Monday Motivation - Homework

So this week's Monday Motivation is all about homework.

First, let me say... I am NOT a huge advocate for homework. 

As a parent, I hate it! (and my kids are only in K and 2nd grade - I can't wait until the later years lol)

as a teacher, I hate grading it... and I never even know how much of the work the kids actually did.

BUT, I do see the value in homework for the sake of the parents are able to see what their kids are struggling in. 

SO let me show you what I do for homework.

Since everyone's schedules are different.... homelife is different, I do a monthly homework folder.

These are my folders from when I taught first...

I staple together 4 reading and 4 math activities (one for each week of the month)

Inside the folder, I have 4 reading passages with comprehension questions and on the back, there's a phonics or grammar component.  

I put one of these in there for each week of the month (I try to match my themes for the week).   These are Jodi's Fluency passages. I love them. I use them in class, too. There are so many to choose from, you can use them all over!

For 2nd grade, I'm going to use her Reading Comprehension Notebook for 2nd grade. 

And for math, I send home the Evan Moore Daily Math pages.... I'm going to do this in 2nd grade too, but just their 2nd grade version.

Again, I do 4 "week" pages, 1 page for each week.  I don't send home nightly homework reinforcing what I taught in math that day, because honestly.... I don't really know how that day's math lesson is going to go. If they really don't end up getting it, or sailing through it (we can all wish for that, right!?), then I might need to change up my math plans a bit.  Now, these pages sometimes have questions that the student and/or parent might not get... sometimes I tell them to "cross it off" and other times we work through it as a class.

They can turn it in whenever they like throughout the month. I just mark it in the book that they turned it in. In fact, I'd rather they turn it in throughout the month so I don't get a whole bunch at the end of the month. lol 

For Spelling, I toggle between these fun Tic-Tac-Toe boards I found from Sailing Into First and the spelling homework found in my Spelling Packets.

They put that paper in a page protector in their binder, and keep it there for 2 weeks and then I switch to the other version.

If you'd like a the Homework Cover letters, you can download them HERE for free!

I also created different ones for my 2nd grade ones (the other ones are so cute for K and 1st grade, but I felt like 2nd grade might need a little bit more grown up feel??)

 

You can grab those HERE.

As far as reading?? Yes. I do want my kids to read books. We send home leveled books in their book baggies. But I don't require them keep reading logs, especially in 1st grade. I just want them to learn to read... and love to read. I don't want work to always be associated with reading. I want them to learn to love reading. Plus, as a parent, I'm really bad at signing things on a nightly basis. I'm not even going to lie about that. lol.

 When I taught 2nd and 3rd, I had them do reading logs a little different. I tied it to a skill of some sort...

You can see more about that in THIS POST. 

So, what do you do for your homework?? What do you do that you just love?? 

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Monthly Homework Folders

So... I wanted to share with you what I give for homework.

EEK!

Yep. I said homework. I have very mixed feelings about homework, both as a parent, and as a teacher. As a teacher, I like for parents to see the areas in which their child might be struggling, or to help reinforce reading. But, as a parent, I hate doing homework...and we are SO busy, as most people are anymore. When Autumn was in Kindergarten, her teacher did a monthly homework folder. 

(Hers looked different than this, but it's the same concept.)

I thought, well, THIS, I like... that way families can get the homework finished as their time allows it.

Now, my homework looked different when I taught 2nd and 3rd grade, but here's what it looks like when I teach 1st grade. 

Inside the folder, I have 4 reading passages with comprehension questions and on the back, there's a phonics or grammar component.  

I put one of these in there for each week of the month (I try to match my themes for the week).   These are Jodi's Fluency passages. I love them. I use them in class, too. There are so many to choose from, you can use them all over!

And for math, I send home the Evan Moore Daily Math pages. 

Again, I do 4 "week" pages, 1 page for each week.  I don't send home nightly homework reinforcing what I taught in math that day, because honestly.... I don't really know how that day's math lesson is going to go. If they really don't end up getting it, or sailing through it (we can all wish for that, right!?), then I might need to change up my math plans a bit.  Now, these pages sometimes have questions that the student and/or parent might not get... sometimes I tell them to "cross it off" and other times we work through it as a class.

They can turn it in whenever they like throughout the month. I just mark it in the book that they turned it in. In fact, I'd rather they turn it in throughout the month so I don't get a whole bunch at the end of the month. lol 

For Spelling, I toggle between these fun Tic-Tac-Toe boards I found from Sailing Into First and the spelling homework found in my Spelling Packets.

They put that paper in a page protector in their binder, and keep it there for 2 weeks and then I switch to the other version.

If you'd like a the Homework Cover letters, you can download them HERE for free!

As far as reading?? Yes. I do want my kids to read books. We send home leveled books in their book baggies. But I don't require them keep reading logs, especially in 1st grade. I just want them to learn to read... and love to read. I don't want work to always be associated with reading. I want them to learn to love reading. Plus, as a parent, I'm really bad at signing things on a nightly basis. I'm not even going to lie about that. lol.

 When I taught 2nd and 3rd, I had them do reading logs a little different. I tied it to a skill of some sort...

You can see more about that in THIS POST. 

So, what do you do for your homework?? What do you do that you just love?? 

