And the winner is....

I completely forgot about my questioning chips giveaway  (OOooppps!) I honestly thought it ended today! Congrats to my lucky 5 winners! Amanda, Kelly, Jana, Katie, & Mindy! They each won 3 of my questioning chips sets!


If you haven't checked them out...go now! I'm super excited about these learning tools! They are a wonderful way to get students talking and discussing various texts. I currently have 8 sets of chips {and adding more soon!} Non-Fiction, Pre-reading, Science, Character, After Lesson, Poetry, Fiction, and Connection questioning chips. Read about out how I will be using them in my class {and other ways they can be used}!

New Items Added to My Store - Need Teachers' Help....

I've added a total of 5 items {Yea Me!} to my store... and more are coming very soon! Right now I'm focusing on the learning chips - because I am loving creating them for my own classroom! I need some teachers to help me evaluate and rate my items! The first 5 people to comment on this post with their top choice of question chips they would like to check out - will receive their pick of chips in exchange for them to evaluate the items in my Teachers Notebook store {this part is very important, please, please, please don't take the files if you don't intend to leave feedback in my store!} In your comment, please leave your email address! I would like to thank you in advance for your help!

For everyone else....here are the files from my store. I'm so excited to use these chips this coming year with my students. Seriously I have so many ideas on how to use these, and I know the students are going to love using them!

Monday Made It - Cooperative Learning Tools

I'm still on a cooperative learning kick!! This week I made some helpful tools for my cooperative learning structures. In a previous post, I mentioned that I love Kagan, but their tools are a little pricey. This week I borrowed their idea of learning chips. {I love these...the possibilities are endless!} I basically used their template and typed different question stems. After punching out the circles and laminating, I used spray adhesive and attached them to cheap poker chips. So far I have made the chips for non-fiction texts, paraphrasing, science, and pre-reading. I will make 1 set for each table group {roughly 6 sets of each} I plan to add several more! {Here is a great article on using learning chips in the classroom!} This was a pretty inexpensive projects {actually free} since I already had the spray adhesive, laminator, and chips. I just had to print them on cardstock. :) Love it when I already have all of the materials for a project! *******UPDATE I WILL BE MAKING THE CHIPS AND OFFERING THEM IN MY STORE SOON!!! Until then, enter to win 3 sets- Non-fiction, Pre-reading, and the science sets!! {enter at the bottom of the page} - I'll pick 5 lucky winners {Thanks Tara for the idea!} Good luck!

I also jumped on the bandwagon and made the dry erase boards using duct tape and report covers. However, I changed mine up a bit! I searched high and low for cheap report covers. The best deal I found was 3 for a dollar something, and they had a frosted cover. So I got home to see what I could use instead. I have several boxes of transparencies...and I don't even have an overhead in my room anymore! I tried the dry erase marker and it works perfectly! I basically just took 2 transparencies and taped around 3 sides so I could slip a piece of paper in. The transparencies are slightly smaller than the report covers, so any papers I slip in will have to be trimmed just slightly. I love how they turned out! This project was also pretty inexpensive since I already had the transparencies on hand. I just bought 2 rolls of the duct tape (around 3.50 each). I also tried the packing tape, but it didn't work as well for me! I plan to have one for each student at the table and wouldn't you know this is also a Kagan tool! I love the dry erase markers from Ikea. They are super cheap and are perfect for these boards!! {Please excuse the black lines - I haven't had a chance to erase them yet ;) }

On another note, I had to select another winner because the last one didn't respond! So congratulations Cindy Toalson! Please contact me so I can give you all of your AWESOME prizes!!!

Now go link up with Tara and share what you made this week!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Cooperative Learning Tools - Training, Training & more training

I'm sorry for being MIA, I packed most of my summer training in the past week and this week! My head is still spinning from all of the wonderful ideas I got. I attended trainings on iPads, writing with Barry Lane & Gretchen Bernabei, and Kagan cooperative learning. They were all fabulous!!

