Legos!

LEGOS!
My friend went to a conference a few years ago where she learned about Legos being used in the classroom as non-linguistic representations.  Loved that idea so much I decided to create my own set to use!

So the first step you need to do is go to the Lego store and get their $15 buckets and fill them to the brim with a variety of bricks.  The thing about making your  classroom set is that all of the tubs have to have the same exact Legos in them.  That's why you can't just go to town on Craigslist and hope for the best.  If your tubs aren't all the same, the kids will fight over that one container that has the wheels in it.

Stack your legos so that you can really cram 'em in!

Now that you have brought home a ridiculous amount of Legos, it is time to enlist your trusty husband or family member to help you sort through all of this nonsense...

You may (like me) start cursing at your packing method which at the time seemed like a great idea which quickly evolved into something that looks a little like a murder scene. In order to separate these tightly compacted bricks, you need a rather large sharp knife and a handy dandy little Lego plastic separator.  I used the knife just to start the separation and the used the plastic wedge (around $2.50 at the Lego store) to fully separate the bricks.

You could use Legos for so much in the classroom and even though it is an investment (I spent around $65 for everything), you won't need to purchase them again. I used to use party favor sized Playdoh a lot for non-linguistic representations and still like to use them, but they dry out so quickly and the students are somewhat limited in what they can do.

Just be sure to write your name on the buckets in case you lend them out and number them that way you can hold your students accountable.

I plan to use these in a professional development coming up as well as in classrooms to model lessons.  I can picture these being used to represent their understanding of a concept, definitions to vocabulary words, metaphors, fractions, probability, you name it!

What would you use Legos for in the classroom?

End of School Countdown Day 9 - Classroom Management

This isn't the most revolutionary idea for classroom management, but it's a cute one.  I got this idea from my mentor teacher during student teaching and have been using it ever since. It's a "May Bag". Do you all use this or have ever seen it? I love it, but to be honest things very rarely get put into the May Bag these days. When I taught 2nd grade it got a lot more use because it would be filled with random legos,  action figures, etc.

The idea is relatively simple and we have all encountered it. A kid brings something to school and even despite a friendly warning/reminder, they continue to play with it. The mighty May Bag now enters into the equation.  Once a toy goes in there, it stays until May (dun dun dun!!).  The last day of school I go through the May Bag and it is always pretty funny because the kids either had completely forgotten about their item or no one even knows who it belongs to.  I had to make a rule that if there is any arguing over an item and its owner, then it gets "put away until next year" (aka usually thrown away).

Here's your very own May Bag sign for your classroom. Make sure you choose a jazzy, flashy bag - the more attention getting the better! ;)  Click the picture below for the link to download. Enjoy!

Choice Menus

Who doesn't love choices? I'll take the tart frozen yogurt with strawberries, kiwi, raspberries, and yogurt chips, please! Oh heck, why not throw a frosted animal cracker on there while you're at it - it's too healthy as it is now! You know you have done this; half the reason why we love those frozen yogurt self serve places is because of all of the choices! Kids are the same way too, the more choices you give them, the better off everyone is! 

This idea came to me via a professional development that one of our instructional coaches presented to us.  I did this for our state testing writing part to help out the Language Arts teacher. In order to cover as much material for them as possible, I had them choose a variety of tasks to complete while I conferenced with students about their writing. Normally I would do this more as a "fast finisher" activity or for those gifted students who need more stimulation. :)

I filled out the following form with activities that I wanted them to complete.  I assigned how many I wanted them to complete and what day I wanted it done by.  The link to download this template is at the bottom of the post.

Then I created a system so that the papers were organized and easily accessible for my students. I have these cubbies in my classroom which are nifty, but kind of useless in middle school. Finally it hit me that I could be using them for this instead of just textbook storage!! Duh!

If you don't have nifty difty cubbies, you could always use plastic trays to organize the assignments.

