Child Safety Protection Month

November is Child Safety Protection Month. The goal of Child Safety Protection Month is to create awareness about the potential dangers children face in everyday situations and to use this new knowledge to prevent any dangers. This also deals with baby safety. As a parent, child safety is something that is often overlooked and relatable to personal safety. We try to protect our kids from all of the dangers of the outside World, but sometimes we forget about the dangers that kids face in their own homes. Childhood accidents put our kids lives at risk.

According to the National Network of Child Care, here’s a few child safety tips and facts that you need to know about, such as:

• Some foods are difficult to chew such as hot dogs, hard candies and nuts and cause 40% of all childhood choking deaths.
• Using child safety seats in the rear of the car, not the front seat.
• Keeping small children away from workout equipment.
• Putting outlet covers on outlets

http://ocean.happeningmag.com/child-safety-protection-month

20 to 21 Century Learning Comparison
20th Century Model		21st Century Model
MATH	·     Memorization of low level procedures ·     Pattern recognition ·     Ability to perform calculations by hand ·     Speed ·     Accuracy ·     Ability to perform well under pressure	·     Deeply understanding the problem ·     Structuring the problem and representing it symbolically ·     Creative problem solving ·     Pattern recognition to understand which math tools are relevant ·     Adept use of computational resources ·     Critical evaluation of first-pass results ·     Estimation, statistics, and decision-making ·     Taking chances, risking failure, and iterating to refine and perfect ·     Synthesizing results ·     Presenting/communicating complex quantitative information ·     Collaboration ·     Asking questions about complex quantitative information
LANGUAGE ARTS	·     Clear penmanship ·     Proper spelling and grammar ·     Sound vocabulary ·     Ability to read written materials (novels, poems, plays) ·     Ability to write in complete sentences	·     Use sound vocabulary ·     Read a wide variety of written materials (novels, poems, plays, essays, news) critically ·     Communicate clearly across multiple media forms, with a range of styles ·     Form and justify independent bold perspectives ·     Ask thoughtful questions ·     Engage in constructive debate
HISTORY	·     Coverage of important events and figures ·     Ability to recall important historical facts ·     Write short essays clearly recounting historical information	·     Critically analyze historical events and sources ·     Form independent views on dynamics and implications ·     Write clear and thought-provoking theses ·     Ask questions and engage in historical debate ·     Relate historical developments to current issues shaping the world we live in
SCIENCE	·     Cover core disciplines – physics, chemistry, biology ·     Cover key definitions, formulas, and concepts ·     Gain familiarity with basic lab procedures	·     Understand how the world works ·     Be able to form and test scientific hypotheses ·     Be able to ask insightful questions and design experiments ·     Build things based on scientific principles ·     Apply principles across disciplines ·     Develop scientific creativity

Halloween Treat Bags

Easy to make!!

Grab these adorable labels from Rockin Teaching Resources for FREE to staple onto Halloween treat bags! There are 3 different sizes of Monster Scabs, Witches Warts, Jack O' Lantern Teeth, and Ghost Poop. Students love them!!! Download here:http://bit.ly/2N17FKX

Fall Bulletin Board

First Day of School Selfies

Teachers!!! 

Share your "First Day of School" selfies here! 

Have a great year!

Word Family Fun!

Why Read 20 Minutes

The Teacher is the Heart

Sight Words Word Search

Teacher Bags

Middle School Survival Kit bags

Rural Child Poverty Nutrition Center

Halloween Bag Ideas

Author unknown

Back to School

Goody from Woody

More Bags

Bags, Bags, Bags, Oh My

I just love bags, bags of any sort!!!

Plaid ribbon, an apple shape, and kraft paper make a classic Teacher Appreciation gift. Add gift cards, school supplies, or your teacher’s favorite snack to complete this easy to make, cute and inexpensive gift bag.  What great idea!!

Classroom Management Apps for Teachers

ClassDojo

Elementary teachers are crazy about this classroom management app! Not only is this app easy to use as a teacher, it is easy and fun for students to play along. Once students are registered in the class, they are given a cute monster icon and earn points based on their good behaviors. Teachers can create their own expectations for the class on ClassDojo and points are given for positive actions, but taken away for negative behaviors. One of the best parts of ClassDojo is the ability to share students’ behaviors with parents. They can track their child’s behavior week by week. This is a great tool for students to learn how to set goals and achieve them!

