What I'm Reading Wednesday: Writing the Playbook + Giveaway

Thank you all for your support of this little series! I have loved reading your comments and want to congratulate the winner of the Comprehension Connections e-book, Holly D.!! Congrats & check your email :)

I would love to keep this series going and will be moving it to a monthly post and giveaway! Woo hoo!

August's Book Pick:

Writing The Playbook by Kelley King

This book's full title is Writing the Playbook: A Practitioner's Guide to Creating a Boy-Friendly School and the author is one of the most inspirational people I have had the privilege of working with, Kelley King. She was the principal at my school when I taught fifth grade and is one of those leaders who challenges you to be the best that you can every day and was such a role model. I was so excited when she sent me this book because her leadership and personality shine through each page-- it was like being back in her school again :)

Kelley sets up this book in a way that is both easy to read and easy to implement. Each chapter is to the point, backed by research (but not too research-y in its tone), and provides quick and effective ways to start changing the work in your classroom to address the needs of girls and boys-- don't be fooled by the name, girls benefit from these strategies, too!! 

Similar to Teach Like a PIRATE and Comprehension Connections, there are ways to hook your students, keep them engaged, make the abstract concrete, and make sure you are addressing the needs of all learners in your class. But what I loved most about Kelley's book is the extensive research that backs up each of these strategies. We know, as teachers, that good teaching is engaging, out-of-the-box, new, active, and challenging. But sometimes, having the data available during conversations with admin, parents, or other teachers helps to seal the deal when it comes to justifying why it works, not just for you, but for all teachers and learners. Having research at your fingertips for why extensive seatwork doesn't address the needs of your squirrely boys (and girls!), why hand fidgets and beach balls are a welcome addition in class, and why some of your kids are standing instead of sitting at their desks/tables is such a welcomed life preserver in some conversations.

The great part about this book is that it's not only helpful to teachers, but administrators as well. Kelley has not only worked as a teacher, but as a principal, so she's able to wear both hats in this book and it may be a great piece of reading to offer to your school leader if he/she has been interested in your Brain Breaks, PIRATE strategies, or any of the hundreds of tips Kelley offers in this book. 

I am someone who doesn't like to read research (I was in a doctoral program and dropped after the statistics class- not for me!!), but I recognize its importance in the educational landscape these days, and I love that Kelley does as well. She addresses the need for teaching strategies that step out of what a "traditional sit and get" classroom may look like, she gives you a very comprehensive list for what some of those strategies are, she backs the need and the strategies with brain-based research, and then gives you some next steps-- in each chapter! It packs a punch and I am just so excited that I had the opportunity to work in her school and that you can now benefit from her know-how as well!

If you're interested in learning more about Kelley's work, be sure to head to her website: http://www.boyfriendlyschools.com.

You can also purchase her book on Amazon:

And, I am so excited that Kelley has offered to give away a copy of this book to one lucky reader! Just enter via Rafflecopter below and I will announce the winner next Wednesday. Good luck!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Series Button Credits: Scrappin' Doodles, Blair Turner & KG Fonts.

Get 'Em Moving Word Work: ABC Mats!

If you're like me, you're spending an awful lot of time at various stores picking up all you need for this upcoming school year!

I wanted to suggest a fun idea that I've used before for a Word Work/Brain Break idea: ABC Mats! 

These mats are the perfect way to inject some fun into Word Work and definitely get the kids moving, so I qualify them as a Brain Break, too :)

I found these mats at our local Lowe's Home Improvement store and they were a perfect investment at only $17! Each mat is 12" by 12" and interlock in any way you choose! I set mine up in no time in ABC order and they are easy to assemble and disassemble whenever you need them. You can find them at Lowe's HERE.

There are so many ways you can incorporate these into your class! A few ideas are:

• Spelling Practice: jumping from letter to letter to spell high-frequency words, spelling words, content vocabulary
• Guess My Word: student will spell and another student will need to guess what word
• Friend Web Word: gather as many students as needed to make a word. Each student stands on the letter mat holding hands with the next student in the word. Another student/group of students tries to guess the word
• Mixing up the order of the letters for an additional challenge!
• and more!!