I made signs for the different menu options as well as numbers for the different assignments within those categories. I also laminated these signs because they are in a heavy traffic zone.

This has been a great tool in my classroom and I hope it can be in yours as well. You can really customize it to any subject area or ability level!

Want to download the free goodies???

Click the pictures below to download the TWO different freebies!

Let me know if you plan on using these and how it works out in your classroom. Enjoy!

End of the Day Clean Up Routine

Because of budget cuts, our janitorial staff has been significantly downsized. We went months without getting vacuumed and we still to this day have to put our trashcans in the hallway so that the junior high students can come around to empty our trash during the school day. My teammates and I decided to come up with a system so that even though we weren't getting regular cleanings, our rooms weren't complete disaster zones.

ENTER the stickers.

I have seen these stickers floating around bloggy land for a while now and had never used them in my classroom.
We put an even amount of colored labels on all of the desks and then covered them with packing tape so they wouldn't get torn off or mangled.

Every color was assigned an end of the day job. We thought about the places that accumulate the most mess around the room and decided on the following tasks: straighten the desks, pick up trash off the floor, clean/wipe down the counters (including the larger small group table) and cubbies, and wipe down the desks with sanitizing wipes.

These jobs are easily changeable to whatever the needs are for your classroom.

A few minutes before the bell rings, I have the students start their clean up procedure. It is done quickly and quietly and every one has a job to do. It took a lot of training to get them to the point that they would be able to do this without constant reminders and supervision.  I have to be honest though that when a guest teacher is in my classroom, it doesn't go quite so smoothly...

As the year has progressed I have created some "special" jobs for my students who have difficulties, ummm, following directions to put it mildly.  You know little Jumpin' Johnny or Busy Betsy, you get the picture, just give them a job to do and keep it consistent (like wiping down the sink or erasing the learning targets, something, ANYTHING).

I absolutely love this routine! Not only does it give a structured, consistent ending to our day everyday but it also helps our classroom stay spankin' clean!

Here's a little freebie...

I made a little sign for my classroom so that the students will always know what their job is especially if we switch seats. We made little nicknames for each of the jobs so please don't judge our attempt at creativity.

Click here to download. :)

You can use these stickers for soooo much more too! Cooperative learning groups, accountability purposes by calling on a "color" to answer a question... the sky's the limit!

Do you have an end of the day cleaning routine? If you do, I would love to hear about it. Enjoy the freebie!

Group Presentations

I love project based learning. I will often assign my students expert group presentation assignments that the students get to choose what they want to present based on a list of choices.

Right now in 6th Grade, we are doing natural disasters so the students were allowed to choose a natural disaster to present on. They were given questions that they needed to research and had to create a presentation that included at least one type of technology.  They could choose the form of presentation that they wanted to do, but most usually choose power point.

I love these assignments because it allows for so many opportunities to research, summarize information, presentation skills, non-fiction comprehension, collaborative team work, and much much more.

I used someone's packet and adapted it to fit my needs and now I don't remember who created the original packet! If you did or know who did let me know!

Click the picture below to download the natural disasters presentation guidelines:

While the students are presenting, I always think it is important to have the other students be doing something. Not only does it keep them busy so they won't be tempted to get squirrely during others' presentations, but also helps me to see if they were listening and learned something from these. This is just an example of one I would use, but the nice thing is that you can adjust it to the presentations that the kids are making. I also like that it gives them a chance to write an affirmation down for each group. We talk about how just writing down "good presentation" or "you did a good job" isn't an acceptable affirmation and that we should strive to write down specific things that the group did well based on what we know good presenters do (eye contact, clear speaking, didn't read straight from the slide, etc).

Click the picture below to download the "what the other students are doing during presentations" page (haha, I can never think of a good title for these!):

Do you do expert group presentations in your class? What do you have the other students do while their classmates are presenting?

