We Are ALL Smart!

Hi friends!
It's hard to believe that we are approaching August- the summer is just flying by.  I have to say, I am getting really excited about seeing my students again.  I have missed them like crazy!  There are many great things about being an Interventionist, but one of the best things is that I get to work with some of the same students year after year.

Many of my kiddos come to me feeling kind of crummy about themselves, not understanding why they can't just pick up on concepts as easily as their classmates do.  They sometimes have a hard time dealing with the fact that they have to leave their regular classroom to receive extra help in my room.  Their self esteem is not as high as it could be due to their learning difficulties or their lack of support at home.  I try my very hardest to build them up while they are with me- academically as well as emotionally.  I try to make them understand that we are all unique and special in our own way.  There are many ways to learn, and we all have positive attributes that help us to learn.

I am very inspired by Howard Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences and the belief that as humans we all have strengths and weaknesses in different areas.  Read more about these theories here.  I display posters, that are written and illustrated in kid-friendly language, describing these theories in my classroom for the students to view.  I like that every student can identify with at least one of the domains and see that they each have characteristics of value.

Last week I found this amazing resource from Stephanie at Falling Into First, and I want to share it with you. She created a back to school unit incorporating the eight Theories of Multiple Intelligences: Word Smart, Music Smart, Body Smart, Art Smart, Number Smart, Self Smart, Team Smart, and Nature Smart.  Her unit includes a story to read to your new class. In the story, the little girl is sad on the first day of school because someone told her only smart kids can go to school, and she doesn't feel smart. Her teacher assures her everyone is smart, then proceeds to introduce her to her classmates and share their different types of smart.

After reading the story, the students each get a sticky note with their name on it.  They will then choose one type of smart that they feel they relate to most and stick their sticky note underneath it.

Brilliant!!!

The main idea of this lesson is to show the kids that everyone has strengths they can feel proud of and show them that "book smart" isn't the only type of smart that is valued. Students will also complete a short writing piece about the smart they select. When they finish their writing they are given one of these bracelets to wear proudly around the school!

In addition to this fabulous activity, there are many other back to school get-to-know-you type lessons in this pack.  Hop on over to Falling Into First to read more about this lesson and download either a first, second, or third grade pack for yourself!!  Worth every cent! :)

Monday Make-It!

Hello, everybody!
Today I thought I would post a tutorial for a recent project that I made for my classroom.  Like most teachers, by the end of the first marking period of school, my desk drawers become over-run with supplies and junk.  After seeing all of the adorable "teacher toolboxes" floating around Pinterest, I decided to make one of my own with the help of Melissa M. from Common Core and So Much More.  She so graciously posted the adorable labels for each drawer on TPT for FREE!  She even made the document editable so that you can customize your drawers. Thanks, Melissa! Click here to download your labels...

OK, now- I can tell you from experience, this toolbox looks much bigger online than it is in person.  When I saw it in the store, I was surprised.  The box is somewhat shallow, but with that being said, it still holds all of the important stuff.  If you want to use it to hold pencils and ball point pens, they can't be full-sized.  You can put sharpened pencils and smaller sized pens in the drawers.  Sharpies and markers, however, will fit! :)

My box was purchased at Home Depot.  Here is what it looks like:

Just go to www.homedepot.com and type in your zip code to see if your local store carries it. You can order it online or pay for in-store pick up.  I felt that the price was pretty reasonable in order to save my sanity!  :)

Next you will need to gather your supplies:

• scissors
• white card stock
• clear double sided tape: 
  
  
  
  After I downloaded my labels from TPT, I added a text box to every one and filled in each drawer's description.  I printed them on card stock for durability and cut each one out.  I used the double sided tape on the FRONT of the label to adhere each one to the drawer.
  
  
  Here is my finished project:
  
  
  
  
  
  Can't wait to use it this year!  Let me know how yours turns out.  :)
  
  
  
  

Friday Freebie!

Howdy, friends!

Summer is rolling along, and I am enjoying this relaxing time with my family and friends.  Hope you are too! I have decided to make a new goal for myself this week- No matter how busy I may get, I am going to post a FANTASTIC freebie for my readers each and every Friday.  The purpose of my blog is to share creative educational resources with my teacher friends out there, and with parents of elementary schoolers as well. I never want to lose sight of my goal. So, I hope you enjoy my posts.

This week's freebie comes from First Grade Funtastic.  It is an extensive (and adorable!) pack of activities to use with Pete the Cat: Rocking in My School Shoes. All of the books in the Pete the Cat series are so engaging to young learners. Your kiddos are going to flip for this one!

So many skills are covered in this freebie pack for grades K-2: 

graphing, sight word recognition, rhyming, sequencing....  Click here to download!

Summer Vacation

Hello, all!
Wow, it's been awhile since I have been on Blogger.  Hope everyone is having a fantastic and fun-filled summer!  Let me dust the cobwebs off this little ol' blog and post something useful for my followers.

