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Picture Books are for EVERYONE!!

September 22, 2015

Not too long ago, I overheard a conversation between teachers about whether it was appropriate to use picture books in 5th and 6th grade… I was totally eavesdropping, and if that wasn’t already rude enough, it would have been super rude to butt into their conversation and scream, “YES!!! USE PICTURE BOOKS!!!!!!!” So, I held my tongue there, but I don’t have to hold it here. 🙂

Who DOESN’T love to read picture books? I know I still do as an adult… I am, after all, a self-proclaimed bookaholic. A cute, catchy cover will get me every time!

I had a “books of the month” shelf in my 4th grade classroom that I would fill with seasonal picture books- all of my students (higher and lower level readers alike) LOVED to visit that shelf! That is one reason I include seasonal books in my mentor sentence units. As if you needed an excuse to read a fun book like Polar Express or I Need My Monster, right?

But besides that, here are FOUR great reasons you should be using mentor texts in your room:

Picture Books are for everyone with Ideas by Jivey

1. The story is usually done in 32 pages. When you refer to parts of the story in your lessons, most likely, students are going to remember. You can read a great picture book one day, and then use it for various lessons for days after that! Often times, you can teach SEVERAL standards with one picture book! (That is, after all, why Better Than Basal Volume 1 and Volume 2 was born!) They make great examples when writing memoirs, too. Patricia Polacco has some awesome books to demonstrate small moment writing, like My Rotten Red-Headed Older Brother.

2. Picture books hold students’ attention with illustrations and vivid language throughout. Seriously- some of the BEST examples I’ve found of figurative language, vivid verbs, and sensory details come from picture books. Books like Firefly Mountain, Twilight Comes Twice, and Come On Rain are some great ones that come to mind.

3. There are so many amazing historical fiction books, science fiction texts, and even math literature! Teaching about explorers or Christopher Columbus? Try Encounter. Teaching the American Revolution? Katie’s Trunk is awesome! If you are teaching about weather, Cloud Dance and Water Dance are excellent additions! I even have an entire set of Mentor Sentences for Math Literature! We know there isn’t enough time in the school day to read a book before every lesson (as much as we’d like to) so spread that book as much as you can!

4. Before you start throwing things at me through the computer screen, please do not think I’m saying to never read a novel with your students again. Chapter books, extended texts, novels… whatever you want to call them… are still so important! Students have to build stamina and stick with a story that really builds- I totally agree. But students also need to see, hear, and understand so many different styles to become better readers and writers. What better way than to read mentor texts all year long?

Need to build up your library? Check out this post about Buying Books on a Budget!

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Managing Math Stations: Tips and Tricks!

September 1, 2015

Are you ready to get MATH STATIONS rolling in your room, but still a little nervous? Or maybe you are just ready to change things up a bit to be more organized. This post has some great tips and tricks for you!

First of all, when you first get started with math stations, you may want to consider not differentiating. (GASP!) I know. I said it. This is not a must- if you feel your kids can handle it right away, go for it! But in my math workshop, I think getting my routine down and helping kids understand how to access stations, how to work well with others, and how to clean up needs to happen first!

Students need to know WHAT they are doing before they get to the station. I think math stations should always be a review. You can use the activity the week before it goes in the station during your teaching, and then students shouldn’t come to you with 100 questions about it. 🙂 I love to teach activities and games that will be in stations as part of my mini-lesson or in small groups. Kids love to play teacher vs. student!

Tips and tricks for managing math stations with Ideas by Jivey.

Do you have a poster-maker at your school? If you don’t… be jealous. They are the best invention ever. I use it to make the activity big enough for everyone to see on the board. You could also use a document camera. 🙂

Organization is KEY. Making sure everything is together and ready for them at each station will keep them from roaming the room or worse, INTERRUPTING you when you are with your small group! If you have been a follower of mine, you know I LOVE my 10-drawer rainbow cart.

It doesn’t take up a lot of room and all of the stations fit in it nicely. The kids can just take out the entire drawer and take it to the place where they will work, or they can take out what they need from the drawer. It’s your decision! Also make sure your manipulatives are organized in a way that is easy for the students to get to- base-ten blocks, for instance, are not going to fit in the drawers- use a Rubbermaid tub that is easy for students to open and close.

Another must-have for organization is Ziploc bags! If there is a game or an activity where students work as partners or in a group, put everything they will need in the bag.

If there are smaller pieces needed for a game, use a small Ziploc inside the larger Ziploc to keep the pieces together.

For your own sanity (and the students’ too), QUIET DICE are a must!! I have two tricks for you:

You can read this post about using felt for dice- it keeps the dice from clacking all over the desk tops. Another option is foam dice! A lot of the manipulative kits are coming with these now. The only drawback is they are usually only found as 6-sided, and I LOVE 10-sided dice!

Of course, having students sit on carpeted floor for dice games is a great option, too!

LAMINATE EVERYTHING! It will keep the paper police happy, and keep you from visiting the copier as much. Students can use dry erase markers or vis-a-vis markers and then wipe it off. Stations can then be used more than once through the year, and you don’t have to really prep anything!

