TIPS FOR MAKING THE MOST OF MORNING MEETING

Happy Fall, Teacher Friends!

It's officially November and we are finally getting the hang of this whole "school thing" in Kindergarten. If you teach little ones, you know that it can take some time before all parts of your day are up and running completely because teaching every little procedure is beyond important.

Rolling out a Morning Meeting that followed The Responsive Classroom format was a goal of mine this year. I am happy to share that a complete Morning Meeting is finally happening and it's also one of my favorite parts of the day.

If you don't know... The 4 components of this Morning Meeting are:

1. Greeting       2. Share       3. Activity       4. Morning Message

I have to admit ... I was a skeptic of the Activity part. My first thought was that the Activity would be all fun, games, and silliness. I was unsure about the value that it could add to my classroom. Well.. I could not have been more wrong. Activities can be fun, academic, and most-importantly, an opportunity to strengthen your class community. To help myself better understand and implement an effective Morning Meeting, I purchased The Morning Meeting Book. GAME CHANGER. If this has been sitting in your shopping cart, click checkout yesterday.

Here are just a few of the valuable aspects that committing to this format of Morning Meeting have brought to my classroom:
My students are
    - Greeting each other spontaneously.
    - Saying "Goodbye ____" to each and every friend at dismissal.
    - Independently starting cooperative games that we've played during "Activity" time at recess.
    - Improving their speaking and listening skills.
    - Improving their ability to ask meaningful questions.
    - And most importantly... helping to build a positive classroom community.

If you're interested in starting Morning Meeting in your classroom, here are a few tips and tricks I've learned to help your students get the most out of it:

Go Digital & Visual 

- Use slides so students have a visual reference.
- Slides will also help you feel more organized. Have a template for each component to make prepping simple.
If you don't want to make your own, my Morning Meeting Slides include editable and ready-to-use options.

Greeting

- Have an auditory cue that signals for students to get in a circle (less talking for you, yay!). Songs or chimes are perfect for this.
- Keep it simple to start; Handshakes, high-fives, pinky-shakes. This will help everyone get comfortable.
- Have a cue that signals the end of the greeting and for students to get back in a circle.

Share Time

- Start with prompts and turn-and-talks.
- Prompts: Simple share topics about things students like to do; favorites; etc.
- Have students turn-and-talk when first starting "Share" so that everyone gets a chance to talk.
- After the turn-and-talk, choose a small group of students to share out to the group. They can share on the topic or about anything they want.
- Provide sentence stems to help your students speak in full sentences. This is also a helpful strategy for ELL's.
- Don't forget to have sharers choose friends to ask them a question (You'll be amazed how their questions improve over time).

Activity

- Model appropriate behaviors. Then model again. (The book has a life changing format for interactive modeling that has been effective).
- Again, start simple. We started with a game similar to "Simon Says."
- You lead first. Then choose students. When starting with the similar activity to "Simon Says", I was "Simon" for the first 3 days. After that, I chose students to lead.

Morning Message

- Keep it brief and to the point. This helps your early readers and it helps everyone's attention span.
- Example: Good morning class! Today is Marvelous Monday. We are going to practice Math Centers today.

Last, and most importantly: Make sure you are participating in Morning Meeting fully. Not only is it vital for your students to develop relationships with each other, but with you too.

"No significant learning can occur without a significant relationship." (James Corner). 

*These are my personal tips/tricks that I've come up with from experience - for the official tips, purchase that book! Seriously, what are you even waiting for??

If you have tips, tricks, or ideas for those of us trying to set up a Morning Meeting please share them in the comments below! Let's help each other help our students :)

2017 CLASSROOM REVEAL: PINEAPPLES & PURPOSE

Hi Teacher Friends!!
I just can't believe how fast the time flies. We have already headed back to school and my classroom is ready to be revealed! I wasn't required to be back in my classroom until August 16th, but of course I was in there by August 1st.

Typically, I may go in a day or two before teacher workdays start, but this year I just couldn't stay away. I thought long and hard all summer about changes I wanted to make in order to have a more purposeful and student-centered learning environment. And of course... all the pineapples ;) Because of all the changes, I spent just about every day in my classroom since the start of August and lots of time at Walmart, Target, Dollar Tree, and our local Teacher Store. #teacherproblems

Here are a few spaces in my classroom and how I've made them purposeful for my little leaders:

FROM CUBBIES TO BINS

This year I switched out my cubbies for teal drawer bins from Walmart. I love that there will be less student traffic to one area of the room when it's time to get supplies. Since I'm the most indecisive person I know, I used the Square Adhesive Pockets from the Target Dollar Spot to label the drawers and tops of the bins. Now if/when I change my mind about what goes in them, I can easily switch out the labels. 

