Classroom Management With A Mario Twist

Hello All!
We just finished our 3rd week of school. It has been a whirlwind of events.
I have modified my classroom management plan slightly for the new year.
First of all, I created a brand new clip chart to go with my video themed classroom. I don't have a picture of the finished product, but it is hanging in my room.

Here is a peek at it! The link to purchase is here: Video Game Themed Clip Chart

I use this clip chart when students are following our 5 rules. Students are able to clip up and down as needed. Last year, when the student ended on "Outstanding" which is now my "Winner", they would receive a note home. This year I am doing things differently. When students end on "Winner" they get to move a smaller clothespin up a block on the bulletin board. After moving up 5 blocks they get a certificate to a local pizza place. Their clip will stay on the goal and then they get a new color clip to reach the goal again. Are you ready to see a picture?

It is Mario reaching the goal! The students get to be like Mario and reach their goal! They love this!

We record where we finish each day. I use these calendar sheets. They are free!
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/2013-2014-Calendar-for-Behavior-Management-767352

Also, here is a peak at my whiteboard, which is also Mario themed. I will have another post explaining what I did and how we use each section.

What awesome theme are you using this year? Leave a blog post and win an item from my TPT store for free!

Tammy

TPT Mega Sale

I'm sure most of you have heard about TPT's huge back to school sale. Today and tomorrow save up to 28%. You need to use code BTS13.
As most of you know I am still new to blogging and to TPT. I have had 1 sale. I really think the two math products I have are awesome resources. I have blogged about both of them before. I will post the links to them here so that you can check them out. They are both aligned to Common Core. I used both last year and enjoyed using them.
As an added bonus, if you purchase the Time Task Cards today or tomorrow, I will give you the MDI file for free.
Common Core Math MDI file
Time Task Cards
Hope you are finding lots of great deals on TPT. Share some with me in the comments!

Tammy

Groovebook!!! YAY!!

I just received my first Groovebook in the mail and have to tell you all about it! First of all, it is a free app that you download on your phone! Yes, I said free. Then you upload 100 photos and for $2.99 they print and ship them to you!

Here is the pretty cover. It is silver and sparkly. The edges are perforated, so the photos tear right out. Most of the photos printed out well. There are a few that are blurry. 

I don't know about you, but I take many pictures in my classroom using my phone. I was able to print these off in my first book. I plan on passing them out to students at Open House!

I hope you are still reading because here comes the awesome part! Use my code and you will get your first month free!

LENS11

Please leave me a comment if you use my code for your free Groovebook!

Hope you love yours as much as I love mine!

Tammy

Favorite Pins Friday-First Linky with The First Grade Parade

I will admit that I am new to all of this and linking up with other Blogs. I am slowly getting the hang of it. I also must say I love this one! A whole blog post to talk about pinterest, YAY!

http://thefirstgradeparade.blogspot.com/2013/07/favorite-pins-friday_12.html

I have found some amazing things on Pinterest! 

1.

http://www.thecraftyclassroom.com/HomeschoolToolsMathTimesTables.html

What a great way to practice multiplication facts at home. She has printables and instructions on how to make each folder. I love that this would be fine motor and following directions practice. I also love that each student could make one. Also, you could send home only the facts you want the student to practice. Then put a star on the card when they have mastered it and keep adding more cards to practice. 

2. I am a scrapbooker by nature, so I love anything crafty. My new favorite obsessions are Project Life and Washi tape. This next pin is about Washi Tape!

http://secondgradenest.blogspot.com/2013/07/favorite-pin-friday.html

After clicking through the pin to get the URL, I discovered this also came from the same linky party. I currently have a pink keyboard cover on my computer that I am in love with. I probably won't do this pin but love it just the same. 

3. I found these super cute sugar cookies!

http://www.joysama.com/2013/07/swirled-sugar-cookies.html

I love how super cute they are. Also, I love how easy they would be to make. 

I think I will be doing this post weekly!

Thanks for joining me and please remember to follow me and leave a comment!

Tammy

Classroom Management

I am linking up with Seusstastic Classroom Inspirations for this post!
http://seusstastic.blogspot.com/2013/07/classroom-management-linky-party.html

With the upcoming year approaching I am beginning to prepare for this year. It is time to reflect on my classroom management and begin to make changes for next year.

1. Last year I had a basic clip up and down chart. We started off using jewels if a student ended on outstanding that did not work at all. The jewels kept falling off. I also gave Outstanding tickets daily to students who finished the day on Outstanding. This took a lot of time and I will not be doing this next year. 

