Words Their Way

Have you ever found yourself looking at a resource you have been using and wondering if there is something better out there? This year I found myself asking that question when it came to the spelling program I was using. Don't get me wrong, the program I had been using might work great for someone else but I found it didn't quite work for my teaching style. I had heard a lot about the Words Their Way program and knew a couple of other teachers in my school had been using it so I decided to give it a whirl. Like anything else it is still a work in progress to get the hang of everything involved but I am slowly getting the hang of it.

If you haven't heard of the program before take a look at it here. What I love most about it is that it works with kids at their level. It starts off with a diagnostic spelling test that identifies students strengths and needs. Using this information students are placed in groups based on where they are at and then off they go. The other great thing is that students practice their spelling words independently with only a little guidance from the teacher which means I can help out the students that need a little extra guidance. One thing I have learned about this program is that it requires a level of organization in order to make it flow smoothly so I figured I would show you how I organize it in my classroom.

 First of all to keep the word lists organized I colour code my groups and then copy their weekly lists onto corresponding coloured paper. This way I can simply grab the next week's spelling packet and know exactly what list goes where. In my district we send our printing to a central printing office and it takes a few days to get there and back so I always make sure to have more than one week at a time. When I get my lists back I take a few minutes to organize them into weeks and then store them in my handy green drawers (I love Ikea!).

  

Now for the teaching portion:

On Monday I hand out the sorts to the students and they get busy cutting it out. I give each student two copies of the sort - one for at school, and one to bring home for practice. For the classroom activities each child has a plastic envelope to keep their supplies organized. These envelopes have their name and a coloured square in the corner so I know whose envelope it is and what group they belong in. In each plastic envelope are the following materials:

- an envelope to hold the cut apart sort

- a journal for students to write down their sorts and record their word work activities

- a dry erase bingo sheet (more about this in a later post)

- a laminated keyboard

As the groups are cutting out their words I begin calling groups over one at a time to the learning carpet. Here we quickly go over the sort for the week, read through the words, and go over any teaching points needed for students to understand the patterns.

 Once students have finished with me they take their words and complete the sort on their own. They then begin working on two other "must-do" activities: a written sort where they record their sort in their journals, and three sentences which each use at least one of the spelling words. We only work on spelling for about 15-20 minutes a day so completing the "must-do" activities usually takes our Monday/Tuesday.

As students complete the required activities they bring me their journals so I can check their work. If their written sort and sentences are done correctly they can begin working on earning a spelling bingo by completing different word work activities with their words for the week.

When students complete a bingo activity they show me and I sign off on their bingo sheet. For every bingo they earn the students earn a ticket in a weekly draw for a prize.  If they complete the entire bingo sheet they can earn five draw tickets. We usually keep the bingo sheets for a month or so before erasing them and starting over again. Check out my Word Work and Spelling Bingo post for more info on the activities and draw prizes. 

Finally at the end of the week students are given a spelling test of randomly selected words from the week's sort. I give the students an independent writing or reading task based on lessons from the week to complete while I am giving the spelling tests to each group. Most of the time students are able to work quietly and independently without help and I can quickly call each group over to the learning carpet and give them the spelling test. 

The first couple of weeks were a little chaotic and required some teaching and reteaching and reminding of the expectations during our spelling times. By now the students have gotten the hang of it and it is working like a well-oiled machine. As always there may be some squeaks and kinks to work out with certain students but as long as you are consistent they will eventually get the hang of it. 

Wow! Another long post - I seem to have a hard time keeping things short but hopefully this will give you some insight into how to potentially run Words Their Way in your own classroom.

