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Meagan England

More Free Zebra Creations

I have 32 days until I return to school, and my students return to school in 35 days! Wow, my summer has flown by quickly. I am looking forward to getting my room ready for all my students. I’ve created some more zebra themed printables that you can download below by clicking on each picture.

Open House sign-in sheet

To do list

Just a basic newsletter! You can add or change anything you would like!

Have a very wonderful and safe Fourth of July.

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Meagan England

Common Core Vocabulary

Tier 1, 2, and 3 Words for Common Core

Not all words require instruction equally:

Tier 1 – Basic Words – Most cannot be demonstrated and do not have multiple meanings, but students will need to know them. Sight words would be found at this level.
Tier 2 – Words occur in high frequency. Found in a variety of domains.

Criteria:

Importance to understanding the text
Characteristic of mature language users
Used across a variety of domains
Potential for building rich representations of the words (multiple meaning words
Words that allow students to provide precision and specificity in describing the concept
Words like: merchant, tend, fortunate, maintain, required, performed, benevolent

Tier 3 – Words with a low frequency of use, often limited to special, specific domains. They are best learned when a specific need arises. (Content area words) Words like: igneous, metamorphic, Revolutionary War, economics

Example of how to choose tier two and three vocabulary:

The solar system consists of the sun and all the planets and other bodies that revolve around the sun. Planets are any of the primary bodies that orbit the sun. Scientists have long debated the origins of the solar system. In the 1600’s and 1700’s, many scientists thought that the sun formed first and threw off the materials that later formed the planets. But in 1796, the French mathematician Pierre-Simon, marquis de Laplace, advance a hypothesis that is now know as the nebular hypothesis.

From: Holt’s California Edition of high School Earth Science textbook & Sandi Yellenberg

Blue words: Tier 2 Yellow words: Tier 3

As you read a text pick out words that would confuse your students that are not subject specific. These words are your tier two words. Words that are subject specific are your tier three words. It is important for educators to understand with the new common core standards that there are not a sets of tier two vocabulary lists. Students will need to understand how to decode and use context clues to be able to read unfamiliar text that they will encounter. Tier three words are subject specific. Therefore educators will be able to create lists of words. For example, I teach reading and a few of my tier three words would be: theme, setting, plot, character, etc. I am currently working on resources for grades 3-6 for professional development for my district and will be sharing them with all my readers.

If you have not enter my giveaway yet please click here to enter. Please share with all your friends.

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Meagan England

Rehired and A Giveway

I was really excited today when I received my rehire letter. I will be staying at my school for the fourth year. I will be teaching reading for 5th and 6th grade again this year. Which really makes me happy since I have already started working on my room. I also have a giveaway. I am joining in on a book study of “Playful Learning” with Teaching My 3 . The author of “Playful Learning was so nice to share a self-paced e-learning course with each of the bloggers to giveaway. It will guide you through the process for setting up playful learning spaces. The class will cover organization, storage, and selecting materials for different ages and stages of child development. Your access never expires and you can watch when you want to, no schedules to follow. It is an awesome giveaway that keeps giving!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Meagan England

Common Core District Meeting

I was really excited a few weeks ago when the Elementary Supervisor asked me to join the common core district team. Basically, we will be attending all the state training on implementing common core in our district. Our district was chosen to conduct a pilot program for the 2012-2013 school year. I believe it will help our teachers get ready for 2013-2014 school year when we teach all common core. My main job on this committee is to:

Find and create resources for ELA teachers grade 3-6
Provide feedback to the state on implementing the pilot in my classroom
Provide in-services for ELA teachers grade 3-6

Lucky for all my blog readers I will also be sharing the resources that I find and create. The first differences between most of our current standards and the common core is the shift from text-to-self question to text-to-text questions. To help teachers create more text-based questions I found a great guide online. Click here to get the guide. I hope this is helpful guide. Also, if you have any questions please post them. I will have the chance to ask these questions and get answers from our state common core trainers.

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Meagan England

No Air For You!

Our school has no air for the summer now that we are trying to conserve energy. The no air makes working in your room crazy hot.

See my high-tech cooling system!

My whole purpose for going to work in my classroom was to cover more of my tables in contact paper. I got this idea from an awesome blog Ladybugs Teacher’s Files. She puts contact paper on her table every year. I love her room so much. I actually have room envy. This is my first year of putting the contact paper on my tables.

This is the before!

Supplies that I used: Contact paper, scissors, black electric tape, and a thumb tack

This is what happens when you rush!

Things that I learned:

What ever you do, take your time. (Or you end up with the above picture)
Do small sections. I chose a speckled contact paper and you could not see the seems.
Use a thumb tack to pop any air bubbles.
Don’t worry to much about the sides of the table because you cover the side with electric tape.

The after! It looks so much better.

Another table I covered today!

I have a few more tables to cover. I hope to be done soon. It is making such a difference in the look of the room. A few of my teaching buddies stopped by and said when I was done their tables were waiting. However, I do not have that much patience.

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Meagan England

Vista Print Online Deal $17.00 for $70.00

Groupon currently has deal where you pay $17.00 and get $70.00 worth of printing. Click on picture above to purchase your groupon. I have seen ideas all over blogs and pinterest on how to use Vista Print in the classroom. I am going to use my money to purchase the following items: