Idioms Sorting Cards

Sorting is such a valuable tool in education. I have many thoughts on it. You can read some of them in my first sorting card post here:

Biomes Sorting Cards

Idioms are one of those things that I struggled to find a place for in my classroom. I always had a large cohort of ELL students in my room, and English language learners do not understand idioms. I don't think I would get them in another language either!

Adding the difficulty reading in English that a lot of these kids had, most of the idioms resources I had in my room just didn't cut it. Ha! An idiom!

This summer I started collecting pictures of idioms from Shutterstock to make into sorting cards. The cards have a cartoon of an idiom or a picture that shows what the idiom means. 

There are so many ways to use these cards. You could have an idiom of the week and put both cards up on a board. You could could laminate matching cards back to back so kids can flip back and forth to learn the meaning of cards. You could sort them yourself and have kids come up with idiom definitions. Kids could match the cards themselves. You could use a matching game as an assessment. Really, your options are endless.

Making these cards makes me so happy because they are a tool that will make life easier for teachers and give students a positive experience mastering a standard. Teaching and learning are both so hard, I want to support everyone any way I can.

There are 21 idioms in the set. If you would like to purchase the cards, you can do so at Teachers pay Teachers. I will list it on Teacher's Notebook soon.

If printing all this color is a challenge, I can also mail you the pictures printed on cardstock if you order it as a hard good. It is only $1 more plus shipping.

Biomes Sorting Cards

Sorting is such a valuable educational tool that (I believe) isn't used enough in schools today. Kids naturally start sorting at a young age because humans have an innate need to bring order to our world. Sorting is a way to make sense out of chaos.

Sorting also allows us to examine relationships between objects and ideas. It allows us to dig deeper into our understanding of a topic. Plus, sorting is actually really fun - especially when you get to do it with a friend.

With all of these benefits, why wouldn't we use sorting in school?

I realize that not every is familiar with the power of sorting, so I decided to make a few videos to show how the sorting works. I grabbed one of my daughters and her friend to help me. I am not kidding you, they loved it. They loved it so much they wouldn't stop sorting when I needed to end the video. 

This is not promotional talk here. They were having so much fun. It made me think of amazing it would be to have an entire classroom of kids this engaged with their work. 

I think one part of sorting that is important for kids, especially kids who typically struggle in school, is that it doesn't require them to write. You can write to record your thinking, but you don't have to. This takes away a huge barrier for a lot of kids. It creates a level playing field where everyone can have fun and feel successful.

Can you tell I love sorting?

Anyway, the video below is all about biomes. I have taught biomes for so many years! I have reading passages in my stores which I love, but nothing has been as fun for kids as these sorting cards.

So, the girls only sorted two biomes, but there are actually 7 biomes in the sorting set. You get cards for:

1. Freshwater Aquatic

2. Marine

3. Desert

4. Grasslands

5. Rainforest

6. Tundra

7. Taiga

Each biome has two environment pictures, a description of the biome, 3 animal cards, and 3 plant cards. You also get pictures of my sorts as an "answer key", but of course, there are different sorts that could still make sense. 

That is another part of sorting that I love. There are so many correct answers that require kids to explain their thinking.

Can you tell that I love sorting?! Oh, and I love biomes!

Five for Friday (September 30, 2016)

ONE

I am taking some time away from teaching this year, but I still wanted to help out at my daughters' school. Luckily, a second grade teacher needed some help with a couple of girls who were behind in math.

Both girls had a lot of anxiety about math and did not enjoy learning at all. So, I had a big task in front of me, but luckily I had the time to come up with some ideas to help them L-O-V-E math.

I assembled my tutoring basket with lots of treats to make math super fun. First, I made a sticker book for each girl. I took colorful paper, laminated it, punched a hole and connected the pages with a circle closure. In theory, the girls should be able to move their stickers on and off the pages. They haven't tried moving them yet, and I am a little worried that it won't work. 

The girls collect stickers in their sticker books by buying stickers from me. I give them Monopoly dollars for each problem they complete. Then, they can spend those dollars to buy stickers. Each sticker page has a different price. So far their favorites are princess stickers for $5 each. Since we are working on number sense, buying stickers and counting dollars is just more practice. Bonus!

Funny thing though - the girls are having so much fun doing the math that they forget to ask for dollars! 

I also have colorful pencils and markers. The girls have always chosen to work with markers because their work looks prettier. I know they can't erase their mistakes, but if they are happy, then I am happy. 

I knew we would need some counters since the girls aren't super confident about their numbers. I decided to get my daughter's little My Little Ponies - she has a ton of the ones that come in the blind bags. The two girls both love them. Best of all, after just a couple of weeks of working with them, they don't even need the ponies very much anymore.

