Calendar Notebook & Freebie

January is a fresh start for me. I started a new morning work routine with my second graders. I used one week to introduce and practice every single page with them. Now they are quite used to it and are able to finish each page on their own. 

This is the cover page. I named the book "Nice to meet you" in Chinese. I want them to see them every day and of course happily. 

First several pages are student calendars. They will write the date on the page and color it. Today is January 9th. Just write down 9 and color it. That's easy!

How many days in school is also included. They will need to color the number. 

From then, I used sheet protectors to make them usable for later. Just erase and write with a dry-erase marker. 

I also included Today, Yesterday, and Tomorrow in one page, as well as telling time. I believe that over time, they will master the elapsed time easily. 

Then what is a must is Number of the Day. I have double digit and three digit number versions. I also included skip counting at the bottom of the page. 

Why it is 82? Because there are 82 days in school for them. 

Besides, I also have Problem of the Day, which is a bonus for me. I will write the problem on my white board in advance. When they enter my room, they are already there. They will use their favorite strategies to solve the problem, and write the fact family house. I also feel balancing equations is a must since my kids are struggling with it. Practice makes perfect!

Skip counting is also a must! I have skip counting by 2's, 5's, and 10's. 

I finally blogged about it. I'm so excited to also offer a freebie for you! Both English and Chinese versions are included.  Number of the Day

Click the image below for the whole notebook. 

English version

Chinese version

That's it for today. See y'al. 

Colorful Fish

This is the showcase of my students' work. They are 7th graders and the unit is color. The first lesson of color is to identify colors. I really love their work.

Classroom cheer - lots of ways

It is so awesome to see so many hardworking teachers share their piece of ideas and great jobs with all of us. It is so amazing to learn from those "sparkling" teachers. That's also a reason why I have this blog to share my work with more Chinese teachers.

So today I learned 10 ways to praise my students. My way to praise my students is using a gesture cheer and saying "fei chang hao" with my students. And now I have ten more ways to praise.

Here is a great teacher's idea of 10 ways to praise, you can assess her blog and videos about how to implement HERE. Make sure check the website out.

Recently, I gradually have an idea about Whole brain teaching. It has many great ideas of classroom management, class, yes, teach, ok, etc. I really learned a lot. And I think I will also use it in my own classrooms.

I will modify those ten ways and come up with a Chinese way to use those cheers.

Tagxedo city

When we teach language, culture part is always a crucial part. City is an important and necessary element when introducing culture.

I think teachers all know Wordle, as an online tool to make word clouds. In fact, even though I know Wordle for a long time, I still do not have any idea about how to use it effectively in language teaching. 

Not long ago, when I was browsing a teacher's blog, I found that she used Wordle to ask students to differentiate words like adjectives, nouns, etc. That is a great idea to check students understanding regarding to vocabulary. 

Today when I was watching a teacher's video on YouTube, I found her background was the London Bridge made by word clouds. It is really a fabulous idea, and I think students will definitely like it. As a tool, I can also use this craft as a mini city to teach them Chinese culture. 

First I searched a picture of Xian, which is an old city in China. 

Then I used this picture to make my word clouds of Xian city.

Here is what it turned out on Tagxedo. I used Tagxedo instead of Wordle because Wordle does not support Chinese character.

Then I printed this picture out on a white paper. I also printed out the city's name on a paper in a different color. I cut out the image and glued it on the colored paper.

I will laminate it and I can use it in any of my classrooms.

Monster box

I saw it on Pinterest! It served as a tattle monster. I really think it is a great way to deal with some complaints between my students. Moreover, it can also serve as an interesting decoration idea in my classroom. Here is how I made it!

I drew those eyes by myself!