Everything's 10% off: Top 2 for Tuesday

You read it right! Since I haven't throw a sale (pre-winter break), I thought I would get back into the swing of offering two products at 10% off by having an "everything is 10% off sale TODAY and TOMORROW.

Top Two for Tuesday. Everything is 10 % off TODAY and TOMORROW. That's a mouthful of t's :)

 

During this sale, you might want to check out some new things I have worked on in the past month. (All Common Core Math Products).

Multiplying and Dividing Fractions: House Plan Themed Task Cards 

(includes 24 multi-step word problems (on task cards), house plan "area" activity, and 4 multi-step extension problems)

  

Customary Capacity and Weight Word Problems: Farmers Market Themed

(8 basic capacity conversion task cards, 24 multi-step task cards, list of Farmer Wayne and Jane's goods and how they packaged them, 8 multi-step task cards that require students to use addition, subtraction, multiplication and/or division to solve

 

Multiplying and Dividing Fractions: Cupcake Shoppe Theme

(32 multiplying and dividing fractions task cards, Cupcake Shoppe Payroll problems (multiplying whole number/decimal), 4 Cupcake Shoppe Boxed Order Questions-modeling multiplication)

Adding and Subtracting Fractions w Unlike Denominators 

(16 adding and subtracting fractions (unlike denoms) task cards, 16 adding and subtracting fractions representational model problem)

 

All task card products include information for the teacher, student recording sheets, and answer keys. 

 

I hope you get to pick up some goodies at this sale! My kiddos are using the House Plan task cards right now in our real-world station and we used the Farmers' Market task cards this week to learn about Capacity and Weight.

Smorgasbord--There's a lot going on!

Wow! I have so much I want to share with you all.

It's a smorgasbord of what's been going on in the classroom, new teacherspayteachers products, classroom community and character ideas and updates, SNOW! SNOW! SNOW! on Friday (well, a dusting, but a day off!), stress about paying taxes on TPT earnings, excitement about the 2013 Clutter-Free Classroom Challenge, and a special announcement tomorrow's Top 2 For Tuesday that you WON'T want to miss! Yes, I have slacked off on Monday's Minilesson Magic and Top 2 for Tuesday, but I will get them rolling again, now that we are two weeks into our 3rd quarter.

For this post, I will focus on an update of Building a Classroom Community and Building Character. Read here if you missed my post about having my teaching heart split wide open. I spent the first week back focusing each morning of our reading time on building our classroom community and discussing kindness. I used three read alouds to create opportunities for discussions about having an open heart and sharing kindness.

We used:

 

First, I used Somebody Loves you Mr. Hatch by Eileen Spinelli (how exciting to read a book from Jerry's wife :). We mainly talked about how Mr. Hatch could choose to have an open heart or a closed heart. In receiving the box of chocolates, he had opened his heart to the world and was more aware and conscious of other people's needs. I talked about how we can choose to be conscious of other people's needs and that if we just pay attention, we will see places where we can choose to extend kindness. 

Next, I read Each Kindness by Jacquleine Woodson (author of The Other Side). This book was destiny! It was sitting on a shelf in the library when I went to pick up Mr. Hatch, and I thought, hmmm...kindness. Let me read this! If you have ever read The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes, this is along the same lines, but in picture book form. From amazon.com:

"Each kindness makes the world a little better.

Chloe and her friends won't play with the new girl, Maya. Maya is different--she wears hand-me-downs and plays with old-fashioned toys. Every time Maya tries to join Chloe and her gang, they reject her. Eventually, Maya plays alone, and then stops coming to school altogether. When Chloe's teacher gives a lesson about how even small acts of kindness can change the world, Chloe is stung by the lost opportunity for friendship, and thinks about how much better it could have been if she'd shown a little kindness toward Maya."