In the back you can see one of the first pages we worked on together. The girls didn't understand number bonds, so we started looking at ways to break apart numbers and using number bonds to show our work. I made this set specifically for them, but it was so fun that I decided to list it on TpT.

There are 10 pages double-sided. One side deals with showing the numbers 1-10 using several different models, and the other side shows all of the number bonds for that number. The girls got so much practice with numbers and number bonds!

TWO

Speaking of staying home this year. This is my studio for shooting my products. I just wanted to share what a mess it is while I am working. 

I feel like my pictures are looking better and better, and they give the impression that everything is perfect at my house. Ummm... not so much!

THREE

One product I have been working on this week is an idioms matching activity. I feel like idioms are crazy! I have always had a large group of ELL students, and they really don't get idioms. I built on an activity I used to do in class to make this activity. It isn't up on TpT yet, but it is coming soon!

You can already get my idioms picture matching game. I love using pictures to introduce kids to new topics. They can really dig into it because they aren't limited by their reading abilities. I already tried this one out on my third grader, and she loved it!

FOUR

I tried to make some memes this week too. I have been reading all about how the brain learns, and I wanted to find a fun way to share what I am learning. I love them! That baby is so cute!

FIVE

Once Upon a Time is finally back! I am so excited to watch the first episode of the season! I am crazy about this show, but I am waiting to watch the first episode with my girls. We are going to record a podcast after we watch because that is super fun!

Well, that is some of my week. Thanks for making it this far. I hope you had an awesome week yourself! 

Memes for Today

I thought it would be fun to try out making some memes. Here is the first meme I made.

This is 100% true, and I didn't have room to add this, but of the two questions, the second is by far the most important. We can remember nonsense if it is meaningful to us.

I thought this was a great meme to start with because, as a teacher, I spent so much time trying to make concepts make sense and not enough time at all focusing on making things meaningful for my kiddos. I think it is just a good reminder for all of us - parents and teachers alike.

Also, isn't that boy adorable?! I don't know him, it is just a stock photo, but I love him!

Freebies

I learned how to make a new permanent page! You can see all of my freebies by clicking the "Freebie" link at the top of the page. I am super excited about making those links work! Enjoy!

Why I Quit My Job

Last year I decided to leave my teaching job. The teaching job that I literally worked years to get. I was frustrated and unhappy for most of the year. I thought I was leaving for a lot of different complicated reasons, but now that I have been home for a while I know exactly why I left.

I was exhausted.

Not tired, or sleepy. Not the kind of exhausted that can be fixed by a good night's sleep or even a long weekend. The kind of bone deep, perpetual exhaustion that you don't even realize you have until you are free from it.

Every morning I would wake up and get all four of my kids ready for their various schools. I would have to get everyone in the car by 7:45 or else I would be late for the day. I would drop off my two youngest (a toddler and a preschooler) at daycare. Thank goodness they served breakfast at the daycare. My two oldest would order from the McDonalds drive thru more often than I would like to admit. I would get into my classroom around 8:15 (most likely later since by this time we were usually running late). I would then spend a frantic 45 minutes making copies, printing, grading, writing notes, differentiating - trying to make the day perfect for my 25 other children.

While I would do this my two girls would sit in the classroom and practically beg me for attention. I snapped at them so many times.

Then the bell would ring. My two girls would run off to class (or be trying to run as I brushed the hair that we hadn't gotten to at home that morning), while my students rushed in.

The next 6.5 hours would be the normal blur of a school day. We had our successes, both small and big. I was a rock star at some moments and I failed in others, but we kept going. I gave it my all - all day.

When the afternoon bell rang, I often had a group of kids that would stay after school for weekly tutoring. Again, my two girls would come into the classroom ready to share about their days and I would hustle them into a corner - with a snack if I had remembered to stock up that week.

Our school doesn't get out until almost 4:00, so tutoring wouldn't end until 4:30. At that point I would have to rush back to the daycare to pick up the littles, so we could eat dinner at a reasonable time. Of course there were many days that I didn't get to the daycare until after 5:00.

Once we were home it was time to make dinner while four little people pulled on me. We did almost always sit down for dinner as a family. I know how important that is for children's development, so I always tried my best to make that happen. Of course, that part of dinner would last about ten minutes and then everyone was off to play.

I would have to wrestle my oldest girls back to the table to tackle the homework that hadn't been completed yet. The homework never took long, it was always the complaining that sucked up our after dinner time together.

Finally, everyone would be in bed, and I could collapse next to my husband. Then the little feet would come tiptoeing into our room. The requests for a glass of water, or one more story, or the insistence that a nightmare had occurred in the 30 seconds it had taken me to leave the bedroom.

