Thursday, September 8, 2011
Paper, Paper, Everywhere!
Have you ever felt
like you are buried in paper at school ... then you go home and your entire
kitchen table is covered with it? Yeah, me too!
All that paper has
made me really start to think about what I can do to help this age old...and
seemingly endless, problem.
It all started when I
wanted to use colorful copies for my students to keep track of their Daily 5
activities...I just didn't want to use black and white copies...how DULL...and
I knew what my school would say about too many color copies.....SOOOO, this is
what I did.
I went out and bought
heavy duty plastic folders that have the 3 prongs down the middle and heavy
duty plastic page protectors. Since I was making these at the end of the summer
when back to school supplies were on sale, I was able to afford them!
I then made my copies
of the reference guides that my kids use when they are doing Daily 5. The main
page they use is a sheet I made to help the kids manage and keep track of
the stations that they have gone to during the week. I put nice color copies in
the page protectors and when the kids have been to that station, they put a
check mark in the box....with a dry erase marker!! At the end of the week, they
wipe it off and are ready to go again!
Since this idea worked
so beautifully, I decided to put some of my other reference materials in the
page protectors. Some of these items include:
- a Daily 5 checklist
- a Daily 5 rubric
- an "I'm done" sheet
that is used for writing
- an editing checklist to check writing
before it is published
- a punctuation reference sheet
- a sheet of other ways to say something (i.e. Instead of saying 'said' I could say 'muttered')
- transition words
- a sample friendly letter
I think you get the
idea! The possibilities are endless and can be used in any grade level and with
just about any info your kids need.
So, now you know how I
cut down the amount of paper that is flying around my classroom...now, if I
could just do something about the kitchen table!
 |
| This is how the folders look and how the kids mark them. |
Check out some of the items that I put in the folders. Just click on the picture to see it in my store! Everything is 15% off until Saturday, September 10.
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