0 Holiday Student Gifts Ideas

Happy Holidays! Are you getting excited yet? I'm almost finished with my Christmas shopping, which is a bid deal for me. I tend to be a last-minute shopper. But let's face it, I do my my best work under pressure!

In addition to shopping for my family and friends, I also like to do something small for my students. We are like a little family, and they're my kids, right?! I know many of you can relate. Last year, I gave my students $1 books from Scholastic, bookmarks, candy, pencils, and my Winter Print and Go Freebie (without my cute cover on it, as you can see). You can read more about this HERE.

We also opened our team-building stockings, which you can read more about HERE. They were honestly super excited and appreciative of everything I gave them.

Each year, I rack my brain trying to think of something easy and inexpensive to give my students. Does this also happen to you? So to help you, I created a Pinterest board FILLED with tons of ideas for student gifts! The Pinterest board is titled Student Holiday Gift Ideas.

Since we're all so busy, I figured I'd help you out and do all the thinking for you! In 24 hours, I've already pinned about 50 ideas for you. All you have to do is follow the board and scroll through the ideas. 

See below on how to follow this Student Holiday Gift Ideas board: 

Click HERE to follow this board.

Click HERE to follow all of my Pinterest boards!

Visit Kristine Nannini's profile on Pinterest.

Detail: Holiday Student Gifts Ideas

0 Christmas Close Reading Passages, Text-Dependent Questions, & More

I'm back with my next Close Reading resource for you! If you and your students enjoyed my Fall and Thanksgiving Close Reading resource, you will love my Christmas Close Reading Passages, Text-Dependent Questions & More! 

The information below is just a sample of what's included! Click HERE to check out the preview to see more!

I created this seasonal close reading resource to help students read complex texts independently and for a specific purpose.

It contains everything you need to implement close reading in your classroom! 

Leveled Passages

Included in this resource are four Christmas-themed reading passages. There are three levels of each passage so you can easily differentiate for your students! The levels are based on word count and Lexile levels which can be found in the top left corner of each passage. 

Each passage contains text features and bolded vocabulary words for your students to analyze.  

Implementation Printables
I've also included a step-by-step implementation guide. I've researched several strategies for close reading and have developed a process that will make your life easier, and help your students develop skills to read for deeper meaning.

In addition to the step-by-step implementation guide, I've included an Understanding the Standards Teacher Guide. This printable helps teachers understand the purpose of each reading, and how each reading ties into specific Common Core Anchor Standards. I've outlined what each student should focus on and the learning targets for each read.

Annotation Guides

These printable annotation guides are a resource to help students quickly annotate or mark up the text using symbols. I've included two different levels of the printables.

Close Reader Poster
Is this little gingerbread not the cutest thing ever? This Close Reader Poster is a great visual reminder to help students understand their role as a close reader.

Text-Dependent Questions, Writing Prompts, and Graphic Organizers
Each passage includes text-dependent questions for each of the three themes or categories in the Common Core Anchor Standards (Key Ideas and Details, Craft and Structure, and Integration of Knowledge and Ideas). The questions require students to cite evidence from the text to support their answers.

In addition to the text-dependent questions, I've also included graphic organizers for key ideas and details, vocabulary, main idea, and more!

Each passage also includes one writing prompt that is to be completed after the third read. This writing prompt requires students to synthesize or make connections by combining their thinking and knowledge with evidence from the text.

Detailed answer keys are also included.

Like I said above, this is only a small preview of what's included!

Click the button below to check it out!

Looking for more close reading resources to use in your classroom? Click the "Purchase Here" button to check them out in my store! 

     

     

Also, make sure you check back for more information on close reading. There will be additional blog posts to follow.

Detail: Christmas Close Reading Passages, Text-Dependent Questions, & More

0 Save Yourself Some Merry Little Minutes: Student Jobs

I'm linking up with some of my favorite upper-elementary bloggers to give you some time-saving tips! Hopefully all of our tips will allow you to spend more time with your families during the holidays!

My time-saving tip is to give more responsibilities to your students and keep them in the same classroom job all year long.