Drawer Bins - Walmart (not an affiliate link)

Pineapple Table Caddy Labels - Teaching Little Leaders (part of Pineapple Decor Pack)

Drawer Bin Labels - Teaching Little Leaders - These are not currently available in my store. If you'd like to see them in my store, please let me know. 

A PURPOSEFUL WHITEBOARD DISPLAY

Last year I was writing objectives on the board that were not purposeful for my little kindergarteners. 

This year, I wanted to make sure that I was displaying learning objectives that made sense to them and easier to manage for me. The picture clues are perfect and the hack for displaying the objectives with command hooks and binder rings will make keeping up with the display simple for this busy teacher!
The Left/Right visual pictured below will serve as a constant reminder of the difference between the two.
If you don't use hand signals, I highly recommend starting. Game-changer. Lessons no longer have to stop for raised hands asking to use the bathroom, get a tissue, etc.
Focus Wall Display - A Smiling Teacher
Hand Signals - Longwing Montessori 
Pineapple Calendar - Teaching Little Leaders
Teal Schedule Cards - Teaching Little Leaders
Left/Right Sign - Easy Peasy Primary Resources
Days In School Display - Wild About Firsties 

MATH ON THEIR LEVEL

I keep saying this math spot is my favorite space in my classroom. The reason isn't just that everything is labeled - teachers love labeling ;) - Actually, I just love this spot because I know I get to teach Math every day this year, now that I've switched from teaching 2 half day classes to 1 full day K class, YAY! Everything here is labeled for students to independently find the manipulatives or center activity they need :) 

MATH Center Bins - Teaching Little Leaders (labels not in my store.. yet) 

Math Bin Labels - Reagan Tunstall

STEM Bins - Teach Outside the Box

Chevron & Pineapple Borders - Teacher Created Resources (not an affiliate link)

Math Banner - Teaching Little Leaders

PLAY LEARN GROW

If you ask me, play and social skills are just as important to teach kids as academic standards are. This space in my classroom was created so that students would have an open area where they could select from a variety of things to play and learn with. Some of their choices include: Lincoln Logs, building blocks, academic puzzles, nursery rhyme puzzles, play dough, dinosaurs and other animals, books, Legos, literacy games, and oversized math manipulatives. 

I also just picked up a play kitchen (not pictured) that was donated by a family in our community and am so excited to add it to this space! I can't wait to watch my little leaders explore and learn through play this year. 

Play, Learn, Grow letters - Teaching Little Leaders using Amy Groesbeck's beautiful fonts

Teal Carpet - Amazon (not an affiliate link)

JUST RIGHT SPOTS FOR EVERY LEARNER

In our classroom, we refer to flexible seating options as "just right spots." These are spaces in the room where students can do their best learning in a spot that's "just right" for them. This year I created a low table with 2 trapezoid tables. I pulled out the metal adjustable legs so that it would be low enough for my kindergarteners to sit on pillows.

Pillows - Five Below (not an affiliate link) 

We were also very fortunate this year to have a family donate 6 scoop chairs to our classroom that will be perfect for independent reading. 

Other flexible seating options that are not pictured: 

Big carpet

Student Tables

Lap Desks from Target Dollar Spot

Laundry Baskets (another great independent reading spot for little ones) 

STUDENT-LED LITERACY CENTERS

 Helping students become independent learners is a goal of every teacher. If we want our students to be leaders, we need to create an environment where they can do so successfully. This space in my classroom fosters student choice with the writing materials and options. It's also organized so that students can independently find, set up, and clean up their independent center activities. 

I hope this classroom reveal has given you some ideas that you can take back to your classroom! If you have ways you make your classroom student-led and purposeful, please share them in the comments! Let's all help each other help our students :) 

6 THINGS YOU MUST DO BEFORE SUMMER BREAK

Alright teacher friends, it's about that time again! The end of the school year. Your brain is scrambling with so many thoughts...

First of all, how did this year fly by, yet again?!
Are my students ready?
How is it time for report cards already?? The fourth quarter JUST started!
Must plan the end of the year party...student gifts...parent volunteer thank-yous...next year's welcome letter...

I could keep going but I think I'll stop because I can feel my stress-level rising just typing this.

