Talkative Classroom

Let me start this post by saying that I am incredibly lucky this year. My students are kind to each other (and me), they try their best all day long, and they say funny things that make me laugh. The downside of having such a fun class is that they love to talk. More than that, they can't seem to stop talking. Ever. Sometimes they aren't even talking to another person. They talk to themselves. Sing to themselves. Hum to themselves. All. day. long.

I have spent the last two months of school constantly saying, "Please don't talk to your neighbor right now." "No talking, please." "Zero voices." They always stop right away, but a few minutes later I have to remind them again. It was driving me bananas. And I am guessing they didn't like it either.

I remembered an app I used last year that showed our class volume on a meter, but I couldn't find it. Luckily,  found something better.

Too Noisy Pro's screen looks like this, and the meter moves as the volume of the class changes. The class earns stars when their noise level is in the green, and a warning goes off when the noise gets to the red. The meter is very sensitive, so it keeps the kids whispering which is perfect.

You, as the teacher, can set how long students have to be quiet to earn each star, at what level the warning should go off, and a bunch of other stuff. There are even different backgrounds and meters to choose from.

My students loved being able to see their volume on the meter. As I said above, they really are great kids and they want to be quiet - I just don't think they knew how loud they were. The best part of using the meter is that I don't have to remind them to be quiet. This app made Friday such a great day for all of us! I am hoping it works again next week.

If you are thinking that your kids would get tired of this little gimmick, you are probably right. I built this into our existing classroom management system. Actually, the kids suggested it. Every time the kids get all seven stars on the screen a giant star pops up. You then need to start over with the meter. Well, when a giant star pops up in my classroom, a kid jumps out of his or her seat, resets the meter and adds a smilely face to our class tally (smileys for awesome behavior, sad faces for unexpected behavior). If we have more smilelys at the end of the day we get to do something fun. More sad faces and we need to build or working stamina. The only time my kids get more sad faces is when they are having a chatty day. Friday they got five smileys and no sad faces!

Anyway, I hope this tip helps! I know that I have Googled what to do about a noisy classroom and I have had a hard time finding something I could try the next day. You can definitely try this the next day. (PS - There is a free version, but I happily paid the $3.99 for the "PRO" version.)

My First Video Lesson on YouTube!

I have been wanting to start making lesson on YouTube for a long time. Even before one of the panels at the Teachers Pay Teachers conference said it was a good marketing strategy. I tried working with a computer interface - like Khan Academy, but it just didn't work well for me. Then, I tried recording myself as I worked on paper. This didn't work either. Finally, many months (if not years) into the process, I decided to just do the videos the way I teach at school - using a whiteboard.

Here is the finished product. It isn't professional by any means, but I think it will be helpful, especially to parents who are trying to understand common core math.

I really enjoyed the entire process of making the video. There will be more to come! 

I will also be publishing a tape diagram product to my store to accompany the video. It will be up soon.

Five for Fraturday 10-3-15

It has been a while since I have been able to link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday, and I am so glad that I can share today. I don't know if you are like me, but I always have these great ideas to blog about while I am teaching, and then I either don't have time or forget them by the time I get home. Which leads me to...

Feeling grateful this week. I am always so busy and our house is always on the verge of being a mess (or an actual mess), but I am really trying to focus on the good stuff that this means. For example, I am always busy because I have a job that I love that I want to give 100% to. I also have a wonderful family with kids who are healthy and happy. Who would complain about either of these two things? And my house is a lot of work to take care of, but I have a house. We all (my family) has a safe and cozy place to come home to every night. That is definitely not worth complaining about.

We have had some stress at school lately, kids are moving around - two teachers had to switch grade levels. It was easy to get caught up in the chaos. I really had to work to remind myself that everything was going to be okay. This was not a tragedy. The kids being moved would become a part of their new classroom communities, and the teachers being moved would figure things out too. I am finding that there isn't really very much that we should be getting stressed about in our lives. Trust me, I still feel plenty of stress, but I am trying to cut back. :)

At school this week we started learning about the distributive property of multiplication using Engage NY Grade 3, Module 1. Last year I made a mess of this for my students. It was so weird to me that I was fumbling my way through it with them. As a result, I didn't feel like my students understood it the way they should have. This year, we are taking our time. We will be working on models and the distributive property all next week. I have going to be busy this weekend making worksheets and activities to help them become distributive property masters.

