Beat the End of the Year Blues

Guess what time of year it is? Yep. YOU GUESSED IT. The time of year where my students all of a sudden "don't remember our class expectations"...ha.. RIGHT. So that means it is time to revamp my classroom management!
I have many tricks I use in my classroom all year round, but some I leave until the end of the year to bring out! 

The first is my V.I.P table. I loved loved doing this in my classroom last year. Rachel at The Tattooed Teacher blogged about it---genius I tell you!!

First... I moved our rug from our classroom library to the middle of the room, brought in a table, and got to work making it VIP-ish! Their table is labeled with big bright letters.. V.I.P...HEY HEY!... They even get their own table sign. 

Then, I put together their *own* set of special supplies. oh yes, it's special I tell you! Things like: pens, highlighters, markers, pencils, erasers, tissue, hand sanitizer (seriously their FAV!), sticky notes, scissors, etc! 

I choose 3 VIPS a week, and each VIP gets to wear a V.I.P. badge ALL WEEK. 

I like to also give them special privileges..things like: pack up first, line up first, shoes off, keep their water bottle at their desk all-darn- day! (yes, this is HUGE!) work on the carpet...oh and you better believe no other students may walk on their carpet. ;) I also let them be my personal paparazzi. They can use our devices to take pictures for our classroom Instagram! 

Let me tell you, my students are SERIOUS about this table. It is a BIG deal. Last year I saw a huge turn around of classroom behavior since introducing it. I have seen those students that really don't care about incentives or feel like they can't earn anything work SO hard to earn this special privilege! I encourage you to think about if this would work for your classroom and try it out!

You can grab all the things I use in my classroom FOR FREE HERE! :)

Another thing I love really using in my classroom around this time are Brag Tags! You can give brag tags for any and everything! I like to give mine out randomly. 

I give out brag tags for students who pass a certain amount of lessons on our Think Through Math program. 

I give a brag tag to our Secret Student when we have one.

I also hand them out in various parts of the day when I see someone working very hard on math, reading, science, etc! The students love keeping their necklace in the classroom and wearing it throughout the day! 

I have a growing pack of brag tags in my store HERE if you want to check them out before the price goes up soon!!

I hope these tips help you make it to the end of your school year!! You can do it! Be sure to follow my classroom management board on Pinterest for more ideas!! 

Follow Teach Create Motivate's board Classroom Management on Pinterest.

Using Social Media to Assess Learning

Hey everyone! 

I am really excited to share with you all something I have recently started doing in my classroom that my students LOVE! 

Sometimes, I want a quick grade, something meaningful to put in stations, or an exit ticket...but.. I want my students to really enjoy doing it. I decided to create a few different social media sheets that my students can create to tell me what they have learned about.

This is a quick and easy way to informally assess their learning! They love everything about social media, and I really see their creative side come out while doing these activities. It requires them to really extend their learning, because they have to tell me about it in a variety of ways.

Here is a couple of examples of some Instagram sheets we did about the Solar System.

I also had my students blog about a hero they learned about in Social studies.

This week I am going to give them the "Tweet about it" sheet to tell me about Area and Perimeter! 

You can grab the Instagram sheet for FREE here!! I promise your students will love it! If you are interested in all of the social media sheets, click here!

-Ashley
Teach Create Motivate

MLK Jr. Ideas {Freebie!}

Happy JANUARY friends!!

Let's talk Martin Luther King Jr.! I have some ideas, resources, and a freebie for you today!

I am first going to show my students the BrainPOP of Martin Luther King Jr. to grab their attention. They absolutely love anytime I show them a brainpop video!!

I love the book Martin's Big Words to continue my lesson.

I plan on reading this book aloud and using this flipbook to discuss MLK Jr.  Grab it here for FREE!

This flipbook is also part of my Martin Luther King, Jr. Pack! Using this resource, I will then continue with my lessons! It has plenty of reading and writing (including non-fiction passages!) You can see it here!

One of my favorite thing to make is this I Have A Dream craftivity. I have many templates in the pack above! My students love making this every year, and I love reading their dreams!

I hope this gave you a few ideas!!!

Using Sign Up Genius for Your Class Holiday Party!

Hey Y'all! It's Ashley from Teach Create Motivate! I wanted to share a quick tip that can help keep your sanity during the holidays and help your classroom events run much smoother!!

Have you heard of Sign up Genius? Seriously the best thing ever!! I use it for my parent teacher conference sign ups and much much more! One of my favorite times to use it is right now around the holidays! It is perfect to get your parents to sign up to volunteer AND bring things for your class party/events!

First, you need to create an account. I use my school email, so that I get notifications to that email about the current sign up. Once you are logging in, click on "Create a Sign Up".

The fist thing you will do is enter some details about your sign up. This is a small message your invitees will see at the top of your sign up. Just explain what it's for and who it's from! Next, you get to pick a theme! There are so many cute ones to choose from! 

Next, you get to choose the type of sign up. For a class party I think "One Time" works best! After that you put in everything you need people to sign up for. You can change the quantity and add a comment! Here is an example: 

Once you finish this step you are done!! You can then send it out directly from the website, or get the link to send. I usually just send the link because it is way faster! 

