Favorites for Friday: Winning the Pencil War

This week's Favorite for Friday is a Teachers Pay Teachers freebie:  Winning the Pencil War.

I LOVED this idea this year.  Oh. my. goodness!  I have been teaching since 1998 and this year was the first year that pencils didn't drive me crazy!  I have tried all kinds of systems for pencils and nothing worked - until this!!!

It takes a bit of up-front planning/cost, but in the end, I spent less on pencils this year and it removed so many headaches!  No more whining, no more pencil sharpener noise in the middle of class, no more broken pencil sharpener because a student wasn't careful!

Winning the Pencil War
Created By Ms. Hazelton © 2012 http://wiseowlteacher.blogspot.com


Ms. Hazelton does an excellent job of explaining how to set up the process.  I only made a couple of adjustments for my 5th graders -- I gave them 5 #2 pencils and 2 mechanical pencils, plus the big pink eraser, all in a zippered pouch (I numbered the pouches to help keep track of which pouch belonged to which student).  We also did not do the switching of pencils on Fridays -- We often collected them at the end of Monday afternoon because I had volunteers that came in on Tuesday mornings to help.

Prize ideas -- trying to give prizes to each responsible student each week could easily get out of hand, but I got very creative sometimes!  Check out this list of ideas that worked very well for my 5th graders:
*coupon to choose a "brain break" or "Go Noodle" activity
*coupon for extra time on the Chromebook for educational games
*bookmarks (sometimes I printed out color-your-own freebies!)
*binder clip to help them organize their planner
*one item to eat -- One pretzel rod, one skittle, I even did one fresh raspberry the week they were on sale at the grocery store! The kids LOVED that one and those who didn't earn one were so disappointed.  They all had their pencils the following week!
*of course, little erasers, stickers, a pen, a decorated pencil, or the prize box were also great incentives.

One other great tip -- Keep a stash of extra sharpened pencils so you can quickly trade at the end of the week.  Then you have a whole week to get volunteers to sharpen the dull pencils.  I had a few volunteers that came in before or after school to spend 10 minutes sharpening pencils for me.  My pencils sharpener didn't need to run during the school day ALL YEAR LONG!

Thanks for visiting!  Happy Friday!

Amazing Friends

I've got 2 amazing friends I'd like to write about today.  They agreed to come to Las Vegas with me during the heat of summer so I could go to the Teachers Pay Teachers conference.  They don't sell on TPT (but they do BUY from TPT) so they're not attending the conference.  They're just going to hang out at the pool while I'm at my sessions and then we'll tour the strip in the evenings.  I'm so excited to have their company!

So, to thank them, I made some cute little goody bags.  I just had to share these.  They're in my suitcase right now.  I'm giving you all the sneak peek.  Perhaps you are going to the conference with a friend and want to make a goody bag. Perhaps you've got a girlfriend's getaway planned and want to put together a little something.  Maybe you just really like shiny gift wrap. If any of those apply to you, enjoy the following!

Full gift bag with magnetic name tag for the Meet Up party and a pin with my logo.

Inside the bag:  Snacks, Tylenol and Rolaids just in case,
Chapstick with SPF for their time at the pool,
eye mask, and ear plugs (I've been known to snore)

Spray bottle with fan - it's going to be HOT in Vegas!
(Ice cubes from the hotel make for a lovely mist in these)

Water bottle with my logo and their initials on printable vinyl
Filled with little individual packs of lemonade mix (and white gift fluff)

 
Kirsten and Amy - you are awesome!  I can't begin to thank you enough!!

If you're reading this and going to the TPT conference in Vegas, I'd love to meet you!  Please introduce yourself if you see my logo! Feel free to leave a comment here, too, and we can try to find each other.

Thanks for visiting!

TPT Sale and 2 NEW products

I am so THANKFUL for a few days off!  It allows me to get caught up on projects I've been trying to finish.  I actually used my two new products in my class this month, but needed a little extra time to get them ready for sharing with all of you.

