Items filtered by date: June 2011

Do Yourself and Your Students A Favor and Give Them A Notebook!

This is tip #17 & my 100th blog article! We will be celebrating our 1st-year anniversary at the end of next month!

You can click on the writing notebook ideas separately or click on the entire packet at the end. Enjoy!

My young Fives will see a writing notebook all too soon as they progress through the elementary grades, but to get one at this age is really a big deal.

Since most of the chain supply stores and even Target, have them as huge loss leaders in August for their back-to-school sales, I can pick them up for as little as .10 cents, so for the small investment of $2.00, I can light up the faces of 20 children in a few seconds!

For a few dollars you can use a notebook for a variety of writing skills for your students.

Mine is at the introductory level of simply practicing how to write their name.

Get parents on board and work as a team and you will definitely see improvement.

I buy an assortment of colors and give them a choice.  It doesn’t matter that they don’t stay on the lines.  What I want them to do is just practice holding a pencil, crayon or whatever they can take delight in holding, and practice writing their name once each night.  I want it to be fun, not a hassle.

You can see the “My Writing Notebook” sticker in the photo.  I print these off on large Avery labels on my printer to add a bit of pizzazz.

Each time they bring their notebook in to be checked they get to pick out several stickers to decorate the front of their notebook as an incentive to bring them back.

Since writing their name on everything we do in class can be labor intensive, I need parental help in getting these little ones over the hump ASAP and the notebook has been key in accomplishing that.

Their hands “poop out” or “run out of gas” as one of my students so adorably put it!

The notebook is a great At-Home connection and is easy, quick and fun, especially if parents buy some glitter or gel pens or some goofy or wiggly fun pen to make writing time more exciting.

I include due dates in my newsletters as well as post them on my monthly calendar.

Students get an award certificate for a great-completed notebook and a trip to the treasure box.

Click on the link to view/print a notebook award certificate.  I also have certificates of accomplishment when they can hold a pencil correctly.  Click on the link if you are interested in those.

To practice verbally expressing themselves, I have them share their favorite page of their notebook with their classmates.

Parents often ask me: “How can I help my child learn how to write?” So I typed up a list of fun things they can do to help strengthen their muscles.  I tuck this list in the notebook.  Click on the link to view/print hand-muscle building tip list. I also include a diagram of how to hold a pencil correctly.

The other thing I tuck in the notebook is a tracing guide of the alphabet. Click on the link to view/print the alphabet-writing guide.

I include a letter explaining the notebook to parents and asking for their help.  If you’d like to see mine, to use it as a guide to tweak and develop your own, click on the link.

Since I started using the notebooks I’ve seen a dramatic improvement in my students’ penmanship, muscle coordination, and self-esteem.

What used to take me ‘til the middle of November with some of my little ones is now accomplished by the beginning or middle of October.  Some really diligent students (and parents) who had no preschool, are set by the end of September.

If you have older students, decide what you want the notebooks to be used for, and make it a daily or weekly writing assignment that is simple, short and fun, so they will WANT to write.  I give my college students ideas for them to journal about in their notebooks each week.

The notebooks can be kept in their desks to work on during free time, or kept at home like a “secret diary”.

I hope this idea is one that you can use and gets you excited to plan for your new class.

A quick and easy handwriting activity for you to do the first day of school is simply a Welcome To School "Trace & Write" Click on the link to view/print several different kinds.

 If you want the entire writing notebook packet  click on the link to view/print it.

Staples started their back-to-school penny sales this week. Click on the link to check out the deals! Every week they offer new things so start watching for the notebooks to go on sale!  Staples allow teachers to buy 25 of their penny items here in MI. I imagine that would be a National thing.   

Happy Shopping!

• Willie has upper and lowercase letters on his back.
• Run my master off on green construction paper and laminate the sheets.
• There are 6 on a page.

• Cut them out and add colored paperclips.
• By moving the paperclip up and down, students can practice spelling their names. (One of my report card standards is being able to recognize your name.)
• You can also review and teach letters in a fun way!
• Moving a large paperclip helps strengthen finger muscles and enhances fine motor skills and coordination too!
  

• You can make two, one to keep at school and one to send home if you want to.
• I’ve included a letter of explanation to send home to parents so that they will work with their child and practice the alphabet with them!

• I have a saying: “Together Everyone Achieves MoreI” It’s an acronym for TEAM!
• I let parents know that I’m depending on them to be part of my educational team that will help their star player shine their brightest!
• Click on the link to zoom to Willie and view/or print a template and letter.
  

 I hope Willie helps your students as much as he’s helped mine wiggle their way to knowing their ABC’s!

Be sure to check back tomorrow when I'll have another fun back-to-school tip!

 Do you have a fun tip you’d like to share?  I’d enjoy hearing from you! diane@teachwithme.com

44 pages. 24 different apple graphs. A graph for everything you could possibly think of graphing about apples!

• The rainbow colors also help me reinforce all of the basic colors with them, which is one of my report card standards.
  
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• Surprisingly some of my students are still confused about a few.  
• This daily review, really helps my ESL students. 
  
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• I take this opportunity to teach a little Spanish to my students as well, as I have them say the colors of the chain links in Spanish as well as English.
• Because I link them in a specific order, I also have them identify the rainbow pattern that emerges. 
• By the time it's March and we are studying rainbows, they are proficient at picking out and repeating that colorful pattern!

• I tell my Y5's that when we go one link farther to our 101 day, Cruella DeVille will come visit us for our 101 Dalmatian Themed Day! 
• They are very excited about that. 

• I hang a piece of fishline so that it is low enough for me to reach so that I can start hanging my plastic links on the first day of school. 
• With this chain I take the opportunity to say: 1 link + 1 link ='s how many links?
• You can do all sorts of math equations with your students. 

• I also say:  Is our chain getting longer or shorter?  Is it greater or less than yesterday?  Is it greater or less than or = to our paper chain etc.  What color link has the most colors? 
• There are lots of math vocabulary words and concepts you can review whenever you want to, with this simple concept and it only takes a minute!