Family Engagement

One of the things I really encourage in my classroom is family engagement. This could be volunteering in school, attending events at school, but really what I want the, to do is work with their child at home. I've seen students make a tremendous amount of growth in all areas when families are engaged in their child's education and work with them at home, and I just wish they all knew how important it is! Do you scare them into helping? Gently encourage them to take a greater interest? Bribe them? #justkidding

What I've found from teaching in a Title 1 school with a high percentage of poverty is that families don't know what to do to help, and don't have the self confidence to do anything either. Regardless of the reason, things army getting done at home. So how do we change that?

This picture does not reflect the time and energy invested in this event. I was running super behind setting everything up, and this was the only picture I managed to take of the evening. I guess it shows that these things are time consuming, but absolutely worth it!

I've decided to host little "parent nights" to bring parents together and hold a class to teach them different ways to work with their child at home. I'm going to give you a list of tips to get the most out of your parent night, and if you have any other ideas leave them in the comments below!

Getting parents to attend the event:

1. Sending home flyers is great, but to get even more success I recommend calling parents to personally invite them. You might not have to do this for all parents, but this is a good idea to get the parents that really need to come nut are reluctant for whatever reason.

2. Send home reminders on the date of the event! Tie the note to a backpack, make  a paper bracelet, write it in permanent marker on their child's forehead, whatever you have to do to remind them to show up!

3. People love food, especially if your holding the event during dinner hours. Don't spend your own money - get the food donated! I've held several of these events and we've had donations from Macayos and Little Caesers with plenty of food.

4. Parents are motivated to do things that are important for their child. So, get the kiddos really invested in bringing their parents to the event! Entice them with a little reward such as lunch with the teacher the next day, or my personal favorite - door prizes!

5. Raffle off door prizes. Again, don't spend your own money! Reach out to local businesses and see what donations they would be willing to contribute! I reached out to our church contact at school and asked if she could assist with getting donations, and wow she is amazing! She was able to get 10 $25 gift certificates to Bookmans, so we were able to put together a ton of gift baskets, as well as raffle off gift cards at the end of the event!

Getting the most bang for your buck at the event:

1. Prepare resources. Parents are much more likely to use resources with their child if they have experience using the resources themselves. You can't have experience using something if it isn't prepared, so enlist the help of as many people as you can get to help get everything ready. I would check with the PTA, local church groups, any helpful parents, or student organizations like Student Council or NJHS.

Sample resources:

1st grade to 2nd grade

1st grade to 2nd grade resource bag. 

Sight word game. 

Addition flash cards

Money game

Fluency practice passages - both groups received this, just different leveled passages.

2nd to 3rd grade resources

2nd to 3rd grade resource bag.

A peek inside 

Math games

Place value cards for games

Multisyllabic word game

2. Do the activities and give parents feedback. It can feel strange teaching parents and adults when we're used to working with young ones, but if they've done the activity before there is a greater chance that they will do it again with their child at home. We followed an I do, you do format. My team mate and I would model how to do a running record or play a math or reading game, and then we set the parents free to do the activity with their children. We had a lot of positive feedback with this because parents were able to ask questions if they didn't understand and they could see how the activity was supposed to go.

3. Set a SMART goal. Encourage parents to set a SMART goal for using the resources with their child, or for their child's performance. SMART goals should be Short, Measurable, Academic, Realistic, and Timely. Take fluency for example. If a child is reading 10 words a minute, in 6 weeks it's unlikely that they will be reading 100 words a minute. Something more realistic would be 30 words a minute. You don't want them to set a goal too high because they'll likely be discouraged when their child doesn't reach it and may not be as willing to help again in the future. Which leads to...

4. Follow up with families to see if they met their goal. Following up with families at a later date is another critical part of successful parent nights. Depending on the time of year, it can be a little tricky to do. I did a night for my students going into the next grade, and I probably won't follow up with them since they will no longer by my students next year. However, I will tell the 3rd grade teachers to follow up with the families so they can share successes or concerns they still have.

