Conquering the Paper/Notebook Monster

Hello Again,

It's Kristy from 2 Peas and a Dog, writing to you from balmy Ontario, Canada. The weather is not normally this nice during the fall season. Well I have survived a month of school and am excited to share a new to me strategy for taming the paper monster in my classroom.

I have serious interactive notebook envy. I am slowly trying to update my teaching style to incorporate more purposeful and interactive use of notebooks.

I cannot believe it has taken me seven years to finally discover how to effectively and neatly store worksheets and photocopied papers in notebooks. The best part of this new discovery is that it came from an eighth grade student in my homeroom class. I had previously asked students to fold the paper in half and glue half of it a whole page in their notebook. Eek! I always felt guilty because the glue made their notebooks messy and it used up a whole page.

This year I suggested students keep a binder for math and use loose lined paper instead of a notebook. The majority of my class has switched to this system and are enjoying feeling more like high school students.

I have a few students who love their notebooks and won't make the switch. This past unit I handed out a few practice sheets or lessons on photocopied paper. These notebook students had the papers in a few different states:

• in their lockers
• shoved into their notebook in no order
• hole punched and put into a binder with no connection to the lesson or unit
• stapled neatly into the notebook

The last student had stapled the sheet into their notebook only at the top of the page with two staples at either corner. This meant that the paper could easily be lifted up and the work could be completed underneath - loosing no paper space.

The student completed their work in their notebook and when they were finished they stapled the paper into their notebooks only at the top. This meant that the student did not have to keep flipping the paper back and forth during practice time AND their notebook stayed neat. I am so excited for this idea. When I checked everyone's binders and notebooks before our first unit test, I used this notebook and staple strategy as model for the rest of the class. 

What tips do you have for making students keep neat notebooks? How do you tame the paper monster? Please leave your ideas in the comments below. I can't wait to read them.

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Leanne Baur- New Member of ATUE!

Hi everyone!  I hope the school year is treating you well (if school is back in session for you).  Actually, my first day back was today and it was fantastic!  I am hoping it's not a honeymoon period and that the students are truly as well-behaved as they were today!  Do you know what made it go so well?  I had thoroughly planned out my day, stayed ahead with organization, and had copies paper clipped and ready to roll!  Sometimes being stress-free is EASY with a little extra effort!

 

Enough about my first day...I'm sure you want to know who I am.  I'm Leanne Baur from Leanne Baur's Creative Classroom .

 

This is me and yes, I love my Baltimore Orioles!

This is my blog!

 

I'd love to have you stop by and leave me a blog post comment!  I like to blog about classroom ideas, teaching ideas, contests, and life in general.  Since writing is a passion of mine, I feel that having a blog is the best way to do what I love!  I am a freelance writer for The Mailbox Magazine for teachers in my spare time.  

 

I also love teaching with all of my heart!  This year, I am a fifth grade teacher but in years past, I have taught every grade from Pre-K to grade 5.  I am currently teaching ELA and Social Studies. Just in case you were wondering where I'm from, I am a Maryland blogger who has been on TeachersPayTeachers since it first began!  Over the years I have learned so much about teaching, blogging, and collaborating!  I can't wait to collaborate with all of you through ATUE!

 

Well, no welcome is complete without a little FREEBIE or TWO, right?  I know we are all busy with the new school year starting so I thought I'd hook you up!  You can download the following resources for FREE through September 7th!

 

 

This one is my BEST SELLER on TpT!

 

 

This one is my NEWEST RESOURCE!

 

I hope you enjoy them!  The first one makes life so much easier during report card time. The second one is sure to impress your students, their parents, and your administrators.  It makes for such an adorable display in your classroom!

 

(Sorry for the glare...laminating material is SHINY!)

 

 

If you like what you see and you want to follow me, you can click any of the pics below! Then, you can check out my latest posts for new resources and more freebies!  Please, say "hello" when you visit!  Let me know you found me through ATUE! 

 

  

 

That's all for now!  I have some planning to do!  We are getting ready to read Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper.  You can grab a copy from Amazon below if you are interested in reading along with me!

 

Have you read it?  Comment if you have! 

 I hope to see you on my blog and social media pages soon! 

