It's back to school time! I know many of you have already started the new year with your kiddos, and some of you (like me!) are getting close. The beginning of the year is a stressful time for teachers. We are thinking about classroom set up, classroom management, grading and so much more! I have lots of blog posts that are useful at the beginning of the year, so rather than having them all scattered everywhere, I thought it would be helpful to put them in one place.

You can click on each image to go to the post. These tips and ideas and resources (and freebies!) have helped me get a handle on the beginning of the year craziness that we all experience. Whether you're a new teacher looking for help or an experienced teachers looking for new ideas, check them out!

Classroom management is THE first thing on everyone's minds at the beginning of the year! This blog series starts with how to build a philosophy on which to base everything you do. Other posts include mistakes not to make, ideas for incentives and things to do right away for a smooth running classroom.

Speaking of classroom management, creating rules and teaching routines and procedures is one of the MOST important things you can do at the beginning of the year. (And it doesn't hurt to review things part way through, as well!) I share books I love, games and activities we do and ways to practice the rules in a fun way.

Don't let that stack of papers to be graded overtake your desk - and your life! I've discovered a few tips and tricks that make grading sooo much easier, and still let you get the most information out of what you see.

Have you thought about trying flexible seating? Have you already made the jump? Check out a few options I chose to try and see how they worked. There is no right way to do flexible seating. See what works for me and how I make it all fit the needs of my classroom.

Morning meeting is without a doubt my favorite time of day! I get to know my students, they learn about each other, we start the day on a positive note and even fit in some social and academic skills. This blog series is FULL of ideas for greetings, group activities, sharing and more!

I hope you find something useful in these posts that you can take back to your classroom and make your own. Even though the beginning of the year is crazy and stressful, it is a time of new beginnings! Have a great year!

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Elementary Stories

Do you do a morning meeting with your students? Whether you're looking to get started with a morning meeting for the first time, or trying to find ways to liven up what you already do, I've got some ideas that can help!

Morning meeting is a great way to start the day off on the right foot, make connections and have fun together. I have done morning meeting in some form or another for more than fifteen years - and I would never give it up! But I have learned a thing or two about how to make the most of this time. My two biggest tips? Keep it structured and change it up! I know those two things sound completely opposite of each other, but they're really not.

Keeping it structured means having the same general format to the meeting every day so students know what to expect. It doesn't matter what the components are - greeting, sharing, read aloud, calendar, activity, etc. What's important is that each morning meeting follows the same format. At the beginning of the year I post a "morning meeting agenda" that we review as soon as we come together on the rug. That way everyone knows what we'll be doing and when. I have four parts to my morning meeting: greeting, calendar, sharing and activity. You can find out more about each these parts and how they work in this post. (Click the image)

Now that we've got the structure set, we can change it up! That means add in new greetings, different activities and fun new ways to share. Things can get old fast and the last thing you want are students who are not engaged in the meeting time.  Here are the links to my posts about each part of my morning meeting. You'll find tips for making it successful and ideas you can use in your classroom right away!

I also do my calendar time during morning meeting. It's not the same old boring calendar activities, though! We do our calendar activities on the Smartboard and this gives me a chance to change things up throughout the year, as well as differentiate for my students. You can see how I do this in this post.

Morning meeting doesn't have to be hard to do - and it definitely doesn't have to be boring! Work with your students to come up with new greetings, fun activities and different ideas. Pretty soon morning meeting will be your favorite part of the day!

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Elementary Stories

Happy summer Monday, everyone! (Hopefully, for everyone... and for those of you still waiting for that last day... the end is in sight!) This is the last part in my series on Morning Meeting.

Do you do a sharing time with your students? I admit. I had a love-hate relationship with sharing during morning meeting. On the one hand I know how important it is.

It builds connections.

It helps students (and teachers!) to get to know each other.

It provides opportunities to practice listening and speaking skills.

But.... Sometimes it just took so loooooong for everyone to share. And my kiddos just weren't listening - they were focused on what THEY were going to say... or how what the person was sharing connected to THEM... or they were looking around the classroom thinking about anything except what was being said....

