Monday Made It!! (classroom jobs)

It's Monday!  I am excited because I can link up with my favorite linky party and the amazing Tara at 4th Grade Frolics!!

Made It #1-I decided to do a major change with my classroom jobs (I know it's March!) but I couldn't resist!  My books from my personal library keep getting misplaced or not returned.  It is so frustrating when I just happen to find six or so books in a student's desk or they have gone missing entirely!  Ugh!  I have spent a lot of time (and money) building up my mediocre library.  A better system was needed.  I have tried the self check-out system but the same students were not returning their books and either not signing them out or in and it was nearly impossible to keep track of who last saw the book.  Then, I saw this post from the Peanut Gallery's post at All Things Upper Elementary.  This setup is amazing!

Did I mention that I WISH I had that many books in my library?  I would need more shelf space first though!  Her system was so inspiring that I knew I had to make a change.  It could not wait until next year!  So, I began searching for ideas for classroom job applications.  Why stop at just a classroom librarian?  I have always had a "teacher's helper" but the more I read, the more I realized I could have many more jobs in the classroom.  I found this FREE editable classroom job application on TPT and edited it for my needs.  The students were ecstatic when they found out they would be applying for various (new!) classroom jobs!  They couldn't wait to find out their new jobs.

Once the students applied for jobs, I made a job calendar for March and April based on the students' top three choices.  There really is a job for everyone and even my most reluctant helpers were excited (well, at least mildly:)  

I made this job chart...well, sort of made it on my own.  The adorable owl graphics are by Tracee Orman and you can find them here at TPT.  The chevron frames can be found here and the borders by the talented Megan at I Teach, What's Your Super Power below the owls are here at TPT.

I laminated the signs and put the magnetic strips on the back.  The little magnets holding the students names are Oxo magnets and they are super strong!  Pictured below is the little basket holding extra student name cards.  I knew I would find a handy way to use this magnetic basket I bought at Dollar General last summer!

The student jobs I have are:

• homework handlers (2)
• administrative assistants (2)
• classroom librarians (2)
• attendance assistant (1)
• pencil police (2)
• line leader (1)
• board boss (1)
• classroom caretaker (1)
• homework checkers (varies based on needs)

Some jobs change every week and some change every two weeks.  So far, this has been working better than I ever could have imagined.  It might be because it is new but I hope changing the jobs often keep the interest alive.

I am using this box with index cards for my classroom librarians to keep track of books checked out and check them back in after they are returned.

Made It #2-I added these labels to two baskets inspired by the Peanut Gallery's post again:)  Students place their index card in the book before placing it in the book return basket.  My classroom librarians make sure it is shelved properly and check off the return on the index card.  The book hospital bin is for books in need of repair and donations to the library that need to have the AR level sticker added by the librarians.  So far, they are loving this job and I am loving the help!

Made It #3-Besides the classroom librarian job, the pencil police job was the most desired job on the applications.  These helpers have the privilege of keeping pencils sharpened and placed back in the "ready to write" can.  Why do they like it so much?  Because they love using the Quietest Pencil Sharpener!  They also monitor the sharpeners use and make sure no one is using it to sharpen colored pencils or special pencils with foil wrapping.  

I wanted to find a way to mount this sharpener on the wall above my old sharpener.  The clamp did not hold well on any of my counters and I was so nervous that it would get knocked on the floor.  One of my awesome maintenance guys came up with this contraption for me!  He received a nice bag of my homemade chocolate chip cookies in return:)

Made It #5-I really cheated on this one but wanted to share this great resource with you.  I downloaded and printed this fraction dominoes game from Jivey at Ideas for Jivey and my high school volunteer cut out and laminated them. I have had her volunteering for two weeks every other day and it has been like heaven!  I also used a simplifying fractions game freebie from her store.  You have to check it out!  She is having a 200 follower giveaway right now with amazing prizes!

Made It #6-I also downloaded and printed these idiom and main idea task cards from the task card queen, Rachel Lynette.  I just love her task cards!  My students BEG to play scoot and I also use them for practice at Daily 5 centers.

