Spring into April: Making the Most of Share Time

It is so hard to believe April is here!  Just a few more weeks and SUMMER, oh glorious SUMMER, will be here.  Not that we are counting, right!?!?

I know that April can be a tough month.  Spring break and testing can really throw a wrench in daily routines.  Not to mention all the special events looming. Let's see... Field Day, Career Day, end of the year party, and I could go on and on.

One routine that is so easy to lose in the shuffle is share time for writing.  It is so important for kids though. It validates them as authors and allows them to celebrate learning, as well as seek advice from peers.

So, how can you make the most of share time, when time is SO precious at this time of year? Here are a few ideas!

 

Is time short?  Can you barely fit in the five minutes of share time in your reading and writing workshops to begin with?  I highly suggest using a very predicable structure with ingrained routines. 

 When I taught second grade, my kids came to the carpet and sat in a circle.  This way we could all look at each other, and not just me, the teacher! LOL! They brought their writer's notebooks and a pencil.  The writer's notebooks and pencils HAD to lay in the floor in front of them and their hands in their laps. If they were playing with their notebooks or pencils, they went back to their seats.  I was a meanie on this one #sorrynotsorry. I didn't have an author's chair.  Honestly, any extra movement just took time.  We shared from our spot on the carpet.

I love this anchor chart with procedures for the author's chair.  Although, we didn't have a physical author's chair, the procedures were pretty much the same.

source- sorry for the dead link :(

Sometimes, when I was conferencing with students I would ask them to share during share time.  Often, this was because they had done a really good job of applying what had been taught in the mini lesson.  It was also a good way to celebrate struggling writers that would not volunteer on their own.  It prepared them for the share time, so they knew exactly what they would say before we ever sat down in the circle.

We were also really specific in what we shared.  Students could read their stories. Then, they could ask for specific help.  This worked best with my gifted students.  They often knew what they wanted the outcome of the writing to be, but weren't sure exactly how to get there.  They were often able to explain this to classmates and get feedback.  They REALLLLLLY liked helping each other!

Looking back, I should have had these sentence stems to help kids give each other appropriate feedback.   These look great.

source- image only, sorry for the dead link

I love how this one has expectations AND the sentence stems together.  Very smart.

source- yet another image only :(

This one is pretty and has suggestions on complementing and  how improve a peer's writing.  

Some of my friends loved to share.  Others?  Not so much.  They would rather pick at the carpet and melt into the background. I get it.  Sharing can be stressful for some kids.

However, I did feel like all students need the chance to shine.  To make sure that all students had an opportunity, I simply kept a class list on a clipboard by the carpet. Whenever students shared, I jotted the date next to their name.  This helped me remember to call on some kids that rarely shared.  

Looking for ways to change up share time?  Maybe it is getting stale by this time of the year.  Consider these suggestions:

Let EVERYBODY have a chance to share their work or writing by pairing kids up. You can make this as structured as you want.  You can set a timer and when the timer dings, the students must switch so the other partner has time to share.  This keeps one partner from dominating. I would suggest keeping pairs about equal, as far as ability.  This does not embarrass a struggling writer and frustrate a gifted writer. Also, often gifted students tend to push and challenge each other.

(source)

I loved this chart with guidelines for writing buddies or pairs because it gave them sentence prompts and also suggestions of what to fix.

This doesn't need much explanation.  Have small groups of students share.  This can be the table groups they already sit at our you can mix it up a bit.

A gallery walk is always fun this time of year. In this activity, students leave out their writing and classmates rotate around the classroom and comment on each other's writing. I find that this works best with an end of unit activity or a final draft.  We sometimes did these as our publishing parties.  

Students each got a lunch bag and a small stack of blank papers. They would leave out their writing.  Students would rotate around the classroom and comment (using the same procedures for positive feedback as whole group share) on the small slips of paper.  The slips then went in the paper bags so they didn't lost.  I kept the rotations structured and we switched seats at the ding of a bell, like we did when we played Scoot.

When we were done, students could read the feedback in their paper bags.  It was a lot like Valentine's Day! LOL

Do you have any other ideas or suggestions for share time?

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What is GoNoodle and How Does It Work?

Happy Tuesday, Friends!

It's Theresa from True Life I'm a Teacher, and I'm here for Technology Tuesday!

A couple of years ago I kept hearing about this website called GoNoodle. I had no idea what it was other than it offered brain breaks. It wasn't until just last year (embarrassing, I know), did I actually sign up, and start using GoNoodle.

Before I started using GoNoodle, I searched YouTube for kid-appropriate brain breaks that my kids would love. I found 7 or 8 that my class just rotated through regularly. Nothing was wrong with them, except that sometimes YouTube wouldn't cooperate, and it just sort messed up the moment.

Enter...GoNoodle.

What IS GoNoodle?

"GoNoodle helps teachers and parents get kids moving with short interactive activities. Desk-side movement helps kids achieve more by keeping them engaged and motivated throughout the day." (Read more here).

GoNoodle provides many different options for short (or long - depending on the time you have available) movement breaks that get kids up and moving. Some are dances, some are songs, some simulate running, jumping, and some are calming breathing exercises.

How does it work?

GoNoodle is FREE! All you have to do is sign up. There is a paid version, GoNoodle Plus, that gets you access to even more brain breaks, which eventually I might try. For now, the free version has everything we need and more!

