Report Cards, Workshops, and Spring, Oh My!

Oh yes, and we celebrated St. Patrick's Day all week! It was a busy week, with non stop fun!  Here are a few of the things we've done:

1. We made Leprechaun Pudding on St. Patrick's Day! Thanks to THIS FREEBIE from Fern Smith's Classroom Ideas, we had a fabulous time with this little science experiment!

When we poured the milk into the white powder, it turned green, with little golden nuggets inside! Everyone tried it, some loved it, some liked it, some didn't care for it. But everyone agreed, it was a fun activity! (Psssst.... don't tell the kids it was pistachio pudding!)

2. Wearing of the Green! Even our Super Improvers Board went along with our St. Patrick's Day theme!  Everyone was at one of the green levels! (Not intention, which makes it even cooler!)

3. The class tree! We hadn't sketched our class tree in ages!  We sketched it today, but we're hoping some changes will happen real soon... like buds... and no snow!

If it weren't so cold, I'd have gone outside to take the picture, rather than taking it through the classroom window, where the camera tends to focus on the screen!

4. Report Cards.  They're DONE, sent, and most of them have come back!

5. Workshops! I had to take Thursday off for workshops sponsored by my district.

All the second grade teachers in my district got together and had a morning about Group Interdependence and an afternoon of Understanding by Design. It's truly great stuff, but it was rather stressful between getting report cards out and sub plans done, plus we had SEVERAL assignments to prepare for the day: 4 chapters in a book, 2 videos, and another article. My mind was spinning so much getting ready that everytime I tried to do the reading, I would fall asleep and drool on my book. Not a pleasant sight, believe me!

Plus, this coming Wednesday is a Professional Development day for the whole district, and I'm teaching 2 workshops.  I'd be doing more celebrating about report cards being done, but I'm scrambling to prepare for my workshops!  These are the topics:

Using Brain Based Research in the Classroom

and

The World of Teacher Blogs

Which comes to my questions for my readers:

Why do you read teacher blogs?  What do you look for on teacher blogs? 

What do you like about reading teacher blogs? What are your favorite teacher blogs? (Other than Elementary Matters, of course!)

Please answer in the comments below.  I might just quote you in my upcoming workshop!

I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Five for Friday linky... even though it's Saturday! 

Speaking of Linky Parties, looking for some spring stuff?  Check out An Educator's Life by Mr. Hughes!

Signs of Spring Resources

It has been one long cold winter here in New Hampshire. 

From what I understand, it's been a long cold winter all over the US!

Spring in New England doesn't really show up until mid April, but as I was driving to my hair appointment this morning, and I saw a couple of signs of Spring!

I saw buckets on maple trees!

I know Vermont is the big state for maple syrup, but we do it here in New Hampshire, too! The maple syrup tapping is actually late this year, because the weather's been so cold. They need cold nights and warm days for the sap to flow. We've had plenty of cold nights, but today, we had a warm day. The temp actually went up to 50! I actually took my coat off in the car, and didn't even button it when I was outside! It was fabulous!

Here's the other sign of spring I saw... a little something green:

Yep, McDonald's Shamrock Shakes are definitely a sign that spring is coming!

I have a few things about spring up my sleeve. I always make sure I have plenty of books about the subject.  Here are a few of my favorites:

      

            

Click any of these images for a link to Amazon to find out more about each book. I always make sure I read a few to the kids, but I also make sure I've got them in the book tubs so the kiddos will explore them.

I think videos are great to help the children understand concepts, especially things like how seasons work.  Here are a couple I've found!

What Causes Earth's Seasons: (10:48 min)

How Seasons Work (58 seconds)

How Equinox's Work: Beyond Our Earth (2:24 minutes)

Try them all and see which one you like best!

As most teachers know, squeezing in science and social studies topics are tough, since most of our time is  dedicated to reading, writing,and math! In my attempt to keep some of the fun stuff in the classroom, I've included signs of spring in with important literacy and math concepts in this set of No Prep Printables: Signs of Spring Printables: Literacy and Math.  I've got some math story problems, popular fact games, word work, writing, and comprehension work, all somehow connected to Signs of Spring. Click the image to take a look!

