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Tips for Keeping Students Engaged at the End of the Year

Monday, May 6th, 2013

Keeping Students Engaged
It is hard to believe, but it’s already May!  Report cards will be due soon, promotion ceremonies must be planned and end of the year testing is upon us.  So what is a teacher supposed to do when the only thing greater than the looming to do list is the students’ desire to be on summer vacation?  Here are some tips to keep students engaged in curriculum without adding too much to our already overextended schedules.
 

Leverage the Power of Technology:

There are so many awesome online resources available that can easily be aligned to our curriculum and common core standards.

Teaching with TechnologyFind a site that works for you and sign up for some computer lab time! A well-placed webquest, multimedia presentation project, or interactive online experience can solidify concepts in new ways without demanding a ton of prep work or grading.  Some of my favorite online and computer resources are:

 

  • Prezi or PowerPoint: Students can create presentations covering any subject they’re learning!  Creating and delivering presentations is an important language arts skill for students to learn and it can do double duty if they are presenting information related to science, history, literature, or other content areas.  In my experience, upper grade students love to create cool presentations and the accountability of presenting to their peers spurs them on to do their very best work.  Note: Prezi is a little more complicated and requires an email address to sign up, so it is most appropriate to use with older students who are highly computer proficient.  I suggest you make some teacher prezis for lessons before you teach students to make them.  PowerPoint may be the best option for starting out this kind of project.
  •  Starfall: This is a great resource for lower grade students. There are a variety of phonics and literacy resources for students to work at their own level.
  • Arcademic Skill Builders: This website is dedicated to engaging and exciting K-8 students in math, literacy, geography, and more all in a safe environment!  You can use this site for free, but if you sign up for the subscription, you can customize game content, track student achievement, and help students earn awards for performance.

Looking for more ways to incorporate computer projects into your classroom?  Check out Teacher Created Resources Computer Projects for Grades 2-4 and Computer Projects for Grades 5-6.

Leave us a comment and share your favorite online resources for students.

Tip: Be sure to research the site, understand how it works, and check to make sure it won’t be blocked from your school’s internet filter before you take your class to the lab.

 

Get Kids Moving with Kinesthetic Learning Activities:

Kinesthetic Learning Activities

We all know that many kids learn best from active, hands-on activities, but we don’t always have the budget or time to create elaborate, new kinesthetic activities.  Worry not, my fellow tired teacher, I recently attended a Kagan Cooperative Learning seminar where I picked up fun strategies for getting students up and moving that can be used across subjects and grade levels.  These are definitely easy and fun tools to keep in your pedagogical toolbox!

  • Quiz-Quiz Trade: Students make flashcards (or are provided with flashcards) for academic vocabulary or facts that you are learning in class.  Each student needs to have a set of flashcards that match everyone else’s set, but shuffled up in different orders. Then, everyone stands up and picks a partner.  It is best if you have a big open space in the classroom or outside.  I love to take my class out to the field next to my classroom on a beautiful spring day. Partner 1 quizzes partner 2 on just one flashcard, and partner 2 is praised or coached by partner 1.   Next, they switch and Partner 2 quizzes partner 1 on one flashcard with praise or coaching.  Once both have had a chance to ask and answer one card, they trade the used cards and find new partners.  The whole class continues to mingle for an allotted amount of time quizzing, quizzing, trading, and finding new partners.  I love this activity because it gets students’ blood flowing while also developing vocabulary and study skills!  It can work in almost any subject.
  • 4 Corners: The teacher asks students to stand in the middle of the room and then announces “corners” and a question with four possible answers. For example, the teacher says that the four corners of the room represent 4 characters from Charlotte’s Web: Charlotte, Wilber, Templeton, and Fern.  Then, the teacher asks, “Which character from the book can you relate to most?” After a short “think time”, students go to the corner labeled with the character that they can relate with most.  Once there, they must find a partner and discuss their reasoning. Later, students can write about this topic with a plethora of ideas gleaned from their own thinking and discussions with others.
  • Stand up, Hand up, Pair up: When reinforcing concepts and continuing to develop academic vocabulary, it is helpful for students to have a chance to discuss their ideas, but all too often I find the same hands raised and the same students dominating the conversation. To get everyone in the class talking, try asking students to walk around the room shaking hands and greeting their classmates. This helps mix up the usual friend-partners and work on social skills. After a minute or so, tell everyone to stand with their hand in the air and high five one person near them. The high five partners turn into discussion partners. Once the partners are picked, the teacher asks a question and each partner has an allotted amount of time to answer. After both have answered, students sit down and the teacher calls on a few students to re-tell partner’s answers. This gives all students a chance to speak, listen, and participate actively.

Check out more Teacher Created Resources Creative Classroom Ideas!  I especially love the hands-on projects found in each section of the literature guides, like this one about the novel Holes. What are your favorite kinesthetic learning strategies? Leave us a comment and share the love!

Emily Guthrie has taught English Language Arts in grades 6-12 for the last 7 years. She lives with her husband, Chris and toddler Miles in sunny Southern California. Emily loves creating curriculum, cooking, running, and blogging. 

