Fun Group Games: Enemy Circle

Enemy Circle
One person is chosen as the “enemy spy,” and all other players stand in a circle formation holding hands and facing inward. The spy asks to enter the circle by saying, “Please, good people, let me in so I can have shelter from the cold.” The players allow him or her to come into the circle, and he or she stands at the center. He or she acts as if warming him or herself by the fire, and while doing so tries to figure a way out of the circle. The spy will then suddenly try to escape through one set of players’ locked arms. If captured, the enemy spy picks a new spy, and the original enemy spy has to sit in the center. If he or she escapes, he or she picks a new spy to come back and spy with him or her. When they try to escape, they will exit at different locations in the circle. The game continues as the circle becomes smaller and the number of enemy spies increases. Make sure to keep this game safe as they try to break out of the circle. Check your district’s policy on active games.

Fun Group Games: Killer Frog

Killer Frog- I love this game. It’s fun, easy to learn and not too rowdy…
Everyone sits in a circle. One person is chosen to be the “detective” and goes to a place where he or she cannot see or hear what is going on in the circle. Everyone in the circle closes their eyes. A teacher walks around the circle and taps someone’s shoulder, who now becomes the “killer frog, “but no one else knows who the frog is (at first). The detective comes back in. the participant who is the killer frog sticks his or her tongue out at random people around the circle, trying not to be noticed by the detective. When the frog sticks its tongue out at someone, that person must lay down as if dead. the detective gets three tries to guess the killer frog’s identity. If he or she succeeds, someone else is chosen for the next round. if not, he or she is the detective again. 

Start of School Classroom Tour

When I was a brand new teacher, I was a bit overwhelmed with everything I had to cover in the first few days of school. There were tons of procedures, campus features (office, library, etc.) and expectations to go over. Here were a few notes (not an inclusive list by any means) I made to myself to help me remember some of what to cover:

Teacher’s space– 5 places off limits to students: teacher’s desk, any drawers (plastic or filing cabinets), behind the back table, front desk/podium storage on the back wall near the window. These are for storage and teacher use. Nothing interesting there anyway!
Line up– the line starts at the door, and ends by the computer desk. The line will only leave the room when the Line Monitor determines the class is ready to leave.
Turn in table– under the red sign labeled “when you’re finished”. Each turn in slot is labeled according to the type of thing that should go there. Make sure your papers have the correct heading before you turn them in or you will lose points.
Paper– lined paper, plain paper and scratch paper are in trays in 2 places in the room: 1) on the turn in table under the red sign labeled “when you’re finished”. 2) on the back shelf near the reading books
Computers and Library– Computers are only for use when directed by the teacher.  Classroom library books may not leave this room unless you talk to Miss W. first.  The librarian will ask for names of people wanting to check out books at the end of the day. Please be respectful with Miss W’s books. She purchased them with her own money.
Desks: Each desk has the same materials. Math book, 2 spirals (1 for math and one for writing), a clipboard and a set of classroom folders. Each student has 5 folders: 1 for each subject and 1 to take home and bring back each day. Only the Orange folder labeled “Take Home” should ever leave school.
 
 

Writing Submission Sheet

My students were notorious for turning in incomplete writing assignments. They would forget to include the rough draft or outline or something. So I created this easy page to run of on a colored sheet of paper and cut into fourths. My students were required to attach this submission sheet to the front of any writing assignment and fill it out. This helped in numerous ways:

  1. They were less likely to forget parts of the assignment
  2. It was easily identifiable in a stack of papers as a writing assignment
  3. I could easily write comments, scores, etc. on the submission sheet
  4. Everything in the assignment would be stapled together!!! Less loose pages flying around = victory!
Click here to download:
*These are Word documents, so you can easily modify them to fit your classroom. I used a cute font that you might not have installed on your computer, so make sure the format works on your computer before you print it.

Letter To Your Teacher

Teachers are responsible for so many aspects of a student’s life- not just the academics. It’s helpful to give students an opportunity periodically to tell you whatever is on their mind. However, some students will tell you they don’t have anything to say. So here’s my solution:

To get this poster, right click on it and select “save image as.”  Then you can save it to your computer and
resize it before you print it. I printed mine on a regular 8.5″ x 11″ sheet of card stalk.

I print this page up at the beginning of the year (to save time writing up the prompt multiple times), and put it on the board about 4 times a year as an in-class writing assignment. One year, I had a particularly social group of 6th grade girls and there always seemed to be some dramatic catastrophe going on between them {sigh}. I chose to do this writing assignment during one particularly dramatic episode and it turned out to be very helpful for me as their teacher to hear about what’s going on without “prying into their lives.”

Halloween Persuasive Writing Prompts


Halloween 
Persuasive Writing
  1. Should students be allowed to celebrate Halloween at school? Why or Why not?
  2. Should parents get to eat candy their kids bring home from Trick-or-Treating? Why or Why not?
  3. At what age should kids stop Trick-or-Treating? Why?
  4. What’s the best part (or parts) or Halloween? Why?
  5. What’s the coolest Halloween costume anyone could ever be? Why?
Requirements:
  •  hand written, skip lines
  • 5 paragraphs: introduction, 3 body paragraphs with at least 5 sentences each, conclusion
  • 3 reasons (each paragraph will be a different reason)
Turn In:
  •  Graphic organizer
  • Rough draft
  • Final draft in pen
  • Submission sheet
  • Picture (optional)

Compare/Contrast Essay Organizer

Compare and contrast essays are one of the most common writing assignments on standardized tests. I found it helpful to have an organizer for my students. Having specific questions that prompt students about what to write in each part was especially helpful for my ESL kids. Here’s the one I used for our social studies unit on world religions (research and compare/contrast 2 world religions):

General vs Specific

Some of my students struggled with the concept of general vs. specific. After a mini-lesson on the difference (including common vs. proper nouns), we used this worksheet to practice. NOTE: The example is not done for you. This is for you to use in your mini-lesson and transition to independent/partner practice. Enjoy!

To get this worksheet, right click on it and select “save image as”. After you’ve saved it to 
your computer, you can resize it before you print it. It’s not a big worksheet, so you could
print it 2 on a page.