Goal Setting in the Classroom Freebie

Just a quick post today to offer up a freebie based on one of my most popular posts from a little ways back...

During the 2013-2014 school-year I was fortunate enough to be a cooperating teacher for a student in a local university's certification and masters program. Because she was obtaining her masters at the same time she was getting certified to be a teacher, I had her with me in the classroom for pretty much the whole year.

I feel like this was such a gift for everyone involved. For her, she got more "hands-on" time than most student teachers do and was really able to grow and be confident because she was with the same students for a longer period of time. I was blessed with someone who I worked really well with, which really helped take a load off of me as far as teaching stress goes. And ultimately, the students benefited because they had two teachers with similar styles. Win-win-win!

As part of her experience, she had to do a case-study of sorts. She chose to do goal setting in the classroom for this. I cannot say enough what a huge impact it made on student performance and self-worth.

Each week, we helped students choose a goal to work on. At the beginning of the project, they needed a lot of guidance, but towards the end, they were choosing spot-on goals all by themselves.  A few goals students chose were:

-using capitals and ending marks
-completing morning work
-completing homework
-raising their hand in class more frequently
-raising their hand to be called on {as opposed to calling out}
-playing with different friends at recess {this applied perfectly to a student who wanted only to play with her friend who expressed interest in playing with other students}

There were many more, but those are a few I can remember at the moment.

Students chose their goals, worked on them during the week, and at the end of the week, they conferred with myself or my student teacher and we decided if they achieved their goal. Again, at first, everyone said they did {some were less concrete than others}, but over time students became more reflective and answered honestly.

Students who achieved their goals were given a certificate and also permitted to join in during Minute to Win It at the end of the week. We rarely had a student who didn't accomplish that week's goal.

Since that post, I've had a few readers of my blog request the goal-setting sheets and certificates. I made a few and have made them a freebie to encourage goal setting on your classroom, no matter the grade you teach.

Click here to grab the freebie.

You can also read more about how my student teacher did our goal setting program by clicking here.

I hope you will try goal setting in your classroom this year! If you do, how do you execute your goal setting program?

Halle

Father's Day: a unit and a freebie

Maybe you're one of the {unlucky???} teachers still in school past Father's Day, or maybe you like to have your students complete something before you're done for the year, no matter when you get out. Either way, I have a really fun and easy idea for you for Father's Day...

...and if you're in a real pinch, I have a freebie for you at the bottom of the post!

I got the idea for DAD Manual when I read a quote about life not coming with a manual, but that's why we have mothers! But I got to thinking, what if we did have a manual for the special guy in our life??? Thus, DAD Manual was born!

DAD Manual comes with 12 different pages, so you can pick and choose which pages you want to use with your students {depending on age, ability, or time}!

Some of the pages require illustrations...

and every page needs maintenance instructions:

There are other pages included: dad at work, best dressed dad, genius dad, most valuable dad, and more.

There are also versions for uncles and grandpas!

You can grab DAD Manual by clicking the picture below:

And if you're in a REEEEAAAAAAL time-crunch, or are looking for a little something to add to a handmade Father's Day gift, I have a freebie for you.

A Guide to my Dad:

You can grab it here.

~Halle

End-of-Year Ideas, Tips, and Freebies!

The countdown to the end-of-the-year is on! Maybe you're less than a week away from summer bliss, or maybe you go until the end of June {yes, that happens. yes, it stinks}, maybe you're somewhere in between.  No matter where we fall in the countdown, we're all always looking for ideas to fill our last days. And so, I've compiled a few of my favorites in this here post :)

1} Record Memories

I'm a mama now, and I've become obsessed with recording anything and everything for Ella to read one day. I just feel like she'll be dying to know when she took her very first bite of broccoli or the date she first helped me blow bubbles ;)

There are quite a few ways to have our students record their memories. I just added one to my TpT store. I love it because it pulls double-duty: it makes an EASY and ADORABLE bulletin board display, and it makes the perfect memory keeper for my kiddos.

