Forgot Your Password?!?

Have you forgotten your password? 

Tried passwords you have ALWAYS used in the past? 

Been stuck resetting your password ... over and over?

Do you have WAY TOO MANY passwords to remember? 

Sometime in the past year, I saw these really cute username/password cards that you could put on a ring and keep close at hand . . . but of course I didn't "pin" it or "tweet" it or "bookmark" it or "anything!"  So, now that I want to get organized and use them, I am stuck making my own :( 

Lucky for you, here they are, download these cards, before you pass them by and can't find them again!

You may not need all the exact ones I made, but there are some blanks at the bottom for you to personalize.

Hope they help you stay organized and may there be less resetting of passwords this year!

WARNING: I have to say this, you should not write down some of your personal passwords - banking, credit cards, etc, - I did make some cards for those but BE CAREFUL. Maybe you have a locked cabinet or desk . . . just a friendly reminder.

Clever Conclusions

I am preparing my plans for the return to school after Winter Break . . . 

I really need to hit some inferential comprehension skills in my small group reading, so I am starting with Drawing Conclusions. Now, my students have been exposed to this within their general education classroom, but I really need to break down these higher level thinking skills. So, I am starting with a GAME - high student interest, hands-on practice and ease into the school routine :)

Many of you have probably played this game or some version of it, but I wanted some directions, ideas and student forms all in one place - so here you go - CLEVER CONCLUSIONS!

Direction Page:

Student Form:

Concept Confessions: Numbers, Numbers Everywhere!

To start the school year, my students in 5th grade are working on some number sense / place value review. I quickly created some number cards for some basic activities - here they are on google docs.
Number Cards 3-5 digit

I am planning to use these cards for reading multi-digit numbers. The cards are color-coded:
pink - up to the hundreds (3-digit)
green - up to thousands (4-digit)
blue - up the ten thousands (5-digit)

Number Cards - Ordering

I am planning to use these cards for ordering numbers. They are color-coded as well with some sets skipping by ones and others skipping by random intervals. After students put the number cards in order from least to greatest OR greatest to least, have the student read the numbers aloud.

You could use these cards for many other "number sense" activities:
flash a card and ask for the number before
flash a card and ask for the number after
compare two cards - which is greater or less
show a card and ask how close to 100 or 1,000
flash a card and ask for the digit in a specific place value
show two cards and ask which is closer to 0, 100 or 1,000
show two cards and ask how far away they are from one another

Back to Blogging . . .

Well, I took a break from the blog . . . but I am ready to get back in the swing of everything school. I am a seller on TpT - www.teacherspayteachers.com and I have been TRYING to get some things posted on there for the back to school boom. I am also getting ready to head back to the classroom on a regular basis to set-up, decorate and prep. The summer time goes by so fast :)

For my first post after the break, I will post a limited-time FREEBIE (This is no longer free, but available in my TpT store)!!
I was working on a guided reading packet for a picture biography on Jesse Owens, and I thought to myself - why not make this more general so that I can use it with any biography. That's what I'm posting!

This packet was created for students who have limited - no knowledge of biographies. So, there is an info page on the genre and then a layout of what will most likely be in a biography.

This is the genre page I was talking about. It gives a quick review of what a biography is and gets some prior knowledge going.

Then it goes into the basics - the personal information!

And of course, a timeline for the students to fill out with important dates and events. There are more pages not pictured. I plan to adjust the packet depending on the biography we are reading - so I won't always use every page. Also - a great independent project once the kids know how to roll with it. I frequently use guided reading packets at the table with a group and then give a similar one down the road for independent work. I even gave some for summer work :) 

I'm glad to be back and I appreciate you hanging in there with me!

LLI - Leveled Literacy Intervention

I have been using LLI for about 2 years and I LOVE IT! I have students all over the board, in terms of their reading levels. the fact that this intervention resource lays out the word work, the book lesson, comprehension skills and running records allows for teachers to plan more individualized things for students. I know I have the framework when i sit down and teach a guided reading intervention session. But, I usually want to dig deeper and add specific IEP objectives to the lesson. LLI allows me to do that without planning for hours each night.
I have a student who is a non-reader. I started using the Orange Kit with him to expose him to basic, patterned books. I have created some activities to go with the first few books. I thought I would share one of these activity packs and see if they could help someone else. Click here to download.

 

A writing activity to go with the story and includes icons to student selection.

A sorting activity for awake and asleep . . .

And icons to sort onto each mat
There is a teacher instruction sheet at the end with a brief explanation of each piece of this mini-packet. If you have LLI and you try this, let me know what you think.


Okay - a few more links to some of the other books:
At the Market
Rex
Frog Food

Concept Confession

Number Two

Okay, I skipped a week . . . so I will throw two things in this post.

I have been working on a Mini Lesson to go with Patricia Polacco's  Thunder Cake! It's a cute book with some links to weather (great time of year to study that) and character development. I just posted it on TpT - but here is the character development page as a FREEBIE . . . hope you can use :)

My second concept is a social skill guide for personal space. I have a student who is struggling with knowing WHO she can hug and HOW CLOSE she can get. She wants to talk to everyone and she immediately loves every person she meets. I am sure you can think of an adult like this :) but, I need to help this girl set some limits. SO . . . I started to make a personal space guide called THE KNOW ZONES. I am still working on it, but here is a peek.

My concept confession is Thunder Cake AND Know Zones!

Groundhog's Day

Groundhog's Day is a fun time to HOPE for spring . . . and get the students excited about weather, making predictions and seasons. There are some great groundhog books, but one that I like to read is, Go to Sleep, Groundhog!

This book, by Judy Cox, is about a Groundhog who can't fall asleep, an easy thing for kids to make a connection to! Here is a FREEBIE - questions to use after reading this book!

Check out some other great Februrary books/activities at 1...2...3...Teach With Me - Activity Blog Hop!

I have made some wh- question books to help my students work on these basic questions. Many of my students are working on answering WHO or WHAT using pictures supports and visually supported text. Check this out in my Groundhog Goodies Activity Pack at TpT.

Measuring with Metric

In fourth grade, the measurement instruction is focused on the metric system. I found some great activities to use but not much that put everything together. So, I made an activity that includes units of length, weight/mass and capacity (meters, liters and grams). I also developed an assessment tool that matched many of the activities we did in class.
I am an Interventionist, so these were designed with my students in mind - they would be great for more hands-on learners, younger classrooms or students who benefit from modifications.
These are some of the puzzles pieces for Measurement Match.
Check out the Measurement Assessment that I created to end the unit.

Guided Reading Direction Cards

I am co-teaching with a gen. ed. teacher this year during the Language Arts block. We started our Guided Reading block and students are required to work at stations while groups are doing Guided Reading. I created this FLIP CHART of step-by-step directions so that my students can be as independent as possible. Guided Readind Direction Cards