You Oughta Know November Blog Hop!

You Oughta Know About Door Decorations!
Welcome November's You Oughta Know Blog Hop hosted by Mrs. McCclain!

Today I will be sharing what You Oughta Know about Door Decorations (here's one I created for the beginning of the year this year)...

My first year of teaching, I only decorated my door 2 times... the beginning of the year and in June during our door decoration competition. Both doors took me quite a long time & as much as I LOVED having my door decorated, I had a million other things to do!

 

Each year more and more teachers in my building have AMAZING door decorations each month. The most amazing part is VERYYY rarely are any of the teachers decorating the door themselves (except of course for the start of the year). So how do we do it?!?...

Fabulous parents are SO willing to help out in the classroom especially when they can't volunteer during the school day.

So, during open house, we post sign ups that include door decoration months and 2 years in a row, almost every month got filled up!

Here are a few of my favorite doors from last year:

October - one of my kiddo's moms had all my students write their favorite candy on the candy corn cut outs. She also included their names on the bats!

March - One of last year's families LOVED St. Patrick's Day and created a VERY fun door for March!

June - my sister actually helped out with this one (I didn't have anyone sign up for June, which retrospectively made sense since we are only in school for half the month, so this year I combined May/June on the sign up). We had the kiddos create a fish or a turtle to decorate the door. My sister cleverly made tissue paper look like water & seaweed!

And after creating a welcome back door in August...

Here are the great doors this year's families have created for our class... October's door was designed by 2 of my kiddos, I also have a picture of the two of them looking very proud of their awesome creation:

November was created by one of the awesome moms after each kiddo wrote something they were thankful for on their heart. I think the turkey is just the cutest:

I can't wait to see what the other months have in store for my classroom door. The kiddos are always so excited (even if it is their mom or dad who designed it!) to see 'their' door design. The rest of the class always anxiously anticipates the new door, especially when they were asked to do something as a part of the door (i.e. the candy corn & Thanksgiving hearts).

It is amazing how much time is saved having families create the doors. Every single family told me they had fun decorating and they always love to know (or see) the kiddos' reactions. If you have families who would love to support your classroom but can't volunteer during the day, ask if they would be willing to decorate your door for the upcoming months!

What do you do to decorate your classroom door?
Be sure to check out all the other great posts on this blog hop, enjoy!

An InLinkz Link-up

Five for Friday: Welcome November!

Linking up with Doodlebugs for another Five for Friday!

Mustache you a question survey, data collection & bar graphs are always a hit & the photos are just a hoot!

They make for a pretty great hallway decoration too!

My kiddos are LOVING that our new classroom website has a blog section! I'm choosing kiddos to write solo & collaborative posts about what we do in school during the week. Loving the free weebly education site features! May even have these second graders creating their own websites soon - also through the weebly education site!

We are studying matter in Science and the kiddos LOVED this liquid investigation. I had mystery liquids in cups around the room (hand soap, dish soap, water, milk, glue, etc.) First the kiddos observed with their eyes & drew the liquid, then they smelled the liquid, recording what they smelled. They were then able to use their touch to observe the liquids. Finally, they guessed what they thought the liquid was. They rotated between all the liquids, recording their observations. At the end of the investigation I revealed the identify of the liquids. So fun! Grab yourself a copy of our recording sheet below:

My district has school on Veterans Day so I always try to do something to honor the brave men & women who have and are protecting our freedoms. This year we made star wreathes. Each star had a word we thought of when we heard "Veterans Day" after reading a Scholastic News about Veterans Day & going to our "Poppies & Poetry" Veterans Day assembly. We made this wordle with our words so students had somewhere to refer when creating their wreathes.

Loving the November door one of my families created! Be sure to check out tomorrow's post on Mrs. McClain's Blog Hop to learn all you Oughta Know about door decorations!

Whole Brain Wednesday: Sight Words

Welcome to another Whole Brain Wednesday!

This week I will be sharing a super fun way to practice sightwords... Superspeed 100 and Superspeed 1000!

I got an email from a coworker who has started using WBT asking if I'd heard of the sightword games Superspeed 100 and Superspeed 1000. A friend of hers had sent her the files and told her it was a WBT game. I had COMPLETELY forgot that at the WBT National Conference we had been shown the NEW Electronic Superspeed 100 and 1000 slide shows that had been created to accompany the game. I immediately downloaded them onto a flashdrive and began passing them around to everyone in my building. The same day, I used the Superspeed 1000 slideshow with my kiddos and the next day we played the game... They LOVED both versions of Superspeed 1000... are you curious to know what it's all about yet?!

