Guest Post: Corner on Character

Today, I have yet ANOTHER special guest post for you! :)  I am a big believer of character education in the classroom, and today I have a post for you by the the expert on character education herself, Babara from The Corner on Character!

 

Howdy from The Corner on Character.  It's such a thrill to be a guest today at this amazing blog. Thanks, Lisa, for the invitation.

Do you know about The Giant King by Kathleen T. Pelley? Although it's almost ten years old, it was love at first sight when I saw it for the first time this summer. In this tale about a Scottish carpenter's son named Rabbie, a Giant is terrorizing a town until the young lad suggests that the Giant's acting like a crazed beast because they're treating him like one. Though the people scoff and sneer at his intriguing idea that just might change things for the better, the King orders his people to do what the wise boy says. 

And guess what? 

"That which is loved will reveal its loveliness . . . "

So what connection do I want to make and reflect upon with this title? 

The Law of Attraction. According to Wikipedia: The law of attraction is essentially a belief or theory that "like attracts like" and that by focusing on positive or negative thoughts, one can bring about positive or negative results.

Consider the Giant and apply the law of attraction. He was banished by the townspeople because he was scary to them. But which came first, the chicken or the egg? Rabbie simply surmised that if they were treat him differently, like royalty instead of like something repulsive, then the Giant would act more Kingly. It's exactly why author Carol McCloud suggests that Bucket Fillers surround themselves with other Bucket Fillers. 

What you focus on, you get more of! 

So what will YOU encourage your students to focus on this year? You probably get about 187 days with this new crop of learners for the 

2012-2013 school year. How will they spend the days represented by that dash? Find out what changes your students could positively influence. Discuss the Law of Attraction with them so that they can intentionally seek out positivity. On purpose. 

Maybe there's someone that they could be a little kinder to. 

Maybe they want to complain less. 

Maybe they want to volunteer more. 

Challenge them to write a New Year's Resolution with an action plan. Then revisit the resolutions at the end of each quarter for self-reflection.

 Happy New Year! 

 
Thank you, Barbara for sharing the The Giant King with us! I already requested it from our local library and can't wait to share it with my fourth graders! :)  

Guest Post: Mary From Guided Math

Today, I have a real treat for you guys, a guest post from the Guide Math Guru herself, Mary of Guided Math!  Guided math is something I really can't wait to do with my fourth graders and I'm so happy Mary is sharing her knowledge and expertise with us today! :)

I am very excited to guest post today!  I'm Mary Mueller from Guided-Math.  I've been gearing up to go back to work and preparing for a straight grade this year... 4th grade!  No combination/split/multi-age class for me this year!  I love fourth graders.  They are maturing, developing great sense of humors and for the most part not hormonal yet.  They are eager to learn and still have that little kid fun side to them.

As you can imagine, being the Guided Math Guru (The GMG), I look forward to teaching my students a variety of math games to help with math facts.  Using math games in the classroom is a great, sneaky way to help students learn their math facts.  Most often the games I teach only utilize either playing cards or dice.  Simple.

I am sharing a three of my favorites that I teach during the first few weeks of Guided Math kick-off.

1.  Turn Over 10
The very first game I teach.  It is a basic addition game where students have to make combinations of 10.  Basic... but believe me... some intermediate students still don't have this down.

2.  Roll 1,000
This game can be modified to fit either addition or multiplication skills.  Students use dice and multiply and add to make totals of 1,000.

3.  Baby Snake
One of my most popular whole class games is called SNAKE.  I modified this whole class game for small group.  It follows along the same lines as SNAKE but works well in math groups.


I hope everyone has a great school year!  Good luck!

Enjoy!

Thanks, Mary for sharing the links to all those wonderful games, I know my I can't wait to share them with my fourth graders! :)

Guest Post: Sandy from Soaring Through Second

Today, you guys are in for a special treat, my bloggy BFF, Sandy from Soaring Through Second is guest posting for me today!  One of my favorite things about blogging has been developing relationships with teachers all over the country, and I'm especially thankful for my friendship with Sandy.  She's such an awesome and innovative teacher, and I know you will really enjoy her guest post!  Make sure you stop by her blog sometime, she has so many tips for managing technology in the classroom! :)

Hi there!!!

It's Sandy from

I have been teaching for five years (this will be my sixth)- two years in 4th grade and three years in 2nd grade. I started blogging in December and it has clearly taken over my free time and I am such a better teacher thanks to all of the amazing teacher blogs out there (like this one!)!!! I am SO SO SO super duper excited to be guest posting for my bloggy BFF Lisa while she is taking care of business and getting moved into her new home!!!

I wanted to share with you one of my favorite back to school activities! I'm all about cooperative learning and teaching my kiddos how to work together (because let's face it- they don't always know how to). And common core & 21st century learning are all about collaboration and working together! So this activity is a prefect way to kick start a great year together! 

All I do is put 15-20 pieces of uncooked spaghetti noodles and 20-25 marshmallows in a bag (easy and cheap!!!). I give each table a bag. And a time limit. And tell them their goal: 

Create the tallest tower possible using only spaghetti & marshmallows!