I also love this because “we’re done” is not allowed. Oh you finished that game? Wipe it clean and start over! The great thing about games with dice and cards is they aren’t ever really playing the “same” game since the numbers change every time!

Anticipate what they might need… this can be tricky sometimes so make sure students know where manipulatives are that they can access any time. But, for example, if you know your lower students struggle with multiplication facts, provide some tiles they can use to make groups in a multiplication game.

This will not only MAKE them practice (which is the whole point of stations), but it will prevent them from just guessing until their partner tells them they are right.

I hope these tips help your Math Workshop go smoothly! Check out my Guide to Launching Math Workshop for more tips, as well as some starter stations! Need more stations and games for your classroom? Check out all of my math units in my TPT store!

Follow my Math Workshop Pinterest Board for even more great ideas!

Follow Ideas By Jivey’s board Math Workshop Ideas on Pinterest.

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Bright Idea: Quiet Dice!

August 22, 2015

I absolutely love for my students to play math games with dice… but I do NOT love 25 students dropping them on their desk tops, or rolling them across the room. Hence, this month’s bright idea:

Yes, you CAN have students playing math games at their desk without hearing that constant clatter. The solution? This aisle in Hobby Lobby (or whatever your local craft store may be):

FELT!

They have every color and design of felt you can imagine. The plain colors only cost a quarter, so I went with those.

Now, just like with every other routine in your classroom, you have to teach them HOW to play with dice and roll them on the felt. We practice together… and during stations, if I hear dice, they get one warning. The next time, they have to put up the dice for that day and I give them a “not-so-fun” review activity to do instead. It only takes one warning!! I’ve never had a student actually have to put the dice away. 🙂

So, how DO you roll dice without making noise or having them rolling across the room? First pick up the dice and “make a bubble” around them. Explain you want the dice to move in your hands but you don’t want them to ESCAPE.

Shake the dice gently, then put the sides of your wrists on the felt, before opening your hands. (Let your students know this is an important step to keep the dice from flying…)

…AND THAT’S IT!

Super easy, right? But believe me. They will need to practice. You’d be amazed at how many think by squeezing the dice and shaking their hands, the numbers are moving around on the dice. HA!

Good luck, and I hope this helps save a little sanity during math stations. 🙂

If you enjoyed this bright idea, please consider joining me on Facebook, Instagram, or my TPT Store for more great ideas.

For more bright ideas from other bloggers, please browse through the link-up below and choose a topic/grade level that interests you. Thanks for visiting!

An InLinkz Link-up

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Back to School in a Flash: Student Engagement

August 16, 2015

I have been watching this awesome linky series, and have just run out of time to link up each week. I’m excited to finally be able to link up with these fabulous ladies (on the last week LOL) to share with you how I keep students engaged in the classroom!

I do NOT believe in a quiet classroom. My students are constantly in discussion about what they are learning, either with a partner, a group, or with me. Here are four things I do to keep an engaged (but not obnoxiously loud) classroom.

First, I teach them to stop talking. I think we can all agree, kids know how to talk, no problem. But when I want them to stop, I need them to stop right then! I don’t really use anything else from the Whole Brain Teaching Program except for the “Class-Yes” attention-getter. It is so easy to use, and works EVERY TIME. Definitely use the variations to keep them interested. Here is a video if you don’t know what I’m talking about:

I let my students choose their partner a lot. I realized early-on in my teaching career that students who don’t want to work together often WON’T do their best with each other. Now, does that mean they don’t need to learn how to work together? Of course not. But, I’d rather my students work HARD with someone because they enjoy and work well with that person, especially when we only have a short time to get something done.

Keep students engaged with Ideas by Jivey.

To make sure students aren’t SCREAMING over each other to be heard at a table, I usually have mine spread out around the room- some may choose to stay at their seat with a partner, but most like to sit on the floor. If they are working with a partner on the floor, they should be sitting knee-to-knee. This helps with volume as well as respectful listening.

Students can learn so much from each other. It also really implants the information into their brain when they can talk about what they have learned. My students complete a group project once a quarter about a science or social studies topic. I choose their groups for them so that there is a variety of learning styles in the group. I’d rather them do it at school than at home because, a.) I can help them if they aren’t understanding, b.) they are doing it, not their parents, and, c.) they don’t wait until the night before to get it done. 🙂

I hope this post gives you some ideas for keeping students engaged in your classroom. Check out more ways to keep students engaged from some other fabulous bloggers:

An InLinkz Link-up

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Why the Workshop Model? {Freebies Included!}

August 9, 2015

I absolutely love the Workshop Model. Love, as in big puffy-heart-love. I love it so much, I used to run a linky called Workshop Wednesday- you can see the past posts here if you are interested. And so do my kids! With so many levels and abilities of students within one classroom, it is just not possible to reach all of your kiddos through ONLY whole group lessons. Differentiation is the best part of the workshop model! Kids feel successful because they are working on their level. You feel successful because you see light bulbs going off as you work with your students in small groups. It’s a win-win!

Get ready for a long, informative post…
but with freebies, so it’s worth it, I promise!

