Getting organized for back to school '17!

Can you believe summer is already coming to a close? I feel like I'm digging my heels into the ground trying to hold onto my last week of summer vacation.

HOWEVER, one thing that's got me super excited about getting ready for the new school year is getting organized. I love printing off and filling in my planner pages.

I recently designed a new planner that is all seasonally themed  - meaning each month has different seasonal clip art and colours. I'm so excited to use it.

Along with all of the pages being seasonally themed, it comes with 8 different seasonal covers. Here are four examples, one for summer, autumn, winter, and spring. :)

Last year I used a 1 inch binder, and found it kind of heavy to drag around. This year I have downsized to a 1/2 inch binder, and am only going to put the current month in it, along with the other essential pages I need. To give you an idea of the size, this is what it looks like:

And here's a sneak peek inside! I love these monthly planning sheets to keep me organized for the upcoming month.

There are two of these 2-page spreads - one for important dates and one for long-range planning.

Each month comes with a two page planning spread. It's undated, so you can reuse it again and again every year. If you want, you can purchase date stickers at stores like Michaels or on Etsy to put in, if you don't want to write the dates in yourself.

This is the weekly spread. There are 12 different versions of this to match each of the monthly spreads. I printed off 4 of each month on average to make enough weeks for the school year. :) This example shown is from October:

 And of course it includes all the usual goodies to fill your binder with - checklists for subjects, stationary pages, field trip info, volunteer info, parent contact pages in multiple varieties, and more!

There are also divider covers for each section.

All of my planner products are fully editable. They include a PDF version that looks exactly like these ones, and a Powerpoint file that you can edit all of the text to look as you wish. :) It also includes both letter sized (which I used) and A5 size.

Check it out here - Seasonal Planner

As always, you can let me know if you have any questions or concerns on TPT, in the comments below, or via email @ aminimalistteacher@gmail.com

Happy planning!

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math differentiation to reach all of your learners

PART 1 of this post is here!

Ah, differentiation. A word that gave me a lot of stress when I was doing my student teaching. My understanding was that I would have to plan 20 different lessons to meet all of my students needs. Which seemed like a ton of work.

As it turns out, there are some tricks to meet all needs in a much more efficient way. I've created these word problems in Math to help my strugglers, my grade level kids, and the ones who need a challenge. Every question is open-ended, which means there are multiple (sometimes infinite!) ways to solve the question. Instead of asking a kid "what it 2+2? ", if you tell them "the answer to a question is 4," they will be thinking critically about what they know about numbers and operations. Plus, I have so many competitive kids that love to challenge their friends to find the most solutions to the questions.

I typically do one word problem a week - we call it Word Problem Wednesdays in our room. :) We start by looking over the prompts together. Sometimes I let kids choose if they want to do level 1, 2, or 3, and sometimes I assign it.  Depending how low your Level 1 group is, you may want to work with them.  Note that Level 1 includes no text for your kiddos to read, just pictures and a basic number sentence for them to solve. There is a read aloud portion for you to read to them.

For each level, there are two versions of the prompt - a large poster size and a small notebook size. I cut the notebook size up and have them glue it in their books. Below are two samples of the same question in Level 1 (where the student used manipulatives to help them represent their learning) and Level 2 where the student solved and wrote a statement. They found two ways to solve, but there could be endless options. I don't always require a written statement, but some kiddos like to write their answers in a story style.

The poster size can be projected on your SMART board or can be printed off for groups. My kiddos LOVE this. I have laminated several pieces of chart paper (one for each group) and have the kids sit around it with dry erase pens and solve together. Something about using dry erase markers is just super motivating for kids. ;)

Here's a summary of the three levels. There is a poster size for each level, but I just included one as an example.

To get one week for free, I have a free sample of my September problems for you here! :)

September Open-Ended Word Problem FREEBIE

The year long bundle is available for purchase here:

Year Round Open-Ended, Differentiated Word Problem Bundle

And the individual months are available here:

Monthly Open-Ended, Differentiated Word Problems

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positive home communication

I don't know about you, but as a newer teacher, parents make me super nervous. I know I'm have the experience and training to know what I'm doing, but still - I get super nervous and self-conscious whenever I have to interact with them. I also despise talking on the phone, and will do almost anything to avoid it (but I'm working on it! This year I plan to make more phone calls!). As a way to increase my communication with parents, I designed these postcards to send home. They are positively framed, as I believe it is super important to discuss student successes with parents often.

