The best ways to help morning meetings run smoothly this year

Have you ever tried class meetings in your classroom? Do you wonder how to make the most of them?
Morning meetings and closing circles have become a staple in our classroom. This is a time that my
students look forward to each morning and afternoon. It is also a time of day that I get to just sit back
and appreciate my students because they lead the class meetings. You are probably asking, “How does
she do that?” Well let me tell you, it does take some training at the beginning of the year, but you can do
it this year too! It can even be done with distance learning.  Sit back and relax, as I tell you all about
how I run our class meetings each day. 

   

   The first thing you are going to want to do is research what the different parts of the class meetings
are. At the bottom you’re going to be able to download my class meetings packet, so don’t worry, it will
all be there for you. After some research, you are going to want to let the parents of your class know
what you are planning to do. I have also included a letter to parents or guardians to help you out. The
letter should explain what the parts of the meeting are, and how you plan to run them in your classroom.
The letter will also give directions to the parents explaining how the students will participate in the
meetings. 

   For the first month or so of school, I lead the meetings. This allows me to teach the students how the
meetings are run. We always start the meeting with a greeting. This is a time for the students to say Hi
to their classmates. They love getting to go around the room and say Hi to their friends. After the
greeting, I ask a “getting to know you” question. The question lets us all learn a little more about each
other. When we are not in the middle of a pandemic, I have the students sit in a circle around the
carpet. But this next year we will stay seated at our desks, and our greetings will include social
distancing. I will have the students give air hugs, air high fives, and waves to each other. Then I will
let them walk to one or two friends, remembering social distancing, and give their greeting. Then, all
of the students will return to their seats. I will have the students answer our question for the day from
their seats. 

   If you will be starting with distance learning, class meetings can still be a part of your day. You can
have the students take turns giving their greetings and answering their questions while you are on your
meeting platform. The students will love being able to share, and also seeing their classmates. 

   Eventually, you can choose a student leader and decide if you will have the student lead each day,
or for the whole week. I have included two different planning sheets for you. Each of the sheets have
each part of the meeting. The students will use the provided greetings and questions to decide what they
would like to include for that day. Sometimes students like to come up with their own greeting or
question, and I am fine with that. I like to give the forms to the students a week or two before their
scheduled time to lead. This gives them plenty of time to decide what greeting and question they want
to use, and it also gives me time to review what they want to include. I am also able to check if the
greetings and questions they came up with are appropriate. 

   

   The last thing that I do to get ready for our daily meetings is use slides to give the agenda for the day.
I type in the questions that the students want to use for each day right into the slide. This lets all the
other students know what the question is and lets them start thinking about how they would like to
answer. Now I never force anyone to answer the question. They can always say pass and we move
on to the next person. I like to come back around and let the students that didn’t answer have another
opportunity, or for others to add on to their answer based on what other students had to say. I usually
have some type of object that acts as our talking stick. At the beginning of the year, we talk about using
the talking stick and how you must be holding it to speak. So we do a lot of practicing with the talking
stick and raising our hand to be handed the talking stick in order to respond to the question, or add
on to another student's answer. It takes a little bit of time for the students to get used to using the talking
stick, but once they get the hang of it, it works out great! 

   Class meetings are an excellent way to get to know your students and learn more about them. The
students love to learn about one another as well. Every year this quickly becomes one of our favorite
times of the day. I know things are going to look different this next year, but we can still use class
meetings to build community in our class. If you would like to give morning meetings a try, click below
to get your free sample to try it out! 

10 of the Best Picture Books for the First Week of School

I love using picture books to introduce new concepts in my classroom. The beginning of the
year is one of my favorite times to use picture books. There are so many great books to help
students understand the classroom culture and procedures. Today I am going to share some
of my favorite picture books to read at the start of the school year. 

    This first book is one of my favorite books to read on the first day of school. I love seeing
all the different cultures in this book. I also love that this book allows us to discuss that
everyone is welcome in our classroom and everyone will be encouraged. I want my students
to know that I will not tolerate mean behavior towards others. This is a book that I bring out
often throughout the year when we need to revisit the lesson that we are all welcome in the
class. 

   The next book is a brand new book, but it is a great one! This will certainly be part of my
first day of school books. One of the things I talk to my students about on the first day of
school is that we are a family. We talk about how we don’t always agree with our moms and
dads and siblings, but we still love them and would do anything for them. This book will make
a perfect addition to your first day of school books to talk about being a family. 

