Mighty Magnets!

I just finished up teaching about magnets and want to share my new unit with you!

First off, I had to organize the old magnet bucket my teaching partner loaned me.  What a mess!  I spent a good 2 hours sorting and organizing all the magnets and materials before I could even start!

    

Then, to get started, I wanted to jazz up the unit with some OCDE Project GLAD® strategies (Guided Language Acquisition Design - a great way to teach ELLs and all students!).  One of my favorite pictures books about magnets is Mickey's Magnet by Franklyn M. Branley.  

The only problem with this book is that it's out of print, so any copies you are going to find are going to be old.  I was lucky enough to find two copies of the book from used book sellers.  Then, I cut them apart.  I know, I know, it sounds crazy!  Why would I do that?  Keep reading :)

I turned the books into a Narrative Input!  This strategy is a fun way to teach concepts using picture books.  Taking two copies of the book, you cut out the words and glue them onto the back of each of the pictures.  I then laminate each page.

Then, as you read the book and show the picture, you tape the picture up on the wall for the students to see.  This way, they have a visual of the entire book. This approach makes it really easy for kids to practice retelling and sequencing the story.

You can read more about Narrative Input in OCDE Project GLAD® creator Marcia Bretchtel's book Bringing It All Together.

Now, on to my new unit that I used to teach magnets!

I started off with some vocab cards:

And vocab books to teach the words via the Marzano way.

Booklets to explore the Scientific Method:

Seven experiments for hands-on learning:

Four nonfiction articles to teach about lodestones, compasses, temporary magnets, and electromagnets. You can use these whole group or in small groups.  I even included a packet cover if you decide to make a small packet of the articles and comprehension questions for your students.

Students choose one of the article topics and write a short research report.

And there are some extras, too!  A world map to go with the nonfiction articles, a word search to go with the vocab words, a KWHL (the H is for "How will I find the information"), and a Can, Have, Are sheet.

Make sure to head over to my Teachers Pay Teachers store to check it out!  A free copy of a generic vocab page is included with the Preview download!

Here are a couple of my students enjoying the experiments!

Make sure to download the Preview in my Teachers Pay Teachers store to get your copy of the vocab sheet!

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Nicole Heinlein

Hall Pass!

I'm linking up with my friend Reagan at Tunstall's Teaching Tidbits for her Hall Pass linky!

Product:
I just uploaded this mini-unit that I used a couple of weeks ago when I taught States of Matter!  My kids loved the mini-books, teacher book, and most importantly, the art activity!  I also did the art activity with my son's first grade class, since they are learning about matter, too.  The kids really understood the molecular composition of each state of matter after getting dirty with paint! :)

I also added in some OCDE Project GLAD® (Guided Language Acquisition Design) strategies:

Observation Charts - pics from Google Images and vocab cards from Jen Ross' awesome unit on Matter.

Chants

T-Chart for Social Skills on Cooperation.  My kids needed a healthy reminder :)

Cognitive Content Dictionary - this strategy ties in nicely with our Marzano Vocab books.  We would predict, read about it, write the final meaning,  then write about the word in our journals.  Multiple exposure to the words and definitions!  Score!

I also used The Bubbly Blonde's massive Matter unit - it has some great experiments that my sub was able to do with my class.  Keep reading to find out why I needed a sub ;)

Area:

My desk area is slowly becoming my favorite.  I have a tiny desk, but a ton of stuff, so I've been trying to find creative organizational solutions!  I bought that toolbox thingy that's all over Pinterest, I just haven't spray painted it or made cutesy labels for it yet.  I also made a desk skirt so I can hide stuff under my desk and no one will ever see it!

Signal:

I used to say "3-2-1, Hands on your head!" and kids would stop what they were doing and put their hands on their head.  But, after attending a Daily 5 conference and hearing how lovely their chimes sounded, I ordered a set of Woodstock Zenergy Chimes.  I love how they sound, how they are easy to carry around, and just like my pal Hadar, when I'm frustrated and hit them really hard, no one knows ;)  

Sanity:

My sanity is of course my beautiful family,

 My beautiful home in Hawaii,

 And my amazing network of teacher bloggers!  I went to Cincinnati this past weekend to meet up with some of my favs!  Here is the whole group at Rock Bottom Brewery downtown.

