Mighty Messages

I have a to-do list a mile long, and summer just seems to be flyin' by.  I can finally check something else off of my list-YAY.  I finished up my mighty message posters and I think they will be just what I needed.  We talk about story theme all year in the classroom, so these posters will get a whole lot of use.   These posters have "I Can . . . Statements, so students can really take ownership of these messages/themes and connect them to their own lives.  I also think it will definitely help with behavior in the classroom.  If a student is not sharing, I can remind them of the mighty message, and have them go take a looksy at our chart.

 

There are also recording pages included, 

so students can record all the books they read under the correct theme. 

 I plan to introduce each of the mighty messages the first couple of weeks of school to set the stage for a positive classroom climate.  They will write about a time they demonstrated each of the mighty messages in their own lives.

If you are interested in this resource, please check it out in  my TPT store.  Simply click the image below.

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Math Fact Practice and Punch Cards

I created punch cards to use along with my math fact drills last summer.  But, I quickly realized that I didn't like any of the drills that I had saved over the years.  I wanted something to go along with the punch cards that I had created- I needed drills for 0's, 1's, 2's, etc.  All the drills I had were either mixed drills or had too many problems for students to reasonably finish in a minute.  I knew I was going to have to make something that would work perfectly with my punch cards.

Below are the punch cards. One for each of the operations. 

I titled the pages- A Minute to Win it, because in order to win a punch, they must get a 100% in less than a minute.  I'm not a drill kinda teacher, but  my students really loved doing them! They were begging me during the day for opportunities to retest on whatever number they were trying to earn.  How could I resist that?

 Below are examples of the Minute To Win It pages for each operation:

Each of the Minute to Win It pages are half pages with 21 problems.  Research says that students should be able to accurately solve 25 problems in under a minute, so I gave them some leeway and went with 21 problems.  The division pages are the only ones that have 20 problems.  Some of the multiplication and division are trickier, so they may need more than a minute, especially when they're doing their 11's and 12's.

I also made 3 Mixed Reviews for each of the operations.  I thought they would make great reviews or even possible quizzes.

Even though I named them punch cards, I didn't actually use them as punch cards.  I decided to go simple last year, and simply had them glue them in their math journals.  I just initialed each time they completed a number.  This worked out great because I didn't have to worry about lost punch cards.

If you are interested in math fact practice pages for your students, you can check it out in my TPT store by clicking here.

* If you already have drills that you like, you can also get the punch cards only in my TPT store.

Literature Response

I am so glad summer is finally here. Yay!
I thought before I get totally in summer mode, I would share a couple of things we worked on at the very end of the year.  I decided to create new response forms for both fiction and nonfiction.  I tried it out with my kiddos at the end of the year, and they really liked the new format.  You'll notice the spot for a fluency check.  I like to have my students time each other as quick fluency checks on their library books.  I also do  fluency spot checks to make sure they are checking out "just right" books.  I keep it simple, they time each other for a min. and write down their fluency.  You can get the Book Bonanza in my TPT store by clicking HERE. 

I also created a mini literacy unit to go along with the Big Al by Andrew Clements.  I absolutely love this book and thought it would be fun unit for the beginning of the year.  It has a heart warming message about friendship, so it would actually work well any time during the school year.  I had a smaller group of second graders at the very end of the year for our extended year program, and we had a great time with Big Al.  Here are a few pics of their work.

Click HERE to head to my TPT store.

You can get all the activities above by heading over to my TPT store.  Of course, I had to end with a FREEBIE.  So, this is a little activity to use along with all those extra Scholastic flyers you might have lying around.  I like to use it in a balanced literacy station.  Click on the image below to grab your freebie.

Portfolio Cover Pages

Just a quick post to share a couple freebies.  The last week of school for our students is here.  I always wrap up this last week by putting together our yearly Writing Portfolios and also our 2nd Grade Portfolios.  Their  2nd Grade Portfolios contain work samples from the entire school year.  I've tried lots of different methods of storing their portfolio work.  My favorite is to slide it all into a large 2 gallon ziploc bag.  It fits nicely, and it gets home safely.  I used to use large sheets of construction paper stapled together to make a large carrier. They looked great, but they ended up losing half of their work as they traveled down the hallway.  This year, I'm going to run the cover page on bright colored cardstock, so it can be seen through the front of the bag.  My teacher buddy had that idea and I loved it.