I don't know about you, but it always seems like I have too much to do in my classroom and not enough hours in the day to do it. However, we have an entire classroom full of helpers all eager and willing to help their teacher out! Assigning classroom jobs to students not only teaches them responsibility, but it also gives them pride and helps to build classroom community. So, why not make them more responsible? An added bonus is that you won't be completely exhausted at the end of the day from all of the extra chores you have to do around your classroom. The best thing I ever did was keep my students in the same jobs all year long. Yes, you read that right. No more rotations, and no more new jobs every week. I assign each student a job, and they keep that job for the entire year.

When I rotated jobs, students would forget to do them or not know what to do. The consistency of keeping the same job means that everyone is responsible in making our room function.

I typically wait to assign jobs until I really get to know my students. Then, I introduce and model how to complete each job in our classroom, I let them apply for the job they want, and then I match students with a job that will fit them best. Some jobs happen in the morning, some jobs are throughout the day, and many jobs happen at the end of the day. But no matter what the job is, within days of assigning the jobs, every student is responsible for making our room function, and they are all so proud of this.

Click HERE to check out some of the jobs my students have in our classroom.

Last year, when we found out that our custodial services would only be happening two days a week, I had a parent donate a vacuum and a mop to our classroom. I kid you not, the most popular jobs were vacuuming and mopping, and the students that earned those positions were so proud to do this every single day. Oh, and the other FAVORITE job? Cutting lamination. Some would even beg to take it home to cut for me on the weekends!

Seriously! #everyteachersdream.

Besides the benefits of building responsibility and classroom community, when students each have a job and perform it well everyday, your classroom will run like a well-oiled machine. If I am ever out of the classroom and we have a sub, I know that I will come back to a spotless room, with everything in its place. With all of the holiday parties coming up, my students know that they are responsible for their room, and they will work hard to keep everything running smoothly.

So, while it may be a small change in your classroom, try it! I promise it will leave you with more energy at the end of each day, so you can go home and enjoy more time with your family!

Also, check out my latest resource to save you some time! I've just released my latest Christmas Close Reading Passages, Text Dependent Questions & More!

Visit these blogs to check out all of their awesome time-saving tips to help you celebrate the season!

Detail: Save Yourself Some Merry Little Minutes: Student Jobs

0 Fall and Thanksgiving Close Reading Passages, Text-Dependent Questions & More

I am so excited to finally share what I have been working on! I have spent the last three months researching everything I can on close reading. I've read books, articles, blog posts, websites, and more. My goal is to provide you with resources, an informational blog series, and freebies so you can successfully implement close reading in your own classroom.

I will be blogging about all of information I've acquired over a series of posts. So each time you see that picture above, know that the blog post is part of my close reading series!

On that note, the first close reading resource I am excited to share is my Fall and Thanksgiving Close Reading Passages, Text-Dependent Questions & More!

The information below is just a sample of what's included! Click HERE to check out the preview to see more!

I created this seasonal close reading resource to help students read complex texts independently and for a specific purpose.

It contains everything you need to implement close reading in your classroom! 

Leveled Passages

Included in this resource are four fall and Thanksgiving-themed reading passages. There are three levels of each passage so you can easily differentiate for your students! The levels are based on word count and Lexile levels which can be found in the top left corner of each passage.

Each passage contains text features and bolded vocabulary words for your students to analyze.  

Implementation Printables
I've also included a step-by-step implementation guide. I've researched several strategies for close reading and have developed a process that will make your life easier, and help your students develop skills to read for deeper meaning.

In addition to the step-by-step implementation guide, I've included an Understanding the Standards Teacher Guide. This printable helps teachers understand the purpose of each reading, and how each reading ties into specific Common Core Anchor Standards. I've outlined what each student should focus on, and the learning targets for each read.

Annotation Guides

These printable annotation guides are a resource to help students quickly annotate or mark up the text using symbols. I've included two different levels of the printables.

Close Reader Poster
Is this little turkey not the cutest thing ever? This Close Reader Poster is a great visual reminder to help students understand their role as a close reader.

Text-Dependent Questions, Writing Prompts, and Graphic Organizers
Each passage includes text-dependent questions for each of the three themes or categories in the Common Core Anchor Standards (Key Ideas and Details, Craft and Structure, and Integration of Knowledge and Ideas). The questions are written in a way that require students to cite evidence from the text.