These disassemble so quickly and take up very little room in storage, so it's a fun and active way to get your kids practicing spelling. You could also use an ABC rug, but I had difficulty finding one for less than $17, and this wasn't something I wanted out in my classroom all of the time.

One word of warning: You will need to try this out yourself on your own floor before you use it with your students! On our wood floors, these are very, very slippery!! On my carpet at school, these don't budge, so pleeeeeeeeeeease don't have kids jumping from letter to letter before you've checked how these grip your school floor :) :)

I hope this helped give you a fun idea for Word Work and if you need more Word Work ideas, click HERE! 

Can you think of more games to play using these ABC mats? Share them below!! Thanks so much and have a wonderful week ahead!

Getting It Started Saturday: Math Rotations {Part 2} + Freebies

Thanks for all of your great questions with the first part of starting Math Rotations! If you missed Part 1, be sure to read that first by clicking HERE. I'm calling this mini-series Getting It Started Saturday!

Math Rotations {Part 2}

I am beyond in love with Math Rotations, but it took me a while to take the first step and actually start them up in my class. Starting Daily 5 gave me some confidence, but what worried me the most was the management, grouping, and time crunch that math presents each day (we have a 60-minute math block). 

If you haven't read my Math Rotations posts, I recommend reading them to get some general background knowledge about each of the pieces and parts. The four parts are:

• Teacher Time (direct instruction)
• Lesson Work (practicing independently)
• Math Centers (skill and concept practice & review)
• Fact Practice (skill work on the basic operations)

Every student goes through each of the first three centers every day and, if they are early finishers on Lesson Work, they have the opportunity to do Fact Practice.

Each day begins with kids going straight to their first rotation. I begin with Teacher Time with my lowest group, then switch after ~18 minutes to meet with my medium group, then after ~18 minutes, meet with my high group. After leaving Teacher Time, the kids then go to Lesson Work and then Math Centers. I typically do these rotations Monday-Thursday. 

On Friday, my high kids come in and start with Lesson Work (from the day before's Teacher Time), my middle kids work on Math Centers, and my low kids, who usually meet with me first for Teacher Time, will often do Fact Practice while I work on reteaching some of my strugglers. After ~18 minutes, we stop and use the last ~40 minutes of class to do a game like Monster Math, Scoot, Bingo, etc. Fun times on Friday :)

On Monday, when my high kids come into do Lesson Work during first rotation, I will give them an extension activity (usually provided by our math program) to complete. This allows me to challenge their higher-level thinking skills and make sure they are doing purposeful work during that time. Sometimes, I will also have them do ScootPad on the iPad or computer, since that is CCSS-aligned and self-differentiating for their level. More on this in the video below....

Getting It Started:

Planning & Grouping Students

I made a video that goes through each of the parts of my Math Rotations Planning Pages that you can download for *free* HERE. I hope this helps you wrap your head around planning for and grouping students during Math Rotations:

If you are interested in picking up the chevron Math Rotation signs, you can find them in my TpT Store HERE. If you're interested in the *free* planning packet, you can get that from Google Docs HERE.

If you would like the *editable version* of this packet, it is now available as a PowerPoint in my TpT Store-- simply add text boxes to type your lessons, students' names, and more! Click HERE to read more :)

I hope this helps and leave any questions in the comment section below- I would love to help!

A Video Walk-Through of My Centers Bingo Boards

I am excited to share how I use these Centers Bingo Boards for both Math Centers and Word Work in my class. This has been a wonderful management tool for my kids and has allowed me to focus less on guiding them to make choices during this time and more on the work I need to do with other kiddos in Teacher Time.

These Bingo Boards also allow for kids to make choices about their own work, so while I am able to control most of these activities, students have the final say about what they will be working on, and that has helped to build their responsibility and has kept it interesting throughout the year.

