Five for Fourth of July!

Happy Fourth of July! 

I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday!

1.

This is what our 4th Fest looks like...

How do you all celebrate the 4th? I know a lot of people get really into going to a huge fireworks display, or have a picnic or BBQ...but Killer B and I have always been a bit more laid back. We usually buy a few rockets and roman candles to set off for our dogs to watch, and that's about it! Woohoo!

Seriously though, we're almost always visiting family in Atlanta around this time of year, so it's hard to do too much.

It's kind of a bummer that this holiday is in the summer. It'd be a lot of fun to celebrate it with the kids at school. There are so many cool things you could do with them too! 

2.

Don't forget to stop by and enter this giveaway! Today's the last day to enter! There are lots of great prizes to be won!

3.

I'm sharing my favorite font of all time today! It's one I made a while back for the express purpose of using only a little ink. I make a lot of my bigger TpT files using this font. It's called Nick's Typewriter because it's my handwriting in typewriter style letters. Grab it up for free! 

4.

Not at all related to the Fourth of July, but I'm getting excited about the Institute on Academic Differentiation I'll be attending in a couple of weeks at the University of Virginia! The leader of the institute is Carol Ann Tomlinson. The workshops are all about things like flexible grouping, mindset, close reading, teaching up for complexity, etc. The institute is offered at two levels, and I'm excited to be going to the more advanced version because I hopefully won't have to worry about any of the workshops being too introductory. 

Monticello is right next door! I'm looking forward to
marking this site off of my must-see list!

Spending a week away from my lovely wife, while doing teachery things in the summer is sure to be a challenge...but luckily I'll have some good company! My principal and another teacher from my team are going with me! They're both cool, so I'm sure dinners and after workshop activities will be fun too. This is one of the few times that being a male teacher in elementary pays off by the way...can you say "hotel room to myself?" I can! I can finally snore all I want without Killer B punching me in my sleep!

Hopefully if the jealousy I have of all my BBBs who are going to the TpT Conference in Vegas hasn't worn off by then, this'll help.

5.

Just for fun I thought I'd put some of the patriotic products in my TpT store on sale for Independence Day! Actually they're on sale all weekend. I also put all of my Kaboom math games on sale too, because you know... kaboom... like fireworks!

So grab some stuff at 20% off and let's help stimulate the American economy together! ;)

Here's a few of my favorites that are on sale:

The full list of all 10 on sale items can be seen here:

My BBB Emily over at I Love My Classroom is also having a sale!

Enjoy your weekend!

Back to the Archive! - 7/3/13 - Modified Cafe Menu

So, I'm bringing a post back to the future from exactly a year ago! This one was originally posted on July 3rd, 2013! I chose it because it's a good example of how I've set up my Reader's Workshop, and includes a freebie! 

So, without further ado...let's go BACK TO THE ARCHIVE!

I'm linking up with Workshop Wednesday from Ideas by Jivey for her July Workshop topic - setting up, before the kids arrive.

I'll be sharing a bit (and a couple freebies!) about how I do my Reader's Workshop this time because if you like it you'd need to prep before the kids arrive. I have a relatively non-traditional (but becoming more popular!) way of teaching reading, but I think it really works. I've heard a lot of good things from others about it too, so I feel like I'm on the right track.

It'd be crazy to talk about everything I do in this post, but I think a lot of the backbone to what I do stems from how I group, and my modified Daily 5/CAFE Menu.

Me with a mixed ability reading group -
from footage taken for an instructional video on teaching
using a reader's workshop! I'm famous! ;)

I do a combination of strategy groups (2-5 kids) that change consistently, mini-lessons, and one-on-one conferences. I do not have static leveled reading groups. The kids in my groups can be "high" or "low" or whatever...the common factor isn't their reading ability or the book they're reading. It's the skill/strategy they need to work on. When a kiddo masters a skill/strategy they move into a different group or I start a new one for them. Some kids are in two groups. Some groups I see once a week, some I see every day. Some kids move groups quickly, some don't. Sometimes we use a passage for "close reading," sometimes the kids have their good fit books.

It all goes back to the age-old Band-aid lesson. (Maybe you've seen a pin on pinterest about it!) The first week of school I "cut my finger" accidentally and then procede to hand out band-aids to the whole class and insist that the kids put them on their fingers. They think it's silly that everyone should get one. This leads to a discussion about how I want my classroom to be based on equity, not equality. Everyone gets what they NEED, not everyone is treated the same. Some kids need me to be more hands-on than others when it comes to mastering reading strategies. The kids get it, and I never hear a complaint about "how come you met with Austin 3 times and me just once?"

