Two.whole.months.
If you are a fellow teacher, you know that the first eight weeks of school are busy with routines, assessments, and behavior management. For a mom of two school-age children, that is "triple" true. We are finally settling into a routine at home and school, so it's time for me to work this back in!
My new(ish) class is one of my most challenging by far, but they are coming along. They boys far outweigh the girls - which is a challenge in itself at times - but they are super chatty and super "busy." I am considering trying out Class Dojo (have you tried it? Thoughts? Comment below!) as a way to help parents at home understand how their child behaves and performs during the day.
One thing I've started to do for Classroom Management - as a way to spread out a bit and maintain some organization and a classroom environment conducive for an effective Daily5 block - is to send a small group to the library with some parent volunteers. Because of our new schedule, there is usually one day per week that each small reading group has "off" from guided reading and I want them to still interact with text, but have it tied into their small group texts with me. Enter…PEBBLE GO! Pebble Go is an AMAZING online database just for kids at the primary level. Besides animals, they cover Earth and Space, Biographies, and Social Studies. The text is simple, around a level J/K (Fountas & Pinnell level) but there is also an audio component that will read to the kids. There are videos as well as the option to print the text and a diagram that the students can label for some topics.
Once a week, each group works in the library on a topic that ties into our curriculum or the text we are reading together. For example, one small group read "Bat Loves the Night" by Nicola Davies. When they went to work on PebbleGo on the computers and iPads in the library, they researched Bats. They loved it and I loved that those five students were on-task and working independently on a meaningful topic. It's a win-win! :)
(We also used it as part of our Nocturnal Animal Mini-unit…the possibilities are endless!)
Here is an open-ended Pebble Go Research FREEBIE - meaning you can use it with any topic your students are researching! I have also linked you to my TpT shop and the Nocturnal Animal packet that you can also use with Pebble Go!