 

Hugs,

 

 

 

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Meet Deb - a new ATUE collaborator!

Meet my motivation: husband Troy, daughters Brooke and Kayla

Hi there!
I’m excited to connect with you all as a new collaborating blogger at All Things Upper Elementary! I’ll share just a little about myself: I am an ESL teacher in a school district in northeast Nebraska, and I am just settling into my 16th year of teaching.  For the most part, I co-teach with several third, fourth, and fifth grade teachers. I love this, as it allows me to provide support for a lot of students and collaborate with some amazing teachers at multiple grade levels as well!

If you’ve visited my blog or been by my store, you’ll know that I LOVE to create “craftivity” resources … and the only thing better than creating them is seeing first-hand how students are engaged by them, enjoy them, and learn from them. Day after day, I see my upper elementary students benefitting from doing craftivities in these important ways:


A s'more from my inference craftivity.

RETENTION – Students retain the key concept being focused on better than most other methods I
have used in the past. I think adding a concrete object to an abstract concept aids my students in remembering the meaning of academic vocabulary words like “inference”, “context clues”, and “figurative language”. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard this general conversation:



A synonym roll from my synonym craftivity.

Student 1: What is a synonym again?

Student 2: Remember those synonym rolls we made?

Student 1: Oh yeah! The words mean the same!



FOLLOWING WRITTEN DIRECTIONS – Students need to concentrate not only on the concept
they are learning, but also need to focus on following the steps to successfully complete the craftivity. All of my craftivities include direction pages that I project on the wall. Students need to carefully read the directions in order to complete the assignment. (Further, if they get distracted and miss a step, I encourage them to problem-solve on their own for a way to make it work!)


CREATIVITY – Students are given an opportunity to make choices and express themselves. From the color of construction paper they select, to the shades they choose to color an object, to the angles at which they choose to glue their objects or embellish their finished products, no two pieces are ever exactly alike. I love to see the pride in their faces when they bring me their “finished masterpiece”.

Students LOVE to invent new flavors when they are decorating their main idea cones!

Students enjoy creating facial expressions to go with various character traits!

TASK COMPLETION WITHIN TIME CONSTRAINTS – Students enjoy a sense of personal satisfaction when they finish their craftivity. Although most craftivities can be completed fairly quickly, it’s still a project with steps that need to be done logically and systematically. I give my students a certain amount of time to complete the activity in class. If students spend too much time coloring, they know that their materials will be placed in an envelope and sent home to complete on their own time. (At the same time, I do certainly allow for individual differences! I never sit at my desk while students work on their craftivities. I walk around the room conversing with students and cutting pieces for those who are working hard, yet still lag behind.) We educators all realize that every moment is precious, and wasting time is not an option!

WOW!  That was a lot of words!  (Do you feel like you've just walked out of an inservice?!)  Now that you've hung on this long, let me "reward" you with an example of one of my newest craftivity resources!  I created this one over the summer, and I actually had a ton of fun working on it!  I got quite a kick out of recognizing that I use idioms and hyperboles A LOT - especially with my family.  (Can anyone relate?  How many did I just use in the last few sentences?!)  On a more educational note, though, idioms and hyperboles often pose a challenge to many ESL students.  I also had their needs in mind as I created this craftivity.  Even though it's a sorting activity to differentiate between idioms and hyperboles, they are exposed to 16 sentences that have them, and I intend to stop by the desks of my ESL students as they work on this to explain any they do not understand (which could very well be all of them!)

Here's how this craftivity is designed:  Students first read 16 sentences that are written in glasses. They are tasked with determining whether each sentence contains an idiom or a hyperbole. (They color the liquid in the glass yellow if it's an idiom (for idiom-ade), and brown if it's a hyperbole (for hyperbol-tea). Once they have completed that, they go about creating their idiom-ade and hyperbol-tea stand!


Do you use interactive notebooks in your class?  One of the fourth grade classrooms I am co-teaching in is using interactive language/reading notebooks for the first time this year.  I intend to incorporate all of the craftivities we do in that class into them.  In the case of this idiom/hyperbole craftivity, I will instruct students to select one idiom-sentence glass and one hyperbole sentence glass to glue into their notebooks.  Next to each glass, I will instruct them to write the meaning of each concept (in their own words, of course).  Then they will have this visual reminder and written description of each concept at their fingertips to refer back to for the remainder of the school year!

The finished products of all my craftivity resources can be used to make a unique bulletin board or fun school hallway display!

I mentioned "rewarding you" a couple of paragraphs back... I'd love for you to try this Idiom and Hyperbole craftivity in YOUR classroom this year, so I'm offering is as a flash freebie exclusively on ATUE!  It would cost you $2.50 at my TpT store, but through August 31, it's available HERE to download for free!  (Want to share this resource with your team or other colleagues?  Please do, but please honor copyright laws and rather than simply passing along the file, please direct them to the blog to pick up the freebie for themselves.  While they are here, they can sign up to follow ATUE to find out about future freebies!)

Before I leave you to make the most of the rest of your day, I'll share with you my LINKS:

You can find all of my craftivity resources (plus more) at my TpT store!

 
Please hop over to my blog - Crafting Connections -  and sign up to follow it!  (There, I will regularly blog about my efforts to help upper elementary learners "craft" meaningful connections!)

{GIVEAWAY ALERT}:  Stop over to my blog before Wednesday, 8/28 and enter a giveaway I've got going on!

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Sound the Siren: The English Police

I've been teaching English for many years, and I'm always trying to look for ways to "spice up" my lessons. English/language arts can be very dry, and it seems that very few students find it exciting. I also find that upper elementary kiddos don't always want to check their writing. ("Yeah, I know all of my sentences should have the comma rules you taught us, but I just don't feeeeeel like checking.") Well, it's not that they come right out and SAY that, but sometimes you feel like it's what they are thinking!

I've blogged about the English Police before on my blog, but I wanted to share the idea over here with my friends on ATUE. Ever since I started using the English Police in my classroom, checking no longer seems like a chore to students! It's actually FUN! 

Sirens blare and tickets fly as the English Police make their first appearance in my classroom. My students get such a kick out of this (and believe me when I say that even the students who THINK they are "too mature" for something like this are giggling so much they can't help themselves). My kiddos are 11 and 12, but I have found that they are still very much KIDS. Anything can be fun if the teacher is not afraid to be silly (which I am not), and silliness is contagious!

I am the police officer (complete with badge and accent depending on my mood). Sometimes I have a Southern drawl and other times, I sound more like I am from England! They never know what to expect. I always use a different voice so I am no longer "me" but rather "the police officer."

I also sometimes have a back up officer who sits on a student's desk if I have "pulled him/her over" to ensure that the student does not exit the vehicle (the desk).

I use my little police car that has a siren as my vehicle. I also have a police bike, but I save that for warmer days. I also have an ambulance at the ready in case someone's writing is soooo bad that it must be sent to the writing hospital!

I pick a focus area such as punctuation, spelling, capitalization, correct grammar, etc. I choose something we have been working on in the classroom. After students have been working for a little while and have enough for me to check, the police start "driving" around the room. I walk around looking for the first student I will "pull over." When I find him/her, I put the siren on and park the car on the student's desk. Students know they should always be nice to the officer!

I start with, "How are you today, ma'm (or sir)?" They can't stop giggling, especially when I use one of my accents! I ask to see the student's driver's license (which is the English notebook). I carefully inspect the focus area and ask the student questions as I do. I am kind of  a "bossy officer," but that seems to make them giggle all the more!

If a student has done well in the focus area, he/she may get a ticket. That's right! The English Police give tickets to the GOOD drivers! I use our school reward cards, but you could use any system you like. The police give the drivers with mistakes a warning, but if they are pulled over again with similar mistakes, they must do an extra practice page on the skill. If a student has way too many mistakes, we also call for the ambulance because that writing needs medical attention! Everyone tries to avoid the ambulance (and extra practice)!

After I am finished with the police for the day, I'll put my supplies away, walk over to the student who was pulled over and dramatically say, "Oh, my gosh! I heard you were pulled over while I was out of the room!!!! What happened?!!!!" Of course, they get a big kick out of this as well!

