Author's Chair - Celebrating Student Writing

The Author’s Chair is a celebration of sharing a piece of writing.  It is considered a culminating task in the writing process.  The Author’s Chair is a good way to gain positive feedback from students’ peers.  An Author’s Chair has many purposes:

ü To develop ownership of a piece of writing

ü To develop learning skills that involve collaboration

ü To develop peer editing skills

ü To ensure motivation

ü To develop active listening skills as an audience

ü To reflect upon student work

     An Author’s Chair should have criteria co-constructed by both the teacher and students.  The teacher should model what reading in the Author’s Chair looks and sound like.  Some helpful hints to help your students look forward to their day in the Author's chair include:  

1) Providing a tag to wear.  Here's a sample:

2)  Validating the student's work with a certificate once the reading is completed

3)  Invite other students to come in to "hear" the author read.  A great example is if you have reading buddies or book buddies.  The "author" can showcase his or her work during reading time. 

4) Create an "Amazing Authors" bulletin board display showcasing students' work.

5) Ensure feedback is provided.  Reading is the fun part but having students directly involved in feedback allows the author to feel important, while creating a positive sense of ownership.  "TAG" feedback works well (Tell what you liked, Ask a question, Give a suggestion).    

6) Keep ideas on hand for writing.  Samples include:  Write About Books, Journal Task Cards, and Writing Choice Boards.  The possibilities are endless.   

The Value of Part-Part-Whole Relationships in Mathematics

Part-Part-Whole Easter Printables

As an instructional coach, I was often asked to focus on early development of number sense for addition and subtraction.  Providing students with a wide range of experiences to compose and decompose a number was the best way to approach this. I wanted to create a way to have teachers understand how developing part-part whole relationships is critical to building an understanding of addition and subtraction concepts.

My work has often included English language learners.  Instead of using focusing on strictly number talks, I began to explore pictures as well.  This included themed part-part-whole cards.  Each card was divided into three equal frames.  Based on themes, students would explore the missing part.  For example, the first frame had a number listed.  The remaining frames were made up of parts of the whole number.

Cards had one foldable flap.  I was absolutely delighted when a 6 year old student created his own cards to use in a partner math chat.  I have often used the cards in addition to number talks, placed them at math stations and used them for assessment purposes.

While assessing students, I observe how they "see" the objects.  Do they count them?  Can they subitize based on prior experiences?  These cards become a useful tool to develop part-part-whole relationships while building some thematic vocabulary.

Easter Literacy and Math Activities

Celebrate Easter with these fun literacy and numeracy activities:

Easter Quick Writes

Celebrate Easter with your class by writing about it. Included in this bundle are five quick-write tasks. You will find an Easter Vocabulary chart, Religious Easter Vocabulary chart, a List graphic organizer for the perfect basket, an Easter paragraph template, an Acrostic poem template, an organizer to draw a Map and write directions to the Easter Bunny, a Comparison Graphic Organizer on Easter traditions, a transition word list and writing paper. These tasks are perfect for a bulletin board display or even a big class book. 

Easter Word Work

Silly sentences have always been a fun way to explore sentence building and recognizing parts of speech. Students in grades 3 through 6 will have the opportunity to use subject, verb and complement cards to build and simplify silly sentences. Challenging verb cards are included with this unit as well as nouns associated with the Easter theme, a blank sentence building template, display and label cards and a synonym chart. This is a perfect activity to use in your Word Work Stations or as an extra project for early finishers.

Easter Math Stations Grades 4 to 6

Celebrate Easter with this fun Easter Math Stations pack. You'll find three activities that focus on basic operations, word problems and fractions for a grade 4 to 6 classroom. Activities include "Eggs in a Basket", "Easter Math Scoot Game" and "Easter Fractions". In "Eggs in a Basket", students are taught to generate three digit numbers and will multiply them by 12 or 10 to keep a running score. "Easter Scoot" is based on word problems that involve basic operations (with regrouping), money and time. Scoot cards are included for 25 to 30 students. The "scoot" cards can be used as task cards as well. The "Easter Fractions" activity allows students to derive ways to create fractions based on a given number of jelly beans. This pack includes directions, playing cards, scoreboards, multiplication table, scoot boards for 25 to 30 participants, word problems and answer keys.

Easter Math Games Grades 2 to 4

Enjoy Easter with some fun math games. Three stations are included in the pack. Activities include: Draw the Easter Bunny Math Challenge, Bump Games and Race to the Easter Egg. The Draw the Easter Bunny Challenge includes 2 versions (addition and multiplication). Students are asked to generate sums or products and then draw the Easter Bunny according to each sum or product generated. The first person to complete his or her picture is declared the winner. You will also find Bump Games using both addition and multiplication boards as well as a Race to the Easter Egg game that involves generating place value digits from 0 to 99. This is a great way to celebrate Easter with a math games day or a home-school connection.

Easter Writing Paper

This package includes Easter writing paper for your Writing Station. A selection of writing paper for emergent and established writers includes images of a bunny, lamb and a chick. 

Easter Roll a Story

Students will be prompted to tell or write story with an Easter theme. This unit includes a story prompt sheet, graphic organizers, word lists (Easter & transition words), rubric and specialty writing paper with full and half lined pages.

Here's a free download:

Easter Gift Tags

St. Patrick's Day Resources

Here are some activities for St. Patrick's Day:

St. Patrick's Day Roll a Story

Students will be prompted to tell or write story with a St. Patrick's Day theme. This unit includes a story prompt sheet, graphic organizers, word lists (St. Patrick's & transition words), rubric and specialty writing paper with full and half lined pages.  All you need is a number cube (1-6).

St. Patrick's Day Quick Writes

If you want a one day writing blitz or a variety of activities for stations, offer some quick writes to your students.  This unit contains five writing ideas for your St. Patrick's Day writing stations or bulletin boards. These include Alliteration, Recipe Writing, Wanted Poster, Wish Booklet and Word Lists. St. Patrick's Day vocabulary and writing paper is included. 

St. Patrick's Day Math Activities

Enjoy St. Patrick's Day with some fun math stations. Four stations are included in the pack. Activities include: Draw a Leprechaun Math Challenge, A Pot of Gold Race, Bump Games and Race to the End of the Rainbow. The Draw a Leprechaun Challenge includes 2 versions (addition and multiplication). Students are asked to generate sums or products and then draw a leprechaun part according to each sum or product generated. The first person to complete his or her leprechaun is declared the winner. Pot of Gold Race involves generating quotients with two players. One plays for decimals, one plays for whole numbers. The first person to get to the pot of gold is declared the winner. You will also find Bump Games using both addition and multiplication boards as well as a Race to the End of the Rainbow game that involves generating place value digits from 0 to 99. This is a great way to celebrate St. Patrick's Day with a math station day or a home-school connection. 

St. Patrick's Day Idioms

Here's a fun way to teach idioms to your students with a St. Patrick's Day theme. This unit has expressions on word cards ready for cutting and laminating. Students will be provided with a blank template and task cards filled with an expression related to a St.Patrick's Day theme. They will then be asked to sketch a situation using the idiomatic expression on the card and then write and sketch their interpretation of it. This is a great addition to your Word Work Station or can be used as an extra activity for early finishers.