Now- if you are anything like me, you are already itching to get back to school.  (yes, I'm aware it is only mid-July...)  I'm kind of weird like that!!!  I have been scouring Pinterest, TpT, and Teacher's Notebook looking for wonderful ideas to use next year with my kiddos.  My computer is smoking, I've been downloading so many products!  I have also been working diligently on creating a new and improved binder system for 2013-14 to help me keep all of my lesson plans, data, and paperwork at my fingertips.  Teaching so many groups in both Math and Language Arts requires some serious organization!!

I'm in love with the new chalkboard craze, so I thought I'd jump on the bandwagon and make something super cute AND super useful!  I present to you Sock Monkeys-

and Hipster Monsters!

I created a couple of versions of this- one in PDF, and a fully editable version in Powerpoint.  They are now for sale in both my TpT and TN stores. 

Each version has 18 different binder divider pages and tabs- 

Title Page

Lesson Plans

Class Roster

Calendars

Meeting Notes

Attendance

RtI

IEPs/504s

Standards

Student Information

Data

Conferencing

Grades

Assessments

Center Groups

Curriculum Maps

Parent Communications

Substitute Information

Also included are two spines for your binder, as well as a bonus Welcome sign for your classroom!

  Go check them out!

It's hard to believe...

but it is my very last week with my kiddos.  Our school's RtI budget has officially run out!  It has been such an amazing year.  I am happy to report that the vast majority of my students have made HUGE strides in both Reading and Math thanks to Tier II instruction.  I am submitting my collection of data to the Intervention Team on Friday.  I will be smiling ear to ear when I present this information to my principal, and I know she will be ecstatic when she sees it.  The classroom teachers and I might have even clapped giddily (and/or jumped up and down- shhhhh!) while reviewing our students' post test scores today.  It is very exciting to see such growth from children who were truly struggling in school this year.

As summer draws near, I would like to leave you with a wonderful activity for your students to remember their 2012-13 school year.  Endeavors such as these one day become special mementos- I even have a few of these childhood projects tucked away myself!  Thank you to Jessica Travis from Wild About Firsties for this adorable memory book. 

Click to Download

I wish all of my readers a very safe, happy, and relaxing summer.  Even though I will be away from the classroom, you know us teachers- we NEVER stop learning!  I will be sure to update my blog often and post about all of the exciting classroom ideas that I come across over the summer months.  Sayonara for now, sweeties!

Website of the Week

 Ok, friends...  I cannot believe it has taken me this long to share my favorite Reading website with you.  Many (if not all!) of my teacher friends out there are very familiar with this site, but those of you with young children who aren't, let me direct you to Starfall!!!!  Children who are learning their alphabet, letter sounds, or are already on the road to reading will LOVE this educational website.  There are hundreds of activities for children of all ages to enjoy.  Their systematic phonics approach, in conjunction with phonemic awareness practice, is perfect for preschool, kindergarten, first grade, second grade, special education, homeschool, and English language development (ESL).  We all know how important phonics instruction is, and Starfall has it by the boat load!  Hope you enjoy. :)

Stupendous Subitization

Subitizing is "instantly seeing how many."  Subitizing is a relatively new concept for me. Children often have little experience with subitizing. When I first learned about this concept, I thought it pertained only to kindergarten, first grade, and struggling students beyond those years. However, I have now seen that children of all ages benefit from subitizing.

What is subitizing, and why is it important? Clements and Sarama (2009) define two types of subitizing. The first, perceptual subitizing, pertains to the ability to both perceive intuitively and simultaneously the amount in small number sets. No counting is necessary, you just know the amount when you see it. Children develop the prerequisite skills for perceptual subitization at a young age. According to Clements and Sarama, children begin naming collections of 1, 2, and 3 from ages 1-2. By age three, children can also create collections made of 1-3 objects, sometimes 4. Perceptual subitization up to a collection of 4 occurs at age four, and the recognition of sets of 5 develops at age five.

The second type, conceptual subitizing, relates to the ability to instantly see the parts, and join them together to make a whole. For example, given a picture of five arranged with three and two dots, a conceptual subitizer would see 3 and 2, and know that makes 5. Again, no mathematical operations may be consciously enacted, but rather, an instant recognition that the parts make that whole. As children progress, subitizing helps with the visualization of operations and mental math. Conceptual subitizing to five and ten begins at age five. By age six, children are able to conceptually subitize to 20. At this age, five and ten-frames are helpful organizers for promoting subitizing at these higher levels. Skip and counting and place value with subitization begin at age seven, and by age eight, children see multiplicative relationships, such as 5 groups of 10, and 4 groups of 3, which makes 50 and 12, so 62 dots. As you can see, children benefit from subitizing activities well into third grade and beyond.

In my search for spectacular subitization activities for my Tier II students, I have come across a few really great ones.  Just click the pictures to download these freebies!

Happy subitizing!!!