Activities Like... New Ideas... and Kind Hearted-Teachers

Hi all I am linking up late to the We Are Thankful Linky Party over at Blog Hoppin'. It has been a crazy couple of weeks and I have kind of ignored blogging so now I am trying to play catch up by doing a 3-in-1 post for this linky. I am Canadian so technically Thanksgiving has already passed for me but I loved the idea of sharing some ideas with the attitude of being thankful. I have learned so much from being connected to other bloggers and stealing borrowing ideas to use in my classroom and it has been wonderful! I am so thankful for all those who take the time to share their lessons, ideas, and wisdom by blogging. Thank you!

Activities like math centers get my students excited for math, keep them practicing basic skills, and allow me to teach in small groups using math rotations. This is my first year doing math centers and math rotations and my first attempt in September was not as smooth as I hoped. Since then I have taken a break, regrouped and set up some new centers.  I have been working hard over the last couple weeks to get my new math centers set up and organized. Finally they are ready to go and I am so excited! Now as we start our next math unit I can jump back into math rotations and differentiate my lessons. Hooray for being able to teach my students in small groups based on where they are at while the rest are kept focused and busy with math centers!!

All my centers activities fit neatly into one container and can simply be laid out during center time.

As I was putting my math centers together I was trying to figure out how to keep everything together with the little space, time, and money that I have. My centers in September were kept in basket containers but I found students had a difficult time knowing where everything went when they were putting things away. I have found a cheap and easy method for keeping centers small, compact, and easy to move from space to space.

Students take the plastic sleeve to their desk with their center packet and have all the materials they need.

My new idea for organization in the classroom is using plastic page protectors to keep everything together. We have been using these for our spelling program so students can keep all their spelling materials together in one spot. These plastic envelopes are great because they are durable, clear (which I find helps students keep their materials neat and tidy), and can be written on. In spelling my students are placed in different groups based on where they are at so I simply coloured the top corner of their plastic sleeve so they know what colour group they are in. It is such an easy way for me to pull out their stuff and know immediately what group they are in, what they have been working on, and where they need to go next.

The coloured blocks on the corner of the packet let me know what group the student is in.

I have also used these for all my new math centers which is great because all the centers materials fit in two baskets and take up way less room. Students simply grab the plastic sleeve for their center, take it to their working area and get to work. All the materials are kept in the plastic sleeve which is kept closed with a paperclip. I know they don't look that pretty and there are a lot of containers, plastic drawer stands, and other great ideas for centers however I have limited wall space in my room (lots of cupboards) so I like to keep things small and compact. Best of all they are inexpensive so if one of the plastic sleeves gets ruined I can simply replace it with a new one for about $0.15.

This center contains vocabulary cards, play money, a dry erase crayon and dry erase page to write on.
 Everything a student may need to complete the center.

Finally as my contribution to the Kind-Hearted Teachers part of this linky I am including some of my math center pages as a freebie. Many of my materials are from other teachers so I don't feel like I can share them but if you are looking for some great math center ideas please send me an email or leave a comment and I will gladly direct you to some of the places where I found my center ideas.

Thanks to Blog Hoppin' for this wonderful opportunity to link-up and share!

Guest Bloggin'

This summer I posted about completing a sliding bulletin board project in my classroom. It has been so good to share something I created and have so much positive feedback.

Many people complemented them and asked for more information. Jenny over at Luckeyfrog's Lilypad asked me to be a guest blogger and create a post about the bulletin boards. I am so grateful for the opportunity to work with another blogger and share a little of myself with her followers. For a complete breakdown of the bulletin board DIY head on over to her blog and check it out! 

Giving Math Rotations a Spin

This summer as I was surfing the many different teaching websites I stumbled across the idea of using math rotations over at 3rd Grade Thoughts. The more I read the more excited I became. Last year I found I had a difficult time differentiating my math instruction and had thought about trying to work in small groups but wasn't sure how to start. Stephanie's blog posts gave me an idea of how to get going.