On Friday my class was able to do a really fun art project. Last year my mom traveled to southern India. While she was there she saw women decorating the dirt in front of their homes with amazing designs using chalk. She bought some stencils for the patterns and loose chalk and gave them to my kids when she got back. My kids loved making the designs.

Since our third grade team teaches cultures around the world I thought it would be a perfect activity for a Friday. My students loved it, and our principal even told the school about it over morning announcements. We had kids admiring our work all day. As you can see, it wasn't perfect (and it was definitely messy!), but we got to do some true learning. Next week, when I give them a reading passage about Kolam (the art we did), I know that all of my students will have the necessary background knowledge to understand it.

This was the first week that my husband and I have had a date night courtesy of my wonderful mother-in-law. She has offered to come over every Thursday evening, so Chris and I can go out alone. It was amazing to sit and have a conversation - that doesn't happen very often with four kids running around. We ate delicious Mexican food, had drinks, and really enjoyed ourselves.

Do you use learning targets in your school? My guess is yes. Our school is all about learning targets. This summer I read something I found really interesting about learning targets in Why Kids Don't Like School. The author wrote that giving kids the "I can" statement is kind of like giving them an unwrapped gift. You still get the good thing that you want, but the reason we wrap gifts is the surprise of it. That is what makes getting gifts fun. 

So, instead of writing an "I can" statement, the book recommends posing a question. For example, instead of "I can use the distributive property to solve multiplication problems." I write "What is the distributive property, and how can I use it to solve multiplication problems?" If you are like me your brain wakes up at the question. It is like a puzzle that my brain wants to solve. I immediately start making guesses about what we are going to be doing. 

I have been writing questions instead of statements all year, and I really think that it is helping to build a curious culture in my classroom. I highly recommend you try it.

Also, as a bonus #6, make sure you look at my post on sharpening colored pencils. If you have a classroom, I am betting this has been a issue for you. I have found something that works for me, and it is so simple!

Have a great week everyone!

Sunday Scoop 9-27-15

Well, I have just managed to link up with the Teaching Trio this Sunday. We still have about three and a half more hours until Monday here.

So, as you can see, I have a lot of center work to do this week. Actually, I always have a lot of center work, but it is totally worth it. The kids look at the centers like games and enjoy working on them. This is helpful because I need the kids engaged and working, so I can meet with small groups.

I got the centers (and worksheets) for plural nouns from Teacher's Take-Out. Her Plural Pack is awesome! You can click on the link to see for yourself.

One thing that was missing was a sort. I am all about sorting words this year. It is a great way to introduce new ideas and differentiate for kids who need more support. So, I made a quick plural nouns sort today. I thought maybe other people would like the sort as well, so I put it on TpT as a freebie.

I am also working on a new way to store my centers. I had them in the rainbow drawers that everyone has, but I find that kids have trouble getting the centers out quickly. It makes it a bit of a mess when we are rotating.

I am going to try keeping them in the plastic shoe boxes with labels. I will post about them when I finish them, if they work :).

As you can see, I hope to work on TpT stuff this week. It is so hard to get everything done, but I need to find the time to get more done with TpT. I always enjoy being a part of the TpT community - it inspires me to be a better teacher.

Finally, I have been looking forward to the Once Upon a Time premiere for a ridiculously long time, and it is finally here! I won't be able to watch it until tomorrow, so no spoilers :).

I hope you all have a great week!

How to Sharpen Colored Pencils

There are few things in the classroom that drive me more crazy than colored pencils. Especially back when I used to teach middle school science. Kids go through the colored pencils like crazy. They are always breaking, and then, when you try to sharpen them, they ruin pencil sharpeners.

I bought three pencil sharpeners in one year because of colored pencils.

It got so bad that I stopped letting kids sharpen any pencils using the electric pencil sharpener. I bought some cheap handheld sharpeners and made the kids use those. Unfortunately, those get dull really fast when a bunch of kids are using them. They also take way too long to use.

I had basically given up on colored pencils. I had the kids color using crayons which did not need to be sharpened. The crayons had their own issues, most importantly it was hard to get the detail kids needed using bulky crayons.

