First Week of School and Tips for Co Teaching

Well, y'all know I've been praying about a position to come a long! School started for us last Tuesday!!! Thursday before the long weekend, I received a call, they need a long term teacher ASAP. Not a permanent, full time position, but how could I say no?!?! It was a position, working with children and that's all I've been asking for!

So it's been zero to 180 since then! I'm co-teaching 4th grade inclusion! I LOVE IT! As a primary teacher, I was SO NERVOUS about this switch. I just didn't know how I would handle the "Big Kids"!!!  I have the best teaching partners and team!!! I work with two other teachers, so technically I have two classes I'm in.  We are doing SO Many different things! I love how the students are independent yet excite about learning. 

I wanted to share with you a few tips that we are trying this year for co-teaching!!!

STAY ORGANIZED

This week, I have had to create SO many forms for documentation! I have to be organized! Organization is one of the HARDEST parts of teaching, but with the right tools, it's so much easier. 

So what did I do? I made a binder and included all of the things I need on a daily basis. Teachers these days have to document SO MUCH, and this is hard to keep up with! So I made a Classroom Forms Binder! It makes things so much easier!! I've separated my lesson plans, class roles, important IEP Information and data collection. These are key elements to my day and I have to know exactly where they are!  This way if I need to jot something down real quick, I just go to my binder, not some random sticky note that I *will* lose! I used to be the WORST at that! 

You can check out this binder right HERE!!!

It's on sale until tomorrow! 

This goes great with my Slate-Gray-Chevron-and-Yellow-Classroom-Decor-Kit-

DIVIDE UP PLANNING RESPONSIBILITIES

With co-teaching, don't forget, there is *two* of you! If one person is doing all the work, then

it's really not "Co-Teaching". My co-workers and I are trying hard to divide up the tasks. They were not sure if they would get an extra teacher, so they were used to doing everything solo! So we are now trying to work together, I just want to help them and take a load off! It's so overwhelming sometimes. So I am focusing on hands on learning activities and data collection. Data is the drive behind our instruction and it's important to know where each student is at all times. How can we effectively teach them without knowing the areas they need the most help in? We have the subjects divided up for areas that they need hands on materials. I  created a form to help me keep my activities straight and understand when and how to use each activity. We are doing a introduction lesson of whole group, then small group activities the rest of the week.  

Equal Partners

Both of my co-teachers are great at this! They don't treat me as an "assistant". The treat me as a teacher. I think this is the number one reason why our system is working! From the very first day, they've allowed me to be an active member in this process we call "education". They haven't treated me as if I was just a "temporary teacher", even though, I sort of am! They ask my opinion, advice and we work TOGETHER. We teacher TOGETHER. We help each OTHER when they other one needs it. This is KEY to Co-Teaching! You have to be a TEAM, or the students will see it, I promise you!!!

On to our lessons for the week!!! 

Author's Purpose

This  week we are focusing on Author's Purpose and Fact and Opinion!! Here are a few things we are using this week:

Author's Purpose Reading Games

Whats-the-Doggies-Purpose-an-authors-purpose-activity-

 Reading-Strategies-Poster-Set-Chalkboard-Edition

http://www.fcrr.org/curriculum/pdf/g4-5/45cpartthree.pdf

Authors-Purpose-Task-Cards-24-Cards-Persuade-Inform-Entertain-195745

Authors-Purpose-Activity-Menu-437350

Fact and Opinion

Fact-or-Opinion-Reading-Center-Station-Activity-Game-FREE

Fact-and-Opinion-FREEBIE-226428

Three-Fact-and-Opinion-Games-with-Recording-Sheets

Visual Aides

I am using my chalkboard poster kit for visual aides this week!!

I'll let you know how all of these activities go, 

but that is a touch of the things we will be doing!!! So far, I'm loving 4th grade and I can't wait to share this adventure with you!!! Thanks for stopping by friends!

Incorporating Reading Into The Content Areas

Hey friends! I hope that you are finding yourself well rested :) Probably not likely, considering it's the beginning of the school year!! I hope that you all are finding some down time and are not too stressed!!

One way to help you de-stress, is to go download this Free-Parent-Communication-Binder-Forms-Slate-Gray-!!

One of the hardest things as teacher is to teach ALL the subjects in a short time frame. With all of the things that can sometimes be thrown at us, sometimes it's hard to fit in Science and Social Studies. Now, don't get me wrong Science should be taught using hands on and engaging activities! However, we can also incorporate our science lessons to into our reading and have a successful day! It's a balance, students still need the ever so important vocabulary, why not use Science or Social Studies vocabulary during our reading instruction??

