When I first began student teaching, my mentor teacher always used to say that there were three things that must happen each day in an elementary classroom.  First, students need to write something.  Second, students need to actively read something.  Finally, there needs to be a point in each day where the teacher reads out loud to their students.  

No matter how busy or crazy the school day, he always emphasized the importance of reading out loud, and students loved it.

I've carried those three rules into my own classroom, and reading out loud is something that both I, and my students, always look forward to.  I try to pick from a variety of texts as I read out loud: novels, picture books, information texts, silly poems... almost anything!  Here are a few of my favourites books to read out loud: 

The Book With No Pictures (by B.J. Novak)

This book is one of the silliest read alouds I have ever purchased, but even after reading it a dozen times (no exaggeration) my students are still begging me to read it "just one more time."  Make sure that you're ready to be a little bit goofy, and play along with the story in the book! 

My Mouth is a Volcano (by Julia Cook)

This one is my favourite "teaching" books.  It has a lesson, and my third graders find it easy to connect to the story.  In My Mouth is a Volcano, the main character has difficulty with 'blurting' his thoughts and answers during class, and finds help in visualizing his words as a volcano erupting!  I have a class of excited 'blurters' this year, and it's been great to find a book that helps us to see how blurting may hurt other classmates' chance at sharing their ideas. 

Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library (by Chris Grabenstein)

This book is a few levels above my third grade students, but I read it aloud for a class novel study.  It's a great book and has about a hundred chances to make text-to-text connections while you read! It follows the adventures of a group of seventh grade students as they explore (and escape from!) a brand new library designed by an eccentric master game maker.  Think The Amazing Race meets Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  Note:  The first quarter of the book is a little bit slow, and introduces a lot of smaller characters, but stick with it, it gets a lot better! 

How about you? What is your class reading right now? What inspires you as a teacher?

- Rachel

*All images of books are from Amazon.com

Please note: This post was written in 2016. Much of the technology referenced in this post is now outdated. The post has been left up for archive purposes.

In the fall, my school did an in-school Professional Development day.  It was a 'best practices day' and a few teachers were asked to present on something that was working well in their classroom, or something they felt confident to teach to others.  I love technology!  My classroom has a projector and an iPad, and I was asked to present on how I effectively use a single iPad to instruct and teach in an elementary classroom. 

There are many ways to use a single iPad effectively in an elementary classroom. 

I was nervous, but I have to say, it went really well!  So well, in fact, that I'll be giving another pro-D talk later on this year to a larger group of staff!  (Wish me luck!)  Our school may not have a huge technology budget for the elementary department, but with a little creativity, there are still many ways to use technology to make students' classroom experiences better.  Even before I was given a projector for my classroom (only two years ago now), I was finding creative ways to use a single iPad, or an old iPod touch to add to the learning environment.  

This is the PDF I handed out at my presentation.  It walks through hardware needed to set-up, apps for teachers, apps for students, and effective classroom uses.  Please feel free to use it at your school, keeping my logos and copyrights in tact. 

Guide to the One iPad Classroom 

- Rachel

Around this point in the year, I like to do something a little bit different with my classroom organization.  This is more than putting students in groups.  Physically, we move our desks around, and we also lightly restructure a few of the ways I interact with the students in my class.  In our room, we are now divided into five learning communities.  (Loosely based off of this book) The point of these groupings is not to pit one group against the other in a reality-show-style standoff, but rather to build a tight-knit mini-community within our already close classroom community.   Let me explain…

By now, we have spent a good portion of the fall learning how to be bucket fillers, and what it means to show expected behavior . Students know my expectations to be kind, gentle, put others first, and follow the rules of the classroom.  We have done this in the context of the whole classroom where each child has been asked to generically look out for everyone else, and the teachers are the ‘overall’ support system if something goes wrong.  We are now switching up the model

With the introduction of community groups, I’ve explained that, within the classroom, each group is like a family.  (Of course, if “family” is not a safe word, you may want to use something different).  A group works together to do their best, to work hard and most importantly, to take care of each other. If one group member is upset, or frustrated, or confused, it is first up to the rest of the group to try and help them before they go to a teacher or someone outside of their group. 

