How to Publish a Class Book

Note: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase after clicking on my links, I receive a small commission at no cost to you! Thanks for your support!

 

One of my favorite yearly traditions in my classroom is publishing a class book. I like to do this toward the end of the year when my students have gained a lot of writing skills; it is incredibly rewarding to watch them put all of their skills together into a final product. 

The kit from Studentreasures makes publishing easy, and the best part is, it's free for teachers! (No, this is not a sponsored post, although the above is an affiliate link. I have just had a great experience with them and wanted to share with other teachers!)

You will be sent a kit with instructions including all that you need, with the exception of the drawing materials. I grab a class set of permanent markers and colored markers (because we all know by spring the kids' supplies have seen better days) and we're ready to go!

There are many different ways to approach this project, but I choose to have the kids write a nonfiction animal book. It aligns perfectly with our unit on animal adaptations. Each student picks a different animal to research and write about. So many great skills get addressed during this project! They practice researching, writing a rough draft, and editing before they write their final pages.

Each student gets their own two-page spread in the book, with one page of text and one page for their illustration. There's even a "Meet the Authors" page in the back where you can put their pictures.

When you send the kit back to Studentreasures, it only takes a few weeks for them to return the published books to you. (Shipping both ways is free!) The kids are always proud and amazed to see their work published in a book; our class book is now one of the most frequently read in our classroom library. Parents have the opportunity to order books, as well, and I think they love it even more than the kids.

I hope you decide to try publishing a book with your class; it is such a wonderful experience! Click here to get started!

Keep teaching with heart and passion!

Teaching Young Students About Martin Luther King Jr.

Note: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase after clicking on my  links, I receive a small commission at no cost to you! Thanks for your support!

Nobel Foundation, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

As I was prepping lessons for next week, I was planning to spend a few days talking about Martin Luther King, Jr. I turned to the corresponding page in my social studies curriculum and was sorely disappointed to see four short sentences, two of which were discussing how people commemorate MLK Day by having parades and closing schools. That left two sentences discussing the life and work of Dr. King. Even more disappointing, they glossed over the Civil Rights movement, simply stating that Dr. King worked for equal rights for all. There was not even a mention of for whom he was advocating; no discussion of segregation or the Black community.

I understand the thought of not going too in-depth with these heavy subjects with early elementary students, but I was deeply saddened by this casual approach. I fully believe young learners can, and should, engage with deep content. Here's how I approach this in my classroom.

Allow Time

Deeper subjects like this cannot be rushed. This isn't a lesson to throw in that random 10-minute slot you have before recess. Early in my teaching career, I did not allow enough time, and my students were in a place of somber processing as I was trying to get them out the door for lunch; it wasn't good for anyone. Carve out some time so you can approach this in a purposeful manner.

Use Quality Literature

Read alouds are one of the best ways to introduce children to historical figures and events. Take the time to fully read through the books first, selecting books that give sufficient facts and details. I also highly recommend books that have rich illustrations or photographs.

My all-time favorite is Martin's Big Words by Doreen Rappaport. This book is perfect for initiating conversations with students. It keeps things simple enough for K-2 students without ignoring or glossing over the difficult details, and incorporates many quotes from Dr. King.

Another wonderful book is Be a King: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Dream and You by Carole Boston Weatherford. I use this as a follow-up book, because it really doesn't give details about Dr. King's life, but it helps the students make connections to their own lives, seeing ways they can make a difference.

Cultivate Empathy

Take time to focus on social-emotional skills. Have conversations about how you would feel if you didn't have the same rights as others. Ask students to truly think about how they would feel if they were treated differently from others, such as if they could only go certain restaurants or drink from certain water fountains. Carry these conversations forward into areas of kindness and equality in the classroom, at recess, and in your community.

Answer the Difficult Questions

As you discuss topics like segregation, children will have big, difficult questions, and they deserve to hear honest answers to those questions. Give straightforward, non-biased facts. You'll be surprised at how well your students accept these facts and want to move forward to create a brighter future; I am always impressed with their insight.

