New Year, New Room

I share my classroom with two other teachers, but I am lucky enough to have a wall =). I  put all my "guidance stuff" on the back wall. 

Everyone teases mea bout my love of animals and especially dogs, but I have found that using this theme helps me build a relationship with the kiddos.

The 1-5 paw chart is part of my "behavior plan." I clip the entire class up as they follow my three rules:

Be Remarkable

Be Responsible

Be Respectful

At the end of class I write their "score" in my grade book (#teacheranchor #cjayneteach). When the class has 5 5's they get a reward day. That's normally the day we watch a Trevor Romain video or do extra Go Noodles.

Students who do a great job get to "put their name in a cup." Each month I put out 6 books students can win. They put their name in the corresponding cup of the book they want to win. Then at the end of the month one student will be drawn and they win that to keep forever. It's part of my closing the gap plan to improve literacy scores.

The Martha Speaks board is to help isolate problem behaviors, such as blurting. I got the idea from the wise Amiee Dean, Behavior Queen. The students start with 10 bones and as the problem behavior occurs I take one away. So say for example the class keeps talking over me, we would focus on blurting. Each time someone blurts I take away a bone. However many bones are left at the end of class they get that many minutes to "free talk" or whatever reward I've decided on. 

Note: For your "problem students" you know your "Richards" as Amiee calls them I have a separate plan for them. I won't take away a bone if they blurt. They most likely have more individualized behavior plan, so I don't take away from the class for this behavior. I will however let them earn, so if they do raise their hand I might give a bone back. It's been very positive so far.

Speaking of my Teacher Anchor. I can't live without this amazing binder and planner from C Jayne Teach.

The Anchor is full of helpful worksheets and planning guides. When you factor in how organized it keeps me, helps me document my connection to common core standards, and keeps me solution focused for groups and individuals, it's worth every penny.

They sell out fast so make sure you pre-order! I love the personalization.

I use my binder for individual notes, small group notes, lesson plans, and meeting notes.

The Teacher Anchor contains this individual conference form, which I made copies of and put in a special section of my binder.

Here is the blank example:

Here is an example of how I use it for individual work. Don't panic, Brooklyn's furry confidentiality is safe. 

I struggle with....

spelling, grammar, organization, ADHD, being a crazy dog mom, but I won't let that stop me from being awesome.

Here's a lesson I just stole from the remarkable Elizabeth Shepherd. It's a ton of fun for 5th and 6th graders. Some of you may feel comfortable doing it with 4th as well.

Do your kids love Jarrett Krosoczka as much as us? He's written so many amazing books, including the lunch lady series. He's an amazing author, school supporter, and all around an amazing and inspiring man.

Here's our simple yet powerful lesson:

1) We watched his Ted Talks about becoming an author. It's really funny and engaging. Heads up he does talk about his mothers addiction to drugs, his absent father, and his grandparents love of cocktails. Oh and he says "hell" once. My older kids could handle it, in fact many of them I think really connected because their own homes are just as chaotic.

2) We discussed how each of us face challenges but to be successful we need to be resilient. We talked about perseverance, resiliency and hope. Then I asked them to take a personal self reflection moment. During this time they completed the sentence: "I struggle with_______, but I won't let that stop me from_________." It was awesome to see some of their answers.

"I struggle with my parents divorce, but I won't let that stop me from getting off task or being irresponsible."

What do you struggle with? What will you not let that stop you from doing?

Helping With Jealousy

With field days and contests upon us we have started talking about jealousy, pride, and self esteem.

I got to share a super fun book "Ping and Pong Are Best Friends Mostly."
It's about two friends (Ping and Pong) and one of the friends Pong is better at everything than Ping. It's a great way to introduce the feeling of jealousy. When I asked the 1/2nd grade students how Ping must be feeling, many said mad or sad, but none could identify the feeling of jealousy. When I asked by students why he was having those feelings, many said because Pong was bragging. As you will notice in the book Pong doesn't brag. In fact he's a good friend that just happens to be better. This lead to a very interesting discussion!!!

I love the book so much I made a TPT packet for you.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Activity-Packet-For-FriendshipSibling-Rivalry-1785793

I love the book "Ping and Pong Are Best Friends (Mostly) to discuss feelings of jealousy. I created this packet for small groups, individuals, or classroom lessons. It can be used for feelings of rivalry between peers or siblings. The packet includes: 6 versions of Venn Diagrams to compare characters, students, and siblings, 2 self esteem pages where students write/draw about what they are good at, 2 feeling and strategy pages, a problem solving page.

*please excuse that it prints out a few blank pages. No matter what I do it won't delete them =/

Not soon after I started this lesson I got a request for help with sibling rivalry so I added some sibling questions and pages to my packet. 

Perseverance as summer approaches!

This time of year is all about testing, field days, and more testing. I know this time of year I start to lapse on my training with Brooklyn and the dogs get away with a lot.

