Writing and Math "Extras"

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They are still accepting enrollments!  If you don't live in MI, check the K12 website to see if they have an online public school in your state!

Just a reminder that we "school at home" with an online public school.  Really, the kids spend very little time "online" in a week.  I know that's a common misunderstanding when I say "online" public school.  ☺ This school is through K12.  Our state's program is called Michigan Visual Charter Academy.  We are soon to be starting year two!

So after a year, there were definite changes I wanted to make.  I knew I really couldn't do them all so I picked Math and Writing as the two subjects I'd focus on this summer.  Yes, the things I will be implementing will be "extras"...still count toward attendance but not the actual assignments.

I find the scope and sequence of K12's math curriculum is exactly what I'd want it to be.  However, there is a lot of workbook activities.  Most times we did most of it, other times I made up our own hands-on activities to do the same thing so we could have a break from the worksheets.  Most likely that will stay the same however, I did want to make an Math Manipulative area for the children and expect them to choose manipulatives to use each day.  This is where a "math journal" will come in. ☺  

We will use simple .17 writing notebooks this year.  I saw a really cute Leapfrog Journal for the 1st grader but I'm trying to spend minimal money this year.   Most math journaling I see on various blogs simply use these writing notebooks so that's what we are going to try first.  Trying to hold myself back and "keep it simple!"

After choosing a manipulative to work from....

I'll vary what is out about every 2-4 weeks depending on how it goes.

pattern blocks

unifix cubes

coins/money

weights/scales

measurement tools

counting circles (from K12)

attribute shapes (from K12)

geometric 3D shapes (from K12)

calculators

brain teasers (wood/metal)

geoboard

dice

hundreds chart games
probability chips

Games: Tetris Link, Blokus, Dominoes, S'Math, Rummikub, checkers, cards, Base Race, Don't Spill the Beans, Yahtzee,

and etc...

...they will then stamp the date on their paper, draw a picture of what they did, and write a few sentences describing it.

(The first month of school I will have some idea cards available for them but my goal is for them to come up with their own ways of working with the materials...even the games.  They can be used in so many different ways!  Let's get the creativity juices flowing...I'm sure they can come up with way more ways than I can!)

End goal (besides more writing!) is to incorporate more math vocabulary.  I won't be picky the first month of school.  I just want them to get into the routine of choosing, dating, drawing, writing.  :-)

Here's something I came that I will also be trying out this year...to help us take a more active approach to math vocabulary.

 Math Vocabulary Bag Book

This was from Mrs. Prejna's Third Grade Class.

I am going to create a set of these for each of my grade levels.  I love the idea of the bag front/back cover to put items in that were used to learn about a concept.  What a great idea!  She has so kindly provided the templates for the cover and vocab pages free!  I so appreciate teachers who are so willing to share their creations!

Not sure how I'm going to store them.  Right along with their Math Journals I'm sure.  I'm still pondering that!

If you are wondering about a 1 spot stop for math vocabulary ...here you are!

Common Core Math Vocabulary by grade level

This is a document from the East Moline School District

So that is one other way I'm incorporating more writing into our day.  The other "new" way was posted a few days ago.  You can read about that and get the free printables on the Spin and Write post.

Here is a 3rd way I'm adding to writing this school year.  

I found these, this summer, in the Target Dollar section.  There were still some there the last time I wandered through!  

Here is a snapshot of the inside.  Each spread of pages has the child write the title, author/illustrator, whether fiction or non fiction, favorite characters, favorite part, star rating, date and a space to draw a picture.  I love it!  Simple...organized, visually appealing.

Side note:

Connect Collaborate Share

 I had mentioned the 5 Finger Test to a couple of parents and they hadn't heard of it. So, I'll slip it in here for you.  It's a simple way for children to pick a "good fit" book.  :-)

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You'll notice that the three new ways of "writing" I'm implementing into our school year requires very little of "me" except for beginning of year prep.  That was done intentionally.  Besides having a preschooler here, we'll also have an infant by Dec.  I really don't need anything else to "correct" or organize!  ☺  And really, the kids need time to write where they can just write without worry of "right and wrong".  Just get those thoughts going!  We'll catch the grammar, spelling, etc during their formal lessons.  

Pencils and Erasers

A typical classroom and homeschooling dilemma.  :-)  What on earth is a decent brand of pencils...ones that are actually not going to have to be sharpened all the time and heaven help us...the erasers...ones that actually erase without falling apart. 

