Blog - Sweet 'N' Sauer Firsties

Primary Writing Checklists – Helping Little Writers Gain Independence

When I think about writing in a first grade classroom, I brace myself for ALL the struggles. We all know them. Very little stamina, struggling to follow the writing process correctly, stating they are “done” when they are absolutely not done, or the timeless saying, “I don’t have anything to write about!”. And then after we jump all of those hurdles, we come to the daunting task of editing so the kids can ACTUALLY be done. But we’re all about growth mindset over here! So instead of struggles, we came up with a solution: Writing Checklists for PRIMARY learners.

Of course giving students tools seems like the most obvious thing to do to help them gain independence. But we absolutely cannot forget the magic behind them: YOU. As we all know, for these tools to become really powerful, we have to take A LOT of time modeling and practicing. In our classroom, at the beginning of the year, we spend a lot of our writing block simply refining what it should look like. We choose topics we have experience or knowledge on to write about. We get our ideas out by brainstorming. We write and we write. We build our stamina and we grow. When it comes time to edit, together with our checklists, we create authentic individual goals to work on to grow and become better writers. I model incorrect pieces so students can help me edit my own so they see exactly how to utilize this resource. I want to let you know I spend WEEKS modeling each specific category. They watch me before they bring their papers to the carpet and then we do it together. The students help each other and then they practice, practice, practice! After long breaks, we spend ample time reviewing how to use these so the students are independent while editing even after being away! While it may sound like a lot, the kids LOVE editing their own writing and of course helping me “fix” my mistakes!

Primary Writing Checklists

So let’s dig into all the awesome categories we cover with these checklists when we pull these out during our editing portion of the writing process. The checklists make sure we have looked over our writing for capitals, good spacing, sight words, punctuation, and to make sure everything makes sense before publishing.

Searching for Capitals

One of the reasons I LOVE using these checklists is because we can really learn about the mechanics of writing and how it helps us as readers! In our classroom, we use green highlighters to search for capitals because who doesn’t love using highlighters?! We highlight correct capitals in our writing, while circling capitals that need to be fixed on our final copy. What an authentic way to learn about capitals and explore more about WHY we use them in our writing.

Spacing

Our finger spaces box gets checked after we make sure our spacing is correct throughout our entire piece. This is a tricky one with littles and takes a LOT of modeling so they don’t have a huge gap between words and call it done because there’s a space. You can check out these fun spacemen I created to help students really understand how much space is needed! You can also grab this freebie by subscribing!

Sight Words

The next item on the list is to check that all of our sight words are spelled correctly. Students are encouraged to use the classroom word wall or their personal word collection notebook/dictionary to check for spelling errors. I am a HUGE proponent of phonetic spelling, especially for primary students. However, when it comes to sight words, I am a big believer in making sure they are spelled right. It also provides great opportunities for students to search for them and practice those recognition skills. It empowers students to use all of their tools to help them. All at once, they get practice searching, recognizing, and spelling sight words. This prepares them so much more when they come across the words in a story to be confident in knowing and understanding that word!

Punctuation

The punctuation box brings out our highlighters again! This time we use red/pink highlighters to call attention to correct punctuation and again we circle places where we missed them or used incorrect punctuation. This is another authentic way to learn about different punctuation marks, why they are important, and how they are properly used. It is amazing how much you’ll notice how this particular box on the checklist transcends into your reading instruction. Students begin to notice all kinds of various punctuation when they’re reading and why writers use them. It gets them more excited to use punctuation correctly and read with more prosody because they know what the punctuation mark is for. Talk about a win win!

Does Our Writing Make Sense?

The last piece of editing before our publishing stage is making sure our writing makes sense. In order to check our “makes sense” box we read our writing OUT LOUD to make sure we and others can understand our writing. I really encourage them to read it out loud because we know what we want to say in our minds, but reading aloud we can really HEAR that we included everything we intended and didn’t make any silly mistakes. It’s also fun to use different voices to engage them, get them excited and motivated to really want to read over their work to check that it all makes sense!

The Power of Peer Editing

These checklists are used for peer AND independent editing and they give students a great resource to ensure they have gone through the writing process completely. This gives us teachers more time to confer one on one with our students. The best part is that they can be used with ANY type of writing and they’re super kid friendly with visuals and words. Oh and did I mention they are available digitally as well as printable versions? It comes in two sizes, one to use for whole or small group lessons, and then individual sizes to give to each student. Of course with a little lamination, these can be used over and over again. They allow for tons of collaboration, academic talk, and they get students into the habit of pushing each other to grow into stronger writers. They are also a life and time saver for us educators during writing time! Peer editing also opens up for TONS of differentiation. The many different ways you can pair and group students for editing can help push your highest students or support your students who need a little extra help. It is amazing to see how students can really help and support one another. But of course how do we get there?

We typically begin using the checklist independently to ensure we ALL know how before bringing in peer editing. Does peer editing sound scary in primary? If I’m being honest, I was TERRIFIED when thinking about teaching first graders how to peer edit. However, with the use of these checklists and of course LOTS of modeling and practice… these kids DID NOT disappoint! I was SO impressed at how much better they could push one another compared to getting help from me. Kids have a way of reaching one another better than we can sometimes and it’s powerful when we can recognize and foster that. You can also bet their understanding is at a mastery level when you get to the point of THEM teaching each other all the mechanisms of writing! Let’s empower these little learners and see the amazing things they can do with more independence!

Authentic Goal Setting

We know that setting goals and providing feedback has HUGE impacts on student learning and growth. With these checklists, students know exactly the area they need to improve in and can set their OWN goals! Talk about some powerful learning. While students are working, you have MORE time to confer one on one and support students because guess what… They are working on their own! It makes such a difference and feels SO good to get to more students for one on one support. Check out this idea I learned on Instagram. It was also a huge help and great visual for students to see during writing time. It also works great to help keep me on track!

What Are Teachers Saying?

Teachers tell me over and over again how much this resource has helped transform their students’ writing. Read below some of the wonderful things teachers have to say about these checklists.

“Great resource! I printed out a copy for each student to have on their desk to refer back to and created a larger scale one to have available for them to see in the classroom. A great way for them to self correct their writing.”

“Love this checklist! I use the mini templates in small group/ my writing center. The larger templates stay on my board for us to refer back to when writing!! A must have!”

“Perfect visual to send home with students to utilize during distance learning or to include on daily slides! Thank you!”

“This is a great resource for editing in the primary grades! Very user-friendly!”

“Love the great visuals with the easy to understand checklist. ”

“I love using these when my students are peer editing. It helps them pay better attention to their writing.”

“Super simple writing checklist to use with 1st graders. They were able to use it to help with their writing.”

“Love the format of these!! Thank you!!”

“I LOVE this resource. It is a helpful reminder for my students when they are writing. The checklist is fun.”

“Great visual reminder for students and helps to build self-monitoring skills during writing.”

Other Writing Resources

Below you’ll see some of the other writing resources I love to use during writing. These are all GROWING bundles! I’ve also begun creating digital writing resources for distance learning! Some more ideas coming soon are writing process lessons and teaching hooks print and digital lessons! Learn more about the print and digital bundles by clicking on the pictures.

Primary Writing Rubrics

Small Moment Writing

Writing Resources Growing Bundle

Digital Writing Resources

Digital Primary Writing Checklists

Digital Primary Writing Rubrics

Digital Small Moment Writing

Writing Resources Growing Bundle

I really hope you enjoyed learning more about these writing checklists and how to make it fun and enjoyable not only for the students, but for you as well! Don’t forget to subscribe to my email list! Not only will you get the most up to date tips, tricks, and classroom projects… and of course more fun FREEBIES including Spaceman Writing Spacers FREEBIE! But you will also have exclusive access to tons of digital how to videos! If you would like to learn about this and other things happening in my classroom follow me @sweetnsauerfirsties on Instagram.

To follow me on TPT and get all the latest updates on HALF OFF new products, click HERE!