Sign up here or click the picture below!

If you're a non-teacher reading this, but have kids, you can still SIGN-UP! You'll be able to keep your kids having fun, and busy for hours! This is also a FANTASTIC resource for homeschoolers! 

I definitely recommend searching through GoNoodle, and watching as many of the brain breaks as you can to get a feel for what you and your class can do. Use the "Demo Class" though, so you're not actually growing your Champ under your new class. They'll be so sad if they miss their Champ growing.

To keep things easy, I name my class by the current school year. I'd never be able to keep up with anything else.

If you're school departmentalizes, or you're a specialist, you can name the class otherwise. For example, if I was the music teacher, I might name a class by grade, then teacher's last name (2nd Grade - Copeland). It'd make it easy to switch to whatever class I was seeing at the time.

How cute are these Champs? And the names? Hilarious. I choose the first Champ, just so we can get started on the very first day of school without ANY delays.

"Champs are the primary motivation system in GoNoodle. Every time you play an activity with your students, you help grow your Champ. When you grow a Champ completely, you get to choose a new one to grow." {For more info about Champs click here)

Your new class is now ready to go. The Champs are always giving some silly little saying or "fact" that the kids get a kick out of!

From here though, I'd recommend heading back to your demo class so that you can actually see some of brain breaks. To do that, just click on "Dashboard" > Demo Class.

Once you're within your Demo Class, you'll see a few different options at the top of the screen.

Once you've seen some brain breaks with your class, they'll definitely have favorites! You may also have some favorites of your own that you want to incorporate regularly throughout the day.

Do you already GoNoodle? I'd love to know what your favorite brain break is!

Are you planning on using GoNoodle for the first time this year? I'd love to know what you're most excited about! Sign up here!

Whether you already GoNoodle, or you're just signing up, I created a a list of rules my class follows as it pertains to brain breaks, as well as a list of some of our favorites! Grab them here or by clicking on either of the pictures below. Enjoy!

Keeping Students Motivated Through the End of the Year

Hey everyone!  This is Mandy, from Mandy's Tips for Teachers!

 I am thrilled to be a collaborative blogger at the Primary Peach! 

I know that this is a wild and woolly time of year. The kids are ready to check out and check into summer!  And well, so am I!!! Unfortunately, we still have some learning and assessing to do. And more assessing.  And even more assessing.  Did I mention assessing, yet?  Is that just my school?

So, how can you keep your kids from checking out  during Reading Workshop while you need to check in?  Here are a few ways for Workshop Wednesday!

My kids loved literature circles, but that can be tough to run.  They can use TONS of paper and students can lose interest if the book takes too long.  The years I ran a looser literature circle were the most successful. 

We always discussed the books over snacks- this was a HUGE motivator! Students would ONLY get their snack if they finished the assigned reading for the literature circle ;D. I am sneaky.  

Then, students would discuss what they noticed as they snacked. Some years my kids had a stack of post its and their books.  They marked them in areas they wanted to discuss and made notes on the  post it. Other years, the students needed more guidance so I provided a sheet.

This is a simple half sheet for student to record their thinking. you can run of as many sheets as needed and create a booklet!  A cover is included. Get your free copy here!

Students met and discussed the pages. I will give one hint- you need to carefully balance how often students meet.  If they meet too often, they may lose interest in the book because the book will take forever to read. If they don't meet often enough, then they read SO MUCH it may be hard to keep events and thoughts straight!

Another FAVORITE way to end the year is Reader's Theater.  My students always loved reader's theater and it was perfect for practicing fluency. 

Generally, we made a big deal of the reader's theater.  We invited parents and younger grade levels.  We even performed it in the library to accompany a larger crowd! One year we painted "backdrops" on butcher paper.  I made copies of illustrations from the picture books on an overhead.  Students traced the picture.  Then, we just used tempera paint and painted the pictures.

These our our "backgrounds" for How I Became a Pirate by Shannon.

You can snag a free copy of the readers theater here!

This goes perfectly with my Pirate unit.  This is a cross curricular unit with ideas for writings, math, and more! My kids LOVED it!  We used the art projects to decorate the walls before the performance.

If you are looking for some other reader's theaters I also have these freebies

  

These go perfectly with my Cowboy End of the Year unit.

Have you ever heard of the nonprofit organization Read to Feed? In concept, it is like the Relay for Life fundraisers, but instead of sponsoring a child by distance run,  a child is sponsored by the amount read.

The website is gorgeous.  I like the philosophy of the organization- it mimics the proverb, "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime."  Instead of just giving the community food, they provide the community with animals (among other things) so they can learn a trade and sustain themselves.

The site also has FREE lessons AND a beautifully illustrated book that can be projected.

 

I did this with a teammate several years ago.  We didn't do it exactly as the site suggests.  We did a contest between out classes.  

We challenged students to do reading at home.  Parents wrote down the time in the student's agendas and we totaled the time (great life math lesson) daily. We had the large thermometers (like you see in many fundraisers) blown up on butcher paper. We added to the thermometer daily. 

 The class that met (or exceeded ) the goal first got to choose the animal donated.  My friends father' donated the money for the animal and we stayed under $100! I think it was even under $50!  They have animals as cheap as $20! The kids LOVED the competition!

I hope this gave you a few ideas to make your reading workshop more fun and engaging toward the end of the year!