If you are a Kinder-5th grade teacher, and in need of Portfolio covers, you can get them below for free. 

Update: I also added a page that says scrapbook instead of portfolio.  I like to include art pieces that go with some of their writing, and once I tied them together with twine, they really looked like scrapbooks.

These are my portfolios from last year:

Here are my portfolios from this year.  I stayed simple this year.  I went ahead and skipped the ribbon, but I still think they turned out great.  My students were very proud of them.

Sound Card Freebie

I've had a burst of energy the last couple weeks, so I've been putting it to good use.  Although my husband would probably disagree with me on that one.  He'd probably prefer I'd clean the house instead of creating more classroom stuff.  But, I 've been changing up some of the things that I use on a daily basis, and one of those things that needed an update were my sound cards.  I have my "go to" words that I like to use when I teach a sound, but the cards I currently have displayed use different words associated with each sound, and it totally throws me off.  I titled the cards sound swatters because I think of my students as sound swatters, because they are always looking reading around the room for words that contain these patterns.

You will notice that the h brothers have a weather theme.  I always tell my class that they are brothers and the sounds are written with their initials- sh/th/wh/ch.  Each brother has a favorite type of weather and their favorite weather starts with the sound they make.
sh-shine (I usually tell them sunshine )
th- thunder
wh-whirlwind
ch-chilly

You can get this freebie by clicking any picture below:

Weather Themed Behavior Clip Chart

I must seem cuckoo for changing my behavior system the last 3 weeks of school, but golly it seems to have worked out in my favor.  This is that time of year when spring summer fever hits, and our classes really start to get stir crazy, it seems like this clip chart change was just what my class needed.  My kiddos really like our new clip chart and are trying so hard to get to that pot of gold at the very top.  My previous behavior system was very similar, but I used a painted yardstick and green was at the very top.  They could only go downward and not up, which just wasn't working for me any longer.  My kiddos that work so hard and set good examples really needed to be acknowledged for their great behavior.

Why the weather theme??? Well, I've had weather on my mind lately, most likely because Texas has been having really crazy weather these last few weeks.  I think one day last week it was colder in South Texas than it was in NYC. I'm freezing one day and sunburned the next- no wonder all of our kids are getting sick. The more I thought about a theme for my chart, weather just seemed like the logical choice, and it really makes perfect sense when you start connecting it to behavior. When I'm having a great day, I feel "over the rainbow" and when I'm having an awful day, "stormy" is a pretty good description of how I feel.

I decided to make each section a full page, because I really wanted it to be prominent in the classroom.  Behavior is a big deal, so I really wanted them to be able to see the chart clearly and take notice of where they are at any given moment.  I have mine hanging right at the front of the room on the dry erase board.

You can check it out in my TPT store, by clicking below:

Characters are Super

I wanted to create a set of activities that could be used over and over again throughout the school year, but with a different story each time.  We have a new story for the week each week,  and we do a variety of activities to target the particular skills and strategies that we are teaching during that particular week.  Our district uses Scott Foresman's Reading Street and there are a lot of fun and informative stories within the adoption.  I wanted to have a set of printables focused on character lessons that I could pick and choose from each week.  I wanted to keep it interesting so there are 12 variations to choose from.

Here are a few examples from the set:

The title is not printed on the black line, so you can use a book of choice.

This one focuses on problem and solution.  Their pictures always turn out super cute and they get a lot of oohs and ahhs hanging in the hallway. 

I used the 2 pages below together.  We talked about positive character traits and then completed the Super Character page.  There is also a blank ABC page, so you could come up with your own character traits, if you wanted.

The printable below was one of my favorites.
It really got them hunting through their books for the best details. 

 

 Here are a few of the pages that I didn't save class examples of:
On the page below, they must choose the best character trait to describe their character.  Then, explain why they chose that trait.  I use this along with the ABC's of Super Characters that was pictured above.

 Letter Writing...

 Adjectives...

 Venn Diagrams, OH MY!

 You can check out this product at Teacher Pay Teachers by clicking the image below: