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End of the School Year – Tip #3

Uncategorized May 17, 2017

For the month of May, every Wednesday, I’m sharing quick End of the School Year tip…

For previous tips…

End of the School Year Tip #1

End of the School Year Tip #2

Today I’m sharing with you Tip #3.  Tip #3 is to plan fun activities/theme days the last week of school. I have done this practically every year I’ve taught (and maybe every year…my memory isn’t as good these days :-)).  The last week can be hard. It can be hard to keep kids motivated and to keep behavior on track.  Having a special Theme Day every day gives kids something to look forward to and allows you and the class to make some more special memories together.

I’m going to throw it back to my post last year on Theme Days.  Check it out here….
I go over all of the details and even share a sneak peek of my Theme Days note that I send out to parents.

For extra specifics…
Read my post about Theme Day – Game Day.

Read my post about Theme Day – Reading Party.

Read my post about Theme Day – Pizza Party.

Happy last few weeks!

Five for Friday – May 12

Uncategorized May 12, 2017

I’m back for another Five for Friday over with Kacey at Doodle Bug’s Teaching. This week was mainly filled with testing, testing, and more testing – but you can still see a little of what we were up to below.

As I said, testing, testing, and more testing. I’m at a private school so we don’t do SBAC, but we still have our own standardized testing fun, which of course requires #2 pencils. Each day we have a different section of the test and the kids and I are both happy that we’ll be done today!
We had our last field trip of the year on Tuesday. We went to the Springs Preserve (Las Vegas). The kids had a wonderful time. We were able to go into the butterfly habitat and it was so neat to see the butterflies up close. We even had some land on our kiddos! We also checked out the animals, flash flood exhibit, sustainability room, and more. They had a great time!

We love GoNoodle and we love dabbing! So this was the perfect video. This came at a great time too and we were able to get up and move after our first day of testing.  My favorites on GoNoodle are Blazer Fresh. Do you use GoNoodle at your school? What are your favorite videos?
Check out and follow my Facebook page for teaching tips, educational articles, product updates, and more. You can find my page…here…
We went to see Carrot Top’s show at the Luxor last weekend. He’s so funny! We saw his show a
Have a great weekend! Only 14 more days for me until summer!

Pack Up Tip – Planner Challenge

Uncategorized March 14, 2017

At my school, when students start second grade, they start using a planner to keep track of homework and due dates.  At the beginning of the year, they are always super excited for this because they feel like “big kids” with their planners. However, as the year wears on, the excitement wears off.  My class this year especially. Their planners have gone downhill – meaning unreadable writing, lots of misspellings, and lots of gross food stains. So this is where my idea for the Planner Challenge began….

Each day students copy down their homework and other important events into their planner from my homework board.

See the planner example below. This is an example of a messy planner. This child writes quickly and quite messy to wear it’s hard to even read what she wrote.
So since many of the kids’ planners looked like this, I created the Planner Challenge.  Each day I pick one child to win the planner challenge.  Their planner must be written neatly and easy to read. They must have spelled all of the words correctly (which they should be able to do since they are copying it down from the board). If they have done those things, then they are in the running for the planner challenge. I pick a winner at the end of each day and they get to pick out a piece of candy! Quick, easy reward and look at the results below….
This planner is the same planner as the messy planner example above. The planner challenge has motivated this student to slow down, write neatly, and take her time. You can actually read the items!
Funny how that little word “challenge” made writing nicely in your planners fun! Everyone wants to be a part of it and everyone is hopeful that every day they are being considered to be the Planner Challenge winner!

Student-Led/Parent-Teacher Conferences

Uncategorized February 23, 2017

We had our second set of Student-Led/Parent-Teacher Conferences on Tuesday. I know that title seems like a mouthful, but I’m not sure how else to describe it.  It is student-led, but it’s also led more like a team – with student, parents, and teacher all giving input on the child’s progress.  Since this is our winter conferences, students have more control over the conferences and a larger part in it.

Before I get into the student-led info, I need to explain a few things about my school. At my school, each child gets their own personalized, differentiated, Personal Learning Plan (PLP).  Each teacher comes up with two goals for the child based on academics, data, observation, etc.  The third goal is a goal based around Think Like a Disciplinarian (this is a whole year-long project where the kids learn about different professions and present their findings at the end of the year).  For these goals, each teacher comes up with an action plan of how the child will work on the goal and then creates a specific goal broken down throughout the year. I know this seems like a lot…it is. They take a long time to craft, but they are great for the kids.  We make sure they fit the kids needs and this is where we are able to differentiate and really focus on where each child is at. So, while it takes a lot of time – and these progress report updates take a lot of time – it is worth it!

To help the students out, I created this simple sheet.  A few days before the conference they filled it out.  I met with them one-on-one to discuss/review their specific goals and they then wrote how they thought they were doing.  It can be quite tricky to get kids to reflect. I’ve had a lot of “I’m doing good,” in the past, but this year most students had some thoughtful reflections. Then, after I reviewed it they were ready for their conference.  The pre-made sheet is helpful because some kids get a little nervous in conferences so this helps calm their nerves since they can just read off the page.