If you are reading this post you most likely googled "how to sharpen colored pencils" or something like that. I have googled that myself - many times. I couldn't find a definitive answer for that one. I kept hoping to find a special pencil sharpener designed to sharpen color pencils, but I never found anything.

Just a few weeks ago, while just messing around on the internet, I found the answer I had been looking for regarding the colored pencil situation. Someone, an artist, I think, mentioned sharpening colored pencils in an article about drawing with colored pencils.

She said that it was okay to sharpen colored pencils in an electric sharpener as long as you sharpen a graphite pencil right afterwards to clean out the pencil sharpener. Colored pencils are made using a waxy substance. When the electric pencil sharpener sharpens the colored pencils the hear causes the waxy stuff to melt a little bit. That gums up the sharpener. However, graphite acts as a lubricant and cleans the pencil sharpener, so the waxy stuff can't build up and break the sharpener.

I have been sharpening colored pencils in my electric pencil sharpener for three weeks now with no problems. I have a mid-range sharpener, it was about $30 last year, and has continued to work well in the classroom. I am teaching third grade now, so we don't have as much whole class coloring as I did when I taught science, but I still get a couple of colored pencils a day to sharpen.

When a kid asks me to sharpen a colored pencil I just make sure that I grab a couple of pencils out of our "dull pencils" jar at the same time. I sharpen the colored pencil, then two graphite pencils. It seems to be working very well.

I hope you find this post helpful. I remember how frustrated I was when I was searching to a solution to the colored pencil problem.

Biomes Reading Passages and Notes Pages

I was looking through my Google Drive today, and I found a set of reading passages I had made this spring. They were awesome when I used them in the classroom, and I was so excited to put them up on Teachers pay Teachers, Teacher's Notebook, and Edmodo. Well, I guess I got busy because that never happened.

Thankfully, they are ready to go now!

In our third grade we spend the spring studying the structures of life which involves a lot of learning about animals and their environments. You may not know this, but I used to teach middle school science, and I especially love this topic! Actually, I love most of the science topics!

We went way beyond most of the other third grade classes at our school with our study of the parts of an environment. My third graders know abiotic, biotic, factors, and many other high level science vocabulary words.

One part of our study was reading about some of the different biomes. (The biomes include freshwater aquatic, desert, rainforest, grassland, and taiga.) I used this as a reading lesson, but it really helped build the students understanding of our science topics.

I did a jigsaw activity to use these passages in my classroom. I had the students work in groups to read one of the biome passages. They did all of the steps that we always do for close reading (highlighting, circling, etc...) Then, they worked together to answer the questions attached to the passage.

The next day, the groups met again to complete the notes page for each biome. This is where they organized what they had learned about the biomes according to what we had been learning about environments. It was really important to give them a chance to talk about this as a group because some of my students aren't able to synthesize this kind of information independently yet.

Finally, on the last day of the activity, students regrouped so that each group was made up of one representative from each biome. While each student shared about what they had learned, the rest of the group took notes on the final notes page.

Once students have the completed notes pages, they are ready to use the information in some way. I had students do an art project and paint one of the biomes. They had to include details in the painting that showed that they understood the important parts of the biome. They also had to write a paragraph to go along with the painting. (We were working on writing complete paragraphs at this time as well!)

You can purchase Biomes: Passages and Notes Pages at any of the store below:

Five for Friday (Fourth of July Style)

Well, it is time for another Five for Friday. Actually, yesterday it was time, but what are you going to do?

 This week was the first week I have been home all day with all four kids on my own. It was only a three day week because of our trip to the beach for the fourth, but I am still exhausted! You can't do anything while watching for kids. And I mean anything - there was a day that I couldn't brush my teeth all day. Gross, but true. Good thing they are all super cute, and they have also been very good listeners which makes the day doable. But I can't wait to go back to work. I need a break!

Here are the three oldest. So cute, right?!

 As I said above, we are at the beach this weekend! We spend every Fourth of July (with a couple exceptions) on the Oregon coast with my husband's family. They have been having a family golf tournament here for 42 years!

We have gone every year since I have dated my husband except the year my second daughter was born (July 2nd), and the year she turned five. We have created the tradition that on our babies' fifth birthdays we go to Disneyland on their birthday. (Even if it is one of the busiest times of the year!)

