Teachers Pay Teachers

Hello!

I am finally on Teachers Pay Teachers! I only have a few items up, but intend to add a couple more each week! Please go check out my page here: A Crafty Teacher

I have a FREE spelling menu that you can use as a center, station, or homework. I send it home each Thursday night as homework before their test on Friday.

I also have a FREE figurative language foldable that can be glued into a journal or notebook. It is great for taking notes and then referring back to (especially as testing quickly approaches!)

Last, I have a figurative language and poetry lapbook. It reviews all different forms of figurative lanuage, poetic language, and poems. Please visit my store to see them!

Thanks for reading! I hope that there is something in my store that you can use! Please follow my store so that you can always know when something new is added!

Organizing the Paper Overload

Do you get overwhelmed by all of the paper we deal with every day? I know that I do! I have to find a way to manage it so it doesn't pile up around me! I can't stand piles of papers everywhere. (I am a little OCD when it comes to organizing!)

My answer: this $25 cart from Sam's Club!

It has been an answer to prayers when it comes to paper! I used to have a slotted file holder on my desk to hold everything... but then it was all still on my desk! I had to try and look over it when visitors would come in my room. I just didn't like it.

My cart has been great! I have a separate drawer for each topic that I used to have a folder for.

My drawers are labeled like this:

-Important Papers-this is for anything that I need to save and have on-hand. I keep notes from my principal, log-in information,  and any important documents that need to be at the ready.

-To Be Filed-this is where I keep any extra copies at the end of the day, handouts, originals, etc that need to be filed, but I don't want to take the time to do it right then. I then spend the 15-20 minutes needed to file them all about once every week or two.

-To Be Graded-this is where I keep all of my papers that need to be graded. As students hand in papers to our folder system, I paperclip them and put them in this drawer. When I am ready to grade papers I either take the whole drawer out or grab the stack and stick them in my teacher bag to take home.

-Grades to Enter-this is where I keep papers that I have graded, but have not had time to enter the grades yet. I will often grade a few, stop, grade a few more, stop, etc. So, this is a central place that I can keep those random sets of papers until I am ready to enter them into our online gradebook system.

-Monday through Friday- This is where I put all of the copies, teacher books, supplies, etc that I will need for that day of teaching. When I prepare my lesson plans for the next week I file things into the drawers as I find and plan for them. When I get my copies back (we have to send off our copies to a central office to be made) I file them into the appropriate day's drawer. Also, anything that we do every week (like on Mondays we always do a vocabulary foldable) I can keep those in the Monday drawer at all times.

Upcoming Weeks-the bottom drawer is then for anything that I plan in advance and know that I will need in the coming weeks, but not sure what day of the week or when exactly I will use it. It is copies of lessons or tests that are coming up soon. I can then go through the drawer and pull those when needed to put in the appropriate day of the week drawer later.

I also have a file holder attached to the side. I picked it up at Mardel. It is the perfect size to fit the side of the cart. I have a variety of folders in it that are handy to have close, but that I don't use everyday like IEP's, Referrals, Testing Info, etc.

Quick Talk, Book Recs

Just a quick post about a way to share books in your classroom. I have been reading "The Book Whisperer" and wanted to find a way for my kiddos to share book recommendations with one another. I have tried bulletin boards with the recommendations... but that never seems to get far. It is more of a requirement than an actual tool they used. I wanted them talking about their books and sharing titles.

I just opened it up to my class for ideas on how we could do this. By combining a few ideas, this is what we came up with:

Quick Talk, Book Recs

A "Quick Talk, Book Rec" is simply a fast-paced book chat. Students wander around the room while I play some music. When the music stops, they find a friend near them to partner up with. Once partnered, they share what book they are currently reading, (I make my students carry the book with them) tell a little bit about the book, and why or why not they would recommend it to someone else. The other person in the partnership then does the same. I give them 45-60 seconds to do this. When I start the music again, they meander around the room again and start all over. We do this 3-4 times each session. I try to do it every few days... but it just depends on time. The kids love it, and hopefully they are picking up on some new books to read! 

Pilgrims

Today I introduced my students to Pilgrims, Thanksgiving, Wampanoags, and the Plymouth colony. We started the lesson with reading "The Pilgrims' First Thanksgiving" by Ann McGovern. It is a great intro book that covers the basics of what occured and what led to the first Thanksgiving.

Picture courtesy of amazon.com

We then went back in time to 1620, aboard the Mayflower. I showed my students the electronic field trips from the Plimoth Planation website. Here is the link. These 2 field trips show them what life was like for the Pilgrims, as well as the Indians. While watching the field trips, my students munched on Hardtack, ship's biscuits that I made them. You can Google to find many recipes... essentially they are dry, hard biscuits that have no flavor! My kiddos didn't enjoy them much! Haha.

It was a fun, quick lesson that introduced them to Plymouth.