Cinco de Mayo

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Cinco de Mayo is right around the corner!  Have you made plans for it yet?  I have a Fiesta freebie that would be fun for your students to do.  In this freebie packet, you get:


Put themed words in alphabetical order.


How about a little poetry fun, too?



Students can write about how their family celebrates Fiesta.




Make salsa with your class and then have your students write a "how to" about their experience.

Click HERE to download your free copy.
Don't forget to leave feedback!  :)











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Tips to use with students with health problems

 http://teach123-school.blogspot.com/

Do you have students with health problems?  One of the things I have discovered from teaching in a variety of school districts, is that each district handles disseminating this information in different ways.  Some schools scheduled time during the inservice days before school began to review our students' files for information like this.  Others left it up to the parents to tell the teacher.  Some districts had the school nurse compile a list of all of the students in the school with health issues and gave every employee a copy.  There is usually a code beside the student's name.  I.E.  Amy Brown - #4, Patrick Campbell - #1, 4, Jake Diaz - #2, etc.  Codes can be for things like:  asthma, ADHD, nut allergy, diabetes, or other ailments.    

The "look at your students' files" during in-service week disseminates the information but there are a few drawbacks to this method.  Teachers have to write down pertinent information.  This is a hectic time for teachers so it is easy to overlook important details that are in the files.  Usually it is only the classroom teachers looking at his/her files.  Yet, teachers often share recess duty and lunch duty with each other.  It can create problems if teachers do not remember to tell their co-workers that they are sharing recess/lunch duty about important details like nut allergies or asthma.

Depending on the parent method isn't very efficient either.  The school's philosophy (I'm guessing) is that the medical information cards are in the nurse's office, if a teacher has a question about a student, they know where to go to find the information.  Parents often think that since they filled out the medical information card, they have done their duty of informing the school.  I always tell my friends who have a child with chronic health issues to send a note/email to their child's teacher.  

I think the nurse compiling a list with health codes and giving it to every employee is the best method.  Think about how many different school employees come in contact with your students on a daily basis!  All teachers and assistants who supervise the lunchroom should know on sight every child with a food allergy.  Teachers who have recess duty and the P.E. teachers need to know which students have asthma.  The list goes on and on, but you get the picture.  

It is also helpful to add a note to your weekly parent communication reminding parents that you would appreciate a "heads up" if their child is taking any type of medicine or having health problems that might affect them at school.  You have probably had a student or two through the years with asthma. I got adult onset asthma when I turned 35.   You may have heard a few tips about asthma when you've sat through inservices for handling medical issues in the classroom.  After dealing with the side effects of my asthma medication, I now have a new outlook on my students with asthma.  Did you know that if you have asthma . . . 

*You can be fine one minute and in full asthma distress the next.  It doesn't happen like this every time or for every one.  For some people, it is a slow decline for others it hits you quick. 
*Not every person will wheeze or cough.  For some, they get tightness in their chest.  The best way I know how to describe it is, imagine taking your husband's belt and putting it on around your chest at the smallest notch so your chest can barely expand and contract.  Then imagine wearing that all day.  Try to carry your heavy tote bag or backpack when you have this tight belt on.  How about running 2 laps around the gym?  Any physical effort makes you sweat and causes shortness of breath.  Sometimes students need to be excused from physical activities.  Taking a couple of puffs of your rescue inhaler does not always fix this problem.  
*Asthma is worse at night.  Part of the problem has to do with your lungs being flattened somewhat when you sleep.  Some people sleep in a recliner when they are having a flare up to help with this. This doesn't give you the best quality of sleep.  It's not unusual to be woken up 2-3 times a night during a flare up.  Remember how tired you were when you had a newborn baby with the late night feedings?  For your students with asthma and their parents the sleepless nights aren't just a 6-8 week bleary memory.  It is ongoing!  These students will often come in tardy during a flareup.  Can you blame them?
*Each patient with asthma reacts differently to the medicines that they take.  Most maintenance medicines have few side effects.  What you may have noticed is a behavior change when your student is having a flare up.  Suddenly, this normally well behaved child is irritable, can't sit still, fidgets, interrupts your lesson, doesn't finish his/her work, and has a host of other issues.  I have many of the same symptoms.  It feels like your are a hamster on speed.  Yes, I am exhausted from the interrupted sleep, but at the same time I feel this need to do something physical because I have all of this pent up energy.  I have woken up my family before at 2 a.m. because I can't sleep.  I can't focus on doing something quiet like read a book.  I usually go into cleaning frenzy when I experience this.  My husband wasn't too happy when I woke him up at 2 a.m. banging dishes as I cleaned out my kitchen cabinets.  

Do you have a student who has been a discipline problem lately?  Do you have a student with a recent behavior change?  If so, review their medical information card to see if this could be root of the problem.  

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Freebie Fridays



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Travel Journal

http://www.teach123school.com/2013/04/travel-journal.html

Do you have students who go on vacation during the school year?  Do you wonder what type of work to give them to make up for their absence(s)?  Help make their trip more educational with a travel journal!  Use this for their makeup assignments.  This travel journal includes the following skills:  weather comparison chart, compare your town with the vacation destination with a venn diagram, map skills, elapsed time, counting money, and writing.  I make several of these at the beginning of the year so when a parent drops by to tell me about an upcoming trip, I have a travel journal ready to hand them.  Students share their journal when they return.  Parents LOVE this because it is a great keepsake and educational!


When students return from their trip, have them share their journal with their classmates.  