After a month of introducing the concept to the students we have finally completed our first few weeks of full Math Rotations. Right now I'm trying to convince myself to stick with it. It is definitely going to take some getting used to. I have learned that I am still developing the habits and pre-planning necessary to make these rotations work. On the plus side though the students love it. They are always more excited when they see Math Rotations on the schedule instead of plain old Math class. It  has not gone as smoothly as I hoped but I am learning first attempts seldom do so I am going to share with you some of my thoughts, reflections and plans for moving ahead to try and make this system work for me and my students.

First of all I have to say that I am loving the chance to work with smaller groups of students. I feel I have a much better grasp of where students are at and how I can help them which is great. One thing I need to work on though is ensuring my high group is feeling challenged in their learning and my lower groups are able to complete the practice sheets provided by the curriculum. I am still trying to decide how I am going to deal with this. I find it is a common issue to have in math - one group finishes the required work in 10 minutes and another group needs 40 minutes to do the same sheet. I might try giving the lower group fewer required questions (they need to finish part a and b of each question) to complete and see if that works. If they finish the required amount early they can try to complete the rest of the questions. As for the higher group I am hoping to gather a collection of challenge sheets that will push them beyond our current curriculum to ensure they don't get bored. Like I said... still working it all out.

The other aspect of this that is fairly new to me is the Math centers portion of it. In the last couple years I have spent more time putting literacy centers together and haven`t really gotten around to Math centers. Our curriculum has lots of hands on activities and games scattered throughout so I never really felt the need to use centers before however with Math Rotations centers are pretty much a necessity. For the first month I tried to have centers related directly to our unit of study however I found students seemed to be getting bored with them since it was a lot of the same thing over and over again. I think when I change them up I will try to have centers dealing with different math skills I think are important. That way they get extra practice as well as some exposure to concepts we will be covering later in the year. One thing I do know is I will be spending some a bunch of time figuring out new centers in the next couple weeks. How do you plan/organize your centers? I would love to get more ideas on how to keep it as simple as I can for myself. 3rd Grade Thoughts has some great ideas but I am always looking for more.

Finally I am re-evaluating how I have organized my centers. So far it has worked fairly well and the students always seem to know where they are supposed to be and what they are working on I'm just not sure I like how I move the kids through the centers. Right now I am using a checklist to keep track of what center

students have completed and am trying to constantly remind them to keep track of things in their Math journals. It's slightly chaotic and I feel there has to be an easier way. I think I may try putting together center packets and having students use their Math duo-tangs to move through the centers. I will still use the clips with their names and move them from center to center but my hope is if they have everything in advance they can be a little more independent and move through the centers themselves.

Wow... that was a long one. Basically my thoughts on Math Rotations are this:
1. They require a lot of pre-planning to ensure you have everything ready to go.
2. It takes work to keep it organized and to update the centers on a semi-regular basis.
3. They are totally worth it if you want a way to differentiate your instruction and keep students engaged in different math activities during class!

Social Studies Journals

I am so excited for Social Studies this year. Usually Social Studies is way down on my list of subjects but this year I am going at it a different way and I can't wait to see how it turns out. In our curriculum we learn about countries around the world: Peru, India, Tunisia, and Ukraine. The students really enjoy learning about new cultures and trying to picture how people in different countries live. I think I get an added bonus at our school because we live in an incredibly diverse community (my last class had 23 students from 11 different countries) so students already get to hear about different places and cultures.

Last year I used the classic textbook, discussion, worksheet/posters approach that seems to fit with Social Studies. However I noticed that my students, especially the boys, lost interest in what we were learning after about 15 minutes or so. This year I want to avoid that. It means a little more work on my part but I am excited to try my take on a Social Studies learning journal.

The students all have a journal which they will use to record what we learn. Rather than give them pages of information we will focus on 1-2 key ideas per lesson. I hope to use a bunch of pictures, videos, and stories to bring these different cultures to life. Basically the idea is more experience, less research. We will use different foldables, diagrams, and reflection questions to record what we have learned throughout the year. As well I have at least one big project planned for each unit. Our first country is India so we will be making paper lanterns for the Diwali festival of lights! Anyway we haven't actually started this part of our curriculum yet since we just finished up our Mapping unit to help us understand a little more about the world and its geography. I will keep you posted on how it goes though!