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Let’s Talk Centers

Friday, February 1st, 2013

Hello!  I’m super excited and honored to be a guest blogger for Teacher Created Resources!  My name is Staci and I am the author of a  blog called “Let’s Teach Something”.

I teach Kindergarten and I do lots of centers in my classroom.  I do reading centers in the morning that focus mostly on our sight words and spelling words for the week.  I have literacy centers that focus on certain literature (both fiction and non-fiction) and phonics skills.  I also do learning centers in the afternoon.  These centers are a hodge-podge of skills that still need to be taught and/or reinforced in any subject area.  These learning centers include math, computers, puzzles, writing, sensory, art, listening, and surprise.  Surprise center is one of my favorites because I can make it anything to meet the curriculum needs.

Today, I’m here to talk about how I organize my centers- more specifically my afternoon learning centers.  I have 8 centers, so I rotate the material every 8 school days- which could be intimidating, but is really very easy once you get started.  Here’s how I do it:

Cereal Box Centers

Cereal boxes.  Cereal boxes?!?!  You got it!  I put the materials for all 8 centers into a cereal box- then when it’s time for a certain theme, I grab the designated cereal box and it’s all right there!

Here’s how it works:

Learning Center Materials

 

I have an index card listing all the centers- and the skill/activity the students will be doing at that center.

In the above picture, you will notice that it’s “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie” theme.  So, here’s what the kids are doing:

Learning Center Activities

Listening:  Listen to a book on tape/CD.  Be sure to leave the CD and books in the cereal box.

Writing:  Students always get a writing prompt.  At the beginning of the year, it’s simply copying the sentence I have written.  As they become more independent, I omit words for them to fill in such as “A tree is ______ and ______.”  Towards the end of the year, all they get is an open ended writing prompt that allows them to be as creative as they want in their writing such as “In the spring, I like to ________________.”  The writing prompt/example is the only thing that goes into the cereal box.

Art:  Students do an arts/crafts project related to the theme.  Here they are making a mouse puppet.  Be sure to include all patterns, master copies, and a finished sample so the kids know what their end goal is to look like.  I do not include supplies, those are stored permanently at the art center itself, plus the cereal box isn’t big enough to hold all everything.

Puzzles:  Students put together a puzzle or do a higher level thinking activity.  I do not include the puzzle in the cereal box.  I only list what puzzle it is, and I grab it from my puzzle bin when it comes time for that theme.

Math:  If it’s an activity meant specifically for the center, it’s kept in the cereal box (like this math activity where they match the number on the cookie to the chocolate chips on another cookie).  If it’s a math activity I use a lot, it’s kept with my other math curriculum materials.

Sensory:  This center is the easiest to plan and probably the students’ favorite.  I have a supply of sensory materials that I rotate through this center: sand, water, rice, tire shreds, plastic Easter eggs, jingle bells, Legos, water beads, etc.  I also have two dust pans to encourage responsibility and it allows the students to help in the clean-up!

Computers:  I have two classroom computers as well as three iPads.  The students are given a computer program or an iPad app to do during their time at this center.

Surprise:  This center is very flexible in that you can put anything you need your students to work on.  Sometimes it’s a holiday craft, other times it’s a skill that wasn’t mastered or just needs a little extra practice.

“I’m finished with my center, what can I do?”
I used to get this question a lot from my students.  Now, I have jobs that they can do when their center task is complete.
Writing:  Students can draw/write with stencils.
Art:  Students can color in a coloring book.
Listening:  Students can use magnet letters to spell words found in the book.
The rest of the centers are un-ending, meaning- they can rebuild the puzzle, keep playing in the sensory tub, or keep playing the computer game/app until center time is over.

Centers are very beneficial for students because they teach the students the skill presented at that center as well as teaching the students how to work together.  If they come across a question or are unsure of something, they are first to ask their center partner before asking me.  It also gives me an opportunity to catch up on any work a student might be missing, do assessments with students, or reteach a concept that was not mastered in a small group.
So, there you have it- my management and organizational tips for the centers in my classroom.  If you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment.

And don’t forget to visit my blog for other tips, tricks, and tidbits I use in my classroom.  Don’t forget to look for all the freebies I post!

See you soon and thanks to Teacher Created Resources for having me!
-Staci
www.letsteachsomething.blogspot.com

 

Staci Schutte, is a Kindergarten teacher and the author of a popular blog called Let’s Teach Something, where she shares tips, tricks, and tidbits that she uses in the classroom. She currently lives in Indiana with her husband, two sons and daughter and enjoys running, scrapbooking, and most recently shopping for pink things after having a baby girl a week ago.

 

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Students and Online Research

Tuesday, July 31st, 2012

So here I am doing some research for a new project.  I turn on my computer; start typing various key words into Google: and in just a very few minutes I have a raft of articles, video clips, and images ready to use.  It all seems so simple, but is it?  Collecting the information is, but knowing what to do with it, not so much.