After our read aloud, I talked about how Chloe wishes she would have done things differently and said a lot to Maya. We talked about apologies and forgiveness. Chloe doesn't have the opportunity to apologize to Maya, but we do. Then I did something AMAZING! I had students create a list of apologies for their classmates. They had to write them down on a sheet of paper. I gave everyone a list of classmates and they worked through it to think about anything they needed to apologize for. I also made a list of specific apologies for students (hey, I AM NOT PERFECT!) 

As students worked and thought, I voiced over. "You might need to apologize for something the person doesn't even know you did!" "Think about this year and last year." "The things we need to apologize for sometimes keep us up at night. As soon as we apologize, we can stop thinking about it." "You might need to apologize for something even if that person is your best friend." "If anyone feels like they need to apologize for something to the whole group, feel free to say it now." After about 25 minutes, I told students they would now have the chance to apologize to one another privately. I explained that they were not allowed to stand near someone who was apologizing and wait. This would be rude. I explained that it was important to give everyone who is apologizing space to feel comfortable to say what they needed to say and get it out. While I was going around saying my apologies, I also was being the teacher (and trying to overhear some of them). It warmed my heart to hear kids say things like "I'm sorry for when I talked about you behind your back." "I'm sorry for not always being a good friend to you."

It was AHHH-Mazing! 

AHHH-MAZING! A lesson I will NEVER forget. And, I don't think many of my students will either. I think I taught them something that a lot of grown-ups don't even know how to do right. I even explained to them that as soon as you say "but I did it because..." you have stopped apologizing and started excusing. Keep the excuses out of your apology and remember that you can't change another person, you can only change how you act and respond to them.

The next day, I gave each student a plastic heart from the dollar store. I told them, this represents love and kindness. Each of you gets to choose whether or not you hold it tight or whether you pass it on to another person. I told them that if they choose to pass it on to another person, they must tell them why and then explain 

"This heart represents love and kindness. You can choose to hold it tight and keep it for yourself, or you can choose to pass it on to someone else. If you pass it on, you have to tell them the same."

I explained to students that by holding on to the heart and not letting it go, we actually had less love. The heart is symbolic of what we have to pass on and by passing it on (with the plastic heart or in other ways), we are actually increasing the love and kindness in the world. By the time we got together the next day, one of our hearts had already made it through the after school teachers, to another two students, and back to a student in our classroom. How awesome!

Towards the end of the week, I read Oh, the Places You Will Go. This was my book to remind them of how tough life can be, and that sometimes we might find ourselves on a dark road where we can't even remember who we are (who we used to be). I told them, "you might not even know how you got on the dark road or how to get off of it. You might find yourself on the dark road and not even realize you were on your way down it." I told them it was hard for me to give them any advice about the dark road, because everyone's dark road will be different, but I had a few strategies for them. 

1) When you realize you are on the dark road, find those people who remember the YOU that you are right now. The people who see the good in you will be able to remind you of who you are. These people might be best friends, teachers, parents, preachers, grandparents. Decide who those people are right now. 

2) Read Oh, the Places You will Go for some advice. It might help you when you are in your dark place. 

On Friday, I introduced Spy Reports. (I'll post more about how this went and show some examples in a future post). But, let's just say they were SUPER DUPER EXCITED! We have had two Spy Report sessions since, and I can already tell they will be looking forward to it each week! 

At some point in the week, I told my students "Who you are is "good people." (I know this is not grammatically correct). The phrase "good people" is common around our town. You hear "They're 'good people'" or "They come from 'good people." "They's some good people." I told them, in my mind and memory they will always fall into the category of "good people." I know who they will grow up to be will be "good people," but we need to work on bringing out who we are on a regular basis. We need to let the "who we are" on the inside SHINE OUT on the outside every second, moment, hour of every day. Now, this is a TALL order (for me too, not just my kiddos), but our continued conversations and reminders or our goal to be who we are in the most positive sense will continue to help us all grow in how we treat the people we encounter inside the classroom and out.