Well, we tested them.  Ha!  Here is what we came up with...

#1 brand pencil

 

Dixon Ticonderoga

At first I was only using the black pencils.  

I found these only at Wal-Mart (when looking in a store vs. ordering online)

 I was so impressed that the black erasers did so well on the pencil marks.  Wow!  For once, no smears...nicely erased mistakes.  Then my lovely sister created a "school" pack for us.  Construction paper, glue, pencils, etc.  She purchased the yellow Dixon Ticonderoga pencils.  Guess what, they work nicely too! :-)  So that is the brand we will go with from here on out.   Spend the extra few cents...it's well worth it!

However, it wasn't long and their erasers were worn down.  :-(  Nice, hardly sharpened pencils with no erasers.  The rectangle erasers were not working...mainly due to convenience.  And the pencil top erasers, no matter what brand I bought at the store were cheap...didn't erase well and often cracked/broke.  So did a little research a found that Amazon (which I purchase most of my school stuff with points from our credit card) didn't carry Dixon erasers.  So I purchased...

PaperMate Arrowhead Erasers

SOLD!  

All normal pink erasers, rounded along the top so that they didn't get caught on the paper and crack down at the neck of them...AND THEY ERASE BEAUTIFULLY!  

There you have it...a quick post for any of you that have the irritating pencil/eraser problem.  :-D

Time Tracker

I just wanted to quickly share a new toy...I mean tool we recently purchased.  

Learning Resource Time Tracker Mini

We got ours from Amazon.

One BIG struggle we had last year with schooling C., soon to be 8 years old, at home was getting him to finish tasks in a timely manner.  This was a problem at brick and mortar also.  I have very little patience for time wasting... so there was quite a bit of frustration in that regard last year.  So my mind has been turning over options for this next school year.  We received this mini time tracker this week and I put it to use to see how it goes.

These opinions are my own...I've not been asked to review this product.

So far I have not found cons with this product.  Once the school year starts...one con might be that all the others will want one too!  :-D

Pros:

* Small...but not too small. This is a great "personal" time tracker.  It will be able to go with C. anywhere he's at.  It fits nicely at the small computer desk also.

*  Not distracting to others.  Volume control for alarm...or could be turned down so there is no alarm.  The alarm is just a simple beep beep.

*  No irritating ticking!!!!!!!!

* Visual!  Visually appealing in general and also has red, yellow and green light that turn on according to the time that's left.

* Versatile...can program time and warning time from 5-120 minutes.

* Child friendly, they can set the time and the warning time themselves.

This summer we have used Summer Bridge books and overall I like them.  However, what should really only take 20-30 minutes were turning to long drawn out 2 hour segments for C.  Heaven help us!  Just was a reminder to me that we'll have this issue again.

How we used it this summer.  Summer Bridge should take NO MORE than 30 minutes.  Set timer for 30 minutes.  Set warning time for 10 minutes.  At 30 down to 10 minutes the light is green.  At 10 minutes to 0 minutes the light is yellow and then turns red when time is up.  Alarm goes off at this time if you wish for it too.  C. was told that he has the 30 minutes to complete his Summer Bridge pages to the best of his ability and when he was finished he had that much time at the computer.  (He loves the computer.)  However, we would keep track of how much time he used over the timer and that would cut into his computer time.  Did it work?  Absolutely!  I was giving it a try for how I thought the school year would work.  I'm sure some of the newness will wear off but hopefully after the better habits are formed!

For the school year, each assignment is going to have a time written next to it.  It'll be an estimated time of how long the task SHOULD take him.  If the timer goes off, he will stop that task and put it in a "finish later" area.  In the afternoon, before his allotment of computer time...he MUST finish the tasks in the "finish later" area first.  The downside to that (for him) is he will only be able to use the computer to a certain time in the afternoon.  So if he goofs up the 2nd time, he'll 'run out' of time to work at the computer.

I think the visual timer itself will work better on its own even without the computer time attached to it.  He really has NO sense of time.  Very seldom is he truly choosing to waste time.  However, we'll double the possibility of success by attaching the success of completion of assignments to computer time at the beginning of the year anyway!  :-D

Spin and Write!

Spin and Write Printable

edit:  I was just thinking that this might be an idea that you might like to use but with different writing tasks so I went back and added a spinner without words so that you can write your own in.  :-)

A simple spinner...we'll put a brad with paperclip in the center.  