Among these responsibilities also comes packing up for next school year. And this whole thing has me thinking. Every year I say, "Next year I'm going to be more organized." "Next year I'll have all of my intervention activities prepped in August." "Next year, next year, next year. Well next year comes (always faster than I thought it would) and with all of the other beginning of the year responsibilities, I never get it done. Come the following June, I'm saying it again. Next year.... Well, no more for this teacher!
I am determined to prep all of those organization materials that I say I'll do at the start of the year. But I'm determined to do it now. And you should be too! Check out the following suggestions from myself and the (amazing) credited TPT'ers below AND a free checklist at the bottom of this post.

Here are some recommendations for your MUST-DO LIST before THIS school year ends:

• Pack, pack, pack! But do it neatly :) 
• "Pack carefully and be organized. you'll be thankful in August when you are unpacking." - Kestner's Creations Primary Pickins 
• Clean Out and Take Inventory
• Go through your classroom library to get rid of old books and take an inventory. - Middle School Cafe
• "Purge everything. Clean as much as possible. I'd love to say prepare everything for the first week, but I know realistically I'm drained by the EOY and not up for much beyond cleaning." - HappyRock Creations 
• "Clean all book bins with a magic eraser, inventory and organize all classroom supplies (markers, colored ,pencils, glue sticks, etc.) so that I know what I need to buy over the summer, and clean all student white boards. I don't want to do any of it come August!!" - 2nd Grade Sassy Pants
• "Organize my files! They get so messy throughout the year." - Kinder Sparks
• "Grab all the school supplies I can for the following year before they run out this year from the supply room. Give PTO parents all my decodable books to fold and staple over the summer." - The Primary Brain
• "Re-sort my leveled library, clean out student book boxes, take down Reader's Workshop Anchor Charts and store them until next year." - The K Files
• Organize your centers and make copies for the first few days or even weeks! 
• Put Beginning of the Year Centers in tubs and make copies of: Welcome Letter, Flip book, FB Form, Data Binder Pages, and first 2 days lessons. - Matthews' Kindergarten Mischief
• "I think about what copies I used regularly. For example, I give a problem solving packet each week for math and a vocabulary sheet for my students every Monday. I make copies of these pages for next year. I fill them in milk crates, label them week 1, week 2, etc." - Llama with Class
• " I plan out and photocopy my first two units of each class. This helps me focus on all the other new school year work that I need to do and I don't have to worry about the copying machine working or if, by the grace of God, it is, wait on the line forever." - Samson's Shoppe
• I plan to organize my centers in bins by center type. For example, I'll put my all of my "A" Centers for my MATH Rotation in bins, organized by skill. - Teaching Little Leaders
• Prep Your First Week Essentials: Routines & Read Alouds
• "Have the first week planned, run off, read alouds ready, anchor charts made & my list of routines ready to teach!" - 1st Grade Fireworks
• "Copy first days of school packets. Copy and organize math morning work in student folders." - Believe to Achieve by Anne Rozell
• "Organize posters and bulletin board displays." - Kaycee's Creations
• My routines are all ready to go for August on my Back-to-School Classroom Procedure Slides :) - Teaching Little Leaders
• Make a Summer Plan.
• Make a plan for preparing over the summer. "I need to plan what I need to do, what to go over, what to read, etc." - The Magnolia Loft
• "Run copies of any large items that need to be cut/laminated to take hope over the summer." - The Primary Brain
• Prepare advice for your new class. 
• "I have my current students prepare advice for my future students. I used to have them write letters to future third graders and more recently I have had them fill out flip books of advice. I make sure to save this information in a safe place so that it is ready to share with my new students the first day of school." - Llama with Class

Favorite Organization Tools from TPT'ers: 

• Binders
• Large Iris Cases 
• Plastic Drawers 
• Labeled Baskets and Bins
• Book Bins
• Dollar Store Bins
• Google Drive
• Fold and File Box (Fits right into your teacher bag for papers going to and from school. S/O to Llama with Class for this one!)
• Data Binder
• Colored Hanging Folders (use different colors for different subjects. Thanks, Kinder Sparks)

Whether you simply clean house or prepare everything for the first week of school, I hope these recommendations help you focus your EOY To-Do List!

Keep scrolling for more organization resources to help with your EOY prep :)

Monthly Read Aloud Bin Labels

Monthly Read Aloud Bin Labels

Editable Student Book Bin Labels

Small Group Bin Labels

Click the cover images for book bin organization happiness! 

Grab this FREE End of the Year Checklist to help with your To-Do List! 