This year, she turned six, so off to the beach we went. However, we still had to celebrate my amazing girl's birthday. The only thing that would do was a My Little Pony Party. The best part of the party was the amazing cake her grandma made for her.

Are you kidding?! That cake is amazing! I hope my kids know how lucky they are to have family that loves them so much they will create a rainbow masterpiece!

We also have spent a lot of time at the beach. Here is a picture of me and my parents. (Dad and Stepmom)

So, it turns out I have been a member of Audible for about six months. I have no idea how that happened! But, I wasn't going to let those six book credits go to waste! I downloaded a few books for my classroom listening library, but then I got frustrated because it would have been cheaper to buy the books than pay for the credit. So, instead I downloaded some teaching books I had been wanting to read. 

I picked The End of Molasses Clasess just because it had a funny title. Well, I will tell you, it is probably one of the best teaching books I have read. It is so easy to listen to, and I am so inspired I wish I was going back to school tomorrow.

Ron Clark, it turns out, is pretty famous as a teacher. I read another of his books last summer, and I don't know why, but I didn't like it that much. I think I will go back and read it again after I finish this book.

I am also very excited because he started a school as a laboratory for best teaching practices. It is a regular school with teachers and students (fifth through eighth grade), but they also invite other teachers and administrators to come in and see how the school works. I cannot tell you how much I want to go! Here is one example of how awesome the school is: They have a slide in the middle of the school. A giant slide. Every person who visits the school must ride down the slide form the second to the first floor! I love it!

My classroom is going to be so much better next year because I read this book!

I have mentioned a few times in social media posts, that my brother-in-law is fighting cancer and could use prayers and good thoughts. Well, as soon as school was done I flew down to see them with my mom. I was really glad that we got to go and spend time with them.

He has been in the hospital for eight weeks fighting GVHD - a disease that can happen after a transplant. He had a stem cell transplant to fight the cancer. 

He had been very, very sick, but, thankfully, e was starting to turn a corner. He had some great days while we were there and I warned him that he better keep improving after we went home.

I am really sad that they live so far away because it means that I can't visit very often, but I am always thinking about them.

The picture above is pre-cancer. Aren't they adorable?! They look like models - not real people. At least no picture of me looks this good!

On a lighter note - I have finally published the last two modules in my Engage New York Interactive Notebook. It has been a long time coming, but this year was crazy! Anyway, finally they are done! You can get them on Teachers pay Teachers, Teacher's Notebook, and Edmodo Spotlight.

I hope everyone has a happy and safe Fourth of July!

Engage New York Math: Interactive Notebooks

Last year my grade level decided to teach using Engage New York (also known as Eureka Math). Our school district does not provide a math curriculum, and we decided that we needed some help teaching the new Common Core standards for the first year.

I really liked the Engage New York curriculum. It is designed to get kids thinking, not just memorizing. Plus, it covers all of the Common Core standards, so I don't have to search through tons of resources to make sure I cover all of the standards.

However, the lessons can be a little dry and repetitive. One way that I found to help insert some creativity and fun into Engage New York was to build interactive notebooks to go along with the modules.

Every module has guide pages to help you see how I put the notebook together. I tried to focus on the most important take away ideas of the topics in the modules when building the notebooks, so they would help kids review.

You can buy one module at a time, or the entire set at Teachers pay Teachers, Teacher's Notebook, or Edmodo.

First Currently Ever!

I feel like a grownup blogger! This is my first time ever linking up with Oh' Boy 4th Grade for Currently, but I have been a reader for a long time.

So, here it is... my Currently for July.

I realize that this chart makes it seem like I hate staying home with my kids (and maybe that I am not doing that good of a job at it - hello, diapers). However, I would like to make it clear that I do like staying home with my kids, but they never leave. And they don't not need attention. Being a stay at home mom is a 24 hour job with no lunch breaks. It is exhausting!

My hat's off to any mom (or dad) that stays home with their kids. It is hard! This is one reason why I work - I need a break!

Anyway, I am feeling the crunch to get things finished before Vegas, so I would say that today I am a little more antsy than usual.

Plus, we are headed to the beach for the weekend tomorrow which means that I won't be getting a lot done over the weekend either.

On the positive side: My kids have been awesome. Yes, they take a lot of work, but they are kind, creative, and really fun. We even have the baby now, and she takes about 99% of my attention. The big kids could be sad about this and start acting out to get attention, but they aren't. They adore her. I am super lucky!

