Conference Ideas and a FREE Book!

It's finally here, Vegas Week! I'm gearing up for a great week of sessions, friends, and fun! I can't wait to catch up with old friends and meet new ones! Each day I am presenting, Monday-Thursday, I will do a blog post.  For those of you who couldn't make it this year, this will be a little taste of the sessions I am presenting. Be sure and read all the way to the bottom where you will find the FREE file!

All Eyes on You

My first session is called All Eyes on You!  I love this session! We can all find teaching great ideas on pinterest, facebook, Instagram, blogs, etc! But, if we can't manage our class our great ideas fail!
Here's a classroom management snippet from that session!

Having quick little sayings to get the kids attention will save you lots of time! With this one, I say "1,2,3 look at me." The kids respond back with "1,2 eyes on you."

This is another one you can use. What is important is to pick 1! Use it over and over again those first few weeks.  Now, you can easily get their attention!

This saying, "Check Yourself" is a great way to remind children to check themselves to be sure they are displaying appropriate behavior. This is great for in the hall. Teach your children the behaviors for the hall. Then, tell your children when they hear "Check Yourself", they need to be sure they are doing those behaviors.  No need to give lots of directions, just say "check yourself". 

Before leaving the classroom, say "Ready, set?"  The kids respond back, "You bet!" This is a great way to inform the children you are now leaving the room and hallway behaviors should begin. (All of these signs are from our Tackling Transitions unit.

Social Studies Sounds Super

My second session is all about Social Studies! This session helps teachers bring social studies into their math and literacy! I always find it easier to start with the Social Studies or Science standard, then, I can easily build in literacy and math as a way to learn those standards.
Here are a few ideas from that session!

Here is a fun way for the children to share siblings. Using photographs, the children place their picture on the Venn Diagram to show if they have brothers, sisters, both or neither!

Here is a fun way for children to share, through drawing or writing, things that babies need. Make the diaper by cutting a paper plate in half. Add blank paper behind the paper plate. Make the baby and add the paper plate!

Science and Social Studies vocabulary are Tier 3 vocabulary words! This means that understanding of these words is essential within that unit of study.  Here is an easy way to do that!

• Make a chart like the one above.
• Pick a social studies or science topic to be covered over 2-3 weeks.
• Once a week, ask the kids to tell you important words about that topic.
• Write the words on post it notes and add them to the chart. You may want to add a little drawing to accompany the word.
• Week 1 words are mostly from the children's prior knowledge.
• Weeks 2 and 3 words show their new learning.
  

If the kids are kindergarten or older, you may  invite them to keep  their own vocabulary notebook. They can add the words in their notebook as you add the post it notes. the unit vocabulary book and chart are from our Morning Meeting unit.

Literacy al a carte

The next session is Literacy al a carte! This session is a plethora of ideas to bring literacy to life! Marcia  Tayte, in her book, Worksheets Don't Grow Dendrites, tells us the importance of novelties to grow dendrites! This session is just that! It is full of novel ideas for reaching those literacy standards.
Here is an example from that session!

Did you know what these were? Yep, clothespin bags from the Dollar Tree.  I just added a face and a pocket on the front. Here, the kids are sorting toys by their beginning sound, l or f. But, you can put anything in these pockets...capital and lower case, rhymes with cat or rhymes with dog, etc.

Looking for an easy way to have kids retelling stories? It's super easy to make these wearable bibs. Each child wears a bib to indicate which character they are portraying!

Freebee!

Each day I am going to add a freebee. This little step book is great for teaching the song, "Five Big, Fat Turkeys". You sing it to the tune of "Three Little Angels".  Songs are a great way to develop prosody which is essential to becoming a fluent reader!

Here is what the book will look like when you are done.

Reproduce the pages on card stock. Cut them out like the ones above. Laminate

Stack the pages starting with the cover, then 5, 4, 3, etc.  Bind book at the bottom!