Desiree Schmidt

This is a fun way to help your students develop strong sentences using GLAD Sentence Patterning. Lots of opportunity to cross-over and use other nouns. Teacher Prep and Directions on LAST PAGE OF PACKET

I developed these materials to help me recognize my students who are outstanding with a sub as well as help redirect students who struggle in my absence. I added the parent communication piece as well! Enjoy!

1) Take the first page and clue it to the front of a manila folder and glue the second page to the inside front cover of that folder, then laminate. I made up 5 to get started. 2) When a student is absent, a designated student gets the folder from their proper place (I have a spot near where we choose our lunch for the day). (We are a Dual Language school, so everyone has a dedsignated bilingual partner, who would do this job for the absent child) 3) As papers are passed to students, the desig

If you happen to be using Wonders as your reading curriculum, this progression and these tools will align exactly with your instruction. If you're not using Wonders, this is a fantastic tool to guide you on a meaningful progression of introducing letters and sight words to your kindergarten students. After printing out each page (I like to mount on construction paper and laminate as well), I separated each set into a separate bag. With the beginning of each new set, I stick to that set exclusiv

Blackline masters and teacher sample included in this great resource to engage students with common language and examples for the most common strategies.

Here's a wheel I use for my groups of students to explain our roles as group members. I print and place this sheet on the white board and have magnetic letters (a/b/c/d) rotate through all of the jobs (changing once a week). Everyone has one job PLUS all students are to be encouragers. Each child has a letter on their name tag (a/b/c/d) so they can easily tell what their role is this week.

Here's a fun a cute project you can do in about 30-45 minutes with 2nd Graders (more time for smaller kiddos) to celebrate one of the things we love most about Fall… falling into a good book. Teacher Sample and Student Directions on the LAST page. Ask your librarian if she'd like to display your class's work! :)

Have you checked to see that your kiddos have brought all of the supplies needed and found they still needed a couple items? Before running out to the store to buy them yourself, send home this note! You can download and modify as needed to include personal information AND it's in both English AND Spanish for you! Enjoy, Teachers!

Print on cardstock for best results or mount on construction paper and laminate! There's a student set (2 pages) and a teacher set (large version of student card) for you to use and guide your class with number conceptualization! Enjoy, Teachers!

Each day, I have two students who are Special Helper(s) of the Day. I mount items and laminate back to back. I place the special helper sign (with responsibilities on the back) on the new helpers' desks each day (at the beginning of the year- as the year goes on, today's helpers will put the signs on tomorrow's helpers' desks). Also, we have classroom lockers where I hang a star on those childrens' lockers when it's their special day.

This assessment is a great baseline/end of year tool to measure growth with a variety of important instructional strategies for addition and subtraction. Addition Strategies Zero Facts Counting On Fast Tens Fast Nines Doubles Neighbors Subtraction Strategies Zero Facts Counting Back Doubles Neighbors Half Facts Take Away Tens Run Away Ones Leftovers

A student-generated word wall is an essential component for dual language instruction, but you know what? It's JUST GOOD TEACHING no matter your audience! 1) Gather students in discussion area and letter by letter, ask for nouns that start with each letter. I collected two words for each letter. 2) Give an example of what you want students to do. I have students First- write word; Second- color letter; Third- do a neat/color illustration that takes up as much of the white space as possible. 3)

If you use both a 4 scale in your classroom and a ? system, this rubric could be for you! Enjoy!

Use this poster to guide instruction with students solving story problems in Math. Great to introduce in grade 1 or 2 and even adopt school-wide so you can expect consistent follow through with these steps grades 3 and beyond!

This is a fun project for you to make your students into little elves. We start with a little writing assignment thinking of someone we'd like to do something special for. Once students have gone through the writing process with that, they can start to construct their elf. Take photos of your kiddos (it's fun for them to make silly faces- if they want) and print those out (I usually print them landscape orientation two per page side by side). I copy the blacklines on red, green and white constr

This is a small version of a K/1 word wall with the 100 most commonly used words in Kinder and 1st grade books, writing, and curriculum. 4 sheets per 8.5 x 11. Mount on construction, laminate, and you're ready to go. Add words your class uses often as desired to personalize as the year goes! There's a sheet you can add to your writing notebook or folder or send home as well. Enjoy.

I ask the teachers I work with to identify an area they'd like to improve instructional practice in. Both they and I do a little research and they return the Increase Instructional Effectiveness form to me 2-3 days prior to when I'm to observe them. After a 15-30 minute informal and non-evaluative observtion, I use this form to give feedback to the teachers I work with. This is great for team leaders, mentors, coaches, and even Administrators to give informal feedback. Enjoy!

Mount these two printables onto the front and back of your favorite color construction paper OR look at the 3rd and 4th preview image to see how I use the sign in my classroom. I have a thread of yard on the top and just flip my sign depending on the Language of the Day. I say, "Toes and Noes are forward. Hands are held in front, back, or in our pockets and our voice is level zero." "Piecitos en frente. Naríz en frente. Manos en frente/atrás, o bolsillos. Y la voz se mantiene en el nivel cero."

Here's a wheel I use for my groups of students to explain our roles as group members. I print and place this sheet on the white board and have magnetic letters (a/b/c/d) rotate through all of the jobs (changing once a week). Everyone has one job PLUS all students are to be encouragers. Each child has a letter on their name tag (a/b/c/d) so they can easily tell what their role is this week.

Students need to know the difference between a decodable word and a sight word. A decodable word is one that follows all of the rules of English phonics. This is not just for skills known by the child's grade level. If there's a rule within the word that makes decoding possible (e.g., 1st graders who haven't learned /ph/ but see a word with ph in it). If you say each individual phoneme and then blend them, you'll say the word correctly. Those words are decodable (e.g., down, good, he, etc…). A