Okay, I better wrap it up because I was not kidding about the diaper thing. There is probably a stray diaper hanging out at the bottom of the diaper bag or in the back of the car, but we are down to zero that I can easily find. Yikes! Off to Costco!

Setting Up Classroom Routines for Third Grade

A major focus I have for next year is setting up classroom routines that encourage students to persevere and problem solve independently. I want them to have the structures in place to learn how to think through problems instead of memorizing what to do.

One way I intend to do this is by using Daily 5 for ELA and math. Although, I won't be doing five rotations of either of them.

I will have three rotations of math. I have created a graphic organizer for every day of math for the entire first trimester.

I got the basic plan: Teacher Time, Lesson Work, and Math Centers from 3rd Grade Thoughts. I also put a question above the graphic organizer, so students would know what to expect during Teacher Time. I did not put the learning target because I read that kids are less interested when they know what they are doing. It is like giving a child an open present - not nearly as fun as a wrapped present.

Then, for ELA I made four rotations.

I chose four rotations (and included Teacher Time and Lesson Work again) because we just don't have time for five stations. Lesson Work is like Read to Self, but sometimes the kids will have other assignments in addition to reading. For example, when they are learning how to use dictionaries they will do this work during Lesson Work time.

I will only have three groups of kids to move through the rotations. That way I will always have one rotation that I can meet with individual students. This was the only way I knew that I would definitely get to meet with individuals every day. This was always the hardest part for me in years past.

I built the graphic organizers for the students, and I will project them during our rotation time. This way kids will know exactly what to do at every rotation. I will write more on how that will work in my classroom soon.

I also built a plan for me as the teacher:

I am having so much fun working on this project, but it is very slow! I will share more later!

Five Steps to Building Positive Relationships with Your Students' Parents

We have all had those e-mails from that parent. The ones that make your stomach hurt. That can ruin your whole night. That make you question your worth as a teacher.

I would say that those e-mails are the thing I hate most about being a teacher. Even after all of the years I have been teaching, they still get to me.

I was so lucky this year to have an entire class full of helpful and positive parents. That isn't to say there weren't issues that we had to work through, but it felt like we were working together instead of against each other. These positive relationships were just one of things that made this year so incredible.

I think there are a lot of reasons for this magical year. First, I worked really hard to communicate with parents. I was also on maternity leave having an adorable baby for a couple of months in the fall. It is really hard to get mad at someone who just had a baby. Finally, I think these were just a great group of parents.

Looking forward to next year, I want to have the same kind of year with the parents of the class. I will also be working on my National Boards, and parent relationships is a big part of that.

After reading a blog post on it, I have started reading Unshakeable: 20 Ways to Enjoy Teaching Every Day by Angela Watson. She has some really good ideas about self-care and using time efficiently.

My favorite parts of the book so far are her ideas for establishing positive relationships with the parents of your students right away. Here are my top five ideas for getting on the right foot with parents:

1. As soon as you get your class list, write short post cards home to each student. It doesn't have to be anything fancy, but your students (and their parents!) will love getting something from you in the mail. It will show them how much you care and how excited you are to work with them this year.

2. Call every parent after the first day of school to let them know their child had a great day. If you can, mention something specific about each child, so their parents know that you are working to get to know their child. Even when a kid has been in school for a while (like a new third grader), parents still want to know that everything is going smoothly at school. It is another way to show you care, and will build up your positive points with parents right away.

3. Pre-address good news notes with students' names, and send home a few a month. You can mail them or send them home in backpacks. By pre-addressing the notes, you know you will get something home to every kid, and it won't take much of your time. Parents think their kids are wonderful, and showing you agree will help keep you on the same team.

4. Use a class website, blog, or other page (like Edmodo) to post important class information and make sure that parents know how to access them. Believe it or not, kids are not that great at communicating information between home and school, and parents will appreciate having a place to go for information at the last minute without having to wait for you to respond.

5. Once a month, or once a quarter, have a special event for families in your class. I know this sounds like a lot of work, but if you hold it on the same night as a school special event, it really won't be much more work for you, and you will get a huge payoff! For example, have a small art show the night before a school movie night. Hold a poetry reading before Bingo Night. Another great way to bring parents in to the classroom is to having a "Reading Breakfast". Parents can come to the classroom a half an hour before school starts and read with their child while enjoying donuts and juice.

