Classroom Rules Posters

I know people always say to create your class rules with your students at the beginning of the year, and I agree! Although I also like to have my 5 rules that do not change from year to year. I keep them looking nice all year long. I was looking around for class rules that I felt worked well with every classroom and every type of student. Finally, I just decided to make my own. These are my top 5 favorite rules that work in every situation:

1) Raise your hand to speak or stand

2) Follow directions QUICKLY

3) LISTEN when your teacher is talking

4) RESPECT others, yourself, and your school

5) Be SAFE, be KIND, be HONEST

I post these up from my room day one. Then my students and I can come up with other rules and post those on chart paper that we create together (not as cute, but necessary and important!)

I was just going to post the posters, but then thought it would be so much cuter if I put them in frames! You can get these frames that fit 8 1/2 by 11 paper from dollar tree! A great deal! I was considering putting colored cardstock behind the rules to add a little color, but decided to paint the frames instead! 

Now all I need to do is use adhesive tape to stick these to the wall! It takes up no bulletin board space, and is in a place where my students can see them all day, every day! 

Just click on the picture below to check out this product! Comes in 3 different colors; black and white, black and bright, and color.

Back to School Flipbook - Editable

I can't believe it is June and I am thinking about back to school night, but oh well! I feel like I can't sleep at night until my classroom is ready for back to school night. Here's to sleep! 

So I know flipbooks are very popular right now and I see why! They look great, are easy for parents to read, and simple (well, some). I downloaded a flipbook from TPT and realized it was not easy for me to understand, or make at all, so I decided to make my own. I realized that if I created the cover page to fold over, instead of just staple all of the papers would stay together and straight, and it looks great! Plus, it gives parents room on the back to take notes at back to school night.
Parents will love these and put a magnet on the back and they can even hang it on their fridge to have all of the important information all year long!

Enjoy!

Multiplication or Division Relay

       Towards the end of the school year, I was trying to come up with engaging, yet meaningful activities to do with my students. One of the activities that I tried was a multiplication relay. My students absolutely loved it, and I loved that they were reviewing math! It literally takes one minute to set up, and the students love doing it! 

So here's how it works! 
    The students break up into teams. I like to have anywhere around 4-6 students on a team. Have them stand in a line towards the back of your room. Write a math problem on the whiteboard for each team and cover with a piece of paper. It could be multiplication or long division problem. I like to give each team the same numbers in the problem, just in a different order so they can't copy each other. 
    Give the student at the beginning of each line a "baton" (marker). When you say "GO" have the first student come solve the first step of the problem, then they have to run back and hand the marker off to the second person in line. Then the second person does the next step of the problem. This continues until the problem is solved. If there is a mistake the person has to correct one mistake and that is the end of their turn and they have to run back and hand off the baton to the next person. The team who solves the problem correctly first wins.

Just a couple tips when doing this activity:
*Make sure students don't rush too quickly or else they will make a lot of mistakes. 
*Don't let any teammates help the person at the front of the board. Student's love to yell answers out loud.
*Split up the teams evenly with a mixture of academic levels on each team. You don't want to have all of your speedy mathematicians on the same team.

Your students will absolutely love reviewing multiplication and long division. This activity really helps to make sure students understand the correct steps and order to solve these problems.
Have fun reviewing!

Poetry Using Love That Dog

Poetry Using Love That Dog

Every year I do my poetry unit I base it off the book Love That Dog. This book is amazing! It is all written in poems by a boy. He starts off by saying that he doesn't like poetry, then as his teachers shares poems, he starts to write them. He is still embarrassed about it and the teacher asks to type his poems and post them on yellow paper in the classroom. He then starts loving poetry, and at the end writes a final poem, using all of the poem styles he learned in class about his dog that passed away. Every year I cry with my students as I read this book out loud to them.

This is how I use the book to guide my poetry unit.

