Differentiating Homework

Sometimes as teachers we find ourselves so overwhelmed with daily instruction that we forget that our students may also need differentiated homework.  But just preparing workshop stations, lab activities, lessons, and all the other things that we do can be so overwhelming that homework assignments become just another thing we have to do.  I encourage you to consider what differentiated homework can do for you and your students. 

For me and my classroom it has meant that my students are receiving the appropriate challenges at school and at home.  It has meant that my gifted learners aren't bored and are coming to school asking questions instead of checking out.  They love logic problems and feel special because they know they are being recognized.  For my students struggling with the English language it means that I am able to give them the tools they need to study vocabulary in their own time.  For my struggling learners it means they aren't driven to tears at night when it comes to homework!

I differentiate my homework assignments for my students so that they continue to receive the right kinds of challenges at home as they would at school.  In the digital age that means that I can create a list of assigned online content for my students to view at home like learnzillion videos, funbrain videos, and content from khan academy.  I have even linked to quizlet vocabulary practice to help students that need extra vocabulary practice.  In my class I have four to six groups working on different goals at one time.  I manage this by creating a sheet that states what exactly their goals are and then providing the online content that matches those goals and then I create a list of activities to help them meet those goals using online resources.  Additionally, I attach pages of practice that meet that goal.
Does this take me time?  Yes.  But I think it is worth it in the long run for saving my sanity when running up to six differentiated groups in my classroom.  I am able to give my students their packet with resources and activities and be done with handling homework for up to two weeks at a time.  Because personally, I hate shuffling papers daily when it comes to homework.

For differentiated math practice I really like math-drills.com, math-aids.com, edhelper, commoncoresheets.com, and the curricular resources that my school provides.  I do a lot with my workshop stations that relate to common core justifications, modeling, and so forth.  But these resources have been great at helping me provide homework to my students for math.  I'm still working to find resources that will help me differentiate Science to more closely match my content and the various reading and writing needs of my students.  When I find them I'll do a separate post. 

Working Mommy

I am a bzz agent.  And one of the perks of being a bzz agent is that I get free stuff for myself and my family.  So I just wanted to take a minute to tell you about Comforts brand.  It's the kroger brand for baby stuff.  They gave me a bunch of free items in exchange to telling other people.  Before I tried their stuff I really thought the kroger brand stuff was junk.  I was wrong.  It is just as good as the name brand stuff.  For real.  I'm not being paid to tell you this.  But I did get free stuff for it.  :)

Anyway, I thought I would put it out there for those of you that may be interested.

Elmers Glue and Borax

Did you know that Elmer's School Glue and Borax make this really awesome putty play dough?  Neither did I.  This week we had a visitor come to our classroom and teach us this magical concoction.  If you haven't done this with your students I would highly recommend it.  To learn how click here.

It was a fantastic experience!

Friday Freebie!

This week my Friday Freebie is a template that is commonly used in expeditionary learning.  This Noticing and Wondering chart in an editable MS word format.  It can be used in a variety of ways to promote student critical thinking and inquiry skills about a topic.  For example, this week I used this template as a note catcher and question catcher for a video on Earth Science.  Next week, I will use it to preview content for an upcoming project by having students examine pictures, documents, and reading passages on a specific topic.

Noticings are things that students notice and think are important and/or interesting.  Noticings can include statements, facts, opinions, or observations. Wonderings are questions.

To download it click here.

Happy Friday!

September Currently

Here is my currently for September.  Thanks Oh Boy 4th Grade!

Cool Fact of the Day **Flash Freebie!!!***

For a limited time I am offering my newest TPT product for free!

A fellow teacher has been posting a fact of the day for her students and I just love the idea.

However, I have always been hesitant to start this routine just because I wasn't sure if I would have time for one more thing.  I don't know about you but when I get to work in the morning I have about a zillion things to do.  A little of this, and a little of that.  Then the next thing I know the students are comming in and I am still trying to put together a morning message.  Sigh.

So I came up with this idea. In this download you will receive a set of printable posters for 180 facts plus a title poster to create your very own display or bulletin board. Everything is in black and white for low ink usage. Just print and insert your facts into page protectors. Then you can hang them on binder rings on your display board. You can make changing the fact of the day a student helper responsibility.