I don't know about you, but I am definitely going to try these ideas next year. I will keep you updated on how they go!

What do you do to keep positive relationships with your parents?

Birthday Pool Party Blog Hop

I am very excited to be linking up with The Education Highway for her Birthday Pool Party Blog Hop! She put so much work into this, and everything looks amazing!

First up - Ideas for kids this summer. I don't know about you, but when summer hits the real work begins for me. I have four kids at home, and they are all under seven! So, during the summer it is really important for me to have our days scheduled to maximize the good times.

Rule one at my house - the mornings are for activities and the afternoons are for resting or playing at home. I don't know if you have tried to take a toddler out in the afternoon, but it is hard! They are tired, hot, and cranky! Get out in the cool(er) morning sun, but be home for lunch and rest. This is also important for mom.

One of my daughters' favorite games is school. They set out all of their stuffed animals and pretend their are the teachers. They even take turns having "teacher breaks" when one of them has to watch the entire class while the other comes down to have a snack :). It is so funny to hear the things they say when they play this game because you know they are parroting things their teachers have said to them.

So, my idea for kids during summer is to encourage their "school" play. It is great imaginative play that builds their brains, it is a quiet game, and you can give the kids math problems, worksheets, books, or whatever that they can "share" with their students.

A freebie you can grab from my TpT store for the duration of the blog hop/giveaway is Multiplication Task Cards. They have a cute underwater theme, and right now they are $0! Next week they will be back up to $3, so grab them now! Click on the picture to get to the product.

Next up, you can download an Ebook that has all of the contact information for all of the participants in the blog hop and giveaway. As you know from reading our blogs, we are pretty cool, so you will probably want to link up with us to keep up to date with what we have to share :). Click on the picture to get to the book.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Finally, I have contributed to Giveaway Pack 3. You can get my Informational Reading Passages (a $10 value!) if you are the lucky winner. These are listed as for 3rd Grade, but they would totally work for 4th as well. Each standard in Common Core Informational Texts is included! Click on the picture to get to the giveaway.

Well, have fun exploring the rest of the Birthday Pool Party Blog Hop! Don't forget to follow my blog to keep up to date with me!

Planning by the Pool Blog Hop!

Hello, everyone! Thank you so much for visiting my very first blog hop! Make sure to work your way through the entire blog hop because every participant is offering an amazing freebie! (Not to mention their great ideas about planing over the summer.)

I don't know about you, but I always have big plans for the summer. If I end up getting half of what I plan done, then I consider that an accomplishment.

One big thing I am working on this summer is planning an entire curriculum for the year. My goal is to have every worksheet, test, exit ticket, and homework assignment created and ready by September. This sounds absolutely crazy, but I have to try because I know how good life will be next year if I can get this done. Our school district does not have a curriculum for anything, so things get pretty hectic throughout the year!

This year I used Engage New York (or Eureka Math), and I really liked some parts of it. However, my biggest complaints were that I didn't really like the order, especially at the end of the year and it didn't spend enough time focusing on elapsed time or area and perimeter. So, I am taking what I like from there and reworking it to fit my needs.

Another area that I really want to focus is my literacy block. I started the year doing Daily 5, but that kind of fell away as I worked to teach all of the standards. This summer I am going to spend some time researching and thinking about how to do Daily 5 and teach all of the standards. If you have ideas, I would love to hear them!

Finally, I want to refine how I do Genius Hour in my classroom. We have been doing this to end the day most days, and I love that it offers kids some choice right when they are getting restless. It made the ends of our days so peaceful and refreshing. However, I feel like I gave them too much choice this year. Next year, I want to have kids come up with a plan and work towards a goal. For example, learning how to knit and then knitting a sweater, drawing a comic book, scoring a certain number of points in chess. I think that I will come up with sample plans this summer. Kids can choose these plans, or create their own plans. That way their progress can be measured throughout the year, and Genius Hour doesn't become synonymous with "free time".

Now, for my freebie. This product has become one of my biggest sellers, and as a big thank you to all my readers as the summer starts, it will be free for one week. You can get it at either Teacher's pay Teachers.

I hope you enjoyed reading about my summer plans! Now, please visit the next stop on the blog hop!