steve reifman

Have you read The First Ten Minutes by Steve Reifman? I have, and I loved it! This year I am going to attempt to do parts of Reifman's morning routine. This power point presentation with help you get each morning started on the right foot.

Teaching Kindergarten Science Concepts Through Physical Education: 13 Movement Activities that Bring the Next Generation Standards to Life Co-written by Steve Reifman (National Board Certified elementary teacher and author of Rock It!: Transform Classroom Learning with Movement, Songs, and Stories) and Seth Martin (Physical Education specialist and California Governor's Council for Physical Fitness and Sports, Teacher of the Year, 2010), this resource is designed to help busy kindergarten teach

"Rock It! Mini-Pack" is a sampling of the teaching resource book "Rock It! Transform Classroom Learning with Movement, Songs, and Stories," by Steve Reifman. The book has many activities you can implement today in your elementary classroom to energize your students and help them learn. All of the movement and story activities for teaching English language arts are aligned with Common Core State Standards in grades K – 5 to help you meet those learning goals. Research shows that getting kids act

This PDF guide is designed for children 8-12 years of age who are interested in writing their own mysteries. National Board Certified elementary school teacher and award-winning author Steve Reifman takes young writers step-by-step from the beginning of the writing process to the end and helps them craft stories that will keep readers guessing and on the edge of their seats. It doesn’t matter whether students are already seasoned mystery writers or brand new to the genre. This informative 56-pag

After my students complete a Writing Workshop project, I ask them to reflect on their work and begin thinking ahead to the next unit. Reflecting on their writing improves their metacognitive skills, heightens awareness of their strengths, and helps them identify areas of improvement. This file contains nine sheets that I have used over the past few years in my classroom. The first is designed to be a generic form that can be used with any genre. The remaining ones address specific types of proje

The full title of this collection is "Engaging Editing Worksheets: 10 Amusing, 1-Page Anecdotes Filled with Capitalization, Punctuation, Grammar, and Spelling Mistakes to Help Students Improve Their Editing Skills." My students love reading these papers and trying to find all the mistakes I have included. Ideal for classwork or homework, these editing worksheets help kids pay careful attention to detail and develop the valuable editing skills that we want them to transfer to their own writing pr

One of the most effective ways that educators can empower students to become independent, self-directed learners is to incorporate Student-led Conferences into their teaching practice. These meetings work like traditional parent conferences except that the student assumes the role of teacher. With our guidance the kids assemble their portfolios, determine how they will organize their work, and decide how they will explain the portfolio contents to their families. This item includes all the infor

Creating a mission statement every year with my students is, without a doubt, the single most valuable activity I do in my classroom and the most powerful move I make to establish a sense of purpose. This 23-page resource introduces the concept of a mission statement, describes the many benefits of writing one, spells out the steps involved in the drafting process, and explains how to use the document as an indispensable reference point throughout the year to create a positive, productive classr

"Rock It! Transform Classroom Learning with Movement, Songs, and Stories" has over 100 activities you can implement today in your elementary classroom to energize your students and help them learn. All of the movement activities, songs, and stories for teaching math and English language arts are aligned with Common Core State Standards in grades K - 5 to help you meet those learning goals. Other activities help students learn science, social studies, and health curriculum topics. There are also

One of the most powerful ways that educators can help students better understand the purposes of their learning, improve their behavior, work with greater motivation and enthusiasm, and find greater meaning in their work is to incorporate Personal Mission Statements into their teaching practice. Creating Personal Mission Statements empowers children to chart their own directions, declaring who they are, whom they want to become, and what they are determined to accomplish. This resource introduce

This SMART Notebook file was designed to be used with classroom Smartboards. The file contains 9 slides that introduce the "Habits of Mind" I use in my classroom to help children become better thinkers and better people. These habits include Judgment, Thoughtfulness, Craftsmanship, Openness, Connections, Viewpoint, Relevance, Evidence, and Bias. Each slide includes a specific Habit of Mind, a simple definition of the word, a sentence demonstrating the meaning of the word, a short list of related

Editing is typically one of the most difficult stages of the writing process for students because it requires so much attention to detail. For many children the task can be overwhelming simply because they are asked to look for so many different types of mistakes at the same time, such as those involving capitalization, punctuation, paragraphing, dialogue, and spelling. A few years ago I came up with a new approach that breaks down the complex task of editing into smaller, more manageable steps.