Top-down: Megan, Monica, Jessica, Hadar, Katie, Stephanie, Susan, Missy, Michelle, Tessa, Me, and Kelley!

At lunch with the infamous Missy Squirrels!

At dinner with Susan from TGIF!

My bunk-mate Tessa and I - driving from Chicago!

I feel so lucky to have these amazing ladies in my life and so blessed that I got to mean them IRL! 

I can't forget my giveaway winner!  Check your email, Dana!

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Nicole Heinlein

Giveaway Winner and Poetry Freebie

Congrats to my Versatiles winner, Lorina!!  I'll be sending you an email to make sure you get your prize!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I'm almost at 600 followers!  So exciting!  To celebrate all of you, I would like to share with you my poetry book cover.

I love teaching poems, chants, and songs to my class.  We sing songs about social studies content, chants about science conent, and read poems about reading strategies.  We sing songs before we leave the room, and songs about the days of the week.  We say chants abot the plant life cylce and chants about our home state, Hawaii.  We love it all!

I make my students a poetry book each year.  Each book has about 50 blank white pages in it with a cardstock cover and back.  I use a heavy duty stapler to adhere it, but a comb bind would work, as well.  Kids keep these in their book boxes so they can read them during Read to Self time to build fluency through repeated reading.  I also try to find recordings of the songs and chants or record my own students singing or chanting them to put on out class iPods.  Kids love listening to the songs and chants during reading centers.

I introduce one poem a week by doing call and response for each line.  We then practice singing it altogether.  I copy off the poem for each student so they have it in front of them as we are learning it.  Some need that visual cue.  We then talk about what the poem means.  Did we learn a new concept?  We we learn a new poetic element (rhyme, alliteration, etc), did we practice a skill we already knew?  Then the students sketch and label their pictures of what the poem taught them.  This is a OCDE Project GLAD® (Guided Language Acquisition Design) strategy, but it also ties in nicely with Marzano's vocabulary program.

Speaking of OCDE Project GLAD®, I love to use academic poems when I can.  Here is a freebie I made for you to help you get started with poetry books in your classroom.  Have so much fun!

What poems would you put in your poetry book?

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Nicole Heinlein

SIOP and a Freebie

This week was the last week of my ESOL class on SIOP!  For my final project, I wrote a 5-lesson thematic unit on Amphibians.  I used many of the same lessons and activities from my Amphibians Unit, but added in some extra SIOP-friendly strategies, such as a Jigsaw reading activity.

Back in grad school when I was getting my teaching license, one of our textbooks was Dr. Kagan's Cooperative Learning.  When I was reading the SIOP book for this ESOL course, I was reminded of all the cooperative learning strategies, such as Think-Pair-Share, heterogeneous groupings, and Jigsaw.  Luckily, I still had the book, so when I was writing up my lessons, I was able to pull up the original strategies and get a bigger picture as to how this would work in my classroom.

For the Jigsaw activity, it is basically what the OCDE Project GLAD® strategy Expert Groups is based on.  Students start out in table groups, then are put into Expert Groups.  These groups can be pre-meditated and thoughtfully placed, or they can be random.  Students read a text.  They then meet with their Expert Group, fill out a graphic organizer and plan how they will teach the other students about what they read.  Then students return to their original table groups.  In these groups, each person should have been in a different expert group.  Each students then takes turns teaching their group about the info they read.  The team takes notes on a Expert Group organizer.  At the end of the lesson, each table has a filled out Expert Group graphic organizer and each table member has learned about all the topics, even though they only technically read about one of them.

This is such a powerful lesson for many reasons.  There is an element of choice, so students are more motivated.  English learners are supported by engaging in discussion and writing information on graphic organizers to be able to go back to and see the important bullet points.  Low achieving students are successful and held accountable for their learning.  The teacher scaffolds learning and supports students along the way.

To help you implement a jigsaw activity in your classroom, click the image below to grab it from Google Docs.  It includes a set of graphic organizers and a poster to hang so students know the routine.  Enjoy!

I'm linking up with Teaching Blog Addict's Friday's Freebie!

What cooperative strategies do you use in your classroom?

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Nicole Heinlein

Classroom Tour

Welcome to my classroom!

