So, I think I may have told you that I use these Caught You Being Good coins (if not, now you know...) for positive reinforcement in my classroom.

Do you like these coins? 

Click on the picture to go to Oriental Trading Company to get some for yourself!

My students can earn these in many ways...good behavior... classroom jobs...and for completing some voluntary extra at-home study! 

One way my students can earn extra coins is through completing math fact practice at home through the Math Stars program.

Students can earn one coin for twenty minutes of math fact practice (flashcards, math app on an iPad/Phone/Pod, online practice, or timed-tests packet) on Monday through Thursday and two coins for practice on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday.

Another way to earn extra coins is through Read to Succeed.

I require my students to read 20 minutes as part of homework on Monday through Thursday.  But, I will reward students who read beyond that time.  Like Math Stars, students can earn one coin for an additional 20 minutes on Monday through Thursday.  They can also earn two coins for reading at least 20 minutes on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday.

My students rack up the coins with these two programs.  But so can you!  Surprise! 

Below you will find copies of these bookmarks in color and black and white. 



You can use my rules or set up your own...but having a reward of some sort will cause more students to want to participate!

What incentives do you provide your students?  I would love to hear about them!

Nothing drives me more crazy then to have a student open his or her bookbag and see it stuffed with papers...notes to parents, graded papers, flyers!  Argh!!!!  So much communication going down the tubes!

In order to combat this I have a organizing tool that I give my students the first day I meet them.  I call it a D.O.T. book.  D.O.T. Book stands for Daily Organizing Tool.  This is where everything my students could ever need (classroom management-wise) is located.  It is my pride and joy! (Please forgive the glares on the pictures...)

I've spent a oodles of time getting this baby perfect...this year I did a redesign and discovered the joy of  FREE(!!!!) Vistaprint flyers...boy did my wallet and printer thank me!

My D.O.T. Book has several different parts... first the homework pocket and overview....

Then a money pocket for any kind of money...ice cream money, lunch money, bookfair money, fieldtrip money (I think you get the idea!) that students may need to bring in...a special pocket for important notes home (like conduct sheet, notes, and other fliers)....you can also see the assignment/agenda book that my school buys for each student (very nice!)...

a parent communication section...

the classroom handbook...

and finally a homework helpers section...

 with a place to store our study cards for science and social studies vocabulary...

Getting these takes a lot of upfront cost on my part...but I look for the deals and find the absolute lowest cost to purchase all these supplies.  And what makes this worth it is my parents love it!  It really helps to get the kids organized for their fourth grade year, and some of them even duplicated it again for their child the next year too!

 

Do you want your own copy of the D.O.T. Book?  When I updated my D.O.T. Book, I made it fully editable for you too!  All you need to do is change the information as you need, print, and, voila, you have your own D.O.T. Book.

 

You can get your own copy at Teacher's Notebook right now!  I hope to have the updated version loaded at TeachersPayTeachers by the end of the week!  Enjoy!

Sorry it has been so long since I have blogged...I have been a very busy girl! :)  I have been to two two-day workshops: one on our new Science textbook adoption and one on Implementing the Math Common Core.  I finished the second out of three courses of my gifted certification/endorsement.  I have been an online lesson planning fool (and I thought up until today that it was getting quicker!).  Finally planning an adorable baby shower to take place the Saturday after the first week of school.  Combine that with all the things I want to get done for my classroom...and I will need a vacation from summer vacation!

I have done a little shopping for back to school and much of it arrived today!  So, I want to show you what I have gotten as part of...

One of my new online shopping finds is Fabric.com.  A box came today with supplies for classroom projects...
I am redoing the tags on my classroom library baskets.  When you re-do the tags, you of course have to get new ribbon too!  I love this Dippy Dots ribbon to accompany my new all polka-dot theme.

Another project, I am working on is making crate seats.  You know the seats made out of the filing milk crates?  Well the fabric for those seats came in the same box as the ribbon.  I love the colors...they make me sooo happy!

Next came a box from TeacherDirect...Amazingly enough I placed this order on Monday morning, and my box was on my doorstep Tuesday afternoon!  Wowee!

I get my students special math journals each year.  I like them to have composition books with gridded pages...but this year I found these cool ones...

As you can see below, they have a grid on top and ruled lines on bottom!  Perfect for math journaling!  And they cost about $0.80 less than the ones I usually get! 

While I was shopping on Teacher Direct, I stopped by their clearnance page and found some cool things to support our science...

Our second unit is Sun, Moon, and Stars, and I found this cool moon globe...

It has the landings of all the moon missions labeled, the seas, and the visible hemisphere of the moon...perfect for our studies!

Another clearance find was this little kit...

Light is our third unit of study...and we talk about the different kinds of lenses and reflection.  I love the lenses in this kit because they aren't glass, so no worries about anyone with a case of the "dropsies!"  I also love the mirror because it comes with a holder that allows you to show a convex and concave mirror.

I have some more shopping to do, but I need to wait for payday to do it...I will be sure to share my finds though! :)

I have been scouring the internet for more technology to help me in instructing students online...and I am really getting into the Web2.0 craze!  (The new buzz word for the more interactive internet!)  I have found some pretty cool sites...some may be new to you and you will be just as super excited as I am... some may not but if you are like me, I can always use a good reminder!  Some of these I found on my own and others were shared with me at a school system inservice.

