Category: Classroom Resources - Diamond Mom's Treasury

Back to School Ideas and Resources

8/2/2020

It's that time of year again. But it is also different this year. Normally teachers would be planning and creating in a renewed state, eager to start off a new year with new students and exciting activities. This year, there is a lot of uncertainty and stress as teachers fear going back to school and the difficulties it will bring.

Teachers need to support each other through these difficult circumstances. Self care becomes very important. I posted some ideas for self care in my last post. You can check it out here.

Self care is important to our health. Negativity causes stress. It is important to find ways to de-stress.

As teachers and students return to school, there will be some excitement, and apprehension as new protocols are put in place to deal with the ongoing pandemic. It will be important to help put children at ease as they adjust and learn to engage in a different way.

Start by doing activities that help your students get to know each other and and create relationships. Mixers, groups, and partner activities can still happen, but in a different way. Maintaining social distancing while doing these activities can be a challenge, but as creative teachers, we finds ways to make them happen. That is our super power.

Back to School Ice Breaker

Ways to use back to school ice breaker.

Ways to match up the pieces of the back to school ice breaker.

First week activities help students to ease back into learning and following routines. Here are some resources that might help.

Back to school activities for the first week.

Back to school first week activities for primary grades.

Back to school math and literacy ideas.

These are also available in a bundle that includes start up forms and a back to school kit. I also have several poster sets and theme kits in my Back to School category in my store.

Back to school bundle of 7 resources.

I wish you well as you begin this new year. Stay safe and try to enjoy your time with your students.

Back to school ideas and resources

Distance Learning - Online Resources

4/5/2020

Hi Everyone. I hope you are managing to get some rest this weekend as we prepare for another week on online learning and teaching.

I just wanted to let you know that many of us are trying to make changes to our products or create new ones that are able to be delivered in a digital manner so that they can be used more easily in the new way of teaching and learning.

Distance Learning online resources are now becoming more and more necessary.

If you already have some of my products and would like to use portions of them you have my permission to copy and share in password protected programs. Please make sure that those who receive them understand that they are not to be shared out publicly so as to meet my terms of use.

Online resources are now becoming more necessary as people move to the distance learning model.

I have been working on creating some online materials. So far I have created some Boom Cards for math and music. I have also started experimenting with Google Slides and I hope to be able to have some of these ready soon. My goal for now is to create materials for literacy and French in addition to more math materials. You can check those that are done by cllcking here.

Here are some examples of digital materials now available for teaching various subjects and concepts.

By now, you may have heard that there is a Teachers Pay Teachers site wide sale happening Monday and Tuesday, April 6 and 7. This is to help with making materials more affordable for teachers and parents.

My store is on sale and that makes even my bundles more affordable. Hopefully there are some things there that can help you out.

The promo code is FORYOU.

TeachersPayTeachers distance learning sale #DistanceLearningTPT

Stay safe everyone and try to find time for rest and self care during the week.

Online resources that keep kids engaged and learning are becoming more necessary as we transition into distance learning.

Conducting Student-Led Conferences

2/22/2020

Communicating student learning is important. Many teachers still use a parent/teacher format, but I have found that the student-led model is far more effective. I am retired now, but this is the model I used for over 20 years and the feedback was always positive and very helpful. I never experienced a time when it wasn't effective or well-received by both parents and students.

Conducting student-led conferences requires management that allows for sharing, communicating, and reflecting.

Conducting student-led conferences requires management that allows for sharing, communicating, and reflecting. In my classroom, there were up to 3 families at a time. They all had an agenda to follow and several different things to do. One of those things was to meet with the teacher. There was also flexibility to come and go if the family had multiple children and conferences to participate in.

Student-led conferences work because they include the child in the process. They empower children to be the leaders in sharing their learning.

Student-led conferences work because they include the child in the process. They empower children to be the leaders in sharing their learning. When they are done well, there are opportunities to share what has been learned, work together on activities with parents that relate to what they are studying, look at evaluations from both the child and the teacher, and discuss concerns and goals for future learning.

Student-led conferences are a blend of sharing, reflecting, and setting goals for future learning.

Student-led conferences are a blend of sharing, reflecting, and setting goals for future learning. It is important to prepare the children for these conferences. Role playing and practicing helps them to understand what to expect and sets them up for success.
Scheduling enough time in the conferences is also important. Children need time to share their successes, participate in activities with their parents, and discuss their learning with the teacher and their parents.

