May 2022 Teacher Talk

  Posted by Deann Marin of Socrates Lantern 

Welcome to our MayTeacher Talk.  All of us from the Teacher Talk collaborative would like to wish you a happy and prosperous summer. We have so many fab tips this month from fun activities, ELA and reading ideas, to high interest learning. You don't want to miss reading these blog posts from some awesome educators.

If you're interested in joining this unique group of teacher entrepreneurs, blogging buddies and/or our blog linky, sign up here...The Best of Teacher Entrepreneurs Marketing Cooperative. If you decide to join, "Feel free to email me at deann.marin@gmail.com for any questions you might have."

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Rejoice! It's the End of the School Year

By Deann Marin of Socrates Lantern

Rejoice, it's the end of the school year. We’re so eager for summer that we sometimes forget about all the things we have to do for the last few weeks of school.  Hopefully, you'll be celebrating a successful year with our students.  For those of you who didn’t have a great year, it's time to cheer, you never have to see this group of kids again, at least not in your classroom. 

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Welcoming the Summer Slide

By Retta London of Rainbow City Learning

It's an exhilarating time of the year! Testing should be over by now (Pleeeease tell me that's true for you!), classrooms are getting packed up and summerized, and we're celebrating all the learning that has happened for our students in this important piece of their childhood.

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Patriotic Karaoke

By Gini Musmanno of Reading Spotlight

If your classes need a pick-me-up before the school year ends, consider patriotic karaoke for some rousing fun with educational value.

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Create a Focused Learning Environment using Feng Shui for the Classroom

By Renee Heiss of All-American Teacher Tools

Do you feel like your classroom needs an uplift, but you don’t have the time or money to achieve your goal? Consider making a few Feng Shui adjustments. Your classroom will go from stuffy to energized with only a few changes because the "chi" or the energy of the room, is happy to circulate.

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How to Correct Mixed Metaphor and Malapropisms

By Charlene Tess of Charlene Tess

The use of mixed metaphors and malapropisms can be quite comical. Learn how to avoid them.

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Classroom Organization Ideas: What to Do Now to Reduce Your Workload Later

By Marcy Howe of It's a Teacher Thing

Check out these 7 great tips to learn what you can do now in your classroom to reduce your workload later.

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LANGUAGE ARTS - Fun Early Literacy Review: Canada Themed No-Prep Printables (and kids' thoughts on Canada Day)!

 

 Hello my friends! Here in Ontario, we have one week left of classes. At the end of the school year, I like to take some time to discuss Canada Day with my students. For the age group I teach, their perceptions of Canada Days past can be quite entertaining:

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Canada Day is clearly a memorable experience for even our youngest students, whether it be of fireworks, time with family or friends during the day. Whether we are retelling a story that we have read together, creating our own adventure, or discussing a personal experience, there is a logical sequence of events and words that match: first, then, finally (or whichever vocabulary you have decided to use!) (For a post about using the 3 part graphic organizer with young students, and a freebie, click here!) Here is a fun Canada Day story that started orally with a reading buddy who helped sort out the three basic story parts before the pictures were drawn (and was duly thanked!)

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These no-prep printables come from Canada Read and Write and More, the first set of what I have started to develop as a series. Here is the Canada themed and Canada Day writing paper:

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My students enjoy 'fun worksheets' every so often. The literacy skills practice pages that are included so far are pictured below:

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Bonus Terry Fox and hockey colouring fact sheets for those early finishers!

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I will leave you with this freebie and links to money-saving bundles that include Canada Read and Write and More! Best wishes to all of you as you finish the school year, and Happy Canada Day!

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P.S. Here's a little 'Aha' moment from a pre-Canada Day conversation in my classroom about 19 years ago...no figurative language in kindergarten!

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Related:

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June Teacher Talk

Posted by Deann Marin of Socrates Lantern


It's June Teacher Talk time.....many of you are finished with school now and breathing a sigh of relief.  Sit back, relax and read some informative blog posts from our veteran educators. 

Have a well deserved summer vacation.

If you're interested in joining this unique group of teacher entrepreneurs, blogging buddies and/or our blog linky, sign up here....The Best of Teacher Entrepreneurs Marketing Cooperative. If you decide to join, be sure to mention one of our names. 

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End of the Year Musings

By Deann Marin of Socrates Lantern

 I always approach the end of the school year with mixed emotions, though I’m ecstatic to be out for summer vacation, I always feel a little sad saying good-bye. Many of my soon to be 7th graders hug me and leave with tears in their eyes, knowing that our little family will no longer be together. All the trials and tribulations, the challenges, the fun times and sad times will always be with us, but it will never be the same.