Click HERE to grab it from TpT

I also created a Timeline Banner last year. This is another double-duty product: a great display and the perfect memory keeper. Next school-year, I plan on using it throughout the year with my students to review each month's learning and activities, as opposed to just at the end of the year. 

Click here to read more about it. Click here to add it to your cart!

There are also a plethora of Memory Books on Teachers Pay Teachers. Rachel Lamb has one of my favorites: Hashtag Memories.

2} Have a Countdown

We pop balloons for our last 10 days. I like this type of countdown for a few reasons. To me, 10 days is the perfect length for a countdown. It's juts long enough to pack in a lot of fun activities, but it's not so long that it drags on and the kids lose interest.

I also love that it gives me something to hold over my kiddos' heads. Let's be honest, sometimes that's all we have to hold on to at the end.

Click the picture for a free list of what I put inside my balloons.

I make sure to have a RACK day in my countdown, where we write letters and give sweet treats to our specials' teachers and buddies we have throughout the school. I also make sure to throw a movie day in there because Movie Day=Get Stuff Done Day!

Mostly though, the balloons are filled with theme days. Every year "Bubble Day" {using Abby's Busy Bodies packet} is a HUGE hit!

Last year we also had airplane contests, art day {included sidewalk chalk}, and photo booth day.

3} Write Letters

I always have my current students write letters to my future students. The writing of the letters serves many purposes. 1} Friendly Letter writing review 2} I can see what my current students think is important information that needs to be relayed {hello opportunity for reflection!} 3} The letters serve as a great discussion starter for my new kiddos. And I also get a peek at my struggling readers!

Click the picture below to grab letter paper for FREE. There is a boy and girl version.

4} Get Ready for the Next Year

I always have my students help me get ready for the next year. We have to box everything up, so I have my more reliable students box up my books basket by basket and label them. That way, I only have to pull them during the summer and add them to a basket. I don't have to spend valuable time resorting them.

Any decorations I take down go right into my September bins. I have bins for each month that house crafts, printables, books, and {mostly} decorations for each month. I don't have a picture, but I use the labels from one of my favorites, Ashley at That's So Elementary. They're adorable and a STEAL at $1.50

Auction off items you no longer want to your students. You could do a fancy auction and give your students classroom money to bid on items. But hey, it's the end of the year...that's too much work for me. 

Instead, I take down anchor charts I won't be reusing, old holiday pencils and erasers, math games that have been a little over-loved {read: damaged}, leftover prize box toys {I use coupons instead now}, notepads, I'm telling you ... ANYTHING: a post-it pad with only 3 sheets left...a student will want it! Then, I just start pulling popsicle sticks with student numbers. If they want it, they take it, if they don't, I pull a new stick. It's such an easy way to get rid of stuff I no longer need/want, and I get to make a student's day!

5} Take a Class Picture

I'm a fan of the pictures where each student gets to hold a sign that spells out a word. Print enough copies for your students and you have an end-of-the-year gift they're sure to love!

I hope I was able to give you a few ideas to wrap up your school-year! What do you do during the last week or two?

Halle

Room on the Broom Freebie

Hi there!

Happy Wednesday! You're halfway through the week :) Yay! That's good news!

More good news?

Ella strongly prefers napping on my lap.

That's good news for you, not so much for me.

See, awhile back I started a "Room on the Broom" unit. It's one of my very favorite Halloween books and I decided I wanted a unit to go with it. It was to be my first unit for TpT since having Ella in September. I was feeling truly inspired!

And then the nap incidents happened. Repeatedly. And I ran out of time to complete the unit before Halloween.

A RARE photo depicting Ella napping in a location other than her mama's lap :)

This turned out not to be a complete loss for two reasons:

1} I love Ella snuggles.
2} You get what I did finish... for FREE!

Yay!

See? Good news!

The FREEBIE "Room on the Broom" unit features 3 extension activities:

1} Questioning Cards
2} Sequencing Cards
3} Cause and Effect Cards

I hope you can find some time to use these activities with your students before Halloween rolls around next week!