HOW TO MAKE YOUR COMPUTER SCREEN LOOK BEAUTIFUL

Hello, hello! I'm not sharing teaching tips today, but I am sharing a tip that I think will help you become a more productive teacher ;) Because, let's face it...we're all more productive when things look cute/pretty/insert another girly adjective here. I've even been known to take my personal laptop into school instead of using my work one. The reason being that I've customized SO MUCH on my personal laptop to help myself enjoy doing the part of my job that doesn't involve interacting with kids. It's silly, I know .. I'm just that person.

The tip I'm sharing for productivity today? How to make your computer screen look beautiful! It's easier than you think! And I promise that once you've customized, you'll feel like you can get down to business... and you might actually want to! 

First things first: Change your background! 

There are so many options out there. I'm someone who needs a clean/simple look to stop procrastinating (thank you, Pinterest) and get to work. That's why my background is currently a watercolor image from Teach Create Motivate. It's available here on her Instagram. She's a genius! The background image even has designated spots for your to-do lists. I just type mine up on "Stickies" (which I've obviously customized with cute fonts).

Organize Your Files

Ugh... this one was a pain for me. When I first started TPT, everything I created was just

EVERYWHERE. I also love putting things on my desktop for easy access. This is totally fine... but make sure you organize it in a file folder somewhere after! I went ahead and organized my clip art into categories, and now everything is so easy to find. All of my products in my TPT folder are organized by type as well. I know what you're saying ... but I have SO MUCH! It will take FOREVER to organize. Ok, ok, I know. But seriously, you will feel way better. If you don't want to organize by category, at least do yourself a favor and organize everything in your folders by Name or Date added. I promise it will be easier to find and make you more efficient. 

Customize Your File Folders

This is the fun part!!! I've created a Screenshot Video to walk you through how to customize your folders :) The best part is it's SO simple!! Enjoy!! 

Want my folder images? Grab them here for free! :) I'd love to see how you use them! Be sure to tag Teaching Little Leaders in your Instagram and Facebook photos! 

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B-q4N8VS171QbmswTlMtS3VuV00

Customizing Color Themes in Powerpoint and Excel

I'm totally aware that there are many people who will already know to customize their color themes in Powerpoint and Excel, and I should probably be less excited to share that I just found out how to do this.... but I'm sharing anyway :)

So I ask... Did you know that you can customize your color themes? My first thought was - "You mean I don't have to look at those dull default colors that Powerpoint picks anymore???" And my second thought was .. "Woah, what a time saver!"

How to Customize Colors

In Excel... 

1. Select the "Page Layout" tab at the top of your spreadsheet.

2. Click "Colors"

3. Select a theme from the drop down list. My favorite is Red Violet! :) 

In Power Point...

1. Select the "Format" tab at the top of your screen.

2. Click "Theme Colors". The screen pictured to the right will pop up.

3. Customize each accent color.

4. Name your theme! 

5. Now Power Point will remember this theme and it will be set to default each time you open it, yay for time savers!

This weekend I took Hallie's, from Teacher Seller School, FREE "TPT Like a Boss" Course (which I highly recommend, by the way!). This course gave me the time to think about branding and the importance of helping others associate various pictures and posts with you and your brand. Customizing my color theme (I named this one on the right, Teaching Little Leaders, of course), has allowed me to have my brand's consistent colors at the tip of my fingers!


Here are a few pictures of the theme used for my most recent product, an Editable Progress Monitoring Spreadsheet and a closer look at my TLL Color Theme!

 

All fonts added to this post are Teaching Little Leaders Fonts.

Thanks for reading and Happy Customizing!! 

The Power of Positive Affirmations

Hello blog friends :)

I feel like it has been way too long! I've been one busy teacher (you know the feeling). It was report card "season", then I became obsessed with teaching myself how to make fonts, and now using those to create fun products for the classroom! I'll be sharing one of those today for free because I know you love freebies as much as I do!

Last year I was fortunate enough to be part of the district's Math Leadership Team. It was exciting to know that I was taking part in helping to shape the future of math instruction and curriculum for our little ones. On top of that, it was an incredible learning opportunity. Everyone on the leadership team was enrolled in Jo Boaler's online course with Stanford on Growth Mindset and How to Learn Math. I became fascinated with this idea and how to foster this mindset in my students. If you want to learn more, I suggest reading Carol Dweck's book, Mindset.

One strategy I have used to help build my students' growth mindset is positive affirmations. It's such a simple strategy. If you're already doing this, you know how powerful it is... and if you aren't, I hope you'll give it a try :)


The idea behind this is so logical. Kids need to believe in themselves as much as they need others to believe in them. So you give them the tools, the words, to express positive self-talk. "I am smart." "I can do it." "I will try my best." "I can learn anything." We've all had students in our class who struggle to believe in themselves. They don't know how to use positive self-talk or they lack the confidence to do so. I know this because I was one of those kids. Praising myself was completely unnatural and I needed other people to tell me when I was successful, when I was doing something well, right, etc. Is it great to get positive feedback from others? Yes. But we need to be able to give it to ourselves, and so do our students.