Google Jamboard – The Interactive Whiteboard and So Much More!

Looking for ways to spice up remote learning? Are you struggling for some new ideas to engage in-person learners with virtual ones? Google Jamboard to the rescue! Jamboard is essentially an interactive whiteboard, great for instruction or discussion! Use Jamboard to demonstrate solving math problems, or as a place for students to share their thinking about a picture from history. Students can discuss virtually using the sticky notes. Even better, if you are a Google Meet, user, it is already connected to the setting in Google Meet!

Give Me the Details

First off, Jamboard is super user friendly. If you use any of the Google Suite already like Docs, or Slides, Jamboard has very similar tools. As long as you are signed into Google, you can access Jamboard by going to https://jamboard.google.com/. It is also available through Google Drive for Jams you have started and saved or the Google Waffle with all of your Apps. Once you are in Jamboard, just click the orange plus sign and a new Jam will open! Lots of ways to get to the app. The other way to open a Jamboard is through a Google Meet. When you are in the Google Meet, simply go to the three dot menu and “Whiteboard: Open a Jam” will be one of the options! Anyone in the meeting will have access and be able to view the Jamboard! Use it for demonstrations or collaboration!

Let’s Talk Tools

On the side of your Jamboard there will be a toolbar with a bunch of ways to interact with the digital whiteboard. First you have a pen. The pen is just that, a pen. Write on the whiteboard just like you would on a real one! Next is an eraser for that pen! You have a pointer so that you can point on your screen for students to follow along. Then there are the very cool sticky notes. Sticky Notes are great for students to use to collaborate. If you have young students, you may even set up the sticky notes ahead of time with their name on a sticky note to know where to add their own answers.

Since this is a Google product, you can add images from your Drive, take images, find images on Google to add or even insert a document from your Google Drive to share with students! Upload those math problems and you can use your pen tools to demonstrate how to solve them! Upload a reading passage and annotate while students read!

The next tool is a circle. I love circles for creating mind maps for brainstorming or setting up different organized activities for students. Put the character’s name in the middle and use the sticky notes to characterize your main character!

After the circle tool is a text box! If you don’t want to use the pen, no big deal, just add a text box like you would in any other Google product and you can type right in the box!

Lastly, is the laser tool. Similar to the arrow, but use it as a pointer for students to really concentrate on what you are focusing on.

The top toolbar has a few more classic features like undo, zoom in and one of my favorites for Jamboard, “Set Background.” You can use classic colors here, but there are also options for lined paper and graph paper! Those can definitely come in handy once in a while!

A few other options are in the three dots in the top right corner. You can easily rename the Jamboard to easily access it again in your Google Drive. You can download as a PDF to save and post in Google Classroom for students, but where they won’t be able to edit as a reference for the lesson. You can also save as an image!

Some Other Ideas

Jamboard can easily be used as a visual for students that are interactive. Google Slides are great, but when the need to demonstrate a math problem comes along, Jamboard is a great tool.

If you are interested in student collaboration or group work, Jamboard works great. Want to do small groups? Assign a page on the Jamboard to each group! You can have up to 50 people on the Jamboard collaborating at once! Are you a fan of KWL charts? Jamboard would be great for getting to know what students know and giving students a visual to refer back to! Use images for social studies and science and allow students to really explore what they know while interacting rather than just watching! If students are too young to type themselves, record their answers for them and give them the ownership they all crave! Jamboard definitely helps with student ownership that has certainly become more difficult in the remote or hybrid learning world!

Jamboard is Google Suite friendly, easy to navigate, compatible with Google Meet and has so many options for great teaching, collaborating, modeling, and keeps the students on their toes! Try it out today!

I hope you enjoyed learning about all the fun things Jamboard has to offer! Don’t forget to subscribe to my email list! Not only will you get the most up to date tips, tricks, and classroom projects… and of course more fun FREEBIES including Would You Rather Jamboard FREEBIE! But you will also have exclusive access to tons of digital how to videos! If you would like to learn about this and other things happening in my classroom follow me @sweetnsauerfirsties on Instagram.

To follow me on TPT and get all the latest updates on HALF OFF new products, click HERE!

Holiday How-To Writing

Disclaimer: Holiday times are a good time to learn about other cultures through the various holidays students may celebrate. I believe that it is VERY important to be mindful of ALL of your students and their backgrounds. Planning lessons to cover an array of holidays from cultures you have in your classroom, as well as ones outside, is crucial. This helps to create a culturally sensitive space where students are represented and exposed to learn about people from all races and backgrounds. BONUS! Students LOVE learning about different holidays! Look for my Holidays Around the World post coming soon!

With that being said, it’s winter time. It’s that time of year. You know… when all the bells are ringing, carolers are singing… and children are bouncing off the walls! That span of time freshly back from a too short lived Thanksgiving break to winter break is INSANE! (Teachers, you are the real heroes!) Not only are the children literally vibrating in their seats with holiday excitement, our instructional time seems to go at 1000 mph! And of course we are expected to teach some important standards. But how the heck do we engage students and continue teaching? Well you make it fun of course! In this post you’ll learn about how I teach “how-to” writing with a fun and engaging holiday prompt!

Bookstores these days are filling their shelves with all the holiday reads. You may have seen all the different How-To books out there. How to Catch an Elf, How to Catch a Turkey, and well of course.. How to Catch Santa! This book is SO much fun for students and serves as a wonderful mentor text to cover this writing standard. So wonderful that I’ve created this companion activity to get into the fun!

When I begin teaching about how-to writing, I typically read a TON of mentor texts and complete a Noticings Chart with students. This helps students shift into the mindset of the author and how they might have gone about writing a how to story. We have many discussions until we have a solid understanding of exactly what how-to writing includes, such as an introduction, materials, steps, etc. Once we have this understanding, students are prepped and ready to begin their own writing!

While reading “How to Catch Santa” by Jean Reagan, we do a think aloud on the different pieces of a how-to writing and notice what the author did specifically. We stop and pause for students to brainstorm and discuss different ways they may want to try and catch Santa. After reading, I use the planning sheet below to craft my own writing as a mentor for students. I am always very specific to inform students that they may NOT use my ideas or ideas from the story because they MUST be original. Students may use pictures or words when planning and they are informed that their plan is a just quick sketch of what they will write about. I always tell students that plans should take NO more than 5 minutes to complete. Check out some of these creative kids planning sheets!

After all students have completed their plans on how to catch Santa, we come back together and students watch as I model my first draft from my plan. I always encourage students while writing to have a juicy introduction that hooks our readers and a strong conclusion that wraps up our writing for our readers. I explicitly show students how I use my plan to complete my writing and elaborate! I also show students while writing how I make sure all my steps are specific and make sense together… a HUGE part of how-to writing.

Now students are ready for their first draft! They work to use their plans to complete their first draft. It’s in this stage that it takes the most time for students. Support and guide them but there’s no need to worry too much about grammar and punctuation in this stage… we leave that for editing. Simply give them time to write. This is also a great time to confer. When that stage is done, then we shift into peer editing! They LOVE this part because they get to shift into “teacher mode” themselves, but most importantly, they really help one another make their writing better. We always use these awesome easy to use checklists to guide them through peer editing.

Once your students have written their plans, which are always amazingly creative, finished their first drafts, peer edited, they’ve come to the best part- publishing! You want to give them ample time to get it just right. Get them in the mood to publish their final piece of writing. While students work, I love to display a fireplace to give all the cozy vibes and we listen to instrumental holiday music. Students can publish a simple shape version of their choice or a chimney version and they are both SO fun! Check them out!

Getting Cozy While Writing

Anything that is a fun way to engage students AND cover standards is a WIN WIN in my book! With this activity and craft, students practice important writing skills, get seriously creative, and they have a blast! No matter how you’re teaching these days, I’ve got you covered. You can download both a print or digital version of the resource now by clicking on the pictures below!

