My Favorite Resources & a Back to School Freebie

I've got a few more glorious weeks of summer and then it is back to the classroom for me. I have to be honest, I have not been having as many back to school nightmares as I usually do, but I'm sure they'll start soon!

Today I want to talk about my favorite resources for the classroom, so let's just jump right into it.

1) Morning Work

I said morning work, but really this system could be used at any point throughout the day. Typically, morning work is used in the morning to help settle students and provide them with a little language or math (or both) review. I like to split that up and have the math review at the beginning of the math period and the language review at the beginning of the reading/writing block. However you do it, I think the important thing to take remember is the routine & the review.

Students (and teachers) often thrive on and need routine. That doesn't mean you can't switch it up every now and then - by all means, keep it interesting - but I find that students (especially struggling learners) really work their best when they know what is expected of them throughout the day. Plus, establishing this routine early on will cut down on all those "What should I be doing?" questions during the morning or the beginning of a period.

Now routine is important, but let's not forget about the review aspect. I will never forget when I was student teaching and my mentor teacher and I decided to give the students a little exit ticket on place value. We were not working on place value at the moment and oh boy, it was an eye opener. This was when it really hit me, how important it is to incorporate review into the daily schedule. Students not only need to review the new material with which they are being presented, but also those ever-so-important basics that form the foundation of their learning.

When we talk about a daily review, I don't think it should be extensive. That can waste valuable class time and be counterproductive. I mean a simple, daily review, where every student can feel successful. I created Daily Math and Daily Language reviews that are super easy to use (just print and provide to students) and with only five questions per day, do not take up too much time or overwhelm students.

If interested, you can click the picture above to be taken to the 3rd Grade Daily Math Bundle, or click {HERE} to check out the other grades available. I've finished 1st through 4th and am currently working on a 5th grade version.

I also have Daily Language available:

Again, you can click the above picture to check out the 3rd Grade bundle or click {HERE} to check out the rest. I've finished 1st through 3rd (bundles and individual packs available) and am currently working on a 4th grade version.

2) Formative Assessment

Like I said, I have yet to head back to school, but one question I know I will be needing to answer soon is "Where are my new students at?"

When I was in University, the professors could not speak enough about the importance of formative assessment and that is something I always try and incorporate a ton of into the classroom. Before you start working on the new curriculum for the year, you really need to find out what your students know and what they still need to work on. This year, I've created a Back to School Ready pack (available for 3rd & 4th) of 10 printables (5 math and 5 language) to get a good idea of where the students are at, based on the previous year's standards. This will give you a great idea of your group's strengths and weaknesses, which is essential when planning for the year.

Click the pictures above to head to the 4th grade version and {HERE} to check out the 3rd grade one.

3) Reading Comprehension Printables

Reading comprehension strategies, where do I begin? Through teaching reading and doing learning support, I've come to realize that reading comprehension strategies are kind of like mental math strategies. Some students just get it, some students get it but can't explain why they get it and some students need to be explicitly taught it, sometimes repeatedly. I've worked with struggling readers in the past who had to use a certain printable to show their thinking. The problem? They didn't understand how to use the printable, so of course they didn't know how to show their thinking.

I created two packs of printables, one set to be used with picture books and one set to be used with novels. The great thing about these is the age range is flexible and they can be used over and over again, with any book. Work together as a class to teach students how to use these at the beginning of the year and then they become an independent tool for students to re-use throughout the year to show their thinking as they read.

Click the picture above to check out the picture book pack and the picture below to check out the chapter book pack.

So, those are some of my favorite year-round essential resources, but now it's time to switch gears for a back to school freebie! If you've already been back in school for awhile, you can always tuck this away until next year!

Help your students get to know you with this fun, editable freebie! Fill in 10 facts about yourself and let the students decide which are true and which are false. Go over as a class and blow your students' minds with all the details (or only a select few!) about your life. Works best if you've led a fascinating life!

Share a classroom? No problem! I've also added a printable where you fill in the facts and have students decide whether they apply to one teacher, both or neither.

And finally, if your students had a blast discovering facts about your life, they'll probably love telling you about themselves, so I've also included a student version.

Click any of the pictures above or {HERE} to grab this freebie.

If you're interested in any of the resources I talked about, make sure to pick them up tomorrow during the one-day-only Teachers Pay Teachers Boost Sale. My entire store will be on sale and if you use the promo code "MORE15" you'll save even more! Just what I needed, another excuse to do back to school shopping!

Thanks for reading!

Are your new students Back to School Ready??

Wahoo, it's summer! The last week of school dragged on forever, but we finally made it! This past week was my first week of summer break and it was beautiful. The weather was beyond gorgeous - hot and sunny every day. Now that we're entering the second week, the weather has cooled off and back to school reality has set in. I know it's not quite back to school time, but I cannot help but think about it!

Let me paint a little back to school picture for you. It's the first day. You have twenty-odd smiling facing starting at you, ready to learn but . . . what to teach? The same questions always run through my head those first few days: Where are my new students at? Are they working at grade level? Above? Below? What do they still remember from the previous year and how much knowledge have they lost due to the summer slide?

Well, I think I've come up with a way to easily answer those questions, without taking up too much precious learning time. Enter my new packet, Back to School Ready - 4th Grade. It is a quick and easy pre-assessment for use during the first week or two of school. The five math and five language printables are based on the 3rd grade common core standards in order to give you a general idea of where your students are at, based on the previous year's curriculum, and what they may still need to work on.