Whole group mini-lesson (keyword mini) on figurative
language, using Wonder by RJ Palacio.

In order to help facilitate the madness, I give every kiddo a CAFE menu and we highlight all over it as the year goes by. I also keep pretty crazy charts in my pensieve about who is in what group, and when I last conferenced with each kid. Every student is usually working on at least 3 strategies - the one that the whole class is doing as part of my whole group mini-lesson, the one they are working on that I identify during their one-on-ones, and the one their strategy group is working on. Occasionally these will overlap.

My intern conferring with a student one-on-one. So nice to
have another adult to double up on these. Sadly, I don't
think I'll have one next year.

Because I was new to 5th grade two years ago I basically scoured the internet for everything I could find about using D5/CAFE in the upper grades. In the end I discovered a couple 5th grade CAFE menus that were almost what I was looking for. (I honestly have no idea where I found those original ones.) Over the last two years I've made a lot of adaptations to the merged menu I made, and I think it is in a good place now for me.

DISCLAIMER: It is not formatted identically to the "sisters' menu." I made some executive decisions. I went with the A for Awareness instead of Accuracy (I think accuracy is part of fluency anyway.) I also added/expanded on several strategies to the menu that were missing(imho), and removed some of the ones that I thought were too young for older kids. 

Please check it out (freebie of course!) to see if you think you could use it or any aspect of it! 

I'm moving to a 3/4 multi-age next year and I think that even though I made this with 5th in mind I am going to definitely use it with my 4th graders, and maybe tone it down a smidge for my 3rd graders. (Any 3rd grade experts out there want to chime in on that?! I'd appreciate it!)

Anyway, even though this is more work, I would find it incredibly difficult to go back to the way I was teaching reading 4 years ago at this point. (Four 20-minute rotating leveled guided reading groups, all kids had the same book, etc.) And I think a big part of that is the value I see in my one-on-one conferences and the fluid grouping. I feel like I know my kids' needs much more deeply now. I am in no way saying that what other teachers are doing is not just as effective or valuable, btw! I just finally found a good fit for my style and my particular kids' needs!

I use a pensieve like the sisters recommend. I have conferring pages in the notebook for every student, but I often find it more convenient to take my conference notes on a sticky label and then put them into the notebook later. Here is a link to the document I use to print them out on the 14 per page Avery brand labels! It's just like the D5 provided sheets, just printed on labels. It beats hauling my pensieve around the classroom.

A brand spankin' new linky this week is Win, Loss, & Cost from Third Grade Galore and Digital: Divide and Conquer!

Win :)
My recent win would have to be our delightful vacation to Savannah and Tybee Island. Check out recent posts (or join me on instagram, people!) for more info on that.

Loss :(
I've been neglecting my TpT store a bit to focus on other teachery things and now I've got a bunch of half finished projects going on and I'm getting overwhelmed by it all! I need to sit down and finish one soon!

A Thing of Cost $
To tie in with the Workshop stuff. Here is an example of something I might have my kids do at the teacher and independent stations to practice some of the CAFE skills! Check it out!

That's it for now! I'm looking forward to seeing all of the other workshop ideas! I'm always looking to improve how I do things, and I know I'll need to make some adjustments for 3rd/4th next year. I do a reading, math, and writing workshop in my room, so this linky was made for me!

And don't you think Win, Loss, & Cost is pretty fun too? Looking forward to seeing everyone else's!


I hope you enjoyed that blast from the past! And I hope you'll link up this summer too!

An InLinkz Link-up

Two...make that Three for Tuesday

I'm joining in again with Two for Tuesday! I put these guys on sale for the last two days of June, but didn't have a lot of interest...boo hoo. :(

So you can still grab them today for just $1 each! That's actually more than 50% off for a couple of them!

       

If cheap isn't good enough for you, how about the potential for some free things?! 

My BBB Christie is having her 1,000 follower giveaway right now! Be sure to head on over there and enter to try and win some amazing stuff!

Vacation time, 150th post, and three $1 deals!

The Sapelo Island lighhouse!

So, we've made it down for our annual trip to GA - just a 13 hour drive - and I have finally recovered from the driving part! Aside from visiting family, we'll also be spending a few days in Savannah and a few days on Sapelo Island. I'm excited to go to Sapelo, because it's one of those places off the coast of GA where there are no street lights, no businesses really, it's not a tourist destination, and you have to take a ferry to get to it!

So in honor of my vacation, the end of the month, and this being my 150th post I've decided to put three of my products up as dollar deals for the rest of the month! Summer is a great time to create, so hopefully these will help with that! The sale ends at the stroke of midnight on July 1st, so grab them while you can! Just $1 each! Get all three and save $5!