Affirmation Bags

At our school, we do a program called Capturing Kids' Hearts. Does anyone else's school do this also? I like the program and a really large part of it is writing affirmations. The students write them to each other as a way of showing their appreciation for one another. Usually one day a week I have my homeroom write affirmations to each other to strengthen the bonds within our little classroom, but I also encourage them to write notes to others within our school community. They love writing small notes to each other! You would be amazed at how sweet these are and even though it takes 10 minutes out of your school day, it really makes a huge difference as far as your classroom climate and mutual respect goes. 

Since I teach 6th grade and the students rotate classes, it was difficult to organize a system where students could "deliver" notes to one another at an appropriate time. I created homemade mail boxes in my classroom so students could leave affirmations for one another.  One of my students' jobs in every class is to distribute the affirmation for their specific class during bell work every day if we have mail.  Since I encourage my students to write affirmations if they finish their work early, we usually always have mail to pass out. Some students even write them at home and bring them the next day to deliver, so cute!

Here's how I made them:

I bought three different colored gift bags from Target. I think they were 99 cents each so it's not like they set me back too much!  I cut off the handles because those weren't necessary.

I then used these "Hello My Name Is" clip art pictures by Maree Truelove (love her stuff!) and created labels for the bags. I didn't upload a freebie for this just because I did pay for the clip art, but I used LD Shelly Script as the font so that you can recreate it. Don't you just love free fonts? 

I used Mod Podge Gloss to adhere the printed labels, but if I had a choice I would have used rubber cement instead. I had to use glue dots to stick down the corners after a few days because it wasn't working so well.

I used washi tape to decorate the tops of the bags as a little decoration and to tie all of the bags together.

I ended up just stapling them to the wall along with class lists so the students would know which bag to drop their affirmations in.

Do your students write affirmations to one another? Is it something you would want to try? Let me know if you do so we can give each other ideas! :) 

Supply Tubs

I made these supply tubs for my classroom. I was sick of students accidentally putting my supplies in their backpacks. I had to make sure that if they borrowed my stuff they were held accountable for putting back what they used.  I bought these nifty stack and carry tubs from Target for around $8 a piece.  I love the two compartments and helps keep everything organized and in its place.

I cut out vinyl numbers using my Silhouette Cameo and stuck them onto each bin. Now each row in my classroom has its own bin to use.

I assigned a manager to each bin to ensure that each student in their row, put their supplies back in the bin.  I attached stickable dry erase sheets to each bin so the managers can write their names on them. Because I have three classes rotate through my room, this is very helpful so we know who the managers are in each class.

The mangers get the bins whenever we do anything involving colors, scissors, or glue (which is pretty much everyday). I have already noticed a huge improvement and hopefully this year, I will end the year with more than six scissors. :)

Just A Quickie

This week has been crazy! I did my student led conferences and will blog about that later this week. They went so great! I can't believe I haven't been doing them this whole time.
I am loving that it is Sunday and my house is quasi clean, my laundry is done, I have grocery shopped for the week, AND I still have today and tomorrow to just enjoy my days off.
Alright, now to get down to business here. I have a very wise instructional specialist who told me my first year of teaching that I only called on the kids whose hands were raised. I didn't even realize I was doing it!  I still do this accidentally, but to hold the kids accountable I have a few tips. 

Pick-a-Student Can:
I know a lot of us have these cans with the popsicle sticks in them. I had to label mine because I have two different classes.

Looks like these have seen better days! They get used a lot!

I also have a toilet paper tube in each one. I start off the day with all of the popsicle sticks in the center and as I call on the students I put them to the outside of the tube so I can control the probability a little bit. It works great!

Smart Board Spinner:
I am so fortunate to have a Smart Board and so I am able to use the spinner. The kids absolutely love this and it is so easy to create. I already have the tables numbered and then I number off the students according to their seats. If there aren't 4 to a table, then some students are assigned two numbers. This could easily be made into a spinner with the total number of students on it if you don't have tables.

Have a great rest of your 3 day weekend!