London, England

Hi all,
It's been a funny school week - I've taught only two days and am going in tomorrow, the last day of the week, for 3-way conferences. Why? We were in London! I'm not going to lie, this is not my favourite place. We've been a couple times, and it always seems sooooooooo so dreary there. Not to mention how Expensive it is! I mean, we always complain about the price of the subway in Toronto, which is about $3 CAD, but in London, the "tube" will run you $7 CAD - single way! Yikes.

All in all, those things were not so bad because we had an Amazing Amazing Amazing weekend. We went to an international job fair, had no idea what exactly to expect for ourselves, and of course had read many forums filled with "horror" stories before landing. In the end, we both found it an exhilarating, ego-boosting, and totally gratifying learning experience! We lined up several interviews, made some amazing contacts with top international world schools, and learned about a lot of schools in countries we hadn't considered. Plus, we got fantastic jobs at a really top-notch school in....

(wait for it..)

the Philippines!

What?! Yes, super awesome. So late July we will begin our trek there against monsoons, typhoons, and earthquakes of all kinds and measure. But, I'll take it over snow :) Definitely feeling humbled, blessed and crazy excited about this next step! Deciding between schools was the toughest married-life decision we've had to make, and we are so confident we made the right choice.

Thanks for reading!
Amanda

Building reading fluency

The other day a parent said to me, "You know, I'm really trying to help him read more like a person, more normal." I told him that I'd actually heard a lot of fluency improvement specifically in his child's reading, so a good job was being done! I added that fluency and expression are difficult things to "teach" - it seems to me to be more about modeling. Of course, teaching a largely ESL class, many of my kids are like little robot-readers because they don't have the natural language flow yet. So I thought on it. And thought it. Then thought some more. Finally I remembered a blog post I'd read - a looooong time ago! Funny the things our brains hang on to...

Starting this quarter I'm going to be implementing a program called "Awesome Reader" into our daily learning! Students will basically be practicing at home {with the help of their families} to read a book {A-Z readers I give based on their level or a parent/teacher-approved/familiar-to-the-student book} to read aloud in front of their classmates. Special cheering and lots of encouragement will make this work, and I know it will be a  big hit with the right enthusiasm and modeling. It's a great way to get some oral communication assessment in, too.

Big thanks to Second Grade Sparkle for this great idea. You can find her "starter pack" here if you think this idea might be great in your class, too.

Happy reading!

- Amanda

Toad, Frog, Pollywog {it's stuck in my head...}

Hi all,
Just stopping in to share this hilarious video my teaching bud found for our Growth and Changes in Animals unit. It's a super catchy way to help students learn types of amphibians and I'm pretty sure my class is going to FREAK OUT when we watch it!

It's fantastic and makes me laugh {a lot...} - I hope you enjoy. And for the record, I didn't know what a water dog is either {this is me assuming I'm not the only one}, so thanks Wiki for this info. Is "Mudpuppy" a great name, or what?!
- Amanda

All Kinds of Nouns

I have a class of keeners. {Mostly... This one still gives me trouble but we're - I'm? - really working on it.} On Thursdays I have conversations like this:
Young'un: "I'm so sad, Miss. I can tell you why?" 
Me: "Yes, please! Why are you sad?" 
Young'un: "Because it is a weekend now."

How sweet, right? Love it. Even better are my Sundays, when I have conversations like this:
Young'un: "I'm so happy, Miss! I can tell you why?"
Me: "Yes, please! Why are you happy?"
Young'un: "Because now it is school! I missed the school so-so-so-so much!"

And I'm not exaggerating. Maybe it's because I had one of those classes last year, or maybe because I've changed a lot of my teaching style this year, or maybe it's all the Whole Brain fun we're having - whatever it is, it's working! This year I feel more calm, more organized and I'm getting much better results academically with my students. Hamdullah!

This week we did some review on nouns. When I raised a blank flippy book to show the class the activity for it, I basically had to fight down the cheers - they were SO excited! In the end, they look like this: 

   

Why exactly that is exciting I'll never know, but I'm glad it's a lesson that works! One to keep in the plans.

The next day, we talked more about proper nouns. We started by looking at these "caps" on the Language board and discussing types of words that are proper nouns {with lots of example-giving}. 

Caps for capital letters - ha! Not an original idea but I do love a good pun. After giving each student 4 colour-coded Post-Its, they wrote their own examples and we posted them for display.

I know, I know, no blue Post-Its. It's a problem for me, too. The most annoying thing about those pink ones is that I KNOW I have blue notes somewhere in my room. Could I find them for this lesson? Not for the life of me. Was that super frustrating for me? You bet. I have a little classroom Type A in me at times... I'm learning to let go :) If you're interested in making the hats {which we also used for sentence writing - a cap for the capital letter and a ball for the period/full stop}, you can find the file here on TpT and here on TN. Or simply click the pictures to find it in Google Docs.

And now to continue my report-comment-writing, best-cookie-ever-baking, American-Horror-Story-watching, anchor-chart-making weekend! {My co-workers will be pleased I have added in two, yes TWO!, activities that involve relaxing and not thinking of my class.}

Happy weekend to you!

- Amanda

Mapping Skills

First week back and running! Considering the 30-hour journey back from Canada I'd say jet lag has been nice to me this time around AND my class is amazing as always :) We've picked up right where we left off: measurement in Math - capacity; animal groups in Science - amphibians and reptiles; nouns/camouflage integration/sentence structure/word choice/main idea/editing {among others as usual!} in Language; and mapping in Social Studies. Speaking of Social Studies...