So why am I writing about these journals when I haven't even tried them yet? Because we decorated the covers today last week (it just took me this long to take pictures of them) and I love how they turned out! I gave the students clip art relating to the different countries and the overall themes of our curriculum so they could colour and decorate their journals. Students then got a chance to organize the pieces in whatever way they wanted so their journals could still reflect who they are as individuals. They are so colourful and the kids did such a great job that I just had to share them with you.

Here they are:

Stay tuned to see what happens on the inside!

The Almost Organized Teacher: My Basic Organization Rules

One of my big goals for this year is to work on my organization skills. I am notorious for piling papers on various surfaces until I am no longer sure what still needs to be marked, what needs to be put away, what needs to be sent for printing, and what can be put in the recycle bin. This year I would like to improve on this and keep my desk and papers organized. In my few years of experience I have discovered what works and doesn't work for me and I would like to share a few basic rules I have discovered when it comes to staying organized and creating a system that works.

Organization Rule #1: Organization takes time and consistency.
No matter what system you may use to keep yourself organized it only works if you take the time to use it. For myself I am still trying to develop the habit of clearing off surfaces on a daily basis. In other words I need to take a few minutes every day and put everything away, whether it is supplies we used in Science, a homework assignment the students handed in today, or extra copies left over from the day's lessons. The big thing to remember is that moving clutter from a table to a teacher's desk doesn't count. This is a big thing for me to keep in mind as I am still working on defeating my tendency to simply pile stuff on my desk so I can ignore get to it later. So far I haven't managed to accomplish this completely every day and that is fine... creating new habits takes time. If I don't get to it every day I definitely make sure I take time on Friday afternoon to catch up and make sure everything is clear and ready to go for a new week.

This week was no exception. Here is a picture of my small group working table from Friday after school. Don't worry this pile wasn't there during the school day... I moved it off of my desk so I could get some work done.

 Before I left today I made sure to put everything back in its place and now both my desk and my small group table are ready for the students again on Monday. I am still working at making sure I devote the time and consistency needed to keep things organized but I can already see improvement from last year :)

Organization Rule #2: Put your spin on whatever system you decide to use.
I have spent a lot of time looking at other teacher's classrooms and marveling over their systems for staying organized. I'm the type of person who tends to find an idea and jump in with both feet before I really think things through. (Don't worry, I'm getting better at that too!) The result is I have tried a variety of different organization techniques in the past two years and they have all taught me one thing... just because it works for someone else doesn't mean it will work for me. Of course I encourage you to still look at what other teachers have done as there is no reason to re-invent the wheel and there are a lot of fantastic teachers out there who have been doing this a lot longer than I have. However you need to look at their systems and decide what parts of it may or may not work for you and make a system that works for you and your organizational needs. There is also some trial and error involved... at least that is the case for me.

Organization Rule #3: Be ready to change your system if needed.
As I said earlier, I have tried a few different systems for keeping myself organized. While I don't necessarily recommend changing your system completely, especially in the middle of the year (been there, done that, it doesn't work very well) you need to be ready to try different things if your system doesn't seem to be working. It takes a while to come up with a system for things that suits you and works within the demands of the job. Remember that you will get there! I'm pretty sure I have... I guess we'll have to wait and see.

In a future post I will go over some of the systems I am using for keeping myself organized this year. Don't expect them to be revolutionary, in fact most of them you will probably have seen before. Just in case you haven't though... stay tuned.

