School and the City

I totally cannot take credit for this bookmark idea. This fabulous strategy was shared with me by a coworker who learned about it at a balanced literacy workshop. Shoutout to whoever started this - you are incredible! During my conferences with students during our reading block, I have been using neon index cards to make personalized bookmarks for my kiddos. I write down a reading strategy or skill that I want them to work on and draw a quick little sketch to go along with it. On the back, I write "To: [student name]" and "Love, Miss Payne." These bookmarks are GREAT for so many reasons: 1. The kids adore them. It makes them feel special to be getting a personalized note from me. 2. The bookmarks are empowering because it helps students take charge of their own learning by reminding them what skill they should be working on every time they read. 3. It is an easy way to differentiate. 4. They are functional because they are B...

Gooood morning!! I am currently on spring break (hence the happiness), but the weather is crummy so I begrudgingly decided to think about school for a just  a little while. My April has been SO busy. I've missed blogging! I'm excited to share some insight this morning and to do some blog hopping! *   *   *  I want to share a little bit about how I encourage my students to extend and enhance their learning at home. My second graders are absolutely bursting with curiosity! Whenever I introduce a new topic, especially in science or social studies, we get way off track because my kiddos have so many questions they are dying to get answered! I do make them wait until after my lesson, but afterwards I spend a good chunk of time answering their questions. I love that they love to learn! To give my students extra opportunities to research and deepen their knowledge of academic concepts at home, I offer optional enrichment projects about once a month. I like to...

Happy April - It's officially my birthday month!  We had fun celebrating April Fools' Day in second grade today. One of my kiddos got me before I could play any tricks of my own! Before the bell even rang, I found this guy on my chair at my kidney table. EEEEK! Don't worry, I got to play some tricks of my own. First, we took a " Following Directions Test. " I told the kids that it's super easy - all they have to do is follow directions! (This is true, but easier said than done...) I remember taking one of these trick tests when I was in third grade. I'll never forget it! Then, I told my kids that we were going to do word searches for fun word work today! I told them that the first one to find all of their spelling words would win a piece of candy. Little did they know, NONE of their spelling words were actually hidden in the word search. I had them going for a good 5 minutes... by then some kids were getting too frustrated and...