I hope some of these ideas will help you to build a classroom community. This is just a taste of what we did for a week. Lots more is going on, but these lessons (in January of teaching kids for a year and a half already) have set a foundation for the rest of the year that we have together and hopefully for my students' transition to middle school.

Don't forget to tune in tomorrow for a special Top 2 for Tuesday announcement! 

Open the Eyes of My Heart...

This past week, our community lost two 16 year olds at our high school. Both of these students attended my elementary school. I taught one of the students in 5th grade, and my best-teacher-friend taught the other. It has been a very hard week for us all. Since we are year-round, we have not yet returned to school (start on Monday), but the other schools have. All week I have been thinking (among a MILLION other thoughts) about how the friends of these students (my former students and all the other nameless-to-me students in our community) have been coping and how they can even begin to focus on school work and studying.

I went back and forth about whether or not to attend the funerals, but I finally made up my mind that I should certainly go. For an entire year, this child was in my care. He was part of a community, he brought us laughter, smiles, and friendship. I can still remember exactly how it sounded when my other students would call his name. His face, smile, and huge brown eyes will forever be present in my memories.

At the second funeral, as I waited outside the church for traffic to clear with my best-teacher-friend, I had the opportunity to say "I love you" and hug and catch up with a few of my former students. While I was telling them to "be smart" and "be safe" and playing mommy to them all, they were telling me how much they still remembered 5th grade and our classroom. They told me how they had been meaning to come back and visit, but how time just flew by. They told me that this week, they had found some comfort in pulling out the Spy Reports we had made and reading what this student had written to them. One said, "I hope we are friends forever." I find some comfort in knowing that every child in my class that year has a letter from him, and that his parents have a whole book of spy reports from his teacher and every classmate that will serve them as a reminder of the great things everyone thought and felt about their child. It's a snapshot of who he was in 5th grade, how much joy he brought to the class, and how much everyone loved him. Last night was the first night that I was more at peace.

Hearing about the spy reports and how those assignments had brought my living students comfort in a time of tragedy brought tears to my eyes and reminded me that these things we choose to squeeze in during our invisible time are so IMPORTANT. We say we might never know how we have made a difference in our students' lives and we probably shouldn't expect to hear from them all, but there are these moments in time (fleeting and intermittent) where we are reminded of the impact we have made.

We have to hold on to those moments when a kid or a parent actually tells us that we have made a difference, we have to hold them tight and not let go when the days get tough, when the paperwork piles up, when the test-test-test comes, and we have to let those moments DRIVE us.

Through a tragic event, I have had a HUGE reminder of this and I beg that the "eyes of my heart" are open-wide and do not ever shut again. I beg that I am not cynical when a parent or a child tells me I have mattered to them, but that I am able to let that touch me deeply, let myself cry, find a way to make those words stick and carry me through those tough days with my students, so that I can continue to give all to this profession that I have wanted for so long and plan to stay in for much longer.


As we always do, I had ambitious plans for next week. We have a huge writing and reading project to begin this week, a math test to review, and I always feel like 3rd quarter is the last push before the craziness of testing begins.

Some can say we should have divided a few more fractions or had more independent reading time, but I can't let it be said that this was a year that I should have spent more time on our classroom community and showing that we care about one another. No matter how much time passes, what friends we make later on, or how long it's been since we last saw one another, for one or two years we created the kind of family that when you see one another again, it feels like home, it feels like the old days...it feels like not a moment has passed since we were all together sharing the same space, day in and day out.

So, next week, I will finally make the time to start Spy Reports with my current class. I have made my Spy Reports TPT file free. You can read about it here for more info in this old post or go straight to download it.

In honor of these two precious students, this file will be forever free in hopes that you or some other teacher that you pass it along to will use this idea to create a LIVING, WRITTEN record of your classroom community or be inspired to find other ways to ensure that your students have the opportunity to love one another and show appreciation for the memories they have made together. 