Another confession - I know my students got bored listening to what everyone did over the weekend. Every Monday for Weekend News. It began to be the same thing over and over. Johnny played video games. Ryan watched tv.

Sharing became LAST on our list of things we enjoyed about Morning Meeting and FIRST on the list of things to go by the wayside when we didn't have time in our day.

But.... the teacher guilt set in. I knew that sharing was an important part of building relationships with my students. Sharing was window into what went on outside of school and I just did not want to give that up. But something had to change. I started to think about what I REALLY wanted from our sharing time.

- Sharing during Morning Meeting (or any time during the day) needs to be purposeful.

- It needs to be structured.

- It needs to be engaging.

I came up with these tips:

The longer and more drawn out sharing time is, the faster kids are going to lose focus. Set a timer, play a song, designate a topic - anything to keep things structured and purposeful. I share some ideas how to do this later in this post.

This is KEY! Find a way to get everyone involved. Share in partners or with a small group. Ask questions, make comments. 

Don't keep doing haring the same way all the time - especially if it's not working! Here are some ideas you can try to spice up your sharing time.

Whether you share with your students everyday, once a week or just once in a while, try some of these ideas to put a fresh -- into your sharing time.

Weekend News: go around the circle and give everyone a turn to greet the person next to them with, Good morning Evelyn (or whoever). What's the news?" And yes, I do let students pass - especially at the beginning. For some students, sharing in front of everyone is just too much. And for some students, their weekend events may not be ones they want to share. Trust me, after a few weeks everyone starts to share.

Soon after Weekend News has begun, we add a new piece - making comments and asking questions. (We've already made anchor charts for how to be a good listener and speaker and modeled these behaviors. This is the next step.) We talk about asking questions first. What makes a good question? What more do you want to know? I listen to the questions asked and use those for quick mini-lessons. I once had a group of kids who just could not get away from questions like, "What time did you see the movie?" "What color were the blocks?" We make an anchor chart of question stems and refer to it when someone can't think of a question. After we're good at asking questions, we move on to making comments. Same idea... same procedure. We talk about making sure your comment does not have "I" in it. We want to focus on what the person has shared.

(Note: I do this all in a circle with everyone taking a turn sharing something - ONE thing :-) - and the person next to them asking a question or making a comment. We can usually get around the circle in about 5 minutes once we've done it for a while. But just like anything.... modeling is important!)

And what about those kiddos who just don't know how to be concise? Those students whose stories seem to go on and on and on....? Timers can work. So can limits on the number of sentences. I just came across a fantastic idea from Raegan Tunstall that she calls Bear Share. It's the perfect way to not only keep those stories and sharings manageable, but gives students the oral practice they need to understand written formats. Topic sentences, 3 details, closing sentence... perfect! (You can find the link HERE.)

"5 Little Words" is another way to keep the stories from getting to drawn out. Students can only use 5 words to share their weekend events (or whatever number you choose.) For example, "camping, rain, muddy, cold, awful!"

Need something a little different? How about "Give Me 5!" Call on three students to answer each of the following: 1) good news 2.) compliment someone 3.)something you're thankful for in the past 24 hours 4.) joke or something funny 5.) a question of your choice for everyone to answer.

Question of the Day: Write it the whiteboard. Pick from a bunch in a jar. "What's your favorite ____?" "What animal would you like for a pet?" "Do you think we should go outside even though it is snowing?" Do some "Would you rather...?" This is a quick way to share. We go around the circle, everyone responds. Boom! - 2 minutes tops. Try tying the question into what you're studying - writing, reading, science... anything!

Topics: How about a different topic for each month? The first couple months can be share something you're good at, something you like to do... (you decide if bringing something in is ok, or if it should just be talking about it.) Tell about your family, traditions, great days in the snow/rain/fall... the possibilities are endless. Involve your students in generating the topics and not only will they be more engaged and interested in sharing, but they'll be empowered and you'll find out what THEY really want to know.