I really enjoyed the Kagan training. I have never been to an official Kagan training before, but it is all we used during undergrad. I was fortunate to have a professor who is a Kagan trainer. {If you have a chance - I highly suggest going!} The one I went to was a 2 day conference that focused on ELL's.  It is amazing how well cooperative structures lend themselves to students acquiring a new language!

While I really love Kagan and all of their materials, a lot of their things are EXPENSIVE!!! I highly suggest to spend the $$$ on the trainings & books - they're worth it. However, for tools, I borrow their ideas and come up with alternatives.

Timers & Selectors

For timers, I love to use online-stopwatch, they have very cute timers! They even have an interval timer, that you can set up for teams and have 4 different timers going {similar to Kagan's bar timer} There are also tons of timers for Smartboards.

Selectors are another really fun tool! If you have your students set up in groups of 4, I always have each student numbered {#1-4}, with these selectors, you can either put students names or just the numbers 1, 2, 3, & 4 {similar to how Kagan's work}

• Random Name Selector - you can either put your Ss name in there, or you can just put #1-4 and it will select one. It also has a stopwatch on the same site. The best part, it saves your student's names!

• Dart Selector - is another cute one, but it doesn't save your list of names or numbers, so you may have to keep it up on your screen at all times. 

• Super Teacher Tools - You can create a class (either by name/#) and use it as a name selector, but you can also use it to randomly creates students into groups. It saves your info too!

• Random Name Picker - This will allow you to enter student names/#'s and it uses a slot machine to choose the name/#.

• Stick Pick - iPhone app. This one is pretty fancy and keeps track of correct responses by students. 

• Smartboard - name generators & group creator.

• Kagan also has some apps that are pretty inexpensive {2.99 each} for selectors & timers!

I have lots of ideas for some of their other tools - and I will share with you as I make them! Here are some other great resources that I have found that are either free or very inexpensive!

• Kagan Free articles - This section is full of free resources!

• Cooperative 365- A blog dedicated to cooperative learning and has amazing resources!

• Cooperative Learning Seating chart

• Laura Candler's resources - tons of great ideas and resources!

Don't forget to enter my giveaway - there are LOTS of great prizes!!!!

I'm all about cooperative learning!

I love cooperative learning! I was fortunate in college to have a professor {for 2 semesters} who was also a Kagan trainer. {they have amazing resources - go check them out!} I truly had the best of both worlds - not only was I introduced to the basic concepts of coop. learning, but it was also modeled to me at every class meeting. We constantly did coop. structures for all of our learning {and I saw the proof of how powerful it can be}. Of course we are filled with all of this wonderful knowledge in school, but when we get into our own classroom we can't always reproduce what we were taught. However, I have tried to hold onto my coop. learning strategies and implement them whenever possible.

I find that science lends itself so well to coop. learning. I created these cards to assign jobs to each group (table) of students. I assign students a job for each experiment and then rotate roles. Most of my students sit in groups of 4, but a few have 5. For the groups of 5 I have 2 material handlers. I can't tell you how this has saved me from discipline problems during science. The students don't fight over who gets to do what - or not getting a turn. It also prevents from having 10 students coming up to me at once (since only directors may come up to me with questions/problems). This also allows me to move around the room to have discussions with the children. It also allows students to problem solve within their group!!
Tips:

• Print a set of cards for each group (table) on different colored cardstock and laminate.

• Cut the cards out and then use the bottom portion to remind the groups of the expectations for each job.

• I keep the job cards/job explanation card in a plastic baggie that gets passed out with the experiment materials. (I prepare experiments by placing everything in tubs for each group)
  

• I have each student within a group numbered 1-5. This makes it easier to assign job roles each time. I just assign each job a number...this make it so easy to switch jobs each time.

• I have used these cards with both 3rd and 1st graders. It was a breeze with 3rd graders...however 1st graders need modeling to u
  

I hope that you enjoy these and they are helpful in your classroom! On a side note, I'm realizing that as the start of the year gets closer it is getting harder and harder for me to get on and blog (I have so much to do and not enough time!)

*Somehow when I converted to a pdf it changed moved the picture for investigator - I'll have to fix it another time - sorry!


Science Cooperative Jobs