This time of year I love to do lessons on perseverance (although I still need spell check to help me with that word after many years of teaching.). My favorite book this time of year is "The Three Ninja Pigs" by Corey Rosen Schwartz. I love it so much I've blogged about it many times . I love it so much that I created a packet designed to help teachers and counselors tie it into testing, perseverance/resiliency , team work, problem solving, cultural appreciation, and of course CCSS.  Also, you can connect this book to bullying (link at the end of the blog post).

So here is my latest packet for a book you all NEED to have on your book shelves:

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Three-Ninja-Pigs-Activity-Guide-a-lesson-on-perseverance-test-prep-and-more-1792121

Testing TIme

It's that time of year! Testing time.
Here is what I am doing to help our students and families prep for testing this year:

Class Lessons

3rd Grade- Since this is their first year taking it, we are doing test preparation.

We read "The Big Test" (or "Testing Miss Malarkey") and discussed the strategies in the book. Then we practiced in our class.

Visit TPT for the test taking version.

We completing the "teat taking" gold pot activity by the amazing Savvy School Counselor. Get yours here: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/School-Counselors-March-Activity-Pack-Savvy-School-Counselor-1110842

Then if time allowed we practiced relaxing, just like the students in the book did. We did a Go Noodle, but you can also have them practice 5-star breathing.

4th Grade- We addressed perseverance and not giving up. We talked about ways we show perseverance at home, at school, and on "the test." We read my favorite book on this topic "The Three Ninja Pigs" and then students drew a Ninja Pig that represented something they wanted to practice, persevere and get better at. We then took turns guessing what each persons pig represented. On the back of the pigs I had a copy of the Scholastic word search (for my speed racers.)

Are you ready for the real world?

What to do you to help your students with college and career readiness to #reachhigher?
One of my favorite ways is with a reality fair! Our event was even highlighted on this amazing Scholastic Blog: http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/top-teaching/2011/05/host-reality-fair


Reality Day/Reality Fair is a ton of fun. Trust me, your students will be talking. I love tying it into my career research units and college prep talks. Here's the basics on how it works:

1) The students research future careers/college plans.

2) The day of the fair you give them a register for a career (ideally the career they choose during their career exploration) and the average salary after taxes (include lots of CCSS by having them figure it out themselves). Need help with the math? There are lots of paycheck calculators online such as this one.

3) On the day of the event booths are set up with real world bills/businesses. From real estate to child care I try to give them a sample of life as an adult. They visit the booths and start budgeting their future. Do they really need that mustang?

4) Sit back and try not to cry tears from laughing to hard. Seriously I've heard some great lines over the years such as these: "The real world is really mean, and I probably shouldn't, own a farm and have 2 kids." 

Ready to create your own fair? Well lucky you, I created an event packet that has everything you need to recreate your own reality fair. Get it at my TPT store and enjoy. Be sure to tell us how it went!

Read more details about Reality Day here.

Pet Grief

Loosing my cat Sprigg was without a doubt one of the hardest times of my life. She was almost 21 when she passed. I can't imagine what a mess I'll be when I loose Brooklyn and Boss. 

Pet grief is one of the hardest parts of my job. I have a few books, but just reading them can bring tears to my eyes. 

So, after hitting a wall trying to find resources for my students after the loss of a pet I created this memory book activity. This booklet contains a cover plus 7 pages for your students after the loss of a pet. This memory book is perfect for small group settings, for work with individual students, or to send home so parents can do it with their child.

Here is a sneak peak.

Get your copy at my TPT store:

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Remembering-A-Furry-Friend-Pet-Memory-Book-1767503

Are you ready for testing season?

I know I'm not!!

It happens every year, yet every year I think wait it can't be testing time already. What gets me through this time is the hilarious http://www.loveteachblog.com/ and teaching some of my favorite topics like stress reduction.

Here are a few parent resources to help you get ready for testing season.

First,
I created this brochure for parents on tips on help their child deal with stress.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Stress-Management-Tips-For-Parents-To-Help-Their-Child-1744182

Next, I created a few testing tips for parents that you can also use in your classroom.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Test-Taking-Tip-Packet-For-Parents-1743462

This packet has everything you need to host a parent workshop. It's full of ideas, handouts, and games parents can play with students. I love playing the Let's Rock (roll and respond) game with my 3rd-5th graders. It's a great way to review our lessons on test prep and let them have fun during this stressful time.

This packet includes a variety of testing resources for parents and teachers. 

Parent Packet- This packet was designed to host a parent workshop. It includes parent conversation cards to help improve parent/student communication, a family game night roll and respond game, a resource page, and three pages of tips for before, during, and after the test.

Parent Brochure- Designed to be copied double sided to create a one page handout for parents. It includes tips for before, during, and after the test as well as additional resources.

5 Star Breathing- An activity for parents and teachers to practice with their students before and during the test to help reduce test stress.

What are your favorite testing resources?