I do plan on adding the rest of my ideas to this unit and making it a priced unit at some point in time. Who knows when that will be!  Hopefully some time before Ella's 1st birthday!

Click the picture below to grab this freebie from TpT. If you do download it I would appreciate your positive feedback. It's been a little while since I posted a freebie on TpT!

Have a great day!

~Halle

Five for Friday!!

It must be summer break b/c I am blogging!

And not only am I blogging, but I am actually posting my Five for Friday (first one in foreverrrr) on a Friday!

This is serious, people!

1. You may remember, from one of my sporadic school-year posts, that I am expecting our very first bundle of joy this coming September!  With the exception of a pretty difficult first trimester, this pregnancy has been wonderful and I am so loving being pregnant!  I'm almost 30 weeks and still sleeping through the night and only peeing 792 times a day, so I call that a win!

We've had a lot of fun documenting my growing bump...

Week 28 seems to have brought on "pregnancy face", or maybe it was just the humidity.  The caption for week 28's chalkboard says, "Wedding rings are barely on."  And well, they're almost never on, but I blame the summer heat more than pregnancy weight gain...at least that's what I hope it is!

2.  In related baby news, we've decided to take the plunge and try to cloth diaper our little one!  (No naysaying comments, please!).  

We are choosing to cloth diaper for a few reasons, the first being the financial aspect. I will be taking some unpaid time off of work, so pinching pennies where we can will be extremely helpful.

The second being environmental impact.  I don't know if it's this little one growing inside of me, but I have definitely become more environmentally conscious lately.  Not that I drove a hummer, drank only from plastic water bottles, and ran my air 24/7 before, but I have definitely stepped it up a bit.  We're not turning to vegetable oil to fuel our cars or giving up cable television anytime soon, but I like being able to do my part for this planet this way.

We'll see how it goes. If it's an epic fail I've read that newborn cloth diapers have excellent resale value.  And if it goes as well as we hope, well, my baby will have one cute little bum for the next few years of his/her life!

3. In non-baby news, I'm finally getting back on the TpT bandwagon.  It's been awhile!  Mostly due to my laptop crashing and needing the Geek Squad to get all my stuff off of it!  We had been backing up my computer on a pretty regular basis, but somehow missed some important documents (read: clip art) and we needed the help of the professionals! It was hard to create products knowing the perfect background was on my other computer, so gave it for awhile!

Here's what I'm working on at the moment:

I am thisclose to finishing my Non-Fiction Passages. I hope to have them posted by the end of the month.  These passages will complete my Reading Passages Bundle, so if the bundle is something you're interested in, grab the bundle now! The price goes up once I add these, so if you purchase before, you get the Non-Fiction Edition for FREE!

I'm also adding the finishing touches to this Noun Unit I started waaaay back in 2013.  Seriously!  It took so long mostly due to the aforementioned computer crash, but also because I used it along the way with my class.  So this Noun Pack is a real tried and true product!

 It has posters and printables for all different types of nouns:

But the best part of the pack is that it comes with tons of "noun cards" that your students can use many different ways. It makes the unit truly interactive, engaging, and fun!

Keep your eyes peeled for this one!

4. In semi-TpT related news, my favorite Owls are hosting a fun and useful linky called "Show Us How You Use It".  We're taking common household items and showing you how we use them in our classrooms, then giving you a chance to link-up with your own ingenious uses for things like popsicle sticks and aluminum cans.

Earlier this week, I showed one of the ways I use clothespins in my classroom: Clothespin Math!  It's so easy and such a great way to address different skills in your classroom!

Click the link down below to read all about Clothespin Math and grab a freebie to kick it off in your classroom!

And now for nothing related to anything else in this post, but equally as important:

5. We made these chicken fingers for dinner the other night and fell in love, so I thought I'd share.  Dave is a true miracle worker in that he can actually get oven-baked chicken fingers to come out really, really crispy.  So in our house, he is definitely in charge of all future oven-baked chicken finger recipes.