I hope you enjoyed learning about this fun holiday writing and craft! Don’t forget to subscribe to my email list! Not only will you get the most up to date tips, tricks, and classroom projects… and of course more fun FREEBIES including The How to Catch Santa DIGITAL Circle Publishing FREEBIE! But you will also have exclusive access to tons of digital how to videos! If you would like to learn about this and other things happening in my classroom follow me @sweetnsauerfirsties on Instagram.

To follow me on TPT and get all the latest updates on HALF OFF new products, click HERE!

This post contains an affiliate link, meaning I get a small commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links. This is at absolutely NO cost to you!

The Subtraction Learning Path

Have you heard of Learning Paths yet? They are a MUST HAVE for distance learning! They will take your students from the mini lesson stage all the way to mastery of a skill. If you would like to learn more specifically about what they are, you can read The Learning Path – Mini Lesson to Mastery blog post HERE!

If you haven’t heard of learning paths, I’ll bet you can at least notice some trends we’ve been having this school year. Teachers Pay Teachers even blogged about it! I was absolutely fascinated about the newest trends from October! 30% of teachers said they were having trouble delivering engaging content to their students! When teachers were asked what they used to engage students, they discussed an array of tools.

Well guess what guys? That is EXACTLY what a Learning Path is! But don’t let me keep talking about it, check it out for yourself so you and your students can experience exactly how powerful and engaging they can be! Here I’ll talk about the latest path I’ve created to help students master the skill of subtraction within 10.

The Learning Path Components

Each Learning Path, no matter the skill, contains the same components. They include a mini lesson, various ENGAGING learning activities for practice, and assessments. There’s also an optional read aloud piece because who doesn’t love literature and want their students being exposed to as many books as possible?! I say that piece is optional because if you feel emboldened to take on creating a path yourself, I also have an editable template for you! Here you can take the greatness of the learning path, add to it your teaching style and you can house all the specific pieces of your students’ learning.

Mini Lesson

Starting with a mini lesson provides students with just the right amount of background knowledge and new content for students to understand and interact with. Here you can record and insert your own mini lesson, link a video, or simply use the mini lesson I’ve recorded for you and your students. In this video, I use various strategies for students to utilize when subtracting, such as a math mountains, number lines, and ten frames. There’s even time inserted in the video to allow for practice while learning. I keep it short for students to retain their attention and fill their toolbox with TONS of strategies! Check out more below by clicking the picture!

Learning Activities

The learning path provides your classroom with student choice. After their mini lesson, whatever practice activity students choose to interact with the skills is up to them! I LOVE creating engaging digital activities where students can have choice and FUN while practicing the skill being taught.

While working to master subtraction within 10, your students will have the choice to go on a safari adventure, playing a dice game, or have fun with some engaging task cards. No matter what activity they choose, it’s sure to spruce up your student’s subtraction skills! In addition to ensuring these activities are super interactive, I also make sure to include voice directions for students to gain independence.

Your students can go on their own safari adventure collecting clues to solve a riddle. Not only will your students LOVE being detectives, but the activities included in the adventure give your students TONS of practice with subtraction in engaging and higher level thinking ways. Take a look below at some of the different types of questions students will experience.

The next activity is super simple but TONS of fun! What kid doesn’t love rolling dice? Add some dice to anything and you have yourself ENGAGEMENT! This roll and cover is a fun way to practice subtraction with an easy to use game! You can also grab this for FREE when you subscribe!

Task cards are a GREAT way for students to practice a skill in different ways with all the tools they’ve learned. These DIGITAL task cards allow students to practice all the subtraction strategies they’ve learned. Question types they’ll encounter is all about differentiation with questions that include number lines, fingers, ten frames, and more! Look below at just a few of the ways students will practice subtraction. They will use manipulatives and strategies to help them understand subtraction in a multitude of different ways.

Need a bit more flexibility? You got it! The best part of the learning path, you can use all or some of the activities! It is completely up to you and what you want your students to do! Have activities you already love? No problem. You can link them into the path for students to use. Want them to just do one activity at a time? You hold the power! You have access to ALL the activities but you can push them out to students individually. The learning path is a GREAT way to house all your student’s learning needs and allows for flexibility while teaching… even at a distance. And those struggling kiddos who need more help? The path has got them covered too. They have access to that mini lesson at ALL times so they can go back and review as many times as they need!

Read Aloud

Confession: I’m a lover of books. I believe kids should be able to read all the time, not just during reading! I love finding different texts to support skills being taught… especially in math. For this path I have included a subtraction story read aloud for students to access. It is a simple link to a Youtube read aloud. Get those kids in front of a book! You could even record yourself reading a book and link it if you want. With the flexibility of the learning path, you can choose a different read aloud or none at all! It’s completely up to you!

Assessment

As educators, we know EXACTLY how important assessments are and how they help guide our instruction. I have been LOVING using Google Forms for digital assessments! They are an easy, quick way to assess exactly what the students learned from our instruction and where we need to go next. Below you’ll see some of the different question types students will experience in their assessment on subtraction. You’ll also notice how aligned the mini lesson and activities are to the assessment so that students are not “tricked”. This gives the assessment more validity and we can really ascertain exactly what they have learned. Want to learn more about digital assessments? Check out this blog post HERE about how to create your own!

SAVE YOU SOME TIME!

As educators, we NEVER have enough time. Let ME save YOU some time! I am creating these paths to help educators with distance learning. This year is TOUGH to say the least! I am working hard to create a fun and engaging way for students to practice skills. These don’t have to be used only with distance learning, these can easily be pushed out to students in the classroom too. They can be used for remediation of a skill or an extension! I love how versatile they are and all the different ways they can be utilized! Take a look below at The Subtraction Within 10 Learning Path!

I hope you enjoyed learning about all the AMAZING features of the Subtraction Within 10 Learning Path! Don’t forget to subscribe to my email list! Not only will you get the most up to date tips, tricks, and classroom projects… and of course more fun FREEBIES including the Digital Roll and Cover FREEBIE! But you will also have exclusive access to tons of digital how to videos! If you would like to learn about this and other things happening in my classroom follow me @sweetnsauerfirsties on Instagram.

To follow me on TPT and get all the latest updates on HALF OFF new products, click HERE!

Google Forms: A Teacher’s Best Friend!

Teachers are in this unique world of planning great lessons, assessing, replanning more great lessons, grading, and assessing again! Why not take it easy and use Google Forms as an assessment! This self-grading, easy to use, FREE, platform is compatible with Google Classroom, includes tons of easy to use features, and even compiles data for you! Talk about a life saver or even better a teacher’s best friend!

Let’s Take a Closer Look

First, Google Forms is incredibly easy to access. Option 1 is to try a simple Google search and it pops right up. Option 2 is using your Google Drive! Simply click the plus and create a new form from there! There are some great, easy to use templates available to choose from, specifically for assessments! They include Worksheet, Assessment, Exit Ticket and of course Blank Quiz. If you don’t need a template, just choose blank! There are a bunch more templates for personal use too! The ready made templates have specific settings already set up for you to make the process even simpler! Of course you can have access to changing these if you need to though! More to come in settings later in the post!

Did you say Self Grading?!

We know teachers need time more than anything else so let Google Forms grade for you! First, let’s understand a little more about Google Forms. It is a helpful tool for assessments allowing you to choose from multiple choice questions, short answer questions, paragraph questions, dropdown questions, linear scale questions for those math problems, and even grid choices for exactly what you need! There are even options to add images, or videos for your questions. Thinking of using a social studies map or an image of a flower for science? Easy peasy! If you are an avid Google Form user, there is even a feature where you can import questions from other Google Forms!

The best part though is if you choose any of the closed option questions, there is an answer key that you create, embedded into the quiz, that does the grading for you! No buttons to push, just self grading as students submit their forms. You can even provide instant feedback on each answer on each question! If you want to supply the students with a little more support, you can even link to a Youtube Video for more instruction or share a link to the lesson for additional support.

Settings

Now that we discussed more about the options, let’s dive into the settings! There are settings to allow students to immediately see their results right after submission or you can set it for later after teacher review. The teacher review option works really well if you want to make sure all students complete the assessment before individuals are seeing their scores or if you have added a writing portion. Other settings include blocking the students from taking the quiz more than once (or maybe you want them to do a retake and that works too), and see questions they missed before submitting. Even more, you can allow students to see correct answers and feedback and also see the point values of each question. See the next section for a few more useful settings!

Worried about cheating?

Google Forms allows you to use “Locked Mode,” which literally locks students into the form and will not let them browse the Internet for potential answers! Also, there is an option to shuffle questions so all student forms are different!

Data, Data, Data

Every teacher knows the value of data, but also knows the pain of itemizing and data collecting from various assessments. Google Forms will ease the stress of compiling data for you too!. Not only does it compile various responses to questions, overall scores, but also trends amongst your class or classes!

Specifically, you can look at how many students answered each question correctly and incorrectly, the percentages for each incorrect and correct answer and which students correctly or incorrectly answered each individual question! If you prefer, you can also export your data to Google Sheets to take a closer look there! You can instantly see which questions your students may need to be retaught and which ones they rocked, all instantly! Think about the possibilities of reviewing an assessment the same day that students have completed it. As teachers, the value of this is huge!

More Features

Google Forms can also easily be used for quick polls, daily check ins, collecting contact information, or even a rubric for grading student writing or projects! If you are a Google Classroom user, there is even a feature to import all student scores right into Classroom for even more immediate results!

Google Forms for assessment are nothing less than a teacher’s best friend. Between the settings, the instant results, opportunities for feedback, and options for all different types of assessment, this is the tool for you!

Digital Exit Tickets

Talk about some AMAZING features right?! Now, take a look below at some of the digital exit tickets for math standards that I’ve been working on for Kindergarten and First Grade! My favorite thing about using Google Forms for exit tickets is ALL the different question types possible!

Short Answer Responses

Multiple Choice

Drop Down

Checkboxes

Open Response

What an interactive way to assess students learning quickly! Learn more about these GROWING bundles now by clicking on the pictures!

I hope you enjoyed learning about all the ENDLESS features that Google Forms has to offer! Don’t forget to subscribe to my email list! Not only will you get the most up to date tips, tricks, and classroom projects… and of course more fun FREEBIES including the Kindergarten Counting and Carnality 0-10 Digital Exit Ticket FREEBIE! But you will also have exclusive access to tons of digital how to videos! If you would like to learn about this and other things happening in my classroom follow me @sweetnsauerfirsties on Instagram.

To follow me on TPT and get all the latest updates on HALF OFF new products, click HERE!

The Magic of Boom Learning

Distance learning definitely has its benefits and drawbacks. However, we can be grateful that we are navigating through this during such a digital age. Technology, as frustrating and time consuming as it can be, has proved to be a savior when it came time for us educators to shift our teaching methods. Personally, I have learned way more about Seesaw than I ever thought I would’ve known, as well as several amazing features Google Suite has. Technology has always had it’s part in our classrooms but now has been the time to really delve in to what these platforms have to offer. Hands down, my absolute favorite platform by far is Boom Learning. It is an extremely incredible program and I HAVE to share with you why it is now a must have in my classroom, whether digital or in person. I’m excited to share the ins and outs of Boom and hopefully convey how COOL it really is! Here you’ll learn about what it is, how to use it, and a lot of the engaging features it has for you and your students.

Boom! What is it?

If you needed to define the Boom Learning platform, the simplest definition is that it houses digital task cards. Now you may be thinking… that’s it? What’s all the hype about a simple old task card? But you know we all love a great task card activity. And with Boom, don’t sleep on the digital part! What you can do with these particular task cards is simply AMAZING. Educators use task cards in so many different ways. They can be used in math and literacy centers. They can be used during whole group instruction to get more practice with a skill. Now with distance learning at the forefront of education, using task cards virtually can be an awesome way to engage students and allow them opportunities to practice skills in a fun way.

How Do I Set Up An Account?

It is super quick and easy to set up an account with Boom! There are paid and free memberships you can sign up for and at the bottom of this PAGE you can see all the different membership options. The basic membership costs 15 dollars per year and you get a 90 day free trial so it’s a pretty good deal. HERE you’ll find an easy to use guide to help you set up your account. This helpful guide also includes some tips and tricks for you. You can even set up a classroom through Boom. HERE you’ll find a quick and easy to use video walkthrough of how to set up your classroom.

How Do Students Log In?

As the teacher, you are able to create usernames and passwords for students. This is nice because if students already have a username and password they are familiar with, you can use that! One super cool feature Boom offers is a QR Code that can be created for students to log in for even easier access. Take a look below at some quick steps of how to create QR Code Sign Ins for your students. HERE is also a helpful how-to as well from Boom!

Assigning Decks to Students

There are a few different ways you can assign decks. You’ll see some different options that include: Fast Pin, Assign, or Hyperlink Play. What’s really nice about Fast Pin is that you can use the FREE Boom Learning account and students DO NOT need to log in! However, you aren’t provided with the data from what your students completed. Assign and Hyperlink Play are options for if you want to track your students’ progress and get compiled data. In this case, you will need to have a paid account and each student will need their own account. When looking for decks, you can search for them on the Boom Learning website or through Teachers Pay Teachers. On both websites you can play a preview of the deck so you know exactly what your students will see and interact with. Boom Cards can be linked into ALL platforms! Whether you use Seesaw, Google, Schoology, Canvas, or some other digital platform, you can link the decks right there for students to access! Here are some visuals to get a better understanding of how to assign decks through Boom. To learn more about assigning decks through Seesaw and Google Classroom, make sure to subscribe and have access to the continuously GROWING How-To video library!

Types of Questions for Engagement

Below you’ll find TONS of different question types to engage students in multiple ways. Again, these are just SOME of the many different types of questions that can be used with students to cover different skills in an exciting way!

There are drag and drop features, matching, and sorting!

There are typing, labeling, and finding!

There are building, listening, and spelling!

That’s the wonderful thing about Boom Cards, the question types are ENDLESS!

Fantastic Features!

One of the beautiful things about Boom is that they can be used in so many different ways for various types of skills. I’ve created Boom cards for an array of skills such as SEL, Math, Sight Words, Phonics, and more. When you find Boom Cards that you want to assign to your students, they are set up in a deck. Typically decks range between 10-30 cards; sometimes more, sometimes less.

Decks might be set up in adventure style like this set:

Or they might be randomly distributed for students to work through like this set:

My FAVORITE feature is that they are SELF GRADING! Google and Seesaw activities are interactive and engaging, but you still have to take the time to go through and grade everything. So naturally, this is a GAME CHANGER! Boom does all the hard work for you and breaks it down by student so that you can see exactly how long a student spent on a deck and the specifics on what they got wrong. Students also get IMMEDIATE feedback so they can see exactly how they are doing and fix their mistakes!

Here are a few more awesome features Boom has to offer:

They are easy to use for students so it’s absolutely perfect for little learners
Decks typically come with both visual AND audio instructions for students (not all decks have audio but I make sure all of my decks include audio)
They are completely digital so students can access them anywhere on ANY device
They can be differentiated by assigning different decks to different students depending on their individual needs
They are ENGAGING and students love “playing” them

Take a look at how to analyze the student data!

Read below some of the wonderful things teachers have to say about Boom Cards!

“BOOM Cards are fabulous! I am super excited to purchase more. I really appreciate the immediate feedback that my students receive.”

“We LOVE Boom Cards! So colorful, engaging, AND helpful! Thank you for sharing.”

“This is an awesome resource. My kids loved using it.”

“It’s a great way to include social skills into distance learning for my special learners!”

“My students absolutely love boom cards – they will be so happy to use this! I loved playing around with it! Thank you!”

“My student is getting great practice in a multisensory way…thank you!”

“Great way to get kiddos to practice sight words on a digital platform.”

“Great resource to engage student learning. – thank you!”

