Let's talk about Halloween + freebies!

It's Halloween week! Or rather, it's been Halloween week and I've just been a little bit too busy to blog. But fear not, I have some juicy things to talk about today! 

One of my favorite parts about our ELA block is the read alouds, and since I'm in charge of the read aloud plans for my grade level team, I chose a variety of Halloween-themed books for this week. Also as a rule with read alouds, I try to incorporate some sort of follow-up writing activity or craft. This week, I saved the crafts for our Halloween party and stuck with writing pieces. These are the books we are reading this week!

We read this story twice. The first day, we responded by completing a beginning, middle, and end graphic organizer to summarize the story and the second day, we talked about what the central message of the story was.

My students loved this book! They especially loved the "mysterious dark figure" who delivered a note to Farmer Brown :) After reading this book, we wrote our own invitations to our Halloween party to give to our families. You can grab a copy HERE.

For the two books listed above, they tell the same story of Halloween monsters getting ready for kiddy trick-or-treaters and in the end, the children get too scared because they realize the monsters aren't wearing costumes at all! So the monsters then enjoy their own party by themselves and have a great time. For the follow-up activity, we compared the two stories together and talked about how they were similar and different and then, students picked their favorite version and explained to a partner why it was their favorite.

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Still on the topic of Halloween, quite frankly I was feeling a little lazy this year when it came to drawing my Halloween treat labels so I created some on Powerpoint using Creative Clips adorable Halloween cliparts and uploaded them in my store for your particular use. Click on the picture below to get them!

Back to the topic of read alouds, what are your favorite Halloween read alouds and activities you do with them? I know there are a ton of great ones out there and I can't wait to switch them up next year!

Doubles Troubles Flashcards Freebie!

I'm back, as promised, and with a freebie! The Common Core-aligned graphic organizers will come at another time, but I made some doubles flashcards for my class since we're working on adding fluently within 20 and wanted to share it with you all in case you could find use for it this fall. They are doubles addition flash cards to 20, meeting standard 1.OA.6 that states students should be able to add within 20 fluently. The cards are perfectly sized to introduce as a whole group, maybe in your morning meeting or even use as partner work with students when they are done with centers. They are also fall-themed, which I thought would be perfect for the weather we're in (at least here in Chicago) and included at the end of the pack is a bonus flash test for students to complete 12 doubles facts in 30 seconds. Click on the picture below, leave some feedback, and enjoy!

P.S. Something very exciting is going to be happening this week on the blog. Stay tuned!

1st week math: number of the day

I can never figure out what to do for my math plans the first week of school. Do I dive in into the meaty stuff? Or do I start off easy, do more of a review? But then what if it's too easy? As you can tell, math isn't my best subject to teach. However, being surrounded by talented teachers (and splitting the planning with an amazing team) has allowed for me to piggyback and learn from some teachers who have a better grip on math than I do. So this year, we're starting off with reviewing numbers and number sense by doing a "number of the day". I'm sure you've all seen this before; it's nothing original but it's effective to see how much your students know about number concept and works great as an assessment for the individual components involved in completing a number of the day worksheet. I've created a number of the day worksheet that has 6 different components/ways to show the number: numeral, number word, illustrations, tally marks, ten frames, and a number sentence. After modeling doing one myself and one with my students, I'm going to have students complete these individually and then perhaps for homework as well, after I assign a number. 

You can download the freebie by clicking the picture below. Also, don't forget to leave feedback in my store! It's helpful and just makes my day a little bit brighter :)

What are you all doing for your first week math plans?

The light's on, the teacher's busy!

Recently I was browsing Pinterest for some classroom ideas and I found this cool idea of using a push light to let students know visually when you are engaged in small groups and how they should not disturb you or your group. It also works when you're conferencing with individuals or administering assessments and need to left alone. Basically the idea is: when the light is on, the teacher is busy!

All you really need is a push light, which you can find at your local Dollar Store. I couldn't get to mine so I found identical lights on Amazon for $6 and they came in a pack of 3. You can find them here. You can use the light itself and stick it on a whiteboard where you write the little reminder to students about how the light works, but I didn't want to keep writing a reminder in my ugly handwriting (really, it's not nice) so I made a cute sign to go with it and I thought I'd share it. Here it is! Just print, laminate, stick the light in the middle, punch 2 holes and tie a string and hang it up around your small group area and viola! You have an easy-peasy way to manage those little munchkins who come up constantly during your small group instructional time.

Click the picture to download the freebie!

What are some ways you manage your small group time?

Weekly Behavior Management Sheet

I'm back with yet another freebie! I wasn't kidding when I said I loved giving freebies :) This one is a weekly behavior management sheet I pass out to my students at the end of the day during our dismissal routine. At our school, we have a 7-color behavior system and at the end of the day, students take a crayon and color/write in their color for the day in the appropriate spot and then I initial it on the side. I thought I'd offer up this freebie and made it editable in case your school has a different color system (I know some places only have 5 colors). Below the weekly chart is the editable part. As a reminder to parents, I describe what each color means and then place a note to parents about how they need to look at the sheet each day, place it back in their child's homework folder and ultimately sign the sheet by the end of the week so I can collect them. It's my way of making sure parents are actively monitoring their child's behavior. Of course, I pair this with phone calls as well, positive and instructional, but I always have parents who want to know what color their child was on and I can't always remember off the top of my head.

