Christmas in November Giveaway!

I'm so excited to be part of this Christmas in November Giveaway hosted by Easy Teaching Tools! There are a bunch of great products from a variety of grade levels below to get you ready for December! Where did the time go?! Good luck and enjoy your Thanksgiving!

Giveaway ends on December 1st





























Behavior Management

Have you ever had one of those years where you've tried literally every behavior management trick in the book and nothing would work with your class? Well, this is that year for me. It has been tough because behavior management has always been a strong area for me. My principals would always give me those tough kids that needed that extra structure and follow through, and I'm used to being able to handle it! You can imagine how frustrating it has been to have a class where nothing would work. Yes, I have a few students with some special needs and a few behavior problems, but overall, they are great kids…just the most chatty class in my 7 years of teaching. I found myself getting overwhelmed and exhausted. (Notice the lack of blog posts the last couple months).

I had heard about Class Dojo before but was hesitant to try something new after my students had already been in school for over a month. Well, I can say I'm SO glad I did! Class Dojo has literally changed my life this year. My students are focused, engaged, and always ready to learn. Now I'm thinking, why didn't I use this earlier?
My students loved creating their avatar and are obsessed with earning points! I thought for sure there would be a student or two who weren't motivated by it, but nope! ALL OF THEM ARE! The parents are thrilled that they can check their child's behavior daily, and they love the weekly reports. Right now I have my students cashing in their points when they would like to trade it in for something. They are always aware of their point total and know to tell me when they would like to cash in their points. I have a chart for prizes they can earn but I'm sure I will continue to add more.


Another thing I absolutely love about Class Dojo is that I can open the app on my phone to reward students with points when we leave the classroom for music, PE, assemblies, science, etc.

I'm sure many of you are already using Class Dojo but for those of you who aren't, I hope this gave you a little push to try it! I'm definitely glad I did, and so is my husband! :) 



Animal Adaptation Project



We have been studying animal adaptations in science so I had my students do this fun little project! They had a blast doing it and they turned out great so I thought I'd share it with you! I had them first choose an animal (many created their own which was fun) and then choose four adaptations that their animal would have. During the written portion of the assignment, students described the ecosystem their animal lives in, the adaptations in detail, and what the animal eats. I also had them do a drawing and label the adaptations. Here are a couple examples below. I was so impressed with all of the creativity!




I have the project posted in my store if you are interested! I also created this grading rubric to help!


Click below if you want to check it out in my store.