Memory Books

The end of the school year is all about survival having fun! This year we had to pack up our classrooms completely because of new carpeting and painting, so the kiddos checked out a little earlier than normal this year. I guess it was hard for them to concentrate in a room with no bulletin boards and lots of boxes packed up everywhere!

Memory books are a great way for the littles to think back to all of the good times we had during the year. There are tons of great templates that you can use on TpT, but I wanted to share a new take on the memory book.

I try to provide my students with opportunities to create things often, as opposed to following a set of directions and answering questions. I want them to generate their own ideas so the product is truly their own. And I am totally kicking myself right now because I forgot to take pictures of their final products! #ohwell #illremembernextyear

I found these books in the Target Dollar Spot at the beginning of the school year, and they were in packs of 8 for $3. I wanted to use this as a scrapbook for the year, but unfortunately it didn't work out that way. That's okay - I already have the plan for next year!


P.S. - Click here to follow me on BlogLovin'! My page there is a work in progress, but it's coming along. 

Summer Buckets

A few years ago I saw this idea on some blogs and Instagram, and as soon as I saw it I knew I needed to do this for my littles, too! 

Summer buckets!

Before I get into what I put in the bucket, I have to give you a tip to buy these buckets on the cheap... As little as 29 cents each cheap. Hey, when you're teacher and you're buying 30 buckets and gifts for the inside of them right before summer the price adds up real quick!

I shop at Michaels and Hobby Lobby... a lot. I'm always looking for craft supplies super cheap that I can use with my students during the year. If you go by at the end of the summer you can buy the buckets for very little money since they're trying to get rid of them. But don't wait too long - they go really fast! 

Now the only problem is finding a place to keep them... #teacherproblems

But anyways.. Back to what goes inside the bucket!

This year I included a book from Scholastic, 

crayons, 

my end of year brochure, 

One side

Other side

As soon as I can make the brochure look cute, I will upload it to my TpT shop!

Getting Ready for 3rd Grade book, 

and a bookmark with their picture.

The buckets are always a big hit, and I only wish I recorded how excited they were to walk into the classroom and see the bucket on their desk!

Do you give your students end of year gifts? Let me know in the comments!

Biography Lap Books

Is it just me, or do your students cringe when they need to complete a nonfiction writing project? It seems like they just want to write about princesses, jedi knights, themselves, etc. Going back and consulting the text when writing is the last thing they want to do! 

Well, with the new standards being what they are, there is a greater emphasis on writing. This writing needs to be "College and Career Ready", and elementary students are being asked to write at a higher level of rigor than ever before. As I've heard people say, "Nobody cares what you did over summer vacation; students need to write effective expository writing." And of course, this type of writing is the last thing our students want to do.

Until.... you tie it into a lap book! 

For whatever reason, when students use "teacher" supplies they are immediately interested. File folders, pens, post it notes, you name it. Let them use something like that and you've got their attention!

I had my students write biographies about famous people. I selected books at their reading level from Reading A-Z, and had them write a biography about what they had learned. We really stressed going back to the book to look for information, after all, the book is there to help!

We had three headings: Early Years, Adult Life, and Fun Facts. Guess which one was their favorite to write about? 

Fun Facts, of course!

This was an in depth project, and some students needed much more time to complete it. I had early finishers complete their person's "Claim to Fame" and a timeline of important events. The main focus was really on writing the biography. 

The front cover was decorated with their person's name, and pictures that represent things they read about in the book. 

You could even take it a step further, and have students give presentations about what they learned from their famous person. That was the original plan, but we just ran out of time!

Click the image to check it out in my TpT store. It's on sale for 20% off until the end of the week!

Squiggle Books

I cannot believe I am writing a blog post about this. Unfortunately, the amount of testing for the students doesn't seem to be going away any time soon.. so it forces teachers to get creative keeping the students busy while testing kiddos 1:1. I don't want to show movies endlessly. I want the kiddos to do something that is engaging that can be completed QUIETLY so I can test as quickly as possible. 

Bring in... Squiggle Books!

Students turn the squiggle into a picture, and then write about their squiggle. My guidelines for working on this are as follows:

1. The squiggle should be colorful and it needs to fill the space. There shouldn't be any white space on the page.

2. Your story about the squiggle should also fill the page. Be creative, and tell a fun story.

3. You must check in with me before you can move on to the next page.

Easy enough! The students work quietly on their squiggles, and I can get my testing done. I model the appropriate way to check in with me while testing so that I can get keep them busy while I'm testing, and most of the time the students need to add more information to their story or the picture before they can move on. This works out so that they don't have only squiggles and no writing.

How do you keep the kiddos busy when you have individual testing?

Silent Directions

I used to despise making crafts, foldables, and things like that with my students. I hated giving up the order and calm (haha) of the regular school day to have organized chaos. The kiddos were always so excited that most of them barely listened, or needed more help because they couldn't figure something out and it all just gave me a headache. I realized I needed to find a way to make this work since I couldn't easily give up making crafts teaching 2nd grade! 

Fast forward a few months - I started trying new ways to get the kiddos engaged like acting more things out and one day it hit me. Why not mime the directions? I now call this "Silent Directions". 

To make this work, you need to be consistent about giving directions silently. Do not back down on this, or it will not work! Then take on the role of a mime and have fun being silly while modeling how to do the foldable, craft, etc. Depending on how complicated the steps are I will model it more than once, and the kiddos are always really good about helping each other. I think they get really excited when they realized they followed directions, and can now give silent directions to a partner to show them what to do! 

P.S. - If I'm modeling this more than once I will usually use a different piece of paper and/or materials. There are always some students who are absent, or you know cannot follow directions if their lives depended on it and then you can either use it as a back up, or give it to them instead of having them make their own.

Now with Silent Directions we have our foldables done in 5 minutes or less, and everyone is ready to go and I don't have a headache. I recently did this with a craft so I could kill 2 birds with one stone: writing step by step directions and then following their own to make a snowflake. 

This whole lesson took place over the course of a few days. We talked about how to write step by step directions, practiced, and all that good stuff ahead of time. We made the step books one day, from following silent directions of course, and then decorated them. 

Day 2 - I modeled how to make the snowflake using silent directions while the students wrote the directions down. The only talking I did with this is to tell them when to move on from step 1 to step 2 to step 3, etc. The different steps are all on a different tab, and I encouraged them to draw models, too. Anything to help them remember how to make the snowflake, since I would not be helping them make the snowflake the following day.

We made the snowflakes the following day for 2 reasons:

1. I wanted them to forget how to make the snowflake so that they would have to follow the directions they wrote. (At the end of the unit I had them reflect on their directions and parts that helped or needed more details.)

2. Halfway through making the model snowflake I realized I didn't have enough beads to go around, so I had to go to the store that night. OOPS!

Day 3 - I gave the students the materials and let them follow the directions in their step book to make their own snowflake. I walked around while they made it, but I didn't help them. A lot of students asked me for help, but in this case I didn't help them.* I reminded them to read their own directions or ask a partner to borrow their directions.

This took a looooong time, a lot longer than I had anticipated. I planned for about 30 minutes, but it ended up taking about an hour from start to finish. I was really impressed with my kiddos - they were so helpful and kind to each other! I had one student who put the beads on in the wrong order, and I overheard another student say "That's okay. All snowflakes are unique and beautiful, and I think yours looks cool." Makes my teacher heart happy!

Next time you make something with your students give the silent directions a try! Let me know how it goes. Good luck!

*I did end up helping 2 students after the fact. There's always someone with some kind of disability or processing issue that will need some kind of help. #teachersunderstand