In addition to the text-dependent questions, I've also included key ideas and details graphic organizers, main idea graphic organizers, and more!

Each passage also includes one writing prompt that is to be completed after the third read. This writing prompt requires students to synthesize or make connections by combining their thinking and knowledge with evidence from the text.

Detailed answer keys are also included.

Like I said above, this is only a small preview of what's included!

Click the button below to check it out!

Looking for more close reading resources to use in your classroom? Click the "Purchase Here" button to check them out in my store!

     

      

Also, make sure you check back for more information on close reading. There will be additional blog posts to follow.

Detail: Fall and Thanksgiving Close Reading Passages, Text-Dependent Questions & More

0 Merry Christmas!

I want to take this opportunity to wish you and your family a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

And I also want to say thank you to all of my wonderful followers and blog buddies! Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined that I would love so many people that I have never met in real life! I know that sounds crazy, but this teacher blog world is pretty incredible, and I am so thankful for each and every one of you! I am thankful for your ideas, your advice, your questions, your feedback, your readership, your support, and for everything you have taught me.

2013 has been a pretty incredible year, teacher friends! Here's to an even better 2014!

Photo courtesy of: Mandipidy

Detail: Merry Christmas!

0 Last Day Before Christmas Break!

You've made it teachers! You are FREE until 2014!

I hope you all survived the craziness leading up to break, and enjoyed your holiday parties!

My students walked into the room with their stockings on their desks (read more about this AMAZING community building idea here), and their gifts of winter break packets that I put together for them (free of charge I might add!).

Every year, in between the oh-so-over-excited about the holidays student chaos, I start thinking about a gift for my students.

In years past, I used up all my spare change and spent hours on personalized clipboards and whiteboards, recruited my fiancé's help to stuff 30+ goodie bags, and have even hand written 10 pages of coupon books for each student (that's 300 pages if you're counting). And then there was my first year of teaching, when each student received a pencil and a chocolate kiss! ;)

But do you know what? When I gave the personalized clipboards and whiteboards, my kids flipped with joy. When I passed out 30+ goodie bags, my kids flipped with joy. When I gave out hand-written coupon books, my kids flipped with joy (and mostly forgot to use them). And when I gave a measly chocolate kiss and a pencil, my kids flipped with joy.

For real...my kids probably couldn't have cared less what I got them, how much I spent, or how hard I worked on their gift. They were just thrilled that I thought to give them a gift. Pretty much every thoughtful gesture I extend to them has been met with so much love and appreciation, and I am always blown away by them!

So this year, I decided to put together a winter packet for them. I gathered together fun printable games, crossword puzzles, coloring pages, some free word problems I found on TpT, some reading passages, etc and made them into a little packet for them. At first, I was a little nervous that some of them would think it was a cheesy gift, but I have to tell you they were THRILLED! I had students that asked to skip the afternoon movie and instead start working on their winter break packets! 

After the excitement of their gifts, we spent a good chunk of the morning reading through our letters from our stockings. It was such a great morning and I was so proud of my students for their kindness over the last few weeks. Seriously, my heart was happy!

(Yes, it was jammie day!)

I wish I could show you their faces because they were priceless! They all got out of their seats to share their kind letters with one another, and some even stopped to hug eachother! Seriously…my heart is full! :) What a great way to start break!

And below is a cropped picture of my desk (In poor i-phone quality! Sorry!). It's cropped so that you can't see the mess around it! This year I asked families to not purchase any gifts for me, and instead asked that if they wanted to purchase something, purchase and/or donate things their students need in our classroom. Some things I so generously received were tons of school supplies, extra mittens and hats for students that come to school without them, board games, and of course some sweet personalized gifts too! :)

We couldn't have asked for a better way to close out the year!

On a side note, I'll be coming out out with this ELA freebie very soon! And plan to have a few giveaways on my Young Teacher Love Facebook page, so don't unplug too much this break!

Get some rest and relaxation teacher friends! You definitely deserve it! :)

Detail: Last Day Before Christmas Break!