Make Em' Work For It...

 

So, there's a Linky Party over at Miss Kindergarten where you're supposed to post your best teaching tip.

 

 

I thought and thought about it and here's what I came up with:

 

MAKE THE KIDS WORK HARDER THAN YOU DO!

 

This took me a looonnnggg time to figure out.

 

But, once I did, my life and my teaching have been a lot happier :)

 

I used to spend the entire day talking to the kids. I mean, obviously I was teaching. But, I just talked and talked and talked and they sat and listened. I'd give them an activity and then I'd just talk them all the way through it. (Admit it, you do it too!)

 

And, every time we did a "craftivity" I would cut out 90% of it (spending hours of my free time) for them or make them do it exactly like my sample and then I'd proudly hang them in the hall and they'd all look EXACTLY alike. (Admit it, you do it too!)

 

But, last year, I realized something:

 

THE KIDS ARE THE ONES WHO SHOULD BE DOING ALL THE WORK!

 

I decided that I was working too hard. Yes, you heard me right. There is absolutely NO REASON why I needed to stay after school cutting stuff out for them. And, there is no reason why I need to talk all day long.

 

So, I stopped.

 

Now, I'll say right now that I still talk alot. I can't help it. And, I still cut stuff out for my kids on occasion because it saves class time. But, I do make a concious effort to make sure that my kids are working harder than me.

 

Here's how I do it:

 

1. When we're sitting at the carpet and I'm teaching, I am CONSTANTLY having my kids share with their shoulder partners. At the end of a page, I say "Tell your shoulder partner what you're thinking." Or, if we're doing an anchor chart, I tell them "Tell your shoulder partner what could go next on our chart." That way, they don't get to just sit there like bumps on a log.

 

2. We fill out graphic organizers until we're blue in the face. I pretty much NEVER just sit and read to my kids unless it's the last 5 minutes of the day. As we read, we're holding our clipboards and filling out information the whole time. I generally stop and give them a chance to write unless it's a quick-write kind of thing. I love that they are getting so good at writing their thoughts out as they are happening and not 15 minutes later after we've read the whole book!

 

Here's an example of what my kids do at the carpet while I'm reading. We talk about it while we're doing it but they decide with their partners what to write down.

 

3. We do a TON of projects. I know what you're thinking. Third graders can do that because they're older. My younger students could never! But, guess what? First graders can do it too! My littles last year were awesome at doing group projects and they learn so much: figuring things out on their own, social skills, teamwork PLUS the information you're trying to teach them. Oh, and they are so engaged because they're excited.

 

My first graders last year researched an insect completely on their own in teams and then created a poster about it. They then presented them to the class.

 

We did several of these throughout the year.

 

This year, my third graders do it every week. You can read some of my other posts to see how: specifically this one and this one.

 

4. Make them do the research. It's okay to hand a kid a book and make them look up the information. I know as a first grade teacher I was so used to reading a book to them and then writing all the information down on an anchor chart. But, kids can do it on their own! (see above) Let them make their own anchor chart! I promise they can do it. Now, with the third graders, pretty much weekly they have something that they have to look up and research on their own.

 

Third grade research for a famous person using computer and book sources.

 

And, as for the first graders...

they can do it, too.

 

5. Hand them a dictionary. Trust me, they can find words on their own and spell them. My kids will even go to Google and type in a word to see how it should be spelled. They look in their science/social studies books in the index. Because, they know I'm not going to spell it for them.

 

6. Stop making "craftivities" that are perfect. I'm not saying don't do them. I'm not saying they can't be cute. And, I'm speaking to myself right now because this one was the hardest for me to let go. But, I can proudly say that the only thing I've cut out for my kids this year were some picture frames that took five minutes and their "back to school" backpacks and I did that before the year started when I had some extra time. I even let the first graders last year do some of their own crafts.

 

Last year, my kids made these Wizard of Oz characters 100% on their own! I worried that they'd make a huge mess of them but just decided to let it go.. and, look how great they turned out!

 

Well, maybe except for the Dorothys... ha!

 

I let the kids use scrapbook paper to make plants to label and they turned out great, too. In the past, I totally would have sat there and cut all that out and then tried to control them as they glued it. Not anymore, friends. I'd rather give them the experience of doing it.

 

7. Make anchor charts interactive. The kids can write on them, too! It lets them have some ownership and they should be the ones working! My first graders LOVED it when I had them fill out the charts we made.

 

I let them write their class promise this year.

 

And, they wrote on most of those post-its.

 

Anyways, that's my tip.

 

 Make the kids work harder than you do.

 

 Do it for yourself and, more importantly, do it for them.

 

 

 

Need Some Laughs?

 I was looking at the pictures on my iPhone this afternoon and I realized there was some funny stuff that I hadn't blogged about. So, this is my attempt to catch up and share all the shenanigans that go on around me every day :)

 

1. Last week, a sweet little girl from my class last year passed me in the hallway. Usually, when kids from my past classes pass me in the hall they wave, smile or give me a hug if they get the chance. What did this precious angel do? She walked by, nodded her head like a gangster and said "What up, Ridings?"