Here's a quick video walk-through of how I fill out my Word Work Centers Bingo Board, so you can see how easy-peasy it is: {Note: Forgive my allergy-filled voice!}

My guiding principle for what I put into Centers Bingo is: What is good practice that, if students don't get to, I won't worry? For Word Work, this usually means activities like:

• Word Worth
• Place Value Spelling
• Letter Tiles
• Making Words
• iPad games
• Spelling City
• Secret Code (this is a fan freebie on my Facebook page)
• Cursive
• Sentences on whiteboards
• and more!

Note: These activities are available in the Word Work section in my TpT Store. You can also find Math Centers there, too!

I will often repeat choices two to three times on a board (check that they aren't all in line for a Bingo!) Also, I don't include centers that I want all kids to complete, since there may be a chance that they don't get to that square.

Any required recording sheets that I want kids to complete I will staple to the back of this sheet to make a "centers packet" that helps keep kids on-track with what they need to complete and keep the papers manageable for me (double-win!). I don't give Bingo signatures for this, but they can work on both Bingo and required centers during one Work Work/Math Centers time-- up to them. 

My due date requirement is that they need to have at least one Bingo (five in-a-row) and the packet finished by the time our unit is done. This can vary, but it's usually seasonal, so several weeks-ish?? It varies *so much*, sorry I can't be more precise!! Most kiddos end up with more than one Bingo and all required sheets complete, while my strugglers may have just one Bingo and all sheets complete, so the Bingo is a nice way to keep kids working on a variety of practice strategies and not hear "I'm done!" throughout center time :)

Of course, you can use these *however you'd like* so you may choose to put center activities on there and then require kids to get a blackout instead of just a Bingo-- up to you!!

"One Minute Warning"

As I am wrapping up Teacher Time, I will give kids a "one minute warning". This tells all students that transition time is approaching (but they shouldn't start cleaning up yet!), and it tells my Word Work/Math Centers kids that they need to come see me for a Bingo signature.

If they need a signature, they need to show me:

• their Bingo board
• their Word Work or Math Centers work

Because of our rotations, there are usually six to eight students in the Word Work/Math Center center at one time. *Not all of them will need a signature, since some were working on the attached recording sheets- I do not need to see those kids for Bingo signatures, so I end up seeing about four kids for signatures at any given time.*

If I see that the student has completed the work, following directions and has it correct (or mostly correct), I will sign the box on their Bingo board. In our class, they need to get five-in-a-row going up-down, across, or diagonally. If they get a bingo, I give them a small sticker and have them start going for another Bingo.

Teacher Tip: To make this easy on you and to have the kids stay focused, have them plan their Bingo the first day you pass these out. This also helps with our 7 Habits work of "Beginning with the end in mind"! I will simply have the kids put a small dot/star/checkmark in the squares they will be working on for their first Bingo. This helps keep them focused, practice goal-setting, and makes it easy for me to check their progress along the way. 

If you are interested in these board, they are available in my TpT Store for both Word Work Bingo and Math Centers Bingo. 

For more information on centers in my class, be sure to check out the Daily 5 and Math Rotations tabs at the top of the page- LOTS of information can be found there to help :)

I hope this walk-through helped give you some ideas for center management this upcoming year. Of course, you may choose to use them in a completely different way, and that's totally fine! That's the beauty of editable PDFs :) Let me know if you have any questions below and I hope you are enjoying these last few weeks of summertime!

What I'm Reading Wednesday: Comprehension Connections + Giveaway

Thanks to all of your positive comments and excitement about my last WIRW book, Teach Like a PIRATE! The winner of the e-book is Jaclyn M.~ Congrats and check your email! 

I am excited to share this next book, because I feel it ties in well with several of the "hooks" that Dave Burgess mentioned in his book!

This Week's Book:

Comprehension Connections by Tanny McGregor

I will admit, I have read this book before. But, like any good read (especially school read), I always find myself discovering new tidbits of knowledge and new ideas for practice when I read it multiple times, so I was glad I picked it back up this summer. 

