Storage Crate Seating How-To

As many of you, I get a good deal of my inspiration from Pinterest.  I have been dying to try the storage crate seating for my classroom.  I have very minimal storage in my room and have a lot boxes stacked up around the edges of the room as a result.  It looks awful and has become a visual distraction to my students.

I gathered up all of my supplies and got started.  It took just a few hours to complete 6 crates from beginning to finish.

What you'll need:

• Milk Crates in your choice of color and size (I got mine from Target for $3.99 each)
• Plywood (You can cut this at home or ask someone at your local hardware store)
• Batting or some sort of filler/foam for the cushion
• Staple Gun/Staples
• Hammer
• Sharpie
• Scissors
• Cloth of your choice (I used pre-cut fabric squares from Joann's Fabric Store.  They were the perfect size for the crates that I picked.  They were 18x21 inches.)

Step One:  Measure the inside of the crate and cut your plywood to fit so that it sits on the inside lip (where the files would hang on the inside of the crate.)  My crate had slightly rounded edges so I cut the edges to match.  If you purchase the same size crate as I did, here are the cutting measurements (but I would double check to make sure it works for your individual brand of crates).  I purchased the storage crate from Target with the measurements of 15 and 5/8 x 13 and 3/4 x 10 and 1/2 inches.  After measuring the inside of the crate, the pieces of plywood needed to be cut to 14 and 5/8 inches x 12 and 7/8 inches. 

Step Two:  Unroll the batting.  I then folded it in half so that my seats had a little more cushioning.  I traced the plywood pieces onto my batting using the sharpie.  I was able to get all 6 pieces out of this one roll of batting.  I cut out the batting pieces on the inside of the sharpie line so that when I began stapling, the batting was only on the top of the plywood--none folding/spilling over the edges. This will be important for Step Three.

Step Three:  I laid down the fabric, good side towards the floor, put my batting piece in the middle, and then the plywood piece.  I started by stapling the long sides down first.  After this, I stapled the corners down like you would wrap a present. The staples did not go entirely into the plywood so I had to hammer many of them down.  You don't want any of those sticking out.  :)  Make sure that when you are stapling that the batting does not spill over the edges.  If it does, push it back onto the top or trim it.  If not, the seat might not fit into your crate anymore.

Step Four:  Place the finished seat into your crate.  I've seen a few crates on Pinterest that added a ribbon to act as a way to open the crate.  I chose not to add anything because I did not want my kids to have easy access to whatever I stored inside my crates.  To get the seat out of the crate, simply stick your fingers/hand in through the handle and push the seat upwards.

Enjoy!  I know that this will make my room more organized and I know the kids will love the new seating.  I think I will use them in my reading corner to store my books when they are not in rotation and give the kids some soft reading spots to use throughout the day.

Vocabulary Posters

I had the opportunity to teach summer school with a wonderful group of teachers again this summer.  It is at a different school than my own so it was fun to learn a different style of teaching and get to work with a new group of peers.  I wanted to share an idea that we used, and they use, throughout the school year. 

Our three weeks were centered around a science/social studies theme and we had 10 vocabulary words a week.  After the pre-test, we broke the students into 5 groups.  Each group was given one of the vocabulary words, written in the middle of their poster.  They used an iPad to do a Google search of images of their word (I would do this prior to the students to make sure that there were appropriate pictures).  After they found a picture they liked, they drew that picture in their section of the poster.  Then they wrote a sentence to go with it.  Myself and the other teachers would walk around the room and meet with each group to help them come up with a kid-friendly definition.  The kids had to do a lot of critical thinking to come up with a definition that fit and accurately portrayed their word.  This was written underneath the vocab word on their poster. It was fun to watch the kids collaborate and help each other creatively represent their word.

When everyone was finished, we all came together to present the posters.  We did the other five vocab words after lunch so that they had a chance to become an 'expert' on two of the words and listen to the other students communicate about their expertise.  The posters were hung around the room so that the kids could use them as a resource for the remainder of the week.  On the post-test, each student made growth, often going from a 20-30% average on the pre-test to an 87-100% average on the post-test. Yay!  ...and this activity used all 4 Cs.  Collaboration, communication, creativity, and critical thinking.  Phew!

Stop and Go, a Punctuation Game

Last year, my students really struggled with using punctuation in their writing.   I came up with a game to help them learn about the difference between a period, question mark, and exclamation point.  It was fun, used kinestetic motions, and gave students a much needed brain break throughout our long afternoon.  The directions are below.  Please click on the punctuation cards (at the bottom) to download the entire file from my TPT store for free. -->

Stop and Go

This game is played similarly to Red Light, Green Light.