I have also carefully proof read each fact found from various sources around the web to be age appropriate for students in grades 3-12. This is the same set I use in my classroom! My students look forward to seeing the newest fact each day and it works as a neat conversation starter.

Please follow me here on my blog to stay updated on the latest freebies I am offering!  Please feel free to check out the rest of my store too.

Now to get that freebie:  click here!  Enjoy!

Busy? Yeah, me too.

I don't know about you but back to school means back to chaos in my house.  I have two littles and a busy hungry husband.  When I get home from work I am exhausted and so is everyone else.  But I still have to clean, cook, and tend to my littles.  Oh, and get ready for the next day to start bright and early at 4 a.m. Yikes. 

So, recently I started planning and prepping our dinners in advance.  I found this great website that does the planning for you and you just follow the directions.  The menus listed on Once a Month Mom listed as traditional before 2011 are free.  I am not being paid to tell you about this.  I just wanted to share something that works for my family.  Clean up and cooking are a breeze!  We loved all the recipes.  And that says something!  My family is picky picky picky.  The best part:  I don't have to think!  Although it is a little odd to buy that many groceries all at once for me since I'm a weekly shopper.  Once I did it, I was hooked.  HOOKED!

I just spend a few hours doing the shopping and prepping and I am set for a few weeks at a time.    There is  a subscription if you want to use a more recent or a different menu plan and it is pretty reasonable.  They have something for everyone from diary and gluten free to vegetarian options.  I only wish I had found this sooner!

Cool Sites to spark imaginations!

So recently I have been updating my class webpage with links and resources for my students and I came across some really awesome sites that I wanted to share with my fellow teachers.

Wonderopolis
There is even a widget to embed in your class website with neat facts and content.  It's great for sparking that curiosity in all of us!

 Make Me Genius
Science Videos for kids!

Museum Box
Not well known here in the U.S.A., this sites allows students to create a virtual box to teach and learn about a topic. 

http://www.101qs.com/
Kids can ask questions based on a picture prompt.  A great inquiry building tool!

Amusement Park Physics

Texas Performance Standards Projects
This isn't necessarily for students but a great resource for you if you are looking for projects to challenge your gifted students.  This is a major focus of mine this year.

 

Give away update

Well folks, there weren't any entries.  Therefore no winner.


I will try again another day.  So stay tuned!

Teachers Pay Teachers Sale!

The BIG Sale is happening at Teachers Pay Teachers on August 18-19th!  I am also adding an extra 15% off during the sale on most of my products!  Click HERE picture below to go directly to my store!  Enter promo code BTS13 at check out!

STEM activity

This was my first week of school and boy am I zonked!

I spend the first week or two of school doing team building, routines, procedures, and getting to know you.  Anyway, this activity will get your students minds wondering and help them to work in teams of 2-3 to solve a problem.  I especially like that this activity encompasses all parts of the engineering design process and I use my posters to help the students see the process as part of the lesson.

Here is what you need:

• Straws
• Aluminum foil
• Scissors
• Masking Tape
• Optional:  Wax paper
• Weights (If you don't have any weights to use you can use small found objects of the same size and weight)

Make a kit of all the materials your students will need in a basket and you will also need either a plastic tub filled with water or an aquarium.  I made 8 kits for my class.  To introduce the idea I asked my students to close their eyes and image they were on a beautiful island.  But they were trapped and in order to get off the island they had to build a raft that would hold their whole crew plus some.

Students should work in small groups to draft a plan on paper and develop their model raft.  The winning group was the one that was able to hold the most weight.  If you want to increase the difficulty of the activity you can use Popsicle sticks instead of straws.

Freebie Friday!

Have you ever gone digging through your desk trying to find that one precious paper clip?  That is me.  All the time.  And those little desk trays do nothing for me. The very shallow drawers in my desk won't let me fit one of those anyway.  I saw one of those teacher toolboxes a few years ago in another teacher's classroom and have been secretly envious ever since.  She didn't have hers decorated pinterest style but I loved the idea instantly.