{Source}

PS: Yes, we did sprinkle green onion over the top!

PPS: I think you should totally follow me on Pinterest...especially if you like food, because I love food!!  Click here to follow me!

Oh, click the picture below to grab your clothespin math freebie!!

Thanks for stopping by and remembering I actually had a blog!  Hope you're all enjoying your summer! Go link up with DoodleBugs and share your five things from this week!

A "Silly" Freebie

Are you celebrating a certain Dr.'s birthday this week?

We are, and I can't wait to share pictures of all the fun stuff we're doing to celebrate!

I have a fun freebie for you to throw in with all your other festive Seussy-stuff!

It's called "Silly Parts of Speech"

 It's not actually all that silly. But I'm not allowed to use a certain author's name in my products!

This freebie is great as a hallway hunt. read the room, or center activity!

Students read the words on the cards and decide what part of speech the word is.

Adjectives. adverbs, nouns, and verbs are all covered in this Hallway Hunt, as is a recording sheet.

You can grab it for free from my Facebook page. Just make sure you're a fan!

I hope you can use it in your room this week :)

~Halle

Roam the Room Christmas Freebie!!!

Hi Friends!

6 more days until a much needed Christmas Break for me, how about you?

I’m just popping in with a quick freebie for you tonight!

It’s a FREEBIE designed after my “Santa’s Little Helper” Hallway Hunt.  We’ll be using it all next week to review some common core concepts in a fun way before we head off on Christmas Break!



You can read more about “Santa’s Little Helpers” here.

For this freebie, your students roam the room (or the hallway, in my case)  completing a mission for Santa. To help him, they need decide what part of speech is written on the word cards. 



Directions, word cards, and a recording sheet are included in the freebie.







To grab it head over to my Facebook page and click the “Freebies for Fans” tab at the top of the page. 

You will need to “like” my page to access the freebie.  Once you do, it will link you to a folder with tonight's freebie, as well as previous Fan Freebies. Grab them all while you’re there :)

I hope this little activity helps you get through these last few days before break!

Goodnight :)

What’s the Main Idea? Another Halloween FREEBIE!

Well, what do you know? I actually kept my promise of another post and freebie today! Well, not actually a promise, but you know… (If you missed yesterday’s freebie, click here)

We’re learning all about Main Idea in our 2nd grade classroom right now and let’s just be honest: It is easily one of my least favorite comprehension skills to teach. I remember it being a tough skill for me back in the day, and it definitely stumps some of my kiddos.  We’ve learned the tips and tricks. We’ve made the anchor chart. And we’re still.not.getting.it.

So, on a whim the other day I decided to put my overwhelming amount of Halloween clip art to good use whip up some Halloween-themed main idea passages.  I projected them on to my whiteboard and had students write the main idea on their whiteboards. Then we VERBALLY gave some supporting details.

This says, “Manny lost his hat and cannot find it.” (He's correct by the way. This isn't the main idea of the passage above!)

Yep! That’s it!

As you can see, this was a pretty quick and informal exercise but it was a fun way to get some practice in!  We might have to make seasonal passages like this one a regular thing!

I also have to give a shout-out to Tracy from Creekside Teacher Tales. I’ve been using her Non-Fiction Main Idea Pack with my above-level kiddos in reading.  It’s definitely more challenging than the passages I’ve created but it’s an engaging, well made product perfect for my high fliers!!

(Click to check it out!)

Ok, so I promised a FREEBIE!  You can grab these main idea passages for free, but I am going to make you work for it!  Head over to my Facebook page and click the “Freebies for Fans” tab.  If you already “like” me (gee, thanks!) you should be able to download them straight away.  If you’re not yet a fan, just click like and grab them!

(Don't be alarmed by the image you see. It looks like you're going to be downloading "While You Were Out" folder covers.  I just haven't changed the image yet.  You actually get to download the Main Idea Freebie and the folder covers too, if you want! What a steal!

I can’t promise they’ll be there forever though, so act quickly!

Have a great night!

Halle