Directions:

Gather the students in your central meeting place. Discuss how periods, question marks, and exclamation points tell the reader what emotion to use when reading and help them know when to stop a sentence. Hold up the punctuation cards and demonstrate the motion to go with it.  Have the students mimic you and do a few practice rounds with the cards before playing the game.

Once they have practiced, have the students line up on one side of the classroom.  This game is played similarly to Red Light, Green Light.  If you don’t want the kids running across the room, talk about your expectations. J  I tell my students that they may walk once I have started reading the sentence (Green Light) and they have to stop immediately (Red Light) and do the motion once I hold up the punctuation sign. When they are ready, start by reading the first sentence.  End the sentence by holding up the correct punctuation card.  The students then have to stop and do the correct motion.  This helps the students begin to recognize the meaning behind each punctuation mark in a fun, kinesthetic way.  It can also serve as a quick, educational brain break in your classroom.

The ‘winner’ is the first one to get to the other side of the classroom.  The game can start over, the ‘winner’ can help with the sentences, the brain break can be over, etc. Do what works best for your schedule and purpose for the game.

Motions:

·      Period: Have the students stop and freeze in place.

·      Exclamation Point: Have the students stop and jump up and down in place as if they were excited.

·      Question Mark: Have the students stop and shrug their shoulders in a questioning pose.

Using QR Codes in 1st Grade

Hello all!  I know that it has been a really long time since I have posted anything.  It has been a LONG school year and I've had many changes in my personal life.  Now that I am not treading water just to stay afloat, I have time to post :) 

Last year, I talked about all of the ways I wanted to use QR Codes in my first grade classroom.  I found time to do many of those things and would love to share some examples here.

My teammate and I worked together last year to record and create QR Codes for all 100 of the Dolch Sight Words.  We printed these and then backed them on a bigger piece of tag board.  We wrote the sight word, bigger, on the top of the card, and put the QR Code on the bottom, then laminated them.  We posted these around our rooms as a choice during student ILAs (Independent Learning Activities).  They would use a fun pointer to read around the room.  They would then use an iPod to scan the code to check to see if the word they said was correct.  The codes ended up being a self-monitoring tool.  We previously tried to have them scan a code and read whatever word popped up but the size of the font was really child-unfriendly.  This was our way around that :)  Please click here to download the first 25 sight words or click on the picture.  I wish I had a picture of what the finished product looked like but we are locked out of our building for summer construction. 

I also used QR Codes to redo my listening center.  When I started teaching, I inherited a wealth of books on tapes.  This was great...until I realized that there were no working tape players left in the building.  I never got rid of the books/tapes because I always felt that there had to be something I could do.  What a shame it would have been to throw away such great resources! 

Over the summer, I happened to find a tape player at a garage sale for really cheap and I bought it.  I spent HOURS playing the tapes on the tape player and recording them using Garageband onto my computer.  The sound wasn't phenomenal, but it worked well enough for what I needed.  I then made all of these recordings into QR Codes.  I printed out these codes and taped them onto the backs of each book.  The kids then used 1 iPod with a headphone splitter as their Listening Center.  They would each get a book and one child would scan the code with the iPod.  They were able to listen to the story while following along in the book.  Here is an example of a code that I taped onto the book Rhythm.  Please feel free to scan it and check it out!

We also used QR Codes with many of our projects.  Individually, or with our buddies class, the kids created many projects with an accompanying QR Code.  I wish I had a picture of a finished project with the QR Code on it, but I didn't think about it until I had already sent the projects home.  One example was the descriptive writing we did on pumpkins.  The kids started by painting a pumpkin picture.  Then they wrote a minimum of 3 sentences describing their picture. Afterwards, they practiced reading it multiple times.  When they were ready, they recorded their voice reading their writing with the tech teacher.  This was a huge help because trying to have a kid record with 23 other kids in the room can be interesting!  :)  To finish their project, their recording was turned into a QR Code and was posted with their pumpkin picture in the hallway.  Students in other classrooms, parents, and even teachers stopped with their iPods, iPads, or smart phones to scan the codes and listen to the descriptions of each picture.  It was fun to see everyone interacting with the students' work!

I hope that this gives you some ideas on how to use QR Codes in your classroom.  They have become really easy to make now that I have used them, like, a gazillion times and the kids really like getting to use the iPods/iPads to scan them.  :)  Happy Creating!

