Category: Elementary - Laird Learning

Who Would Win?

2/1/2019

Every so often, teachers reach out to me for enrichment activities for reading, math, science, or social studies. This is an activity I put together for 1st grade students and is modeled after Jerry Palotta's Who Would Win series. The grade level is 1:1 (one device per student) Chromebooks, so I designed this in Google Slides. The final page will have a Blabberize (Chatterpix could be an alternative if you have iOS devices, where the winning animal explains why they won the battle. A few resources students will use for this project are PebbleGo, Bookflix, TrueFlix, and Kiddle.

If you would like a copy of the Google Slides file, please let me know.

I also created a graphic organizer where students can record their findings.

Kindness Cards

1/15/2019

We are always looking for ways to recognize students, and our Building Leadership Team was recently talking about wanting to celebrate when students are kind. I was excited to use Canva to design kindness cards, but started by searching online to see if there were any free options. There's no sense in recreating the wheel if something is already available. Luckily, thanks to Scholastic, this was the case! Scholastic's Kindness Cards were exactly what we were looking for. I did create an additional page to print on the back of each card, which will allow staff members to write a message noting the kind act. Each Monday, students receiving the kindness cards will be announced over the intercom, allowing the school community to recognize the work and action of the students.

I encourage you to visit Scholastic's website and download your own copy of the Kindness Cards. If you would like a copy of the back page I created, let me know!

Student Recognition Cards

1/5/2019

In a continuing effort to expand PBIS (Positive Behavior Intervention & Supports) in our building, I created the student recognition card shown below. The idea came from a similar card that another elementary building is using, I simply created one that would work for our students and staff. The plan is for a staff member to recognize a student showing either the RAMS Way (Respectful, Always Responsible, Manners, or Safety) or a Growth Mindset by filling out the card. To increase the home/school connection, both the staff member and the principal will write a comment and the card will be sent home.

The card was made using Canva.

School Assembly VIP Seat Tickets

12/29/2018

My building uses Positive Behavior Intervention & Supports (PBIS), and I am on our Tier I and Tier II team. We have students follow the RAMS Way (Respectful, Always Responsible, Manners, and Safety). Our school district's mascot is a Ram, so the acronym was created to go along with the mascot. I have already created Classroom Tickets and Student Awards, and was shown an example of VIP seating tickets for school assemblies and knew I could design something similar for our building! I used Canva, one of my go-to creation sites, to create the ticket.

We hold monthly PBIS assemblies, and our plan is to hand out a few VIP tickets prior to the assembly. This will be another way to recognize students who are demonstrating the RAMS Way.

Growth Mindset Certificates

12/23/2018

During a recent Building Leadership Team meeting, we discussed ways to recognize students, specifically how we can celebrate students who show grit and perseverance. These students may not necessarily get recognized for academic performance or proficiency, deserve to be recognized for their growth and determination.

I used Canva to create the award certificates and look forward to seeing them used by teachers and staff.

Number Talks

11/2/2018

My building has been working on building student number sense, and specifically using Number Talks. Number Talks are the work of Ann Dominick and Sherry Parrish and have hand signals that students use as they mentally solve problems. To support classroom implementation, I created the posters shown below. I also used these posters as I modeled number talk lessons in K-5 classrooms.

Merge Cube Book Summary

10/26/2018

During a recent book talk to a 4th grade classroom, I shared one of my favorite books. I also used my new Merge Cube. I had been looking for ways teachers can incorporate Merge Cubes and augmented reality into their classrooms, and the book talk was a great way to start! I created a template on Google Slides and then imported the png files into CoSpaces. The process was easy and students loved seeing the Merge Cube.

If you would like a copy of my Book Talk Summary template, or need support in using Merge Cubes in your classroom or school, please let me know!

Literate Environments in PK-5th Grade

2/23/2016

As part of my Directing and Supervising K-12 Reading course, we were given the task of using ILA's Standards for Reading Professionals, and creating a summary sheet you could give to a beginning teacher. The goal of the assignment was to not only show you understand the standards, but also that you would be able to help someone else create a literate environment. Below, you'll find my finished product.