In the back of the book, it has all of the poems the teacher used in her class. I teach one of those poems to my students each day in order. I start with The Red Wheelbarrow and we analyze the poem and discuss why the poet chose to use certain words, format of stanzas, and why they chose to place the words the way they did. Then the students write their own poem(s) based on the format of the poem taught. The students can choose any topic they want to write about, sports, summer, memories, fictional stories, etc. I had the students start with ...

so much depends

upon

_______

and they continue writing in the same type of stanzas. Here is an example from one of my students. It is amazing what students can come up with in 15 minutes or so!

After giving students time to write their poems, I always have the students come to the rug and give every student the opportunity to share. The students can choose to pass if they want. I pick 2 or 3 poems that I love (or poems that I feel the students could benefit from having shared) and type them up and post them on yellow paper. Just like in the book. 

Then on day 2 I share the second poem to share in the back of the book, Stopping By the Woods on a Snowy Evening and we analyze the poem and check the rhyming pattern. Then students write a poem based on the format of this poem. Once again we share the poems, and I choose a couple to type and post.

I do this with all of the poems in the back of the book. Once we do this with the last poem, that is when I introduce the students to the book Love That Dog. We all sit down and the rug and I read the book in one sitting. I relate the book to students in my class, how my students started out not liking poetry, and then how over time they started to enjoy it, and how the teacher posted their poems on yellow paper in the class. The students love how every poem brought up in the book they know, and remember. Then we all cry at the end of the story. Such a great unit! It really helps instill a love of poetry in my students!

This is what my poetry wall looks like towards the end of my unit.

Hope you enjoy this poetry unit! I absolutely love doing it with my class!

Word Clouds

How to Use Word Clouds in the Classroom  

I was sitting in my weekly tech meetings I attend and one teacher got up and shared how she used a website that creates word clouds. Last year I used word clouds to create my end-of-year gift for my students. I would put their name, and then write a lot of adjectives and silly phrases to describe them. Then I printed them on cardstock and put them in a frame I got from the dollar store. My students absolutely loved them! In fact, just yesterday my student from last year came to me and asked how I made them because she wanted to make them for her friends. 

The website to make these types of word clouds is wordle.net. You just need to make sure you install the new version of Java on your computer. This website lets you change the layout, color, font, and even lets you choose which words are bigger than others. 

Another great way to use this website is to do co-worker gifts! Here is an example! (Of course, I would add more words, or phrases if I was going to give it to someone).

This year I wanted to use them to help integrate technology and art into our core. So I decided to make State Word Clouds. The students had so much fun making them, and they turned out great! I found this website called www.tagul.com. With this website you can turn your normal word cloud into any shape you want! PLUS, the students can use this on their chromebooks, or iPads. It doesn't need Java to run! All you need to is click on shapes and then you can click to add your own image. You can pick any image from the internet (as long as it is filled in, and not just an outline), and you can create a word cloud in that shape! I had each student write a report on the state they chose using my State Float and Report product. Then they created this word cloud by using important words and details from their report and copy and pasted them into this website. The students can then change the color and font how they choose! You could do this with so many different subjects and activities at school. Please share how you use word clouds in your class! Enjoy!

State Reports and Floats

State Reports and Floats

    It's that time of year when testing is almost done, (hooray!) and I finally have time do all of the lessons I have been wanting to do all year! 
   One of my most favorite writing assignments for the year is our State Reports. I have the students pick a state, or assign one at random, and then they will do a report on their state. They will learn to research from different sources, such as books, articles, the internet, etc. They will collect research on their research notes page. They will learn about the state's history, geography, and all of the facts (the state bird, flower, date of statehood, cities, landmarks, attractions, etc). Then during school, they will follow an outline to write a muli-paragraph essay about their state. I love to integrate art where I can, and this assignment is perfect for that! Then students are asked to create a float at home. They can use all sorts of different materials, but I have a rubric that grades them on their information, creativity, effort, etc. The students love doing this, and it is a great opportunity to invite parents, and other classes from the school to come to the "state parade"! I love doing this project every year, and my students always look forward to it! 

Here is my a link to my product! 

It includes; aligned common core standards, how to use page, state list, state research notes, state report outline and rubric (two different versions), state float outline, rubric, and examples. I hope you enjoy! 

