Teacher Time-Saver: Mason Jar Lunches

It's the perfect time of year to give your packed lunch a booster!  Think of it like this: New year, new, healthy way to prep and pack lunches that will also save you time at work.

Top reasons why I love Mason jar lunches, and so will you:

1. The cafeteria takes at least 10 of my precious 20-minute lunch. Packing a lunch means I have my food instantly. 

2.  The cafeteria isn't open until lunch time, and it isn't open at 4:00 pm.  I don't know about you, but I need a snack before 12:00 and after work.  If I don't get one, I tend to get hangry.  It takes all of two seconds to pull my Mason jar lunch from the fridge in the morning and throw in an extra snack or two.  Problem  solved.

3.  The cafeteria portions (even for adults) aren't enough to keep me full for the rest of the day.  A well-balanced salad or Mason jar meal does the trick. 

4.  Making Mason jar lunches is fast. It takes me no more than 30 minutes, once a week, to pack my lunches for the entire week.  Yep. I can make all five salads for the week on Sunday. They stay fresh and tasty from Monday through Friday. Not. Even. Kidding. How? The secret's in how you layer them.

So, I'd like to share one of my new favorite jar lunches:  Black Bean Salsa!  Just layer the ingredients from layer 1-6 (in that order) in a mason jar.  The one pictured below is an empty pasta sauce jar.

Bing, bam, boom!  Done in minutes!  I make all five in one day and they taste just as good on Friday as they do on Monday.

Are you ready to jump into jar salads?  You won't be sorry!  Let me know what your favs are and any tips you have.  I can't wait to hear all about it!

Growth Mindset Activity: Learning Style Quiz and Hemispheres of theBrain

Would you like to get to know your students on a deeper level and discover their learning styles all at once?  How about a way to teach your students their learning style strengths while teaching them realistic ways to practice with the opposite learning styles.  Then this post is for you!

We've been using Mindsets in the Classroom: Building a Culture of Success and Student Achievement in Schools by Mary Cay Ricci in our county.

One of my favorite activities I did in college was to learn if I was "right-brained" or "left-brained".  We've all heard the talk about how we are either one or the other. Turns out, most of the successful people in the world have more balance between the two hemispheres. So, I wanted to create an activity that would not only gauge students' learning style, but also give them strategies to create the balance that successful people have. 

First, we took a learning and personality style quiz. This consists of series of paired statements from which students had to choose the statement that sounded more like them. For example, 

As the students answered the questions, they colored in the appropriate circle to indicate their answer choice. 

After all questions were answered and circles were filled in, we discussed the patterns we saw. For example, were there more left or right circles filled in?  Were there equal amounts filled in on each side?  If there were more circles colored in on the left, that showed a tendency toward left-brain "logical" thinking and vice versa for the right side. If equal amounts were colored, that tends  to indicate a person that uses both left- and right-brained approaches, depending on the situation. In other words, this indicates a person that is willing to try things outside their comfort zone if the situation calls for it. 

We then talked about how to strengthen the side (hemisphere) on which there were fewer circles filled in. It basically boils down to trying activities outside your "comfort zone". Below are the examples we talked about for the students who were more "Left-Brained".  I have another list for strengthening the left hemisphere and one to help strengthen both equally. 

If you'd like to pick up a copy of this packet, it includes:
~21 paired statements from which to choose.  The first statement of the set (labeled with A) indicates a tendency toward right-brain thinking.  The second statement of the set (labeled with B) indicate a tendency toward left-brain thinking.
~A "Brain Worksheet" for students to color in their answers to the paired statements
~Tips for strengthening the left and right hemispheres
~Tips for strengthening both hemispheres

Click here to pick up a copy.

We constantly refer to these lists and "stepping outside our comfort zone" when we encounter challenging situations so we can learn and grow. Do you do any activities to encourage students to think about how they learn?  I'd love to hear about them!

Creating Physical Models of Food Chain Models

Anytime we can bust out the art materials   in science class is a good day. This is a simple activity that concretely models the food chain and uses some higher-level vocabulary at the same time.

First, we folded our paper into fourths (in half vertically and then in half vertically again).  

Then, we cut the strips on the folds (each student needs six strips). 

Then, we labeled our strips with the levels of the food chain. 

Students illustrated the terms. 

Then we looped the strips together and glued the ends to make a chain.  Each student's decomposers were linked to the next student's sun, thus creating one large food chain/food web. 

After every student attached their chain, it looped up and around my desk area.  We reference this anytime we are talking about consumers, food chains, or food webs. Since this is many food chains put together, it is actually also representative of a food web. It's a great physical reminder of the concepts. 

Do you have any hands-on activities to demonstrate energy flow in ecosystems?  I'd love to hear about them!

Seasonal Sensory Writing: Winter Bakery

Now that the weather is a bit chillier and coffee shops everywhere are offering flavors only available this time of year, it's time to use those sensory experiences in your writing!