What should I add to my list? Share your ideas in the comments!

Five for Friday

How many more Fridays until the end of school? #1moretogo 

Hang in there teachers! We can finish strong!

My birthday is around the same time as Mother's Day, so my mom and I always celebrate these things together. This year we went to a place called Painting With a Twist, and they showed us how to make these paintings. I was a little worried because I am definitely NOT an artist, but I think I will actually be able to hang this painting up somewhere. 

This week I taught a class for the incoming 2nd graders' families called "Dig Into Learning This Summer". My team mate and I showed strategies and provided the families games so we can keep the kiddos learning over the summer. I won't go into too much detail here, since I have a blog post all about this in the works... So check back on Monday!

 I was in such a hurry to get everything all set up that this was the only picture I was able to take from the event! It was WAY more interesting than it looks in this picture! #itaketheworstpictures

I turned 25 this past week. Yikes.... I can't believe this milestone is already here! Anyways...

My students are always interested in knowing how old I am. I tell them that I will only tell them how old I am on my birthday, so when my birthday finally arrives they are super excited to finally figure out how old I am. But I can't make it that easy for them! 

In the past, I have had students solve math problems in order to figure out how old I am. This year, with packing up our rooms (see number 4) things have been SO crazy that I am constantly feeling behind. So, throughout the day I gave the kiddos clues that they could use to figure out my age. 

And later my amazing boyfriend cooked dinner for me! This is the 2nd time he's done this in almost 6 years.. It turned out pretty dang good, too! #ilovehim

This summer we are getting new carpets, and we are not allowed in the school building at all the entire summer. We have to turn in our keys and everything, and once we do we need to be completely out! It's been so sad taking everything down, but seeing the room completely bare is giving me tons of new ideas for ways to arrange and decorate the room. I can't wait to get back in there all fresh from relaxing all summer and set things up in a new and hopefully better way. Stay tuned!

It is so strange being in my room with WHITE walls! I have never seen my room this blank, even when I first moved into this classroom 3 years ago. 

I couldn't just leave the walls completely empty until the last day of school. So for the time being, I put up our 2nd Grade Rocks! posters. I mean, they are too cute to NOT have on the walls. 

I absolutely love this activity. It was so sweet to walk around and read what the kiddos wrote about me, as well as see their rockin' guitars. It makes me want to do a "Rock and Roll" theme next year, although I'm not sure how I'll pull that off... Give me time and it'll come to me!

Happy Weekend!

Money and Time.. It's Another Math Tip Monday!

It's time for another Math Tip Monday link up! This post is all about Money and Time.

It seems like it gets harder to teach money every year. The students have less and less experience each year with money since they don't see it at home; their parents are using cards instead. I get it - I rarely keep cash on me and use cards most of the time. Gotta get those reward points! 

We start by creating anchor charts about coins. This can be a little tedious, so I start with the penny the first day. I introduce nickels the 2nd day, and we end up practicing with these coins for about a week or so before I introduce any new coins. Eventually I do the same thing for a dime and a quarter once I feel the students have a good foundation working with pennies and nickels. 

We do a daily coin counter and I usually will add 1 penny every day for 5 days, and guide the students through questioning to notice that we can trade in 5 pennies for a nickel.

This is really important because it lays the foundation for a game that we get to called "Collect 25 Cents". I introduce this game whole group to determine which coin (or coins) to add to the coin counter. 

Materials Needed:

Dice

A variety of real or fake coins

Rules: 

1. Player 1 rolls the dice. Let's say they roll a 3. They need to take 3 pennies (3 cents). 

2. Player 1 passes the dice to player 2. (This is REALLY important so the kiddos are paying attention to the coins the other player takes to check for accuracy. If you don't emphasize this step you end up with 2 students just rolling the dice and taking coins who have no idea what its going on.)