“These are perfect for my center activities. My students really need this practice, but they love the format of boom cards. Thanks for sharing!”

“I love this!! The self-checking aspect of Boom Cards is amazing. Thank you for sharing.”

If you loved the decks you saw, you can check them out by clicking the pictures or learn more about fun and engaging Boom Cards HERE! There is also a YouTube Channel FULL of helpful videos ranging from ‘Boom Cards 101’ to ‘Using Boom Cards with Google Classroom’. HERE you can access that FREE library full of helpful videos!

I hope you enjoyed learning about Boom Cards and why they are such a wonderful resource for students! Don’t forget to subscribe to my email list! Not only will you get the most up to date tips, tricks, and classroom projects… and of course more fun FREEBIES including the Subtraction Adventure Boom Cards FREEBIE! But you will also have exclusive access to tons of digital how to videos! If you would like to learn about this and other things happening in my classroom follow me @sweetnsauerfirsties on Instagram.

To follow me on TPT and get all the latest updates on HALF OFF new products, click HERE!

More Support Options for Boom Learning

https://www.facebook.com/groups/BoomTeachers/

https://www.facebook.com/boomteachers/

https://www.youtube.com/c/boomlearning

Secret Skills Of Reading Success: Blending and Segmenting!

Reading is a powerful, yet complicated skill to master. All the components, phonics, phonemic awareness, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension all work together to help students become a master reader. We as educators know that all of these components are important, but I have noticed in my years of teaching, that once students master blending and segmenting, the growth is immense. I have so many awesome activities to share with you that are sure to help students master this skill and allow you as an educator to see the growth you work tirelessly for!

So what exactly is blending and segmenting and why is it important for students? Segmenting involves students breaking words down into individual sounds, such as /r/ /a/ /m/ , whereas blending is when those sounds get pulled together to form the entire word. While this is typically a skill developed in kindergarten, there are still students who struggle with this important skill through second grade and sometimes even higher.

But why is this particular skill so important? Think about how you read for a second. When you’re reading, do you have to stop often to decode a word? Most likely the answer is no. When we become fluent readers, we have learned a variety of decoding strategies which allows us to move from thinking about decoding words, to our brains shifting into automaticity so that we can comprehend the stories. This is the ultimate goal of reading. To move past the monotonous task of “reading” to having that movie play in our minds. Visualization is the power.

Now think about your classroom full of students and how many of them have moved past this skill and are able to fluently blend and read CVC words. Maybe you teach kinder and you have a few or you teach first and have quite a bit. Maybe you teach second and almost all do but what about the kids that can’t? Even if it’s just one, or two kids, they deserve the extra support. In my 6 years of teaching first grade, I ALWAYS have had a HAND FULL of students who struggled so much and needed more help. This led me to research and planning.

After years of teaching students who needed more support with this skill, I knew I needed to do something different to help these students. Something more exciting and engaging that clicked quickly. So let’s dive in. First I’m going to briefly tell you about how I construct reading groups, then I’m going to tell you how I make it EXCITING and ENJOYABLE!

Constructing Groups

Small groups were constructed using Jan Richardson’s guided reading program and it was a game changer for me. If you have not heard of Jan Richardson or use her for guided reading, oh my goodness are you missing out! At my last school, we called her “Jan the Man” because boy is she! Her method of teaching guided reading engages students, helps teachers utilize best practices, and the GROWTH I see every year from my students is exponential! She breaks down the components of reading from pre-readers to fluent readers. She’s created ENGAGING lessons that the students LOVE so they can sit and focus. Which is SUPER important when you only have 20 minutes and a table full of 6 year olds covering crucial content! She takes the boring out of reading and keeps it exciting for everyone. She has helped me take students from pre-reading to being fluent readers. In teaching we strive to get our students to specific growth targets over the school year. With Jan’s Guided Reading Program, those targets are capable of being met and then surpassed. It is UNBELIEVABLE how well students thrive. If you want to learn more, I HIGHLY recommend starting with THIS book. It’s a great read and really teaches you what students look like at different reading levels and HOW best to support them.

Bring Back the Excitement!

Play based learning is an amazing way to keep the fun and enjoyment in practicing skills. A teacher can be handed a curriculum and told to teach it, but I guarantee that if you walk in ANY room, EVERY teacher will have a different way of teaching it. That’s one of the great things about teaching- everybody has their own style and flair! Now as I stated earlier, I use Jan Richardson’s Guided Reading Program, but I take her lessons and add in my own elements. Not only am I SUPER passionate about using the “Jan the Man” method, I also STRONGLY believe in hands on and play based learning.

One of my favorite quotes is from Mr. Rogers about play. He says, “Play is often talked about as if it were a serious relief from serious learning. But for children, play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood.” I realized my struggling students needed their serious learning to be playful. So there was the challenge I accepted. Bring play into learning. Below I am going to share with you 6 activities from a growing bundle full of hands-on segmenting and blending resources that my students BEG to play.

Blending and Segmenting Fun

All of these began with the thought in mind to develop hands on activities for students to practice this crucial skill and HAVE FUN! I started simple with this blending activity.

While these are simple, they are VERY effective for students. Students use colored counters to practice segmenting each individual sound. I then teach students to use the arrow to blend the entire word together. In Jan’s book, she discusses how when students push tangible objects up with their fingers, whether it is letters for sight word practice or counters for letter sounds, the motion locks it in their brain so they can remember it. This activity is effective because it allows students to see visually what it looks like to segment and blend words, while also includes that movement piece for them as well. When students get really good at this skill, I then add in the cards with the boxes for writing in the sounds. This allows students to practice writing the letters associated with the sounds and then blending and reading the entire word together.

After the raving of this activity from my students, I had to step up my engagement level for the next “game”. Make way for the race cars!!

When I brought this out, and gave each kid their own little race car people, the kids went CRAZY! They had a blast “racing” while blending. The best part is they didn’t realize how much they were learning because they were having SO much fun! Just like with the other activity, these mats have the dots at the bottom for students so when they are segmenting and blending, they know where to start, slow down, and stop! These mats also include nonsense words for students to practice those as well!

The next activity is one of my favorites, I learned about these magnetic “wands” and knew they would be a BLAST with blending!

With these magnetic wands and magnetic counters, the students can “magically” blend words together and watch the sounds disappear onto the wand as they say the word! Talk about FUN! They LOVE blending with “magic” and think it is the most fun activity that they BEG to do. Again, just like the first activity, these are differentiated for students working at different levels. No matter where they’re at, they are sure to have TONS of fun!

And as much as kids love magic, they also love being detectives! Here’s an activity for our little investigators!!

Throw in a magnifying glass and boy do you have engagement and fun! I especially like this activity, because the students really have to rely on their beginning sounds to help them determine the letter that goes in the box to spell their word. It is such a fun way to practice and really has students being detectives deciphering the words and it’s beginning sound! When they determine the word, they are always SO excited because they really had no clue what it was! Talk about a fun time!!

The next activity involves some fun destruction. What kid doesn’t LOVE Play Doh and smashing things? Let’s be honest! When you pull out Play Doh and tiny mallets, kids just KNOW they’re going to have fun!

This is such a fun way to practice segmenting and blending! Students love smashing out the sounds with their Play Doh and mallets! You can even find green, yellow, and red really reinforce the visual of blending words.

The last activity is one of my favorites, because it involves the nostalgic toy of Slinkys! When you bring these things out, kids think this is going to be SO fun!

Slinkys are fun to use with blending because it shows students how we stretch out each individual sound but then we snap it back together to read the entire word! Another cool feature of this activity is that it allows students the freedom to choose their own picture card, as well as use the letters or write the letters. It gives great student choice!

With all of these activities, I’ve tried to include as MANY different CVC words as possible for students to practice so that they aren’t practicing the same words over and over again. The best part is after practicing ALL of these different activities in small group, they can then become center activities they already know how to play and LOVE! These activities can be used in SO many ways. Students can work on beginning sounds, or work on isolating individual sounds, and of course they can work on blending words together! This growing bundle is the most wish listed and purchased resource in my ENTIRE store. Teachers tell me over and over again how much this resource helps their students and how often they use these activities as interventions for students. Read below some of the wonderful things teachers have to say about these activities.