This year I will use the same basic chart from last year. We will track and document where we finish each day on these handy calendars. They are free so please download them and let me know what you think.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/2013-2014-Calendar-for-Behavior-Management-767352

Students who end on outstanding will receive a sticker to place on their clothespin. For every 5 stickers they will get a new clothespin. I plan on using Washi Tape on the clothespins to make them fun and different for each level. 

This idea came from Stephanie at 3rd Grade Thoughts. This is the blog post that explains how she is using her clip chart. 

2. Late last year I discovered Class Dojo. This free tool is amazing! I do the majority of my classroom management using this tool. I have my class set up along with my class rules. During a lesson I can award points for positive and take points away for negative behavior. I do this all without having students leaving their seats to clip up and down. At the end of the lesson I decide who will clip up or down. It is different every time, 1 positive point does not always guarantee a clip up and 1 negative point does not always guarantee a clip down. Now onto the data part! It keeps track of data for every student. At the end of the week, I print off the data sheets and staple them to Friday Letters. Parents can see what behaviors students need to work on! How awesome is that!

So that is my plan for next year!

Tammy

Summer Organization

This summer has been a busy one for me! I have been busy working hard trying to organize my classroom. My goal for the year is to start and stay organized! Ha!

Well I have decided to do a few things this summer to help with that.

1. Clean out cupboards!

I should have taken a before and after picture of all the cupboards. I am very lucky to have many whole class books. The problem was they were taking up two shelves in my cupboard and I only used them once last year. The storage wasn't efficient at all. I decided to box them up and then label the boxes. I have the title, author and reading level of each book on the side of the box. I also took one book out from each set and put in my classroom library so the students have access to them.


I decided to use my file trays to organize my paper this year. I filled those up rather quickly.

I still had lots of odds and ends that needed a home. Reallygoodstuff.com to the rescue. I am in love with this site. I purchased my book boxes and mailboxes from them last year. They had green and pink plastic organizer bins on sale for $6 for 6 bins. I bought 3 sets and decided they would be a great way to organize my cupboard.

Aren't they super cute? I love that they are stacking. Also since they are in cupboards with doors the colors did not matter.

2. Classroom Library

My classroom library drove me crazy last year. I had white bins from the dollar store. It always looked messy. After some debating, I have decided to try having the books on the shelf. I went ahead and bought the garage sale stickers, I used the rectangle ones. I labeled the books by reading level and they are color coded. This should make finding the right level very easy.

I think I will add some bookends to help keep them looking nice. These books took up 3 shelves the old way, now they fit on one. I can't wait to finish the rest of my library and be able to add new books to my library. 

3. Have Units pre planned and ready to go!

I am still working on this. I have been able to start planning my launch and first units for reading and writing workshops. I am excited to show them to the other 3rd grade teacher and make some tweaks. 

I have found an amazing website that has both Reading and Writing Workshop ideas and lesson plans. Yes, I said Lesson Plans. They have a whole year plan with some lessons having links to lesson plans. If you haven't been to the site, you really should check it out. 

http://www.wrsd.net/literacy/launch.cfm

Also, Please Follow me using either Bloglovin or your e-mail on the right hand side of my page. If you go to my Common Core Math Post and Comment, I have a freebie for you!

Bloglovin

I am now on Bloglovin!
Trying to figure things out as I go!

<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/9792337/?claim=f9yjscqrjrm">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

You can follow me using the button on the right hand side! Make sure to check out the post before this for a freebie!

Common Core Math

Last year we implemented Common Core in our school. It was a year that I learned a lot. It also was my first year teaching third grade. Our professional development focused on math and math strategies. We learned about MDI's or Meaningful Distributed Instruction. You choose a focus for the year when writing these problems. For 3rd grade we chose multiplication and division. We have two short story problems for each day. These problems should be able to be solved in 30 seconds to a minute.
After the first problem, I have three students come to the board and model how they solved the problem.
Then we choose one way of solving the problem, discuss it and then try to solve the second problem using that same strategy.
I love that we are doing story problems at least 3 times a week. I also love that the whole thing takes about 5 minutes, once you have your routine down.
I have created 60 MDI's for your use. Each one comes with two story problems. You could use them as an MDI or just use them as story problems.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/3rd-Grade-MDI-or-Story-Problems-Multiplication-and-Division-683035

I also am unsure if anyone sees or reads this. I am also unsure how you would subscribe to follow it. Anyone to comment on this post, to let me know you are seeing this or to help me figure out how I know if people are following my blog can have this for free!