Sign up genius is great because it notifies your parents a few days before they signed up for something, and notifies you when someone signs up! You can log in and check it at any time! I love it! I hope you are able to try it out for your classroom holiday needs! :)

Easy Writing Homework - FREEBIE!

Hey guys! It's Ashley from Teach Create Motivate!

Do you want to incorporate writing into your students' homework somehow? But you don’t want to make a ton of copies each week? This year my team started something new and EASY, and we love it! Writing Homework Menus!

(side note: I am not sure why we call it a menu…it is more like a bingo board, haha. We already have a spelling menu, so this just goes along with that.)

Every 9 weeks the students get a a writing menu. It has 16 writing prompts. Each week the students are required to complete one writing prompt. It is always due on Friday. At the beginning of the year we started off expecting 6 sentences at least. As the year goes on, we increase the minimum amount of sentences, as well as add grammar expectations that they have now learned; proper nouns, action verbs, etc!

When they student has chosen a prompt and turned it in, they cross it off! This allows them to eventually write all but 7 of the prompts we have chosen for them.

We like to think of prompts that tie into what we are teaching in science or social studies  also! It is a great way to review concepts and integrate subjects for homework!

On Fridays as I am checking their homework, I let them share their writing. They really love this time. It helps build confidence, fluency, writing skills, etc!

We have the writing prompts copied onto bright paper and put in a page protector in their binder. You could also hole punch them to put in a homework folder.

It is easy, quick, and effective!

So far I have created two writing homework sheets. I put them in my store for FREE! You can get them here! It is never too late to start sending this home!

 

QR Codes in the Classroom {Tutorial}

Hey Friends! It's Ashley from Teach Create Motivate!! 

I can't believe it is already OCTOBER!! We are finally getting into our groove of things in my classroom and I love it! I am the type of teacher that models models models until my face is blue, so that we can finally be super independent! One way I love fostering independence and engagement in my classroom is with QR Codes!! I wanted to bring you a quick tutorial today so you could try it out yourself! :)

 Not only are there a ton of amazing QR code resources on TpT, it is so easy to quickly whip up your own!! You could use a single QR code projected on the board for your students to scan to quickly get to a website or program on their devices. My favorite way to use them is on station task cards (students check their own learning!) or classroom incentives! 

(QR Code Prizes)

 My favorite website to use is www.qrstuff.com. You can have you qr code lead you to many many options! My favorite one I use is just "plain text". This allows me to type anything I need to in the text box!!

For example you might want to type the answer to a subtraction with regrouping problem that your students are working on. Type it in the text box. When you finish typing it will automatically generate your QR Code specific to that answer. Click "download QR code" or take a screenshot. 

Insert it into the document you are working on with the problems or questions you are giving your students. You can resize it to be as big or small as you want it. It doesn't matter! 

You will need a different QR code for each different answer you make.

Make sure to download a QR Code Reader app for your tablets/devices. That is IT! It's easy peasy!! You don't have to have a code for each question, you can start small like one per group or one for your class. 

Students love the excitement of the "secret" code and independence of checking their own work! My favorite place to use them is in stations like my inferencing task cards or place value hunt! 

I hope you found this tutorial useful! :)

Personalize Your Classroom! WITHOUT Breaking the Bank!

Do you want an easy way to personalize your classroom without breaking the bank?! Use what you have or take a quick (cheap) run to the craft store and get your DIY on! 

First you want to gather your ribbon and your fabric. I used a few different kinds of each. They are all coordinated but it gives it a little bit of extra cuteness that way!

 You probably only need one spool of each kind of ribbon, depending on how many you choose and how long your curtains are. 

You also need a thinner base piece to tie them onto. I bought the burlap spool at Hobby Lobby. It was just enough to allow me to make 2 sets of curtains. I didn't go TOO thin on this. You DON'T need this if you are going to tie directly onto a tension rod! This is totally an option. My classroom already had rods screwed into the walls...so I just TIED my curtains on there. If you just have a window a tension rod will work just fine!

Ater you have cut your ribbon AND fabric into strips, you can get started. You can measure and cut carefully OR you can be like me and not care to much! I wasn't going for a super clean look...I like the shabby chic feel to mine! I cut my pieces about 24inches long, give or take a few! I also just "eyed" the thickness. They are not all the same thickness exactly. Again, this adds to the feel of my style! You can do this however you want! Start by laying your first piece of ribbon or fabric face down under you base ribbon. Leave a little room on the outside--to tie them on the rod. If you tying them directly on the rod..just do this same step but with your tension rod! (you may want to make your strips longer if you are tying onto a rod since it is thicker)

Tie the piece together onto the base ribbon.

Then, pull both pieces down and flat where the patterned side of the ribbon is visible. 

Alternate different ribbons and fabric pieces in a pattern or just totally random (what I did!)

Continue on and your have yourself some curtains!!! They are easily moveable on the ribbon too. So when I hung them up I could move them to the left or right easily to get the perfect look! 

I love how they cozy up my classroom library!

I hoped this helped you and I can't wait to see some of your classroom curtains! 

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!