End of the Year TEACHER Report Card - FREE!

Hello there!

Jessica from "Joy in the Journey" here - with a freebie to share with you lovely readers!

You've spent the year assessing your students - now it's time to hand over the red pen to your students and let them grade you! 

A fun and valuable tool for a reflective teacher,
this can both encourage you and challenge you to continually improve your craft.

The packet includes a cover page and an inside page: print the two pages together (double-sided) to create a report card booklet.

This will take some vulnerability - because you know your students will be honest :) But I think it's a worthwhile thing to do.

Click here if you'd like to download it for FREE!

Teacher Report Card

If you do download it, please take a moment to leave some feedback. Thanks!

Are You A Poetry Detective?

April is one of my favorite months because it's Poetry Month! I love working on poetry with my students - both writing them and reading them.

Today I want to share an idea with you that can be used for a center or independent work. It's a great way to expose kids to lots of poems and help them to be active readers!

First, I used the color copier (shhhhh!!! Don't tell!) and made copies of several poems from books in our library and in my class. I put them in sheet protectors and on a metal ring. If you choose to do this as a center, you could definitely have a tub of poetry books available for kids to choose from.

Each group of students perused the poems and looked for things they noticed. Before they went off on their own, we brainstormed ideas of things to look for - figurative language, rhyming, imagery and other techniques that poets use. As they read the poems, they recorded what they noticed and found on this graphic organizer.

After they had a good amount of time to read and record their thinking, we gathered together and created a Poetry Mentor Text anchor chart. We read 2-3 poems together and recorded what we noticed as a class. (You could also make the anchor chart first, and then send them off to read and notice on their own!)

I know many people have been spending a good amount of time assessing for the end of the year, but if you have time this week this is a great way to celebrate Poetry Month! You can grab your copy of this FREE Poetry Detectives graphic organizer by heading over to my TPT store.

I hope your students enjoy reading and analyzing poetry as much as mine did!!

 

Clock Partners: Pairings That Make the Teacher and Students Happy

It's spring and if your classroom is anything like mine, then students are getting a bit antsy. In my classroom, I like to do a lot of paired work so that students can work together to share their thinking abut a recently learned concept. This is especially important in math since I have so many different levels of learners.

I love to offer choice in my classroom, but if I allow students to choose their own partners every day, then they will end up working with the same partner again and again. Many years ago, I watched a science resource teacher use clock partners with my students. I was amazed at how well they chose partners and I love that it meant that they were interacting with more than one person. That was my second year of teaching and I still use clock partners in my classroom eight years later. At the start of each new month, I give students a clock partner sheet. I give them the following directions.

"You have four times on your sheet, 12 o'clock, 3 o'clock, 6 o'clock, and 9 o'clock. Each time represents a different partner that you will have. When I say you may begin, you may get up and move around the room. You will ask other students to be your partner for different times. You cannot have the same partner twice and each boy must have at least one girl and each girl must have at least one boy. When someone agrees to be your partner, you will write their name in the time slot that they asked for. For example, if Christine asks me to be her 12 o'clock partner, then I will write her name on my 12 o'clock line and she will write my name on hers. You will keep going around until you have your four spots filled up, at which time you should return to your seat to let others know that you are no longer available. You will have three minutes to fill your sheet. If you have any blanks spaces at the end of those three minutes, come see me."

Students are usually great about this, but you will have a few that are timid about this that you may have to help to fill in their sheet. For the students that I have left at the end, I first work to pair those students with each other if they have the same time slots available, then I make some trios with other pairs if necessary, being careful to put the students with classmates that they are not already working with.

You can click below for a free copy of my clock partners reproducible!

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Winter Break Freebie Fun!

Happy Thanksgiving! Nichole here, from The Craft of Teaching. I am in shock to think that Thanksgiving has already come and gone. This year is flying by!

Teaching for the past 12 years, I have learned a lot about being prepared. Namely, I have learned that I'm not usually very prepared at all. I am not that kind of thinker...unfortunately for me. It means I spend a lot of time thinking and not much time actually DOING the work that needs to be done to be ready for lessons the next day. Now don't get me wrong, I aspire to be organized and a thoughtful planner. I try to make it work for me, but usually I end up reverting back to my mega-procrastinator ways!

