher, you know the whirl wind that happens each day, and I'd like to savor some of the sweet moments that seem to fly by!

3.  To give back to those other teachers and bloggers that have provided me with so many resources and ideas from all parts of the world!  (Many for free even, BTPT-- Before Teachers Pay Teachers.)

Well Teaching Diary, that is all for now.  I have a classroom to set up, and some hopefully adorable and sweet and smart and funny students to get ready for!

Much love,
Mrs. Pi.