   The next book that I always read on the first day of school is First Day Jitters. This is a great
one for the first day because students are always nervous on the first day, and this book helps
them to know it is ok to feel that way. This book helps to calm those nerves and lets them
know it is going to be a great year. 

   This next book is a great one for the first week as well. It really helps the students
understand that we are all unique and that is to be celebrated! I love the message that this
book shares. It is a great one to add to your library shelves. 

   This next book is a great one for helping students to understand growth mindset. We all know
that we make mistakes, and that is ok. This book helps students to realize that also. I know
that I have had a lot of perfectionist students in the past. I mean heck, I can even be a
perfectionist at times. So this book really helps students to understand that it is ok to make
mistakes and to keep trying until you get it right. This is a must to include in your library! 

   This is another great book for your library. I love to read this book at the start of school to
help my students understand what kind of teacher I am. This book helps me show my students
that I care for them and want the best for them. 

      This is another newer book that I just learned about. It is a great picture book for right now
with distance learning. This book talks about students who are learning at home. It also
explains different strategies that children can use to calm their emotions. That is definitely
something we need to be talking to our students about right now. Their emotions are all over
the place and we need to help them understand it is ok, and how they can help themselves
through it.  

   The next book on my list of favorites is Do Unto Otters. It uses animals to talk about
manners. This is a great book to discuss doing to others what you would want to do to you.
This is definitely a lesson that needs to be taught at the start of the year. Sometimes I feel
like students forget their manners when they have been home for a couple months and are
just starting back to school. And this year they have been home and away from their
classmates for a really long time. So we need to make sure we are covering this lesson when
we return. I love using this book to help students understand how we should be treating others.
The kids also love seeing all the different animals that are used also! 

   This is a new book that I just learned about. How many of you have students that love
to be the first one done, then you look at their work and none of the answers are correct?
This book will help them to understand that it is not always the best to be done first. It will help
teach them to slow down. I can’t wait to introduce this book to my students in the Fall and
help them care a little more about the work that they are turning in. 

   This last book on my list is probably one of my all time favorites. I bring this book out at
all different times of the year when we need to revisit being kind. I feel like this is a lesson that
needs to be taught often, so I use this book a lot to revisit the lesson. This is a great book that
talks about acts of kindness. I love introducing the idea of random acts of kindness to the
class using this book. This book certainly needs to be on your list for your library. Your students
will love this one!

   Picture books are my favorite way to introduce ideas and topics to my class. What are some
of your favorite back to school books? I can’t wait to hear all about them and add them to my
list too. Let me know in the comments what some of your favorite books are! 

5 of the Best ELA websites for Distance Learning

  With distance learning happening right now, teachers are having to find more and more
ways to teach online. Today I am going to tell you about some great apps and websites for ELA that
you can use while distance learning or when you are back in the classroom. 

     The first set of apps is the Google Suite. There are lots of different uses for Google apps for
education. I love to have my students publish their writing with Google Docs. My students love to have
a record of all of their writing. They also love to type out their writing because they feel like a real author.
I also love that they are practicing their typing skills and getting ready for testing with real-life
experience. I like to use Google Classroom to assign the work for my students. Google Classroom
makes it so much easier to track all of my students' online assignments. 

     Another Google app that I love to use in my classroom is Slides. This is perfect for having my
students put together presentations. They can work on their own or they can work with another student
on the same document.

     The next app and website that I use a lot in the classroom is Flipgrid. This is a great site to allow
students to discuss different topics. I love to have my students use this site for practicing their fluency.
I have the students practice their passage for the week and then on Friday, they record themselves
reading their passage. This allows the students to hear how they are reading. It is amazing to hear
how much more fluent the students' reading becomes after having them record themselves. The
students love listening back too, which I love to see. 

     This next app and website is great for reading. Epic has tons of digital books. There are so many
different titles. The kids love to search for fun books to read. They also have lots of educational videos
for the students too. One of my favorite things about this site is that I can create reading lists for my
students and then assign it to them. It works out great to assign a reading list when we need to do
research. I can create the list of books and then the students are not having to spend all their time
searching for books. 

     This next site is called Vooks and it’s similar to Epic, but all of the book titles are put together like
a movie. This is a site that the kids really love, and they have so many different titles. My students don’t
even realize they are reading when they are using Vooks! I also love that this site allows my students
to really hear excellent fluent reading. This is definitely a site you need to check out. 

