Guest Blogger: Anna from Crazy for First Grade

Hey everyone! I'm Anna from Crazy for First Grade!

I'm so excited to be a guest poster here on one of my favorite blogs!!

I'm always looking for fun ways to incorporate higher order thinking and differentiation into my classroom routine.

I love doing this by using "Think Dots" choice boards! The activities on each choice board are differentiated by levels and interests. My little loves have so much fun with them:) They roll a die with a partner and complete the activity if it is one that interests them. If needed, I'm okay with my students rolling again to get a different activity. They have to complete at least 3 activities on the board. Since this is a very student directed activity, I act as a facilitator and just circulate the room monitoring/helping as needed.  Not only are they a great way to stretch your students' thinking, but they are pretty easy to use! We have an extension period at my school for students to refine/extend concepts. These have proven to be an excellent activity for my kiddos during that time. However, you could create a "Think Dots" center, or have them ready to go as an activity for when your students finish their center work.

I started out making the boards for math, but just recently decided that they would be perfect for reading and writing, too. Just click on the picture to download my Reading Think Dots boards!! I hope you like them!!

Reading Think Dots

This blue storage organizer is best friends with my Think Dots boards! I think I picked it up at Wal-Mart for $10-15. Worth every single penny!!! They make having materials for several activities a piece a cake!!! I just put everything the kiddos will need for each choice in a labeled drawer! LOVE IT!!!

As higher order thinking and differentiation become more and more of a focus at my school, I have found these choice boards really helpful. When I first started using them, my students and I went over the expectations and modeled how to complete each activity. Please don't get discouraged if the first, second, or even third time you do a choice board is a little crazy...trust me, it will get much, much better with time and practice!!!

 For more resources and information on a TON of awesome differentiated activities check out this awesome website- http://daretodifferentiate.wikispaces.com/. It's the site that inspired me to start using Think Dots in my classroom!

Thank you Gladys for letting me blog today on your site! SO.MUCH.FUN!! I would love for all of you to come visit my blog at Crazy for First Grade!

Guest Blogger: Miss D

Hey there!

My blogger name is Miss D, and I am a grade one teacher in Halifax Nova Scotia. I teach in a private school to students who are either immigrants or the children of immigrants. I don't blog about teaching yet, but I'm thinking about switching the focus of my blogging at And Something Pink to this after our wedding (my current focus).

I figure doing a guest blog here, and any anywhere else I'm asked ;) , is a great way to get my feet wet in teaching blogging.

I hope you like what I have to share!

Last week my class made our first of many art projects to welcome spring. My kiddies had a lot of fun putting these sheep together.

I began the lesson by telling them three sheep/lamb stories and asked them to identify what was the same about them.

Baa Baa Black Sheep

Mary Had a Little Lamb

The Boy Who Cried Wolf

Materials:

Green Construction Paper

White tissue paper (precut into squares by the teacher)

One Crayon (I used black on my sample)

One Unsharpened pencil

Liquid Glue

Here's a tutorial for you in paint to show you how to draw the sheep. I found the instructions online somewhere, but I cannot find the link. I apologize to the designer of these steps, but all images are my own unless otherwise noted.

Pass out green construction paper and follow these steps.

Use your black crayon to draw two ovals near the middle of the page to form ears.

Next draw an oval shape connected to the ears to create the face.

Add your face!

Now I demonstrated how to draw a "cloud" around the entire page. You may want to make yours smaller, as I discovered that for most of my students this craft takes two hours to do, not the one hour I had alloted. Meaning the following Friday we had to finish them.

At this point I asked my students what was missing and we added our feet.

We passed out to pairs of students a square of construction paper (may I suggest cardboard instead?) with a puddle of glue, and laid in the centres of their tables with a pile of tissue squares. After a quick tutorial on how to place the tissue on the end of the pencil so their erasers don't get sticky, and how to quickly dip the tissue in the glue so the tissue doesn't STAY in the glue, they were off!

Miss D tip #1: Hold on to the tissue AND the pencil when dipping in glue to ensure they both come back.

These are now gracing our primary hallway, facing this weeks Bumblebees.

How are you welcoming spring in your classroom?