With the workshop model, there is still a whole group lesson, but it is a mini-lesson: no more than 20 minutes. The mini-lesson should teach a grade level standard. I like to use the I DO-WE DO-YOU DO method where I show them a skill, then we work together to do it, then they try it on their own or with a partner. This keeps my lesson short and sweet. If you already follow me, you know I LOVE content integration. When I can, I try to use mentor texts to cover several skills. I can read a great book to them once, then just go back into that book to the parts we need to review for other lessons. It helps save time (because as much as I’d love to read a book at every lesson, we know those would usually NOT be mini-lessons). Here is a freebie you can use in math AND during writing for mentor sentences! (Not familiar with mentor sentences? Click here!)

The book, A Remainder of One, is pretty short, so you could use it as your math mini-lesson and have the students complete the interactive activity with you while you read. (This is one lesson included in my Math Mentor Sentences with MATH Interactive Notebook Activities.)

**There ARE days when whole group time needs to be extended longer than 20 minutes. You don’t want this to be every day, but there are definitely some skills that are hard to introduce in 20 minutes. On these days, you may not get to small groups.**

Your small groups should not be the same lesson delivered to four different groups. You might as well just teach whole group every day if you want all of your students to receive the same lesson! Your small groups are where the differentiation happens. Now, this does not mean you can’t teach the same skill to more than one group… we want students to move along the spectrum of understanding from concrete to abstract. Maybe you are working with students on multiplication in small groups: some students will need to use manipulatives to build arrays, some will be able to draw the arrays, while others will be “counting by 5’s” to solve.

One important thing to note is that you can NOT fly by the seat of your pants with a Workshop Model. Planning is so important… not only knowing what your mini-lesson will be… but also who you will be pulling in small groups, what skills you will cover, and what you will need to teach that skill. Then of course, you need the plan for what the rest of the students are doing, too.

Enjoy these free lesson plan organizers to help you plan for your workshops! Click on the link or the images below to automatically download them to your computer.

Free lesson plan organizer with Ideas by Jivey

These freebies are included in two products in my store! Last summer, I released a guide to Launching Reading Workshop to help you see how I run Reading Workshop in my classroom. Setting it up is the crucial part- getting the rituals and routines going early on will guarantee a successful year.

I am excited to announce I have just released my guide to Launching Math Workshop!

Launching Math Workshop guide with Ideas by Jivey.

I absolutely love my rainbow colored ten-cart drawer, and I have used it for my stations for a few years. This new guide is colored to match, but you do not have to have the ten-cart drawer to use it.

Workshop Color guide with Ideas by Jivey

Just like my Reading Workshop guide, the Math Workshop guide lays out how I establish routines in my classroom, how I determine groups, and how I set up my stations. It also includes two differentiated stations for each of the four rotations to get you started! I will also be creating more differentiated station sets (sold separately).

Stations are important to differentiate as well, because you don’t want students to feel frustrated while they are working away from you. I like to use math games as much as possible because then students don’t really feel like they are working. Here is a free game my students love- it is also included in Launching Math Workshop.

Workshop model tips with Ideas by Jivey.

There is another version in the complete set that only goes to 1,000… but you could even differentiate this game by providing different dice!

Using ten-sided dice will provide a challenge because they will have to strategically place the big numbers in order to not go over 1,000,000. An easier version would be with six-sided dice.

I hope this helps get you started on the right foot this school year with workshops! If you’d like more ideas for Math Workshop, follow my Pinterest board!

Follow Ideas By Jivey’s board Math Workshop Ideas on Pinterest.

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Buying Books on a Budget!

August 6, 2015

I get asked all the time (because of all of the books in my mentor sentence units), “where do you get all of your books?” Unfortunately, I never have a good answer because I’m an Amazon Prime Member and I just buy, buy, buy! Some people buy purses and shoes, I’m a bookaholic. I buy BOOKS!

But I decided to do a little bit of research and find out some other places you can get your books, especially for those of you on a budget. 🙂 Of course, the free way is to not buy at all… Visit your local or school library! But if you are like me and want your OWN copy, here are some sites to check out:

Amazon.com has new and used books- you don’t have to buy directly from Amazon! If you don’t mind a used book, that’s often the best way to go, because you do still have to pay shipping… but like with this example, the used (like new) copy of this book is less than $9 with shipping instead of $14.30 for new (Prime price) or $16.95 without Prime.

Buying books on a budget with Ideas by Jivey.

You definitely will want to check out www.thriftbooks.com! They have great deals on used books AND you get free shipping in the US on orders over $10!

As you may know, shipping can sometimes be what makes that “bargain book” not such a bargain… well this next website has you covered, too! Powells.com has free shipping on orders over $50, but otherwise, $3.99 flat rate.

Half Price Books is a great site to find used books as well! You never pay more than half the cover price… there is shipping: $3.99 per book, but $2.99 for additional books from the same store.

Another website I found that often has coupon codes is Alibris.com. They have the same shipping prices as Half Price Books.

As I mentioned, sometimes the shipping really gets you, but if you can find several books on one site, that definitely helps make your books a bargain!

Do you have any other sites you love to shop for books? Share in the comments! 🙂