With love and prayers for all of us who carry students with us in our hearts and minds,

Tammy

Incorporate more Music into your Readers' Workshop

How often do you incorporate music and lyric analysis into your reader's workshop?

This year, I have tried to utilize lyrics at least once during each of our reading units. The kiddos LOVE it when we have a workshop that focuses on connecting to the lyrics, analyzing them, and discussing our ideas with each other. I LOVE LOVE LOVE it because no matter what connections I have in mind as I share the song with students, our discussions together always deepen my connections to the text and understanding of the lyrics. I also LOVE LOVE LOVE utilizing song lyrics  because it immediately pushes students to DEEPER THINKING.

Rather than trying to remember all of the songs I have ever incorporated or hoping that I will think of them next time I need them, I decided to dedicate a pinterest board to "Songs for Literary Analysis". I also thought this board might benefit other teachers. I always pull the songs up on youtube and play through the smartboard, so I pinned the youtube lyric videos to be most helpful. Follow this board if you would like to see the songs I pin--I think most of them will be relevant for 5th grade-high school, but lower grades may find some relevant songs too!

In the descriptions, I have included some of the lines that made me choose the song, some of the themes I think the songs address, and some of the texts that connect.

Why song lyrics?

* Shake it up for students--songs are so engaging and add some variety to the readers' workshop
* Text-text connections can be made much QUICKER than when trying to connect novel to novel (songs are fast, immediate, and students can make global connections or smaller connections to one or two lines of the song)
* Writing about thoughts (responding in writing) usually improves during these lessons and is one of the main purposes of my use of lyrics in the classroom

What are my goals and objectives? 

-connecting themes
-connecting figurative language in the song to events in a story
-quoting accurately and explaining thinking with support
-oral discussion
-pushing students to respond more deeply
-allowing students to see MORE in the read aloud or book club novel because of the connections they made with the lyrics

General Steps of a Lyric-Based Reader's Workshop Lesson:

-Explain to students that you are going to play a song that you feel connects with the current unit of study/read aloud/book club books
-Play song and ask students to simply listen
-Hand out copy of lyrics to students, ask students to think about how the song connects to texts in your reading unit, play song again (students may underline parts that they are making connections with)
-Depending on the difficulty of the song lyrics and vocabulary, I may go over a few of the poetic devices, vocabulary words, etc. Sometimes I choose to save this discussion for later, but with some songs, students will get more out of the thinking/writing part if they have a little more information
-Ask students to write about their connections for a set amount of time (usually 10 to start and students often want me to add more time). Since some students will have a hard time generating ideas for that long, I will play the song again to encourage them to develop more thoughts. I often scaffold for some students by focusing them on a specific line and how it connects to their book.
-Discussion/Share- this can take many forms--1) small group discussions if everyone wrote about the same book, 2) if you are using the song to connect to book club books, have book club members find another member's written response, read it, and respond with sticky notes, rotate until they have read all members' responses or until time is up, 3) whole group discussion-can go stanza by stanza discussing connections
-Wrap Up-direct all students to find a line that really stood out to them, go around the room having them say their line--no discussion, no explanation--this is like "found-poetry" and creates a poetic atmosphere in the room; OR have students choose a sentence from their written response that they think is a good idea and share around the room in the same way

During our Historical Fiction book club focused on the Holocaust, I used "Your Guardian Angel" by Red Jumpsuit Apparatus. I was able to connect the lyrics of this song to every book club book my students were reading (Boy in the Striped Pajamas, Yellow Star, Milkweed, and Number the Stars). The song talks about being there for someone forever and has the line "even if saving you sends me to heaven." In each of our books, someone played the role of the hero or father figure and might have been saying this to another character. With Boy in the Striped Pajamas, we decided that Bruno should have been singing this song to Shmuel, but he was too weak and naive to sacrifice everything for someone else. Or, he might sing the chorus, but not have the strength to follow through once faced with needing to stand up for Shmuel.