Luckily for me, I have worked with some amazing and talented teachers who have helped get me to think a little bit ahead! Even though it's not part of my every day routine (YET) I at least try to think about what's coming up in the classroom. You know...I have a calendar for school events and I even try to write out a yearly plan for what units I will teach. Baby steps, folks.

In the spirit of thinking ahead, I thought maybe some of you awesome way-ahead-planners would be thinking about what to do after Winter Break comes and goes. Here is a fun freebie that you might use after we all return from a restful and fun holiday season.

This is a freebie I created last year to help my students practice writing complete sentences in answer to a question. We call it CSIQ - Complete Sentence Including Question. Some people who have downloaded this product have also used it for discussion starters and interview questions! There are 9 question cards, a recording sheet, answer idea sheet and a Winter Break writing paper included in this product.

I used this with 3rd graders last year, but I think 5th graders and other upper grades would be able to use it as well!

Enjoy and have a great few weeks until Winter Break!

Nichole

Cough Like a Vampire

As an intervention teacher, I teach K-6.  I made a poster that I thought I'd share with you.  While fifth graders SHOULD know how to cough without spreading their germs throughout the room, not all do.

Here's to a healthy school year. :)

Click here for a free copy.

I used my Halloween Colorful Clipart to make it.

Spooky Multiplication Roll Freebie

Looking for a multi-digit multiplication math game to review/spiral/reinforce 5.NBT.5?  Look no further.  Spooky Multiplication Roll is the perfect fall game and the best part is it's FREE.  Just download, print, copy and play.  All you need to do is model the directions and provide the dice.  I'm planning for my students to play on Halloween day!!

Enjoy!!

Who doesn't love free bookmarks?

Hello everyone! It's been pretty hectic lately with school starting, but I'm dropping by to share one of my favorite things about back to school - BOOKMARKS! Ever year I have a bookmark for each subject ready to go. These print out 3 to a page, so I can print them all on one pack of cardstock! I'd like to share with you my Interactive Notebooking Bookmark, which I personally use in Math, and my Close Reading Bookmarks.

Click on the images to download the bookmarks for free!

We've already gotten good use out of both bookmarks. I see students pulling out the Close Reading Bookmark as a reference every time we read. That makes me SO happy!

I also have a free Close Reading lesson on Theme up on my blog if you want to see pictures of us using the other side of the Close Reading bookmark!

Shared Reading in the Upper Grades - FREEBIE

Even big kids need shared reading!  It's the perfect way to model/practice comprehension strategies, summarizing and build oral fluency. The best part is that it only takes 10-15 minutes a day.  Since I love Shared Reading so much, I'm here to share my Shared Reading in the Upper Grades FREEBIE with YOU today on FIFTH GRADE FREEBIES!!  This resource outlines how we share reading each day in room 206 and it includes our shared reading note-taking graphic organizers.

So how do we share reading in room 206?  Each week I choose a 1-2 page short story, drama, poem, or nonfiction article.  Highlights Magazines, Time for Kids, Scholastic News, Zoo Books, and Kids Discover are my usual go to's.  But there are tons of great websites that offer FREE short texts too.  This text is the piece we examine all week during shared reading time.

On Day 1, (preview and predict) before I pass out the text, I give students the headline/title of the piece and they predict the genre.  First they think on their own, then write their predictions on the shared reading graphic organizer I've included HERE, secondly they share their thinking with a partner and eventually we discuss the predictions as a class. Great conversations occur from their predictions and they can't wait to see the text of the week. I pass it out and students preview the text and predict what it will be about on their graphic organizers. (think, pair, share again)  We put the text and the graphic organizer away in our reading folders for safe keeping.