Happy Birthday Homework Pass

Okay...I am about to share one of my student's favorite products EVER! And the best part...it's FREE! For months, I had been thinking about what I wanted to give the student's in my class when it was their birthday. I thought about candy (nope...our school doesn't like us giving out sugar as rewards), what about a toy (lame...5th graders don't like very many toys, except for the expensive ones), then I thought what does a 5th grader want more than anything on their birthday...to have NO HOMEWORK! Hence, the Happy Birthday Homework Pass. I love it because I print them out before the school year starts and I have all the gifts ready for my students. It takes 5 minutes of prep and costs nothing! Plus, the students LOVE it! I have had many parents tell me how their child couldn't wait for their birthday so they could have their homework pass. I decided to create two versions, one black and white, and one colored. I hope you enjoy!

Click here to download your free Happy Birthday Homework Pass!

Daily Behavior Charts

The other day I got an email from a mother who said that she and her husband talked and decided they were going to start being more strict about their child's behavior at school (Wahoo!! I wish all parents cared about their child's behavior at school)! She wanted me to somehow track her child's behavior at school and let her know how he does each day. So as I always do...I turn to Pinterest and Teachers Pay Teachers to find the perfect behavior chart for him. After 30 minutes of searching, nothing was just right for what I needed. Voila! That's when I decided to create my own daily behavior chart. I created a couple different versions because I have different behavior charts for certain students needs. Many of my students behave fine in my class, but when they go to another room or go to specialties than their behavior goes down. So I created some behavior charts for the class, and for specialties. Then I also have some students who need SPECIFIC items they look for daily, or even hourly. I just kept creating behavior charts for each of my students needs and can I just say....the behavior from my students in my classroom is so much BETTER! This time of year especially seems hard for students to keep up good behavior, sometimes you just need to have these charts for the last week of school.

Click here for the link to download these Daily Behavior Charts. I hope they help your students as much as they did mine!!!

Civil War Simulations- with FREE google slides to accompany

My coworker told me about this amazing activity she did with her students and I just HAD to try it (I always am looking for engaging, hands-on activities for my students). Anyways I tried it last year and absolutely LOVED it! I couldn't wait to use it this year and my students couldn't get enough. They would whine when we would have to end social studies for the day! So what is this amazing activity??? 

It is Civil War Easy Simulations by Scholastic. It is only $6 for the PDF version which I would recommend getting so you can just print off the worksheets, instead of copying them from a book.

It allows the students to experience what it might have been like to be a soldier in the Civil War time period. First, students are put into groups and get into Infantry's for either the Union or Confederate side. Then, it has the students pick a character (former slave, farmer, aristocrat, etc) and each of these characters have certain traits they are better than others. Such as a farmer might have a high strength number, but low medical expertise. Next they have to decide what types of items they want to bring with them to war. They can only carry so much so they have to calculate the weight they can carry. Some of the items will help them through the journey. Then the teacher reads them scenarios and the students have to make choices of what they want to do. Are they going to send a scout to see what's going on, run, shoot, etc? I love to see the students working together and finding reasons of why they should or should not make certain decisions. Then throughout this simulation, they have to make spins on the spinner to determine if they got hit, made a proper defense, get an infection, etc. 

The thing I love most about this simulation is how they describe what camp life was like, battles that actually happened during the Civil War, they hear speeches from both the Union and Confederate sides, etc. They even have journal entries from actual soldiers of the Civil War which is where they get the ideas for the scenarios that happen. This is a 5-day simulation (start on Monday, end on Friday), and at the end of each day, the students write in their journal as if they were a soldier in that time. I have never seen such beautiful, and meaningful writing from my students then during this simulation. They learn to write from their point of view and use emotions and details of how they were feeling during this experience. I would highly recommend doing this with your class! I will warn you, though, the kids get VERY excited, which means it can be difficult to keep them quiet while you are trying to read directions and so on. Just be very clear with your expectations up front. To make this easier, I actually made a google slides to follow along. This way as you give instructions (such as make a spin), you don't have to repeat yourself and the students can just look at the slides to see what they need to do (this helped soooooo much!!!) I have attached the link so you can use it!