Did you hear about the Teachers Pay Teachers Sale???  Monday AND Tuesday!  Please take a moment to check your wishlists and consider supporting a fellow teacher during this holiday season.

Explorers Brochures

Early American Settlement Flip Books

Two methods of assembling!

If you celebrated Thanksgiving this week, I hope you had a fabulous holiday!  As we move toward a season of other holidays, I wish you all peace, joy, and several days off!

Native American Regions Flip Book - DONE!

Do you study Native American Regions?  Maybe these will help!  I wanted an interactive notebook activity for the regions that focused on one region at a time, since that is how the information is presented in our textbook.  Here's the final version of what we used:

Native American Regions Flip Book

Interactive Notebook or Lapbook Waterfall style book

Mini book style:

 

You choose the regions.  2 different covers are included -- one with a map, one with a blank space for adding your own image.   Enjoy!

New Poke Card set is up on TPT

I created a new Poke Card set for nouns that includes 2 specific noun topics.  The first topic is concrete/abstract nouns. The second is singular, plural, and collective nouns.  Answers are included (make sure you mark them on the back before you hole punch) as well as extra blank cards at the end.



Check them out at my TPT store when you get a chance.

Any requests for Poke Card topics?  Feel free to post in the comments or email me at MyCleverEndeavors2@gmail.com.

Have a great week!

Welcome Friends, New and Old!

This past weekend, I presented some ideas at the annual conference for the Michigan Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (MITESOL).

Dave from Learning is the Game and I presented a workshop titled "Hands On with the Common Core."  Participants got a chance to create their own Poke Cards, Foldables, Matching Games, and Flyswatter/Egg Flipping Games.

Here's my latest Poke Card Set.  I'm almost done with the next one, too!  The next one will cover concrete/abstract nouns and singular/plural/collective nouns.  Follow me on TPT to know when it gets posted. 

These are some of Dave's awesome products.  He's been working with ESL students from Kindergarten to 8th Grade, so he's got a variety of materials in his store. I use his Government foldable and his equivalent fractions flies in my 5th grade classroom.  My students love his stuff!  (And that means I love using it to teach, too!)

The start of this school year has been busy, and preparing for this conference has set me a bit behind in some of my plans for my projects.  Lots of new things coming your way, plus several new Fun Friday ideas!  If you haven't "followed me" yet, please take a moment to choose a method (Facebook, Pinterest, Blog Lovin, Blogger, etc) so you don't miss any great stuff! 

Monday Made It: Craftivities and Freebies!

It's Monday Made It time already?  How can that possibly be?

Thanks again to Tara at 4th Grade Frolics for hosting this linky party!  It's such motivation to get things done!  I catch myself trying to beat the clock to finish projects before midnight on Monday night.  :

If you haven't been there yet, her linky party is FULL of great ideas!!

This week, I had extra motivation to complete a few projects.  In addition to the Monday linky party, TPT is throwing a sale!  Everything in my store is marked down and if you use the code BTS14 you get an extra discount at checkout.  Lots of sellers are participating.  Go check your wishlist as well as all the new posts that went up this week!

I also had a deadline from my school to turn in a stack of postcards to send to my new 5th graders.  Just your luck, I put these in my TPT store for FREE!  They say 5th grade on them, but if you want a different saying, add it in the comments below.  I may be able to add a few other versions for my blog readers. :)  Yes, I REALLY want some blog comments!

I made 30 of these and delivered them to my school to be stamped and sent out this week!

The other project I finished today has been MONTHS in the making.  I have been working on this for a loooonnnnnggggggg time!  I even got my niece (6) and nephew (3) involved in helping me test them out. Check it out:

 Incentive chart Craftivities!!  No more boring incentive charts! These will have your students or children eager to show off their efforts!