The full title of this collection is "User-Friendly Rubrics for Every Occasion: 4-Point Rubrics for Writing Workshop, Literary Essays, Math Problem Solving, Habits of Character, Reflections, and General Use." Each rubric can be used for both formative and summative assessment and for both teacher scoring and student self-evaluation. The primary advantage of this collection is that every rubric operates under the same 4-point scale, in which "4" means "exceeds expectations," "3" means "meets expe

This SMART Notebook file was designed to be used with classroom Smartboards. The file contains 13 slides that introduce children to the set of "Habits of Character" that form the foundation of my teaching. These habits include Cooperation, Courage, Fairness, Honesty, Kindness, Patience, Perseverance, Positive Attitude, Pride, Respect, Responsibility, Self-Discipline, and Service. Each slide includes a specific Habit of Character, a simple definition of the word, a sentence demonstrating the mean

This SMART Notebook file was designed to be used with classroom Smartboards. The file includes 14 slides that each contain four mathematical items that involve either numbers or geometry. On each slide children need to determine which item doesn't belong with the others, either because it is missing a specific attribute that the other three have or because it has a specific attribute that the other three don't have. You can use multiple slides in one period or spread them out throughout the year

Teach prefixes, base words, and suffixes using an engaging, active learning approach that your students will love. This PDF file contains all the sheets you will need to create a set of 10 prefix cards, 17 base word cards, and 7 suffix cards. The activity itself is a simple one. Distribute the cards among your students and call out a word, such as "careful" or one of the other 36 words that can be made from the cards. (A word list is included in the file.) The children holding the cards with the

Whenever my students finish their daily math activity early, they proceed directly to their Math Problem Solving Menus and work on them until the end of the period. Since I adopted this idea several years ago, it has been one of the most effective parts of my overall math curriculum. Each menu is a sheet with four open-ended story problems that call on students to employ a wide variety of strategies, such as Draw a Picture, Make a Chart, Choose Operations, and Work Backwards. There are nine menu

A consistent, effective morning routine sets the tone for the upcoming school day and prepares students for high quality learning. In this 23-page PDF file I describe a three-part routine that reaches and teaches the whole child. Part 1 introduces the morning check-in, an activity that addresses the affective domain by building a sense of inclusion and mutual caring, strengthening teamwork, increasing class bonding, and helping each child feel acknowledged and valued. Part 2 features three typ

Word Problems with a Purpose: 10 Place Value Worksheets Featuring 10 Non-Profit Organizations Working to Meet the U.N. Sustainable Development GoalsWord Problems with a Purpose features ten math worksheets that address the Common Core Math Standards and focus on the topic of place value. The word problems our students solve during math time often relate to such items as cookies and pizza slices. As teachers, we can make better use of this valuable educational “real estate” by having these proble

This 40-page resource is designed to help you get off to a great start as you begin each school year. Giving these four priorities the time and emphasis they deserve will pay big dividends for you, your students, and their families. I provide a brief description of each priority below. The chapters in this PDF file bring these ideas to life with a wide variety of activities, strategies, suggestions, and sample pages. 1. Establish procedures, routines, and expectations so students know how to fu

This resource contains 17 indoor activities that elementary classroom teachers and physical education specialists can use on inclement weather days. While the kids are moving and having a great time, they are also learning important math, language arts, and science content. The specific movements that children perform are not random. Rather, the kids move in ways that represent, match, or embody the meaning of the content they are expected to learn.The interest, excitement, and joy these activit

This user-friendly resource is designed to help 4th graders learn the two standards found in the “Conventions of Standard English” section of the 4th Grade Common Core English Language Arts Standards (including all 11 sub-standards). The packet contains two different types of activities. A complete answer key is provided. The first type consists of easy-to-use sheets that require students to fill in the blanks or make corrections to sample sentences. You may choose to have your students do thes

This item contains 7 story problems that help students gain a stronger understanding of measurement concepts found in the Common Core Math Standards. A consistent storyline runs through the seven problems and offers children a scenario and cast of characters that they can follow as they complete their work. This PDF also has a link to my pinterest page that includes a series of visuals I use in conjunction with the story problems. The visuals provide a simple, concrete way for children to grasp

The "Three-Dimensional Bone Structure" featured in this digital file is a simple, user-friendly tool that helps children develop well-rounded characters for their Writing Workshop projects and helps children take notes on the characters in the books they read during Reading Workshop. The "Three-Dimensional Bone Structure" works particularly well during "Edge-of-Seat Fiction" and "Realistic Fiction" units in Writing Workshop and "Character Study" and "Story Elements" units in Reading Workshop. Th