“This resource is very helpful. I am struggling to get some of my students to meet their goal of reading word family words. This has been very helpful to get them to visually see how they can use the blending strategy to read these words.”

“Great resource for small groups to keep students engaged and excited about their learning!”

“I am excited to begin using these with my students! I plan to use them for small group. So many fun and different ways to target segmenting/blending 🙂 With this bundle I am set for a while!”

“I am excited to use this with my students to help blend words and increase reading skills. I know it will be used often and a go-to for my students. Thanks”

“Lots of creative ways to practice CVC words with your class. Especially great for centers or for guided reading. Thank you!”

“This is an amazing resource to use in my small group!”

“These are great introductory activities for my kindergarten students. We use them for literacy centers with our early literacy teacher during second term. Thank you!”

“This provides plenty of activities to help all of my students with blending. It was perfect for my small group lessons as well as word work activities for students.”

This is also a GROWING bundle because as I come up with more hands on ideas, I continue to add them to the bundle! So each new resource that gets included, you get for FREE! If you would like to learn more about these different hands-on activities, you can watch the video below! To grab the 350 page growing bundle, simply click on the picture!

I hope you enjoyed learning more about segmenting and blending and how to make it fun and enjoyable not only for the students, but for you as well! Don’t forget to subscribe to my email list! You will get the most up to date tips, tricks, and classroom projects… and of course more fun FREEBIES including the brand new Slide Blending FREEBIE! If you would like to learn about this and other things happening in my classroom follow me @sweetnsauerfirsties on Instagram.

To follow me on TPT and get all the latest updates on HALF OFF new products, click HERE!

Classroom Teacher Hacks and Tips

#fromteachersforteachers

Last week I brought you the Digital Teacher Hacks and Tips! This week I’m bringing to you physical classroom hacks and tips. Again, when asked about the best tips and tricks, I was amazed and awed by the overwhelming amount of responses I got from educators. It takes a village to really have a great pool of ideas so I’ve added links to other teachers’ social media or blog posts. So what are we waiting for?! Sit back and get ready for some awesome teacher hacks!

1. First, an absolute MUST HAVE teacher item… HOT GLUE! Don’t have it? Grab it! Don’t use it? Start now!! Check out what @alliethegypsyteacher has to say about hot glue! Want to know another MUST Have teacher item?! Two words. Packing Tape! @fifthismyjam knows ALL the love that is packing tape! If you don’t use packing tape for pretty much everything… you should check out her page to see why you should!

2. Below are some great ways to motivate students to track while they read! Witch fingers are a cheap and GREAT way to get excited, especially this time of year!

3. Teachers came through with some GREAT ideas and tips for whiteboards, their storage, and eraser! Click on each picture to read more about the specific tip and idea!

Whiteboard and eraser storage! You can also store the marker inside the socks!

An oldie but goodie! Pom poms on the tops of dry erase markers!

Another eraser type… sponges!!

4. Bookmark hack: Laminated Astrobright strips! Talk about an easy, super cute, and INEXPENSIVE idea! Thank you for this wonderful tip @all.about.the.abcs . You could even draw on them, write messages or have students decorate before laminating.

5. Hanging things on different types of walls can be frustrating. Insert wall hanging hacks: Hot glue as mentioned above is usually foolproof, but see the brilliant way @rocketdogteaching does it instead!

6. Who doesn’t love IKEA? I mean everything in there is cute and multifunctional. Here’s a cool and creative way to use the IKEA Tolbsy Frames!

7. Looking for ways for students to manage themselves? Below are some creative ways to have students help make your life a little easier by taking attendance, going to the bathroom, lunch count, and more! Click on each picture to learn more!

Another way is to have a dry erase board on the classroom door- one side kids write their name on if they leave the room & where they are going, the other side for dismissal changes that day. This helps you know where kids are at all times! Thanks! @mrsmamallama

8. Do you hate when you’re trying to laminate small pieces and when you lift the sheet to put it in the laminator, the pieces slide? Here’s a helpful tip- use a little glue from a glue stick on small pieces to keep them from sliding around! If you have not tried this yet, it helps SO much!

9. Some classrooms don’t come equipped with enough bulletin boards. Well you can no longer fret about that! You can MAKE your own bulletin boards!! Say whaaat?!! Watch this video below to learn more!

10. Have trouble hanging letters straight?! Not anymore with this AMAZING hack! Use blue painters tape to get the letters exactly how you want them before stapling them to the bulletin board. You can even step your game up if you hate seeing the staples! Pins and Colored staples to the rescue! Learn more by clicking the picture below!

Is decorating the classroom your jam? Here is a great POST all about how to hang classroom decor easily and with less trouble!

11. Task cards awesome resources and they can be used in so many different ways. Here is an innovative one from @mrs_cornetts_corner! Putting task cards in Dollar Store photo albums! All students need is their book and a marker. You can click on the link to learn even more!

12. Check out this entire YOUTUBE video full of great hacks and ideas such as printing and copying hacks, and one that helps keep desks and tables together!!

13. Face masks are a new way of life for us. Here are a few ways to make you more comfortable with them and save your voice! A face mask bracket gives you more space for comfort and a microphone can help save you from having to speak louder through your mask. I have THIS microphone from Amazon and LOVE it for me and the kids!

14. Command anything is amazing because they’re so quality and how adorable are these command clothespins to hang anchor charts?! Can we say mind blown!

15. Two words…. Trash basket. They can be used in so many ways! Here is a post that show how helpful these little baskets can be!

16. Using pins and binder clips, or clothespins and tacks, to display work on bulletin boards is a great idea! It makes changing things out so much quicker.

17. Not sure where to house with all those adorable classroom pointers?! Look how @kimsteachingcorner stores hers!

18. Another AMAZING hack that I will DEFINITELY use and never thought of… shower curtains instead of fabric on your crate seats!! This is cute and sanitary!! You could probably even get away with a clear liner over your fabric if you already have yours made!

19. This hack is PERFECT for social distancing right now! Use colored tape to help students establish their own space!

20. Word walls are essential but have you ever tried a magnetic one?! It’s a GREAT way for students to be able to interact with the word wall and easily put the words back!! I will absolutely be using this one FOR SURE! Thank you @teach.joyously

21. Trouble making your own anchor charts? Want to make them beautiful but struggle with handwriting and drawing? I know I do! Here’s a great tip for creating Pinterest worthy charts. You can create anchor charts in Google Slides or Powerpoint then project it on the board. Place a piece of anchor chart paper over the top to trace! You can also press the “freeze” button so it won’t move and trace it!

22. Here’s a great and easy way to display standards- Use page protectors to easily change and keep them displayed!

23. Does anyone cringe at the idea of busting open the paint with a classroom full of littles? I’m raising my hand here. However, there’s a great hack for making paint more manageable! Start saving cans with plastic tops, like frosting or peanut cans, and get some plastic sandwich bags. Cut a hole in the top of the frosting can lid. Place a sandwich bag inside the can with the end of the bag folded over the outside of the top. Pour the paint inside the bag and place the lid on top of the can. Kids can dip their paint brushes in the lid hole to paint. When done with painting, place the brush in the sink to be cleaned, take the sandwich bag out and discard, and close it with the top! Still paint left? Simply close the sandwich bag and store it in the paint cup for another time! Easy Peasy!!

24. If you still have virtual students but want students to still participate in think, pair, share activities, how about sending beanie babies, or other small stuff animals, home with your students so they can always have a “partner”. The “partners” can also serve as reading buddies for the year. Thanks! @kellics_firstgrade

25. Want to keep the room smelling fresh but aren’t allowed to use candles, diffusers or plug ins? Check out this wonderful hack from @thelittlelearnmaid ! Keep a cheap can of carpet fresh on hand and sprinkle a bit in the trash bag each morning. Every time a kid throws in trash, it stirs the scent and freshens the room all day!

