Rainbow Clip Chart Update

So, today was our first day in class using the Self-Monitoring Clip Charts. I have to say, it was a success. Kids did a much better job monitoring themselves when they had the charts in front of them. Plus, I could always count down and then announce, "If you are ready, you are at a green. If you are still talking, you are at a yellow."

I sent home seven positive notes today, and I could have sent more. I had a few disappointed kids, but I explained that I only had enough time to write seven notes. They were welcome to try for a note tomorrow. I did have to send home one reminder note. This was hard, but the note was well deserved. I am hoping that this system can change the trajectory of this particular student's behavior.

I will let you know how the charts work as the weeks go on.

Student Self-Monitored Rainbow Clip Chart

Ahhhhh!! Has anyone else's class been going crazy lately? My students are having so much trouble following our classroom expectations. We have been practicing coming in from recess and sitting down quietly, working quietly, reading silently during Daily 5, etc... I hate having to constantly get on them for not following expectations. Especially the for the kids that are doing what they need to do.

We have literally gone back to the first week of Daily 5 and are timing ourselves for silent reading. To be fair, we haven't been consistently doing silent reading, so it makes sense that their stamina has slipped, but it is still frustrating that we can only read for about eight minutes some days! I am not going to let silent reading go ever again!

Anyway, I have been thinking really hard about how I can turn responsibility for their individual behavior over to them. I am way too busy to manage behavior for 22 individuals - that is just impossible for any one person to do!

I started giving tickets for good behavior last week. This has worked for some things, but it is missing teeth. Yes, kids who are behaving correctly get tickets for a drawing, but kids who aren't doing what they should do have no consequences. I haven't really needed any consequences stronger than staying in at recess for a chat with this group, so we don't have anything in place already.

I have decided to try a clip chart, but not one that hangs up in the front of the room. I am not a fan of the charts that everyone can see because I feel like it would be embarrassing for kids who are working on following classroom expectations. I never want to embarrass anyone.

Instead, I made these rainbow charts for each student in my class.

Students can keep them on their desks. It isn't 100% private, but it will allow both me and the student to quickly see how the day is going. Plus, I plan on having the students clip themselves up and down the chart. Moving yourself is way less embarrassing than having your teacher move you. Of course, if students need help accurately placing themselves on the chart, I can help them with that too.

You can see that, unlike other clip charts, I gave some broad examples of what each level would look like in the classroom. I am hoping this will help students accurately place themselves on the chart.

I did have my own students in mind when I wrote these. For most of my students their main issues are not being ready during transitions, being off-task during work time, and talking out. I do have a few students who are very distracting to others and sometimes make unsafe choices. I am hoping that these descriptions work for all of my students. For example, kids can go to red right away for making an unsafe choice (such as swinging arms around while holding scissors - yes, it has happened this year), or they can slowly move to red as they continue to talk out or be off-task.

On the flip side, students can move up at anytime. If a student is on red, but then stops distracting others, they can move up to yellow or even green. I think that this ability to move at any time will be important for my students who are still learning how to be successful in a classroom.

While I think that just being aware of their behavior will help most of my students, I still want some sort of carrot and some sort of stick. I am thinking that anytime students clip up they will get a ticket for our class prize drawings. Plus, if students end the day on a blue or purple, they will get a positive note home:

I try to send home positive notes for kids as often as possible, but when I get busy this is one of the first things to go. I am hoping that by having notes ready I will be more likely to follow through. I left room at the bottom to add specific details for each individual child.

On the other hand, kids that end the day at red (maybe orange too) will get a note home that needs to be signed. This will, hopefully, get parents checking in with their students as well.

I really hope this plan gets us through the last eight weeks of school. Plus, I need to get these kids ready for fourth grade!

If you would be interested in this set, I would be happy to share! Just leave a comment on this page, follow the blog, or share this post. As soon as I get five new followers or 20 views of this post, I will post the link to this FREE product!

I am so mad because I haven't been making good choices! I am going to rally and move back up the clip chart.

I did it! I am so happy! I can do anything! Look how much I can learn when I follow directions!