At the beginning, we use a points system.  This is not intended to be used as a competition, but to encourage group to work together in a kind, respectful, and cohesive manner.  As a group, they are supposed to show expected behavior and be bucket fillers.  When I notice a group is encouraging each other, speaking kindly, helping a friend who is not understanding an assignment, all on-task, gently reminder a member to focus, etc.  they receive a point for their group.  (I also make a big deal that bragging, especially in the context of points, is not okay).  Then, on Friday, we have a points ceremony, and it is a big deal.  We have envelopes, and prizes and everyone wins something.  And then it re-starts for the next week.

Gradually, the points system is phased out, and just the groups remain.  But every year, my hope is that the cohesion and community will remain.  Some years it does, other years it takes more work, but overall, I have found that working in groups tends to yield incredibly positive results. 

Other things that we do to build community within groups:

• Group journals: each group member writes an encouragement sentence in every other group members journal (more on this later!)

• Group leaders, one person per week is the group leader

• Play time in group groups – either ‘free time’ or structured play with specific outcomes, a chance to have fun is a great bonding experience

How do you feel about grouping your students in groups?  Have you tried something like this? How has it gone?

- Rachel

I teach third grade.  I love third grade.  Each year, when a new group of brand new third graders walk into my classroom I get to figure out who they are as learners.  This group is wiggly… oh my stars are they wiggly!  I have 25 students in my class this year, and they are quite the mix.  I have 9 girls and 16 boys in my class, and three of my students are on Individual Education Plans.  

knew right from the first week with them, that for this class, I would need to change how I was used to teaching.   Seat work , pencil and paper style learning, just wouldn’t fly as the ‘norm’ with this group.  I spent quite amount of time re-doing most of my unit and lessons plans to make sure that they were hands-on, interactive, and out-of-seat work.  Perfect for a wiggly class.  

ne of the units I reworked in the fall was my Geography and Mapping unit.  Out the door went my booklets teaching my students to identify provinces, territories, and geographical locations.   I think that it's always daunting to have to throw out what is familiar, and convenient.  I already have pre-made mapping units that are seat-based... but they are one size fits all.  And this class... they are definitely many sizes!   So I took on the challenge of creating a unit that was just for them!

I found large maps in a Kids Magazine my school orders, and laminated 10 copies.  During Geography, we moved the desks to the side, and learned about geography in groups of 2 or 3.  Each pair/group was given a pack of task cards, a map on the floor, and a chance to lay out and be as wiggly as they’d like! 

Other days, I projected giant maps onto the whiteboard, and we quizzed each other!

“Can you locate two provinces east of Ontario?”

“Tap Lake Erie three times!”

“Draw a circle on a province that has forestry as a resource…

e practice locating eastern provinces, prairie provinces, territories, great lakes… all while tapping our fingers, sitting, standing, squatting, spinning.  

Finding a way to combine movement with geography/mapping made this one of my most successful units to date!

I learned a lot about myself as a teacher through creating this new unit.  While pulling out a 'tried and true' unit may be what is easier for me, I know that it is not always in the best interests of the kids in my classroom.  I've learned that sometimes, no matter how much extra work it is, I will need to start completely from scratch.  It was totally worth it.  

(Canadian Social Studies unit mentioned above is available here.)

We have been back at school for 10 days since Winter Break.  Ten long days of trying to find our routine again, building reading stamina, remembering all of our writing ideas, and interacting in kind and bucket filling ways.  (At least, most of the time). 

In December, I had the less-than-brilliant idea to start January off with a unit on goal-setting.  I say “less-than-brilliant” because this is not my first time teaching a goal setting unit, or trying to teach third graders about how to write, plan for, and make meaningful changes. However, in the past, these units have failed… epically.  

ach year that I teach there is always at least one

 unit that just does not work.  The kids aren’t into it, or just don’t understand it, or the way I am teaching it does notcompute with the way they learn.  So far, goal setting has always fallen into that category.

Until this year.  Hallelujah! 