Glogster

Gone are the days of the plain old poster when you can make a virtual poster with animation, audio, and video clips!  Have you played with Glogster yet?  I did a little playing and here is what I created...

Now this is my first effort at creating one of  a glog, so please don't be too judge-y! :)

Popplet

Do you use concept maps?  Want to make them more interesting?  Then this is another cool online app!  It once again allows you to insert video into you concept map.  Here is a simple one that I created about multiplication...

I think my students would have a fun time creating one of these!

GoAnimate

If your students love cartoons as much as mine do, then this is a great website to help you create some more interesting instruction.  And it was so much fun too!  Take a look at what I made...

A Math Problem with Jan by Jessica on GoAnimate

Make a Video - Powered by GoAnimate.

I could see my student completing reading responses with this or any other types of reports!

I will keep playing and designing and show you what else I come up with...but for now do you see yourself using any of these tools in your instruction?

It feels like it has been a little while since I have written a "real" blog post about what is happening in my classroom...that is the trouble with summer vacation! 

This doesn't mean I have been hard at work...I so have!  Besides working on my online lessons and my whole other bucketlist of things to do, I have been starting to revise some things for next year school year...starting with lessons that I will start off with in August!

One big unit I do starting the first week of school ties introducing my classroom management/behavior plan into economics learning.  We learn about concepts like opportunity cost, income, expenses but also budgeting, saving, and spending.  Students get to put this into practice by earning Caught You Being Good Coins or CYBG coins!  These are just coins similar to these that I purchased from Oriental Trading.  I hate that they don't still have the ones that I have...luckily they last a while and I have tons!

My students earn them for class participation, on-task behavior, following directions, kindness to others...you name the good behavior, they can earn a coin for it!  (My one rule is you don't ask for coins...you have to get "caught"!)  They get so well trained that just a clink of the coins gets behavior to straighten up quick!  (And later on in the year...I use this as an example of a learned animal behavior, and they are amazed!)  I so often have coins on me that I find them in all my pockets, my purse, my car, my bookbag, my coffee table at home...my friends are used to seeing them now!

My students also can earn coins for other things including their classroom jobs.  When I pay my students for completing their job, I don't just give them the CYBG coins...no way!  This is a real job we are talking about here!  So I write them a check to pay them for their services...

well...not a real check...but one that they can take to the classroom bank teller to trade for real CYBG coins!  Jackpot! :)  My kids love to get their check on Friday afternoon...and clamor to be first in line to get it cashed and add to their coin stash...counting and figuring how many more coins until they earn their desired prize.

I have so much to share with you later about this unit...other ways to earn coins, classroom jobs, my coin catalog...but for right now, I can share with how to get your own classroom checks!  You can go to either...

My Teacher's Notebook store

   

or

My TeachersPayTeachers store

    

Enjoy! :)

Now that I am out for summer break, one of the first big things that I first take time to do is reflect on the previous school year. And while I create most of my “stuff” myself, I have found a prime opportunity to share with you some of the resources and supplies that I could not live without in my classroom this year in...

 

Some of these are big name, big cost...some not so much!  I have included links (if you are interested in checking any of these out!)

Dry-erase boards and markers

I have two different kinds of dry erase boards...ones with a centimeter grid from EAI Education...

and ones that are plain from Oriental Trading Company...

I use dry-erase boards in nearly every subject.  The students enjoy using these for practice in math.  The grided boards work well for helping students to line up their numbers.  We use them for review in science and social studies.  The students also enjoy them to complete word work.

And I have found that the best value for dry-erase markers has to be these from Discount School Supply ...

DRP (Daily Reading Practice) 

I just started using this program this year, and it is a fabu way for every student to get comprehension practice. It has short 1-2 paragraph passages, and, like its name, daily comprehension activities to complete. Weekly, the students complete similar activities. Each Monday is about subject, title, author’s purpose, reader’s purpose, and genre. Tuesday is all about word study and vocabulary. Wednesday is practicing inference, idiom, problem, point of view, setting, type of writing, true/false, fact/opinion, or mood. Thursday practice is about main idea, skimming, predicting, topic sentence, details, or graphic organizers. Friday is about finding key words and summarizing. This was practice was excellent for my students this year that needed repetitive practice which research shows is very important!

Standardized Test Practice: Long Reading Passages by Scholastic

While I give my students shorter passages for reading practice, our testing includes longer 1 – 2 page passages. So in order to help my students also build their stamina for longer testing situations, I use this book to help me give comprehension assessments. It has a variety of genres of passages, and a variety of short answer, long answer, and multiple choices questions.

Scholastic’s Study Jams

StudyJams is an incredible website similar to BrainPop, but I think it could be free! (I haven’t paid for it, but I am a subscriber to other Scholastic things...so I’m not quite sure!) The only difference is StudyJams focuses only on Science and Math...but contains videos, quizzes, slide show, and karaoke. The students love it!

Evan-Moor’s Teacher File Box and Scholastic’s Printables

Both of these subscription websites are very similar only by different publishers. I will go to these sources to find good homework type sheets...especially since they have ones that allow students to check their work! It also saves me a lot of time and energy to go to one of these sources to help create assessments.

What are some the resources that you rock all the time in your room?