My Morning Meeting Toolbox

Do you do a morning meeting in your classroom?? If you don't you should! It's a great opportunity to build community in your classroom, practice social skills, and even sneak in some content in fun ways! At our school all grades are expected to have one so you can make it work no matter the age.

I've had a little caddy with some of my morning meeting essentials sitting right by my chair since I started teaching and it started to grow out of control! I needed more space! So I revamped mine this year and thought I'd share with you some of my goodies that help me and my students run a successful morning meeting.

We use both the bean bag and the ball for games and greetings that involve tossing. Such games include:

• Ball Toss Greeting: Simply greet a person and then toss them the ball. Simple- but it's a favorite in our room. Perhaps its because after we do it, we do a silent rewind where we then have to toss it in the same order without talking or dropping it a certain # of times. 
• Snickerdoodle: About 5 students step out of the room. One student hides an object (we use the bean bag) somewhere in the room. Then we invite the 5 students back in and play a game of hot and cold by clapping fast when someone is close and clapping slow if they move farther away. Once one person sees the object, they come back to our circle, jump in the middle and yell "SNICKERDOODLE" and then they go point it out. Fun times.

These big foam dice are awesome for the dice greeting, where a student shakes 1 or 2 dice and then moves that many people around the circle, greets them, and then they switch places. Simple, but this is great to get your circle mixed up randomly as it's all by chance.

Speaking of switching things up, I sometimes use partner matching cards for share time to get students to share with others randomly. I keep them in a little zipper pouch. Also, if we have games that require cards (usually I have, Who has games) I keep these in the pouch too.

Cubes are another tool I use for share time. If they are separated, I use them as talking chips to balance the talking of everyone. However, you can also put them in rods of 5 (I vary the colors of the cubes) and use them to help students share "paragraph style." For example:

• I might have a stick of cubes with a green on one end, then 3 blue cubes, then one red cube. A student grabs the stick and uses it to talk through their share. They point to the green cube and share a topic sentence. Then they share 3 details, each time tapping a blue cube. They then tap the red cube and wrap up their share using a concluding sentence. Great way to teach a basic paragraph and its parts!

This is one of our favorite time fillers. We play a game called "Heads vs. Tails." I have students pick heads (they show by putting their hands on their head) or tails (they make a tail with their hands by their behinds). I say, "Lock it," which means they can't change their choice. I then flip the coin and if it lands on heads, all those with heads stay standing, while the others sit down. You can then keep going or make it interesting by letting those who are sitting continue to play. If they guess right, they get to stand up again. We do this for as long as I need to fill time sometimes.

These are a new addition this year, but I see them being very helpful for when we are reading our morning message.

Put students' names on them and use them as a "pick stick" for sharing or partnerships. I also use them to make games, especially around content. This was a "Buzz" game for traits where students had to either act it out or name a synonym/antonym for the trait word. I used to just wrap them in a rubber band (until all my rubber bands began to disintegrate) but I found this awesome pencil box from Target and they fit perfectly!

Surprisingly, there's lots of uses for this tool. You can use yarn or string to do greetings like "Spider Web" but I like using these tape measures because they don't get tangled. We use them for measuring games like when we make paper airplanes and fly them. Also, they make great straight lines for activities like limbo or "take sides."

I keep all my goodies now in this shower caddy from Target. It sits right on the floor next to my chair. It's also awesome when I have a sub, because all they need is in one place.

What are some of your "musts" for your Morning Meeting? I'd love to add to my caddy!

Crock Pot Recipes for the Busy Teacher

After a long day of differentiating, assessing, managing, data analyzing and communicating with parents- I am shocked to come home and discover that my children want to eat dinner. Don't they know how tired I am?! Do they really need to eat dinner EVERY day? Tired mommy and hungry kids taught me the value of the crock pot! I now use it to make the majority of all of our dinners! I love the ease of throwing simple ingredients in the pot in the morning and coming home to a finished meal. Here are five of my family's favorite crock pot recipes:

Ingredients:
1 1/2 pounds of boneless chicken breasts or tenders
2 cups of your favorite salsa
2 cans of corn (do not strain)
1 packet of taco seasoning
Rice
Shredded cheese
Sour cream

Directions:
Place the chicken, salsa, unstrained corn and taco seasoning in the crock pot. Cook on low for 6-9 hours. Take the chicken out of the pot and shred with a fork or with a hand mixer. Mix the chicken back into the ingredients in the crock pot. Prepare the rice. Serve the rice with the chicken mixture on top. Add shredded cheese and sour cream as desired.

My family LOVES this meal. We actually triple the chicken recipe and freeze the extra two meals in Ziplock bags. Then we have two meals that just need to be thawed and heated up in a sauce pan! Add rice!