1. Start with a background page. 

2. Choose what activities your students or children need to do in order earn a piece of the picture. (Read for 20 minutes, turn in their homework, do their chores, etc) 

3. When they complete the activity, they get to attach a piece to the picture. 

Pictures have no limit to the number of pieces you can attach! Put sprinkles on cupcakes, feathers on a turkey, or flowers in a vase. 

15 different incentive charts included! 
Color and blackline versions -- kids can color their own! 
All pieces included -- just print, cut, and glue!
Get extra crafty and use items like sequins, stickers, or feathers!



My niece (6) and nephew (3) had a great time making some of these craft projects with Auntie Heather!  Check out their versions!  (And the kids both wanted me to print them more!  My sister is getting a copy of the whole document so she can print as many as they want.)

I want to put one of the charts on TPT as a free sample.  Do you have a favorite?
Vote in the comments below.  The one with the most votes by next Monday will become a freebie!  :)

Vote for your favorite:  
Tree with leaves
Monster with eyeballs
Turkey with feathers
Pine tree with ornaments/lights
Snowy village with snowflakes
Cupcake with sprinkles
Cloud with rainbow stripes
Umbrella with raindrops
Vase with flowers
Picnic with ants
Dog with bones
Box with popcorn
Gumball machine with gum
Watermelon with seeds
Fishbowl with pebbles

Thanks for stopping by!

Student Self-Monitoring and Reflection

Part way through the year, I got tired of hearing my 5th graders saying they didn't care about the score they got on an assessment.  They didn't really understand how their assessments added up to a final grade on the report card and they didn't see the "big picture" when they scored well on a single assessment but not well on many others.  

I knew I needed the kids to "buy in" to their own grades.  So I tried several things in my classroom and they seemed to pay off.  I thought I'd share some ideas with you in hopes that these might help in your classroom, too!

1st:  Data Wall:

<-- When students scored 100% on an assessment, they got to put a sticker on our data wall chart.  I wish I'd been doing this all year!  I started to hear kids mumbling about how they "really wanted a blue sticker" when they had gotten a few wrong.  

Each time I passed back an assessment, I called the kids with 100% to the front of the room. While those students were putting stickers on the chart, the rest of the class was recording their scores in their STAR folder (I'll explain those next).

This fall I plan to have a different chart for each subject area.  It was hard to see improvements when everything was lumped together like this. 

2nd:  STAR Folders

 <-- I made a set of folders with this cover for each student.  Each time I handed out assessments, we also quickly handed out these folders to each student.  Inside, students kept records of their assessment scores on a chart with a bar graph.

 Some of the charts had our school's scoring scale on it.  -->

Our school uses a 1.0-3.0 scale with a 3.0 meaning they've mastered the objective.  

<-- We used a separate chart for our weekly spelling tests because they always had 10 words on them.  This way, students could easily see how they were doing over time specifically on their spelling tests.  I wish I had done separate charts for each subject last year.  I will definitely do that this year!  

Want to use these STAR materials in your own classroom?  I just posted this STAR bundle in my TPT store.  You can check it out here, at a discounted price for at least the next 2 weeks! 

3rd: Racing to a Goal

My students take the NWEA 3 times each year.  After their 2nd test, I put up this racetrack to show them the progress they had made (or didn't make!).  My school determines a goal for each student after their fall test.  The winter test provides them with feedback toward their end of the year goal.  Some of my students performed worse in the winter than they did in the fall and didn't seem to care about it.  This racetrack set made a HUGE difference!  In case you can't see the words, they say "START," "Personal GOAL," "College Readiness." Some of my "high" kids had not made any progress toward their goal after 4 months of school.  Some of my "low kids" blew right past their personal goal.  The cars on the track gave us a chance to discuss habits and study skills for everyone, rather than high or low scores.  I loved this!

My students also got a new set of name tags on their desks. Each name tag had a space to write their goal.  We put their end-of-the year goals right on their desks so they could see it every day.  If you're interested, I've got the desk tags for sale at TPT, too.  




