Welcome to Success!

What do you do in your classroom to help all students feel successful?

For many years, I used to have a banner in my room that read WELCOME TO SUCCESS! (a la Harry K. Wong)  I really do believe that all of my students have something to offer our class.  I want them to feel comfortable with themselves, and I want them to feel like they are contributing and growing in our class.

It has been a couple of years since I hung that banner.  I may have to do it again this year.  I wqant them to know that I believe that they are special and talented.  I try to show them this in my language, by offering a variety of choice activities, and by pointing out my strengths and weaknesses.  They need to know that very few of us are full of only strengths.  We all have areas that are more difficult for us.  When we work in groups, we try to "play to our strengths."  We do it as adults, so I think they should learn to do it some as children, too.  That doesn't mean we avoid trying to strengthen our weaknesses...

What things do you do to help students feel talented and successful?

Monday Made It!

This week, I worked to make a tool that I can use in the classroom to know where students are all of the time.

I had seen one of these on Pinterest, but I didn't want to make one that was quite so big.  I bought a pizza pan at the Dollar Tree, and used some cute scrapbook paper, a little Modge Podge, some buttons and magnet strip, and here we have it!

It is ready for 30 students. (But I am hoping to have a few less than that!)  The kids will start each day in the classroom section, and then we will move the kids who are absent at the beginning of the day, and as students continue to move in and out throughout the day they will move their magnets as necessary...

 This is what it would look like with 2 kids absent, a student in the bathroom and one at the nurse.  With so many kids in my room and so many in and out for various things, it will help me to keep track.  I like the pizza pan because it will not take up much space.  I placed little carets after each location to show students where to place their number.  (I know that makes it slightly more confusing, but I think they will get used to it quickly.)  The others I have seen are made on square cookie sheets, but I was just a little concerned for space.

I used the remaining paper to cover this cute little friends sign that I am going to place in my room.

I may still have to recover the paper holder I made last week so that it all coordinates better.  :)

Go check out all of the other great creations at Tara's blog!

QR Codes, Book Choice, and a freebie

Last year, my students created QR codes to share their products with the class.  This year, I am hoping to continue this, but to also find other ways to use QR Codes into our classroom.

What is a QR code?  QR codes are the little boxes with black and white design that you sometimes find in advertisements or on products.  They can be read by a smartphone or other devices (like an Ipad) when you have a QR reader app.  (There are plenty of free QR reader apps.)

I have one outside my door of my classroom which directs parents to our class website.

My class's website

One of the ways I have decided to use them this year is to attach them to some of the books in my library so that kids can find out more about the book before they read the book.  The QR codes I created take the students to websites, book summaries, or a book trailer (FYI--some are from YouTube).

I am excited about trying this with my students this year, and I hope to continue to "grow" my number of codes.  I teach 3rd grade, and I tried to create codes for a wide range of books.  The one thing I haven't done yet is create any for non-fiction books.  I will have to work on that next!  :)

I use the site called QR Code Generator.  I find it very easy to use.  Just paste in the URL for the site that you want the device to go to.  For the document I am sharing today, I used my snipping tool to take a picture of the QR code and then I pasted it into a word document. 

If you would like to have a copy of the 17 codes I have created so far, you can either scan the QR code  or follow the link at the bottom of the post!  Leave me a comment to let me know if you have other ideas for how to use these codes or other QR codes in your room!

Enjoy...I think your students will!

QR code link to Google doc

OR.....link to Google Doc.

You still have time to join the Find your Voice Linky party for mentor texts to use when teaching voice.  C'mon...I know you can think of a picture book you use to cover this skill...

Story telling with Storybird.com

                                                              Refrigerator Babies on Storybird

Have you tried Storybird.com yet?  It is a fun online site for kids to use to write stories/books.  The site provides sets of illustrations, the student chooses pictures from a set and writes a story to accompany the pictures.

My students last year liked it, and I liked that it was an easy way for them to share their writing with me, their classmates, parents, or grandparents!

On this site, you create a class and enter your students names.  Students then use their username and password to access the site.

It was a great option for my students to use during their independent writing time.  It also allows for the teacher to create an assignment for the class.  I would recommend that you check it out as an option for the next school year!

Thinking of writing, you still have time to link up and share a mentor text to use when teaching students about voice. 

Made It Monday!

Here I am linking up again with Tara's Made It Monday.

I am truly going to work on organization this school year.  It just is not something that has come very high on my priority list.  I am committed to improvement though!

This week, I made a desk organizer for papers.

I used a box about the size of a cereal box.  I cut the box so that one piece was bigger than the other.

Then, I used glue stick and packaging tape to reinforce the box and attach the scrapbook paper.

Here it is with some papers put in it.  I know it is nothing too fancy, but it will work for me in my classroom, and it was the right price!  :)

I think it has possibilities as maybe a student project for Mother's or Father's  Day gifts or a Christmas card holder?  It would be cute in Christmas paper!