I hope I have inspired you to start using song lyrics with your students. Do you have any favorite songs that you already incorporate in this way? I LOVE using lyrics as a form of text and the days we use a song as a text always feel special!

Here are some of the common core connections I see with using song lyrics in this way:

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.5.2 Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem from details in the text, including how characters in a story or drama respond to challenges or how the speaker in a poem reflects upon a topic; summarize the text.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.5.3 Compare and contrast two or more characters, settings, or events in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., how characters interact).
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.5.9 Compare and contrast stories in the same genre (e.g., mysteries and adventure stories) on their approaches to similar themes and topics.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.5.1 Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 5 topics and texts, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.5.2 Summarize a written text read aloud or information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.5.5 Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings.

 

Top 2 For Tuesday

Two great TOP items on sale at 10% off today:

The runner up most downloaded product was my Common Core Math Exploration for Multiplication (4.NBT.B7 and 5.NBT.B7).

 

This product contains over 33 pages to support your exploration of multiplying with whole numbers. The exploration contains teacher direction/lesson pages for display on the smartboard

Here's another sneak peak:

 

Common Core Explorations are designed to meet the Standards for Mathematical Practices. The chart above shows the mathematical practices touched on by some of the multiplication product pages. 

Hope you can grab one of these!

Thinking about Perspective: Monday's Minilesson Magic:

Currently, I am teaching a reading unit focused on the theme of conformity/nonconformity. My main read aloud is Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli. Through this unit, I am teaching/reviewing a number of fiction-focused lessons (like thinking about archetypes) to push students to think about Stargirl and their own reading.

Today I taught a lesson on thinking about the "unheard" characters' perspectives. My teaching point was "Readers think about the thoughts and feelings of characters who we are not hearing from. We consider things from that character's perspective." Because we are not hearing from certain characters, we have to infer what they are thinking and feeling when certain events in the story happen. 

Stargirl is an "unheard" character for much of the story. This often happens with characters who do not have best friends in the story--best friend relationships usually elicit discussions about character's feelings and thoughts, and so we often also get the secondary character's thoughts and feelings this way. But sometimes, like in Stargirl, we can only infer what she is thinking and feeling. (We are on 78 so Stargirl has not yet had any indepth conversations with Leo).

To actively engage students in thinking about Stargirl's perspective, I thought of 4 major things that happened to Stargirl and wrote each on a separate sheet of colored paper.
* Stargirl on the Hotseat
* Stargirl gets left at Red Rock High School because the MICA team tricked her
* Stargirl gets "tomato-faced" when cheering at a basketball game
* Stargirl goes to Anna Grisdale's Grandfather's funeral and Anna's mother attacks her

I then divided students into groups and had them discuss what Stargirl was thinking and feeling during each of these events. (We decided she was shocked, embarrassed, and humiliated for all of these). I found that it helped to push students' thinking by getting them to stop and think about what Stargirl was thinking and feeling in the moments before these events happened. We decided that in all of these situations, she thought she was doing something helpful, kind, or caring. Each of these events shows how she was treated when she had a good heart and was naive to the social expectations and norms of MICA High.

My students are also participating in partner reading. (It's like book clubs, but they are reading and discussing a book with one partner instead of a small group). I chose books that would help us build and compare/contrast the conformity/nonconformity theme.

I ended the lesson by explaining to students, "Some of you have characters in your book whose perspective we don't really get in-depth info about--like Jessica in Firegirl---while in other books, like, Schooled, you are getting lots of characters' perspectives (because each chapter of the book is told by a different character), but because of the way it is told, you do not get every characters' thoughts and feelings on every important event in the story. While in other books, you may get lots of characters' perspectives on the same event, but their perspectives vary, so you have to decide who you believe and most agree with."