It may all sound a bit silly, but that's what gets them! They seriously check their work and try much harder when the police are around. Sometimes I hear students say, "I'd better check this in case the police are in the area." When the police haven't been around in some time, students hopefully ask me, "Are the police coming back soon?" I have used this method for many years, and it adds some much needed fun to English!

Remember...If you ever meet up with the Grammar Police, follow the tip below:

Stay tuned tomorrow on the Fourth of July 
for a SPECIAL POST you won't want to miss! 

Until next time, happy summer, friends!

You can find me here:

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MobyMax It Up!

First off, to all of you who are already on summer break or will be in a few days, congrats! You made it through another school year! For those of you who still have a ways to go, hang in there, it will be here before you know it (yeah, right, I know), and spend some time with us at ATUE for some engaging ideas and activities you can use with your students while you survive enjoy the last few weeks of your school year.

First, let us preface this post by saying that we in no way endorse that a computer program can replace a living, breathing, warm-bodied teacher. However, we do believe that on-line learning tools can be a very beneficial addition to your classroom instruction. There are lots of on-line learning aides out there. We have used IXL, Study Island, and RAZ Kids to name a few. While our students have enjoyed and benefited from using all of them, there is one slight hitch.....they are not free! You have to pay to use them. Gotta have a subscription. $$$$$. Not a big deal for us as our school foots the bill, but not everyone is as lucky to have the available funds. Now, we are not saying that you have to have your students use an on-line learning tool, but it does help and we all have a few students who will balk at the idea of math or reading, but, put them on a computer program, and they can't get enough! We were fortunate enough to have a colleague discover MobyMax and she sent the website our way. THANK YOU!!!

While MobyMax does have a Pro subscription that you have to pay for, there is a free edition. I know what you are thinking, "2 Brainy Apples, free editions are junk compared to Pro editions!" Not so fast! Earlier this year I decided to give the free MobyMax edition a try, and, I gotta tell you, I loved it! So did my students....and so did the parents of my students. While the free edition doesn't have all the bells and whistles of the Pro, you do get 30 day access to these bells and whistles so you can see if you think splurging the $59 is worth it or not. Me, well, I didn't splurge because I felt like the free edition had enough bells for what I needed to use it for.


What is MobyMax, you ask? Well, it is an on-line learning tool that encompasses math (including fact fluency), vocabulary, grammar, and reading is coming soon. You sign up either as a school teacher or homeschool teacher, and after you create your account, you can watch a short tutorial on how to use the tool, or, you can be like me and skip the video and just start clicking on what you like :) It is easy to navigate and easy to begin using. You enter as many students as you would like (yes, even in the free edition), and then you have the option of modifying the settings if you would like (I didn't), then your students are ready to pre-test.

Sounds like a winner so far! How does it work, you ask? Well, Once your students take the pre-test, it places them on their current grade level in that subject area (math, grammar, and soon-to-be reading are determined by mastery of the CCSS). Sound like some other on-line learning tools you have used before? Yep, sounds similar to Study Island.

But, here is the difference that we loved about MobyMax! It then determines upcoming lessons for students to complete. It places lessons in a sequential order from basic skills to more complex skills, so your students aren't just willy-nilly choosing lessons to complete. Yeah, we know you can assign lessons for students to complete in other on-line learning tools, but students and parents ultimately determine which lessons are completed. You can't restrict student access to certain lessons. They have the freedom to choose which ones they want to do. And we aren't saying that's a bad thing, but we know which lessons students need to work on, and it can be time consuming to assign students a lesson because not every student needs to work on the same lesson...but MobyMax makes it easy. If students are in 3rd grade, and they are still having trouble with addition and subtraction, they can't choose multiplication and division lessons because they aren't ready for those yet. MobyMax lists the upcoming lessons students will be working on. As students pass a lesson, they get to move on to the next one. What if you want students to work on a lesson that isn't listed at the top of the list? Well, one of the benefits of being a living, breathing, warm-bodied teacher is that YOU can override the program's decision. And it's very easy to do, we might add, if that is what you wish. We didn't, though.

We even love the way students practice those skills. MobyMax uses a Teach Me, Feedback, and Read Aloud cycle that our students greatly benefited from. Each lesson begins with an animated teaching bit, then students can practice with immediate feedback, and for students who may struggle with reading, there is an option for the computer to read aloud parts of the problem. Perfect for center time at school or independent practice at home.