On Day 2, (fluency and wonderings) I read the text aloud.  This is the day we practice our oral fluency.  You can play all kinds of fun games to enhance oral reading fluency.  My favorite is just reading a paragraph at a time and having the students repeat it when I'm done - just like I sounded.  I call off random groups of students so they never know who's next to read and it keeps them engaged.  I might say "everyone who brought cold lunch please read paragraph number one after me," or "everyone wearing blue, or sneakers, or with brown hair," or "everyone who loves video games, or animals, or pizza," etc.  It's fun and they have to listen carefully while I read, so they can read it with the same expression and fluency.  Plus, the class is hearing each paragraph twice so it increases comprehension.  After we finish the text. Students record their wonderings on their weekly shared reading graphic organizer, share with a partner, and then we discuss as a class.

On Day 3, (author's purpose or perspective) depending on the genre, students reread the text with a partner to determine the author's purpose for writing the piece and the point of view of the author (nonfiction) or perspective (fiction). Students again write their notes on their shared reading organizer and we talk about how the author's purpose, point of view/perspective influence the text.

On Day 4, (text structure) students reread a few sections of the text (that I've determined ahead of time because they contain organizational clues) independently. They take notes on the organizational structure (cause/effect, problem/solution, etc.) or the story, drama or poetry elements.

Lastly, on Day 5, (determining importance/theme/summarizing) the students reread the entire text independently and highlight the main ideas from each paragraph (nonfiction) or the evidence of the theme (fiction). Students use all of the information on their shared reading graphic organizer notes to compose a summary of the weekly piece.

There you have it!  I would love to hear how you do shared reading with your upper elementary students.  I love getting new ideas!

Enjoy!

iPad Rule Posters

I am lucky enough to work at a school that implemented a 1:1 iPad program back in 2012-2013 school year.  Originally, it started and was piloted with just my class but then in 2013-2014 it expanded school wide.  Of course, with all those iPads out, we had to set some expectations up for our students.

The first thing we established was the "Hands Up" & "Apples Up" rule.  What this meant was if a teacher/staff member came into any classroom and said "Hands Up" all the students were to stop working on their iPads immediately, put their hands up, and listen to the speaker.
Typically it was a quick announcement which then allowed the students to get right back work.  However, if a teacher/staff member said "Apples Up", students were to stop what they were doing on the iPad, close it up and put it on their desk with the apple facing up.  This command is used when students are doing working with the iPad or the teacher needs the students' attention for a longer period of time.  Of course, we had the basic rules as well which were standard in all the classrooms.

Hopefully you are lucky too and have some iPads at your disposal.  :-)  If so, you can get your very own set of the iPad Rules Posters too.  Just head on over here and grab them!

Enjoy!

Katie

Organizing Hanging File Folders

Before - nasty crooked writing ;-)

Hi Everyone!  It's Katie from Teaching: The Art of Possibility.  I'm excited to be apart of Fifth Grade Freebies and here is my first of many freebies I will be sharing with all of you.  

Neat - typed - beautiful

Anyone who knows me, knows that I'm all about having a neat and organized classroom.  From the labels on my students' desks to the labels in my filing cabinet.  There was a time, when I would handwrite my hanging file folder labels but I HATED the way they looked.  Either my handwriting wasn't consistent or they weren't properly centered.  My reasons to not like it could go on and on.  (Have  I mentioned I'm a bit OCD? ;-) ) And because of this craziness need, I have created a SIMPLE little template to help make life easier. So Bam!  Here you go - a template for you to type in and have perfectly neat hanging file folder labels like me.  Go here to download it. 

Hope it helps you like it did me.  

Katie Lyon

Back to School Freebie: Sharpening Pencils Procedures

It's that time of the year again! Students will be entering your classroom ready to go. We are offering up a great FREE resource for back to school. 

We all know that we have to establish procedures for sharpening pencils. So included with this procedure is a teacher page with purpose, teaching ideas, modeling and role playing that you can do with your class.

Also included is a kid friendly poster that you can review with your students and even post in the room! You can download this free resource by clicking here. 

Back to School Freebie: The Great Writer's Race

Welcome to The Great Writer's Race! Your students will be challenging themselves to complete creative writing activities as the school year progresses. There are over 40 creative writing ideas included!

Your students will have a blast "racing" to complete the activities. This is a great addition to Daily 5, writing stations, and for a creative writing unit. You can download it by clicking here. Enjoy!