Back to School

Back to School Challenge

July 21, 2018 by Jodi Leave a Comment

The beginning of the school year is always exciting. New supplies, new students, new opportunities to try something new. However, it’s also stressful. The first couple of weeks always end up being a blur. One of the most important things that I want to accomplish during those first couple weeks of school is a sense of community. I think it is so important to teach students how to work together successfully. We do a lot of group work during the year, so they need to learn early how to cooperate with each other. My classroom challenges provide the perfect opportunity for students to work together to complete academic challenges and earn rewards together.

What is the Back to School Challenge?

The Back to School Challenge includes 10 academic based challenges for the students to complete in small groups of 3-5 students. After each group completes one of the challenges, that group earns a Challenge Ticket. The Challenge Ticket includes a coded mystery word that the group must solve using the decoder page. The first group to complete all 10 challenges (or however many you decide to use) is the winning group. You can decide if there will be a prize for each group or not. I usually hand out something little after each group is finished. (pencils, seasonal erasers, candy, stickers, …)

Each challenge has a picture on the top left of the page. This picture matches a picture on the Challenge Ticket. This makes organization of this project very easy. The academic skills that are included in this challenge include:

-Lowercase Letters
-Numbers or Letters
-Missing Numbers
-Rhyming Words
-Counting
-Beginning Letter Sounds
-Number Order
-Fixing Sentences
-Graphing
-Illustrating Sentences

“I bought your 100th day challenge last year and it was a big hit with the kids! I’m excited to introduce this to my new group of kids the first week of school. I think it will be a great way to promote team-building and cooperation skills, while also reviewing things that they should know from kindergarten.” -Beth

If you love this challenge, you may also want to check out my other Classroom Challenges including The Christmas Challenge, Valentine’s Day Challenge, Spring Challenge, and more.

Back to School Must Haves

July 17, 2018 by Jodi 1 Comment

Every year, a couple of weeks before school starts, I start purchasing things that I need for the school year. I always seem to find myself wracking my brain to try and remember everything that I need to get. I decided to make a list of items that I buy EVERY SINGLE YEAR before the school year begins, so I can make sure that I have everything I need. This list includes all of my must-have back to school items. I am not including those items that you buy once every couple of years or a new expensive item for your classroom. I am talking about the consumable items that have to be purchased every year.

This post contains affiliate links. I earn a small commission each time someone makes a purchase through one of my links, which helps to support the blog.

1. Crayons, crayons, and more crayons

You can never have enough crayons. I feel like my students must be eating crayons each year. They always bring their own at the beginning of the year, but most of those are gone by the second week of school. I always provide crayons in baskets in my classroom, but I am constantly adding more to the tubs. I usually stock up on the cheap crayon boxes at Walmart during back to school time (ALWAYS Crayola), but if I have to buy them later on in the year, I found that buying a large bulk box on Amazon was cheaper.

2. Glue Sticks

Glue sticks are another item that somehow disappear in no time. You can never have too many glue sticks.

3. Folders

I always get folders before the school year starts. I purchase red ones to use as Ketchup folders. (Students keep these in their desk to place work in that they need to “catch up” on.) I also love these Resource Folders from Really Good Stuff.

4. Mr. Sketch Markers

I get a new pack of Mr. Sketch Markers every single year. They last the entire year and are perfect for anchor charts.

5. Chart Paper

I go through at least one tablet of chart paper each year for anchor charts, interactive writing, etc.

6. Astrobrights Paper

I seriously use Astrobrights paper for everything. I love the colors, and I love the quality.

Find this Interactive Practice Folder in my Teachers Pay Teachers Store.

7. Sticky Putty

All of the walls in my classroom are cinder block. This definitely makes hanging things harder. I have found that Sticky Putty seems to work the best for keeping things up. There are still times when I come into my classroom after the weekend, and I have to pick things up off the floor, but it isn’t nearly as often if they are hung up with Sticky Putty.

8. Name Badges

I love having name badges for my students. These are great for the beginning of the year when they are still learning their lunch numbers. They are also great for subs and/or field trips.

9. Pencils

If you’re a teacher, you know how quickly students can go through pencils. Ticonderoga pencils are definitely the easiest to sharpen and are my go-to pencil choice.

10. Hand Sanitizer

I always purchase the gigantic hand sanitizer container from Sam’s for my classroom. There is a lot of sneezing, nose picking, and shoe tying in 1st grade.

What are your Back to School Must-Haves?

Are you new to 1st grade or do you just need some new and fresh ideas for Back to School? Check out my go-to for the first week of school.

Reading Warm Ups

March 31, 2018 by Jodi 1 Comment

Time spent in small reading groups is so important, and we have to make the most of our time while I have them at my reading table. I like to start with some type of quick warm up to get their brains working before we get into our lesson. I was constantly scrambling to come up with ideas, or I was stuck on doing the same things, so I came up with Reading Warm Up Cards.

These cards are full of quick reading warm ups that we can use in our small reading groups, as a whole group, or when we have a couple of extra minutes in our day. They are also great to use before lining up for lunch or recess. I printed, laminated, and placed each set on a metal ring. This way, they are easy to grab and use.