Ingredients:
Thick cut pork chops (Thick cut allows you to leave it in the crock pot longer without the meat getting dry and tough.)
1 can of tomato sauce for every 4 pork chops
water

Directions:
Place the pork chops and tomato sauce in the crock pot. Add enough water so that the pork chops are immersed in liquid. Cook on low for 6-9 hours. Serve with rice, apple sauce and veggies!

So simple and the meat is VERY tender!

Ingredients:
4 boneless chicken breasts
1 large onion
1 can of cream of chicken soup
8 oz of rice
1 can of corn
1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese

Directions:
Place the chicken at the bottom of the crock pot. Sprinkle the onion over the chicken. Cover with the soup. Cook on low for 7-8 hours or on high for 3-4 hours. Just before serving, stir in cooked rice, corn and cheese.

I think this tastes like a comfort food!

Ingredients:
4 boneless chicken breasts
1 packet of dry Italian dressing seasoning
1 softened 8 oz cream cheese
2 cans of cream of chicken soup
Cooked pasta

Directions:
Place all of the ingredients in the crockpot. Cook on low for 6-8 hours. If the sauce is too thick, add milk. Serve over a cooked pasta.

This is a rich meal that has lots of flavor! Mmmmm!

Ingredients:
1 30oz bag of frozen shredded hash browns
3 cans of chicken broth
1 can of cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup of chopped onion
1/4 tsp of pepper
1 package of cream cheese (Do NOT use fat free because it will not melt!)

Directions:
Place all of the ingredients EXCEPT for the cream cheese in the crock pot. Cook on low for 6-9 hours. About an hour before serving, add the cream cheese and heat until the cream cheese has melted. Serve with toppings you like such as sour cream, shredded cheese, chives and bacon bits.

We love to have this soup with a grilled cheese sandwich. I love this soup anytime, but it is especially yummy on a cold day! We usually have left overs and the soup reheats nicely for lunch or dinner the next day.

I hope these recipes help to make back to school just a tad easier!

What is EDpuzzle?

Hi everyone. Mary here from A Classroom Full of Smiles! I just found out about a life-changing website. And it is FREE!

If you're like me, you use YouTube in your lessons. Or you use Google to find the perfect video clip to match your lesson.

EDpuzzle.com let's you search ALL of those videos in one spot.

Wait... it gets better...

EDpuzzle allows you to edit the videos. 

SAY WHAT?!!!

That's right! Say the video is 5 minutes long, but you only need the middle. Well, you can use the website to trim it to what you need. LOVE!

You know when you are watching a clip and you pause it to ask a question, or to validate a point? Well EDpuzzle allows voice over. No more pausing. Simply record your voice at the part of the video where you want to speak.

Want to hold your students accountable while watching the video? Insert questions that the students can answer right then and there and YOU get their score. 

Have students that would just skip through parts of a video? Enable the no skipping feature! 

Want to assign a quick video clip for homework. No problem. EDpuzzle can do that. 

EDpuzzle really covers it all. 

 EDpuzzle has thought of everything.  

Want to learn how to use it?  Here is one of many video tutorials.

I hope you enjoy this website as much as I do!

8 Tips Every Teacher Needs to Know

Last week I spent the day with my younger brother helping him set up his very FIRST classroom... I am so EXCITED for him and thrilled that he's also going to be teaching THIRD!!!!

The few days I spent with him, got me thinking...  I wish that I had someone 17 years ago to guide me when I first started teaching.... someone to teach me a few tricks of the trade or to teach me the simple things such as which Sticky Tack brand works best or how to keep my posters from falling off the walls. I didn't even have my BFF Pinterest to help me out back then.

So if you're new to teaching or maybe even been teaching for years, I've got you covered because today I'm sharing 8 simple tips I think EVERY teacher should know! They've been my lifesavers time and time again and I think they can do the same for you. Here we go...

Sticky tack is play dough for teachers! Like play dough, it starts to get hard after a while, but please don't throw away your sticky tack when this happens. Instead, just MASSAGE IT! That's right, massage your sticky tack! To get the best results from this blue blob (I've found that the blue colored stuff works best, so stay away from the white and yellow kinds) simply pull it, twist it, and stretch it for a minute or so. Doing this will help you warm it up so that it'll be much friendlier to work with and you'll find that it sticks to surfaces much better as well.

Along the lines of adhesives I've found that if you're going to hang something up high or something larger in size like a poster, it's best to attach a single 3M command strip to the top center and then add sticky tack to the four corners. The command strips will secure the poster to the wall even if the sticky tack comes undone. I promise you you'll never be greeted by fallen posters again! The best part is that at the end of the year, you can pull the strips slowly and remove them from the wall without damaging any paint.

Magnets, magnets, magnets!!!! I absolutely love using magnets to attach borders and posters to my white board. I have found that business card magnets work best. Simply cut them to the size you need, peel off the white strip on the back, adhere them to your poster, and then finally add a piece of packing tape ON TOP of the magnet to secure it in place.  This last step is a must! It secures the magnet in place making sure that it does not fall off with time.  Especially if your poster or card is laminated.