I plan to use this mainly for the 1st and 2nd graders.  This allows for them to explore with writing without Ms. Amber truly assigning something.  :-)  And also, the 1st and 2nd grader are siblings and I want them to not feel they have the "same" assignment.    

Journal Prompt

A couple ideas I've been toying with...journal prompt sticks and journal prompt bookmarks.

Journal Sticks

First Grade Fresh

I came across this idea on Pinterest. 

Another blogger had a red mark on one end of the stick and a green mark on the other so when they had used them in their class they would flip it over so the red was showing so they didn't get a repeat.  With homeschooling, I'm not sure how I would want to do that as I'd rather each of them choose their own.

 There are SO many journal prompts on the Internet if you are looking for them.  Here's a few to get your started.

Journal Buddies

Mercury Mine (September to December ideas)

Journaling Helps (narrative and opinion prompts)

Creative Journal Prompts

Writing Journal Prompts

In my browsing I came across Journaling Bookmarks on an adult journaling website.  I decided that would be even easier than sticks for this year.  Less prep for sure!  They could check off or highlight what they've done already.  So here is one to get you started.  :-)    

You can download this journaling bookmark freebie  if you think it would be helpful.  :-)

If it works out well and I make more, I'll share them.  My thinking is to print on cardstock and provide a highlighter to mark the ones they've done.  Perhaps I'll laminate them to be used again.  Haven't decided for sure yet. I tried to get the special character...empty checkbox to work...but it wouldn't.  Maybe by next time! I went September to December, FYI.  They aren't necessarily seasonal prompts, one or two on a month.  It's just an easier to plan it this way. 

Themed Paper

 I have multiple binders of themed borders and writing paper, from my school-age program days, so I figured I might as well put them to use.  :-)  The children will be able to write whatever they wish on the papers.  I will encourage them to look through their lists, picture prompt pages, and etc to help them come up with an idea of what to write. 

How-To

Here are some printables I came across for this activity.

What the Teacher Wants has a set she uses for teaching narrative writing that would work.

My First Grade Happy Place

Coming soon will be a selection of "How To" cards to choose from.

Cut and Paste Stories

Again, something I had in my possession already.  I have a selection of purple folders here from my child care days and so all the writing papers will be organized in their own purple folder.

Picture Prompts

I like this printable from Joy in the Journey

She also has a lined writing page for a final copy of the story they create.  However, I plan on these activities to be "short and sweet" and they will look back through their lists, picture prompt pages, etc to help them come up with ideas for the themed papers.  :-)  For the actual pictures...I don't want to step on anyone's toes when it comes to copyright and to be truthful, I usually just use google images for pictures that I use around the home here.  So, I will not be sharing the actual pictures.  Remember that you can also use old calendars or magazine pictures too!

Mini Books

Printables I found to go with this.

SparkleBox has multiple free fold and go book templates.

But truthfully, what I planned on doing was the simple fold and snip books and various sizes and colors of cut and staple booklets.  :-)  We are starting off pretty simple! 

Here is one of many instructions on how to make the mini foldable books. 

Print, Cut, Paste, Craft

Lists

List making is a great way to help the children learn to brainstorm which is the first step of the writing process.  I found that my students here had "brainstorm blocks" last year.  It was REALLY hard for them.  

I've got about 22  "list" templates ready with a few more ideas in my head to do when I get a few moments.  Some of them have lines like a list, some don't.  I wanted to do a variety.  Here are 3 examples.

Here the children will use ROY G. BIV to help them remember the color of the rainbow and list objects in corresponding colored pencil and band.  For example, someone might write...strawberry, crayon, leaf, jello, barn, apple, raspberry in red pencil in the top band of the rainbow.

Here the children will write words to describe grapes.  One word per grape, in either green or purple pencil.

Here there are two lists.  The apple on the left asks them to list words to describe an apple.  The one on the write asks them to list ways to use apples.  The center apple asks them to draw their favorite way of eating an apple.

In addition to these pages, I will have several sheets of blank list pages so they can create their own topic if they wish.

Feel free to print a copy of the List Writing Templates here.  FYI, it took awhile to upload so it will probably take a bit to download.

Poetry

A lovely homeschooling mom came across this poetry book at a garage sale and picked it up for me, knowing I was on the look out for ways to implement more poetry writing.  How sweet!  I will use that book this year so I don't have as much prep work.  It's labeled for grades 1-6, has 3 levels of learning for each type of poem, pages that break down writing the poem, and even some cute "publishing" poetry pages for their final copy. 