And then, the age of pinterest rolled into my life.  I sort of forgot all about it until I saw them on  the addicting site.  Then it hit me!  I had to get my hands on one of these right away.  It would solve my never ending search for paperclips, staples, and the like.  So, I waited patiently for them to come into stock at my local Lowe's with no luck for months.  Finally, I bit the bullet and bought one off Amazon.   I have it in my classroom now and I absolutely love it.  I can actually find my supplies for once!  I am no longer that teacher walking around asking for a paperclip. 



This week's featured freebie is the template I used to create my labels for the 27 drawer stack on organizer!  You can download it my teachers pay teachers store here! :)

Be sure to follow me to stay posted on the latest freebies!

Give Away!

Guess what? 

I'm giving away my Engineering Design Posters from my Teachers Pay Teachers Store to one lucky winner at this time next week!  To check them out go here.

Good Luck!  You can enter once daily.  So don't forget to come back and enter tomorrow!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Liebster Award Nomination

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Freebie Friday!

Today's featured Friday Freebie is an pdf file for all grade levels. A sign out sheet for students to log their time in and out of the classroom. This generates instant documentation, reinforces telling time, and is great for parent conferences. Just print, and copy double sided and insert in a binder and you will have set up your sign out system for the school year. You can download it here! I post freebies often, so please follow me!

Pencils: Why you should not be giving them away

They make me crazy. The sharpening. The erasers that disappear faster than the lead. The lead that breaks. Oh, and then there is the sharpener racket. What finally worked for me: I stopped giving out pencils. I got really tired of spending MY hard earned money on pencils. While my own children needed things as well. So I quit. And it was liberating! When a kid tells me they have a pencil problem I say "Oh, that is too bad. I'm sure you can find a way to solve it" in my sweetest voice. If they persist, I tell them to ask a friend or use a hand sharpener and remind them to be responsible and bring more tomorrow. The hand sharpeners are on my supply list every year but you can also score them very cheap at the dollar store. Yet strangely, they always go missing as fast as the pencils. The big hand crank or electric sharpeners are off limits during non-transition times. They are available at arrival, dismissal, after lunch, etc. I have a little basket with two or three of them by the trash can. If you are consistent, the class will become more responsible with their pencils over time. At the end of the day I gather up all the pencils that are on the floor and put them in a little cup. I show the class the cup of pencils and tell them when they loose a pencil it goes in the cup. The cup is where they can find a pencil if they don't have one. When it is empty, that is it. There are no more. Eventually, they will catch on that you are not giving away pencils and will bring their own. But it takes time, especially if you have been giving away pencils and they have to expect it. But your students will learn something more valuable: responsibility. I have even gone as far as creating an anchor chart about pencils. It lists problems and solutions. I really think that if we as teachers are consistent and uphold responsibility then the students will learn to be responsible. Part of the reason why so many students have learned to rely on teachers to provide them with supplies is because we do it so willingly. It really irks me when a student comes to school with an iPod but can't remember their pencil. Occasionally, I have one or two students that just can not remember a pencil or that always have a problem. I send their parents an email or note and ask them to send in a few packs of pencils. If the parents can't or won't buy the pencils then I get several from the cup of lost pencils instead. The student sharpens all of them. Then, I give the student a zip lock baggie with their name on it and I store it in my teacher cabinet. They get one at a time. If you don't think this is an option: I saw a system on teachers pay teachers that I thought was neat by wise owl. Oh and I got so sick of buying expensive and cheap electric sharpeners that I quit doing so. Either way, the motor in them would burn up.

Class Dojo Review

Last school year I started using this fabulous free website to help my student see and understand their behavior. The price was right! http://www.classdojo.com/ It took some time to get all of it set up but the investment was worth it. What resulted was a quick and easy way to communicate with parents and I saw a drastic improvement in student behavior. Parents really loved that they could see in real time how their children did that day if they wanted. I tried to really emphasize the positive and rewarded points to students for doing the right thing. At the end of the month my team held a "dojo party." We created a tiered rewards system so that the students would get small prizes, coupons, and certificates for their earnings. One of the rewards was the code to be able to customize their little monster. They loved it!

August currently

Awww, do you see that?  It's my first currently post! 

Freebie Friday!

