Tag: Teachers

Are you ready to start a new adventure this school year ?

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Are you looking for a new kind of behavior plan that doesn’t sound like a plan? It didn’t start out to be a behavior plan, but a way to welcome back my new students after our school resumed face-to-face teaching with everyone wearing masks.

The word “ADVENTURE” become a part of my classroom that year. It began as a part of helping my students cope with the craziness of COVID-19 as my school made the decision to bring students back to the classroom. I wanted my students to see being back in school as an opportunity to do wonderful things, in other words, an adventure for the year. Let me tell you about it!

I explained to my students that they would be earning the letters that spelled ADVENTURE by their actions at school. Once a letter was earned, it could not be taken away. Letters could NOT be earned by only one or two students; it had to be a group effort. If students asked for a letter reward, the answer would be, “No.” I wanted their actions to happen naturally, not driven by rewards.

So what kinds of actions were students rewarded for? The first time our Science teacher shared with me, in front of the class, how the class had worked so diligently, using their time wisely, the letter A was earned. I watched as my class welcomed a new student and made her feel a part of the class, another letter was earned. I was late to class, coming from a meeting, and everyone was seated at their desk working on the math warm-up, a letter was earned.

So what happens when the class spells “ADVENTURE”? The reward was decided by the class. We had extra recess, no shoes in class for the day, a movie watched over the course of a week were just of the few the rewards that my students chose. I do reserve the right to veto an idea and the students know that right from the front.

It worked so well that year that I have continued to use “ADVENTURE” ever since! If you are struggling with what kind of behavior plan to use this year, why not give it a shot!! Let me know if it works for you!

Have a great year!

Sue Mescall

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Great lesson plans and activities coming your way with Dollar Days deals!

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Are you looking for some new classroom and student activities but are a bit short in the budget for them? Boy, have I got a deal for you!!! Read on…

Starting December 31 and continuing through Jan 1, a group of Teacher pay Teacher authors (yours truly included!) will be offering great $1 deals in our stores!!! What’s the catch, you ask?

To find these great deals on www.teacherspayteachers.com, you must search using the phrase, #Cheers2022. You will find many $1 deals that will make going back to school and lesson planning in the New Year easier!!

Here are my two $1 Deals! Remember, use #Cheer2022 to find the great deals.

Happy shopping!

Susan Mescall

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Nonfiction-Text-Features-Game-BINGO-3249342
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Adding-and-Subtracting-Fractions-With-Unlike-Denominators-1658409

Happy shopping and Happy New Year!

Thank you!

Susan Mescall

Here’s My Secret to Building Student Relationships!!

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As teachers, we are encouraged to build relationships with our students. Great idea, but how do you do that on a daily basis? How do you make sure you connect to all your students? Good questions AND I may have the answer for you!!

A few years ago, my schedule had an open 30 minute block between two specials. What to do? Not really enough time to start a new activity and I make sure students have plenty of time to work and practice during scheduled lessons.

Most of my students have busy schedules when they leave school each day; sports, piano lessons, dance lessons, to name only a few. There is rarely time for them to read outside of school. I decided to use the 30 minutes for independent reading!!

As the students began their first day of independent reading, I was left sitting at my desk. That’s when I hit on the ideas to meet with 4 or 5 students daily, one-on-one! I called my first student and with their chair they came to my desk. I simply asked, “What’s going on and it doesn’t have to be about school?” To my surprise and delight, my student began to tell me about the soccer tournament he was going to be playing in on Saturday! My next students told me about her hip-hop dance class and it just went from there!

Such information made it easy for me to talk to my students about “stuff” that had nothing to do with school. That was my one rule for talking to my students; no school talk. These conversations take place each day with different students and the conversations don’t take more than about 4-5 minutes, so I am able to talk to 5 or 6 students each day.

I have done this for the past two years and it has had a really positive affect with the each class. Some of my students were a bit shy at first, but soon were telling me about such things as their passion for dinosaurs, their remote control cars, their judo class. I also have had students send me picture of their successes: earning a black belt, riding their dirt bike for the first time, and even a dance rehearsal video. The students love sharing their experiences with the class too!

If you can find find a block of time each day, give each student 4-5 minutes of your complete attention and you’ll be surprised at how students will WANT to talk to you.

Let me know how you build relationships with your students! I love hearing from other teachers!!

Sue

Are You Looking for Engaging U.S. History Activities?

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Does the idea of trying to find time to teach Social Studies give you a pain as you are trying to plan your school schedule?  With all the emphasis on the testing of math, science, and reading in my state, it was really hard to find activities that would help my students learn about our country’s history AND engage my students attention. Since social studies and history are not  state tested subjects in elementary school in my state, too often I had to leave the subject as an afterthought…a subject to visit AFTER end of grade testing was finished.