Tanny McGregor gives wonderful, real-life examples of how she makes the abstract, often hard-to-teach reading strategies concrete, and I love that! Her book is divided into the following comprehension strategies:

• Metacognition
• Schema
• Inferring
• Questioning
• Determining Importance
• Visualizing
• Synthesizing

See? Really out-there strategies that are sososo important for our kids to learn, but are often very challenging to teach to 8 and 9 year-old concrete thinkers.

What I love about each chapter is that she goes through the same steps to introduce each strategy in a way that allows kids to attach the thinking to a common item, practice it using a wordless book, and then start using the strategy in an actual book. I don't know about you, but I tend to jump straight into the text and am often met with blank stares (d'oh!). Tanny's formula is a wonderful way for kids to anchor their thinking in wordlesness and experiential learning-- can't beat that!!

For example, in her "Determining Importance" lesson she uses everything from items in her purse, to a strainer, to a flashlight. Each item served to highlight how we use these strategies in our daily life, but can attach them to the text we read to understand and comprehend even more about the story.

She also includes pictures of her anchor charts filled with sentence stems to help guide your kiddos in their conversations about comprehension and text, as well as numerous references, picture book ideas, and quotes for each strategy in case you want to dig deeper. This was a wonderful resource since my class last year struggled with Determining Importance and I could quickly pull up chapters in the books she recommended (many of which I am sure you have, like Mosaic of Thought and Strategies that Work) to gain additional insight and strategies to help. 

What stuck with me the most (and what reminds me of the "hooks" from Burgess' Teach Like a PIRATE) was the fact that each strategy was broke down into a concrete learning experience. I loved the use of props in each of the lessons so that these weird and wacky words like schema and inferring, could make sense to kids in a real-life way. I think I sometimes forget that kids of all ages and levels need these kids of experiences to get hooked into a lesson, from my strugglers to my gifted kids.... plus, it's just fun!!

If you're interested in the book, it can be found on Amazon:

Getting It Started Saturday: Math Rotations {Part 1}

With the start of the school year around the corner, I wanted to go a bit more in-depth with some of the systems I use in class and give you some additional details for how I get them started (sometimes the hardest part, right?!). I'm calling this mini-series Getting It Started Saturday!

Math Rotations {Part 1}

I am beyond in love with Math Rotations, but it took me a while to take the first step and actually start them up in my class. Starting Daily 5 gave me some confidence, but what worried me the most was the management, grouping, and time crunch that math presents each day (we have a 60-minute math block). 

If you haven't read my Math Rotations posts, I recommend reading them to get some general background knowledge about each of the pieces and parts. The four parts are:

• Teacher Time (direct instruction)
• Lesson Work (practicing independently)
• Math Centers (skill and concept practice & review)
• Fact Practice (skill work on the basic operations)

Every student goes through each of the first three centers every day and, if they are early finishers on Lesson Work, they have the opportunity to do Fact Practice.

Each day begins with kids going straight to their first rotation. I begin with Teacher Time with my lowest group, then switch after ~18 minutes to meet with my medium group, then after ~18 minutes, meet with my high group. After leaving Teacher Time, the kids then go to Lesson Work and then Math Centers. I typically do these rotations Monday-Thursday. 

On Friday, my high kids come in and start with Lesson Work (from the day before's Teacher Time), my middle kids work on Math Centers, and my low kids, who usually meet with me first for Teacher Time, will often do Fact Practice while I work on reteaching some of my strugglers. After ~18 minutes, we stop and use the last ~40 minutes of class to do a game like Monster Math, Scoot, Bingo, etc. Fun times on Friday :)

Getting It Started:

Anchor Charts

I *always* make the anchor chart of expectations with my class. It always allows me to get their thinking (as well as my own!) recorded and we look back on them often throughout the set-up stages so we can check in and see how well they are doing with the expectations. Making anchor charts is such an important management piece, but be sure to start slow and don't feel rushed to complete all four sections in one time.

Here's how mine looked last year:

Click HERE to get these chevron signs in my TpT Store

We worked on one section per day, so this took us about a week to introduce. I know you know, but I have found over the years that the more time you spend on setting something up, the more payoff you get throughout the course of the year. Because of this, I didn't feel guilty not getting to the "meat and potatoes" of teaching that first week. 