Ready, Set, Comment!

Math Time Task Cards

So the end of the year is almost here. 16 more days! So much left to do, though. We have been working with time to the minute and story problems here recently. I decided to make some time task cards.
Math 3.MD.1 Time Task Cards
I am so excited for these. You should really take a second and look at them!

New to Teachers Pay Teachers!

So, I finally listed something to sell on Teachers Pay Teachers.
I will admit, that I am still learning how to do everything. Inserting the pretty clipart is something I am new to, so my first products certainly reflect that.
I uploaded some government worksheets including a test that we just finished using in our classroom.

You can find my resource here!

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Government-WKS-Packet-including-Test

We have been using MDI's this school year in math. Meaningful Distributed Instruction is MDI. These are very short, they should take about 5 minutes total. To be honest, when I first started they took about 15 mins, now we are down to 5. Students are presented a story problem and they are to solve it. Every student has to try. The focus is on how they solve the problem, what strategy they use. I walk around and choose 3 students who hopefully used 3 different strategies. They come and explain their thinking to the whole class. My job is to help them make connections to things we are learning in class. Then I choose one strategy, go over how it is used, and then present students with another problem. They then use that strategy on their second problem. I choose one student to come model. We try to figure out if the student used the strategy that was modeled and chosen. 

Well since we have been using these this year and will continue to next year, I made a file to help keep me organized. We do 3 MDI's a week. It has 60 MDI's, with a focus of multiplication and division. The packet includes a list of all the story problems. I also print two sided and cut in half. First problem is on the front and second problem is on the back. Students write on their paper and then into their mailboxes they go. 

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/3rd-Grade-MDI-or-Story-Problems-Multiplication-and-Division

Hope you Enjoy!

ScootPad

Have you heard of this gem? I recently learned aBout it through Pinterest.
Here is a link to the blog where I first learned about it.
http://www.lessonplandiva.com/2013/02/do-you-use-scootpadcom.html

Now here are my thoughts on this gem. First of all I set up my whole class in about 10 minutes. I did have trouble signing up using their google feature. I had to end up using a different email. After I was actually signed up and logged in, 10 minutes to put my kids in. I could even choose their usernames if I wanted. I didn't bring their username and password list home with me, so at the moment the computer generated them. However I love that I have the option to make them the same as the ones we use at school. Total plus. Also you can print out cards with their username and password.
Next I was able to assign homework based on common core standards. Honestly this was tricky for me. It took a day and I had to delete my original homework assignment before I was able to get it to work. Most likely user error. It was pretty self explanatory.
One thing I did do was make my own student account to try out to make sure everything worked.
In addition to the homework they have a self paced learning path also. This goes through the common core as well, but allows you to adjust the level of common core for those that need easier and harder practice
Now the big question, how will I use this in my room.
First of all, there will be one homework assignment per week for math and reading to complete. We have 2 computers, 2 iPads and access to laptops. We will go to our computer lab once a week to give time for this, if needed. Since not all my students have Internet at home, the homework section will be completed at school. The self paced section may be completed at home. This will give me more information on what my students can do and where they are. It also gives them added practice.
My referral link is posted below if you would like to try it out. It is free for the first 30 days, then $5 a month.
I will post more as we use it in class.
http://scootpad.com/247142

Homemade Valentines

I have a very active five year old son. In order to help with his attention and hyper ness we have cut artificial dyes out of his diet. Short side of the story is if it has a color word on it we usually don't feed it to him.
Well holidays such as valentines day bring out tons of candy. Not as much as Halloween, but still an excess.
This year we made the same candy less valentines as last year for my sons's class. The idea came from Pinterest. Melted broken crayons in heart molds, make awesome multi-colored crayons.
A few tricks we have learned to make this go easier:
1. Use a utility knife and cutting mat to take the paper off. This is so much quicker.
2. Use new crayons. Buy them at back to school time. I always buy like 20 boxes to use through the year.
3. Don't bother cutting the crayons into small pieces, break them in half and put the halves in separate molds. Much easier and quicker and works just the same.
4. Use a scrap booking tape runner. I prefer my pink A&G gun. I put one strip on card and stick smooth side of crayon down.
5. Also add a do not eat note on these. I have given them to 4 and 5 year olds and find this disclaimer important. (Nothing terribly bad happens if you eat a crayon, I ate one on valentines day in kindergarten, ok maybe 4. I did throw up but am perfectly fine.)
Hope you enjoyed this post and have another useful idea for candy free valentines.