Binders

I hope that everyone is enjoying their long weekend!  It has been a whirlwind since I went back to school 3 weeks ago.  I have a sweet group of kids who can be a handful at times, but I wouldn't have it any other way :)

In my quest to become more organized...yes, I am that teacher that has piles of things everywhere...I decided to try out the teacher and substitute teacher binders.  They are all the rave on Pinterest right now and with some down time this weekend, I thought I'd put them together.  Pictures coming soon!

These are the sections I put into my binder:

• Year at a Glance
• Monthly calendars with important school events and meetings
• Color coding the weeks that we are working on the same curriclum item such as how families are the same or different.
• Lesson Plans
• My teammate has a spreadsheet guru for a husband who outlined our schedule with boxes in it big enough to write our plans in.  We also have them in a running Google doc.  However, we like having the pencil/paper plan as well for when we are in planning meetings, data dialogues, conferences, etc.   
• Student Data
• Sight Words: We assess the kids on the first 100 Fry sight word list.  When they become proficient on those, we will test them on the 2nd and 3rd 100 words.  Mastery of all 300 in our classes equates to working on how to spell them in addition to being able to read them. Students graph their progress at least 3 times a year.
• Words Their Way assessment and groupings
• enVision Math Scores:  The students graph how many they got correct on each assessment and make personal goals for the next topic.
• ECAW (Every Child a Writer) and 1st grade writing rubrics for each monthly writing sample.
• DRA 2 scores and guided reading levels graphed for each kid throughout the year
• Running Records Class recording sheet (Printable in previous post)
• Common Core Standards and Grade Level Expectations
• A print out of the new 1st grade common core standards to look at at a glance
• We are a LIFT school so I have a print out of what literacy elements are expected on a daily basis, integrated throughout the day to help keep me focused while planning
• Kagan's Collaborative Based Learning list of PIES to help me while planning
• Miselanious
• I put this area at the end of my binder in case I get anything I might need for working on a committee, parent meeting, etc.  
• I have paper in this section to jot notes in case there is something I want to remember for planning or don't have a specific spot to put it.  

These are the sections I put in my Substitute Binder

• A copy of the school's emergency plans
• A list of the 7 Habits (We are a Leader in Me School)
• A rubric detailing the different 7 Habits expectations and how to use them around the school
• In Case you Finish Early plans
• Copy of our daily schedule
• A page detailing students who are pulled from the room for support, who is helpful, who has behavior goals, and nearby teachers
• Lesson Plans for the day
• A list of different attention getters that we use
• A calendar of who volunteers in the classroom and when

Back to School Time and QR Codes

Well, it is that time of year.  Yay!  I have been back in school for 2 days and I have a great group of kids.  I am looking forward to an amazing year.

I have been working on a few QR Code things but have come across a hiccup.  I really wanted to have the QR Code posted around the room that the kids could scan and access a particular sight word or math problem.  Unfortunately, the print on the iPods and iPads comes up so small.  I think I will try doing it with a recording instead.  The kids will read a word or math problem on the wall and can use the QR Code to check and see if they were correct.  This switch is going to take a lot of extra time so I will post an example after a little while as I am feeling overwhelmed with the beginning of the year :)

I did spend a chunk of my summer recording my books on tape and transferring them into MP3 files.  Here is an example of a QR Code that I will put onto the cover of the book.  It will take the kids directly to the recording of the book.  If you haven't checked out my previous page on QR Codes, please do.  There is a great tutorial on how to do this on there.  Let me know if you have any questions and I wish you all the best of school years!

I Love you, Stinky Face

Whole Class Running Record Recording Form

As my mind gets back into the swing of all things school, I have been recreating documents and trying to find ways to get better at documenting student data.    This one is a form that collects class data on one page so I can see my student's scores at a glance.  I hope it is helpful to someone else as well.

Just a snapshot of the document

Click here for my Running Record Recording Form.

How often do I take a Running Record?

(Taken from ReadingA-Z.com)

Running records are taken most often at the earlier stages of reading. Students who are not progressing at the expected rate should be assessed even more frequently than the schedule suggested below. 

• Early Emergent readers (Levels AA–C): every 2 to 4 weeks
• Emergent readers (Levels D–J): every 4 to 6 weeks
• Early fluent readers (Levels K–P): every 6 to 8 weeks
• Fluent readers (Levels Q–Z): every 8 to 10 weeks

Calculating Accuracy Rate

Accuracy rate is expressed as a percentage. You can calculate the accuracy rate using the following formula:

(Total words read – Total errors) / Total words read x 100 = Accuracy rate


Independent = 95 – 100%
Instructional = 90 – 94%
Frustration = 89% and below