This is a simple game you can play with your class to review and sharpen their telling time skills. And, you most likely already have all of the game materials on hand.

Materials:

• sticky note for each student
• xylophone, bell, or some way of making a specific sound
• pencil for each student
• clock on the wall

Game Procedure:

1. Put a sticky note on the corner of each child’s desk or table area.
2. Explain to the students that they’ll need to listen for the bell (or other sound) throughout the day. A clapping pattern could also work to signal the students to write the time.
3. When the kids hear the sound, they stop whatever they’re doing, look at the clock, and write down the time on the sticky note on their desk.
4. The teacher tells the class the time to make sure they answered it correctly.
5. Repeat for as many times as you want, for as many days as you feel would be helpful.

This game would also work well for homeschoolers or parents who want to give their children more telling time practice at home.

Here are some suggestions for different grades:

Kindergarteners-  time to the hour.

1st grade- top of the hour and half hour.

2nd grade- any time that is a 5 minute increment. For example, 1:05, 3:40, etc. Include a.m. or p.m., if you’d like.

3rd grade- any time at all, including 4:01, 9:59, etc. Include a.m. or p.m., if possible.

You can do this procedure a few times throughout the day. Keep the sticky note on the desk daily. When the sticky note is full, students can get a new one.

If you try this game, I’d love to hear how it goes.

Thanks!
~ Carrie

Note: If you’d like more telling time practice, feel free to check out the “Telling Time with Roman Numeral Clocks” resources in my TPT store. The Roman Numerals add an extra challenge.

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As I design teaching resources, one of my missions is to use creativity whenever I can.

So, when I saw the title Weaving Creativity into Every Strand of Your Curriculum, I immediately knew I wanted to read this book.

Out of all of the professional teaching books I’ve read, this one has to be one of the easiest to read. Published in 2015, Dr. Cyndi Burnett and Julia Figliotti have shared over 750 tips to adding creativity into your school day. The tips are a compilation from creativity experts, teachers, parents, the authors, and more. The ideas are organized into chapters, such as “Look at it Another Way” and “Embrace the Challenge”.

A couple of examples from the “Embrace the Challenge” chapter are:

#1 Use the word “challenge” often.

#14 Find times to reward fluency (the ability to generate many ideas) vs. accuracy.

There are so many ideas in this book, you probably won’t have time for them all. Pick one to start with and try to weave some extra creativity into your day.

Most likely, some of the suggestions won’t click with you. You can decide which tips would be helpful for your class or child. Reading this book would be beneficial for teachers, homeschoolers, and parents. There are lots of great ideas that can be used in a variety of settings.

What’s your favorite way to add creativity to your day?

~Carrie

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I’m excited to be guest posting over on Rachel Lynette’s Minds in Bloom blog!

The topic is:

What’s my favorite comprehension question to ask kids after reading?

Click here to read the entire post on the Minds in Bloom blog!

Thanks!

~Carrie

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Teachers have so much on their plate, time savers can be helpful. I’ll share three of my favorite time savers for teachers.

1. Initials

When taking monitoring notes about strengths, next steps, and behaviors, use first and last initials of students. This is quicker than writing out their entire first name.

For example,

BL-work on “ch” sound

XT and BP working well together during partner reading

Then, when you’re planning for the upcoming days, you can see what different students may need. Another way to use initials is when you’re making lists on the board for the class to see and use. Quickly jot down their initials and then you can move on to doing other tasks.

2. Sticks in cup

Having popsicle sticks in a cup with each child’s name written on them can be useful in a variety of ways. You can use them to randomize when you need someone to do something, like take something to another teacher. You can partner the kids up by drawing two sticks together and having those two work together. Also, you can use the sticks to randomly call on kids when they all want to share. Keep the cup of sticks near where you instruct and it comes in handy often.

3. Think, Pair, Share

Do you wish you had time to call on every student? With “Think, Pair, Share” (a Kagan strategy), every student gets a chance to share their ideas. First, give them time to think about the question you posed. Next, they turn to someone and they each tell the other member of their pair what their idea is.

As the teacher, you’ll want to make sure everyone has someone to pair with to exchange ideas. If there’s an odd number of kids, three can share with each other or a student can tell you what their thoughts are. Finally, call on a couple of students to share their ideas with the whole group.

This technique is so useful. If you can use it every day, I’d definitely recommend it! It gives more kids a chance to participate and think about the content.

Have you used any of these time savers? What’s your favorite way to save time as a teacher?
~Carrie

Click here to follow My Book Boost on Facebook. I love to post information for teachers, homeschooling families, and parents!

Image Credits: Font by Kimberly Geswein, Background by Digital Paper Designs, Think Pair Share by Core Creations

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This free printable was inspired by the book Sky Color by Peter H. Reynolds. It’s a story about a girl who wanted to paint the sky, but didn’t have blue paint. The book goes through her journey of realizing the sky can be other colors besides blue.

This printable helps develop the skills of improvising, grit, and thinking outside of the box. There are no wrong answers.

Download this free printable here.

After kids (or adults) color the sheet, you can ask “What made you choose that color?” You can also issue a challenge for the next time they color a picture: “Experiment with using different colors for things than you might have before.”

Myself, I seem to always color dogs brown. I think I’ll give a yellow canine a try.

What new color idea did you or your kids experiment with?

~Carrie

p.s. Here is a link to the full resource, which includes 26 pictures to color:

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