Painter's tape is a MUST in my classroom! It can be used on white boards, cabinets, walls, and floors without fear of damaging the surface. It is also easy to remove and write on. I love to use this tape during math class especially! To get my students up and moving, I've been known to create large interactive graphs on the floor like the one pictured above for Back to School. I plan on having my students graph their favorite subjects. Last year I used the tape during a geometry lesson on Area. My students went around the classroom finding the area of various polygons I created out of painter's tape.

Post-it's are fabulous for planning out your Word Walls or anything else that you need to plan out. Instead of attaching your items to bulletin boards permanently only to discover that your work is not straight or that you want to move something over, simply use a Post- it to mark the spot. Doing this allows you to easily move things around until you're happy with it's placement. Then when you're ready, remove the Post-it and replace it with the final product. In the picture above, I used blue Post-its to plan where I wanted each of my landmarks to go. I had to move the notes a few times before I got them exactly where I wanted. Using Post-its saved my bulletin board paper from many unnecessary staples.

Table skirts are a cheap and colorful alternative to fabric curtains when it comes to hiding ugly computer cables or storage bins that you might have underneath tables. They are about $7 each, come in a variety of different colors, have adhesive strips on the top that makes it easy to secure, and can be purchased at your local party supply store.

Hot gluing push pins to the back of laminated cards are an easy and great way to create an interactive bulletin board.

Having a Teacher Notebook to keep all of your notes together will save you time and time again! No more need to go searching for that scrap piece of paper where you took notes during the last staff meeting. Forgot what topic you decided on next for math during your last grade level meeting? No worries just go back into your teacher notebook to find out. Housing everything in ONE notebook will make your life so much easier. I always glue a class list to the cover for easy reference and I also like adding colored dots to important pages. I've used this system for the last few years and find it to be so helpful. Just the other day, I took a look at my to do lists and notes from BTS time last year to see what I might be forgetting. Try it out and see how it goes!

Now it's your turn... I'd LOVE to hear about any tips or tricks that you've learned along the way!

Staying Organized with Parent Volunteers

I'm back this month to bring you some easy back to school tips!

My back to school tip for you today is how to keep your copies organized for your parent volunteers. I am SO lucky to have fabulous parents in my classroom to help out with any copying, cutting, laminating that my heart desires. They make my job easy-peasy. But want to know what makes it even easier? These bad boys right here!

I got this idea from my sweet friend Hadar at Miss Kindergarten last year. They are such an easy little organizational tool to use with my parent volunteers! I just pin these onto my master copy and done! All the directions needed are right on the pin. No post-its or pieces of paper with directions are necessary. And the best part is that they are reusable and last ALL YEAR LONG! Genius, I tell you!

If you'd like to download a set of these awesome labels and read all about them, click {here} to visit Hadar's blog post.

How do you stay organized with parent helpers? I'd love to hear about it!

Meet the {Teacher}! Tips & Ideas!

Meet the Teacher is such an exciting event! Not only for the students coming in but for us as teachers!! My school has it every year the Friday morning before school starts.. it is the last piece of getting everything ready for the near year! I wanted to share a few things I do each year that might help you!

First, I always have light, soft music playing in my classroom. I do this most of the time during the year anyways-so why not do it for my parents and brand new students on their first time to our new home for the year?! 

When the parents walk in I have a welcome sign with a sign-up form on a clipboard. This let's them put their name on a list for any type of volunteering they might want to do throughout the year. Click on the picture to grab the sign for FREE!:)

I also place business cards for them to grab with my email and phone number right there when they walk in as well. 

I have already put student name tags on desks so my students love to find where they will be sitting! On their desks I have forms I need the parents to fill out. I also place our classroom Twitter and Instagram forms there-I like to print these on bright paper so they are not easily missed ;) Click here to read how I use social media in my classroom & get these forms for FREE! 

I love having a small gift for my students on their desks as well! I think this gets them even more excited for the upcoming year! The rock candy is always a hit! You can get these cute candy tags for free here!

At our Meet the Teacher we start to collect student supplies. Most of their supplies they keep in their desks, but some we collect for them...supplies like kleenex, hand sanitizer, pencils, etc. What really works for my classroom is placing baskets at the front of the room with signs above them for each item. This way they know exactly where to put everything. I have a slide up on the screen for them to know where to put what!

Lastly, my absolute {favorite} thing to have out for my parents and students is my All About Your Teacher book. I made this book for them to learn more about me! I always see the parents and students smiling and laughing to the content. I think this helps them relate to me-even though they still barely know me! It shows I am a real person excited to share my heart with them and their little babies! After Meet the Teacher I put it in my classroom library. It is a hit all year long! You can grab this here and make it your own! 

What do you do at your Meet the Teacher/BTS Open House? I would love some more fun ideas!