For this kind of sharing we have a sign-up sheet. 3 students sign up for each day - and I only plan to do it 2-3 times a week. I had to be realistic - everyday just was not working for me. By the end of the month everyone who wants to share has had the chance. And oftentimes kids who didn't want to sign up to share at first would sign up towards the end after seeing their classmates share.

I also have a couple of favorites from Responsive Classroom that I like to incorporate.

"Maitre-d" is a fun way to keep the groupings changing. Have one person call out "Party of 3!" (or whatever number you want). Students make groups of that number and share whatever is decided (weekend news, answer a question, etc.) Call out a new party (you can use a new sharing topic or the same one) and make new groups. Easy and fun!

Another fun one is "Mill to Music." Put on a song, have students move around, and when the music stops they share with someone nearby. Do a few rounds, then return to the whole group and ask a few students to share what others said.

See? Sharing doesn't have to be filled with long and drawn out stories, blank expressions and forgetful students. Change it up, keep it fresh and do what works for you!

If you're looking for ideas for other parts of morning meeting - take a peek at my other posts HERE.





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Elementary Stories

Happy Saturday, friends! I'm back with part 3 in my blog series all about morning meetings. (You can see part 1 HERE and part 2 HERE.) Today I'm focusing on the end of our morning meeting time - a group activity.

As I've said so many times before, I find our morning meeting time to be THE most important part of our day. It sets the tone for what's to come, gives me a chance to connect with my students, and gives my kiddos a chance to have some fun with each other.

We always end our morning meeting with a group activity of some kind. I'm constantly on the look-out for games and activities that fit my requirements for a good morning meeting activity:

1. Easy to learn: Ain't no one got time for long, complicated directions that are even harder to explain than they are to understand! I have 20 second graders - give me quick and fast, with little prep and I'm in!

2. Keep everyone involved: This one is a biggie. Games in which someone gets "out" early on and doesn't get to play for the rest of the time is a recipe for fooling around! I try to find games and activities that either keep everyone involved in some way, or I modify them myself!

3. Add content: While this one is not a deal-breaker, (I think that cooperative games in which students have to work together, learn to take turns, etc. are just as important), if I can add some content while we're doing it then that's a bonus!

I get my activity ideas from everywhere! My go-to resources are resource books from The Responsive Classroom. The math and science ones have really been a lifesaver in allowing me to keep our games fun, but still focus on learning! I check Pinterest for PE games, and often will change up a favorite game to go with a holiday, season or theme.

That being said, my kiddos' top 3 favorite games are NOT content related - go figure! Every Friday, the "helper of the day" gets to roll the dice on the Smartboard and we play that game. We change the games on the dice every month to keep things fresh. These 3 are ALWAYS there!

MUMBALL
I learned this game a LOOOONG time ago. I remember doing it in my classroom, then teaching it to a few teachers, who used it with their kiddos. By the end of the year, EVERYONE in our school knew how to play this game! It's very simple and the best part is.... it's quiet! I have everyone spread out and find a place to stand somewhere in the room (create boundaries if you need to). One person starts by tossing a ball to another student. If they catch the ball, they stay in the game. If they drop it, they're out and must sit down. (I'll tell you how I keep everyone involved in a minute.) The key to the game? Everyone has to be SILENT. You talk, you're out. No excuses. When we first play the game we model how to get someone's attention in a silent way so they know the ball is coming. Pointing, eye contact, etc.... We also practice tossing (not throwing) the ball... gently... underhand...The last one standing is the winner.

I did modify this game in a few ways. First, if the person doesn't catch the ball, then BOTH people are out. That eliminates throwing the ball in a way that the other person will never be able to catch it and is automatically out. (Kids are smart - teachers have to be smarter!) If the game is taking to long, I bring on the "five second" rule. You have 5 seconds to toss the ball to someone else or you're out. (I count in my head.) Second graders can take all. day. long. to decide who they're going to toss that ball to. Keep it moving, friends!