Plickers

Plickers is a new, exciting way to make exit tickets, or any part of a lesson, interactive. This app allows teachers to generate a multiple choice question and students to scan laminated cards using devices to choose the correct answer. This tool is simple to use and allows teachers to  incorporate  technology into the classroom. It tracks student engagement and allows for assessment in a quick, easy manner. Plickers is great for assessment or test review, but it can also be used as a brain break for those classes who just can’t seem to stay focused!

Google Classroom

Google Classroom is an excellent tool for a plethora of reasons. Teachers are able to share assignments, ask questions, or give surveys all in one specific area. This paper-free management system benefits both teachers and students when handing in work. Grades can be given back in real-time and comments can be posted right on the document itself. Read more about Google Classroom.

Schoology

Schoology is one of the most popular Learning Management Systems (LMS) in schools today. It is designed to create assignments for students all online. After reviewing the site, Schoology is a wonderful way to organize student work all in one place. Not only does Schoology help with classroom management, it is a tool used to benefit connection between home and school by allowing students to access their work from home.

Classcraft

Classcraft is a classroom management tool that makes positive behavior fun! This LMS is located on the web or also using a Chrome extension. Students are motivated to win points with their excellent behavior throughout the day. Teachers must set up the fantasy world for their students to join and have them complete “quests,” such as assessments for students to become highly engaged. Classcraft also allows parents with Google accounts to join and track their child’s progress.

Repost from Really Good Teachers

https://www.summarizethis.com/

The Discovery Box

This daily activity will be sure to increase your students’ vocabulary in no time. For each student, create a blank book.

You can easily do this by stapling 26 blank pages of paper between two pieces of colorful cardstock. Instruct students to label each page in their booklet in alphabetical order.

a few times a week, have students search at home for a new or interesting word. Instruct students to cut this word out (it can be from a cereal box, the newspaper, an old magazine) and glue it to an index card.

Then, the following day, students bring in their cards and place it into the “Discovery Box.”

At some point in the day, randomly call upon a student to choose one card from the box and write the word and its definition on the board for his/her classmates to write into their booklets. Continue this process throughout the school year.

Here's what you need:

Premium Permanent GlueTape™ 

Mini Glue Dots®

11x17 Premium Stack, Die Cuts with a View

Jewel toned cardstock, Die Cuts with a View

Twine

Rhinestones

Die cut machine- Cameo, Silhouette

Cut file- Easter bunny, Silhouette Store

Scallop border punch- Fiskars

Black marker

Brown Ink

Hole punch

Scissor

Designed by: Grace Tolman

April Showers Bring Reading Hours!

assign each student a partner and challenge students to a team reading competition.

Have each pair choose a book and read it together. When the partners have read a specified number of pages of the book, have them summarize their reading on a copy of the raindrop pattern. Then add their raindrop to the display.

When the contest ends, declare the partners with the most raindrops the champions.                       From Mailbox

Master the Rest of March

Master the rest of March and slide into a successful April by focusing on your students. 

At this time of year, it can be easy to get caught up in all the content we have to teach. But remember to keep your focus on the students. 

When things seem overwhelming, you can take a step back and find time to connect with and appreciate your students.

April Showers Bring May Flowers

Lifelong STEM Intelligence, Knowledge, and Capability

1. STEM thinking begins in infancy. STEM thinking starts in infancy. Even before a child’s first birthday, he/she is capable of making inferences, drawing conclusions about cause and effect, and reasoning about the probability of events.

2. To become strong STEM thinkers, children need more play. Guided play, where adults follow the child’s lead and shape the learning experience through thoughtful questions and interaction, has been shown to be particularly effective for teaching STEM content. STEM education should include robust, frequent, and varied opportunities for play through the third grade.

3. STEM amplifies language development; language enables STEM thinking. As children engage in STEM experiences, they hear and practice new words. Growing vocabularies allow children to make sense of increasingly complex ideas and phenomena, and early exposure to vocabulary used for concepts can support children later on to master higher order thinking.

4. Active, self-directed learning builds STEM skills and interest. Hands-on STEM learning is not only more fun, it is also more effective at helping children make sense of information that is complex or abstract.

5. Mindset matters to STEM success. Adults need to support children, particularly girls and children of color, to develop a growth mindset with the STEM disciplines.

 6. Children’s abstract thinking potential can be unlocked through both adult support and executive function skill development. By focusing on children’s STEM learning during the preschool and earlier elementary years, we can prepare them with the underlying dispositions for STEM thinking, equip them to meet school-based outcomes, and ready them for success in a STEM-rich economy and world.

STEM