Before I've even finished explaining the kids are already working and engaged!!!  

In the past, I've assigned kids different roles for their group (see the little tags on their shirts to distinguish their role...); Team Captain, Team Timer, Team Recorder, and Team Presenter. Each team member has a different responsibility for their group- 

The Team Captain keep everyone on track and on task, and makes sure everyone is participating (this is usually the hardest role to teach- especially to the little ones).

The Team Timer watches the clock and lets the team know when/if they are running out of time. 

Team Recorder fills out any paper work or worksheets associated with the task or goal.

The Team Presenter presents the final project with the rest of the class. 

(I adapted all of these roles from the book Teambuilding: Cooperative Learning Structures by Kagan)

Here is the reflection sheet I use! Feel free to click it and grab it! (It's generic enough that you can use it for any group work activity!) 

The kids had SUCH a blast doing this, and they talked about it all year long. At least once a month, one of them would ask me, "When do we get to do that spaghetti and marshmallow activity again???" 

It's also very interesting to sit back and observe... you'll learn a lot about your kids and how they work together! 

This year, I am going to have the kids do one round with their table group, reflect on what worked and what didn't, and then assign them to another group so they can start to work with other new friends. 

Here's to a GREAT 2012-2013 school year!!!

Thanks for having me Lisa!!!

What a great lesson, Sandy! I can't wait to try it during the first few days of school!  :)

Guest Post: Tastes Like Paste

Hi friends! I'm busy moving and unpacking my new home over the next few weeks!  I've lined up some great guest posts for you to enjoy while I'm gone, along with some posts I wrote in advance.  

We're getting today started with a guest post from one of my very best friends, Lauren, who is a fifth grade math teacher in my district and she's sharing some tips and tricks for organizing a departmentalized classroom.

Fun fact, Lauren and I went to college together and she was the maid of honor at my wedding. :)  I hope that you make her feel at home and visit her blog soon!

Hello! I am excited to be able to share a few of my new favorite teacher resources with you here at Fourth and Ten!

As a fifth grade math teacher in a departmentalized setting, I teach three blocks of students throughout the day, which usually adds up to around eighty-five students. Learning names at the beginning of the year can make my head swim, not to mention the PAPERWORK that comes with managing those kiddos!

One major way to alleviate some stress of paperwork is to lean on student responsibility procedures. This can be started in the early grades with turning in paperwork to specific bins, etc. My former third graders were the perfect age to start taking on more responsibility with classroom organization!

Now teaching fifth graders, I have my students take responsibility for turning in their paperwork to specific bins labeled and colored for their “block,” or class. They also have student numbers which they write next to their names on each of their assignments. I still swear by the multi-colored bins from the dollar section of the Target entrance, but I noticed that I used them for multiple things around the classroom. I needed a specific, unique set of bins. This year I found something even cuter than my Target bins!

IKEA KUSINER Box

$7.99/3-Pack

These bins are perfect for my three block classes, and I will be using them this year for students to turn in assignments. After an assignment is turned in, I organize the stack of papers in numerical order by student number, for easy grading.

While I was on my IKEA binge, I also picked up these fun bins:

IKEA KUSINER Storage Basket

4.99/3-Pack

These cute wire pop-up baskets will come in handy for our ongoing projects and self-made math manipulatives that we are constantly creating in class! It is such a pain for students to be searching through three classes of baggies or envelopes for their own names! These will prove to make a former long search quick and painless!

IKEA KUSINER Wall Baskets-Corner

$4.99

This set of hanging baskets looks great on the wall of our classroom! I plan to use it for returned papers that need to be filed into our mailbox system. This will make it easier for me or a helper to pull a specific student group of papers and return them quickly to their owner! It would also be a great option for light manipulative storage.

I loved these options from the children’s section of IKEA here in Cincinnati, but there are many other options for affordable storage in your classroom (cardboard boxes and cute duct tape, anyone?).

I love to read up on new organizing trends and old standby tips at the beginning of each school year. I find that it puts me on the right track for the school year, especially since organization doesn’t come naturally to this teacher. J

TeacherVision, Inspiring Teachers, and The Clutter-FreeClassroom all have some inspiring tips for organizing your classroom and yourself for the school year.

…And what about your personal life? Check out one of my favorite websites: Simple Organized Living. Amazing!

I hope you will have time to check out my little blog over at TastesLikePaste. I have links to some fun resources I have created for the classroom!

Best Wishes for an Enjoyable School Year!

-Lauren from TastesLikePaste

Thanks again, Lauren for sharing your tips for success in organizing a departmentalized classroom! :)

Reading Response Questions for Any Book {freebie}

Hiya friends! I'm not posting on my own blog today.  Amber was sweet enough to feature me as part of her Summer Spotlight Series. :)  

Over on her blog, I shared my reader's response notebooks for my student's independent reading and a special freebie that I use to help pull it all together. 

Click on Amber's button to check out my guest post! :) 

Hope to see y'all over there! :)