I created five sets of Reading Warm Up Cards to reach many aspects of teaching reading and language arts; Phonological Awareness, Phonics, Vocabulary, Fluency, and Grammar.

Phonological Awareness is the ability of hear and manipulate sounds. I like to remember that phonemic awareness can be done with your eyes closed. It truly is the foundation for learning to read. This set includes cards for Sentence Segmentation, Rhyming, Alliteration, Syllables, Onset & Rime, Phoneme Blending, Phoneme Segmentation, and Phoneme Manipulation. (48 Warm Up cards in all)

The Phonics Warm Up cards include 120 cards in all working on Letter Sounds, Short Vowels, Beginning Blends, Ending Blends, Digraphs, Long Vowels, R-Controlled Vowels, and Dipthongs.

The Vocabulary set includes 80 vocabulary warm ups. These cards include a variety of vocabulary words as well as work with synonyms, antonyms, prefixes, and suffixes.

The Fluency Warm Ups include 124 fluency cards working on Letter Fluency, Sight Word Fluency, Short Vowel Fluency, Long Vowel Fluency, Blend and Digraph Fluency, R-Controlled and Diphthong Fluency, Expression, and Short Story Fluency.

Grammar Warm Ups include 104 cards working on Sentence Structure, Word Order, Sentence Fragments, Ending Marks, Nouns, Plural Nouns, Possessive Nouns, Proper Nouns, Irregular Plural Nouns, Verbs, Present-Tense Verbs, Past and Future Tense Verbs, Commas, Contractions, Adverbs, Combining Sentences, Adjectives, Pronouns, and Abbreviations.

I have also bundled all 5 sets, 476 Warm Up cards in all, which includes the Phonological Awareness, Phonics, Vocabulary, Fluency, and Grammar sets. Click on the picture below to take a closer look and to download the preview files.

If you have any questions or comments, let me know. I love hearing from you and knowing how things are going in your classrooms.

Comprehension Notebooks

December 23, 2017 by Jodi Leave a Comment

Comprehension can be such a difficult task to teach, but these Comprehension Notebooks have been a life-saver over the past couple of years. They allow me to give a quick daily dose of comprehension, and we can really dig deep into each story. I personally use these in small groups, but they can also be used in a whole group setting. I prefer to use them in small groups because I can use a variety of grade levels in order to differentiate for my students.

Daily Comprehension Practice

These Comprehension Notebooks are set up on a 5-day schedule using the same story each day. In all honesty, I usually do these over a 2-3 day time frame. My schedule does not allow me to meet with each small reading group every day, so I usually do Day 1 and Day 2 together. Then, the next time, we reread and do Days 3-5. You can use these however you feel works best in your own classroom.

Differentiating with Comprehension Notebooks

I have 4 different grade levels of Comprehension Notebooks available (Kindergarten-3rd grade). I personally like to use each of the grade levels in my classroom depending on each student’s reading level. While the majority of my students do well with the Kindergarten, 1st or 2nd grade notebooks, I definitely have students that are capable of using the 3rd grade notebooks as well.

What does each Comprehension Notebook include?

Each notebook includes 30 weeks worth of comprehension practice using both fiction and nonfiction text. The comprehension skills are appropriate for each grade level and include a variety of skills. (cause and effect, main idea and details, compare and contrast, visualizing, theme, inferences, etc.) Every week includes a Write About It section that allows students to respond to the text and make text-to-self connections. In order to help you with differentiation, I also have two different bundles available for you. My K-2nd grade bundle is a great way to differentiate for a 1st grade classroom. I also have a K-3rd grade bundle that includes ALL of my Comprehension Notebooks.

What are teacher’s saying about Comprehension Notebooks?

“True brilliance…that is all I can say about this resource. I am going into my first year of teaching and have viewed thousands of resources and this is by far my favorite. The excitement I have for this is a little silly, I must say! (I even called my mom). I always struggled with comprehension as a child so seeing a clever way to implement reading comprehension activities aside from curriculum is brilliant!” -In the Shade

“This book is probably one of the best purchases I have made on TPT. I have used it daily. It is used as a must do for my students during centers. It took about six weeks of working with the students , but now they are working in a group of about 5 students and getting a lot out of the daily practice pieces. It goes along well with Journeys. I just have to tell the students what page to work on to match up with the comprehension skill of the week. Often they will ask if they can finish the page which is exciting to hearing. I sent it away to be bound into a book as shown and the students know to pull out their books when we have centers. If you are wondering if it is worth it… It is!” -Primary at Heart

“Absolutely a GAME CHANGER in teaching comprehension! Thank you for making a product full of practicality for my kiddos! Your hard work is beyond appreciated! Thank you for making my job easier!” -Krystina

Check out all of my Comprehension Notebooks.