Click on the picture below to download your editable chart. 

(It looks fuzzy in the download tab, but I promise it doesn't when you edit and print it out.)

What are some ways you report weekly behavior?

Dolch 2nd grade practice freebie sample

Last week I created a sight word practice packet for the 2nd grade Dolch list and I've uploaded a sample of the packet for a freebie, exclusively on my blog (it won't be on TPT!). Grab your copy below by clicking the picture and enjoy!

You can purchase the full, 45-page product with all the words by clicking the picture below.

Also for sale is the primer list practice packet. Grab that here!

Hope you're all having a wonderful night!

Read, Write, Make Freebieeee!

I know it's like a blogging rule not to post twice in a day, but I just felt like giving today and wanted to share a quick document I made. I'm sure most of you have seen these around, but they're basically mats that say, "Read, Write, Make" to practice sight words or spelling words. Just print and laminate and they're ready to use.

I like to tape mine onto cookie sheets so that students can make the words with magnetic letters. You can just leave them by themselves too and have students use letter tiles or even magnetic letters to make the letters (they just won't stick).

I made these with the 1st grade Dolch words, but I also included one blank one so you can include your own words. Click on the picture to get the freebie!

Don't forget to leave feedback! It's much appreciated :)

Classroom Set up & Freebie Friday??

Yesterday was my first day in the classroom to set up and I loved it. I missed being back in the neighborhood, the school, and my classroom. School doesn't technically start until the last week of August for us teachers and after Labor Day for my students, but I couldn't resist asking my principal if I could come in earlier to start setting up. I want to have most of my classroom decor and set up done before that first week of school for teachers so that I can spend that week lesson planning. So, I texted my principal and she let me come in today.

Here's what I walked into.

Sooo yeah, I had my work cut out for me. On the left side, which you can't see, was more furniture that needed to be moved and sorted. After 4.5 hours, I unboxed everything, organized all curriculum books, finished my word wall, configured and set up half of my library, put fabric on 2/3 of the bulletin boards, arranged the cubbies, sorted the supplies, laminated yards of posters, and cleaned out my cabinets. Oh! And the most exciting news is that I got rid of my teacher desk!! I had one last year but saw that some of my coworkers had so much more room without theirs and thus tried to get rid of mine but there was no space in the school. However, the custodian was awesome enough to find a space to stash mine away this year. Not bad, eh? I'm a little nervous about not having the extra storage space but ultimately excited about the space it opens up in the classroom and how it's going to force me to really keep things organized and neat. Super excited.

Now I can't go in tomorrow since they're rewaxing the floors (yay for shiny floors!), but on Monday I'm going to try to get the following done:

1. Arrange desks and chairs
2. Finish font bulletin boards 
3. Put up number line 
4. Organize the library with labels and bins
5. Make table pom poms

I think that should be enough... Anyways, onto some FREEBIES! So I don't know if freebie Friday is a thing, but I love freebies and love giving them even more, so I thought I'd share a small something to brighten your Friday. Here are 2 binder covers, one for close reading and one for a general teacher binder (it's editable!). I posted a picture on Instagram and a fellow teacher commented on how they should be made available so here they are. Click on the pictures below to download and enjoy!

It's an editable powerpoint file that you can customize with your school name, grade level, and name.

Is anyone else getting ready to or already setting up their classrooms? Isn't it both exhausting and exciting?? 

Mental Math

I've been reading a couple of educational books for some summer reading and one of the books I'm currently reading is Rafe Esquith's Teach Like Your Hair's On Fire.

It's been a very enlightening and encouraging read. Told from Rafe's experiences as a teacher who has mastered creating a classroom culture of trust and high academic achievement, he shares great tips on how to recreate a similar environment and why it's absolutely necessary. I recommend you pick up a copy, especially if you're a new teacher. It helps set you on the right path, gets you in the right mindset and shares some great tips that's easily implementable. 

One of the ideas I've taken away is a mental math warm up activity. I don't know about you, but I confess to not pushing my students enough on practicing mental math because it's often difficult for them but it's a necessary skill that will aid them for the rest of their lives. In chapter 5, "Add It Up", Rafe shares a short activity that he does with his students that caught my attention and I thought I'd share it here for teachers who'd like a quick and easy activity to get them started.

It's simple in setting up and simpler to do. Each student gets number tiles (0-9) that they keep in their desks in a baggie and they pull them out when you pose a mental math problem. 

In gist, that's about it. I've created the following pdf to help you set it up in your classrooms. Included is a little summary about the activity and the number tiles. Just print, cut, laminate and put them in baggies for your students and voila! You're 90% there already. Just teach the routines and procedures around the activity and your students will be on their way to mastering mental math. 

Click on the picture above to get the document!

How do you practice mental math in your classroom? Leave comments below if you implement something similar to this, something different or will be trying it out!