Here are some other games and activities with a spring theme:

Some of my students are struggling to remember the +9 and -9 Facts, so I made this game to make practicing fun: Adding and Subtracting Nines: Spring Flower Theme 

My kids are working on using mental math for adding and subtracting. This game board has a set of cards for addition mental math, and a set of cards for subtraction mental math. Plus, it's got built in brain breaks! It's a favorite in my classroom: Mental Math Addition and Subtraction: Spring Board Game.

Finally, this is a collection of 6 different games that are related to spring. It has word work, grammar, and plenty of math games, all made for second graders, but are also appropriate for high firsts or review for third graders. Click the image to take a closer look at Literacy and Math Games Spring Bundle.

Happy Spring!

It's Brand New!

It's Friday and I have a few things to share about my week! 

1.  New Blog Design! First of all, there's my brand new beautiful blog design that just came live today!  I really liked my old design, but I was due for something new, and this is just what I was looking for  I hope you like it too!

2. He Speaks! I have a little guy in my class that barely speaks much. He's friendly and cooperative, but he just doesn't have a whole lot to say. (I kind of wish that would rub off on a few of the others!) Today I shared this Eye Spy book, and he suddenly came out of his shell.  There are no written words in this book, but it's a great book for learning some new vocabulary based on homophones.  It's an ABC book, and each letter has 4 pictures.  The first three pictures are similar, and the fourth one is the same word, but a different meaning.  The cover shows 3 eyes of some sort of animals, the fourth picture is the eye of a hook, get it?

I always love a book that gets kids to think about words! (Unfortunately, it's out of print, but if you click the book image, it will take you to Amazon where you can get a second hand copy.)

This little guy who hardly says a word, would catch on right away as I turned each page, raising his hand with all sorts of sound effects, ready to tell the whole class which one was which. (Ohhhh!, ooooooo! You've heard it!)  I just wanted to say, "Who are you and what have you done with George?"

3. Got to Have a Gimmick! Today we were using my mini playing cards from Oriental Trading to practice our 2 digit addition and subtraction. They would turn over cards to get 2 digit numbers, then add and subtract the same 2 numbers with partners. (Picture cards and tens were just put to the side. Jokers meant they could pick that digit.) They absolutely love the mini cards as well as the whiteboards and had a blast with their review.  I have a funny feeling if these were plain worksheets, they wouldn't be having as much fun.  The best part?  When their answers didn't match, they were having great conversations trying to figure out whose answer was right! My kids are amazing!

4. Lower Case j! Why do kids have so much trouble figuring out the lower case j? We talked about it, practiced it, and talked some more.  I decided I'd leave this on the board for a couple of weeks so they can stare at it for a while.  Maybe it will sink in through osmosis!

5. Homophones! Speaking of leaving information in front of them to stare at, this is the start of our second homophone wall.  Every time a homophone comes up, I'll list them on the board with a little something to help them remember which is which. My last homophone wall was up for over a month, until I needed my whiteboard for something else. It was sad to erase it, but we quickly started a new one. Whenever a new one comes up, we add it to our board.

 Today I added muscles/ mussels after sharing our school's "Joke of the Day": 

Q. What did one tide pool say to the other tide pool when the tide went out?

A. Show us your mussels!

Other things that happened this week: I stayed up way to late finishing report cards Wednesday night, and got a delayed opening on Thursday morning! I've also been planning for one of my very favorite days:  St. Patrick's Day.  HERE is last year's post with loads of resources I use with my kiddos!

I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for her Five for Friday post.  Be sure to check it out!

The Importance of Failure

Today's Bright Idea is something to think about. 

It's not a cute strategy or a brilliant organizational idea. 

It's just a little something teachers (and parents) need to think about.

Yes, that says failure, and it's an important part of learning!

Sometimes children just need to go beyond their comfort zone.

Sometimes, it's important for children to fail.

I know what you're thinking...

Isn't it easier to help them along, so they can succeed?

What about their self esteem?

They'll have loads of failures through life, just like we have:  disappointing grades, failed friendships, sports disappointments, college rejections, career failures, and the dreaded failed romance. People that they have loved will die.

Experiencing failure actually helps the children develop coping skills, resilience, and even creative thinking! By learning from their mistakes, they actually build self esteem! Knowing how to cope with little failures will help them cope with the bigger failures that come later in life.

I have a little story from my parenting experience that I share with parents of my students:

When my daughter was little, I took her ice skating. I'd always loved ice skating, so I hoped she'd be successful. She and I stepped out onto the ice holding hands, and we started to skate!  She was doing great.  There were a couple of times she started to lose her balance, but I was right there to help her, and she got back to skating right away.