I pick a few kids and send these home weekly or daily if needed. My kids always get so excited when they get one, and it really helps build my relationships with their parents because they know that I care about what their kiddo is doing.

This has really had a positive effect on behaviour in my classroom, as kids feel valued and know that I am watching what they are doing. I also don't have to worry about any of these notes going "missing" on the way home, because they are so proud and excited to show their parents. :)

I print them on cardstock (they come 4 to a page) and double side them (with short-edge binding) so that the lines are on the back of the page.

This product is available here: 

Postcards From School

If you have any feedback, questions, or concerns let me know! I'd love to have suggestions on even more postcards to add! 

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watercolour floral teacher planner

Last year I put my planner originally in the Happy Planner rings (I still use the happy planner dividers too) but I didn't like the ring system, so I switched to a 1-inch binder. I found that fairly bulky to carry around last year, so this year I've switched to a 1/2 inch binder (see side profile pic below) and am only going to put the relevant months in at a time and switch them out as it fills up.

All of my planners include multiple cover options as well, the one below is my favourite!

When printing my planners, you'll want to just print out the pages you want. I print double sided, month by month and then do the same with the lesson pages. If you need help printing, definitely message me and I'll do my best to help you out.

Now onto the inside! There are two of these 2-page spreads - one for important dates and one for long-range planning.

It includes a monthly plan page for each month, and a two page monthly spread that is undated so you can use it year after year. I believe you can buy monthly date stickers on Etsy or at Michaels if you are interested in that sort of thing. 

Each month has a different colour watercolour banner.

This is what the weekly lesson planning spread looks like. I print off 4-5 copies per month at a time to put in my planner. :)

It includes all the usual goodies to fill your binder with - checklists for subjects, stationary pages, field trip info, volunteer info, parent contact pages in multiple varieties, and more! There are also cover pages for your dividers for each section. For more pictures, check out the preview on TPT.

It is available for purchase here, along with my other planners:

Floral, Editable Teacher Planner

All of my planner products are fully editable. They include a PDF version that looks exactly like these ones, and a Powerpoint file that you can edit all of the text to look as you wish. :) It also includes both letter sized (which I used) and A5 size.

As always, you can let me know if you have any feedback, questions or concerns on TPT, in the comments below, or via email @ aminimalistteacher@gmail.com

Happy planning!

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planners, planners, and more planners!

How is your back to school prep going? I've kind of had my head in the sand all summer, and I go back super soon - so it's time to dig out the planner and curriculum and get going! In this post I'm going to show my Minimalist, Editable, Watercolour Teacher Planner in detail - it's my best selling planner to date. I used it last year and got many compliments on it - this year I have switched to my Seasonal Editable Planner, and I'm excited to use that. :)

Last year I put my planner originally in the Happy Planner rings (I still use the happy planner dividers too) but I didn't like the ring system, so I switched to a 1-inch binder. I found that fairly bulky to carry around last year, so this year I've switched to a 1/2 inch binder and am only going to put the relevant months in at a time and switch them out as it fills up.

All of my planners include multiple cover options as well, the one below is my favourite!

When printing my planners, you'll want to just print out the pages you want. I print double sided, month by month and then do the same with the lesson pages. If you need help printing, definitely message me and I'll do my best to help you out.

Now onto the inside! It includes a monthly plan page for each month, and a two page monthly spread that is undated so you can use it year after year. I believe you can buy monthly date stickers on Etsy or at Michaels if you are interested in that sort of thing. 

Each month has a different colour watercolour banner.

The weekly lesson plan spread also includes matching watercolour banners to correspond to the monthly calendar (so there are 12 different lesson plan pages that you can print 4-5 of for each month).

And of course it includes all the usual goodies to fill your binder with - checklists for subjects, stationary pages, field trip info, volunteer info, parent contact pages in multiple varieties, and more! There are also cover pages for your dividers for each section. For more pictures, check out the preview on TPT.

It is available for purchase here:

Minimalist, Editable, Watercolour Teacher Planner

All of my planner products are fully editable. They include a PDF version that looks exactly like these ones, and a Powerpoint file that you can edit all of the text to look as you wish. :) It also includes both letter sized (which I used) and A5 size.

As always, you can let me know if you have any feedback, questions or concerns on TPT, in the comments below, or via email @ aminimalistteacher@gmail.com

Happy planning!

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