The first section that I always introduce is Math Centers. These are the most independent part of Math Rotations and I want to make sure my students know and understand the stamina and responsibility required to be successful during this rotation. We model in the meeting are with some student volunteers bad behavior first (within reason- it's a riot!) and then get new volunteers to show us proper behavior. We chart what we noticed and also model the correct ways to take out materials, put them away, what to do if you have a question about something, what voice level to use, where good spots to work are, and so on. It sounds like a lot, but it's worth it, I promise. If kids don't know how something is supposed to run, it can be frustrating for both them and you.

I then do a "fishbowl" of sorts. I split the class into two groups. The first group will do Math Centers for 5-8 minutes and the second group will observe them and look for what they did right. Many kids will be dying to point out who did something wrong, but that is far from helpful ;) They take notes, like researchers or teachers, and they eat it up!

After those few minutes, I signal it's time to come back to the meeting area and the observers/teachers tell all about who was doing what right- yay! We add to the anchor chart if we noticed we missed something important and the observers/teachers then become the students and vice-versa. We end that day having discussed some clear expectations and having done some solid practice about what is expected, so it's a huge success in getting Math Rotations launched.

The next day we introduce Fact Practice and go about setting it up the same way. We do not do the "fishbowl" activity, however, I will instead have the kids split into the two groups and one will practice Math Centers while the other practices Fact Practice. I will also extend the time of each rotation a bit more, building stamina. My goal is to get to 18 minutes, but I don't want to rush it.

The day after we start with Lesson Work and I will have the students split into two groups and start Math Centers or Lesson Work (which is a fun worksheet that doesn't require "Teacher Time" to explain) and if they get done with Lesson Work, they can hop into Fact Practice. Then, we switch.

The final piece is Teacher Time, since that is the easiest for me to manage. I will typically start that only after I feel the other three rotations (Math Centers, especially) are running smoothly enough. They *don't* have to be perfect, just good enough! Math Rotations get better with time and practice, I promise :)

I use any extra time at the end of class to review our anchor chart and talk about all of the good things I saw and encourage students to do the same. If I notice certain kids are not getting into the flow, I ask myself a few questions:

• Am I moving too fast? (bad habit of mine and usually the answer is yes so the solution is sloooooow dowwwwn!)
• Is the work too challenging? (especially at the beginning of the year, something I consider "easy" may not be for a student, so I'll need to adjust)
• Am I being a role model for positive behavior? (if I am running all around and criticizing the talkers in a loud voice, that is not helping!!)
• Is it good enough? (ugh, death by perfectionism-- remember, it will get better, it just has to be good enough for now so you can then start teaching the content)

What you will find is that if you are comfortable with "good enough", the management will get easier when you get into the actual math work, since the rigor and learning will pick up and it won't just be set-up anymore.

I will be back for Part 2 next week that will include how I create my learning groups and some planning forms for your Math Rotations journey this year. If you are interested in picking up the chevron Math Rotation signs, you can find them in my TpT Store HERE. 

I hope this helps and leave any questions in the comment section below- I would love to help!

What I'm Reading Wednesday: Teach Like a PIRATE + Freebies & Giveaway!

There have been so many wonderful book study groups happening this summer, but we were gone for many of them and it just seems like I am now starting to get caught up on all of these fabulous books! I'm starting a little series over the next few weeks to review my favorite take-aways from all of them and calling it What I'm Reading Wednesday!

This Week's Book: 

Teach Like a PIRATE by Dave Burgess

When it comes to books for teaching, I *love* reading books about practical, hands-on ways to implement new strategies in my classroom. When it comes to books I read for fun, I *love* reading books that inspire, motivate, and challenge me to do more and be more. This book does all of the above and then some!!

I love that this book is divided up into two sections: the first is Burgess' "manifesto" and the second half is full of practical ways that you can start implementing PIRATE strategies in your classroom.