After a while, I'll bet you can guess what happened... she stopped trying to stay up on her own.

Then I realized what I needed to do... I needed to let her fall.  I let go of her hand and let her go on her own. (It wasn't easy to let go, but I knew it was necessary!)

She fell a few times.  She was fine, of course, but that was when she really figured it all out.  She started skating, and I learned a valuable lesson.

Kids need failure in order to learn. 

She never would have learned to skate if I kept catching her every time she fell.

Sometimes it's easier on us to do things for our children, like tie their shoes, pack their bags, or make their lunches. But just remember:

There are many famous people who have experienced various degrees of failure.  Here are some people who brushed it off, then had great success:  J.K. Rowling, Thomas Edison, Michael Jordan, Albert Einstein, Mozart, and Walt Disney.

It's not so easy for us, but it's not so easy for the kids either. Do you have children in your class who are afraid to answer questions because they fear being wrong?

Do you have children who are afraid to complete work because they're not sure if they'll get the right answer?

Do you have students who cheat when they play games because they're afraid of losing?

We need to get these children past 
that fear of failure!

How can we do that?

1. by making them feel safe.
2. by making them feel confident.
3. by praising their efforts.
4. by continuing to encourage them.
5. by being a role model: let them see you make mistakes and model appropriate ways to cope with failure.

Yes, praise their efforts. I often thank my students for making mistakes.

It might sound like this: "Thanks for pointing that out.  You just made us all smarter!"

One last story about my daughter:

She's a perfectionist, and takes pride in her good grades. When she was in 8th grade, she got a C in Algebra.  My comment?  "Good! Now you know you won't die."

Seriously, it relieved a lot of stress for her.  And she turned out to be fine. Plus, it motivated her to work harder in Algebra, and she ended up on the Math Honor Society in High School!

There are loads of studies on the benefits of failure, and how it can help us be successful.

Give it a Google!

I have this poster hanging in my classroom.  I refer to it often.

If you look back on your life, can you think of a time where a failure motivated you?

Don't our children deserve that?

A Fun Filled Week!

It's been a super busy week, and I've been neglecting my blog.  Many apologies to my readers!

I do, however, want to share some of the things I've done this week!

1. My baby turned 21! Yes, this has absolutely nothing to do with teaching, but it was pretty important to me! See THIS BLOG POST to see more pictures about the happiest 21 years of my life!

2. Building sentences We've done a lot of work with adjectives lately, and I wanted to have the kids use them in sentences.  This group of kids needed some structure, so I set up this pattern, and the kids did some awesome stuff!  Read some of their sentences below!

Aren't they awesome?

3. Finished a great book! This was my favorite book when I was a kid, and I was thrilled that the kids seemed to enjoy it as much as I did! (Click the image for a link to Amazon!)

We had an interesting discussion as we got close to the end of the story.  We realized as much as everyone was dying to hear what happened, we were enjoying the book so much that we didn't want it to end! (I'm sure you've experienced that, but it was great that the kids did!)

We finished it yesterday, and the kids immediately asked if there were a My Father's Dragon 2!  Well, it just so happens there are two!

       

I proceeded to put all my copies of the dragon books on the shelves, and I think I actually saw the kids drooling. I did remind them the school Library probably has copies, too. (I hope a war doesn't break out... they ALL want to read them!)

4. Updated a Math Game I had made this game a couple of years ago for something that more advanced kids could do on Day 100, but I decided to change the name. I had originally called it 100 Days Smarter. Since it's a great game for any day, I changed the name to Mental Math 100!  We've been working on Mental Math with 3 digits, so I thought I'd challenge some of the children with 4 digits, and they really took to it!  (Plus, they were really proud they could do it!) Click HERE for link!

5. Preview! I've got a couple of things in the works!

One is this awesome collection of Teaching Grammar products from Educents. It's not one of the most fun things to teach, but this collection will help the kids learn to love grammar!  Click image for link!

Second, there's another Bright Idea blog hop coming real soon!  

 

In case you've forgotten, go see THIS BLOG POST to see our Bright Ideas Blog Hop for February! None of these posts will go out of date, so if you haven't seen it before, get your Pinterest finger ready!

The March Bright Ideas Blog Hop has even more incredible posts for teachers of all ages!

Be sure to drop by Doodle Bugs Teaching for more Five for Friday!