9

Morning Routine

So, after reading The Brown Bag Teacher's post on her "morning work" and when my friend Jodi, Fun in First, shared her morning routines,  I thought I would share my Morning Routines....

So... I'm not a huge fan of having students do morning work first thing in the morning when they get to class. I never really have been.  I mean - don't you want to say hi to your friends and do things in the morning before you come in and just start laying down the work??  Some of my little friends don't even come in the room until RIGHT before (or after) the bell rings, so if there's morning work, they don't have time to do it and then they're already starting their day behind. Not the way I would want to start my day either.

Instead, I have some activities for them to be able to socialize while also waking up their little brains.

Here's a little look at what our morning routines are like...

They come in - I'm standing at my door to greet each and everyone with a name and hug.

They get to their desk and start doing their morning jobs...

I made little visuals for them so they could remember/read since they can't really read yet...lol

Changing books means to change their book baggie books out - they know their level bucket they get books from. 

They put back their old and get 2 new ones.

They get out their snack and binder and put their backpacks in the bins... Pink for the girls, blue for the boys. I just happened to have those colors on hand - it worked out perfectly! haha

Their lunch goes in the lunch bin...nothing fancy. We "dump" it when we go to lunch and they walk by and get their lunchbag on the way out the door.

Then they head to their seat and put their binder on their desk, or in their desk....just so it's there so that when it's time, they all open it once and check their return to school said and I collect it all at once.  

At this point, they finish their work they have in their blue folder (unfinished work from throughout the week) and then they can get out their morning buckets.  Each group has their own bucket. To keep it "fresh," I change the contents in the bucket each week.

There are {small personal geoboards}...

{Foam Dominos}

There's also a Play-Doh bucket and a {Quisinaire Rod} bucket.

I have other buckets to rotate out.... 

In those buckets, I have the {Banangrams}, {DK Silly Sentences}, {Picture Stencils} from Oriental Trading, and {Imagination Patterns} from Oriental Trading.

I have all kinds of different themes for them to choose from - and I got the big ABC stencils to use for Word Work centers too.

I am so excited for these! The case doesn't fit into my buckets, but that's ok - they don't need to make them magnetic.

The kids are able to get out their jitters, and social bug in the morning, while getting their brains warmed up for the day. 

You can check out {THIS} post I did a few years ago on doing "Social Hour" in the morning.

I feel like it is SO important for kids to be kids... we have so much to cram at them throughout the day, they need to have time to learn how to socialize - to learn social skills. Kids need to have time to have freedom of creations.... I learn so much about my kids just by letting them be creative the stories they have to tell as they're creating things, and they're so proud of their creations! They need to learn how to socialize, solve problems, and explore - and to be kids.  You'd be amazed at what kids can learn just through the power of play!

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Gold Medal Students

In our first full week of school, we talked about how to be a {Gold Medal Student}. It went perfectly with the Olympics that happened this summer. 

Check out my post I did on them {HERE}.

Then I had a thought.... why not do a "Gold Medal Student" award?!  How perfect would that be!? I must admit... I don't do "Student of the Week" in my room. I never have. We give out character awards during our awards ceremony each 9 weeks, but that's all I have done...

  But I felt like this was something that went with what we have talked about and it could mean something to them.

So I got these gold medals from {Oriental Trading - they have lots to choose from!}. 

I made these "awards" to give out to the students each week with the medals. 

I'm pretty excited about it!!

I don't do much after this though. haha... I take their picture and "frame" it and hang it on our window of fame. I don't send anything home for the family to do with it or anything. 

If you would like the Gold Medal Student award, click {HERE}.

Do you do something like this? I'd be interested to hear what you do!

5

Quick Informal Math Assessment

This week, in first grade... our math was a LITTLE hard. 

Ok. This is one of the hard skills, I think. (speaking in my Junie B. Jones voice, there. haha)

We did balancing equations. I always bring out the teddy bear counters and balance for this skill.  They really get the visual...but then when it comes time to take away the visual and manipulatives, that's when they have a hard time with it. Same with "Making Ten to Add" 

- holy cow that one is hard!  

So, a few days after teaching the skill, I need to know who has it and who still needs help.  So, instead of giving them a "test," I pull them back 5-6 at a time to give them an informal assessment on the white boards. They don't know they're taking a "test" and I can really see what their thinking is when it's in small group. 

So, I have a card there with all their numbers written on it. I give them anywhere between 1 and 3 questions. As I "test" them, I cross off their numbers if they have the skill down. I circle it if they don't quite have it yet.  If they don't have it yet... or if they are a little iffy on it, then I might have them stay back for one more round of questions, to see how they do.

After I go through them all, I will focus my next few days on calling back those students to work more with them in small groups, or even if I have more time that day - but usually not.

That's when I bring out the math centers.

What do I do for Math centers??

**See how I organize my math centers {HERE}

I do a lot of activities from my {Monthly Math Centers}

and a lot of activities from my {Deck of Cards}...

(from when I taught 2nd grade....)

So I have my kids in small group with my focusing on those skills the need extra help with, and as I get them there, hopefully, then they get to go join the rest of the class for centers.

You can find my Math Center Sets {HERE}. This is this month's preview so you can see how they are set up. (This is 1st grade, but I also have 2nd grade sets!)

I also have a set for Grades 2-4

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