So how does everyone stay involved? Once I have a bunch of kiddos who are out and are starting to get antsy, I call out "switch!" and everyone  who is standing has to sit, and those who are sitting get to stand and be back in the game. I do it as often (or not) as necessary. The game usually ends after about 10 minutes when I'll say, "Everyone who is standing is a winner!"

FOUR CORNERS
I'm sure many of you already know this game. Give each corner of your room a number. One person closes their eyes and counts to ten while everyone else quietly walks to one of the corners. The person who is "it" chooses a corner and everyone in that corner is out. When there are 4 people left, everyone has to be in a separate corner. Last person left is the winner.

I don't worry too much about keeping everyone involved with this game. It usually goes fast enough that we can play a couple times. Sometimes instead of numbering the corners, I put up pictures to go with the seasons/holidays/theme we're doing. For instance, in March we'll play with leprechaun/rainbow/shamrock/gold instead of corner numbers. This game can easily be adapted to review content - just choose 4 categories (parts of speech, states of matter, place value, etc.) and give students slips of paper with things that go in those categories. Their job is to move to the corner that fits with their idea.

7-UP
I remember this one from my childhood! Everyone sits at their seat with their head down and their thumb up. The people who are "it" (I choose 4, not 7) go around and secretly put down one person's thumb. Everyone who's thumb is down has a chance (or two) to guess who put their thumb down. If you're right, you stand up and the other person sits down. There's so many ups and downs with this game everyone is involved at some point.

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Elementary Stories

Happy Sunday, folks! It's time to get back on track with my blog posts! Today we're talking about part 2 of our morning meeting - calendar time!

 

If you teach kindergarten or first grade, you know that calendar time is an important part of your morning meeting. We can teach TONS of math skills here - introduce them, practice them, review them... all in a short amount of time. But by the time kiddos get to second grade, calendar time can become, well, kind of boring. They're doing the same things they've been doing for two years - counting days of school, looking at the weather... it gets old - for them AND for us! So, how can you make calendar time a little more exciting and engaging, not to mention skill appropriate? Here's how I keep things fresh.

 

(Note: The idea for this blog post was first created as part of my "Mini-Moments" posts. You can check out the original post {HERE}.)

 



We do our calendar time on the Smartboard.  It makes it a little more interactive and I feel like I have more freedom to add and change things on a whim. Just doing the calendar on the Smartboard, rather than with a calendar bulletin board, makes it more interesting. Many of the slides I'm going to share originally came from the SMART Exchange - a great resource to get FREE activities for your Smartboard.  I modified some to fit my needs, and created others myself.  Normally, my students come up and do the writing and moving things and all that. I use this as a job for my "helper of the day" and my kiddos love getting to be the teacher.

Here is calendar slide #1 - The month of _______

GENERAL SKILLS: Yes, very predictable here.  Yesterday, today and tomorrow... days of the week, months of the year. 
JAZZ IT UP! I also have a little ring of index cards with a TON of calendar questions on them (mainly so I don't forget!).  We talk about things like:
What will the date be one week from now?  Two weeks?  Three weeks and 4 days?  10 days ago? How many Thursdays are in February?  How many of them are odd number dates? What day will Feb. 9 be?  What is the date on the third Wednesday?
How many days until ________? 
My questions change throughout the year and are often inspired by something someone notices on the calendar.

Slide #2 - How many days have we been in school?

GENERAL SKILLS: Simple enough... we add a "ones" piece everyday, trade when we get to ten, yada-yada-yada... but wait!  There's more! 
JAZZ IT UP!: The few weeks prior to this we had been working on reviewing how to write numbers different ways - base ten form, expanded notation, standard form... I discovered some of my kiddos really needed extra practice with this.  I also do some extension by asking how else we can make the number (ex. 46 = 4 tens and 6 ones, or 3 tens an 16 ones, etc.), how many to make 100 (or 1000!)... whatever we're working on, or need some extra help with, or comes up in conversation!