Here are some pictures to guide you around my new room in 3rd grade!  I took advantage of the room move and grade level move to make many changes this year.  First up, you'll see my writing board.  I have some charts up about small moments, some examples of types of writing, and that cute giant pencil from The Teacher Wife.  I love her products!

A farther back picture of that wall.  Notice my learning target sign and the learning target posters from Lesson Plan SOS - they were even sweet enough to make me a custom ELD sign!   The giant plus sign is from The Teacher Wife.  Taped below the chalk tray are observation charts for my OCDE Project GLAD® unit on weather.  Read more about OCDE Project GLAD® here.

Another shot of that same northeast corner.  Here you see the shelves with my math manipulatives.  The shelf on top of the counter has plastic drawers (From the Target dollar section) that hold my work places - math centers from our math adoption Bridges in Mathematics.  Next to that shelf is a wooden listening center organizer.  It holds my tape and CD players, headphones, and chargers for the iPods and DVD players (those get housed in my locked closet when not in use).  I have two iPod touches that I got from a grant from my district's education foundation.  I also have an old nano that I never use, so I loaded it with the audiobooks from our Houghton Mifflin anthology.  I also have two DVD players that I got as a grant from Donorschoose.  I have phonics and sight word DVDs that my low kids can watch, and I also have videos of children's literature that kids can watch with subtitles as an alternate Listen to Reading.

Here is my classroom library.  It faces the northside of the school.  I believe that children need access to many books to choose from; books at their level and books that interest them.  My classroom reading levels range from kindergarten to middle school, so I need to have LOTS of books for my kiddos to access.  I use Scholastic bonus points and ask for donations from friends and family getting rid of books.  My first year of teaching my grandma gave me a ton of novels she had read and didn't want any more.  I took them to a local used bookstore, explained to the salesman that I was a first year teacher, and he let me trade them straight across for children's books.  I went back to that store several times that year, trading in my own books that I knew I would never read again.  This really helped to beef up my library and now my kids can all benefit from that man's kindness!

On the shelf, in the left of the picture, you'll see a big basket with teddy bears in it - this is for Read to Someone.  My kids can choose to read to a teddy bear instead of to another student.  It is so cute to watch them cuddled up with a bear and reading to it, like they are the teacher and the bear is their student!  I also have some round rugs (from Ikea) and pillows (mostly made by my mom) for kids to cuddle up with during Read to Self.

Here is where the library and the math manipulative corner meets.  Nothing too exciting.  Books on tape/CD are hanging, the wire drawers have supplies for Work on Writing (story starters, blank booklets to write stories on, sheets to write lists), and a small basket with DIY whisper phones.  I bought pieces of PVC pipe and corners.  My hubby cut the pipe and I glued an elbow piece to each end, then spray painted them lime green for a pop of color.  Some of my third graders still read out loud when reading to themselves, so this helps cut down on the noise.  I'll have to do a quick tutorial someday - they are seriously so easy to make.

A close up of the "teddy bear" corner of my library, facing the northwest side.  In the shelf on the counter, I always keep content area books.  Right now, I have books about weather in there, since that's what we are studying in science.

I love my book organizing system.  I always know where every book is when I want to find it.  I'll have to post about that another day.

Here is a pictorial input chart about states of matter.  It goes with my current OCDE Project GLAD® unit.  Read more about OCDE Project GLAD® here.

A water cycle input chart and chant.  I love OCDE Project GLAD®!

Here is the top of the northwest corner.  My classroom promises are from Debbie Miller's Teaching with Meaning.  I put it up on these super tall bulletin boards, since they aren't very accessible.  I figured it would be good to be able to see our promises all year long.  The faces art projects were a math glyph from our math adoption, Bridges in Mathematics.  I made the fabric bunting after seeing one in Abby's classroom over at The Inspired Apple.

Here is a shot of the southeast corner.  Behind that door is the girls bathroom.  The classroom next door and I share that bathroom.  You can see my schedule and classroom jobs cards on the white board.  My desk is turned diagonal.  Behind my desk is my problematic shelves and closet.  I've been working on them this week and they already look WAY better!  You'll also see a glimpse of my mailbox slots in the right of the picture.  I got those from Donorschoose last year and they are so awesome.  I couldn't imagine sorting all that paper myself anymore.  I only have kids turn things in that I want to grade.  Sometimes I will give kids a stamp on their paper before they can put it in their mailbox - that way I can walk around and check if they had done the work correctly.  