Made It #7-I updated my Natural Disasters Project pack to make it TPT ready (thanks for the comments, friends!).  My students loved this project and it is great for promoting informational text and many core standards.  Check it out here:)

Anyone here a Bachelor fan?  I cannot wait for tonight and will be sad when the season is over:(  Mondays are so AWESOME when I know I can come home and reward myself with an episode of Sean!  Will he find love????  

Two more weeks for me and then a two week spring break!  It will be a staycation since we chose my vacation time to have my daughter's much needed surgery of tonsils and adenoids removed.  It should be restful vacation and I am really looking forward to the first break since Christmas!  It has been a long haul!  Have a great week everyone!  Go back and check out the other Monday Made Its!

Giveaway for "THAT" Quiet Pencil Sharpener!!

A few days ago, I posted about THAT pencil sharpener in my post here.  I am thrilled to let you know that Classroom Friendly Supplies is giving away one of these beautiful, quiet, perfect pencil sharpeners to one lucky winner!!   Can you sense how excited I am over this little addition to my classroom?  Who knew a pencil sharpener could make me so happy?  For a chance to win, enter in the Rafflecopter at the end of this post.  What color would you choose?

Blue...

Red...

Green...

Black...

Speaking of lucky, I won a giveaway recently from Jane at Learning in the Little Apple!

I am one lucky girl who won a $25 gift card to Lakeshore Learning, $10 Starbucks gift card, a 2D quadrilaterals shape sort from Nichole at the Craft of Teaching and "Snow your Multiplication Facts" from Heather at Kickin' It With Class!  Yep, I am a lucky girl:)  

I had a difficult time deciding what to use the $25 at Lakeshore for.  Decisions, decisions!!  I didn't have much extra cash to spend, so I decided to buy something that I wouldn't normally splurge on.  My students love to play with hands-on building games and I don't have many on hand.  Our science kits have to be sent back after the unit is over.  So, I saw this gadget for $29.99 and got 20% off!  I know my students will love it!   

What a great splurge on a fun activity for my students!!  Thank you so much for the awesome giveaway, Jane!  Check out her adorable blog here!

Don't forget to enter the Quietest Classroom Pencil Sharpener Giveaway!!  You can also win an Item from my TPT store.  Some popular items right now are Monster Fractions and Line Plots with Fractions centers:)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Friday Linkies, THAT pencil sharpener, and Freebie:)

Happy Friday!  I am linking up for some Friday fun with the wonderful Amanda at Teaching Maddeness and the amazing Doodle Bugs blog:)  Check them out!

1.  The HIGHLIGHT of my week was when this little treasure arrived on Thursday!  

I have been eyeing this pencil sharpener since I started blog stalking last summer and just had to see for myself if it is really THAT good!  Well, to put it simply, YES!  IT IS THAT AWESOME!!! 

It was so easy to use and my students were in love!  I cannot believe how excited they were to have a pencil sharpener in the classroom that actually works.  One little girl had the biggest wide eyes staring at the newly sharpened, perfect pencils.

Did I mention how quiet it is?  I sharpened the first pencil next to a pair of students working on a math center and they said, "I didn't even hear you sharpening that pencil!" 

The students were asking if they could stay back from RECESS to sharpen pencils for me!  Of course, I said, "Sure!"  

You have to check out their website where this pencil sharpener comes in four colors.  They even accept school purchase orders and offer discounts starting at an order of just three sharpeners.  The teachers on my team were gushing over it.  They couldn't believe it! 

2.  On Tuesday we had our first "snow day" of the year!  It is always a nice treat to have an additional day off after a long weekend:)  The village where I live got 21" of new snow but my school district got 36" in two days!  Sometimes that is not enough to close school but the wind chill and cold temps gave us the right magical combination:)  

My side yard:)

3.  We continued working on our Motion and Design unit in science.  This is an activity where students investigate the effect of load on motion.  The students plotted data of how fast their vehicle moved with two wood blocks (green dots), one wood block (blue dots), and no wood blocks (red dots) while the force (washers pulling the vehicle) remained constant.