Sunday Scoop April 26, 2015

My favorite linky party is here! I love how easy it is to link up with Teaching Trio for The Sunday Scoop. Plus, it makes me reflect on my week ahead which I really enjoy doing.

It was a busy Saturday for us! We had to divide and conquer for games today, and we still had to miss one of the games. Just not enough drivers in the family! Then, after that madness I tackled some toy clutter while my hubby mowed the lawn and took a pile of stuff to the dump. It feels great to be spring cleaning!

I decided to try bringing some toys and clothes to the kids' consignment store instead of donating them. I am thinking I will donate half the money I get back to help even out the karma of selling instead of donating. Eventually I want to get hooked up with a group that gives baby/kid stuff directly to families who need it. The feeling of really helping someone who needs it would be way better than whatever money we get this time.

I have been really trying to focus on living small after reading an article on the schools of Finland. One of the main ideas I took away was that in the United States we have the mentality that more is better. I do notice this about myself (and definitely my kids) sometimes and I want to move away from that idea. Instead, we can focus on what we are already so lucky to have. So, with that idea in mind (and Earth Day last week). I am going to try to patch the many pairs of pants that now have holes in the knees. I am embarrassed to say that I have been known to just throw them out because I hate the girls wearing them with holes. Hopefully the patches will look cute (enough).

Finally, I am really excited to spend some time relaxing with my husband. With so much going on, our relationship is the first thing to get ignored which isn't good for anyone. No big plans, but we are going to be together and that is the best.

What are your plans for this week? Head on over to the Teaching Trio and link up for this week's Sunday Scoop!

Five for Friday

I am so excited to be linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday! I have been reading these blog posts forever, but never linked up. Now that I have my adorable new blog, I am ready to share!

Last Friday our third grade team had a math work day. One thing we made were these fraction number line cards. There are the numbers, bar models, and circle models. I was really surprised how much the kids loved them! They got really into combining the different fraction sets. Such an engaging activity - although it was a little crazy in the room with everyone talking at once!

More on the fractions front! I challenged the kids to make a fraction design using the pattern blocks. This turned out to be a great lesson on equivalent fractions and equal parts. The pictures show the work of two groups. One group totally got the idea, and the other needed some quick interventions. For a simple assignment, this one was pretty cognitively demanding and had plenty of entry points which was exciting.

This week we have been focusing on positive self-talk or affirmations. I started by having the kids write down any bad thoughts they had. They wrote down things like, "I'm dumb" or "I always get in trouble". Then, we tore these thoughts up and recycled them because we don't have to listen to these negative thoughts. Finally, the kids wrote good thoughts on their desks. The kids really enjoyed this. In fact, the school counselor had a weekly meeting with a couple of my kids and one of them said that his day was at a 10 because of this activity. That was so great to hear!

This face. That is all.

My students are so creative! We were making bookmarks with "Two Vowels Go Walking" words on them. I have a cluster of ELL students who need this phonics booster, plus, I am finding that focusing on phonics is helping everyone with sounding out words for spelling. Anyway, this amazing little girl decided to name the kids on her bookmarks. She even gave them names that started with the letter of the bookmark! So cute!

If you are interested in getting these bookmarks, they are free at www.TeachWithMe.com.

Well, that was my week! It was a long one! Looking forward to a lot of time with my four favorite kids this weekend. Plus, lots of planning for next week.

New Greek and Latin Roots Program

One of my best sellers on TpT has been my Greek and Latin Roots weekly program. It is one of the first things I created to use in my own classroom when I was teaching middle school.

Here is what I love about the old program:

1. Teaching roots increases students' vocabularies much faster than teaching individual vocabulary words.

2. It sets up a reliable pattern for kids. They know that every Monday they will learn five new roots, and every Friday they will be expected to know the roots.

3. It is easy for the teacher. Everything is set up, so you don't have to do any extra planning.

Here is what I didn't love about the old program:

1. Five roots a week is way too many for elementary school, but I still wanted to use the program with my students. Prefixes, suffixes, and root words are all a part of the Common Core Standards for third grade.

2. There were only root words in the program, not prefixes and suffixes. I needed to teach prefixes and suffixes, but I didn't want to have two different programs.