Before I share how wonderful Superspeed sightwords are... ALL of the files I mentioned above are FREE on WBT's website! You just need to create a (FREE) account.

Okay so Superspeed 100 and 1000 involves a list of sight words. but NOT your traditional list. No, the 100 list has "levels" of repeating sight words. Each level adds another sight word. After 10 levels, the easier words start to disappear as other words are added. There are 100 words in the Superspeed 100 set. The sheets look like this...

When kiddos play Superspeed 100, you have students partnered up (groupings of one stronger reader and one weaker reader works well). Give students 1 minute to read as many levels as they can. If a student gets stuck or reads the word incorrectly, their partner can give them a "helpsie" before moving onto the next word. After the first minute, have the students record how far they got, then, read for a second time, to see if they can beat their first record. Because the words repeat, it doesn't matter if the partners switch who goes first or have the same student go first. If your whole class has mastered words at the beginning of the superspeed 100 list, you can tell the class to start at a certain level, or even differentiate having some groups start at different levels.


Superspeed 1000 is a little different. The lists of words do not repeat and each "level" has a silly word called a zinger at the end (such as 'zoink'). When students play this game, they read for a minute, mark their progress, then read the list again having the opposite student start (since the words DON'T repeat, it is important for the students to switch who goes first). Zingers are worth 5 points and all other words read are worth 1. This gives students motivation to get to each of these zingers! Here is what a Superspeed 1000 sheet looks like:

At the end of the Superspeed 1000 file, there are sheets with stars for students to record their points each time they play. They can then try to beat their previous record.

 Like I said earlier in this post, there are "Electronic" Superspeed games that are available as powerpoints FREE through WBT's website. Tune in next Wednesday for a post all about how to use the powerpoint files in your classroom to help your students learn sightwords!!! And in the meantime, think about downloading Superspeed 100 and/or 1000 to use in your classroom. I am even thinking about printing out the 1000 list to give to parents at conferences for them to use as practice at home!

Five for Friday - a look back at October

So since Halloween was on a FRIDAY, I didn't get around to posting about Halloween on Five for Friday like I wanted to. So today I'm doing a flashback to October!

I always have a pumpkin & fall themed day on or the day after Halloween because the first school I ever worked at had kiddos who didn't celebrate Halloween. One of the crafts we did was Candy Corn Men which I actually got from Kacey at Doodlebugs Teaching for free. Check it out!

I had an awesome mom come in with 2 easy-peasy foam crafts which the kiddos LOVED! One was a Day of the Dead themed skeleton and the other was a jack-o-lantern. They came out super cute and even though they were pre-cut, they all took on a look of their own!

Another fun thing I've done the past few years is read The Biggest Pumpkin Ever, write about how we'd grow the biggest pumpkin ever then use water colors to decorate pumpkin templates. You can get everything to do this activity and craft from my TPT store here.

We played some fun games that were fall themed. This one is Pumpkin Push. Just like other "push" games, once you have 2 "pieces" on a number you keep the number. If there is only 1 "piece" on the number the other player can "push" it out. I wish I could remember where I got this game a couple years back. If it's yours, let me know so I can give you credit!

Another game I wish I remember where I found it (let me know if it's your product)... Students roll dice to cover different parts of the jack-o-lantern. They race to fill up their pumpkin first.


What did you do to celebrate Halloween or Fall last week?

Whole Brain Wednesday: Tall Tales

Hey everyone, we're back for another Whole Brain Wednesday!

One of my FAVORITE things about WBT is having students make up gestures to help them remember a concept. I try to always have gestures to go with new concepts, but sometimes one of two things happen...

1.  I ask the kiddos to try to come up with their own gestures.
2.  My kiddos come up with a better gesture than I had planned on using.

Lately, we've been reading Tall Tales and I am LOVING some of the gestures we've been using to help us remember the characteristics of a Tall Tale.

Here are some of our gestures...

1.  Exaggerations - Fingers in center, pull away from each other while wiggling hands up and down (think stretching the truth)

2. Action & Adventure - flick fingers out on both hands multiple times then dramatic running gesture with arms

3. Superhuman Abilities - "Muscle" gesture with both arms

4. Funny/Humor - Grab stomach and make laughing face

What are some ways you use gestures to help your students remember content?