Eventually, sleep would come. I would be rested just enough to be able to open my eyes the next morning when it all started again.

It sounds crazy as I type it out now. And, I should say I do have a loving husband that helps with the kids as much as he can, but he has his limits. He can't leave work early, he can't take the kids in the morning, he can't help with homework, he can't deal late at night.

I also worked at a job that let me bring my kids with me. And I worked from 8:30 to 4:30. I know that a lot of people work much longer hours, and they can't bring their kids with them. I always felt like I didn't have it that bad. That I should feel guilty for complaining when so many people would love to change places with me. I grew up with a single mom that had to get my sister and I up and to daycare by 6:00 a.m. every morning. She often wouldn't pick us up until close to 6:00 p.m.

And that inner monologue - that I was lucky - just added to my exhaustion. Because I never felt like I was giving enough to any part of my life. There were teachers at school working much longer hours than me. Teachers who had detailed lesson plans and data points for every student in every subject, color coded (of course). There were parents who weren't a hot mess. Parents who packed their kids lunches every day with healthy, delicious options. Parents who planned play dates and remembered spirit days.

I worried that I wasn't doing enough for my students. I worried that i wasn't doing enough for my children.

In the end, I didn't leave teaching because I realized that no one person could be everything I demanded of myself. I wish I had. I wish I had seen that the person I should have been worried about was myself.

Luckily though, I did leave. I had so many reasons for leaving, and the answer I gave often depended on the person who was asking.

Leaving was really scary, and I almost didn't do it. I was worried about who I would be if I wasn't Mrs. O'Donnell.

As I now wrap up my first month as an ex-teacher, I am starting to feel like myself again. The "me" I was before I was stretched so thin that I had headaches almost every night.

I have time to take care of myself, and so I have energy to take care of others. I had thought that staying home meant giving up on being of service. I felt like a failure. But I have found new ways to give back.

I know from personal experience that teachers can't do it all. There just aren't enough hours in the day to do everything "good" teachers do. Creating at TpT is one way that I can give back. I remember how much time I spent putting together lessons. I love that I can save that time for others.

I can also give back by sharing my story. I am sure that there are countless other women out there who are giving everything they have and still don't feel like it is enough. That they are not enough. I am here to tell them that they are. That we can't take care of anyone else unless we take care of ourselves. It sounds so simple, but it is easy to forget.

This is definitely not the post I was intending to write when I started typing tonight, but I am glad I have gotten it down. I have been so happy staying home these past weeks, but I hadn't taken the time to think about why I feel this way.

I think that I feel happy because for the first time in a long time, my life is in balance. For now.

Why Teach Geography?

It feels like there is never enough time to teach all of the Common Core standards. So, why should you spend time teaching geography in elementary school? 

There are so many reasons!

First, kids are super self-centered. It is okay; it is just who they are. However, we don't want them to grow up to be self-centered adults because self-centered adults have a hard time getting along in life. One way to show them that they are just a small part of a giant world is to show them that giant world.

Plus, once kids learn about all of the incredible places around the world, they will want to visit them. (Maybe not tomorrow, but someday.) Visiting other countries teaches people not only about the world we live in, but the people who live here. Getting to know different people makes us more empathetic and understanding of different cultures and customs. Traveling also teaches us about ourselves.

It is also important to know the geography of the world to understand history and current events. Where are the Olympics this year? Where did that war start? How far is it from this country to that country? Why does it take so long to travel from here to there? These are questions we want kids thinking about as they explore the world around them. Geography gives them a framework to explore and understand the world they inhabit.

Finally, can I just say that the Earth is really, really cool?! Learning about this tiny corner of the universe is fascinating. We want our kids to be fascinated in school. In fact, we want them to be fascinated outside of school as well. Teaching children geography gives them the keys to unlock to world around them.

Okay, that was a little corny, but totally true.

Teaching geography can be intimidating for teachers because most schools don't provide a "geography curriculum". But it doesn't have to be scary.

I developed lapbooks to introduce kids to each of the seven continents (Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, and South America). The lapbooks contain an unlabeled political map of the countries on the continent, eight facts about the continent or the countries on the continent, and a cover. All you need is a big piece of construction paper to put everything together.

(I use a ruler to draw lines connecting the facts to the country they represent.)

You can see all of the lapbooks on Teachers pay Teachers by clicking below. If you scroll a little farther down, you will see the song I sing with my class to help us remember the name of each continent.

Here is the song! You can use You Tube to find the tune of Found a Peanut. I will also have my daughters sing the song soon and will link it up. I only sing for my students :).

You can get a printable .pdf of the song here.

Also, yes I know that in some countries (such as Japan) it is taught that there are only 6 continents, so this song would not be very helpful there.