FINALLY--Don't forget to link up with my Find your Voice Linky party!  Link up and share a good mentor text for teaching voice!  This is a to build our texts to use in the classroom when teaching voice!

 

Find your Voice! Linky party

Hey There!  I am having a Linky party to develop a group of mentor texts for teaching kids about voice in writing.  I hope you'll join me!

I am trying to work on my Writer's Workshop this summer.  I feel like I am on the verge of making it happen, but I have to say, I feel like it is the blind leading the blind when it comes to writing.  I think that it is because I don't remember being taught how to write until I was a senior in high school, and then, Mr. Meyer never stopped!  Before him, we were just told TO write, nobody conferenced with us or talked to us about writer's craft.  He helped me a lot, but I certainly can't teach my 3rd graders the same way he taught us!

So,  I am working on some mentor texts, and I thought I would start with VOICE.  I have two that I use, and I am sure you are familiar with them.

I LOVE The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka.

This book is the story of the 3 Little Pigs as told by the wolf.  It is very cute, and the wolf's voice is very strong. 

My kids love it, too, but it is one they are very familiar with.  I like to use it for CAFE lessons, too, like point of view and author's purpose.  So, while it works well for voice, I thinkit might be a little overused by 3rd grade.

I also love the story Hey, Little Ant by Phillip and Hannah Hoose.

This is a great story, too.  It is the story of a boy who is trying to decide if he is going to smoosh an ant, and the ant's argument of why he shouldn't be smooshed.  Very cute.  It is written in rhyme. 

Often, my kids aren't familiar with this book when they come to me, but I have so many ways that I like to use it!  It is good because their are two voices, but it is also good as a persuasive mentor text, and for many CAFE lessons.

Do you have any mentor texts to share for teaching voice in writing?  Please, please, please link up with me and share!  I would love to find some new books to use for teaching voice, and this should give us plenty of time to find them before school starts!  Just grab my linky button at the top of this post.

Word Work Websites

One of my many summer goals is to strengthen my word work choices for my students.  I was pleased with the way my students worked their way through their Daily 5 Choices last year,but too many of them still view it as spelling practice.  I really want them to get the idea and fun of playing with words.  There is so much to be learned that way. With Words their Way, I have a number of sorts and other games, they can play with partners, but for many of my students, that is just busy-work.  They already understand the word and spelling patterns.

For my students, I am going to put together a list of word work web options.  They are typically assigned a word work goal for the week, so when they complete that task, they can move to a web activity if they wish.

Below are some sites that I think will be worth my students' while...
:

http://www.arcademicskillbuilders.com/games/frog/frog.html

This Word Frog game is a little easy for some of my students, but it will be a good review for many.  They will like the animation and the game part of it.  Arademic Skill Builders has some other good word games, too.

http://pbskids.org/lions/games/synsam.html

This game is from Between the Lions and it is called Synonym Sam's lab.  Again, it is a little simple, but I like the exposure it will give my students to words.  It will be esp. good for those kiddos who are not really reading at grade level as well as my ESL students.

http://www.wordcentral.com/games/bigbot.html

This Merriam-Webster site offers a much more difficult set of vocabulary for kids to use in finding synonyms/antonyms.  It will be great exposure to new words for some of my kds.

http://smarttutor.com/home/lessons/Vocab_PrefixSuffix_L3_V1_T3a.swf

This balloon pop game practices 3rd grade prefixes and suffixes,  but the site does offer similar games at other levels.  This one looks like ones my kids will like, and I like the way it makes them think about the prefix on different base words.  It will be a great reinforcer!

http://www.itsamadlibsworld.com/

I am going to probably let my kids do these Mad Libs with a friend.  That is what makes them fun!

http://www.playkidsgames.com/games/pinball/vocabulary/pinballvocab1.htm

Probably, a lot of kids have never played pinball, so this will be a novel idea for them!  This pinball game is similar to hangman.  As the kids send the ball over letters in the word, the letters are revealed at the bottom of the screen.

http://pbskids.org/lions/games/soup.html

Not only does this Between the Lions game practice making/spelling words, it offers some higher level thinking for my kiddos by using jokes.  Jokes are often a difficult skill for student who are not familiar with our language and those who struggle with reading.  Fun little game:  Alphabet Soup!

http://www.quia.com/hm/114901.html

This hangman site reviews the 300 most common words in our language.

http://host.exemplum.com/hasbro/boggle/boggle.html

This is just like the game Boggle.  I plan to have a boggle board on my wall this year, but I think this will be a fun alternative.  Besides, kids can practice at home!

http://www.abcya.com/letter_blocks.htm

This Letter Blocks game on ABCYa is a fun challenge for all.  It will add automatic differentiation for your kiddos.

http://www.vocabulary.co.il/

This site offers something for all of my kiddos.  Good games like Hangman aqd Crosswords for my higher students, and syllable games and homophones for some of my students who find these skills difficult.

Do you have any good word websites to share?  I would love to have a great set of choices for my students!