And here's some fun - After our 100th Day of school, we start counting BACKWARDS - how many days left of school?  That helps to reinforce regrouping with tens, something so many second graders need practice with.

Slide #3 - Coins in the Piggybank

GENERAL SKILLS: Again, pretty self-explanatory. Names and values of coins, counting coins, trading...
JAZZ IT UP!: We mix it up every once in a while.  We just put the half dollar back instead of two quarters because we needed to keep practicing counting by 25's.  There's potential for great discussions about using decimals, different ways to make the same amount, etc.  And when we start the backwards counting of days, we'll keep counting up with the money.  (It usually takes a few days before someone realizes the amounts on the two pages are no longer the same!)

Slide #4 - What's the Weather?

GENERAL SKILLS: Observation, more and less, reading a graph
JAZZ IT UP!: How many MORE of sunny than cloudy?  How many would twice as cloudy be?  We save the graphs each month and compare them to each other, which leads to great math thinking.  After we have graphs from a few months, we do a gallery walk of sorts for them to walk around and look at each graph and answer some questions. We also talk about a lot of vocabulary here - precipitation, sky conditions, the fact that just because it is light out does not mean it is sunny.. uh huh... had to go there...

Slide #5 - What's the Temperature?

GENERAL SKILLS: reading and using a thermometer
JAZZ IT UP!: It is the helper's job to look up the temperature on the ipad when they come in.  Again, great math possibilities - how much warmer today than yesterday?  Above or below freezing?  How much?  Exactly what does "freezing" mean? And what is the C on the thermometer for?  Then we roll the two dice and calculate how much warmer/colder it would be.  At the beginning of the year, the dice just have single digits, then we move to multiple of ten, then other 2-digit numbers.  It just depends on what needs some work.  It doesn't take long before we have to discuss negative numbers and how to add/subtract them on a number line.  It may not stick with everyone, but I like to throw it out there, just in case!

The slides in the next group vary from day to day. We choose one to do each morning.

Big Numbers

  

 

Set the random number generator to whatever range you want. Then touch it to show a number. We talk about place value, expanded notation, etc.

 

Fact Families

Too easy, right? Try this: put two numbers in the fact family and ask your students to tell you what the third number would be. Chances are most of them will add the numbers you gave them and give you the sum for the third number. But what if the bigger of the two numbers you gave them WAS the sum> Then what would the third number be? Missing addend at its finest. And don't be afraid to work with bigger numbers!

 

Place Value

Hundreds, tens, ones, 10 more, 10 less, 1 more, 1 less, showing the number with blocks...

 

Skip Counting



 Choose a starting number and then roll the dice to see how to count. Touch each number on the hundreds chart and it flips around to be red. Notice any patterns? What comes next? How do you know?

Elapsed Time

This is one of those slides that I modified. At the beginning of the year, just telling the time is a major idea. I start by giving them a time on the hour and then we work on before and after. Then we move to times on the half hour. Again, the best part about these slides is you can do whatever works for your class!

Ordering Numbers

Another skill that just needs review. I change the ordering from least to greatest and greatest to least so my kiddos have to be sure they are reading what to do.

That's it!  Once we get going, our whole calendar time takes about 10-15 minutes, but it's a very important way for me to see who knows what, what we need to work on and where we're going. Having the "Helper of the Day' be in charge of the calendar is motivating and engaging (and the helper calls on people to answer, so everyone wants a turn!) By increasing the rigor, I've made my calendar time focus on many common core standards.

As I said, I got most of these slides from Smart Exchange, although I did modify them to fit my needs. I searched the exchange and can no longer find the original file. You can grab my file {HERE}. If you find the file on the exchange, please let me know so I can give appropriate credit. Also, I deleted the additional graphics I used in my files, since they cannot be shared. You can ad your own clipart and text to the calendar pages to add some pizazz! If you have any questions about how to do something with these files in Smart Notebook, feel fee to email me and I'll try to help!

