Gorgeous Glasses Day!

So, this year in my class, I have several students who have recently had to get glasses.  They are not all thrilled about it despite the fact that their glasses look awesome!  So I thought lets have gorgeous glasses day when the whole class can celebrate these students by wearing fake glasses.  Then the next day only the 'cool' kids can keep wearing their gorgeous glasses.  When I announced that Monday would be gorgeous glasses day my students with glasses were thrilled because they already had glasses.  The rest of the class had to figure out where to get some or how to make some.  It ended up working out well.  Some of the kids took the lenses out of an old pair of sunglasses while others had some dress up pretend glasses. 

We had so much fun showing off our glasses and celebrating the students with glasses in our class.  Plus, it was good for all of us to see what it is like for these students to wear glasses all day.  I hope it helped create empathy and exceptance among my students.  And I think that my students with glasses are more confident and comfortable now. 

Mrs. Barcavage

ONLINE FILE STORAGE

If you are like me and have a rediculous number of documents, pictures, powerpoints, graphic organizers, etc. you need this online tool.  LIVE.BINDERS   It is free to use and allows you to organize all your documents into binders online.  You also have the choice to share your binders with anyone or people you specify and you can access other teachers' binders.  All this for FREE! 


The only downside I have found is that you cannot upload files.  You have to upload one doc. at a time and make it a TAB or Subtab.  It uploads each doc pretty quickly once you get going and you can make multiple binders and bookshelves.  This is a perfect solution for backing up files and even saving links to websites.  Everything you use for a given unit is stored in one place.  I might be able to go paperless and clean out my cabinets and drawers this summer!


Enjoy! 


Mrs. Barcavage

A Bug and A Wish...Conflict/Resolution is Elementary

So a bug and a wish is a template I use to help students open a dialog and express their feelings.  My students generally use them when they come in from recess.  They complete the sentence, It bugs me when... and I wish you would...  This is a great way to get students talking and writing about what is bothering them and helps them to think of a solution.  It also makes the other student aware of how their actions affect others.  For younger students you can use puppets to do the talking and peace table to sit together. 

Class Dojo The New Way to Manage Your Classroom Behavior

Overview of Class Dojo
Thanks to a tech saavy coworker I now have the best classroom management tool working for me on my smartboard.  Class Dojo is an online classroom management tool that allows you to track your students' behavior and earn them points towards rewards and prizes.  When you set up your class, or classes, each student is given a monster character beside their name.  You can display your whole class on the board at once and add or take away points as you teach.  The program is customizable to your class rules or specific student goals. 

Sound and Display Options
When they earn a point you have the option to have a banner display and a ding sound go off so students can see who earned it and what they earned it for.  I prefer to leave it off during independent work so they are not distracted by it but it is wonderful for whole group lessons because it really gets the students motivated to volunteer.  I also leave the sound and banner off for negative awards simply due the fact that this year many of my students would feed off that negative attention. 

Remote Access
Another great feature with this program is that you can use your smartphone or tablet as a remote control to award points while you are working in a small group, walking your class in line or even on a field trip.

Data
Probably one of the best and most helpful features is that this program tracks and saves student behavior over time.  At the end of each day, week or month, whatever you need to view, it graphs the students positive and negative behaviors.  There is room at the bottom of each day's report for you to add comments. You can print, email and save this data for Parent Teacher Conferences, IEP and 504 plan meetings.  The program will let you specify specific dates to display and as far as I know you will never lose your data until you delete the class.

Parent/Teacher Communication
This makes daily and weekly communication easy and effortless.  My students with specific goals get their reports e-mailed daily to their parents and the support team that works with them.  All my other students have their reports sent home weekly on Friday.  You can set it up anyway you would like.  There is an address book so you do not have to enter the e-mail everytime.  All you have to do is choose the students you want and hit send report.  There is a very professional message along with the e-mail and a link to view their child's report online.  If parents have questions they can reply to the e-mail and it will come to the e-mail you used to create your account.

Rewards and Incentives 
At this point there is only one reward online and that is to change the monster or critter that is beside the student's name.  My students do like this and there are many monsters to choose from.  In addition, I created a Class Dojo reward chart with many different prizes and the number of points they need to earn them.  I also hand out award certificates every Friday to recognize students for the positive behaviors I look for.  Other teachers I know who are using this let the points accumulate over 2 weeks or even a month.  I prefer to start fresh every Monday.  When I clear the points on Monday the data is saved so you can look back on previous weeks as needed.

I highly recommend this tool.  It is free to sign up and use.  You can have muliple classes created and it is a breeze to keep parents informed.  Enjoy!  http://teach.classdojo.com/

Mrs. Barcavage

PS- If someone would share with me how to attach files to my blog, I will post my certificate templates and class dojo rewards chart. 