One way to do this is by using Vocabulary Cards during your reading stations or center work. The pictures show different Science Vocabulary Cards that I created and use during my station or center time. 

You can use these cards in so many ways! You can print multiple sets and have students play "Memory". My students love to play a version of "around the world" with them! What we do is have one student read the definition, then they go around in the circle until someone can correctly identify the vocabulary card.

Or you can secure them on a binder ring and use as a reference, or  use them during read to a buddy time. 

I also created this science reader and placed it in my library. Along with Reading A-Z Books, I place these in a basket during "Read to Self" time. Two to Three days a week, during "Read To Self", we are reading in the content area. The other days I let the students chose a book that fits their personality and reading style. This helps with our content area vocabulary and knowledge base. It ties the subjects together and the students are not only practicing their reading skills, but they are also gaining valuable information from other content areas. Again, this is NOT the ONLY way I teach the content areas, just extra steps I take to ensure my students are receiving a balanced instructional plan.

I also use printable read aloud to introduce each standard of learning. Once I've exposed them to the topic, the book goes into our library so they can explore it on their own! 

All of these activities came from my Science-Center-and-Vocabulary-Resource-Packet- Which contains topics & centers from Seasons, Earth Resources, Recycling, Sound, Parts of a Plant, Magnets and tons of Vocabulary Cards!!

Crusade for Safety 2013

Hey friends! It's that time of year again! My annual "Crusade For Safety"!! You might wonder, what is that? 

It's just a specific time of year that I like to remind everyone (even myself) about the dangers of distracted driving.  As adults, we get in a hurry, we rush around and sometimes we just don't pay attention. We allllll do it! No matter our backgrounds, it always happens at some point. Now, imagine our *teenagers* doing this. Inexperience is such a dangerous idea when a teen is behind the wheel of the car. 

The US Government has a great web page with all kinds of information and stats on the subject Distracted Driving! I love this resource!!! 

Fox News just put out this article on the 6 causes of distracted driving! I encourage you to read it and see if you are guilty. This is a great article and you might surprise yourself. A lot of us already do these things.

If you are a parent of a teenager, please read all of these links with your children and lay down some ground rules for the car. I'm sure you've already done this, but I encourage you do to this AGAIN. 

Did you know that teens between 16-19 are THREE times more likely to have an accident than those above 20? 

Look at this from the CDC-

"Among teen drivers, those at especially high risk for motor vehicle crashes are:

• Males: In 2010, the motor vehicle death rate for male drivers and passengers ages 16 to 19 was almost two times that of their female counterparts.1
• Teens driving with teen passengers: The presence of teen passengers increases the crash risk of unsupervised teen drivers. This risk increases with the number of teen passengers.4
• Newly licensed teens: Crash risk is particularly high during the first months of licensure.5,6" SOURCE

My reasons for doing this are very personal.  Tomorrow, marks the anniversary that I experienced this first hand.  I was in a head on collision. My accident has all three of the risk factors mentioned above. 

 You can read more about that right HERE!

 I lost a great friend, and have an everyday reminder of this. My face was badly damaged, but I am alive and singing the song of Jesus! I know God spared us that day..I will never understand why he took Jimmy from us, but I know that Jimmy saved me that day. He wouldn't leave until we were all "buckled in", which saved our lives.  This accident wasn't a car full of drunk kids, or anything like that. It was just a result of of distracted driving. We were just a bunch of kids (4 of us) driving to school for our annual "Blue and Gold Day". I make it my mission, to tell people about my story.  To tell parents, that teens need passenger limit rules, TEXTING rules, and radio rules. We all need the reminder, even myself. 

In Loving Memory of Jimmy<3 br="" nbsp="">

Isaiah 41:10

'Do not fear, for I am with you; Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.'

Word Family Fun

I know a lot of teachers, who are not teachers at home! I understand this when we work 10 hour days and then drive back and forth to little league, soccer practices or other after school activities. I get it. I remember. But summer time is a great time to work with our own little ones..and this year that's just what I did! 

First off,  I have a little one starting Kindergarten this year (SO SAD!) 

My oldest is starting second grade!! Can't believe how big they are!!

Here are a few things we worked on!!

I know I've talked a lot about CVC words this summer, but that's what we spent a lot of time on!!

CVC Word Activities:

CVC Word Tic Tac Toe! The kiddos LOVED this!!

You can check out this packet right here

I have tons of different center ideas in this packet! From ABC Order, Words Sorts, Tic Tac Toe! It's loads of fun!!! 