Avoid Trivializing Activities 

Those of you who have read my blog for some time know that I am a huge advocate of teaching through play. However, this is a time when that is simply not appropriate. Do not attempt activities like assigning kids a race and role-playing segregation in your classroom (I can't believe I even have to write this, but every year there are news stories of teachers doing things just like this). I personally even avoid things like color-by-code pictures of historical figures like Dr. King, which is my own preference, because I feel like there are more meaningful ways to approach such subjects. I tell my students it is a serious topic and that we are going to have a serious discussion and they usually rise to the occasion; they love feeling trusted to have such conversations.

Through approaches like these, you can help your students engage purposefully with important historical content, laying a solid foundation for them to be critical thinkers as they begin to learn more about the complexities of history and society.

Keep teaching with heart and passion!

Sound Wall | Science of Reading

 

I've been busy making the shift to the science of reading this summer, from prepping task cards with Elkonin boxes to adapting sight word resources to align with the heart words strategy. I knew there was one more resource I needed to prepare before the new school year started: a sound wall! The science of reading suggests that sound walls are more useful to students than word walls, as students reference the phonemes and corresponding graphemes.

There are various sound walls out there, but my favorites have real photographs of people articulating sounds. It was important to me that my sound wall have these photographs, and that these photographs feature diverse people.

 

The included grapheme cards also include photographs of familiar objects for each sound, to assist students in using the wall as a reference for their reading and writing.

These pictures show the completed vowel and consonant displays with all of the grapheme cards, but I wouldn't recommend starting the display with all of the cards; it would be far too overwhelming for students. Build the display a little at a time as you introduce the phonemes and graphemes to your class. This will familiarize them with the display and better enable them to use it in a meaningful manner.

I hope you are as excited as I am to implement more researched-based reading instruction in your  classroom! You can get a copy of this sound wall here in my store or here in my TPT shop.

Keep teaching with heart and passion!

 

Phonemic Awareness Task Cards for CVC Words

 

Lately, I have been learning a lot about approaches to use with students with dyslexia. One thing I continue to hear is the importance of phonemic awareness. I've started including more phonemic awareness activities in my whole group instruction, because I believe it can benefit all students.

As I was reading about common strategies that do not help students with dyslexia, and can even be harmful, I realized that I was guilty of using some of these techniques in my classroom. One that I was surprised by was the boxes shaped like letters, which are supposed to help students identify the shapes of words. In theory, this sounds good, but it is actually harmful. 

 

Unfortunately, all of the small group phonics task cards I had purchased for use in my classroom used these types of boxes, which I had thought were effective. Of course, when we know better, we do better, so I could no longer use these task cards with my students. That meant that I had to make some new ones based on my current understanding of phonemic awareness.

I have created some CVC task cards with touch points for each sound in the word. Students identify the picture and say the name, then touch the dots one at a time, saying a sound for each touch.

Next, they write the letter that makes the sound they hear at each touch point.

The cards are self-checking, so the kids can flip them over to check their work, and then circle the thumbs-up or thumbs-down to keep track of how many they got right.

I wanted there to also be an ongoing tracking system to help kids remember which decks they need to practice and to motivate them to continue practicing. My students love earning items in online games, so I thought of a way to put this in paper form by creating scene builders.

Each student has a folder with a tracking sheet. They color in a star for each time they practice all 15 cards for one of the vowels.

After coloring in all three stars for one of the vowels, the kids earn an object to add to their farm scene.

This system is fun for kids and is based on best practices for phonemic awareness. It is easy to implement as an independent center, great for teacher-led small groups, or for kids to use with a partner.

You can get these cards here in my store or here in my TPT shop. I hope they help you create easy, meaningful small group work to develop solid phonemic awareness skills!

Keep teaching with heart and passion!