So, really long post, but three HUGE ideas for helping students develop self-monitoring skills and motivation.  Hope this helps!  Got any more good ideas for me?  Please share in the comments section! 

TPT Conference: Blogger Meetup Winner!

OMG!! I won! I won! I won!!

The TPT Blogger Meetup was a great experience!  I cannot begin to imagine the amount of work that went into this HUGE event!!  Look at all the people there!  You could barely move through the room.  Lots of chances to meet other people, swap business cards, share ideas, and get FREE stuff!

 

First beverage was free.  This is only about half the room!  No matter where you were standing, you were almost always in someone's photo or selfie.

Our amazing hosts from What the Teacher Wants drew names for the door prizes.  I won one!!!

This cute bag was STUFFED full of crayola products!  

Look at all this stuff I won!  There was Model Magic, Markers, window crayons and markers, watercolor pencils, erasable colored pencils, and special construction paper crayons.  I didn't even know that Crayola made some of these things!  Thank you so much to both Crayola for sponsoring and What the Teacher Wants for hosting this!  My students are going to love having these resources this year!

Some of the swag given away for free.  There was lots more, but I didn't want to stand in the really long line.  This was what I grabbed at the end as we left.  Only a small portion of what I saw others got for standing in that long line. It's all good though -- I was 1.5 pounds over the suitcase weight limit at the airport and had to put a bunch of the Crayola stuff in my "bursting at the seams already" carry-on bag so we didn't get charged extra.  

Any great ideas for using the model magic in 5th grade?  I'm going to have to head to Pinterest to get some ideas.  Got any good model magic pins to share?  Post in the comments! 

TPT conference = Awesome!!! Thank you!

The TeachersPayTeachers conference was awesome!  After many hours of sleep and then a very lazy day yesterday, I'm finally feeling like I'm ready to get something done again.  I thought I'd post some of the highlights here with more detail coming in future posts.  I still haven't totally unpacked, I desperately need to run laundry, the milk is past it's expiration date, and there's NO COFFEE!!  Grocery store trip must happen soon.  Gee whiz -- I was only gone 5 days!

First of all, there are some major thank yous I need to share:

Thank you to Kirsten for watching my house and dog while we were away.  You are the best!!

Thank you to TPT for arranging this conference for us!  I'm so glad I went!

Thank you to all the presenters!  I only got to go to 4 sessions, but wished I had been able to attend them all.  Thank you for your generosity in sharing your knowledge and ideas.

Thank you to all the people working behind the scenes to make this event possible.  I'm sure it was a lot of work!  Know that I appreciated your efforts!

Thank you to What the Teacher Wants for the teacher blogger meet up.  That was huge fun!  I absolutely love the swag and the door prize I won!  You made me feel like I was part of something awesome!

Thank you to Crayola for donating the amazing door prize I won!  (see tomorrow's post for that story)

Thank you to the nice guy at the Venetian who helped us get a taxi at 3:30am to the airport.

Thank you to the nice guy in the yellow vest at the airport who helped us get to the RIGHT terminal at 3:45am.

Thank you to my amazing husband who put up with my panic attacks, my eccentricities, my schedule, and even came to the meet up with me and participated in the crazy meet-other-people-at-the-event activity.  He did whatever I needed him to do, whether carry my very girly tote bag up and down the strip or go to the restaurant I wanted or play goofy video slot machines with me.  Love you!!

TPT Blogger Meet up

View up the Vegas Strip

View of the Venetian

TPT Swag

Breakfast before the keynote speakers

Paul Edelman -- the amazing founder of TPT

Deanna Jump -- the most successful TPTer so far

I'll be posting more in the next several days about the conference and the great people I met.  Stay tuned!

PS -- did you post on your blog about the TPT conference?  Please share in the comments!  I'd love to hear about your experience!