I love reading books with the students and picking out sensory/descriptive words together.  Some of my favorite mentor texts for this time of year:

Winter is the Warmest Season by Lauren Stringer

Christmas Cookies: Bite-Size Holiday Lessons by Amy Krouse Rosenthal

Equally as fun is brainstorming about the yummy holiday foods and decorations available this time of year.  Telling a friend that you had a "richly spicy gingerbread cookie with creamy icing on top while sitting by the crackling fire" really does paint a mental picture!

We also discuss their favorite place to eat. It can be everything from their own kitchen to Panera. I do try to steer them towards a place that offers an atmosphere unique to the season. For example, if their favorite place to eat is Burger King, they are not going to have as much to write about pertaining to the holidays. However, we work with what we get. Even Burger King offers some sensory experiences. 

I present students with my filled-in version of the "5 Senses Organizer" and provide them with a blank copy. 

I created a packet with all the pieces mentioned below.

If you'd like to pick up a copy, click here.

Do you have any great winter mentor texts or writing tricks for winter?  I'd love to hear about them!

Bold Beginnings and Catchy Conclusions: Taking the Tears Out of Writing the First and Last Paragraphs

In my teaching and personal experience, I find the first sentence of a piece of writing to be one of the most difficult things to create and perfect.  After all, an author really only has a sentence or two to gain the interest of their readers.  No pressure, right?  What's the next most difficult thing to write?  That would be the final paragraph in which the author has to wrap everything up in a pretty package with a bow on top.  That's no easy task, either.  So, I compiled some of my favorite openings closings to stories that I've either read or written.

Most of my favorite openings include figurative language because it can make any writing piece fun, in my humble opinion.  My top favs are:

Onomatopoeia is a fun word just to say.  Also, describing the way something sounds is appealing to the auditory learner in me.  Plus, students enjoy trying to describe the sounds to each other.

Foreshadowing is fun to use around Halloween.  It adds a creep factor to creative writing and mysteries.

Alliteration is a fabulous element to add to the title of a story.  For example, "Bold Beginnings and Catchy Conclusions" sounds much more interesting than "Opening and Closing Paragraphs".

Similes/Metaphors help your future Mark Twains party like a rock star while they are writing.  See what I did there?

Below is the first page of the model story I created to help students get into their writing.  I challenge you to see how many of my favorite story-starter elements mentioned above are included.  Spoiler alert:  I tell you how many and which ones directly after the photo.

I'll bet you guessed that there were two of my favorite story-starter elements in this part of the story: Onomatopoeia and foreshadowing.  

Below is an example of some of the other Bold Beginnings included in the rest of the story.

Conclusions don't have to be boring and routine.  My favorites are quotes and similes/metaphors.  If a summary is done properly, it can also be a good ending to a story.  However, summaries can be tricky.  If all a summary includes is the same sentences from the story, that can really put a reader out.

I print, laminate, and keep these sheets available for buddy editing and small group writing.  If you'd like to pick up a copy, click here.

How do you inspire your students to open and close their writings?  I'd love to hear how!

Vocabulary Instruction and Assessment

One thing I've placed an emphasis on, regardless of whether I'm teaching elementary or middle school, is vocabulary.  I'm a believer in the benefits of vocabulary instruction in all subjects, not just Language Arts.

For example, my 7th Grade Life Science students often have 4-square vocabulary for homework prior to the instruction of those concepts.

They are responsible for filling in the definition and picture/graphic with the help of the glossary and pictures in their textbook. I don't like for them to use the Internet or dictionaries for this because there are usually too many different definitions and pictures out there on the World Wide Web.  The textbook streamlines that process.  I supply them with the example and non-example during class and they fill them in. This way, they've already been exposed to the key words twice before I even explicitly teach it in context.

After all the vocabulary has been thoroughly taught, we play review games from my Vocabulary Review Games Packet.

Finally, we take an assessment.  Half of it asks them to use the information from the 4-square examples, and half of it is matching the word to the definition.

I made a packet for the templates for the 4-square and vocabulary test. Click here to pick up a copy of my Vocabulary Instruction and Assessment Packet.

Do you do use explicit vocabulary instruction and review in all subjects?  I'd love to learn some tricks from you!

Let's Talk (Figurative Language) Turkey!

The holidays are right around the corner! While they can be hectic, they can also be a great time to talk about figurative language in your writing curriculum.

First of all, almost everyone loves Fall food so It's easy to get the students to buy into it.  This time of year also makes it easy to experience all those Multi-Sensory experiences first-hand: Colors of leaves, touching a pumpkin, the smells of pumpkin pie, crisp Fall air. So why not tap into those experiences and practice some figurative language while you're at it?

I had so much fun creating the graphic organizer!

And the Wanted Poster!

If you want to pick up a copy, click here.

Do you have a fun way to get students to practice figurative language in their writing?  I'd love to hear how!