Management Monday: Genius Awards

Hello everyone! Natalie here and I'm bringing you today's Management Monday idea. As a review, We are bringing back our Management Monday series! It was something Rachelle started about 4 years ago and it ran for about a year. We loved sharing our ideas on classroom management, organization tips, behavior management, time management, and more!

After 10 years of teaching, I've found that positive reinforcement is key to motivating a lot of students. I am personally really motived by positive reinforcement as well. I love getting a little thank you every once in a while and I like to feel appreciated for the things that I do. And guess what?! A lot of our students are the exact same way!

Today I wanted to share with you an idea I've used in the past to help motivate my students to work hard and use higher levels of thinking. It's something I call a "Genius Award" or in the past I've also called it an "Einstein Award" or a "MVP Award."

{Click the picture to download this for FREE!}

What is Genius Award?

It's a classroom incentive idea to encourage students to use higher levels of thinking in your classroom. Any time a student has a bright idea, you can recognize, encourage, and celebrate their accomplishment with a Genius Award!

Students will love these because they will feel special and encouraged to come up with more bright ideas. Parents will love this because they always love to hear about positive experiences their children have in class! As a parent myself, I know that I would be thrilled if my son came home with a Genius Award to show me! 

How can this help with classroom management? Having any type of positive reinforcement system in your classroom will encourage those good behaviors you want to see in your classroom. You can print off a class list and keep track of who wins an award and when. It will give you opportunities to look for greatness even from ALL of your students - even especially from your struggling students. Every child deserves to feel smart and valued. These coupons will give them that opportunity to shine!


Check out our past Management Monday posts here:






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K-4 Animal Research Projects

Animal reports are a fun way to get young students excited about doing research. Today I wanted to show how I differentiate my animal research unit for kindergarten all the way up through fourth grade. This is my 3rd year of doing these projects and I am always so impressed with all of the great work my students produce.

My K, 1st, and 2nd graders use the animal research templates found in my All About Animals Research Reports and we use the San Diego Zoo Kids website to do research on an animal. My 3rd and 4th graders use Google Slides to create a multi-media presentation. They do their research right in Google Slides or use Kiddle.co (Google owned, kid safe search website) to do their research. Read more to see how I differentiate these reports for each grade level.


Kindergarten:

For my kinders, this is a shared research project. I introduce the project, turn on the San Diego Zoo Kids website, and then open up to an animal that we will research together. For this project, my students and I chose the African Elephant to research together. I first had them watch the 3 minute video on African Elephants and then we made a list of things we learned on the board. Then I'd read some of the information listed on the webpage and students would help me add the important information to our list. When doing our research, I always want my students to be able to answer these 3 questions: What do they look like? What do they eat? Where do they live?

From our list, students had a lot of information they could use in their reports. Here is a preview of some kindergarteners working on their reports.

    

1st Grade:

In first grade this project usually takes 3 or 4 thirty minute class periods. On day one, I model how to do the research report. I show them how to navigate the San Diego Zoo website and how they can find and choose an animal to research.  Together, we choose an animal that we want to research. We read the information together and then add it to our reports. I model how we can take the information and pull out 3 important facts. 

On days 2-3 the students get to do the project by themselves. They are really good at doing this since I spent the whole first class period modeling how to find information on the website. Most students will finish by the end of day 3, so on day 4 they can color their reports, write a non-fiction story on the back, and if they have time, they can choose another animal to research.

   

2nd Grade:

In second grade, I repeat my 1st grade lesson, but we take it a step further. After we fill out our report, I then have my students open up to a new Word document and type a one page report on their animal. (Students use a size 28 font and leave a spot to draw a picture after they're done.)

 

3rd Grade:

In third grade, we go straight to using Google Slides (you could also use PowerPoint or another similar program) to do the reports. I model how to design a cover page, how to get pictures (just click on Tools - Research and then you can search right in Google Slides), how to do research, and how to add their information into their slides.

I spend some time talking about the basics of doing research such as using reliable sources, copyright, and putting the information in their own words. In all, this project takes me 4 thirty minute class periods. At the end, students get to stand up and share their presentations with the class. 

I love how 3rd graders feel so accomplished for learning how to use Google Slides so proficiently. Here are a couple examples of their cover pages. 

4th Grade:

My fourth grade classes do the same as the third graders, however they go a little bit deeper. To incorporate the 4th grade state standards, I have students choose a Utah native animal to research, and they have to include a slide about what animal adaptions their animal has to survive. In 4th grade, I teach the basics of writing a bibliography and they must cite their sources at the end. 

Here's a little peek of part of a 4th grader's project. 