Spring Brings Insects to our Classroom

So it's spring, I think, yesterday we had sleet and snow in PA.  I can't seem to put away my winter clothes but it's April so in our classroom it is spring.  There are lots of exciting lessons and activities happening.  The biggest change in our room is that we have insects moving in; and no, we do not need an exterminator, they are here on purpose!  I am not an insect lover by any means.  At the trainings to teach about insects I was the one jumping away from the table and shrieking when they moved.  I am getting better and I'm lucky that a lot of second graders don't mind getting up close and personal with insects.  They really enjoy having living things in our classroom and it really does a lot for their motivation.  So we start out with mealworms and have the students tell us what insects need to live and grow.  Then they build a habitat for them in a vial and observe their life cycle.  I was surprised to see what these turn into.  The next insect to arrive are ants in an ant farm and we learn about their different body parts and roles in the colony.  After that, we get crickets and build a terrarium out of recycled materials for them to live in.  This is really cool for the students because the crickets are very active and there are other living things like grass growing in the habitat.  This year we will be building our terrariums on Earth Day!  Our final insect is no surprise it's the caterpillar and we watch them turn into painted lady butterflies and then release them into our butterfly garden outside.  The students record all their observations in their science journal and by the end they understand the life cycle of an insect.
  In addition, to insects in our science center we also tie in insects to our language arts curriculum and character building lessons.  One of my favorite mini units to teach is on bullying using Hey, Little Ant.  This is a cute song and story to teach about caring for all living creatures and to help students identify their own bias towards each other.  We start by watching the performance of the song by Phil and Hannah Hoose then we act out the roles ourselves and discuss the similarities and differences between the boy and the ant using a Venn Diagram.  I have several writing activities for the students to participate in to get them thinking.  First, I have them answer the question, should the boy squish the ant and why.  They have to give me three good reasons for their answer using transitions words and complete sentences.  Then, I have them draw a creature that has no feelings and write how they know it cannot feel.  This leads to some great discussions on stereotyping and assumptions.  Finally, we end the unit by tying in bullying and standing up for each other and ourselves by expressing our feelings in a constructive way like the ant did.  I teach my students to use a form called a bug and a wish.  It's a simple template that says 'It bugs me when...' 'I wish you would...' and allows students to open a dialog to solve their problems.
  In guided reading, I have several nonfiction books on insects that the students can read and practice using text features and note taking.  In readers theater, we perform the Little Pollinators which teaches about how insects pollinate a garden.  A great video to go along with this theme is Reading Rainbow's Insects.  The students get a chance to see a stick bug, a leaf bug and a African Hissing Cockroach.  Magic School Bus also has some good books on insects for shared reading.  
  Students can learn more about insects on these kid friendly sites: 

• FOSSweb 
• Build Your Own Caterpillar  
• Sid the Science Kid Games

Happy Spring!                                                                                                           
 -Mrs. Barcavage

Reader's Theater and Poetry Breaks

  

   Fluency is an important skill in reading and we practice this often in second grade.  I introduce reader's theater and poetry breaks early in the year and the students get really excited about them.  The reader's theater scripts I use have lines appropriate for many different reading levels.  The narrator usually has more difficult vocabulary and much longer parts, while some side characters may only have 3 lines to read.  We begin by reading the script together as a class.  That way the students can get a feel for what the story is about and who the characters are.  Then they go back to their seats and try reading the script themsevles.  I ask them to choose 2 or 3 characters they would like to play.  When they come back to the circle carpet I assign the parts.  Most of the plays I use have around 7 parts so I end up with 3 groups.  We practice the play during Read to Someone and Read to Self each day.  Then I have them practice in groups with their same parts so they can discuss how their character would act, use expression, etc.  After that they meet with their group and read through the whole play many times.  Finally, we have a few rehearsels in front of our class.  I usually mark the floor with tape so the students know where to stand and we use the smartboard for our background scenes.  A Powerpoint slide show seems to work best.  When they feel ready we make invitations in writers workshop and deliver them to other second grade classes or to our parents.  The students perform in costume for their audience.  Even my shy students come out of their shells the more we perform these plays and my high readers who zoom through the pages learn to slow down and use expression so the audience can follow along.  There are so many readers theaters to choose from we keep them going all year long.  I sometimes try to tie in my Author's Spotlight author with the scripts I choose.  I also use scripts that go along with our science and social studies content.  I great extension with this activitiy is to have your higher students write their own scripts based on their favorite books.  Once you have performed the script you can store it in a puppet center so the students can continue practicing fluency with a puppet show.

   Poetry Breaks are when we gather on the carpet and read poems together.  Usually after literature centers my students will come to the carpet and I will hand out a poem for us to read together.  Sometimes we just practice reading them fluently while seated and other times we act out the poems giving students a chance to move and stretch.  After our poetry break we are transitioned and ready to begin math.