The materials and activities that you use for your conferences should reflect what is happening in your classroom.

The materials and activities that you use for your conferences should reflect what is happening in your classroom. I have created a package with some materials that have worked well for me. They can be used as a sample that can be adapted for your conferences.

Here are some activities, evaluation forms, and other materials that will help make a student-led conference meaningful and successful.

For more specifics and to see what is included in this package, check out this post.

Money Lessons For Children

2/19/2020

Teaching children about money is different now than it was a few years ago. We live in a plastic world and children rarely handle actual cash. This makes paying for things and dealing with change a challenge.They still need to understand how to use money, but they need to be taught in a different way for this to make sense to them. Here is a unit that my class created with me that is called "Money Lessons For Children".

This is a unit on money and it focuses on teaching children how to earn money, handle it, and manage it. It is kid friendly and was created with children.

Just before I retired, I created a unit on money with my students. It started out simply, but very quickly became the focus of our math classes. Because my students were directly involved in creating the unit and working through the different aspects of it, they were able to apply what they learned to future activities.

Money Lessons For Children is kid friendly and was created with children. It teaches them about money, how to earn it, save it, and manage it.

The older students in the school had been learning about becoming Young Entrepreneurs earlier in the year. When I saw what they were doing, I decided to modify this to work with my grade 3 students. They were very excited about this and they worked hard to create materials for a Spring fundraiser.

Earning money and managing it is an important part of learning about money. This unit,

Before they were able to start working on the projects, they needed to learn about money and how to work with it. We talked about debit cards and money in the bank. Most of them didn't realize that there needed to be money in the bank in order to take money out or use the debit card to pay for things. They thought that people could just use the card whenever they wanted to buy something.

In a plastic world, learning about banking is an important part of learning about money and managing it. This is covered in the unit,

They were given a "debit" card and they were assigned a starting amount of money. They were then taught how to spend money and keep track of the balance. They were shown ways to earn money to add to the card in order to continue buying things.

The challenge was to come up with ideas of ways to earn money as children. We brainstormed different jobs/chores that could be done and decided on how much money might be earned for each job. Then we used the classroom money and practiced earning and spending money to see how it worked.

These are only some of the activities we did as we developed this unit. It was definitely one of the most valuable units that I have used and it had a great finale as it helped us to earn money for a special field trip.

Money Lessons For Children, a unit created for and with children.

Here is a sampling of the unit that we created together.

Money Lessons For Children outline summary.

How to manage money from the unit

A sample lesson from Money Lessons For Children

Applying skills learned from Money Lessons For Children into a celebration of learning.

If you check out the DIY category on my blog, you will find the directions for making many of the items we used for our Spring Fundraiser.

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Winter Literacy Activities

1/24/2020

The cold weather has arrived. There is snow on the ground and temperatures are falling in many areas. Here are some ideas for using the winter theme for language acquisition and practice.

Winter Literacy ideas for word work. #winterwriting #winterwordwork

Children get very excited when the snow falls. Here are some cute task cards to use for focusing on compound words that go with the snow. Click on the image to get your copy.

Check out this freebie! Snowy Days Compound Words

Snowy Days Compound Words game

Language activities can be helpful if they are used in a fun way. Children learn better if they are interested in what they are doing. Here are some different ideas for engaging children in various types of language activities.

Here are some winter word work language games and activities. #gamesteachskills #winterwordwork

Here are a couple of writing templates that can be used for winter writing.

Frozen writing paper templates for creative writing

I was so frozen writing activity

Sight Word Fun Using Themes

1/18/2020

Learning sight words can be key to becoming a fluent reader. Games make learning these words more fun. The same words can be used in many different ways that engage children if games are played. There are many themes that can be used as visuals to complement the words as well.

Dolch sight word fun using themes.

I love to use games to engage children in learning. They are excited to play and they reinforce language while doing so. There are many different activities that can be done with sets of sight words.

I have created many different themed sight word sets that focus on the 220 Dolch sight words. These sets have been a favorite choice for language centers over the years. Here are a few examples.

Chinese zodiac animal themed Dolch sight words.