26. One hack that I use EVERY year is numbering students. If provide students with a number, you can then use that number for just about EVERYTHING- bins, cubbies, pencil boxes, etc. The kiddos learn their numbers easily and the best part is that everything with a number can be reused year after year!

27. Hacks that simply make your life easier is essential in the educator world. HERE is a wonderful post with 10 tips and tricks to make that happen!

28. Want creative and inexpensive ways to decorate bulletin boards? Switch up the old butcher paper with materials like fabric, dollar store table cloths, or wrapping paper! These are just SOME of the many inexpensive ways so can really get creative!!

29. Want a great way to display and organize anchor charts?! HANGERS FOR THE WIN!! Teachers are so smart.

30. Need another wonderful idea to motivate students and get students excited to be called on! Check out how this teacher is using these cute little ducks to do just that!

I hope you enjoyed these teacher hacks! I know I enjoyed learning about some new great hacks and these are absolutely NOT even close to all the cool tricks out there. If you want to continue this learning, @lifebetweensummers shares a #teacherfollowfriday every Friday with a brand new teacher and a brand new idea! If YOU have any additional must know hacks to share, drop them below!

Don’t forget to subscribe to my email list! You will get the most up to date tips, tricks, and classroom projects… and of course more fun FREEBIES including the print and digital Glow and Grow FREEBIE! If you would like to learn about this and other things happening in my classroom follow me @sweetnsauerfirsties on Instagram.

To follow me on TPT and get all the latest updates on HALF OFF new products, click HERE!

Digital Teacher Hacks and Tips

#fromteachersforteachers

This is the YEAR for technology. In this post, you’ll learn TONS of NEW digital teacher hacks from some AMAZING teachers! When asked about the best tips and tricks, I was amazed and awed by the overwhelming amount of responses I got from educators. It takes a village to really have a great pool of ideas so while reading you’ll notice some links to other teachers’ social media or blog posts. Some tips were too good not to share the whole thing for you! So what are we waiting for?! Sit back and get ready for some brand new and super tech savvy digital teacher hacks!

1.Having a two monitor setup while teaching virtually. I have heard that this is a LIFE SAVER! By having a two monitor setup, you can do SO many different things. It is really beneficial for multitasking. For example, you can have all students displayed while teaching on another screen.

2. Hack: Here are some serious time saver keyboard hacks to have!

3. Here’s a great Zoom hack from @kissylinao! Using the pin button on Zoom to quickly check a kid’s work!! Spotlight if you want them to be able to share to the entire class ❤️

4. For all you Seesaw users out there, here is a great tip to add audio directions to each slide. Create a blank page, change background color to match the slide you want to add it to, and then click on the microphone. When you’re finished recording, you can drag the corners to resize the image and then copy and paste it onto the slide you want! *Disclaimer: in order to use this feature, you must have the paid subscription. However, you can try it out for 90 days free (and record as much as you want) or you can become an ambassador and get it for FREE! You can learn more about Seesaw HERE!

5. Get the most out of your virtual classroom by heading over to @srta_spanish IG page. In this highlighted story, you’ll learn TONS of tips for Google Slides that teachers and students can use on Edpuzzle, Flipgrid, and Quizizz… oh my! It is FULL of goodies that was too good not to share!

6. This entire blog post from @notanotherhistoryteacher is filled with so many great tech tips! There are great Google Extensions to learn about, as well as some AMAZING platforms to utilize! You can read that post HERE!

7. Google Hack: Make your file names easily searchable by thinking of every possible thing you might name a file. That way, when you search for it next year, you can easily find it no matter what you search for. Sometimes my file names are 10+ words long because I teach in English and Spanish so I include Spanish and English words in the file names. You can follow Josh at the Picture Book Brain for more great ideas!

8. Let me start this one by saying this: following Virtual Confetti is a MUST DO! This lady right here has the BEST digital teacher hacks. HERE you can learn how to add voice directions in Google Slides which is a GAME CHANGER for primary students. She has also hacked her way into motivating students with her The Wheel of Fun!! You can learn more HERE. If you love this idea, you can download the Decision Roulette HERE for FREE!

9. Another great hack is making SAFE Youtube links for kids! You take your link, paste it onto Safeyoutube.net, and it formulates a safe video to send to kids without having to worry about what may pop up! Follow @third_grade_word_bird for more great ideas!

10. HERE you can learn how to create AND differentiate digital choice boards with Google Sheets!! Talk about amazing! Thank you Google for your awesome tools for digital learning.

11. Whether you’re in person or doing distance learning right now, I think this a GREAT idea for all students! Share weekly assignments through google drive, just in case a student has to quarantine or is absent for any reason. It’s a great way to make sure no one misses a thing! Thank you @iam_elpidia for this wonderful idea!

12. A great Seesaw hack from @teacherauthormom is to download the Seesaw app onto your phone! It’s an easy way to send a picture of an assignment to a specific student. Today it was a life saver because I’m teaching virtually and my power went out! I created a video of the lesson on my phone and pushed it out.

13. For Hybrid teachers, joining the Google meet from a computer and an iPad has been said to be super helpful. The computer displays to in person students while the iPad allows you to walk around and talk to digital students. @simplyacuteideas has great ideas for hybrid teaching!

14. A GAME CHANGER from @theliteracylibrary is splitting your screen in half so that you can simultaneously work on two different applications! Here is how to do that on an Apple device and here is how to on Windows.

15. Not necessarily a hack but more of a tip that I’ve heard from A LOT of educators. BE FLEXIBLE! We are working in unprecedented settings with technology that of course fails… usually when we need it most. Give yourself and students the grace and flexibility!

I hope you enjoyed these digital teacher hacks as much as I did! There are SO many amazing educators out there with SO many amazing ideas! Stay tuned for my classroom hacks post coming next week! If you have any amazing must know hacks to share, drop them below!

Don’t forget to subscribe to my email list! You will get the most up to date tips, tricks, and classroom projects… and of course more fun FREEBIES including the digital Waiting Room Slide FREEBIE! If you would like to learn about this and other things happening in my classroom follow me @sweetnsauerfirsties on Instagram.

To follow me on TPT and get all the latest updates on HALF OFF new products, click HERE!

The Learning Path – Mini Lesson to Mastery

This year is a year like NO other. We have had to adapt and change, especially in regards to technology. I’ve been fortunate to have one-to-one devices with my students the past 5 years and I thought I was tech savvy. However, this year technological skills have exploded as we navigate through various models of distance learning. If anything good has come out of this pandemic it’s that our students and us have learned SO much more about technology integration in the classroom and how to use different platforms. One AWESOME and super interactive type of resource I’ve been delving into is ‘Learning Paths’. They are similar to Multimedia Text Sets if you are familiar with those, but if not I’m glad you’re here to learn! These are a GREAT way to get your kiddos from the scaffolding stage to mastery of a skill exclusively using technology! Here you’ll learn all the different pieces of a Learning Path and see how to use them. I will also share with you templates and bundles for you to create your own or use ready to go material in your virtual classroom. I’ve created a Learning Path for Addition Within 10 so you can see exactly how this works for students and how they can navigate through the path on their own. Are you excited?! I know I am! Let’s get started!

The Learning Path Components

Learning Paths are amazing because they could be created for any skill, from literacy to math and all the proficiencies in between that you may be teaching your students. As stated earlier, with this resource we will be taking students from beginning to end of mastery with a skill. The components of the path include a mini lesson, various learning activities for practice, and assessments. In the paths I’ve created, I add in a read aloud piece because who doesn’t love literature?! If you feel emboldened to take on creating a path yourself, I also made an editable template where can house all the specific pieces of your students’ learning. As you can see students will always begin with the mini lesson and end with the formative assessment. The real powerful part are the activities because it allows for ample student choice. Whatever practice activity they choose in between is up to them! Now that you know the components, let’s dive into the specific pieces of the path and what that can look like for students.