There is currently a big push for teachers to provide more specific praise and feedback to their students. Instead of, "Good job", state specifically what they did well. "I like how your lowercase j goes under the bottom line" (Literally used that one today).

So about those positive affirmations.... How do I use them? What do we say? The main time we use them is during Morning Meeting as we're getting ready for the day. The idea is to feed kids with a positive, growth mindset to help them believe in themselves. A few positive affirmations I use with my students are:

• "I am smart."
• I can do this." (We tend to make this more specific - "I can count to 100!" and we say it before we do it). 
• "I am a good listener." - This one is my favorite. I start by praising their amazing listening skills, giving them examples of how I know they're good listeners. Then I ask them to tell themselves they are a good listener. 

To put another spin on it, my students also tell each other these things (i.e., "You are smart." "You can do this." "You are a good listener."). When those little eyes light up after saying or hearing positive words about themselves, I guarantee that your heart will feel so full!

In light of the Valentine's Day spirit, here are 5 positive affirmation posters to hang in your classroom!

Click to grab this freebie :)

What You Do Matters: 3 Aha Moments from this Week

This week I had some awesome "oh my gosh, they're actually learning something important" aha moments that I'm eager to share with you! Don't you love when that happens?! As teachers, we want to know that what we're doing matters, that we're helping our students become amazing people and learn worthwhile life lessons along with academic content. I hope you read this and a) realize that what you do matters, b) you have your own aha moment, and/or c) you get some ideas to implement in your classroom!

The first "aha" moment came when we learned about Martin Luther King Jr. We read Martin's Big Words and talked about how MLK believed in peaceful protests and "fighting" with love, not hate. Wow! I mean, wow! I was beyond impressed with the reactions from the 5 and 6 year olds in my classroom. I did edit the story just a tad to have more appropriate language for my little leaders, avoiding any topic or word that might spark conversation not meant for a Kindergarten classroom. The main objectives for this read aloud were for the students to understand that Martin Luther King Jr. grew up in a time when segregation among people based on skin color was happening and that he believed in making change in a peaceful way. It is amazing to hear their reactions to segregation and to watch as they grasped how MLK tried to lead this change. One of my students said, "I love love." It truly touched my heart. After talking about how people still remember him today, we created directed drawings as a way to help commemorate MLK in the present (pictured below). We used directions from Mrs. Miner's Monkey Business free product :) She also has an awesome blog post on MLK lessons incase you still wanted to touch upon it this week or want to put it in your files for next year!

Amazing Directed Drawings! 

The second "aha" moment was part of the first - those directed drawings! I can't believe I haven't been doing more of these, and if you haven't either, you will after you hear about this!! Every month my students are creating self-portraits and writing their names to create a personal book at the end of the year (which I cannot wait to see)! Their handwriting has changed drastically since September, but there hasn't been a large change in their self-portraits. I realize now that the reason we haven't seen a large change in self-portraits is because we haven't spent enough time on learning techniques of drawing and we really should be! Using pictures to express ideas is part of the Kindergarten curriculum. Not to mention - they're 5 and 6. Fostering creativity and a love for learning is arguably the most important part of this job. Later in the week we created self-portraits and the difference was incredible!! 

A close-up of several MLK directed drawings

The third and final "aha" moment of this week came when the district's internet went down and I couldn't access any of my flipcharts. (If you don't know what this is, it's like Promethean Boards version of Smart Notebook  and it's awesome!!). Because of this little mishap, we had to wing it - which ended up being valuable for everyone. Morning Meeting is my favorite part of the day! (I plan on explaining why in a future post). At this point in the year, it basically runs myself - isn't it awesome when your students can lead the classroom?! But I knew that with a change in routine, that may not be the case today. Instead of utilizing the smartboard to support our morning meeting, we went non-digital. Smartboard off. Classroom calendar posted on the board, singing with no music, and using actual magnetic letters and cookie sheets instead of interactive letters. My students have never been so focused! So teacher friends, I challenge you, stray from the routine every once in a while. Turn off your interactive white boards and connect with your little leaders in a different way.

A snapshot of one of our Morning Meeting activities, creating patterns
with oversized shapes. They LOVED this!

So remember, what you do matters. You are making a difference. Your students are learning invaluable lessons.