Now while you do get the Progress Monitoring piece free for 30 days, you still get the scores from each of your students' lessons, so you can easily take those grades and plop them into Excel (or another program) to create your own graph if you decide not to upgrade. This is a great piece of data to have for the RTI process!



There are more great features with the Pro upgrade, but you will get them free to try out to decide if you think it's worth the splurge. Some of the upgrades I used for the 30 days included the Messenger (where you and your students can send secure messages back and forth to each other concerning their progress. I actually had one student ask me to "unlock" a lesson because he wanted extra practice.); badges (if you use Edmodo, then you are familiar with badges...basically the more a student participates, they earn more badges...great motivator for some students!); contests (either between students in your class or your class versus other classes in your school who use MobyMax...we know some students need competition to be motivated); parent portal so parents can see their child's progress and growth; goal setting with progress monitoring which is excellent for kiddos in the RTI process or students with IEPs; and there are many more.

Now, like I said, I didn't upgrade to Pro after 30 days, but it could have been because I found MobyMax so late in the school year I didn't see the benefit of doing so. Will I go Pro after 30 days next school, year..... if I had a Magic 8 ball, it would probably say, "Outlook Good"!

So why am I writing this post now, as so many schools are getting out for summer, and not at the beginning of next school year? 

Summer learning opportunity!!!!!

I wanted to let you all know about MobyMax so you could spend some time this summer navigating, but also since you have an unlimited number of students you can assign to your class (and an unlimited number of classes you can create to which you assign students), what better way (and motivator) for your current students to continue keeping their skills sharp over the summer and continue to grow??????? Just because school ends doesn't mean your account expires. If you set your students up now, they will have access to MobyMax over the summer months and you can  continue to encourage them to keep improving. Parent letters are a snap to print out and send home, and many parents love to have something for their children to do over the summer so they don't regress (and we know most students will regress some over the break). And the best part is YOU don't have to look for practice pages to print, staple into packets, and send home. Too time consuming when MobyMax is ready and waiting. If a student doesn't have a computer or Internet access at home, most all public libraries allow patrons to use their computers and Internet as part of their library privileges.

What do you think about MobyMax? Will you be giving it a whirl? Have you already used MobyMax? What did you think? Let us know your thoughts and if you have used it before. And if you will be using it, please remember to come back and leave us a comment below about your experience!

And don't forget about our Free For All Linky tomorrow! Be sure to come back and link up some great FREEBIES to help everyone get through the rest of the school year!


Until next time!

2 Brainy Apples

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Hands-on, Hands-Down

As a student, I remember sitting in my desk all day long. The only time we were allowed to get out of our desks was lunch, bathroom break, and recess. Pencils had to be sharpened before school, and there were no interruptions in the classroom. We used paper and pencil and nothing else. Working in groups or with a partner was unheard of because we might get off-task. It was pretty monotonous.

Fast-forward to my fourth grade year. I actually got to complete a hands-on project...at home, not at school, but it was still a hands-on project. My parents and I had the most fun with school work that I had ever had. Ever! My assignment was to build a replica of a volcano. I did this with the help of my parents, and I had a blast. I remember everything about volcanoes because of this assignment. Who knew they could be so fascinating because when we learned about them in class, they seems pretty boring sitting on the page in the textbook.

There has been so many studies about methods of teaching students over the past several years. The one study that I believe is accurate is the one that promotes hands-on learning in the classroom. Students who are afforded opportunities for hands-on learning are required to actively participate and they are "learning by doing." I believe hands-on learning also fosters a sense of independence in a student because the student takes ownership of his/her learning, thus creating the opportunity for the teacher to serve as a facilitator and guide the students.

There are some concepts that simply cannot be taught without some form of hands-on activity. For example, learning to play basketball would not be possible if you could not actively participate in a hands-on way. Sure, you could be taught the rules, procedures, and plays on paper, but you would not have a good grasp how to dribble, pass, shoot, and score without actually going to a basketball court and holding that basketball. This is the same for students. Some students cannot learn without seeing it, feeling it, or doing it.