3. Player 2 rolls the dice. Let's say they roll a 4. They need to take 4 pennies (4 cents). 

4. Repeat step 2. 

5. Player 1 rolls the dice. Let's say they roll a 3 again. Again, they take 3 pennies and add the total. 3+3 = 6 cents. 

BUT WAIT!

You want to have as few coins as possible, so player 1 will need to trade 5 pennies in for a nickel. After the trade is made, player 1 passes the dice to player 2. (See why this is important?)

6. Repeat until one player has collected 25 cents. 

The great thing about this game is that it can be upped to collect 50 cents or collect $1.00 once students are ready to start working with larger numbers. If you are collecting more than 25 cents, you will want to use 2 dice. 

Helpful tips:

1. Make sure the students pass the dice to the next player to signal their turn. This helps when students need to trade pennies and nickels for larger coins. 

2. Have the students take the coins they need BEFORE they make any trades. 

Time is another thing that gets harder and harder to teach each year. Many families don't have analog clocks at home and prefer digital clocks instead. Sometimes the first time a child has even seen an analog clock is in school! This is something that can be difficult to practice at home because the kiddos don't have analog clocks. 

In order to get the kiddos proficient with time and money, I break it down into smaller routines to do each day. The routines are short, and last maybe 10 minutes each day. 

We start REALLY simple at the beginning of the year with telling time to the hour and half hour. This is done whole group verbally, but eventually transitions into using mini clocks and writing in journals. 

As the year goes on, we move to time to the quarter hour, 10 minute intervals, and eventually 5 minute intervals. I really stress vocabulary here such as quarter to, quarter past, half past, etc. I think the key here is that every student does everything, and increasing the number of turns. Add lots of practice into these quick 10 minute routines so that students can reach mastery. 

A big shout out to Theresa's Teaching Tidbits and K's Classroom Kreations for putting this all together!

An InLinkz Link-up

Birthday Sale!

Mark your calendars! My 25th birthday is this week wow I'm old and I'm celebrating with a sale! 

Click the image to visit my TpT store. 

Five for Friday: On a Saturday

I am so proud of myself. I'm finally linking up for a Five for Friday post again! Even if it is on a Saturday #isitsummeryet

This past weekend I went to New Jersey to see family I haven't seen in years. It was far too long so it was fun having a reunion and seeing how big and different "us kids" are now that we're all growed up.

In addition to seeing "long lost" family, my mom and I were also in town for my cousins baby shower. Baby Emma is sure already loved by lots of people!

How adorable is that centerpiece? 

I found the cutest little idea for a Mother's Day gift, and I cannot find the original source! It is so stinkin cute, and I want to give credit where credit is due so please let me know if this is your idea so I can give you a shout out! I can't even remember if I found this on a blog, Facebook, Instagram... So please please please let me know!

Seriously - how cute is this?!

I have been hard at work drinking wine making these wine cork coasters. I had enough wine corks just in time for Mother's Day!

While I was visiting family in New Jersey, we went to this place called the Garden of Sculptures. Interesting place, but my favorite part was by far this peacock that was walking around. This little guy was a model and posed for a bunch of pictures. He even moved back and forth to give us a variety of pictures!

Look at that bright blue! 

Happy weekend! How many more days until summer? #wecandothis

TpT Teacher Appreciation Sale

Even though I'm stopping by for a short post, it sure feels good to blog again! The end of the year sure gets crazy..As I'm sure you all know! In addition to the crazy kiddos and testing and other nonstop school activities, I've been out of town for my cousins baby shower. So add all the nonstop family gatherings and dinners to the end of year craziness this year! #howmuchlongertosummerbreak

That being said, I was super excited to see the TpT teacher appreciation sale is today and tomorrow! My store will be on sale for 28% off so make sure you load up your cart and treat yourself to some goodies!

Happy shopping!

April Pocket Chart Sentences

Only 2 more months of school.. We can make it teachers!

Here is my latest version of Pocket Chart Sentences. It's on sale until the end of the week! Check it out in my TpT store by clicking on the image.