Let me help you make U.S. History a part of your reading lessons with a great book AND a variety of engaging activities for both reading and social studies lessons.  I found Blood on the River  by Elise Carbone!  A great novel about the founding of James Town as seen through the eyes of a young boy who is servant to Captain John Smith.  My students love this book and I am able to slip social studies lessons into my reading lessons!  WALLAH!

Blood on the River  allowed me to introduce vocabulary of the times, explore primary sources, compare characters and discussion questions along with meeting historical figures such as John Smith and Pocahontas.  All this and more is included in my TpT store product  Blood on the River Activities  Just clink on the link to check out my Blood on the River products!

If you aren’t able to choose your reading materials, don’t despair!  I have a bundle of activities that you can use to add hands-on, rigorous, yet engaging activities to go along with your studies of America from the early explorers to the American Revolution.  You can find this fabulous bundle in my TpT store American Social Studies Activities

Check out some really fun activities…my students really like the United States Branches activities. Make history come alive with the I Have, Who Has of the American Revolution!

I hope these activities will help your students develop an interest in the history of our country!!

Fraction Lessons Have You Tearing Out Your Hair?

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Trying to make teaching fraction more interesting?   Tearing out your hair? It was that frustration that had me looking for a way to give my students information they could understand and more opportunities to practice those skills.   The math book just didn’t seem to meet the needs of my students.  I was reminded by my mentor that textbooks should be a supplemental tool and not the curriculum.

Let me help you by showing you what I did to make multiplying and dividing fractions less frustrating!

I decided to take the textbook information and put  it into kid-friendly words.  

I had the kids glue the notes into their journals so the information would be at their fingertips!

And because the dreaded “End of Grade” test looms all year…I decided to create word problems to go along with the note students put into their journals.  That would give my students more practice than what was in our math textbook.

I also used the word problems as a review game.  I put one word problem on each student’s desk, in no particular order.  Students stand behind their chairs and the game begins as each student solves the problem on their desk.  As they finish, students put their hands on their shoulders.  When everyone has solved the problem on their desk, students move to the next desk.  When all the students have moved around the room and are back at their own desk, we go over the answers and students share how they solved the problems.

The word problems can be used in a lot of different ways in your classroom, beyond just a review game!  The word problems can be used as bell ringers to get students thinking.  You could put the word problems in your math center for independent work.

If you want to check out my word problems, just click on my picture.

How To Help Your Students Become Awesome Summarizers!

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With the start of  new school year and having students share their chapter summaries,  I decided I needed to explicitly teach my fifth graders how to summarize using the chapters in our novel, “Blood on the River”.  It’s an historical fiction novel about the founding of Jamestown.  Just an FYI,  it’s a great way to incorporate our Social Studies as we study early America.

In the past, won’t lie, I have sort of “guessed and by golly”‘d my way through summarizing.  It is not one of my stronger skills as a teacher.  Partly, I think, because it always seemed so subjective to me.  Well, last week I took the bull by the horns  and began to teach summarizing directly.

My students had summarized chapter 6 of the book as part of their homework.  It became very apparent quickly, that summarizing was needed to be taught explicitly.

As a teacher of 24 years, I am still tickled when my brain pulls out an idea that wasn’t part of my lesson!!!  After all the summaries were read, I went to the board and wrote:

Chapter 6 High Points

Then, as a class, I asked my students to review the chapter with a partner and come up with only six events or ideas that seemed to be very important.  I purposely avoided the words “main idea”.  That term always seemed to make students think there’s only one right answer.  Noooooo….not always!

As partners reported their “high points“,  many were simply supporting details, so as the students shared their ideas, I took their ideas and jotted them on the board.  Together, I helped them “see” the bigger picture of all their ideas. We worked together to put similar ideas into a more general sentence.

For example, in Ch. 6, there is a battle between a whale, thresher shark, and a swordfish that is observed by Captain Smith and Samuel, the main character.  All the students mentioned the battle as an important event, which it was, but the comment from Capt. Smith to Samuel was that no matter how big and powerful you think you are,  the less powerful can work together and bring you down!  That comment helped my kids see that high points in a chapter can be more than just an event.

After the kids and I wrote the six high points together, I had them use those points to create another summary in their reading journals.  I had them compare their first summary with the summary they had just written. The summaries were sooooo much more on point and the kids even remarked at the differences they saw.