Mini Lesson

Starting with a mini lesson provides students with just the right amount of background knowledge and new content for students to understand and interact with. The cool thing about all this technology is that you can get really creative with your mini lessons since engagement over these screens is crucial. There are a multitude of options for creating your own mini lesson for students, such as Google Slides, Tik Toks, Youtube, or Instagram Reels. Platforms such as Edpuzzle and Nearpod have begun to include more engaging tools to use while teaching. When using these platforms you are able to record your lesson in that program and while students are working through your lesson, they can interact with the content while learning! You can add questions for students to answer and even link a quiz for them to take after learning. No matter what tool you use for your mini lesson, make sure they are mini. The reason they’re so important is because they’re MINI. There is significant research that students lose focus after about 6 minutes so make sure your lessons over the screen don’t exceed that before you engage them in some sort of interaction.

Learning Activities

This is the most fun and flexible part of our learning paths because your learning activities can literally be ANY digital activity you want! I love housing my Learning Paths in Google because it is easy for students to navigate to tons of other platforms. As you can see in the path I’ve created, students are utilizing Boom, Google Slides, and YouTube. You could insert a game link to Khan Academy, transport students on a field trip by linking a virtual museum tour, and even lock them into a digital escape room to find clues to breakout! You are only limited by your creativity! Possibilities are endless and you can really gear these activities to cater to all of your student’s interests and modalities of learning. These learning paths help us gain back a sense of flexibility in our teaching and allows for more student choice because they are able to choose what fun activities to engage in to reach mastery of the skill. Take a look below at some of the different activities I’ve created for students to use with Addition Within 10.

Read Aloud

Why not have students always reading?! I’ve chosen to include a read aloud in my path because there are TONS of great books out there that help emphasize skills for just about everything; literacy, math, science, social justice, history, the list goes on and on. Having students consistently engaging with text is so important and I want them to read books as much as I can facilitate for them. But again, the beauty of this learning path is that it is FLEXIBLE! Don’t want a read aloud? Take it out! Include something different! I love how easy these are to edit and make your own to meet the needs of YOUR students.

Assessment

We all know assessment drives instruction and so of course these are a KEY part of The Learning Path and should be completed at the end of learning. After we go through all the hard work of teaching the lesson and facilitate opportunities for students to practice the skill, we need to know that they mastered the skill. We do this with assessments. If mastery isn’t achieved, we can look at the data to see where my students still need some instruction. But how do we assess students digitally? Google Forms are my FAVORITE new way to create formative assessments for students! They take a little time to play around with to learn all the different tools, but are really fairly simple to use. However I must say, the best part about digital assessments is the fact that they are automatically graded for you! And if that wasn’t enough, it also gives you data trends by the entire class or by individual students! I was shocked and amazed to discover this feature. Why have I not been using these sooner?! Here are some pictures below of the assessment I created for Addition Within 10. You can also see how the assessment breaks it down by trend and student.

SAVE YOU SOME TIME!

Sometimes we just want someone to do it for us. That’s why I’ve begun creating these paths for educators. These paths include EVERYTHING you need to teach and assess your students. I’ve started with first grade math standards but will soon be diving into reading standards as well. Have a different grade and skill you want a Learning Path for? Let me know! You love the path but want to use your own mini lesson or activities? No problem! These are COMPLETELY editable and you can keep or take out anything you don’t want or need. Each path will include separate resources that can be purchased individually or as a complete bundle with the whole path. Want to do it all yourself? There’s a completely blank template you can use as well! You can grab just the template to fill in your own lesson, activities, and assessments, or the entire bundle and have all the work done for you! With the bundle you even get an added bonus of a How-To video for teachers to utilize all features of the path! You can also check out my Instagram for in-depth stories on more benefits of The Learning Path.

Something brand new I’m starting is Custom Bundles. You can pick and choose ANY of The Learning Path components you would like and bundle them together at a discounted price! Email me at lindsaynsauer@gmail.com and I will create a custom bundle to meet the needs of you and your students.

Thanks for reading and learning with me here! Don’t forget to subscribe to my email list! You will get the most up to date tips, tricks, and classroom projects… and of course more fun FREEBIES including the Addition Within 10 Assessment for Google Forms FREEBIE! If you would like to learn about this and other things happening in my classroom follow me @sweetnsauerfirsties on Instagram.

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Searching for Capitals

Spacing

Sight Words

Punctuation

Does Our Writing Make Sense?

The Power of Peer Editing

Authentic Goal Setting

What Are Teachers Saying?

“Great resource! I printed out a copy for each student to have on their desk to refer back to and created a larger scale one to have available for them to see in the classroom. A great way for them to self correct their writing.”

“Love this checklist! I use the mini templates in small group/ my writing center. The larger templates stay on my board for us to refer back to when writing!! A must have!”

“Perfect visual to send home with students to utilize during distance learning or to include on daily slides! Thank you!”

“This is a great resource for editing in the primary grades! Very user-friendly!”

“Love the great visuals with the easy to understand checklist. ”

“I love using these when my students are peer editing. It helps them pay better attention to their writing.”

“Super simple writing checklist to use with 1st graders. They were able to use it to help with their writing.”

“Love the format of these!! Thank you!!”

“I LOVE this resource. It is a helpful reminder for my students when they are writing. The checklist is fun.”

“Great visual reminder for students and helps to build self-monitoring skills during writing.”

Other Writing Resources

Digital Writing Resources

Give Me the Details

Let’s Talk Tools

Some Other Ideas

The Learning Path Components

Mini Lesson

Learning Activities

Read Aloud

Assessment

SAVE YOU SOME TIME!

Let’s Take a Closer Look

Did you say Self Grading?!

Settings

Worried about cheating?

Data, Data, Data

More Features

Digital Exit Tickets

Short Answer Responses

Multiple Choice

Drop Down

Checkboxes

Open Response

Boom! What is it?

How Do I Set Up An Account?

How Do Students Log In?

Assigning Decks to Students

Types of Questions for Engagement

Fantastic Features!

“BOOM Cards are fabulous! I am super excited to purchase more. I really appreciate the immediate feedback that my students receive.”

“We LOVE Boom Cards! So colorful, engaging, AND helpful! Thank you for sharing.”

“This is an awesome resource. My kids loved using it.”

“It’s a great way to include social skills into distance learning for my special learners!”

“My students absolutely love boom cards – they will be so happy to use this! I loved playing around with it! Thank you!”

“My student is getting great practice in a multisensory way…thank you!”

“Great way to get kiddos to practice sight words on a digital platform.”

“Great resource to engage student learning. – thank you!”

“These are perfect for my center activities. My students really need this practice, but they love the format of boom cards. Thanks for sharing!”

“I love this!! The self-checking aspect of Boom Cards is amazing. Thank you for sharing.”

More Support Options for Boom Learning

Constructing Groups

Bring Back the Excitement!

Blending and Segmenting Fun

“This resource is very helpful. I am struggling to get some of my students to meet their goal of reading word family words. This has been very helpful to get them to visually see how they can use the blending strategy to read these words.”

“Great resource for small groups to keep students engaged and excited about their learning!”

“I am excited to begin using these with my students! I plan to use them for small group. So many fun and different ways to target segmenting/blending 🙂 With this bundle I am set for a while!”

“I am excited to use this with my students to help blend words and increase reading skills. I know it will be used often and a go-to for my students. Thanks”

“Lots of creative ways to practice CVC words with your class. Especially great for centers or for guided reading. Thank you!”

“This is an amazing resource to use in my small group!”

“These are great introductory activities for my kindergarten students. We use them for literacy centers with our early literacy teacher during second term. Thank you!”

“This provides plenty of activities to help all of my students with blending. It was perfect for my small group lessons as well as word work activities for students.”

#fromteachersforteachers

#fromteachersforteachers

The Learning Path Components

Mini Lesson

Learning Activities

Read Aloud

Assessment

SAVE YOU SOME TIME!

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