Book Talk Tuesday: Mom Made Us Write This

I'm linking up with Mrs. Jump for another Book Talk Tuesday...

Please please please click on the book cover below to check out my post from Sunday raving about this new series about twins Max and Maggie... Mom Made Us Write This in the Summer by Ali Maier

Mom Made Us Write This in the Summer

I am SO excited to share about a wonderful book today! Introducing a new series "Max and Maggie" in their first journal-story entitled Mom Made Us Write This in the Summer by Ali Maier. I LOVE stories that encourage students to write and this is one that most definitely will! It even includes a section of pages at the end where readers can start their own journal!
I plan on reading this at the end of the year (this year) to encourage my kiddos to write over the summer and then next year I will read it at the beginning of the year to help kiddos come up with some great journaling ideas about their summer experience. I think I will use my document camera when reading aloud so my students can see how interactive the story is.
I would categorize this story with Gooney Bird Green in it's future importance in my class for writing motivation!

In Maier's children's novel, twins Max and Maggie just started their summer after fourth grade. Their mom, who is a former English teacher, gives them a journal in which they must write throughout the summer. WRITING... TOGETHER... IN THE SUMMER.... yikes!!! They each have to write 12 entries, switching who picks the topic. They are expected to read each others' entries and are allowed to comment on each others' entries (as long as they're polite). The back and forth comments between Max and Maggie in addition to seeing each twin's perspective keeps the reader engaged! Their comments to each other are funny and sarcastic and keep the narrative moving. I guarantee your students will love the uniqueness that the opposing views, different handwriting, variety of doodles and more. Max and Maggie are very likable characters and I found myself wanting to know even more about them!

Journaling books are super popular right now (and honestly, I LOVE them!) and this book is certainly accessible and of interest to students in grades 2-6 which as a 2nd grade teacher is a huge deal for me.

I find that many journaling style books although high interest, are not necessarily as accessible or "appropriate" for 2nd and 3rd graders, so I'm loving the possibilities this series will present for my 2nd graders who can't seem to get away from the journal type books no matter who the intended audience is!

This journaling story is also unique because of the two different views... this truly is a book that boys AND girls will enjoy equally! Not to mention ANYONE with a sibling!!!
Do you want to check out this book yet? You should!!!

Reading Level: This book is very new and has yet to make any lists with DRA, Guided Reading or Lexile levels. I will update this when one of these levels is available.
Everything I read said this story was appropriate for grades 2-6.

Teachers: here are some resources to help you use this book in your class...

Web Resources:

• Video - Show this video of a 4th grader reviewing the story to get students excited about reading Mom Made Us Write This in the Summer
• Character Blogs - Okay so the website for this book is outstanding... it includes character blogs... how exciting for students to be able to interact with the book's characters after reading!?
• Journaling - Yet another source from the book's website... this page offers a set of links for using a journal at home or at school!
• Book Website - All of the above resources are available through the book's website, which has even more for you to look through, so go check it out!
• Facebook Page - go check out the facebook page for this series so you know all about it when a new book comes out! Right now there are create your own journal books available as a part of the series.

 Vocabulary:
As I read, I jotted down any words students might need exposure to ahead of time or could be great words to ask students to create a 4-square for (during reading) and maybe even jigsaw to help ALL your students understand the words. Your need to focus on these words will certainly depend on the grade level & ability level of your students.
All words that I chose are tier 2 words... exceptional, interchangeably, innocent, hysterical, irritated, defiance, sarcastic, excessive, petrified, arrogant.

Activities:
Before Reading: Have students discuss their experience with keeping a journal.. Have you ever had a journal? What did you/would you write about? Would you ever share a journal with someone?

During Reading:

• Choose an entry and have students compare and contrast Maggie and Max's points of view.
• Choose an entry where Max and Maggie have opposing views. Ask students to discuss why they think Max and Maggie have different points of view. This would be a great opportunity to discuss point of view in regards to characters in reading as well as problem solving issues between classmates when there are differing points of view!

After Reading:

• Launch student journals after reading this book!
• Use the pages at the end of the story for students to brainstorm what they will include in their journal and answer questions about their journal.

I really enjoyed this book and I hope you will consider using it in your classroom! You can purchase a copy on Amazon. I see no better way to encourage students to write than using books like this one that are both about children writing AND high interest!