In the first half of the book, Burgess explains what it means to "Teach like a PIRATE" and uses the word as an acronym for what it looks like on a daily basis in your classroom. PIRATE teachers show:

Click the image to get your free copy of this poster.

Each of these sections are defined in a way that not only makes it easy for you to see using in your classroom, but also includes a call to action! This call is what spoke to me the most in these early chapters. I think it is often so easy to get bogged down in the negatives of our profession: tests, data, paperwork, unfair treatment from the media, etc. These chapters challenged me to remember my passion, always seek new challenges, look for new ways to engage and energize my students and my teaching, and more. This half is the perfect back-to-school read to get you "in the zone" to have your best, most positive year yet!!

The second half of the book is focused on how you can incorporate PIRATE-ness in your class. Burgess is a high school teacher, but his techniques are easy to implement in elementary school, too! In fact, maybe even easier since our kiddos are younger :) What I love is that he stresses these aren't "one size fits all" approaches, but something you can pick and choose to start transforming the way you deliver instruction. In fact, I bet that if you're reading and/or writing teaching blogs, a lot of what he suggests are things you may do in your classroom anyway, but his lists are far more extensive and out-of-the-box than I could generate as I make lesson plans!

One highlight in this second half are the "Hooks" teachers can use to draw the class' attention to the lesson and keep them highly engaged. He goes through tons and offers specific suggestions from his own class to show how these can be done in a variety of ways. Here's a quick list I made that I plan on keeping near my desk so that I can remember to include a hook or two (maybe more!) throughout my day:

Click the image to get your free copy of these sheets.

The bottom has some empty lines to add new ones that may pop up as you endeavor on this journey :)

I also found a wonderful blog post from the 2 Smart Wenches and they have put together and even more handy-dandy list of hooks (on a binder ring, so you know I'm sold!):

Click the image above to be taken to their post and grab these for free!

As you can see, they participated in a *fabulous* book study put on by Third Grade Tidbits and Rowdy in First Grade that I highly recommend you check out, since they go into each of the chapters in detail.

Another fabulous resource is a video that Elizabeth from Fun in Room 4B posted on her Facebook page that really shows you the dynamic personality of Dave Burgess and how his passion and enthusiasm are contagious!


I love this conversation put on by Edu All-Stars and I definitely plan on attending one of the #TLAP Twitter chats. Continuing the conversation with educators who are also "PIRATE"s and who desire to motivate, innovate, and inspire is so powerful!

If you're interested in Dave Burgess' book, it's available on Amazon:



For those of you who have read Teach Like a PIRATE, what was your biggest takeaway? I'd love for you to share in the comments below! Aaaarrrgh!! ;)

Favorite Pins Friday & A New 2nd/3rd Collaborative Blog!

Happy Friday! (Don't you just love the summer when you forget what day it is?)

I am linking up with Cara from First Grade Parade and her weekly Favorite Pins Friday to share some of my recent Pinterest finds!

Favorite School Pins:

Completely agree, although I do love the Target Dollar Bins this time of year :) :) :)

Love this chart from Using My Teacher Voice for the first week back to school!

Favorite Style Pins:

Chevron nails? Yes, please :)

Currently obsessing over polka dots and chambray!

This color combination takes my love of all things teal/turquoise and brightens it up! Love it :)

Favorite Quote Pins:

Yup!

My besties, teammates, and husband probably think this is my personal motto ;)

This is *by far* my most favorite quote

If you don't already, be sure to follow me on Pinterest to see a whole bunch more! Have fun checking out the rest of the great finds over at The First Grade Parade!

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I am *EXTREMELY* excited to announce a new collaborative blog I am a part of for 2nd and 3rd grade teachers!!

Owl-ways Be Inspired is filled with some of your most favorite 2nd & 3rd grade bloggers and we are all so excited for the opportunity to collaborate and share with you! Best part? There is a gigantic Grand Opening Giveaway that started today filled with a *ton* of back-to-school goodies! Head over right now to check it out and be sure to follow us on Bloglovin', Facebook, and Pinterest!

Have a wonderful weekend, friends!!