Chinese New Year is a great theme for sight word games as each year it is new because the animal changes. This is a set of Dolch sight words for each of the animals of the Chinese zodiac. Both goat and sheep are included. These cards can also be used when studying animals or doing a unit on the farm as well.

Chinese zodiac bundle of sight words for the Dolch sight words.

These winter celebration games are great for Groundhog Day, Valentines Day, and Winter Sports. Bingo cards are also included that can be used with any of the themed sets. This allows for another level of game play.

Groundhog themed sight words for the Dolch sight words.

Valentine sight word games and bingo cards for Dolch sight words.

Winter sports sight word games for the Dolch sight words.

We usually focus on the 220 Dolch sight words, but there are also Dolch nouns that are high frequency words as well. This is a spring themed set of these 95 nouns. It includes bingo cards as well.

Themed sight words for learning high frequency nouns.

For more themed sets, check out my TeachersPayTeachers store.

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Winter Fun and Celebrations

1/17/2020

Christmas festivities are over and we have rung in the new year. Now it is time to get back to learning and the curriculum. This doesn't mean we have to take away the fun.

The New Year is a great time to incorporate winter celebrations into curriculum activities. There are so many different choices and events happening during the winter. There is Groundhog Day, Chinese New Year, 100 Days of School, Valentines Day, and in some places in Canada, there is Family Day.

Winter fun and celebration math activities for Chinese New Year and Valentines Day. #ChineseNewYear #ValentinesDay #wintermathactivities

Kids enjoy games and activities that focus on celebrations and they are more likely to be engaged in the different activities. This translates into better focus on concepts and skills presented and therefore, hopefully better understanding and retention of them.

Sampler of winter fun and celebration math activities for Chinese New Year and Valentines Day. #ChineseNewYear #ValentinesDay #wintermathactivities

This sampler includes a few activities to get started with. You can find it as a preview here. There is an activity that can be used yearly around Chinese New Year to figure out ordinal numbers. There is also a hundred chart for using with different activities that require counting to 100 or looking for patterns when celebrating 100 Days at School.

Playing dice games is always fun to do, especially with holiday themed dice. Here is a probability page for keeping a tally of how many times different numbers are rolled.The worksheet has heart dice on it, but you can use regular dice to do the activity.

These are only some of the ideas that I have for math and winter. More math activities can be found in my Teacher Pay Teachers store. I also like to do language activities using sight word bingo, memory, language task card games, and phonics activities. There are several winter and holiday celebration activities in the literacy category or sight word category in my store.

Diamond Mom's Treasury https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Diamond-Mom #teacher #teachingresources

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Fall Math Activities

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Themes and Games Make Learning Fun

Fall Math Activities

9/27/2019

Fall has returned for another season. It is the time of cooler days, changing colors, and special days. It is a great time to use fall themes for math activities.

Halloween Math Fun

When fall arrives, children begin thinking about Halloween. They get excited about costumes, trick-or-treating, and spooky activities. Here are some free activities to practice math skills while engaging them in Halloween fun. Click on the image above to get your free copies.

Fall/Thanksgiving Glyphs

Thanksgiving is another special time in the fall. Here are some activities that use glyphs for graphing. They are fun because they involve creating pictures, but they are also very useful for classifying and comparing data. They can be checked out here.

Fall and Halloween probability

Children love to play with dice. Here is a game of probability using fall and Halloween graphics to make it more interesting.

There are so many different ways to use fall themes to make math practice fun. How do you include fall themes in your math lessons?

Using Escape Rooms In The Classroom

6/12/2019

Capturing the attention of students is key to engaging them in their learning. Escape rooms are becoming more and more popular as a means of practicing and reinforcing skills and concepts. They are fun to do and they can promote healthy teamwork and collaboration.

Using escape rooms in the classroom

I have been tutoring some girls in French for awhile now and we have worked on a lot of vocabulary as well as grammar. I created several materials for them throughout this time. (Click here to view them.)
I also help out in a Grade 1/2 French Immersion classroom when I can. I work with small groups doing language activities and reading.

I noticed that many people were starting to use escape room activities, so I thought it might be fun to try to create one. The girls that I tutor in French worked on this project with me for a few weeks and I had the pleasure of seeing it in action in the Grade 1/2 French Immersion classroom a few days ago.
I thought it would be great in other classrooms as well, so I also created an English version.