       

 I'll be chiming in again soon with another Back from the Archive post! See you then!

Favorite Forgotten Series From Childhood?

Anyone else read every. single. one. of these bad boys when you were a kid? Last year I wrote a donorschoose.org proposal to get a huge set of these books for my class library! My kiddos love them as much as I used to. 

What is a long forgotten series of books you've revived (or want to revive) for your own class library?

And, don't forget to link up sometime this summer with my Back to the Archive Linky! Just grab my sweet linky button here and then link up any time!

An InLinkz Link-up

Summer Bloggin' Two for Tuesday 50% off deal!

Howdy all! I'm chiming in really quickly to share a ridiculously good deal with you! I'm joining in with a bunch of other teachers for the Teaching Tribune's Two for Tuesday linky party!

So, for today only you can grab up two of my newest products for 50% off! That's a ridiculously good deal because I'm super proud of both of these products, and both of them are a STEAL at full price imho!

The first is my newest writing product, which is meant to be used with the book "The Day the Crayons Quit." It's a set of templates you can use to have your students write their own book, only this one is "The Day the School Supplies Quit." It actually includes two versions of the templates! There are 26 different school supplies, with two versions of each paper. The clip art was custom made by my brother, Peter! (Check out his TpT store!) The pack could be used by just about any grade level, because your writing expectations can be adjusted for every kiddo. Now's your chance to get this ready to go writing project for just $2.50! 

The second item I'm featuring is for my Math peeps out there! I love to teach using long term project based learning projects and simulations. As an avid gardener and farmer's market attendee myself, I just had to find a way to bring that into the classroom. I spent quite a while working on my gardening/small-scale farming simulation, How My Garden Grows. This project covers a TON of math skills in the 4th - 5th grade range. 

What's great about this product is that it can keep kids engaged in math for as long or as little time as you want. The difficulty is easily adjustable too. Want it to be a bit easier? Let the kids use a calculator for some parts, or walk them through some of the steps, etc. Have a kid that needs a real challenge? Let her work on it relatively independently! 

I used the project this past year in my class, and my students loved it! Several of them asked me for a blank copy so they could redo it over the summer...FOR FUN. What?! We used the project as an extension, so I still taught all of my regular math stuff, kids would work on when they were fast finishers, at home (by choice!), and then I'd set aside 10 minutes here and there to work on it with them. Grab it up here today for just three measly bucks!

And I haven't let my international friends out in the cold! I was asked to make a metric version, and that one is half off too! 

Back to the Archive Linky!

Aaah, summer is in full effect here in Central PA! The Netflix binging and home improvement projects have officially begun! I've also been spending some time working on wrapping up some new products, and revisiting some old ones!

In the spirit of a stress-free summer, I've decided to pull some old posts out of the closet, dust them off, and put them out there for all my new readers to see! For most of you it'll likely be the first time!

I'm calling it "Back to the Archive!" And if you have your own blog, I hope you'll link up with your own flashback! You don't even need 1.21 gigawatts of power...Just grab the image above and link up!

So, without further ado, here's a post from way back in March of 2013! It only got a measly 57 views back then! At the time those were amazing numbers for me, but hopefully more people will tune in this time around.

I've been waiting for a good time to share a few cool websites I recently stumbled across! The Techie Tuesday Link Up from Technology Tailgate is perfect for that! I'll be back tomorrow with a Workshop Wednesday Linky for literacy!

These three sites all branch off of the same main site, which belongs to the University of South Florida

http://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/genres/

This is an awesome collection of public domain stories that have been converted to audio and pdf files. Includes favorites like Aesop's Fables, Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland, Sherlock Holmes, Tom Sawyer, etc. Great way to implement a listening center into an upper grades classroom. 

http://etc.usf.edu/clipart/

This link leads to a great collection of black and white clipart for non-commerical use. It's kind of amazing how many images are on here. All free to use for educational purposes. 

http://etc.usf.edu/presentations/

This one is a link to a great collection of things to use for sprucing up powerpoint and keynote presentations. I imagine the frames, borders and buttons might have other uses as well. Again, all of the items are free for educational purposes. 

The last site is one that I'm super intrigued with, but haven't put to use in my classroom yet. I'd love any ideas or suggestions on how it might be used with students. It used to be called Wallwisher, but has changed its name relatively recently to Padlet.com.

Padlet allows you to have a virtual shared "wall" that people can post things on, kind of graffiti style. You can post text, images, files, etc. It's pretty cool. Check out the wall I made just for this post. It took literally 2 minutes.

Created with Padlet

Now, I hope you'll come back to link up or visit some of the links that others leave for you! The linky will be open all summer long!

An InLinkz Link-up