     The last site and app that I am going to tell you about is Raz-Kids. This site goes along with
Reading A-Z. It uses the same stories from Reading A-Z and puts them digitally for the students to read.
You are able to assign a level to the students, and as they advance with their reading, you can change
the level that is assigned to them. It also allows the students to take a quick quiz when they are
finished reading. This site is great for working on comprehension as well. 

     During distance learning, we have to rethink the way we are teaching. Using apps and
websites to help students with their learning is where education is moving. These sites can help you
during distance learning, and also when school resumes back to their buildings. I hope that this list
helps you incorporate more apps and websites into your ELA instruction. What site are you going to
try first? 

5 of the best math websites for distance learning

Hello there! How is everyone doing?  We are all in a challenging time right now.
Many of us have had our schools closed down for a short time or even for the rest of
the school year. Here in California our governor just announced that all schools
will remain closed for the rest of the year. Many of us will be starting distance learning
soon if we have not already started. Today I want to share with you some of my
favorite websites to help with math. These are all perfect to go along with distance
learning. 

   The first site that I want to talk about is www.xtramath.com This site is perfect
for working on math fact fluency. The students start out by taking a placement
exam and then the site creates a learning path for the student. I love how it shows
the students their progress at the end. They can log in every day for a short
10 minutes or less to work on the math facts. 

  

    Next up is the website www.zearn.com. This website is great because it goes right
along with the eureka math curriculum. In each lesson, it has all of the different parts
that are included in the eureka lessons. The students love being able to see a video
of the lesson. Overall,  I love that this site goes right along with the eureka curriculum. 

   The next website is khan academy. This is another free website and it is great. It
allows you to assign different grade levels for the students. They then can watch a
video to learn or relearn the content. They then do practice problems for the content.
They can not move on until they have shown mastery. This is another great option
as a full curriculum for your students during this time of distance learning. 

   Next up is the website sumdog. This is a fun site that lets kids practice math concepts
through fun games. Your students will beg to go on this site. They love the games that
offered on the site. 

   The last site that I am going to talk about is MobyMax. This site can be used for
several different subjects. There are a few different options for math and types of
problems the kids can work on. There is a section for math facts and then also a
section for math concepts that are learned in each grade level. This is another great site
for helping your students continue to learn material that they are having a hard time with. 

   Hopefully, these sites will help you out with your distance learning. What sites are
you going to try out with your students?  Tell me in the comments what you are going
to try out. Until next time!

How to Keep your Students excited this February

   There are so many fun things that happen in February. But it is also a slump time in the year.
The holidays are over and there isn’t another break for a while. That doesn’t mean your classroom
has to be boring though. Today I am going to share some of my February ideas that keep my students
excited to come to school. 

First off is creative writing. February is always a fun time for writing. My students love to use different prompts to come up with fun stories. I like to use different writing pages as early finisher activities. They also work great as part of our ELA centers. Check out the writing freebie that is included in this post as well. 

   My students love crafts and math is a great time to break out the crafts. I love to incorporate
different projects that go along with what we are studying. A lot of times the kids don’t even realize
that they are practicing their math skills. This makes a fun display for the classroom too.  I love how
it makes the classroom all festive for the holiday. 

   This is also a great time to teach letter writing. I do a whole unit on the friendly letter. I always
like to include some fun crafts that go along with our writing as well. My students always get so
excited when I start to take out the supplies for a craft. And they make a great display in the
classroom too. 

   Our day always consists of a morning meeting and a closing circle. Our meetings are our favorite
times of the day. They really help to get us focused for the day. I love to have themed slides for the
students. They also love to help lead the meetings. This gives them ownership in our classroom. 

   February also means Presidents Day. I love to give my students ownership of their learning
with projects. One of my favorite projects of the year is this Presidents Day project. It lets them
learn about the holiday and how we celebrate it and then they learn from their classmates through
oral presentations. I love to also give my students opportunities to work on their speaking and
listening. Projects are a great way to have students work on this. 

   My last favorite thing to do in February is to incorporate picture books. My students always love
when I get a new book out. I try to bring in lots of different books. There are so many different things
that are happening in February and books are a great way to teach about them all. 

   Are you excited about February in your classroom? Did you find some new ways to celebrate?
Click on the link below if you’re interested in a fun writing freebie for your classroom.