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Elementary Stories

Happy Saturday, teacher friends! It is sooo nice to have a long weekend after the first 8 days of school. Eight very HOT and HUMID days of school. In a classroom with 17 second graders. And no air conditioning. In what is truly the hottest room in the building. But I digress...

Do you do a morning meeting with your students? Is there a time when everyone gets together - even if it's not in the morning - and says hello, shares important things and just generally builds community? I have a morning meeting time EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. And I - and my students - wouldn't miss it for the world. Morning meeting is how we get to know each other, how we share important things in our school and home lives, and how we learn to work together and appreciate each other. You can read a little more about my morning meeting in general {HERE.}

This blog series is going to focus on each part of my morning meeting in deeper detail. Every morning meeting includes four parts:

 

In this post, I'm going to share my tips and tricks and fun idea for greetings.

 

The greeting is how we start our meeting time. Everyone sits in a circle and we greet each other in a positive and cheerful way. On the very first day of school, we talk about how nice to is to be greeted by someone. How does it feel when someone smiles and says, "Hi, Camden!" It makes us smile, it makes the person feel special - and that's what we want to accomplish! But what's the best way to greet someone? I go around the circle and greet students to model this - some I greet with a cheerful voice, looking right at them... others I greet quietly, with a limp handshake and averting my eye. My students can easily create a list of the positive characteristics of the "good" greeting! We work on modeling each of these things at the beginning of the year.

 

 

Look directly at the person. This seems easy, but many kiddos tend to look over, around, above - anywhere except AT the person they are greeting. And making eye contact can be hard, especially if students are not used to it. We talk about how it feels when someone talks to us, but isn't looking at us. And we model the incorrect and correct way to make eye contact.

The greeting isn't going to be meaningful if you can't hear or understand what the person is saying! We talk about the importance of speaking clearly (no marble mouth!) and loud enough. Again, for some students, this can be difficult. Practice makes perfect! We also talk about using a cheerful voice. No one wants to be greeted like it's a chore to say hello. Even if the person we are greeting is not our best friend, they still deserve just as cheerful of a greeting as our friends.

That's the wording my kiddos came up with this year for making sure whatever greeting we do has a "just right" feel to it. No squeezing hard with a handshake. No stinging slaps with a high five. But just as important no limp spaghetti shakes, either! Again, modeling goes a long way, here. And SMILE! It makes the other person smile, too!

You may be asking yourself, jeez, do I really need to spend so much time on all these little parts? My kids know how to say hello and good morning and I don't have time for all that practice. What difference does it make? Well... I will tell you.. it makes a HUGE difference! The whole idea of using a greeting in the morning is for every student to feel included, welcomed and accepted. And that's not going to happen if the greeting is mumbled, the handshake is sloppy and there is no eye contact. Kids are acutely aware of people being treated differently. If Johnny smiles and greets one person happily, then turns and greets someone else like he doesn't care as much, that completely defeats the purpose of the greeting. EVERYONE deserves a positive start to their day.

Now comes the fun part - what kinds of greetings do we do? We have simple and quick greetings like
a handshake, high five, fist bump, touch elbows, or wave hello. We say hello or good morning in
different languages - say hello is Spanish, French, German, any language you want! Short on time? Try the "One Minute Greeting" where students walk around and greet as many people as they can in one minute. Or start the greeting in two directions so it goes around the circle faster. No matter which greeting you choose, remember these quick tips:

Greetings that are easy to remember and don't take up a lot of time will quickly become favorites. Use movement and music to spice things up. Ask students for ideas! The more you can get students involved in choosing and creating greetings, the more they will be invested. And remember the ones your students like! When time is short, go back to an old favorite.

Need some ideas for greetings? I've put together a set of cards with 20 different greetings you can use. Some are quick, some are more complicated, but they're all fun! You can download the cards by clicking on the image below.

Now I want to hear from you! Do you have any greetings your kids especially like? What are some of your favorites? Share them with me in the comments so everyone can get some new ideas! The next post in this series will talk about our calendar time (and a little about our morning message). Stay tuned!

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Elementary Stories