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A Portfolio to Remember - Part 2: Creating the Masks
By Retta London of Rainbow City Learning

How to make life cast masks with your students, and how to use the masks to decorate a keepsake writing portfolio.
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Summer Review Going Into Grade 2

By Alison Monk of The Literacy Garden

Avoid the summer slide with this NO PREP resource. The beachy themed pages include daily math and reading skill practice for children about to enter 2nd grade. Perfect for parents to use and teachers to give!

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But All You Do is Play!

By Susan Berkowitz of Susan Berkowitz

The work of young children is play! Playing is how young children interact with and learn from the world. Building language skills in children does, indeed, involve a lot of play. 

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Get out of Post-it Purgatory

By Kerry Tracy of Kerry Tracy

Are you a TpT seller or just someone with a LOT on your to-do list? This free, online tool will change your life!

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More Than Just Art!

By Kathie Yonemura of Tried and True Teaching Tools

Mandalas are much more than just art! This simple geometry lesson not only creates beautiful classroom displays, but reinforces geometric concepts.

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End of the School Year Ideas!

By Lisa Robles of LisaTeachR's Classroom

Here are my top end of the school year ideas!

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Math, Monet & Measurement

By Tracy Willis of Wild Child Designs

Inspired by a visit to Monet's garden in Giverny, a teacher shares her experience and inspires an investigative math project. Students create centimeter, millimeter, and decimeter garden models while learning about Impressionism and Claude Monet. Inspired math!

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An InLinkz Link-up

End of Year - "End of Year Scavenger/Qr Code Hunt"

 By:  Laurane Rae of Teach To Tell
Grades: 3 - 6

Reporting is done. Everything set in the curriculum has been taught - well almost... and there's a spirit of carefreeness in the air. It's perhaps nearing the End of Year or School Term for you and students have little or no motivation to keep going right till the last day. The secret is to keep them busy and organized/organised right till the very end, more for the sake of your sanity. That doesn't mean you can't have fun whilst learning. There are lots of fun activities out there that promote subtle learning. A favorite/favourite of mine is the 'End of Year Scavenger Hunt'.

This activity not only enables students to reflect on the school year but also provides the teacher with an overview of the effectiveness of teaching and learning that took place throughout the year.

For example the question in card #16 below gives the teacher a notion of an ideal teacher from a student's perspective.

Card #13 helps the teacher know a student's lasting impression about a particular topic taught.

This card would be a good indicator of what lessons students take away with them as the year comes to an end.

Here's one on what students have learned to become better writers.

This one links to learning outside the classroom.

Finally this one asks the students to give a one line clever sum-up of the year gone by.

For students and teachers who love technology and want to integrate this into learning, the same activity can be done with QR Codes. Here students scan the code and are taken to the question.

Using these cards are simple. Just spread/hide in the classroom for students to find and answer. They must record their responses on the Recording Sheet.

I hope your students have fun with these - I know mine did!

Have a memorable End of Year/School Term and here's wishing you and your students all the best for the next one.

End of the Year Musings

By Deann Marin of Socrates Lantern

I always approach the end of the school year with mixed emotions, though I’m ecstatic to be out for summer vacation, I always feel a little sad saying good-bye.  Many of my soon to be 7th graders hug me and leave with tears in their eyes, knowing that our little family will no longer be together. All the trials and tribulations, the challenges, the fun times and sad times will always be with us, but it will never be the same. 

Reflecting back to the beginning of the year, I remember how small they were when they first entered my room, some shy and nervous about their first few days, others acting cool trying to impress their peers., especially those they don’t know. The first hurdle over, they’ve opened their lockers. Simple process for some while others end up in tears because they can’t figure out how to do it. By the end of the year, they look back at this and laugh at themselves.

How strict I am the first few weeks, trying very hard not to crack a smile. This is the time to get them into shape. so that we all have a great year. They learn the rules and always test me.  Finally, after awhile, I can let my hair down and be myself. I can crack jokes, they can joke around and we can all laugh together. This is when real learning takes place, and to see their “ah ha,” moments is what teaching is all about.

I love 6th graders, the majority are so willing to learn, that it makes teaching rewarding and enjoyable.. One of my favorite things is our morning discussions. Their backgrounds are quite diverse and I learn something new almost everyday. Many are knowledgeable about a lot of things and they’re eager to share. They can talk about whatever is on their mind, and they feel safe doing so. We are now, officially a family and I’ve become their surrogate parent.

As I say good-bye, each of my kids takes a part of me with them. I feel certain that I’ve given them the support, strength and confidence to move on to seventh grade. The time has come for them to spread their wings and fly.. 

When I close the door for the final time, I take comfort in knowing that soon I’ll have another bunch of little chickadees to bring up.

Please download my free, School Memories, you can use this for the last day of school. 

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Have a wonderful summer!

Deann

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Something for Back to School

End of the Year Arithmetic Games

Something for the end of the year
and something for the beginning.

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