3. Many of the third and fourth graders in my classes have not been ready to brainstorm lists of words for each root. I think they just didn't have enough exposure to language to know enough words for this task. They need to be given words that fit each root.

So, I decided to create a new program for elementary school students. It teachers one prefix, suffix, or root word a week. It gives students plenty of sample words to help them understand how prefixes, suffixes, and root words work together to form larger words. Finally, it integrates spelling, grammar, and vocabulary in a way that helps students understand that these three different topics work together.

Here, again, is the binder I am using to organize the sheets for my classroom.

I used tabs to divide the sections in prefixes, suffixes, and root words. I put the pre-test and the post-test up front. I was thinking that I would probably gather more lessons/worksheets for each of these topics, so I wanted to have a framework to build on in the binder.

You can see that every week has a worksheet for the student and flash cards for the class. Of course, you could make them for every student, but that would take a lot of time. I will probably make three or four sets per week, so I have enough for a literacy station.

I printed the flash cards with the sample words and their definitions on them on card stock.

Then, I cut out the cards and backed them with colorful paper. This would help me easily see which cards went together if students were working with different sets of cards. I could have just printed the cards on different colors of card stock, but I didn't have any at the time.

            

Then, because I am a teacher, I laminated the cards. Finally, I punched holes in the corner of the cards, so I could keep them together using a ring. I love these rings to keep cards together!

       

Kids can match up the cards, use them to study independently, or quiz their friends. I think that having the option to see both the vocabulary words and the definitions in the same space will really be helpful for my ELL students.

You can buy the program at Teachers pay Teachers or Teacher's Notebook.

Teachers pay Teachers

Teacher's Notebook

If you would be interested in winning a copy of this program for free, just follow the blog and leave a comment below. I will send out the prizes on Sunday.

First Post on the New Blog

I cannot even describe how excited I am to be writing this post right now! I owe a huge thank you to Jana from Little Web Writing Hood. I am in awe of your creativity and tech savvy. I could never have done this, and I am so grateful that I found you! If you are looking for a new blog design, I strongly recommend checking her out on Etsy!

Well, now that I have my gorgeous new blog up and running, I guess it is time to start sharing. I have been saving up blogging ideas for the past two weeks, so I am not really sure where to start...

I suppose I should begin by introducing myself. Hopefully some of you have followed me over from my old blog: Mrs. O'Donnell's Room, but (also hopefully) lots of you are new to my crazy little world.

The first thing I always share about myself is that I have four kids. I know that once upon a time this wasn't a lot of kids, but these days it is pretty out of the ordinary. Especially having four kids and working outside the home. I don't know about other moms of four kids, but I have to work outside the home. Going into the classroom every day is a break. Maybe that is just because I love teaching so much!

Anyway, here are my four favorite kids in the whole world. (And the cutest kids in the whole world.)

                         

Like all teachers, I have another group I kids I call "My Kids". This group is made up of all of the students I have ever taught. Once you have been in my class, you will forever be one of my kids.

This year I have had so much fun teaching third grade. I moved down from fourth grade last year, and I have to say, I like third better!

Before teaching fourth grade I taught middle school. I fell into teaching middle school because I have a science background, and I needed a job. I ended up teaching it for several years, and I really enjoyed it, but I hated having the kids come and go all day. I am a big "relationship" teacher. Building relationships with the kids in order to guide them to success is why I teach. It is really hard to build these strong relationships when kids come and go every hour. Even when the classes were longer - two hours - it still wasn't enough time for me. I am so impressed by the teachers who can bond with the kids in middle school. It is a tough job!

Moving to elementary school was the best move for me. I have found my place in the world! Plus, I find that having an intimate understanding of the expectations of middle school helps me keep the kids focused on what they really need to know and be able to do by the time the leave elementary school.

I must say that right now I am a little bit boring. I don't have a lot of hobbies. I teach, take care of my kids, and work on my teaching resources business. Isn't that when you know you are doing what you love? When you don't want to do anything else? Well, most of the time anything else.

I feel very lucky to be able to do what I do and share it with you. I look forward to going on this journey with you!