Daily Fix-It

I'm trying to make some of those changes I've been wanting to make for this next school year.  I feel I really need to focus on being well prepared at the beginning of the year to help them become as independent as possible since baby #4 (yes, surprise, surprise...well, as much as it can be a surprise) will be making an appearance in December some time. 

 

One thing I finished today...that I wanted to do LAST year was the Daily Fix It.  I don't think I shared that link so I want to do that. 

Daily Fix-Its

3rd Grade

Teachers Pay Teachers

Amanda Nickerson from One Extra Degree has so graciously shared this 50 page FREEBIE! It is so "clean" and simple.  I love it! 

 

Today I made sure that I had all pages printed and I bound a book for my 3rd grade kiddo. 

 

 

Have I mentioned how much I love my Fellowes Comb Binding Machine?  :-)

 

 

It is well known that with kiddos like him...language arts is a struggle.  Oh boy, that was our main struggle last year.  And it took all year to get him to separate "ART" and "LANGUAGE ARTS".  He had a bad attitude about art all because it was also in the topic Language Arts.  Ha!  Absolute craziness that I just could NOT understand.  Well, I have a little bit better understanding this year and forsee a much more successful school year in that regard.  Since Language Arts tends to be a "struggle" (Reading comprehension...not included at this point.  He reads and comprehends 2-3 grades above level but heaven help us if he has to "respond" to it in anyway.) I'm trying to provide quick ways for him to get extra practice without overwhelming him.  This Daily Fix It will help in the grammar area.  :-P

 

He'll probably get the Grammar Posters on a ring to keep with his things...I made them last year and found them most useful for 3rd grade.  :-) You can see the post, a closer up image of each of the posters and get the pdf. free here.

 

We're being told that we should receive our 2013-2014 materials in 7-10 days.  YIPPEE!  I'll be glad to get a good look over my 5th grader's materials but also want to start getting in my mind how to set up for this year.  I think C., the 3rd grader needs his own space...BY HIMSELF!  Maybe I'll switch my two oldest.  A. missed being with the group and with a little self-discipline he can learn to be successful out in the main area with the younger kiddos I think.  Ah!  I don't want to rush August at all because I have lots to do...but I'm looking forward to school starting up! 

Listening To Audio Books, Links

Preparing for this fall!  It's only a few weeks away and I have some things I am "making changes" with.  Figured since I was already doing some "searching on the Internet" I'll just share it with you all as it might be a help.   Hope so anyway!


Something we only did here and there last year was listening to books on tape/cd or computer.  Often it was the preschooler's activity and then the others wanted to listen also. However, at times, I would just find a book that the 1st grader was reading on Youtube so he could listen to it first and follow along before reading it to me.  :-)  

I've always felt that a listening center is a lovely component of a classroom. Granted, I've seen some that weren't so profitable and the kids didn't enjoy it much but I've seen others that were very much enjoyed.

My goal for this year is to incorporate a few moments of the day for the children to spend listening to an audio book.  However, instead of trying to use cassettes that I have here and they get pretty frustrated with and can't be all that independent with, or depend on the library's limited selection, I am going to provide a website each week that has several books that they can choose from.  I am NOT going to try to connect the story to their course work. This will be a free choice-pick your own story.  I really think they will enjoy it immensely.

Our $5 headphones that I purchased at the beginning of the school year last year that I didn't think would hold up all that well but did!  None of them broke and I can't say that the kiddos were all that gentle with them!  We used them all the time!  A necessity for having several students doing schooling at once!

Purchased at Amazon.

Quick reminder of a few of the benefits of a listening to audio books:
*  It's relaxing...and causes most students to become more positive about reading.
*  They hear correct pronunciation of words as well as receive a model of how to appropriately read aloud.
*  Introduced to new vocabulary!
*  Typical improves concentration, active listening, and comprehension.
*  For new readers, it helps build confidence in reading.
*  Helps children become familiar with a variety of genres.  Sometimes elementary aged students get in a rut with the types of books they will choose on their own but are willing to listen to many types of books.
*  Often they will listen to books ABOVE their reading level.
*  Studies are out there about the benefits of listening without a visual aid for all these kiddos that are part of the "digital age".  Reinforces them to use their imagination to picture the scene and characters.