 

Come again?

 

I'll be honest. My first instinct was to bust out laughing. Because, I mean, it's funny when a six year old girl with pigtails and a lisp goes all ghetto, right? But, I had to get it together and give her the "respect adults" speech. I know she was just joking and trying to make me laugh and she's probably (okay, definitely)  heard me say things like that jokingly before.

 

(Just substitute this man with a cute little girl. Just do it in your head. And try not to laugh. It's hard, right?)

 

It still makes me laugh to think about it.

 

2. We had our Fall Festival a few weeks ago.

 

Let me tell you, it was a CLASSY event! Here we have our school secretary with a balloon stuffed up her shirt. Pretending to be pregnant. Just because.

 

I've been trying to convince her to make this her profile picture...

 

3. After Finley got spayed, she had some issues. She wasn't getting better and she was sleeping ALL the time and she wouldn't stop licking at her incision. So, I took her back up to the vet to bring all this up. They assured me that she was okay and that it just takes tiny dogs longer to recover. Oh, and they had a BRILLIANT solution to all the licking. Are you ready for this?

 

 

They put my precious puppy in a onesie!

 

(And, I'm sorry, but between the cone and the baby clothes she looked positively ridiculous. Every time I looked at her I busted up laughing and could not stop.)

 

 

And, now, for my new favorite picture of all time...

 

 

HA!

 

The poor thing fell asleep on my bed and she looked sooooo funny laying like that that I woke her up laughing. I'm a bad person.

 

But, I couldn't help it.

 

4. Halloween night, I went to vote and then I headed out to Franklin to see my parents. I was driving and I stopped at a red light. I looked down at Finley and this is what I saw:

 

 

HAHA!

 

She likes the feeling of the crate on her gums for some reason so she actually does this all the time. But, it still makes me laugh. I think between the cone and the bulging eyes and the massive gums... she's never looked worse.

 

5. Today, I was reading Harry Potter to the kids in our after school program. I noticed one little boy had a smudge on his forehead. So, I whispered "Buddy, I think you got some pencil on your face." And, he giggled at me with his cute little face and said "I know! I wanted a scar like Harry Potter!"

 

 

All together now: "AWWWWWW!"

 

(And, also, HA!)

 

Hope you have a great (and funny) week!

 

An Ode to Duck Dynasty

 

I mentioned in my last post that I'm currently obsessed with Duck Dynasty. This should come as no surprise to anyone. I'm the kind of girl who notices a show (usually about a year after everyone else does), watches every episode available in one weekend and then can speak of nothing else.

 

And, that's just what happened to me over Fall Break.

 

Comcast had all of Season 1 on demand and I literally sat on the couch for two days and watched them all.

 

If you don't watch this show... do yourself a favor and tune in some time.

 

It's a classic.

 

 

I'm sure you know all about it.

 

 But, in case you don't, here is the Cliff's Notes version:

The Robertson family, from Monroe, Louisiana (aka REDNECKS) are millionaires because they run the Duck Commander company. They make duck calls. But, it's still a "Mom and Pop" corporation. Oh, and they are about as country as country can be.

 

Let me introduce you to their awesomeness.

 

First up, we have Phil. Phil is the father to Willie and Jase. He's raised his family in the country and he's very concerned that his now-rich grandchildren are going to grow up to be "subdivision yuppies." In fact, that's about the worst thing he can imagine.

 

 

He repeatedly tells his grandsons that a girl's looks don't matter. All that matters is if she can cook. Preferably roadkill...

 

Phil's brother Si (I guess short for Silas?) is arguably the funniest guy in a cast of hilarious people. He's set in his ways and opinionated.

 

 

 

(He's talking about fourth graders at Career Day, by the way...)

 

Phil's son Willie is the CEO of the company. I guess he's the "smart" one.

 

 

 

Jase is my favorite. He's Willie's brother. He has all these fun ideas and cooks up all these ridiculous schemes that get everybody in trouble. Oh, and all he wants to do in life in catch bullfrogs.

 

All Jase's idea.

 

 

I concur.

 

Oh, and Ms. Kay is Phil's wife and Jase and Willie's mom.

 

 

That's really all you need to know about Ms. Kay.

 

Jase and Willie are both married and have kids. So, of course there are all kinds of kid shenanigans, too.

 

 

It's just an epic show. I laugh out loud every single episode. More than once.

 

I promise, if you watch it, you'll be HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY!



It's Turtle Time!

  Well, it's Friday night. And, what are my exciting plans?

 

Um, watching the Duck Dynasty marathon on tv! Have I mentioned that it's my new favorite show? Because, it is.

 

It totally is.

 

I'm also in tonight because my sweet little Finleydog had surgery yesterday. She got "fixed" and she is PITIFUL. She's 100% miserable, I'm pretty sure. She's still really sore and so she's spending most of her time laying in her crate and staring up at me with the saddest, sweetest eyes I've ever seen.