Click Here for Civil War Simulations FREE Google Slides.

I hope you and your students enjoy this as much as I did! Please leave a comment and tell me how your experience was!

Also, there are many other simulations by Scholastic that might interest you more, if you try the simulation leave a comment and let me know how they were!

Enjoy experience soldier life in 1862!

                    

  

Survival in Environment Science and Art Integration!

     In 5th grade we get to teach traits and heredity! Super fun! One of the standards we teach is about how animals or plants have to adapt in order to survive in their environment. My brilliant co-worker came up this an art integration activity that I absolutely loved and wanted to share!

     She gave each student a small magazine clipping (just cut it out at random). Then she asked them to glue it onto the page and make it adapt to the environment by using elements of color and line. The students got very creative! I am always so shocked to see what students come up with! Here are some examples from her class! Can you find the magazine clippings?!

Dr. Seuss Day!

     I just love Dr. Seuss day! Mainly, because I have an excuse to wear jeans to school as part of my "costume"! 

    (teacher 1 and teacher 2)!!!

     We always do a whole 5th grade Dr. Seuss day where we rotate between each teacher to do activities. In my room this year I had to do the cliche' Oobleck! Although the students LOVE this lesson, and I mean LOVE! I had every student asking me at the end, how to make Oobleck at home to show their family! Success!
  
   So here is what I do. I start off by reading Bartholomew and the Oobleck by Dr. Seuss. Then I tell the students that they are going to get to touch this Oobleck. I have Oobleck already prepared with lots of butcher paper on the floor and tables, since it get's messy. I break my class into 2 groups. One group gets to go touch and explore the Oobleck, while the other gets to have fun at our Dr. Seuss Photo Booth! Then they switch! Luckily this year I had a parent volunteer come help so I had someone who could take pictures of my students. Although last year I just set up my computer to be on a timer and let the students self-run the photo booth. This is a great Science Integration because while they are touching the Oobleck we discuss whether this is a solid, or liquid and what types of properties this substance has. Super fun! I love seeing some students get into it and some others who will poke it with their finger, decide it is gross, and just watch everyone else play with goop.

     The next rotation was a STEM activity that involves making The Lorax Truffula trees! I shared this idea with my co-worker after finding it on Pinterest. Here is the link! Since we were short on time he gave the students colored marshmallows instead of food coloring them! Brilliant!

                                       

 The last rotation was a graphing activity! This worked out great because that the unit we just finished in math, so it was a great review. My co-worker read the story Green Eggs and Ham. Every time they heard a word that rhymed with ham on that page they would mark it on the graph. Then after the book was over, they added up all of the words on the page and found the average (they divided that number by how many pages were in the book). This was a great review for finding the average by using a graph!
   
    I love any excuse to integrate other subjects into fun activities! I am lucky I love my job and have great students and co-workers!

Compare and Contrast activity!

     This is my first post and I have to give all the credit to Teaching with a Mountain View! She did a great job at creating an engaging activity to introduce students to compare and contrast. I had been contemplating how to start teaching this concept to my students when I came across this activity. It has a picture book, involves food, and is funny! A perfect lesson!

     This lesson uses the book Apples and Oranges by Sara Pinto. I have my students sit on the carpet as I introduce the words compare and contrast. Then we go through the book together as they fill out the worksheet that goes along with it. For each page there are two items the students need to compare and contrast (such as an apple and an orange). Then it asks them to guess what they both don't have. I decided to have the students fill out the "They both don't have..." column on their own. Then I would turn the page. If the students got it right (they rarely do, because the book comes up with some crazy things such as apples and oranges both don't have glasses) then they got a little reward. This keeps the students very engaged and kept them on task. They could only participate in the fun challenge when they could come up with three ways that they compared and contrasted.

    I had students giggling and laughing throughout this whole lesson because they couldn't believe what this author had come up with. 

    If you are interested in the activity and getting the worksheet here is a a link to the blog Teaching with a Mountain View.