Kindergarten Comprehension Notebook

1st Grade Comprehension Notebook

2nd Grade Comprehension Notebook

3rd Grade Comprehension Notebook

Kindergarten-3rd Grade Bundle

Interactive Task Folder

August 24, 2017 by Jodi 3 Comments

“I’m done. What do I do now?” I know you’ve heard this. My go-to answer is almost always “Go read a book.” This is always a great choice, but I also wanted to come up with a way for my students to have some other options. This Interactive Task Folder was the perfect answer.

After creating a Solar Eclipse Lapbook to use with my students, I knew that I needed to make something else like this that we could use on a regular basis. My students took so much ownership in their work and commented over and over again how much fun they had while making it.

This Interactive Task Folder is great for my early finishers. They can pull out their folders and work on sight words, phonics skills, vocabulary words, math facts, and more. These are also great for students to use when you find yourself with a couple of extra minutes before lunch or at the end of the day.

You will need a file folder for each student. Open up each folder and fold the two sides in towards the middle of the folder. Then, print off the pages needed to create the folder. I used Astrobrights colored paper, but you could definitely use white paper and have your students color their pages if they’d like. The front of the task folder includes a cover sheet, a 120’s chart, and a writing idea list.

For the inside, I have included a BOGGLE board that can be edited. This way, you can change out the letters when needed and just have the students glue the new board right on top of the old one. I also had someone give me the idea to put this on with velcro to make it easy to change out.

Students will also be able to practice their math facts and sight words. These pockets are sized to fit a 3×5 index card, or I have included editable math fact and sight word cards. The Reading Response sheets are perfect comprehension practice for students if they read a book in their spare time. I have included 4 different response sheets in this file.

The Making Words activity is a great way to practice spelling and phonics skills. I have included templates to create your own Making Words cards. I have also included a template for you to make your own vocabulary word strips. These can be changed out each week to keep the items fresh. I like to include the vocabulary words from our reading selections for the week.

On the back, I have included a Word List that is helpful for students when they are writing. It makes a great resource for them to use throughout the day.

These folders can take a bit of time to make, but once they are done, they are such a helpful resource. I highly recommend having your students make these instead of you or a parent volunteer. The students really take ownership in their work and are much more likely to use these if they are the ones making them.

What are teachers saying about this product?
“Very helpful; It’s nice to have everything a student needs in one place.”
“A great way to review basics on a daily basis! I love that I can edit parts of it, and can differentiate for all my students!” – Jennifer
“I think this is my favorite lap book ever! Such a useful tool and easy to individualize in my resource room.”

You can check these Interactive Task Folders out by clicking on any of the pictures in this post.

Design Your Perfect Classroom – A Project Based Learning Activity

July 24, 2017 by Jodi Leave a Comment

As teachers, we constantly think about how our classroom is set up. We may move furniture every year or even mid-year to change things around and try something new. But, have you ever tried to ask your students how THEY would like to have their classroom set up? What would their perfect classroom look like? What type of environment would they learn best in? What types of seating would they love to have? I decided to create a Project Based Learning project centered around this idea.

What is Project Based Learning?

Project Based Learning (PBL) is a way of teaching that allows students to work together to investigate, create, and solve problems in a deeper and more meaningful way. PBL addresses learning standards in a more complex way because students are actively involved in the learning process.

Every PBL activity has a question or problem to solve. Then, students work collaboratively together to brainstorm, research, and create a solution to the question or problem.

Just handing instructions to your students to complete a project is NOT Project Based Learning. In PBL, students will use critical thinking skills to brainstorm, research, plan, and execute their project. Then, students will reflect on their project and the entire process of completing the project.

Design Your Perfect Classroom – The Project

You will begin by presenting the students with the Essential Question. You can decide if you would like to do this project with “realistic” or “fantasy” type classrooms. They could even be separate PBL activities.

Students will have individual brainstorming and group brainstorming time built into this project. All of the steps to the project are laid out for you.

I have also included “Think About It” Question cards to really get their minds thinking critically about what would truly make the perfect classroom.

With this Project Based Learning Activity, I really wanted to put a huge focus on cooperative learning. This includes teaching the students to be active listeners. Each student should have the opportunity to be heard throughout the project.

An important stage in the PBL process is research. I have included some resource sheets to help students think about their research when designing their classrooms.

Every step of this project is broken down into manageable portions for your primary students. For the materials, you can provide the materials for your class or you can have them decide as a group which materials to bring from home.

I have provided a variety of recording sheets to fit the diverse needs of your students. Kindergarten students and early 1st grade students will be successful with the drawing reflection sheets and brainstorming pages, where 2nd graders and some 1st graders can use the writing reflection sheets and brainstorming pages.

What are teachers saying about this project?

“This is such a fantastic resource! This will be a perfect way to introduce working in groups right at the beginning of the year while also receiving insight on what students would like to see in our classroom! It will make for a great back to school activity! I really appreciate the step-by-step implementation directions, as well as the resources to even help with expectations. Thanks for a great resource!”

You can check out this Project Based Learning Project by clicking HERE or on any of the pictures.

Back to School Challenge

What is the Back to School Challenge?

Back to School Must Haves

Reading Warm Ups

Comprehension Notebooks

Interactive Task Folder

Design Your Perfect Classroom – A Project Based Learning Activity

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