Then, on the back students reflected on their school year.  Students wrote their strengths, areas where they can improve, and goals for the final trimester of the school year. I was proud to see them really identifying some of their strengths and weaknesses and again coming up thoughtful reflections.
Each student also has their own portfolio. I’ve been collecting different pieces from reading, writing, and math throughout the year and we’ve compiled them in their portfolio. Students shared their favorite piece with their parents at the Winter Conference and will then get to take the portfolio home at the end of the year.
In addition to the progress report mentioned at the beginning of the post (which I didn’t take pictures of for confidential reasons), I also created this quick reading update page for each child.  While many goals were focused around reading, many student’s goals were not.  So, since we have multiple reading assessments and we are past the halfway point of the school year, I thought a little reading update would be a good idea to keep parents in the loop. I included their recent STAR data,  where they are with receiving AR Awards, data from the Quick Phonics Screener, and information from their fluency assessments.
So, that is a sneak peek of what I included in my Student-Led/Parent-Teacher Conferences! We have them three times a year, so one more to go!

Five for Friday – February 10

Uncategorized February 10, 2017

Our school celebrated Reading Week super early due to scheduling issues on the typical reading week so this week was another whirlwind. I’m linking up again with Kacey over at Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday. See what we’ve been up to below…

We started our measurement unit this week. I love these flap books for Amy Lemon’s Measurement pack. It is such great practice to help kids decide what unit to use when measuring.
I also love Hope King’s Measurement Play Book packet. The kids had fun measuring these football items to the nearest inch and half inch.
Etc.  I have never seen a child use that word in my 10 years of teaching. Especially a second grader. And even better – she used it correctly. We were working on conversions from feet to yards and I love how she explained it – We know that 10, 20, 30 etc.  
We are still working on our Opinion unit in our Units of Study by Lucy Calkins.  Students this week worked with their partner and came up with goals for their writing. They used the checklist to see what they were doing well, needed work on, etc and then decided on a goal.  

This is a very measurement heavy post! Again – we were working on measurement conversion. I posed the above problem and I love how this friend (same friend as my etc friend) used her prior knowledge. We had just had the problem 2 ft = how many inches. I love that she took what we know from the prior problem and then applied it to make it easier to solve the next problem.  A great aha moment for her!

So I’m very late to this party, but I just watched all of Gilmore Girls. Somehow when it was on, back in the day, I never really got into it.  However, with the revival I decided to start it on Netflix.  I just finished all 7 seasons and the revival and have to say it is an amazing show! However,  I prefer the older seasons. Now I need a new Netflix show – any suggestions??
Happy weekend!

TPT Be Mine Sale – Tuesday and Wednesday

Uncategorized February 6, 2017

So excited for the next big TPT sale.  My entire store – Jordan Johnson – will be 28% off with the code LoveTPT! Fill up those carts today to save big!!!  The sale starts tomorrow, February 7 and ends February 8!  Check out some of my Grammar practice activities below. All of these will be part of the sale!

Nouns Around the Room
Perfect for first and second graders! 24 different cards for reviewing nouns including: identifying nouns and singular and plural nouns.
Noun Scoot
Noun Scoot has 16 cards that provide practice editing sentences, working with singular and plural nouns, and working with singular and plural possessive nouns.
Verbs Around the Room
Verbs Around the Room provides practice identifying verbs, working with verb tenses, and includes regular and irregular verbs.
Grammar Fix It - Capitalization & End Marks
Grammar practice for students with identifying and fixing capital and end mark errors.
Grammar Fix It - Apostrophes - Possessives and Contractions
Grammar practice for editing sentences needing apostrophes for either possessive nouns or contractions.
Happy shopping!!!

Five for Friday – Winter Break Edition

Uncategorized December 30, 2016

I know Kacey over at Doodle Bugs Teaching is still on a break with Five for Friday, but I wanted to do a quick post to share what I’ve been up to over my winter break.  I have taken a bit of a blogging hiatus, but was able to do a lot of fun things with family and friends

So since I actually had time, I actually got to do some crafting over break! I made this wreath and it was actually super easy.  I was able to binge watch Gilmore Girls while I tied the tulle and tied the tulle and tied the tulle. Then, I eventually ended up with this cute wreath!

In addition to crafting, I also did some baking. I made my husband’s favorite candy cane cookies (which are not the easiest cookies), ritz crackers with peanut butter and chocolate, and roll out sugar cookies! So yummy!!

On Christmas Eve, Andy and I went to the Magical Forest in Las Vegas. They have trees sponsored and decorated by a variety of companies. It’s always fun to see the Christmas decorations and the new trees each year!

We also went to the Bellagio Gardens on Christmas Eve. And, boy was that place packed! I would’ve thought on Christmas Eve at 10;30 at night it would’ve been crowd free. I was wrong! We had fun looking at the beautiful decorations and that tree – they’re tree is always amazing!!

I then went down to Tucson on Monday to visit my family and Andy’s family.  Loving the Tucson weather. It was 71 degrees on the hot tub day! Warmer than Vegas and great to catch up with family.
Hope everyone has a wonderful New Year’s weekend! I’m off to the Fiesta Bowl tomorrow with my parents who are Ohio State Alum. GO BUCKS!