Teacher’s Brain

Author: teachersbrain

Educator

TpT Site Wide Sale has STARTED

Teacher's Pay Teachers

How can you get everything on your wish list? I will show you some ways!

It’s that time of year. Back to school is full swing when you see that TpT is offering up to 25% off of resources by using the cod BTS19 at checkout.

First, let me begin by telling you about my TOP 5 picks for primary teachers.

TOP 5 Teaching Resources

  1. The Mega Guided Reading Bundle is full of activities for K-3 students. It is geared for teaching reading all year for K-1, but certainly can help support struggling readers in 2-3.
Guided Reading Activities | Reading Blocks™ MEGA BUNDLE
Guided Reading Activities

2. Tropical Hawaiian Beach Classroom Decor Bundle – This is my favorite decor pack that was designed using real Hawaii photos and watercolor images. Why not have that vacation feeling all year long?

Classroom Themes Decor Bundles | Tropical Pineapples and Palm Trees
Classroom Themes Decor Bundle

3. This kindergarten and 1st Grade Science Bundle is a MUST HAVE for teachers who lack curriculum or support materials in science. One buyer referred to it as “Science EVERYTHING” in their feedback.

Science BUNDLE kindergarten and 1st Grade

4. Do you need something more for your students to practice writing skills? Check out the K-3rd Writing Prompts Yearlong Bundle. This has 12 monthly themed journals with writing prompts, practice with opinion, narrative, letter writing and more. Each prompt has a Self Check Rubric at the bottom of each page.

Writing Prompts YEARLONG BUNDLE
Writing Prompts

5. Social Studies is another area that teachers lack materials for in K-1. The Kindergarten and First Grade Social Studies Bundle makes finding materials that meet the standards a SNAP! Also, there are journals, interactive notebook pages, home activities and crafts included in this mega bundle all hitting the standards.

Kindergarten & First Grade Social Studies Curriculum Bundle
Kindergarten and 1st Grade Social Studies Curriculum

TEACHER GIVEAWAY

I mentioned there could be a way to get all of you favorite TpT items. Check out the raffle going on UNTIL MIDNIGHT tonight for one lucky teacher to win $475 to Teachers Pay Teachers! They will pick a winner who can shop the sale tomorrow morning. Next, try checking your Teachers Pay Teachers account for previous purchases you might have forgot to leave feedback on because they will give you store CREDIT! (A lot of people don’t know about this FREE money.)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Apollo 11 Moon Landing Activities

Science

This summer you can discover fantastic space-themed events, as the nation celebrates the 50th anniversary of America’s first steps on the moon. Neil A. Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin took those first steps on the moon as the rest of the world watched and cheered in amazement.

The moon landing marked the day American positioned itself as a global leader in science. Fifty years later, we remember this mission. So how do we get our students to feel the awe of this moment? If you visit NASA’s website, you will find events all over American to attend celebrating Apollo’s 50th Anniversary.

As a teacher, I wanted to give students the opportunity to learn about the first time man walked on the moon. So I created a 2-week lesson plan that would dive into the event while hitting standards. I wanted parents to be involved, so I added a “HOME CONNECTION” project, which included them making a rocket ship.

They also:

  • Wrote About Themselves Going to the Moon
  • Made Books
  • Created Lunar Lander for a STEM Challenge
  • Studied Vocabulary
Lunar Lander Apollo 11 STEM Challenge

Young students love pretending, so how much fun is it for them to pretend to be an astronaut who wants a job by filling out an application! Students love making little “spacemen” finger space holders on craft sticks for them to use during writing activities.

Apollo 11 Activities

Moon phases are easily displayed on an “iPad” printable during science. The best way to really get your students to understand the event is to share videos with them from NASA. It will help them understand how long ago it was when we visited the moon. You can talk about the importance of teamwork to get to the moon.

What are you going to do with your students to celebrate The Eagle landing?

 

 

 

 

Alphabet Practice in Literacy Centers

Teaching Tips

One of many fantastic topics to teach in kindergarten is the alphabet! Students are like sponges in the classroom ready to absorb anything you put a song to when it comes to letters. As a kindergarten teacher, I was always looking for the most engaging ways to energize my students, so they would quickly learn their letters.

Letter Recognition Worksheets Center Activities for Pre K - Kindergarten

Letter Identification Activities

Sometimes I couldn’t find what I needed, so I would design it myself. I wanted students to have a lot of practice with each letter. In centers, it is not enough for students to write a letter. I wanted to help create a hands-on experience. So, we would use play doh to form letters, trace them on each other’s backs, and use rice or pudding in a pan to form a letter with our fingers. The class’ favorite way to learn about letter identification was to solve mysteries. It could be escape rooms, puzzles, or problems to solve as a classroom to find missing letters from the word wall. Anything that seemed “secret” was a hit!

Escape Room Alphabet Zoo Animal Mystery Pre-K - 1st

Morning Work

Every morning my students would get a morning work tub with different activities. This would provide extra reinforcement with the letter for the week. They could choose a hands-on activity or their Morning Work Journal. Students played games, looked around the room for the hidden letters, and had to find all the letters for the week that were in a large pile mixed with other letters. They loved morning work!

Kindergarten Morning Work Math and Literacy Bundle

The Next Step

Once students grasp letter identification, it’s time to work on the letter sounds. This is much more difficult than letter identification, but so rewarding!

Alphabet Practice Worksheets
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Alphabet-Practice-Worksheets-4529912

Classroom Crisis – Teacher Shortage

Teaching Tips

Teachers are resigning from teaching in droves! I’m ONE of them. I loved teaching in the classroom. Being in the classroom for 20 years is one of my greatest life treasures. Now, like many teachers, I resigned and work full time out of the classroom, leaving my tenure behind. My field is still in education, but I’m out of the classroom.

WHY ARE THEY LEAVING?

While I can never talk on behalf of all teachers, I can share why I left the classroom. After meeting lots of other teachers who left the classroom, I found that we all had similar stories. The student behaviors are getting worse. You would think that would be the reason we left, but it is not. Helping troubled students was part of our vision. There’s an amount of pride in being able to help a student through their grief, anger, or loss. The reward it high. Some students we never think we reach, but years later, we receive letters of appreciation from them for our hard work.

So why? It is not about the behaviors, it’s about the lack of support from the administration and the district. There are many administrators who don’t have the best interest of the children in mind. Some have used a behavior situation to encourage a teacher to leave who they might not like, or they see that one teacher is talented with behavior problems and overload them with too many. The district doesn’t provide proper training for teachers to deal with severe problems. School counselors are busy doing lunch duty, testing or some other activity that has nothing to do with their job description. With many evaluations today, the teacher gets written up for not being able to handle behavior problems. How is writing a teacher up helping them learn how to handle a future behavior problem?

The lack of support is a helpless feeling for a teacher. Many teachers have had nervous breakdowns from being physically abused from the students and emotionally abused by their district who provide not support to the teacher. When you have to weigh teaching in a classroom with your own personal health, there is really only one option.

Drowning, Ocean, Emergency, Safety, Water, Sea, Drown

PREVENTION?

Yes, this can be prevented to where we can retain our most experienced and qualified teachers. Teachers need to gain the respect of being the professional in the classroom. They need to be taken seriously when they inform administration about behaviors. There should be a plan in place that EMPOWERS the teacher. The plan needs to provide the teacher with the knowledge of how to handle problems, insurance that they are not alone while dealing with severe behaviors, and real training prior to getting in the classroom that is on-going. Our students are in crisis! Our dedicated teachers are leaving! It’s time to fix the problem.

Calm Down Corner Strategies
Calming Down Strategies