Here are several of the links I have come across already that have several audio story options!  Plenty enough for a school year!  I'll just have the choice of website as a tab that comes up on each laptop.  :-)  

Cobb Schools Literacy Centers Page had K-2 talking books selections!

Storynory

Kids Audio Books (Lots...just listening...no pictures)

Story Online.net

Speakaboos

PBSKids

TumbleBooks

Light Up Your Brain (Some very LONG ones!)

Audio Book Cloud

Barnes and Noble (There isn't very many here but the neat thing is that the author themselves are reading their own book!)

Online Audio Books

Robert Munsch (His books with him reading.)

What I plan to do is provide a daily response sheet for the "listening center". Each day will touch on a different skill.  Perhaps a Monday would be good for just listening, writing down basic info and drawing a picture about the story. Another day they will respond to the book with the focus of making connections to the story, day three may be to tell about the beginning, middle, and end of the story, and yet another day will be stating the components of the story, like setting, characters, etc.  Here are some freebies I have come across on Teachers Pay Teachers that you might be interested in!

My favorite so far...
Spotlight on Listening

Others:

Differentiated Listening Response Sheets

Common Core Listening Response Sheets

Listening Center Worksheet

Listening Center Reader Response Sheets

Listening Center Reader Response Sheets2

Listening-Center-Response-Form

Listening-to-Reading-Response-Sheets

Reading-Connections-Listening-Center-Response-Sheets

This one would be nice for upper grade level!
Listening-Center-Fluency-Center-Response-Worksheet

Biome-Ecosystem Wheels

I have a year "under my belt" for grades 1-4 with MVCA, which uses the K12 curriculum.  Overall, the curriculum is lovely.  I have no concerns about the children covering everything they need to.  However, there seemed to be so much “paper”.  Not all that fun for learning coach or teacher.  Unfortunately, with the first year and 6 kiddos here, on top of not knowing what each curriculum entailed, we had time (and energy) for only the required assignments.  I don’t really want that to be the case this next year.

I’ve been working on creating Science Unit binders for C., who is going into 3rd grade.  I expect he will become very independent this next year…as long as I’m organized and we follow a very specific daily schedule with him. (A little lesson I learned last year is do a little in every subject every day.  That makes units be completed more quickly and they have a better retention rate when it comes to unit checkpoints.)  My goal for C. is to allow him to go forward with Science on his own easily and also create a binder for his work so that we could all enjoy it.  He loves to share any new found information/facts.  I started History binders last year and it fell by the wayside because most of the printables in the history curriculum were coloring sheets and that did NOT keep their interest.  However, the little we did do…they loved to go back and look at it.  

Biome/Ecosystem Wheels  

One of the activities for Science3- Unit 3:  Ecosystems- is to read through several nonfiction books about various biomes.  They have a book about the Tundra, Boreal Forest, Temperate Deciduous Forest, Tropical Rain Forest, Desert, and Grassland/Prairie.  I actually have most of them recorded on the laptop because they weren’t “easy reading” for last year’s 3rd grade student.  However, I think C. will be able to handle them fine.  We’ll fall back on the recordings if we need too.  I found the “research and note taking” okay…it's a good skill to learn...just wasn't very intriguing.  So we are taking a different approach to it for this year…something visually appealing for the binder. 

I got the idea from a teacher from the 

Bethel School District

This is an example of what that class did.

This was an upper elementary or even middle school class.  

However, Mr. C. does NOT care for anything ‘artsy’.  He’s getting better little by little, but it’s not something he willingly does.  If I was doing this with his brother I’d give him the 2 blank circles to create his own wheel, organize it on his own, etc.  Goes to prove that each one is so different and that is a-okay! 

So here is the version I’m going to provide for him, printed on cardstock…one wheel for each book.  He’ll probably balk at decorating the top of the wheel in a way that represents the biome, but we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.  No reason why we can’t google and print some images and make more a collage.  I think that overall it will be visually appealing for him. After he gets the first one done and he’ll be more willing to do the other ones.  I also think it will appeal to his sense of organization and it’ll help him know what the point of reading the book is about…what information should be gleaned from the book.  It’ll also make him feel important and work on some of those presentation skills when we take the time to have him share the wheels with the rest of the group.

It's not "perfect" as I just eyeballed the lines to create the wheel but it will suit our purposes just fine.  If you want a copy, feel free do download for your own personal use.

Biome Wheel Printable