In my language arts class, we are reading a book about the collapse of the world. Instead of simply asking the students to tell me what they would do if the world suddenly ended and they were left to survive, I had them work in collaborative groups to make a survival guide. The students loved it! Not only did the students love this activity, but I was also given another opportunity to learn more about my students. (I learn more and more everyday!) In their survival guide, they had to develop a list of items they would need to survive, sketch and explain how they would construct their shelter, develop a plan to survive the four seasons, and create a time capsule of ten items with pictures. They did a wonderful job!

Here are some of the pages of their survival guides:

The students still used paper and pencil to complete this activity, but it was completed in collaborative groups, discussed, and I completely served as a facilitator. 

Anytime I plan my lessons, I try to think back to my fourth grade volcano experience. Am I able to plan something hands-on with every lesson? No, but I do try to make those hands-on experiences meaningful for the students and ones that they will remember. I believe the best teaching is that where traditional teaching and hands-on learning work together. 

What are some examples of hands-on learning that work well with concepts you have taught? 

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Implementing Task Cards into Your Classroom

When the school year began in August, I was constantly looking for ways for my students to gain mastery of the Common Core Standards and be able to apply their learned knowledge to other content areas throughout the year. The catch...it had to be engaging and hands-on or my students simply would lose interest quickly.

I began experimenting with task cards. I know they have been around for quite some time now, but I just had not jumped on the "Task Card Bandwagon" yet. When I introduced them to my students, they absolutely loved them. I mean loved them!

Because I teach language arts and social studies, I have spent a lot of time creating task cards for the various topics and standards we cover in my classes. Every time we begin a new unit, my students immediately ask me when they get to do task cards. The students enjoy the task cards because they play an active role in their learning and demonstrating what they know. It is so wonderful to watch!

If you have not tried using task cards in your classroom, my advice would be to definitely give it a try. I started small and worked up to what we are doing in class now, but it one of the best methods I have found that allows the students opportunities to be engaged, learning, and having fun.

Below are two pictures of my most recent set of task cards. They are task cards for idioms, and they are perfect to use during the month of March because the theme ties in with St. Patrick's Day. Click HERE to download your FREE set of these task cards.

I hope that everyone has a fantastic weekend!

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All to Pieces

How do you get your students motivated to write? Throughout the year, I have little tricks that I pull out to get my students excited again and again. One is a LEGO writing activity. Who doesn't love those little pieces all over the floor?

First, the students get into groups of three. If you have more than three group members, it can get to be too many hands or one person winds up simply sitting and watching the others. I assign tasks: recorder, designer, and contractor. The students decide in their groups who will complete each task.

After the jobs have been chosen, I tell the students they have a very important job to do today; they have to design and construct a functional item with their LEGOS, but they also have to write very detailed instructions for other groups in the classroom to be able to rebuild it using only the instructions. You can immediately see their eyes light up! It is great! Those wheels are already turning, and they cannot wait for me to quit talking so they can get busy.

I have a classroom helper hand each group their buckets of LEGOS. The students can only work with the pieces they are given. The groups dump their pieces out in their assigned work areas. (Now, this is the part where my "everything has to be clean and tidy" characteristic has to take a backseat and let those little pieces scatter everywhere.)

Each student assumes his/her role. The recorder has the hardest job in my opinion because this person has to document every piece and sometimes those pieces change and the instructions have to be changed as well. The designer has to come up with the idea and tell the recorder step-by-step what pieces are being used and how they are being used.

The contractor gets to put the pieces together to see if it is all going to fit together. The designer works closely with the contractor and makes changes if needed. The recorder is still frantically trying to write down all they are doing.

The students work to make sure their item works properly and will serve a function. 

This is a finished product. This group built a garage with a ramp to park their utility vehicle. I believe they used all but seven pieces out of the the ones they were given.

One thing that I love about this writing activity is the students are all fully engaged and participating. I have never had a student not want to participate in this activity. After each group is finished, the new items are taken apart. The recorder writes or types a final instruction manual. On the next day, the groups exchange buckets of LEGOS and instuction manuals. They construct another group's item to see if the instructions match the item.

It is a wonderful writing activity, and it is definitely an activity the students continue to talk about all year. What methods do you use to motivate your students to write?

I hope everyone has a HAPPY FRIDAY!

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