Connect-a-Blog K-12 Collaborative Education Blog with free lessons K-12

Preschool Themes Book Lists

Posted on 05/22/2013 by Jackie Higgins

Happy Summer Vacation! Are you a teacher who plans to spend summer vacation reviewing classroom materials and teaching ideas? Many teachers review themes and units used in the past year, and begin to plan for the next school year during summer “break”. I’ve been excitedly planning themes to use in preschool with my three year old next fall. As I’ve been planning, I’ve been organizing my book reviews and book activities by preschool theme. I’ve created a quick reference page at ready-set-read.com.

Many preschool teachers use themes to teach. I’ve found it helps to have a book list for each theme. These books can be used for read alouds, student exploration, and research by the students and teachers. I’ve created book lists for some of our favorite themes:

Friendship Theme

Dinosaur Theme

Community Helpers Theme

Transportation Theme

Back to School Theme

Shapes Theme

Colors Theme

Me and my Family Theme

Beach Theme

Animal Theme

Garden Theme

You can view the book lists on my preschool themes page.

Do you use themes in your preschool classroom? What are some of your favorite themes?

Posted in Book Review, Primary | Tagged Jackie Higgins | Leave a comment

5 Tips to Simplify Your Paper Workload

Posted on 05/10/2013 by Charlene Tess

The end of the year can be a paperwork nightmare for English teachers especially. Students will be writing final essays and essay tests. Grading them will take precious time. Here are some tips to make your job a little easier.

1. Use a rubric. Go over it carefully with the students. Be sure focus on two or three main issues in the rubric and avoid rewriting the students’ papers as you grade them.

2. Use peer editing groups or pairs. Be sure to make students aware of exactly what to look for when editing each other’s papers.

3. Use reading circles or let students read papers aloud to class. You can give students an oral reading grade, and you will have heard all of the papers before you begin to grade them. Take notes on any strengths and weaknesses in the papers as you listen to the readings.

4. Have students turn in a first draft, but don’t grade it. You will only grade the final draft. Just check the first draft for something very simple, such as if the paper has 5 paragraphs (If you assigned a 5 paragraph essay.) You can give students a designated number of points for this that will apply to the final grade.

This will insure that students not wait until the night before the final paper is due. It also gives the students a brief time away from what they have written, so that when they do their final edit, the material will seem fresh.

5. Choose the due date for assigned essays to fall on days when students will be occupied with reading silently or watching a video. That way you can get a head start by grading some of the papers in class. Never make a due date right before a holiday. It will ruin the holiday for you.

Good luck with your end of the year paper workload.

Here are a few of my products that might help.

How to Develop a Thesis Statement

How to Write a Character Analysis and a Rubric for Grading One

Final Essay: Archetypes in Literature Critical Essay (includes a rubric)

All the best,

Posted in High School, Middle School, Self-Evaluation and Rubrics, Writing | Tagged charlene tess, essays, grading papers, language arts, paperwork load, simple steps to sentence sense, Teacherspayteachers | Comments Off

Organizing Missing Students’ Work

Posted on 05/06/2013 by Resourceful Teacher

Here’s a quick tip for how to keep all those papers organized when a student is absent. When passing out worksheets, keep all of their papers they’ve accumulated throughout the day on their desk. Then at the end of the day, gather their missed work and staple it to a cover sheet. Write everything the student missed while they were absent and include the date that it is due. That way, you have an organized list of every item that was completed that day and it makes things much easier when it’s time to fill in those holes in your gradebook!

You can download the cover sheet I use in the teacher resources section or by clicking here: Absent Work

Posted in class managment, Elementary Education, Grades 2-4, Grades 3-5 | Tagged organizing, resourceful teacher, teacher resources | 1 Comment

Organizing Supplies

Posted on 05/04/2013 by Resourceful Teacher

Here’s a quick tip for organizing items your students use on a daily basis My classroom configuration is set up so that my students are always sitting in groups. I like to keep one red bucket (shown in the picture) at each group.

Inside the buckets you will find highlighters, hand sanitizer, sticky notes, flashcards, extra pencils and erasers, and homeless pencils (sometimes they find their way back). These are items we use pretty much every day. It helps to keep them organized and by using these buckets kids can reach them easily without getting up and distracting other members of the class.