Oh Yeah, I Forgot... Teaching Isn't Easy

It has definitely been an interesting start to my school year. My first two years of teaching I had the same group of students- with a few minor changes of course - since I moved from teaching grade 2 to grade 3. I was extremely fortunate because they were such a wonderful group to start out with.Of course every group has its quirks, difficulties, and is amazing in their own way but with this particular group of students I really clicked. We got along great which made classroom management much simpler. They were all happy to work with each other which was awesome when it came to seating arrangements and group work, and they generally were a very positive group of kids. Now I realize I may be remembering things going much smoother than they actually did but that's not the point. The point is that after two years with them I figured I was on my way with teaching. I knew what I was about, how to manage and organize my classroom, and how to deal with problems and difficulties along the way.

SCREECH... That is the sound of my ego coming to a grinding halt. After four weeks with a new group of students I have been reminded and am very aware that each group of students is different and requires different approaches to teaching. While my first class had some pretty big academic needs my new group of kiddos requires much more social, emotional, and behavioural support. Definitely not what I am used to. Needless to say I have not been the super-confident teacher I thought I was going to be this year. Now please don't get me wrong, I am not bashing my abilities as a teacher or saying I don't think I can do it. I am simply saying this first month of school has been a humbling reminder of how different every group of students is and how previous years are not necessarily indicators of what will happen this year. I need to be ready to change and adapt fro year to year.

All that being said, I am excited to push forward through the next few weeks and continue my search for what works and doesn't work for this particular group of kids. Looking through all these other teacher blogs I am encouraged and humbled by the experiences of other teachers. We have an amazing job and I can't imagine doing anything else. I think my new group of students is an awesome reminder for me that teaching is not easy, that students bring challenges with them to the classroom, and they all deserve to be loved for the unique people they are. I have heard that you never forget your first class, and I know I will forever hold them close in my heart, but more than ever I am excited for the challenges and changes that come with new groups of students. Bring on the rest of the year! I am ready.... I think.

Budding Bloggers Linky Party

I am so glad I found this Linky Party over at I {heart} Recess! It is such a fantastic idea to connect new bloggers with each other and with other bloggers who have been doing this for a while longer. One of the things I am learning to love about blogging is the chance to connect to other people, and more specifically other teachers. I am really excited to check out the other blogs and see what they have to offer!

1. While stalking Pinterest for new classroom ideas I stumbled across the wonderful world of teacher blogs and fell in love. I have spent hours (just ask my husband) pouring over these blogs, reading and discovering what other teachers do. I felt inspired by all the pictures of classroom, tips, freebies, and good ideas that I thought I would give it a try.I have only been at it for a couple months but so far it is a great way to share a piece of myself as a teacher and to learn from other teachers as well. I love being a teacher and am very passionate about what I do and I definitely enjoy having a way to celebrate and share it with others!

2. I don't think I have a favourite subject. (Yes, I was that kid in class.) If I had to pick one though it would probably be Science. I am of the opinion that getting your hands dirty is a key part of childhood and I love giving students that chance in my classroom. I enjoy seeing kids excited about what they are learning and I find that Science lends itself to a hands-on approach so well. Besides let's face it... experiments are a blast!

3. The foundation of my teaching style can be found in the book of Proverbs: "Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not turn from it." I see each of my students as individuals who have been set apart for a purpose. It is my job to not only teach them the curriculum but to provide them with skills, attitudes, and habits that will allow them to be life-long learners. Doing this requires me to build relationships with the students, get to know their strengths and weaknesses, and do my best to differentiate their learning accordingly. I also think learning should be fun and enjoyable. I do my best to get students excited about what we are learning. As I mentioned before I love hands-on learning, moving around the classroom, and trying new things. And if we get a little messy in the process it's even better!

4. Three interesting facts about me:

My family lived and volunteered for a year at an orphanage in Mexico when I was 16. While we were there I had the chance to help teach English in the school. I guess it got me jump started on teaching!

I am slightly obsessed with elephants ever since I had the chance to ride one for 3 days at an Elephant Conservatory in Thailand.

I love to make music by singing, playing piano, and playing guitar!







