Primary Teaching Resources

Tuesday, November 15

How to Print Your App List

I figured out the simplest thing today. I can't believe I never knew it existed. Open up iTunes, click on Apps, go to File-->Print, Select "Song List" and voila, you have a list of all of your apps in a handy little PDF. You can do the same thing with your music library, too!

Here is a list of the apps we have on our school iPads for Kindergarten to Grade 3.

Thursday, November 10

Fall Poetry

Here's a freebie for you!

I wanted to share a fun little autumn poetry project I completed with my second graders a couple of weeks ago. I cut up tissue paper into tiny squares and had the kids scrunch the bits onto the end of a pencil. They then dipped the tissue paper into a pot of glue and onto to their construction paper. We ended up with beautiful fall trees full of colourful, scrunched up "leaves". (Note: If I were to do this again, I would have the students trace their hand and arm for the tree trunk).

Afterward, we brainstormed about autumn and categorized our ideas into the five senses. Each student composed a "Fall is..." poem with one line each for seeing, hearing, tasting, listening, and feeling. Finally, we used Sharpies to outline the words in the poem.

As an aside, I have some news to share! I've been hired on at Simon Fraser University where I will be working with in-service teachers in a graduate program.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend :)

Friday, October 28

Place Value Houses

This is a variation of The Teacher Wife's Even & Odd Street. I saw almost the exact same thing on another blog, but I don't remember where. If this is your idea, please let know, so I can give you proper credit.

The students chose three playing cards from a deck and arranged them in ascending order. They wrote their number combinations onto slips of paper and we practiced sorting them into even and odd. Students lined up in ascending order and descending order, based on the numbers they chose. This was also our first experience with expanded notation, which I demonstrated using 1s, 10s, and 100s manipulatives.

Finally, students collected the appropriate number of pre-cut construction paper 1s, 10s, and 100s in order to represent their number visually. I love the way they turned out! I have a creative bunch this year!

Click HERE for my collection of place value links!

Thursday, October 20

The Daily Five

This year, there are two new programs I have implemented that are running particularly well. The first is the Behaviour Clip Chart (more about that another time) and the second is The Daily Five. I'd like to share my thoughts about The Daily Five, in the hopes that I can encourage someone reading this to explore it a little further.

I remember hearing about The Daily Five and quickly dismissing it as just another way to run centres. Nobody at my school was using the approach, and I didn't give it another thought until mid summer. That's when I began to read great things about it on ProTeacher. It certainly helps that American teachers start their school year much earlier than we do here in Canada. At first, I was skeptical due to the fact that I teach in a half-day program, where we have little (read: no) time for "fluff". But, the teacher from my Pen Pal class was in a similar situation and had implemented the system the previous year. She had nothing but good things to say about it!

So, I did what any other crazy teacher does in the summer. I ordered the book and read it from cover to cover...in one day. Then, I read it again, taking notes this time. I was hooked! If you haven't read the book, don't just take my word on it, go out and get yourself a copy!

I followed the instructions pretty closely and it worked out just like the book said it would. The kids are actively engaged in reading from beginning to end. So far, we are only working with three of the choices: Read to Self, Read to Someone, and Listen to Reading, but I plan to introduce the remaining two choices, Work on Words and Work on Writing, this coming week. I am absolutely amazed by the fact that the students sit and read the WHOLE time, without bothering one another. It's like a teacher's dream come true. While they are reading, I have time to work one-on-one or with a small group of students and I don't have to put any effort into managing the remaining students. I LOVE The Daily Five!