Silence for Sandy Hook Elementary

Concept of Numbers FREEBIE!!!

Hey everyone!  I'm linking up with a great freebie blog.  This blog has some amazing resources and is now having a linking party on the first of each month.  If you are a Pre-k, K, or 1st grade teacher check this blog out!

The freebie I chose to include is linked to the kindergarten Common Core math standards K.CC.1, K.CC.2, and K.CC.3, it could also be used as a resource for struggling students in 1st and 2nd grade.  You can click on the document below to get your free copy from google docs. 

Thanks for visiting my blog, I'm just starting out and getting the hang of all of this, hopefully you will come back and visit again soon!

I'm Back!!

I'm back and have been working hard on new units for TPT.  My newest unit is now up and ready to go.  It is all about The Polar Express and ways to incorporate that into your classroom.  You can get it here on TPT or here on Teacher's Notebook.

This unit is filled with writing activities, 2 craftivities, 2 color by number, a story sequencing and much more!!

I am also taking part in the TPT sale starting Monday, November 26th and running through Tuesday, November 27th.

I got this cute button from Ashley at The School Supply Addict.

I hope you all check out my sale!

Ok I Give In...

Hey guys!
So I've taken the plunge into TPT, also known as Teachers Pay Teachers.  I have been so inspired by Deanna Jump.  I have purchased many of her units and recently saw her interview on CNN.  Hopefully I will be somewhat successful in this new venture!  I have already created two units and have a lot of ideas for more!  

To grab my free unit click on the pic below, it is based on the Common Core Math Standards K.CC.2, K.CC.3, and K.CC.4

Here is my other unit to use for teaching of fire safety, firefighters, and trips to the fire station.  You will find:

*over 10 different versions of themed writing paper
*3 Bubble Maps
*2 mind map/graphic organizers to help in structuring your writing
*4 different versions of a thank you letter that can be used after your visit to the fire station
* 1 set of 0-5 cards (with pictures represented each number)
* 1 set of 0-20 cards with one picture per card

Thanks for joining me on this new journey and hopefully it will be a successful one.  

Much more to come!

Motivating Students

This week’s reading involved how to motivate our students’ in reading.  This is something I have been working very hard on especially since my students are getting ready for first grade and we are hard at work on the Common Core Standards (CCS).  The article by Linda Gambrell gave some great ideas on how to intrinsically (internally needs or feelings) motivate students to read.  Here are just a few ideas:

1. Access to a range of reading materials
2. Opportunities for students to choose what they read
3. Adequate time for students to engage in sustained reading
4. Opportunities for success with challenging texts
5. Opportunities for social interactions about text

I use many of these ideas regularly in my classroom.  The hard part is how to bring it down to the level of many of my students, because often times those who can’t read the words are often reading the pictures and telling the story that way.  Often times this turns into playing, this is a struggle in my classroom.  They have the access to a wide range of reading materials, I guess they just need more modeling of what reading should look like, even though they get that often for me, they need to see more modeling of silent reading or reading with a partner. 

One thing I am very excited about is the introduction of challenging texts.  I am working with the team for my district to help write the assessments/tasks/units etc for common core.  In our meeting yesterday we were talking about introducing challenging texts.  We need to be incorporating them to the whole group so that those higher-level learners have the access and hopefully those average and students who struggle will be challenged as well.  In looking at text exemplars for the CCS (http://instruction.ers.tcoe.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Appendix_B.pdf) it lists for K-1 several books I was surprised to see.  The book Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder is listed as a 3^rd grade text on Amazon, but according to the new standards should be a K-1 read aloud now.  I loved those books and read them several times when I was little; I now plan to bring them in for my students. 

This morning I brought in several different books for my students.  I showed them the books I was reading for this class.  They were very excited, they kept saying that when they got older if they continued to learn they would be able to go to school and read like me.  I also showed them how I read for fun on my IPad.  At first they were confused about reading for fun, then I related one of our picture books that was make believe to one of my fiction books.  We also talked about reading nonfiction books when you wanted to read to learn something.  They were very excited.  We started our very first chapter book today, but it was hard for them to stay focused.  We kept stopping to discuss the characters and what had happened.  Hopefully after doing this several times they will get the hang of it and want to do it on their own!       

Common Core State Standards For ELA Appendix B: Text Exemplars and Sample Performance Task: http://instruction.ers.tcoe.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Appendix_B.pdf

 Gambrell, L. (2011). Motivation in the School Reading Curriculum. Journal of Reading Education, 37(1), 5-14.

So as I begin this post, let me start by saying I was wrong.  When I first began to read the book Academic Language for English Language Learners and Struggling Readers  I got discouraged because sentence #1 reads, "Middle school and high school teachers face difficult challenges on a daily basis."  I read that and put my book away, people I teach kindergarten, 5th graders scare me.  So when I thought the whole book would be geared toward older students I put it away.  After letting it sit for a few days I went back to it and decided I should at least see if I was right or wrong.  I'm glad I did, because even though this book is written for older students, I could use many of the strategies in my own classroom.  Just because the students in the book are 10 years older then my students doesn't mean they may not be having the same language problems.  Often times when I am reading the student examples I can picture my students.  I can already tell where they are going to be several years from now.

Freeman and Freeman pointed out that, "Students with a large academic vocabulary in one language can more easily build vocabulary in their second language" (pg 126)  I found this to be the case with a student I had 3 years ago.  He came into my room speaking no English, for the first week of school our ELD coach had to come sit in my room because all he would do was scream in Spanish.  His Spanish was very interesting, it was very formal, even though mom and dad could not speak English they could train him well in Spanish.  By the end of his Kindergarten year he was speaking fluently in English and was even teaching his mom.    

Freeman and Freeman also talked about using word lists.  (pg 125)  These are something that we do almost daily in my classroom.  We are constantly learning new words and my students are always wanting to write about them in their journals, so I try and make sure they are written somewhere around the room so they have access to them.  Take for example when we were learning about neighborhoods a month or two ago, one of my intermediate students wrote the word neighborhood so much that she learned how to spell it and still uses it in her writing today.