I’m an adult who has been trained in how to use information that I find.  I scan it, and if it’s something that I might need to use at all I save it and reread it in depth.  I also need to be able to find creditable sources and cite them.  In school, this meant reading articles and books, taking notes on note cards and keeping a detailed bibliography.  It raises the question for me, do kids still do this?  Or has the Internet so changed things that they don’t’?

I know that people often say to me “the kids know more than me when it comes to technology.”  As far as using devices, I would tend to agree.  They can choose apps and download photos before I’ve pushed the “on” button.  However, I don’t think that they necessarily have the skills needed to make decisions about the material they’ll find on the Internet.  This is where I think teachers will always be necessary.  They need to guide young minds and help them learn how to think and make informed decisions.

We have a few books that I think really help teachers with this phenomenon.  Our Internet Literacy books address this directly with a section called “Researching Reliably.”  There are several lessons about determining the accuracy of the information found online.  You can help students by reminding them to use common sense and ask questions.  Students need to check evidence and find three sources that will back up what they have found.

Much like you might model how to set up your paper or how to work out a math problem, you need to model some of this researching for students.  While the kids might be able to fire up the computer, if all the information they collect is incorrect, it really won’t be much use to them further down the road in life.

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Rainy Day Recess Activities

Wednesday, February 15th, 2012

I was once in a teaching workshop with a woman who was raised in Alaska.  I remember asking her if it was hard as a kid to not be able to play outside at recess or after school for so much of the year.  I clearly remember her answer:  “Oh, we’d still play outside until it was 20 below.”  I still don’t think I’ve recovered from the shock of hearing that.

Having grown up in California and spent most of my teaching career here, I can’t fathom kids playing outside in that kind of weather.  Luckily, we have such mild temperatures for most of the year that the kids can be outside just about all the time.  That being said, we are not well equipped for the more inclement weather that winter tends to bring.  The only protection the schools have are overhangs extending from the classrooms.  The kids eat their lunches outside every day of the school year, rain, shine, or otherwise.  And there’s nowhere for students to go when it rains at recess, except back into the classroom.

When I was teaching, rainy days usually brought eye rolls and emissions of “Ugh” from the teachers.  The kids tended to be positively squirrelly with pent up energy and noise levels tended to increase exponentially throughout the day.  Perhaps that’s why I always thought it was funny that one of my students’ favorite indoor games was Silent Ball.

Silent Ball entails all the students sitting on top of their desks while a ball is tossed from one student to another in random order.  The object of the game is to stay as silent as possible and not drop the ball when it is thrown to you.  Anyone talking must sit down in their seat and is out of the game.  The last person left sitting on their desk wins. The teacher monitors to make sure that all students are getting equal amounts of chances to catch the ball, and to make sure students are staying quiet.  (I never had to monitor that much because students who were already out were happy to point out if anyone else was talking.)  Surprisingly, this game could keep them entertained for quite a while.

Another simple game the students loved was Four Corners.  One person is picked to be “it” and must close his or her eyes.  The rest of the students choose one of the four corners in the room.  Once everyone is in a corner, “it” calls out North, South, East, or West (or for littler ones: 1, 2, 3, or 4.)  The students in that corner are out and must sit down.  “It” closes his or her eyes again and play continues.  Once there are four students or fewer, they must each pick a different corner.  The last person who is left without his or her corner being called wins, and is now “it” for the next round.

Heads Up Seven Up is a game I loved as a kid, and students still love to this day.  (It seems the simplest ones are always the longtime favorites.)  Seven students are picked to stand in the front of the room while the rest put their heads down on their desks, close their eyes, and stick one of their thumbs in the air.  The seven students each then quietly tap the thumb of one of the students and then return to the front of the room.  Then they say “Heads up seven up!” and the seven students who were tapped have to try and guess who touched his or her thumb.  If he or she guesses correctly, they replace the student who tapped them.  The game begins again once all the students have had a chance to guess.

One game I learned from another teacher didn’t have a name, but is similar to I Have Who Has? in that students have to be listening to cards being read in order.  It requires a few minutes of prep time the first time, but after that the game plays itself.  It’s a great sponge activity as well.  Write out a direction on an index card; have at least as many cards per students in your class.  These can be very simple, such as When the teacher says START, stand up and say GO! The next card read would then read, When someone yells GO, stand up and open the door.  The card after that would read, When someone opens the door, stand up and shake the teacher’s hand, and so on.  Pass out all the cards and then say “START.”  The students have to be listening and observing what’s happening.  One rule I had to institute was that everyone had to wait until the person before them had sat back down in their seat, otherwise it was too confusing to try and follow multiple students doing activities at the same time.  Keep the set of cards to play over again at another time; the students don’t get bored of it!

Most of the above-mentioned games are for younger students, but I was surprised at how much my older students loved the games too.  Of course, rainy days are also a great time to play curriculum-oriented games as well.  If there is a game you’ve played in the past with your students, feel free to bring it back out, even if the subject has already been studied.  It’s great for review!  They may even forget that they’re doing “schoolwork” at recess.

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