This Friday I am featuring my sign out vocabulary choice menu's. You can download them all for free! Plus they are editable! Check out all my freebies in my TPT store for more free items for your classroom!

Follow my blog for more freebies every Friday!

Laminator Review!!!

     I am so excited! And I can not hide it! My scotch thermal laminator T901 arrived today with the pouches. I just could not wait and had to laminate something as soon as I could get a few moments to myself without my littles running around. I can't risk little fingers and a hot laminator. As soon as nap time rolled around I was one laminating queen! One thing turned into 30 things very quickly. It came with an instruction manual, two pouches, and a feeder tray. It was really easy to set up and heated up quickly. Mine heated up and had the green light on it in about seven minutes. Most reviews state it takes about ten minutes.

 Overall, I was pretty skeptical. How could this thing beat the FREE lamination I can get at school? Well, folks I have to tell you that it does. Big time. That school lamination is thin and flimsy compared to this. And if your school is anything like mine, that machine is well loved and there is always a line of teachers buzzing around it during pre-planning. I am so impressed with the thickness of the film and how well it seals on the edges. It leaves a very thin border around an 8.5 by 11 paper. If you glue things together and then put them in the pouches it handles that very well too! It rolls nice and smooth like butter but has a reverse on it in case of a jam. There are two thickness levels on it. One for copy paper at 3 ml and one is meant for card stock and other thicker items (5 ml). It does get pretty hot after an hour or so. Therefore, I would not recommend marathon lamination sessions. It also smells like burning plastic while you are working with it.

 Also, once it gets too hot it is best just to shut it off and not do any more until it has had a break. I was a little nervous that this was going to take up a lot of space but it actually takes up less space than most printers. It takes up less space than my cheapo little personal printer that I use for my classroom. It doesn't matter if you do not fill up the pouch. I thought that I had to fill the pouch and tested it out with a smaller item that still laminated perfectly. It really does look very nice and professional as if I paid for it to be done somewhere. I took a picture of the lamination so you can see what a nice job it does. Please ignore my old beat up leather chair.

Why did I wait so long to get one of these amazing contraptions? If you are thinking about it, stop. Just do it. You won't be sorry! If you are looking for a good deal on one of these amazon has them at a great price. I have also heard that you can score the machine at Walmart. However, the pouches are the cheapest at Amazon. Oh, and in case you are wondering, I was not paid by anyone to do this review! :)

Mid-Year Move

I don't know about you but I DREAD setting up my classroom this year. I enjoy all the fun parts of decorating. But this year is different. I am moving from my classroom last year into another room this year. Then in 6-8 weeks, I'll have to move again!!! It's because there is some construction in my school and new rooms are being built to make space available. I wish I could just pick up my bulletin board displays and stick them up where I want them in the next room. Hanging butcher paper is not my idea of fun. I'm thinking about using foam board or tri-fold project boards to create my displays this year so I can do just that. Does anyone else out there have an idea for how I can pull this off?

Personal Laminator

My school has a lamination machine. That thing is like a dinosaur. Well, it isn't really that old. It is just well loved. One of the assistants does the laminating for everyone and I discovered last school year that it really doesn't do a great job we put a student project through the machine and went to cut it out and all the film peeled and bubbled apart. I resorted to taping the film together in hopes of salvaging the project. That was fun. So I discovered recently that Amazon has the Scotch brand lamination machines on sale for $25. Yes, you read that right. And the pouches that go with it are a flat out steal. I'm also a prime member. (If you are not a prime member, you are seriously missing out.) And no, I'm not being paid to post about any of this. I promise. I will report back next week with my findings!

A long overdue update!

Hi Everyone, I know it has been a long time since I have updated my blog. I have been very busy with life in general! Next school year I will loop up to fifth grade math and science with my students. Getting to spend two years with the same group of kids is a blessing in so many ways. But it also presents me with the problem of realizing that I need a new bag of tricks to pull from. So, I have discovered the land that is known as teachers pay teachers! I realized this place is an amazing resource to share and collaborate with others. So, I have started to place several of my resources on the site as well in hopes of helping out other hard working teachers in need of a little help. Here is my store: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Pencil-Monkey Please check it out and follow me!