It wasn’t me telling the kids what the high points or main ideas were, but all of us working together.  I did the same lesson two chapters later and the summaries showed more depth of thought and relied less on actual events of the chapter.

Give it a try and let me know if your students’ summaries have show growth as you work together!

PS

If you’d like to check out this fabulous novel and the  vocabulary activities and discussion questions I use with my students, just click Blood on the River

 

Make Earth Day Fun and Meaningful

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Two for the Price of One!

With Earth Day right around the corner,  those pesky end of the year tests are also beginning to show on the horizon, too.  As  a public school teacher,  I was ALWAYS looking for thematic activities that would also help my students sharpen their tested skills.  Sort of a twofer!  I think my Earth Day Activities will do both for you!

earth day 1970

Earth Day itself began in 1970 and was the brainchild of U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson.  He was very concerned that the Earth’s environment did not seem to be an important political issue and his first Earth Day drew millions of people to his cause.  Later that year President Nixon and Congress created the Environmental Protection Agency as a result along with legislation concerning both water and Endangered Species Act.

Earth day today!

In the 48 years since that first Earth Day, there has been a lot  more awareness of our need to recycle, reuse, and reduce.  I decided to combine facts about cleaning our environment with my students need to practice their math skills.  As a result, I created 24 word problems that will help my students learn how recycling can help improve our environment AND work on their problem solving skills at the same time!  I love being able to combine two school subjects; in this case, science and math within a single lesson!!

 

I also added a fun activity using Earth Day vocabulary.  My kids love, love word searches and so my Earth Day Activities also include a word search AND a writing activity!  I also included answer keys for both the 24 math problems and the word search.  Take a look and let me make your Earth Day lesson a snap!

 

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Earth-Day-Activities-3755809

What are you doing for Earth Day?  Share your ideas with me!

 

Kick worksheets to the curb and engage your students!

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Mid Year slump

Check this scenario…It’s March and you’re lesson planning for next week.  Suddenly, you look at what you’ve written!  It’s the same as what you have written for this week…Intro, teach lesson, practice worksheet, assign homework, moving on!  Where did the beginning of the school year eagerness and fun activities go?  I know, I know….those activities got lost in the day to day paperwork, school meetings, pacing guides, benchmark testing…and on and on!  I know because I’ve been there many, many times!  You’re draggin’ and so are your lessons!

What to do?

I decided to look back at my beginning of the year lesson and WALAA!  It was right there in front of me…activities that I used before the day to day of school dragged me down!  I want to share some ideas with you and I hope you’ll do the same for me, as I am always lookin’ to add to my own bag of “tricks”!

here we go!!!

#1  Dictionary Dash!!!  I teach reading using novels and one of my favorite is Blood on the River.  It’s a historical fiction novel about the founding of Jamestown.  The vocabulary in the novel can be a challenge, but the idea of making students sitting at their desks,  looking up definitions of unknown words and writing them in their journal gave me chills!!

Dictionary Dash to the rescue…My students, the year I created it,  were VERY competitive and this was right up their alley.  I let my kids partner with a friend and gave each pair a dictionary.  On my white board I created a chart:     Word                      Part of Speech                    Definition

I wrote the vocabulary word in the “Word” column and then I said, “Go!”  The first group that located the word got the privilege of writing the part of speech and definition on the board.  When all the words were defined and written on the board, the students then copied down the vocabulary words into their journals.  My students BEG to play this game once I have them play it.

While I have used it for reading, I have also used this game in Science and Social Studies.  Let your imagination be your guide!!

#2 Task Cards!!!! 

  Love, love, love task cards!  The cards lend themselves to SOOOO many uses and really energize my students.  I print them out on card stock, laminate, and they are ready!!

A.  Pass A Problem  I put one or two cards on each student’s desk.  I have my students record the number on the task card on their answer sheet and then solve the problems.  They record their answers and put their hands on their shoulders.  This lets me know and once students have recorded their answers, they move to the next desk and start the process of recording and solving the task card problem.  The students move clockwise around the room solving problems at each desk.  When the students arrive back at their desk, the game is over and now the class checks their answers.

B.  Station/center lesson  They can be differentiated to meet the needs of all your students very easily.  Print the cards on different colored paper and WALAA!  Stations/center planning done!  Here are a couple of examples I use with my class.  Click on them to check out some of my task cards or the  Upper Elementary Measurement Activities task cards located  in my TpT store.

2c. Small guided group lessons  Task cards fit really well into small group lessons.  They allowed me to really  differentiate my tasks without spending a lot of time looking for the exact activity.  Task cards made it a snap! to meet the needs of all the levels of my students and reinforce what had been taught or reviewed in the whole group lesson.