Word Family Literacy Centers 

For oldest one, we worked on Word Families a lot!

I made two "Word Family Binders". One has, word family charts in it that we would visit and talk about each word and it's meaning. 

The other binder, has fill in the blank word family cards. They used a visa vie marker and made new words on them! 

You could organize this binder in so many ways! You could put the matching word family chart and the fill in the blank cards together! I like to keep them separate so I can use the visual aides during my small group instruction.

All of these activities come from my Word-Family-Cards-Literacy-Centers

CVC Words Practice

Hey friends! I wanted to share with you some resources for teaching CVC Words!!

Interactive Flip Charts are a great resource when teaching CVC Words!

I use these in my small groups. I give the students a word, and ask them to make it. You can also start with the picture, have them sound out the  word and build it. Once students are familiar with CVC words, you could also use these at a center as writing prompts. I included blank picture cards for “nonsense” words. You do not have to attach all the picture cards at once. I sometimes just use certain vowel sounds.

Another great resource is my Soaring-Through-Math-and-Literacy-Fun-8-Centers

 CVC Word Sort- (Two Sets included, one with pictures and one without pictures )                               

                                    

This packet includes several centers, but my favorite, is the CVC Word Sort! 

This airplane and hot air balloon themed center mini packet is perfect for any time of the year! It's great to get those reluctant readers engaged in the reading process. My boys LOVE this packet! 

Included:

CVC Word Sort- (Two Sets included, one with pictures and one without pictures )
Soaring Sight Words (A Sight Word Game)
Hot Air Balloon Fun (Synonym Matching Game)
Rainbow Rhyming Fun (2 Levels)
Flying High With Word Families (Word Sort)
Soaring Through Parts of Speech
Soaring Double Facts
Flying Time (A time telling center)

This rhyming activity is also included!

*Great TpT CVC Word Packets*

CVC-Words-Literacy-Center-Packet-

CVC-Word-Searches

CVC-Words-Phoneme-Replacement-

Kindergarten-Morning-Work-continued-Daily-Language-Arts-and-Math-Review-

I also use magnetic letters and scrabble tiles to have students build CVC Words.  For more CVC Word Ideas--follow my CVC Word Pinterest Board!!! 

Back To School Work Stations and Centers

Hey friends! In case you haven't heard...TpT is having a HUGE sale!!! 

Shop in my my store and receive 28% off!! ALSO, If you purchase 3 items, you receive one item for free! Just e-mail me at Benoitcreated@gmail.com with your TpT User name and the item you wish!!

This is a great time to load up on some of my  best sellers--like my Making Words Packet! This packet is great for literacy centers or 

independent work!! 

This packet includes 10 printables for making words. Students cut letters out and arrange them together to make words. Several different levels included to meet the needs of all your students.

Happy Shopping Friends! I am headed over to empty my wish list NOW!! 

CVC Words and Legos..Endless Possibilities!

I know you are all probably so exhausted from getting your rooms ready and the beginning of the year frenzy! It is SUCH a rush! But I tell ya what..I'd give anything to be feeling that right now! I miss it so much!

One thing about me is that I LOVE Legos! I love using them at home and in the classroom! They promote higher order thinking and creativity, and those are skills that are very hard to teach!

I wanted to share a few of my favorite things and resources with you all!

This next trick as been around for a while.. but I wanted to tell you how I use it!

 Magnet tape and a cookie sheet!!! I bought my cookie sheets at Wal Mart for a STEAL of .92 cents!

I am working with my little guy on sight words! We are always working on these I feel like. But  I need to change it up.  So I used my Sight Word cards from my Ultimate Literacy Center Packet and good ole fashioned Legos! My kiddos LOVE Legos...what kid doesn't??!?! 

 We used two different color Legos as our game pieces :) 

We just played a good ole fashioned Tic Tac Toe...only with reading..and Legos! This really got my kiddo excited about reading! That is a VERY hard thing to do! I was so proud of my little one, after a few different levels of this, the little one was breezing through the sight words! The Legos really helped because it got the little one to WANT to play the game! That's a hard thing to do! 

Once we got the sight words down pat, we moved on to ABC Order

The card arranged nicely onto the cookie sheet! It's amazing how a little magnetic tape makes a difference with kiddos! I wanted to shout, we've done this activity before and you could care less!! Haha, but I kept those thoughts to myself :) 

I just thought I'd share an easy way to spruce up your literacy centers...it's an old trick..but boy is it a good one!!! 

All of these activities came from my Ultimate-Literacy-Center-Packet-20-Centers