 

Exhibit A:

 

 

Oh, and she has a cone on her head... which she DETESTS. She usually walks around with her head down to sniff and, well, she can't really do that with a cone on. So, she pretty much just stands there and lets the cone drag on the ground.

 

Exhibit B:

 

 

Poor baby.

 

So, yeah. I have some time to blog and I actually took pictures at school today.

 

So, blogging it is!

 

In Reading, we've been working on a comparing/contrasting standard. We did it a full week and I felt like my kids were doing it decently. So, I wanted to spend the second week doing some kind of project to incorporate several of the standards we'd already done as a review.

 

So, I sat down at my computer and googled "animal articles for kids."

 

And, what should appear first on my screen?

 

Sea turtles.

 

Sounds good to me.

 

Plus, the articles were really good! They even included a glossary of words at the end of the article. So, I printed off four different articles: the Green sea turtle, the Loggerhead sea turtle, the Leatherback sea turtle and the Hawksbill sea turtle.

 

I gave each kid a partner and gave them an article to read. I had them highlight the information that they thought was most important.

 

 

 Some groups highlighted more than others. This group obviously didn't see too much information that changed their lives :)

 

Next, I put all the kids into the four groups to find the main idea. We've worked a LOT on main idea and it's something that they seem to either "get" or not. So, I feel like we need to just keep revisiting it over and over again. I made a graphic organizer for them to fill in together.

 

 

 

The next day, I had each set of partners team up with a set from another group. In other words, there were four kids in a group and they had two different turtles to compare/contrast. They used a graphic organizer to record their information.

 

 

We made an anchor chart of comparing/contrasting terms to help them explain the differences and similarities.

 

 

I had the kids write about the similarities and differences between their two turtles.

 

 

 

 

I also let them make some sea turtles out of clear plastic plates and tissue paper.

 

 

I hung it all up together on a bulletin board in my room.

 

 

We did one other thing with sea turtles. On Tuesday, my kids took the Constructed Response Assessment. And, just sayin... that thing was H>A>R>D! When they were done, I played a Netflix movie for them about the life of a Loggerhead turtle. It was a documentary but very kid oriented and educational. And, my kids were sooooooo into it! They referred to that movie all week long. And, it helped them understand some of the stuff they had read about in the articles.

 

I made them a graphic organizer to fill out as they watch. I wanted them to understand the life cycle of sea turtles. We're going to be working on that next week so it ties in nicely :)

 

 

 

I made one other activity but we just ran out of time. It was a checklist of facts about sea turtles and I was going to have the kids work in groups to put checks in the boxes that apply to their turtles. Then, they were going to have to use fractions (our math standard right now) to write sentences about the facts. We may do it next week if I can fit it in.

 

We had a great week learning about sea turtles. And, you know what? I didn't read them a SINGLE book about sea turtles. They figured out every bit of information they learned completely on their own. How cool is that?

 

Well, I better go. I'm going to the flea market tomorrow so I have to get up sooooooo early. You know what they say: the early bird freezes their tail off!

 

What? That's not it? Well, it applies for tomorrow because the temperature has dropped about 30 degrees today and tomorrow looks to be frigid.

 

Awesome.

 

Have a good weekend!

A Little Research

We've been doing some fun things in third grade lately. I wanted to share some of what we've been up to.

 

In writing/social studies, we've been working on researching and timelines.

 

The kids worked with a partner to research a famous person in history. They used books from the library and websites to gather all their information. They're actually getting pretty good at finding the important information in a lengthy passage.

 

I made a little graphic organizer for them to use to record their information. I did this because one of the third grade common core standards is about sorting research information into categories. And you know as well as I do that it's all about THE CORE, right?

 

 

 

I mean, they plagarized all over the place but I think it's a pretty good first step when learning to conduct research projects :)

 

Then, I had each group write their information in paragraph form on index cards. I told them to label them with the headings that we used on our graphic organizers.

 

 

 

I also gave them a half piece of paper and told them to draw their person.

 

 

 

Pretty sure Helen Keller didn't have red hair. Or did she? Hmmm...

 

 

Next we put all our people in order of their date of birth on a timeline. And, just saying, I got this idea off Pinterest. The original idea came from the blog Third Grade Thinkers. I tweaked it, of course, but when I saw it I thought it would a perfect activity for my kiddos.

 

Here it is:

 

 

 

 

My kiddos were IN AWE! They love it! All day they kept going and standing under it and reading it.

 

Tomorrow, they are going to present their information to the class and we're going to talk about how they all relate to each other and to our history.

 

Then, it's off to the hallway for the timeline because it is pretty dang huge and it takes up my entire board :)

 

Before I go, I have to share this journal entry from one of my precious kids.

 

 

I know, I know.

 

 You want her to be in your class, right?

 

 Too bad... she's already the star to my moon! Ha!

 

Love, love, love my job.

 

Have I mentioned that?

 

That's all I've got tonight. The next blog post will be all about how we covered about 5 standards in one week studying sea turtles! Woo hoo :)