I absolutely love doing these projects with my students. It's one of my very favorite lessons of the whole year! It really is a great way to meet a lot of important writing and technology standards in an easy to do, engaging research project. And best of all, STUDENTS LOVE IT!

If you're interested in the animal report template that my K, 1st, and 2nd graders used, you can find it inside this Wild About Animal Research Report pack. I currently have this pack listed this as half off in my TPT store and will keep it on sale all week. 

If anyone is wondering what I do with my 5th and 6th graders, I plan to write up some details and post about them next. Hint: 5th graders do American History research reports and 6th grade does Space Reports. More about that later! 

I'd love to hear your thoughts about animal reports! 

Do your students love it as much as mine?

Any tips and tricks you want to share?

Please leave a comment and let us know.

A Pair of Pears

I just had to share how cute these came out! We have been learning about homophones and so I introduced the topic with the book Dear, Deer and then used Sarah Cooley's Pair of Pears Pack! ADORABLE!

{Purchase Here}

And my favorite of ALL time!  

All of our Instagram Followers {@whattheteacherwants} saw this last week:

PLEASE check out Sarah's Pack:

Number Sense Freebies!

At the beginning of the year, I always do a big push for number sense {and throughout the year, too!}. Here are some number sense items I've posted about on ABC and 123 last year that I think you might like! Head over there and check out their great site!

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This math game can be played in partners, groups, or independently.  Just copy the game pieces on cardstock, laminate and cut-out. Then, have the students match each number to the number word and record on their recording sheets.  I've included a number-word reference sheet too!  Enjoy!

Here is a little Number Sense activity I thought would be fun to reinforce number words, number pictures, and numerals {1-10}.  For more math ideas from my previous posts, click {here}.

You need these {Toy Cars}- You can buy them at the Dollar Tree:

{source}

And you'll have your kiddos drive over {trace} the numbers on these:

Clipart and/or fonts are copyright DJ Inkers and used with permission: www.djinkers.com

Click {HERE} to download  Driving Numbers!

 I got this sweet little idea from another teacher/blogger {here}. 

Mrs. Morrow does this same thing with sight words. Fabulous!

 I made this little game to help my kiddos with their number sense of numbers 11-30. They can play in groups of 3-4. It's called CRASH!

Procedure

Draw a card from the pile. Read what is on the card and tell your group. Write it on one of the cars if you are right. If you are wrong or don’t know, ask your group the correct answer and then put the card at the bottom of the pile. If you get a crash card, you lose a turn. Once you have all of the cars filled up, you are the winner!

For the teacher:

*Copy the cards on cardstock

*Print the numbers on labels {avery 5160}

*Stick labels onto each card

Print these cards multiple times

Print these on labels {5160} and stick on cards before laminating
Click {here} for number labels.

Recording sheet

Here's a little secret...you can use these cards with any concept you want!  Sight words, numbers, addition, subtraction, etc. {just make your own labels to put on the cards or write them in}.

VIP

Oh.My.Word.

Can you say survival mode? I'm not sure what it is {well, I do know}, but I'm seriously EXHAUSTED at about 4:00pm everyday. I apologize for neglecting you all {or y'all, as my cute friends from the south would say}.  It's been CUH-RAZY here.

Please forgive me for the lack of posting. ;)

I wanted to do a little throw-back Thursday for you! Some of you might have seen this last year, or maybe not.  Enjoy!

I send home a  bag with the kiddo who is the VIP that week. I got the bag from Hobby Lobby and the dog from Wal-Mart.

Inside of the bag:
*Directions for the parents about their childs' VIP week
*Stuffed dog named Andy
*Adventures with Andy book for kids to write in
*Me Sack

VIP Directions:

Adventures with Andy book {I just stick it in a binder and put the writing pages in individual sheet protectors}. The kiddos take Andy home and play with him, then they have a parent help them write about it and draw a picture. This is their FAVORITE! {You can do any stuffed animal. In my student teaching, my cooperating teacher did this cute little frog because her classroom theme was frogs-I got the idea from her!}

The "Me Sack" is a label stuck on a brown paper bag. It's like show and tell, but the items need to be able to tell about the child and it better {p.s. I hate show and tell}. Then, the other students can ask 2 questions and have 2 comments about the items. :)  My friend and teaching buddy Ashlee gave me this fabulous idea. Click {here} to download the labels.

At the beginning of the year, I send home an "All About Me!" poster to return the first week. I like to do that so when their child is the VIP they don't get overwhelmed.    Sorry folks, I got this poster from my teammates and it's not digital!  But I did try to recreate it and you can download it at the bottom of this post {you will need to print it out and then enlarge it on your copy machine to fit on 11X17 paper}.

I'm always the VIP first. :)

Fonts and/or clipart copyright and used with permission from Diane J. Hook {djinkers.com}