Each printable is labeled with the standards it covers and also includes "I can" students so that you and your students are aware of what skills they should be demonstrating.

Provide one math and one language printable to your students (perfect for first week morning work!) each day for the first week and you will be able to see what skills they have retained from 3rd grade, and which you may need to re-visit before moving onto the new curriculum.

Although this is not an extensive review, I think it is a perfect way to help you facilitate planning for your year so that all students are on the right track and working at the appropriate level.

You can click {HERE} or the pictures above to check out the pack if you're interested!

Thanks for reading!

Daily Language Bundle Pack

You are about to see a rarity on this blog (well actually two rarities if you count blogging, since that has been pretty rare lately, too!) - a real picture. That's right. I actually took out my camera phone, and snapped a picture. I never do this. It took me two or three days to get first day of school pictures - SHHH! - of the students because I kept forgetting my camera.

But, on this rare occurrence, I took out my phone to get a picture of my new Daily Language pack. Perhaps I just had to mark this occasion, because in finishing up this new pack, I actually have finished up my ENTIRE Daily Language series for firsties, so I was able to bundle it, yay!

So, without further ado, here is one of the few pictures that will probably ever grace this blog . . .

I know, I know, but please hold your applause. I mean just look at that artistic angle, the blur, the ability to be two feet from it and still not have it fully in focus . . . is there an award or contest this should be entered into?

But seriously, how is that I can take a photo of something that is not moving, and it STILL appears out of focus. I tell ya, it doesn't matter how new/expensive/easy-to-use a camera is, I can not take a good picture to save my life, yikes!

But, back to the subject of the picture, my Daily Language pack. I now have 6 Daily Language packs available for first grade, including a Summer Take-Home booklet. You can click the pictures below to check out each individual pack:

Each page in the first five packs contains five questions, covering various common core language and reading standards. For the summer booklet, each page contains two days of practice, with each day covering one or two topics with one or two questions per day - gotta keep it simple in the summer! The packs spiral in difficulty, starting with a review of Kindergarten common core standards in the back to school pack and ending with a review of the first grade standards in the summer take-home booklet.

I chose to only do 5 questions per page because I wanted to keep it quick, simple and to the point. I find that the students that most need these reviews are usually the ones that also need something simple and not too overwhelming.

Constantly reviewing concepts, while adding new topics and questions makes this a perfect daily review that can be used for morning/bell work, to fill a few free minutes during the daily schedule or as homework. Each pack comes with an answer key - easy marking!

Click the pictures above, or {HERE} to check out the full bundle.

Now I've just got to finish the 2nd grade bundle, wish me luck!

New Winter Morning Work & TpT Cyber Monday Sale

Whew! Talk about preparing last minute. I have been working my butt off to finish my new winter Daily Language packet and I *just* uploaded it - just in time for the TpT Cyber Monday & Tuesday sale! Wahoo, who's ready to do some shopping? I don't know about you, but as soon as that calendar switches over to December, I just hear the ka-chings start as I begin my holiday shopping.

If you're interested, let's get onto the shopping details, shall we?

My whole store will be 20% off for Monday and Tuesday, and if you use the code TPTCYBER, you'll get an additional 10% off at checkout! Talk about a perfect time to shop!

So, with my whole shop on sale, that includes my new pack:

Some more winter-themed products:

And of course, some holiday units:

I am excited to start some holiday activities in the classroom this week, what are your plans?

A Tale of Morning Work

Brace yourself, this may be a long one!

I was first introduced to the idea of morning work (though we didn't call it that) in my final practicum. We focused solely on math work and I thought it was great . . . for the most part. I thought the concept of having a little review time before the math lesson of the day was great, but my mentor teacher and I noticed some things that needed tweaking.

The first issue was the content. My mentor teacher found the most fitting book she could find at the time, and it worked . . . for the most part. Although we intended the morning work to be completed independently, we found that about half the time, the questions were covering topics the students hadn't seen or were not a part of the curriculum at all. This meant a lot of explaining on our part.

Another issue was the length. Each day was a full page with 10 questions. Here's what I found. A handful of students raced through the page. Another handful got about a third of the way through the page and the students who *really* needed the review, got overwhelmed and often only completed one or two questions.

The final thing that wasn't quite working out was that it didn't review the basics quite enough. This became apparent when, on a whim, my mentor teacher wanted to check the students' understanding of place value and number sense. So we started easy-ish. As an exit ticket, I gave the students 3 numbers in standard form, and asked them to represent them in written and expanded form. The results stopped us in our tracks. We were shocked by the results. A small handful of students could correctly answer the questions and some students were WAY off base. It definitely showed us where we needed to direct our teaching.

This was a real eye-opener for me. I've worked with a lot of students struggling in math and I've found that they are missing the basics. How can I expect them to be able to calculate the area of a rectangle, when they don't know their multiplication facts? How can I expect them to regroup, when they haven't mastered place value?

It was those questions that led me to create my Daily Math packs. I wanted something that could be used as morning work or homework, that not only covered grade levels topics, but also reviewed the basics. I felt it was important for it to spiral, starting with the previous year's curriculum before heading into the new grade level. I wanted something that was manageable for students who needed the review - I wanted them to feel successful.

So I created those . . . but that was two years ago. I felt the packs looked a bit dated, so I have finally started giving them a new look. I'm about halfway through my third grade set, and hope to move onto my fourth grade set next.

Was it the best idea to start this task at the beginning of a new school year? No, probably not, but now that I've started I am so excited can't wait to get all the packs finished!

Now I'm off to work on the Spring pack!