Halloween Noun Town

Posts two days in a row? I'm just as surprised as you are. 😆

This is going to be a short post; I told you all yesterday how much I love fall in the classroom, and today I just had to share one more reason: Halloween Noun Town!

 

I think noun towns are so cute, and I love that they are student generated. We have been learning about labels as a text feature as well as nouns and verbs, so this project was perfect!

I started by hanging up a nearly blank background. I did add two items so they could have a visual and better understand what we were doing.

They took the idea and ran with it! I laid down some parameters (no blood, no weapons, no characters from horror movies), and they did the rest. They drew their pictures, cut them out, and added labels. I love how it turned out!

I want to do this for all the things, now! I'm thinking we might need to make a "Verb 'Burb" next--or maybe I'll call it "Superb Verbs".

Tell me about your favorite noun town themes!

Keep teaching with heart and passion!

Build a City: Mapping Skills Activity

Hi, Teacher Friends! I hope your school year is off to a great start! We have been in person the last three weeks, and it has been wonderful. Yes, things are different with trying to keep 6-year-olds socially distanced and wearing masks, but they have been rockstars, and it has been fantastic to be back doing what I love!

I usually like to do lots of hands-on centers throughout the day so that kids can collaborate and learn all the important social skills that come with working in a group, as well as apply content in a more age-appropriate way. That has been more of a challenge this year, for sure! I have been trying to get creative with individual centers that don't involve a screen, but one day a week we have digital Boom centers. 

I try to balance it so the kids don't get too much screen time, but they also get to use technology enough to become proficient in it. I typically start digital centers a little later in the year, but considering we may have to go remote at a moment's notice, I want my kids to learn all of our online platforms while I'm there in person to give support.

The kids love Boom cards--they are always asking to play "those games"--and I love that they give the kids immediate feedback and that I can see data on how they did. It is quick and easy to assign different decks to each kid, so, during reading, for example, I have some kids working on basic sight words while others are working on blends and other skills.

This particular deck focuses on mapping skills, which is one of our first grade standards. Working with cardinal directions can be tricky for 6- and 7-year olds, so I love the immediate feedback they get with this Boom deck! There are few things as damaging to a child's understanding as practicing something the wrong way.

This deck focuses on the directions north, south, east, and west, as kids take on the role of helping design a new city. It makes a no-prep and engaging way for your students to practice their mapping skills, and works just as well in-person as it does with remote learning.

Find "Build a City" here in my TPT store or here on Boom Learning.

Keep teaching with heart and passion!

DIY Teacher Survival Kit: 2020 Style

Note: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase after clicking on one of these links, I will receive a small compensation at no cost to you.

Getting ready to go back to school is totally nerve-wracking this year, and wrought with so many emotions. I am excited to be back in the classroom, which is my happy place; I've missed it terribly since March, when we transitioned to remote learning. I can't wait to meet a new set of kids to love and learn with, forming a tight-knit community. I even miss the little things, like putting up new bulletin boards and decorating for the holidays. My teacher-heart is thrilled to be heading back!

Mixed with all of the excitement, however, is a feeling of unease. Will we be able to help the kids understand the importance of social distancing? Will we still be able to foster the same feeling of community when the kids have to stay so far apart? Will our school have a coronavirus outbreak? Will our students and staff all stay healthy?

Understanding these mixed emotions, I decided to make a 2020 style Teacher Survival Kit as a back-to-school gift for my teammates. My teammates are the most amazing people out there; we work together so well and they inspire me to be the best teacher I can be. We are very close, and always give each other little gifts for occasions like this. However, this gift would also be great from a student to a teacher!

Most of the things included are often seen in teacher survival kits, but some I selected specifically for 2020:

Chocolate (always a necessity! These Dove dark chocolates are my favorite, and I love the little affirming messages inside each wrapper)

Gum

Mints

Ibuprofen

Lip balm (Burt's Bees is the absolute best!)