3.  Whiteboard Jeopardy!!!  My first year at a new school left me without a SMARTboard so I created a paper and pencil version of Jeopardy.  I created a grid with letter columns across the whiteboard and numbers down the whiteboard.  Within each box of the grid, I placed an index card with such messages as “100 pts.” or “Lose 25 pts.” and placed them face down on the white board with magnets.  The students were placed on two teams and each team was given a question to answer.  If correct, the students then chose a card using the grid addresses.  The message was read and points added or subtracted.  Teams also could win extra turns.  The game is only limited by the creator’s imagination.  I like to use this one for review.

I hope some of my ideas have generated some more ideas for you!  Please share what you do to overcome the mid year slump that seems to grab us every year!!!

Thanks!

 

 

 

How I Improved My Grammar Lessons By Not Teaching!

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when students talk, i listen

A few weeks ago, in the midst of coming in from recess, I was given the word by several students that my English lessons were boring  less engaging than some of my other subject lessons.  Now I could have gotten angry, or bent out of shape, or any other teacher emotion that comes to mind when told a lesson was not all that it could be.  Truth be told, my lessons had gotten stale…that after holidays, after January, waiting for Presidents’ Day time of year.  I won’t lie, grammar often got the short end of the stick in the day as I tried to fit everything in, as I am a self-contained fifth grade teacher!

Students step up!

While I’ve been teaching for more than 20 years, I’m pretty open to new ideas to improve the learning in my classroom.  Trust me, I’ve known a few  “done it this way for years so why change?.” teachers.  That’s not me, so I tuned in with all ears as I entered the conversation.  “How could I fix the lessons?, ” was what I asked.  Imagine my surprise when one of my best students asked if she could teach the next lesson!  We were both surprised when the words, “Sure, let’s do this!,” came out of my mouth.  Next thing I knew, several more students volunteered to teach lessons.

How do I do this, Teacher?

I sat down with my first volunteer and together we chose the lesson…Object Pronouns!  We chose a date…three days in the future and I gave her my teacher edition.  “I’ve got this, Mrs. Mescall” was what I heard until the day of the lesson.

D-Day or should I say T-Day (teach)!  My student did an amazing job…she taught us with a fun game using large dice.  The students rolled the two dice of different colors.  Each number on one of the dice corresponded to a specific object pronoun.  The second dice numbers corresponded to a specific subject pronoun.  Students then took those two pronouns and created a sentence with both pronouns used correctly.  The students loved the game and my teacher student then walked around checking sentences and having the class read their sentences!    SCORE!!  It was a good lesson and I will totally be stealing her game for another time!!!

Lining Up!

Our second student-led  lesson was about possessive pronouns.  I again shared my teacher edition and  that Brainpop had a good videos and activities.  My second student-led class was also a success! My second student’s lesson was more digital and the class really enjoyed it.   We did so well as a class that we were rewarded with “thin mints” as we were “smart cookies”!

Have I totally given up teaching grammar and English…not really.  I do still teach them both, but I have continued to offer the opportunity to teach the class.  Several more students are eager to teach and I will certainly be letting them try out their teaching skills!

Thanks,

 

 

I do have some games and activities you might want to try to add some fun and spice to your English lessons!  Check out the links below!

A fun game with verb tenses!

Here are activities to help master there, their, and they’re!

Here are 3 levels of antonyms to meet the needs of all!

Do You Really Know George & Abraham?

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Fact or Fib?

George Washington never told a lie.  Abraham Lincoln walked ten miles to return a nickel.  Theses are some of the “facts” I was taught about these two most beloved and celebrated presidents.  What’s the truth?
                                                      

I went on a hunt for facts about both of these presidents, each of whom have wonderful, but not necessarily true stories about their lives.

sharing is caring!

As I accumulated the facts about George and Abraham, I began to think about how to share these facts with my students.  It was an easy decision to make a game of it all.  Part of why I create products is to make learning fun for my students while also making life easier for my teacher friends. Here was a perfect opportunity to share what I had learned with both my students AND friends!

Celebrate With George and Abraham

I created a “FACT” or “FIB” sort to have students read statements about each of the presidents,  and after discussion, decide whether it’s a fact or a fib.  I have included the answers for teachers.  I also thought it would be fun for students to then take their newly acquired facts and create an acrostic about either president or both!  I’ve included a short assessment or pre/post worksheet and also a Venn diagram to compare the two presidents.

 

Celebrate Presidents’ Day with George and Abraham!

 

What are some and engaging ways you celebrate Presidents’ Day?  Let me know!

Thanks!