I found these buckets at a teacher’s store where they were a bit costly. I’ve also seen them at the dollar store for about the same quality, but a lot more cost-effective.

Posted in class managment, Elementary Education, Grades 2-4, Grades 3-5 | Tagged organizing, resourceful teacher, supplies, teacher resources | Comments Off

Student Learning Games

Posted on 05/04/2013 by Resourceful Teacher

I recently had my students create board games. I gave them my list of Game Board Instructions (you can also download them on my site). The students worked in groups to create a game about a subject we are currently studying. I gave each group a different subject, and their job was to create a learning game involving concepts we’re covering in class.

They were also responsible for coming up with detailed instructions, creating game pieces and game cards, and decorating their game board and box.

I purchased many of my materials from my favorite store, the Dollar store (see my blogs about the dollar store by clicking here and here). Here’s what I bought: small toys that were used as game pieces, pipe cleaner, googly eyes, and stickers for the kids who wanted to make their game pieces, dice, timers, spinners, white gift wrap boxes that the students used to store the game, and small cardboard jewelry boxes to hold the game pieces.

Here’s an example of game pieces made with pipe cleaners and stickers.

Board Game Pieces

These are some of the pieces I purchased from the Dollar Store.

One example of a game my students made was called “Fun-Cabulary.” They created a game where the players spin a spinner which tells them to either act out, draw, sculpt, or explain a vocab word. Then they pick up a vocab card that has the word and definition on it, and the students have to guess the word.

They had a great time with this activity and the kids love playing each other’s games! Here are some photographs of the kids’ creations.

Posted in Elementary Education | Tagged game, game board, learning game, resourceful teacher, teacher resources | Comments Off

Learning to Read Online

Posted on 04/30/2013 by pacrapacma

I think children learn to read best with one on one help. That’s why I support parents who want to help their children learn to read. I’ve met a number of parents who have the desire to teach their children to read but find out that teaching reading is hard for them. That’s when we turn to an online reading program and focus on encouragement and support.

If you are a parent or know a parent who is searching for ways to teach reading, you may want to suggest an online reading program from this link. I have used all of these free and subscription programs and highly recommend them.

Good Reading Programs and Websites for Kids Learning to Read

Happy Reading!

Michelle Breum

owner of Parent and Child Reading Assistance

author of Beginning Reading Help

Posted in Elementary Education | Comments Off

School’s (Almost) Out Blog Hop and Giveaway

Posted on 04/27/2013 by KrystalMills

I’m really excited about having teamed up with a new blogger friend, Joey, from “Create, Teach and Share” for an awesome “Year End” inspired blog hop and giveaway.

There is a whole list of products to be won PLUS a $35 Amazon gift card.

I’ve hopped around to the blogs already and the participating bloggers are just so amazing. They have offered fun ideas, activities, personal reflections and stories and even freebies!

Do make your way over this weekend to check out the excitement! teacher-krystal-mills-lessons-from-the-middle-signature image photo

Posted in FREE, Giveaway, Middle School, Teachers Pay Teachers | Tagged blog hop, End of Year, freebies, giveaway, TpT | Comments Off

Becoming a Reading Consultant

Posted on 04/25/2013 by pacrapacma

Over a year ago I had my first client as a reading consultant. It was the best experience!

I worked with a mom of a first grade girl only three times. She didn’t need any more help, felt confident to help her daughter, and saw her daughter progressing in reading and writing. This has been my dream job since. I haven’t felt prepared to advertise myself as a reading consultant until now.

Here’s my first SlideShare promoting myself.

Michelle Breum – Reading Consultant for Parents from Michelle Breum

Happy Reading!

Michelle Breum

owner of Parent and Child Reading Assistance

Posted in Elementary Education | Comments Off

End of Year Activity

Posted on 04/23/2013 by Addie Williams

Have you already started the countdown to the end of the school year?? I’ve got to go until the end of June… so I haven’t started yet, however I know many of you are in the final stretch.

Here’s a fun freebie to use to wrap up the school year with your students.

Students can make Top 10 lists for various topics related to their school year! Includes 6 top ten lists in both full page and half-page size!