I think this lesson was a good introduction for perspective and to get students to think about the "unheard" characters. It's so easy to put ourselves in the shoes of the main character because we are getting his/her thoughts and feelings--as readers, we need to push ourselves to consider other character's feelings. Hope you can use this lesson with your class!

Cyber Monday and Tuesday Sale! TPT

I hope you have had a fantastic Thanksgiving break with lots of food, family, and maybe even a little shopping! I know you have heard that TPT is having its Cyber Monday (and Tuesday) sale. All items in my store are also 20% off. With the TPT code CMT12 at checkout, you save 28% on all of my products. Now is a great time to grab up some items. Fill your cart Sunday and wait until Monday to purchase for easy shopping!

Here are some items you don't want to miss at this price:

48 Character Traits Definition Cards
Comprehension Minilessons Menu Cards 
Nonfiction/Informational Reading Strategies Packet
Themes in Literature Bulletin Board Labels
Words Their Way Word Searches (for syllable/affixes, derivational relations, and within word pattern)
Create Your Own US History Timeline Booklets
Common Core Math Explorations (Multiplication)
Common Core Math Explorations (Factors/Prime)

Lots of Vocabulary Products for Science:
* Rocks and Minerals
* Force and Motion/Simple Machines
* Landforms
* Conservation and Transfer of Energy
* Properties of Matter
* Ecosystems and Biomes
* Weather

I hope you are able to grab up some deals and make that final stretch until Winter break!

Turkey Week Top 2 For Tuesday

Alright, it's been a crazy run for a few weeks now, but by golly, I'm gonna make it slow down a little as we round out the quarter in a few weeks.

I failed to post a Top 2 for Tuesday last week and will make up for it this week. The following items are "flying off of my shelves." Don't worry--you don't have to camp out at 4pm or days ahead to get these deals. The supplies are endless and the utility of these products will not diminish.

  The TOP product for the past two weeks was:

The runner up most downloaded product was my Common Core Math Exploration for Multiplication (4.NBT.B7 and 5.NBT.B7).

 

This product contains over 33 pages to support your exploration of multiplying with whole numbers. The exploration contains teacher direction/lesson pages for display on the smartboard

 

Here's another sneak peak:

 

 

Common Core Explorations are designed to meet the Standards for Mathematical Practices. The chart above shows the mathematical practices touched on by some of the multiplication product pages. 

 

And, did you know that I finally uploaded another Common Core Math Exploration? My new Math Exploration focuses on strategies for identifying all factors in a number and how to use prime factorization for this concept.  (Operations and Algebraic Thinking 4.OA.B.4)

  This exploration includes 10 teacher pages (like below) and 20 student 1/2 sheets for math journals.

Each of these products will be on sale for 10% off starting now and all day Tuesday! Happy Shopping this week (for teacher things and of course for yourself!)

Top 2 for Tuesday (10% Off)

Once again, my most downloaded product this past week was:

 

This product contains over 33 pages to support your exploration of multiplying with whole numbers. The exploration contains teacher direction/lesson pages for display on the smartboard

 

Here's a sneak peak:

 

 

 

 

For the second week in a row, my Within Word Pattern Word Study Word Searches were a top downloaded product.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Words-Their-Way-Word-Searches-Within-Word-Pattern-Spellers

Catch these items 10% off Tuesday only! Happy week!

 

Write about Reading Rubric Sort

Hi bloggy friends,

 

I wanted to share something I recently made for my readers' workshop. We have been focusing on "write about reading" heavily this quarter. To help students understand the expectations and goals of write about reading, I made a sort of the characteristics and behaviors I am seeing (and want to see) in my classroom. Students completed the sort by deciding if the description was a level 4, 3, or 2. Students sorted the descriptions in partners and were required to discuss why they would place the descriptions in a certain level. See the pics below:

I uploaded this activity (including a completed rubric that you can use for student reflection) onto teacherspayteachers today. Stop by to pick it up; the free download includes a zip file with the sort and rubric in PDF and word form so that you can change it to fit your needs.