Salle d'évasion de vocabulaire français product

Escape room What am I? product

The feedback from the children was very encouraging. They were proud of themselves for completing the tasks to earn the locks and they were excited to move on to each new category. They said that they liked working as a group and doing the activities together. I was impressed with how well they collaborated and discussed the choices of answers. They were also able to do most of the reading without help from the adults.

Actually receiving a lock to place on the hasp after each challenge was a major hit. They could hardly wait to get all the locks and then solve the mystery word.

Check out some pictures of them working together.

Escape room vocabulary category activities

Escape room vocabulary activities teamwork

Escape room vocabulary activities en français

Escape room vocabulary activities collaboration

Escape room vocabulary activity

Escape room vocabulary locks

Feedback for teachers is important too. I discovered a few different things when watching it in action. I was able to make some small tweaks to improve the product for future use. Most of the changes are in how to prepare the materials. For example, it is not necessary to have the large colored pages of the categories unless the images are being projected. Smaller ones with 4 to a page will work just as well and save on ink. I discovered that when I printed out the small working sheets and clue pages, that they didn't match exactly. This has now been fixed as well.

The big thing I noticed, is that with the younger children, it is best to break the activities up into 2 or even 3 sessions so that all of the students can remain engaged the whole time. This is especially true when working in a second language. They get tired after about 2 or 3 activities. Also, the groups work best if they are of mixed ability. Some students are stronger at reading, writing, or drawing, so there is a role for everyone.
Note: We did this activity over 2 days because it takes a couple of hours to complete. It would have worked even better over 3 days with 2 activities for each day.

Salle d'évasion de vocabulaire français

Escape room What am I? vocabulary

This product can be used for vocabulary review at the end of the year, or for a group activity review at the beginning of a new school year. It is also suitable for a late immersion class or for grades 3-5 if the more advanced math questions are used and if the students are required to write out the vocabulary with correct spelling.

Escape rooms in the classroom

I am excited about the results of this product and I hope to be able to create others in the future. I would love to hear about any experiences you might have had with escape rooms.

Themes And Games Make Learning Fun

1/25/2019

I like to use themes and games for teaching skills and concepts. Not only does this make learning fun, it is an effective way to teach reading and math.
Themes and games engage students and they are great springboards to link one subject area to another. Children can make connections and share thoughts and ideas when they are working with a familiar theme or topic.

Learn to read with themes and games. Winter ideas for reading. #winter #readinggames #learntoread

I often choose themes and games to engage my students in learning. My current theme is winter/winter celebrations. I am excited to use this theme with the reading and math groups that I work with. I will use it as my focus for the next few weeks.

Learn to read with themes and games. Winter ideas for reading. #winter #readinggames #learntoread

For reading, I start off with some vocabulary work. It is important that we have a common set of words and ideas when working together. I have created some vocabulary cards and games to use. This helps with work recognition and usage. Once the vocabulary is familiar to everyone, other activities can be more easily added and attempted.

Winter sports theme sight word games Learn to read with themes and games. #winter #readinggames #learntoread #sightwordgames

Sight word activities also help provide a working vocabulary for reading. I enjoy using sight word memory games and bingo for learning sight words. I have created many different themes so that I have games available throughout the year that go with themes that I am using. In the winter time, I use my winter sports cards or if I want to choose a specific holiday or occasion, I also have cards for those themes. Click here to see some of the themes I have available.

Make learning math fun with themes and games. #winter #mathgames #wintermath

For math, I like to use task cards and worksheets with designs or clipart that matches the theme. Then I introduce the skill or concept that we will be working on. I tend to use many different games and fun activities rather than worksheets, but once in awhile, a worksheet is given. (Today, I gave a worksheet and one of my students said, "We're doing math today." We do math everyday, but he didn't think it was math because we weren't writing things on a worksheet.)

Make learning fun with worksheet alternatives. #mathandreadingactivities #worksheetalternatives

I have created many different literacy and math products that can be used for small group work and classroom instruction. Click here to see what I have available for winter themed activities.

Learn to read with themes and games. #readinggames #learntoread #winteractivitiesforreading

$Make learning math fun with themes and games. #math #mathgames #winteractivitiesformath$

Diamond Mom's Treasury