There is a United States map and a world map for students who travel internationally.  Get out a globe or map when your students share their journal.  Your class will love to see how far their classmate traveled.


Would you like to try it? Click HERE  to see the preview file for a closer look.




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Free Fluency Center


Looking for fluency activities?  I just updated my fluency freebie.  I added some short passages.  If you need longer passages, I recommend visiting Reading A to Z.  This is a great site with leveled passages.  There are even some free books that you can download. 


Click HERE to get your freebie.


Freebie Fridays

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Shark and Octopus - 3rd grade

http://teach123-school.blogspot.com/

Are your students' attention beginning to stray?  Have they caught Spring fever yet?  One thing that helps is to plan high interest activities.  What student doesn't love sharks and octopuses?  When I saw the clipart packet with these little guys I knew I had to make a lesson with them.


This can be set up as a center or a folder game.  Click HERE for ideas for setting it up as a center.  Click HERE for ideas for setting it up as a folder game.  This post also has a free printable for you.This center is on the 3rd grade reading level and is aligned with 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grade Common Core Standards. Included in this packet is a center sign with a white background which is ink friendly. Hang the directions sign in your center in case your students don't listen when you explain the directions the first time.  They now have a handy reference tool instead of interrupting your lesson.  I include pictures from the 2 posts above.


Students shuffle the cards and sort them into piles.  They will sort by color in the colored version of the game and sort by pattern of the frame around the phrases in the black and white version.  If you want to make this center colorful but don't want to spend extra money on ink, copy it on colored paper or card stock.  Students will put the cards on the sorting sheet.  There is a colorful sorting sheet and black & white sorting sheet.  After students finish making and reading sentences, they will choose 3 of their sentences to write on the page above.After students choose one card from each stack of cards that is on the sorting page, they will put the cards in the correct order to make a sentence.  Then they will read their sentence to their partner. Then it is their partner's turn.  Students continue making real and/or nonsense sentences until they run out of cards.  They can either shuffle the cards and make more sentences or complete the writing assignment.

Reading level:  3.4
Click HERE to visit my TPT store.
Click HERE to visit my TN store.


This center is on the 3rd grade reading level and is aligned with 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grade Common Core Standards. Included in this packet is a center sign with a white background which is ink friendly. Hang the directions sign in your center in case your students don't listen when you explain the directions the first time.  They now have a handy reference tool instead of interrupting your lesson.  Students shuffle the cards and sort them into piles.  They will sort by color in the colored version of the game and sort by pattern of the frame around the phrases in the black and white version.  If you want to make this center colorful but don't want to spend extra money on ink, copy it on colored paper or card stock.  Students will put the cards on the sorting sheet.  There is a colorful sorting sheet and black & white sorting sheet.  After students finish making and reading sentences, they will choose 3 of their sentences to write on the page above or there is a writing prompt page that they can complete.  I included two writing assignments so you can differentiate.


After students choose one card from each stack of cards that is on the sorting page, they will put the cards in the correct order to make a sentence.  Then they will read their sentence to their partner. Then it is their partner's turn.  Students continue making real and/or nonsense sentences until they run out of cards.  They can either shuffle the cards and make more sentences or complete the writing assignment.

Reading level:  3.0
Click HERE to visit my TPT store.
Click HERE to visit my TN store.

You can purchase these packet individually or you can save money and buy them as a bundle.  If you purchase the bonus bundle, you get Paper-Saver Mini-books, too!  You can read more about these books in this post.


Click HERE if you want to purchase the bundle packet from TPT.
Click HERE if you want to purchase the bundle packet from TN.

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Information text and fluency ideas


Of the five components of reading, I think fluency is the one that is neglected the most.  It is easy to find lessons for the others, but most activities for fluency are teacher directed.  With all of the expectations put on teachers today, we are trying to  utilize every minute that we have with our students.  In a perfect world, we would send home readers with our students and parents would listen to their children read.  This doesn't always happen, so what is a teacher to do?  The answer is a child directed fluency activity.  It took me years before I worked out all the bugs of my Sentence Shuffle lessons.  The benefits to this type of activity are:

  • It can be set up as a folder game.  This is great if you are wall-to-wall students this year and don't have space to set up centers.  Students can easily do this at their desk or table.  
  • You can set it up as a center.  The directions for the center are included so student won't interrupt your small group lesson if they didn't pay attention the first time.  All of these lessons (levels: K-5) have the same format so once you teach your students the format, you can switch the topic of the sentence shuffles and not have to give directions again.  Save your valuable for time for something else! 
  • There are lesson for reading levels K-5 and I am adding more every day.  This works great for differentiation.  
  • You can use this with your small groups, too.  Students read real and nonsense sentence.  It is a great way to check for comprehension.
  • Speech pathologists and special education teachers have also left feedback that they love them, too!

Use different colored folders for the different reading levels.  Your students will love it when they graduate to a new color!


Inside the folder is a report card size envelope to hold the cards.  On the right is the shuffle sheet where students stack the cards.


On the back of the envelopes is a brown envelope to store the writing assignments.  On the envelope is a recording sheet.  When students complete the folder, they write their name beside their number.  I do not include the recording sheet in the packets because I want to give you an editable version so you can type your students' names on it.  Click HERE to find a PDF and editable version.


I just added a new packet today about Bees which is perfect for this time of year.  It is on the 2nd grade reading level and is aligned with 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade Common Core Standards.


Click HERE to visit my TPT store.


Click HERE to find more Sentence Shuffle centers organized by reading levels.










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