Here's a wider view of my whiteboard and writing bulletin board.  One table a week who wins the table point competition get to sit on yoga balls for the week.  They LOVE it!  It's a great reward to good behavior!  I got the balls from Donorschoose.  

Here's a view of the front door, the south side of the school.  You'll see the blue set of cubbies - there are 25 slots, but wait, I have 32 students!!!  Ya, it doesn't work out too well.  My teacher table is to the right.  That's where I meet with small groups.  The shelf behind it houses all the word work materials. There is the boys bathroom that connects my room to my bestie, Carla's room.  Next to the bathroom is a tall bookshelf where the kids put their book boxes.  Our principal bought bookboxes from Really Good Stuff this year for the whole school.  They are so much nicer than the cardboard Ikea ones we used to use!

Here's a wider shot of the northwest corner.  I still have a string of Christmas lights up.  Need to take those down!!
Above each table is a colored tissue pom-pom, made from this Martha Stewart tutorial, but inspired by this beautiful classroom from Pinterest.  I hang vocabulary words from the bottom of each pom pom to be the table name.  Right now, the table names are vocab words from our weather unit.  Next, they will be geometry vocab words.  I just love this idea!  It's cute, and educational!

 Here is the west wall.  You can see my calendar, CAFE board, and a pocket chart for math vocab words.  I painted my bulletin boards turquoise at the beginning of the school year.  I just love them!

So there you have it.  A super long tour of my classroom.  I still have a ton more I want to show you, so make sure to follow along! :)

Do you use whisper phones like me?  Or what about yoga balls?  Maybe you use something else as a reward for the winning table group?  I'd love to hear about it!

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Nicole Heinlein

Teaching With Glad

This past summer I had the pleasure of attending a training for OCDE Project GLAD®
 in the McMinnville School District in Oregon.

OCDE Project GLAD® (Guided Language Acquisition Design) is a model for teaching to all students, specifically students who speak another language other than English in their home.  My favorite motto from OCDE Project GLAD® is "Teach to the ceiling, review to the floor".  In the OCDE Project GLAD® model, the first couple of weeks are teacher driven, using many graphic organizers, whole group input charts, and high academic vocabulary.  After reviewing this language-rich information over and over again, the students eventually take ownership over it and become so independent.

I've taught using OCDE Project GLAD® strategies in my classroom for the past five years, but have not been formally trained until now.  The funny part is that the trainer was my 5th grade teacher, who now is a half time teacher and half time instructional coach in McMinnville.  It was so fun to be her student again!

The training lasted for five days and consisted of classroom observation in the mornings and work time in the afternoon.  We observed a summer school class that was comprised of 16 incoming 3rd grade ELL students and also children of migrant working families.  The entire class was Hispanic and spoke Spanish at home.  The school, Newby Elementary, is a bilingual English/Spanish school.  For each day of instruction the trainer, Erick Herrmann, an independent consultant, taught all of the strategies a regular teacher would use in a week.  The mornings went by very fast and had lots of content shoved in, but the kids did remarkably well.  They were well behaved, worked well together, and really did try their best to learn.  They were excited by the unit, Navigation. 

During the afternoons, I worked on a unit for my class on Scientific Inventions. I made Observation Charts, a Big Book, a Timeline, Picture File Cards, a Narrative Input Chart, and updated the Cognitive Content Dictionary.  Creator Marcia Bechtel's book Bringing It All Together was really helpful when I wanted to refresh my memory of the strategies.

Another way I stay brushed up on my OCDE Project GLAD® strategies is by joining the Yahoo Group - Project GLAD for Teachers.  If you ever have a question, all you have to do is post it to the group and all the wonderful other teachers who belong to the group will answer.  Even just by reading the questions other people post, I get reminded of little tips and tricks of teaching the strategies.  It's not a group that posts a ton, so it won't clog up your email inbox or anything like that.

I hope this was helpful for you and your students!  How do you teach your English language learners in your classroom?  I'd love to hear about it!

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Nicole Heinlein