Our vehicles with two blocks for a load:

Motion and Design student investigations book that comes with our kit.  It says, "National Science Resources Center."

The directions are given to the students in an easy to follow step-by-step description with pictures in the book.  We went over the directions together but I told them afterwards that I might as well been speaking another language because there was only ONE group out of seven that started the investigation according to the directions and my demonstration.  I have used this kit for five years now and there really is no easy way to teach the students how to follow directions!  They took the books with them to their tables but getting them to look at the directions again after my demonstration is nearly impossible.  I think I would be better off not demonstrating any of the steps because then they would be forced to actually read the directions themselves slowly.
The students had to first figure out how many washers would be needed to pull the vehicle with two blocks on it.  The washers are added to a paper clip that is hanging off the edge of a table tied to a string that is hooked on the other end to a paper clip attached to the front axle of the vehicle.  I forgot to take picture of the students' vehicles set up with the falling weight system but will (try!) to remember next week to take some and add to this post.

Anyway, the students had a timer to track how long it took the washers to hit the floor with the three different loads.  So, most groups were timing the vehicle moving before figuring out how many washers would be needed to just barely move the vehicle with the heaviest load.  

They get a timer in their hands and all other reason flies out the window!  

Who is going to be the first person to work the timer?  

What are all these buttons for?  

I want to push them!  

Some were even timing the vehicle moving with no load when they first started!  Ugh!!  I would ask them, "What are you investigating?"  Hmmm...  Next week we will be working on energy, specifically rubber band energy.  I will post how that went and try the "You read the directions yourself one step at a time with your group" method and see how they do.  Fingers crossed...

4.  I finally laminated some materials that I downloaded last fall for Author's Purpose.  I love these P.I.E. posters by Love 2 Teach 2.  Unfortunately, I cannot find this product in her TPT store or blog posts and do not remember where I originally found the link.  If you know the link, please send me a message and I will update:)

This is a fun game from Debbie's Dabblings for a center on author's purpose.  The theme centers around Thanksgiving and it is now January, but who cares!  The kids love a game anytime.  Sorry about the sideways pictures.  IPhoto was not cooperating!

5.  I love observing my students play these fraction math centers.  These girls are playing a version of "memory" where they match cards that show equivalent fractions.  My struggling students sometimes use the fraction bars to help them find which fractions are equivalent but I am encouraging them to do some mental math too (What can you multiply the numerator and denominator by in 3/5 to make 6/10?).  Today I heard this conversation at the end of math AIS (academic intervention services) by two students who struggle with math:

"I love playing memory," said student A.  "Yeah, me too. Memory with fractions is awesome!" said student B.  I love that they are having fun practicing concepts instead of being frustrated!

Here is a little freebie for you today.  Click the picture below for links to more freebies from fellow teachers!

I often have students find information online about a topic we are studying and answer questions that I have written on a worksheet.  This is a valuable skill because the internet will be the number one resource of information for our students.  

From the Common Core:  CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.4.7 Interpret information presented visually, orally, or quantitatively (e.g., in charts, graphs, diagrams, time lines, animations, or interactive elements on Web pages) and explain how the information contributes to an understanding of the text in which it appears.

It is amazing how much my students improve at this skill as the year progresses.  They begin to become more independent and confident in their ability to navigate websites to find, read, and interpret information.  This worksheet my students completed using a website about the solar system.  

I like this website because facts are presented in an easy to read format and students who are struggling readers can listen to the text on their headphones! 

I wrote the name of the website on this copy of the worksheet for your convenience but you may want to edit it and just have the students access the link from another page for easy access.  I keep an account and website through www.quia.com ($49 a year) to provide links to websites and games for my students to play for review.  I just bookmark my Quia page on all the computers and they can access my links that way.  

Thank you for making it all the way to the end and have a great weekend!