I sat down in December and tried to map out how to teach goal setting in a more meaningful way.  How could I encourage my third graders to reflect on last year, identify some areas to be improved upon, and make an actual plan to change it. 

This is by no means revolutionary, and I know that others have, and will, do a better job of teaching this subject.  That being said, I was SO proud of how my class did. They were incredibly introspective and most identified some true areas of improvement.  I’m so looking forward to checking in with them in a month! 

Plan Together  

- Planning our goals in advance was the stage that made all of the difference.  I have found that, with third grade and younger especially, taking time to process new concepts out loud dramatically improves the quality of their work.   Together, we brainstormed things that weren’t going so well for us last year.  I included myself in this brainstorm because, whenever possible, I like to give real examples of how the lessons that we are learning are valuable for myself as well.  My things that were difficult:  keeping my desk top clean, and answering all of my e-mails!  We filled the whiteboard, and then they did some on their own.  

Use positive language:

As we moved on to writing goals, we did it first as a whole group, and then as individuals.  We used the language “I will”, to encourage each other that these are things that can be achieved if we work on them.  I worked with each student to write goals that they wanted to meet.  After all, if they don’t want to meet them, it’s highly unlikely that they will accomplish it. 

Make a real plan to meet the goals

 Simply saying “I will be nicer” won’t cut it .  

What could you do or say to be nicer? Who will hold you accountable?  What will you do if you are feeling like you are being mean one day?  

We got specific!  When I read over each goal plan, I was blown away by the way each student came up with real ideas for how they could improve.  Some students suggested they could keep a notebook with them to record writing ideas during the day so that way they wouldn’t be ‘stuck’ come writing time.  Others have been checking each others’ desk to see if they are messy.  I love watching them work together. 

Edit, and Make a Flipbook! 

 Then students got to move onto the flipbook.  My kids love writing based activities that are not just pencil and paper, and this fits that category perfectly.  We edited their planning paper in small conference groups, and they transferred it onto their “good copy books.” 

his project has been eye-opening for me as a teacher.  I think I shied away from investing too much time into goal-setting in the classroom because it hasn’t been very successful in the past.  However, this year has really boosted my confidence. It was quite amazing to watch the way that this group of kids latched onto the concept, and went beyond my expectations.  I wonder what else I may be avoiding teaching because I am uncomfortable, but need to move past that in order to better myself as an educator. 

Just some food for thought!

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Students in my third grade class are practicing being bucket fillers!  The concept of being a bucket filer comes from Carol McCloud’s Book 'Have You Filled A Bucket Today?' and 'How Full Is Your Bucket' (For Kids) by Tom Rath. 

Both books are focused around the idea that everyone carries around an invisible bucket that, throughout the day, is being filled by the kind things that you do for others or that others do for you.  A bucket filler is someone who is showing positive character traits (kindness, compassion, care, respect, consideration for others), and is being a responsible citizen. When our buckets are full, we feel happy.   When our buckets are empty, we feel sad. 

For the next few weeks, we will be learning about different qualities that bucket fillers and bucket dippers exhibit.  We will be continuously reading and re-reading bucket filling books  so that students are able to really grasp the concept of bucket filling.  I can wait to have students start practicing being being bucket fillers in the classroom, and encouraging students to be bucket fillers at home! 

We used this bulletin board as a visual reminder of bucket filling actions.  Whenever I saw someone being a 'bucket filler' I added a star to the bucket.  When it was full we celebrated with a popcorn party! 

(Teachers: I have created an entire unit to kick start this kindness campaign that is available for download now.  The unit is designed to be done over 3 weeks, has 6 unique lessons, a teaching guide, bulletin board templates, and interactive games! See it here in my TpT store) 

For checking out my blog today, I have an awesome freebie for you.  One part of the Bucket Filling unit is a 'Bucket Filling, Bucket Dipping' sorting activity.  You can use it as a drama game in your class, as a sorting activity in small groups, or as independent work. I’ve also included a sorting mat so you can glue the statements down, and a coloring page to use for early finishers!

Bucket Filler Freebie for Blog Readers (Click!)

Let me know how you use the Bucket Fillers program in your class. I'd love to hear your ideas in the comments below!