Stickers with inspirational messages (I purchased different styles to match my teammates' classroom decor; the ones pictured I found from Happy Honeycomb Studio on Etsy)

Travel hand sanitizer that can be put on a lanyard (Because, 2020...I purchased these holders)

Lotion (to combat the dryness from the frequent hand washing. I purchased this lotion with a calming lavender scent, because goodness knows we need a little calm this year!)

Box of Blessings (this little deck contains 101 blessings for teachers)

Emergen-C (not pictured, but I added it in after taking the photo. Teachers can always use this immune system boost in a good year, but in 2020, we need it in bulk!)

Last but not least, I found these adorable Teacher Survival Kit bags to package it all in.

Hopefully these goodie bags will bring a smile to my teammates' faces as we face the uncertainties of this upcoming school year.

Is there anything else you can think of that should be put into a teacher survival kit, especially this year? Let me know, I would love to hear your ideas!

Keep teaching with heart and passion!

Calculate It! Number Talks FREEBIE

   

    Back in February, I was working on finishing up and listing all of the number talks I had been using with my students, with a plan to get them polished up and bundled by spring break. Then, of course, COVID-19 changed things and I shifted my focus to distance learning.    

    I am so excited to say that all of my number talks are now finished! I am pumped to start next school year with an entire year's worth of number talks ready to go.

    I've already talked in previous posts about how amazing I think number talks are, and how they completely changed my math instruction. I love them, the kids love them, and I am constantly amazed at the amount of critical thinking my students display as they work through the various problems. My class this past year took ownership of their learning and pride in showing their strategies to their friends; they even got upset when number talks were finished for the day! If that isn't a ringing endorsement, I don't know what is. ;)

    I've listed each of my number talks separately so you can purchase one to cover a particular skill, and I also offer them all together as a money-saving bundle if you're ready to go all-in. However, I wanted you to have the chance to experience number talks and see if they're a good fit for your classroom and teaching style before purchasing, so I've listed a sample pack as a FREEBIE! This sample includes 2 slides from each of my 12 number talks, for a total of 24 FREE number talks! Just like with the full version, the freebie includes a version for both PowerPoint and Google Slides™.

    I'm confident that your students will love Calculate It! Number Talks as much as mine do, and I'm excited for you to experience how engaging and rigorous number talks can be! Get the free sample here, and then please come leave some feedback to tell me how it went in your classroom!

   

    Keep teaching with heart and passion,

    

Fractions Picnic

    One of the great (and terrifying) things about distance learning has been the necessity to learn new things. I have learned so much over the last couple of months, and I know I am going to be a stronger teacher going forward. I learned a ton about Google Sites, Seesaw (I even became a Seesaw Ambassador!), and my new favorite--Boom Cards!

    I had heard of Boom Cards before, but I hadn't devoted the time to learning them. As I had switched grade levels this year, I felt like I had enough on my plate. COVID-19 had other ideas, so as I was scrambling for digital activities for my students, I decided to give Boom Cards a try. I am so glad I did! They are fun and engaging for kids, and easy for teachers to use. They give kids immediate feedback, and can even give teachers a performance report on the activities students complete! They will definitely be something I work into my small group rotations as we return to a traditional classroom setting (whenever that may be--fingers crossed for this fall!)

    This is one of the first activities I created for my students: Fractions Picnic. I love this activity for practicing halves and quarters! Students get to prepare food for a picnic, choosing the correct way to divide the food based on how many friends want a serving.

    If the student gets the answer wrong, they get immediate feedback and the chance to select the correct answer. This is one of my favorite features, since it addresses misconceptions right away.

   

    Every slide of this deck includes optional audio directions so pre-readers can play on their own, but your kiddos who are reading independently don't get annoyed by hearing directions they can read themselves.

Such a fun, no-print, no-prep math center!   

You can check out a free playable preview here! If you're ready to purchase, you can find it here in my TPT store.

Keep teaching with heart and passion!