5. I don't have a TPT store but am happy to share anything you may find on my blog that looks interesting or useful to you if you send me a message.

Blog Goals

One week done, 39 more to go! The beginning of the school year has come and gone and it is time to begin getting into the swing of things again. I am amazed to discover how much adjustment time is needed when welcoming a new class. My first two years of teaching I had the same group of students (I moved from gr.2 to gr. 3) so there was very little adjustment time at the beginning of last school year and my first year I was so overwhelmed at the beginning I'm lucky to remember anything at all. I have a smaller class this year but that does not mean it is without its challenges. I am excited to see where the year takes us, to build new relationships with this group of students, and to see how I grow as a teacher. With all this excitement and the craziness of a new year though I figured it would be a good idea to set out some basic blog goals for myself.

I can get a little one-tracked when I get stressed out or when something is really important to me which means that during the school year I can ignore almost anything. I don't want that to happen this year and as I already mentioned one of my personal goals is to actually spend time with people and have a social life this year. For my blog I have a list of 3 basic goals:

1. I hope to keep up on my blogging this year especially since I am still new at this. I don't want to become so focused on school that I completely forget about adding to my blog. I am really enjoying the opportunity to share and remember all the things that happen in my classroom and I hope to continue it as the year progresses.

2. I love the chance to link up with other bloggers on a common theme and share what has been happening in our individual classrooms. One of the things that drew me in to teacher's blogs was the opportunity to share and learn from each other and I think Linkys are a great way to do it!

3. I have found some great little tid-bits in my exploration of other blogs. One of my main goals for this blog is that it becomes a place where other teachers can discover some new information, gather some creative ideas, and have fun learning from each other.

I hope you can tag along for the journey!

Classroom Tour

It's finally ready!! After spending a few days couple weeks organizing, cleaning, and setting up, my classroom is finally ready to go. Good thing too since the kiddos are coming tomorrow! Where did summer go? I am linking up Swimming Into Second to Show Off My Space. 

First the before pictures:

And now... Welcome to my home away from home! I am absolutely loving my classroom this year. I definitely put a little more time and effort into getting it just right but hopefully that means I won't be rearranging everything come Christmas break. 

Here is the view of the room from the door. It seems like hardly any teachers I have seen use rows any more but I like the idea of starting the year with the kids in their own space as they get comfortable with the routines and expectations.

Here is the view from the front of the room. Ignore the cart in the corner by the teacher desk/computers. I am temporarily storing it for a colleague.

Remember those bulletin boards I put up this year? Here they are with borders and titles just waiting for anchor charts, unit questions, and other exciting information! I am loving how much cleaner the space looks with all the shelving covered up!

 Under the bulletin boards are shelves which hold our book boxes, textbooks, math manipulatives and math centers. So happy with the containers from Dollar Tree which totally fit the colour scheme.

Continuing around the classroom we come to the library complete with my homemade Cat in the Hat hat and our CAFE board. The books are leveled according Fountas and Pinnell reading levels. The red bins are for fiction picture books and the white bins hold the non-fiction books.

Next to the library is the writing center with all our stationary supplies and our writing bulletin board.

Beside the writing center are our class computers and bookshelves used for teacher resources.

 Here is the view of the classroom from my desk. I pushed it up against the wall this year to try and eliminate as much "teacher" space as possible. It has completely opened the room up. You can just see the small group table in the bottom corner of the picture.

Along the other wall of the classroom are more cupboards and counter space. I am so thankful for all the storage in this room!

You may be wondering what is living in the giant aquarium. My classroom would no longer be complete without this little guy.

Finally we get to the front of the room. I don't have a Promethean board yet but I do have two huge whiteboards and a projector. Between the whiteboards is a small bulletin board which holds our calendar and some reminders for students about classroom signals and routines.

Beside the board are the mailboxes and job chart. 

 Thanks for visiting and checking out my finished space. I can't wait to share more classroom adventures with you as the year unfolds!