{How was that for a smooth segue?!}

I have a new product in my store and, like most, it's classroom tested! To introduce some of those tough mapping terms, I made an interactive reader with a matching student booklet so students were able to follow along and fill in the blanks with important words. This worked well with my ESL kids and serves as a great study guide. I've included possible assessment pieces and other activities to use with a mapping unit. There's an American, Canadian, and a non-specific "worl"d version and they've been great sellers so far! Here are some sample pages if you're interested:

You can find out more about each one by clicking below:

I hope you're having a great first week back!

- Amanda

Photo Friday

We flew into Toronto last Friday for the best Christmas surprise ever for our families! So nice to be home for the holidays, but I do hate winter. At any rate, it looks pretty here with all the snow.

Hope everyone is enjoying winter break!

- Amanda

Some "Smart Art" holiday projects

This cute penguin pattern came from Amy Lemons. 

I made a simple glyph for the students to personalize the penguins.

I whipped up a simple measurement page and then students measured them in centimeters and converted that measurement to millimeters. This worked perfectly with our current Math unit!

Next up:

This snowman idea comes from here.

We created them after reading this cute story.

Actually, we read it on our SmartBoard - thanks to We Give Books, which is a really great resource.

Apparently I live in a desert community where students don't see much snow...haha!

After cutting and gluing they drew some snowflakes, then they drew some more, and then they added the two amounts together to create a snowy word problem. Ta-da!

Tomorrow {our last day!} we have my Oh Christmas Tree! craftivity on deck.

Happy crafting!

- Amanda

Silence for Sandy Hook

Last week fun

Fun or pandemonium? Hmm... Let's just say I'm gearing up for both with some hands-on activities. One I am sharing with you today is a Christmas tree craftivity that can be adapted for a Math or Language Arts extension - a "Smart Art" project. I have included some differentiated activities - story starters, addition and subtraction word problems, and colours practice. Feel free to download it from Google Docs by clicking below - I'd love to see if your students create these :)

It's funny - living in a Muslim country we aren't supposed to really "do" Christmas, but all of the malls here are playing festive tunes and have decorations to the max. Also, every time I say "winter break," my kids say "Christmas holiday time," so I though I'd make it all a wee bit educational :)

- Amanda

PS - Also available here on TpT and here on TN.

Performance Walls

Last year, I made this sample writing chart to help show my students what awesome writing looks like and to help them strive for higher achievement:

{You can read the original post here.} This was writing my class completed during a non-fiction writing unit integrated with our Science unit about animals.{This was also my first formal observation and the principal really like this writing lesson!} Enough with the back story..

The other day my VP said the words "performance wall" in a mini-workshop I went to and I had to stop and ask, "What is a performance wall?" Turns out, it's what I did above with the leveled samples! Not going to lie, I was pretty excited about that - now I have a fancy term for what I already do with my class.

Here's one I made to show the students how to achieve a level 4 in our latest descriptive writing task - my favourite animal:

Later, I will colour-code these samples to show the specific things seen at each level {i.e. periods will be blue, interesting words will be green, capital letters will be pink, etc.}. I kid you not, after we discussed these samples in class, I had about ten kids stay in at recess because they were really excited about adding detail to their writing and improving their rough drafts overall. Wwwwhhhaaattt?! I was so proud! And, let me add, this week was a little wonky in our room - I saw a lot of behaviour that I don't usually deal with. This Thursday lesson really made the perfect end to a long week!

I'll post the writing pack and modeled writing that we used to complete the entire writing process for this project. For ESL, I've been blown away by their dedication and a lot of the overall improvement, so I definitely feel it's worth writing about!

Have a great weekend.

- Amanda

Bucket Fillers!

We are officially Bucket Fillers in 2B! {Actually, we've been Bucket Fillers for over a month now but I haven't found myself the time to write this post.} I love this book

and I think it has such a positive and powerful message for our young friends. Hey, for us oldies, too! In fact today, after some group work that resulted in a couple of arguments and quite a few whiney and controlling voices, I had my class finish up by giving a bucket-filling compliment to someone in their group. It was a great end to a not-so-cooperative work period.

In the interest of time here's a quick summary of the things we did:

Group word sort. {Confession: I can't remember from whom I downloaded the words file, but they were perfect!} Each group had pictures and words - pre-selected for each student based on their abilities - and a T-chart for Bucket Fillers and Bucket Dippers. After they discussed and glued them on the right side, we made a whole-class chart. The Bucket Dipper side? Oh, we cut that off and threw it out. We decided we only want to focus on being Bucket Fillers, so we got rid of all that negativity.

Pledge and sample Bucket Filler statements.

This is our bucket display. I just made the little printable in my trusty PowerPoint, had the kids colour them, and then laminated them. Behind each bucket is actually a small plastic Ziploc bag... I was racking my brain trying to figure out how to display the buckets without them getting ruined, so having them hang like this has been perfect! I just hot-glued the plastic bag to the back and a strip of ribbon to the two top edges of each bucket, then taped the top of the ribbon to the wall, with the rest hanging loose. Maybe my description make that sound more complicated than it is? I swear it works and really well!

This is our Guided Reading groups display. The names are not attached permanently to the books so that my groups can be flexible as certain students move up in levels {perhaps faster than others}.

And this was just part of my weekend. I laminated these signs so I can rub off the details as we discuss the main idea of different books. Now we have a permanent "graphic organizer" on our wall! {No picture of the final display - oops.}

December 10 already... As they say in Korea, ASSA!

- Amanda

Addition product {by request}

Awhile ago I posted this set of worksheets that focus on addition using a number line. As always, they are differentiated to meet the wide range of abilities in my class. A Teachers Notebook user asked if I could create a product for addition combinations for all numbers from 5 to 20, and although it took me a loooooong time, I did it! You can find them at TN here and at TpT here.

- Amanda

Photo Friday

Siem Reap, Cambodia