Three Ways to Build Character with GoNoodle

September 6, 2015 by Sarah Plum(itallo) 5 Comments

I am so thrilled to be a part of GoNoodle’s Back to School Blogger Blitz! If you’ve read my blog or followed my Facebook fan page for any length of time, you know I have a deep, deep love for GoNoodle. I’ve guest-blogged for them before, and use it DAILY in my classroom. It’s simply put, my favorite instructional tool. {Make sure you read to the bottom of the post so that you can WIN, WIN, WIN!} Today I’m excited to share with you the three ways I use GoNoodle to build character in my students. Building character, to me, is the daily piece that makes all other instructional and non-instructional tasks easier. I cannot overemphasize the important of strong character in students and how it relates to classroom and school culture!

1. Visualizing Success

I want my students to have a “can-do” attitude, to see the positive in all situations, to persevere when the going gets tough. School, for many of my students, can often be a place that is daunting and where success sometimes feels far away. I want them to be able to weather those moments with confidence and ease — and I use GoNoodle’s “Think About It” feature to build that.

Before ANY graded assignment or test, we watch the “Try Your Best” video. My students close their eyes, take deep breaths, and repeat what’s written on their name tags. I’ve had students even request this video in the past when they’ve felt like they need that extra reminder to use their perseverance to their advantage — what an amazing testimony to how this reaches kids!

2. Developing Positive Peer Relationships

I want my students to understand the importance of their classmates in their school life. I want my students to feel like they are a part of a classroom community, not just a classroom. I use the “Think About It” feature at times when there may be a teachable moment with peer interaction. The “Be a Good Friend,” “Be a Team Player,” and “Make Someone Happy” videos have really helped to refocus our energy on the positive.

I follow that up with an energizing team-building video like Koo Koo Kanga Roo’s “Secret Handshakes” or some of the fantastic newer “Brainercise with Mr. Catman” that require coordination between partners. This allows students to directly relate to their peers following a moment of mindful reflection on being a positive force in our classroom.

3. Being Disciplined

Becoming skilled at a whole-body task like yoga requires discipline. For any primary teacher, developing discipline — particularly self-discipline — is an on-going challenge. We also know that cross-body coordination is critical for brain development. I love to use Maximo’s yoga videos to develop discipline in my students.

We start small, with an easier video like “Hug it Out” to get the hang of the discipline required to stay quiet, centered, and breathing. Eventually we work up to more challenging videos like “Eagle Pretzel” or “Willow Willow.” The students love to challenge themselves, but also to have an opportunity to have a calming, reflective moment. I love participating with them because of the opportunity to center myself!

I hope you’ll consider using GoNoodle to expand your students’ character! I love using it for a variety of things, including plain ‘ol movement brain breaks, but I also love using it to enhance our classroom community.

BIG news — and a giveaway!

April 2, 2015 by Sarah Plum(itallo) Leave a Comment

I’ve got some awesome news!!! Educents is opening a marketplace, which means now you can purchase items from seller stores any day — in addition to the great deals they already offer! There are over 500 stores in the marketplace ready for you to save some money, including MINE! Some great bloggers and I are joining together on this blog hop to introduce ourselves and show you the great products we have in our stores!

My name is Sarah Plum, and I’m a second grade teacher in Northern Virginia! My passion for teaching is deeply rooted in the population I currently serve, which is a very diverse population of primarily English Language Learners. In everything I do, I strive to reach my incredible students and open doors for them so they can achieve their dreams!

In addition to being a second grade teacher, I’m also a Mom to two very sweet boys! My oldest son, William, is currently in Kindergarten and is LOVING school. My youngest son, Henry, is about to turn two and is in love with all things musical — he loves to move his body and dance!

My husband, Rich, is also a certified teacher. He is the absolute best part of my life (other than my two sweet boys) — and my partner in crime! If it wasn’t for him I wouldn’t be able to continue to do what I love and create resources for other educators to use in their classrooms.

When I’m not working or creating, you’ll find me exploring the D.C. Metro area with my family! We especially love visiting the zoo in the spring and summer, and we know the Natural History Museum by heart! (The above picture was taken this winter when we FINALLY got to tour the White House — talk about COOL.)

Besides creating resources (which is something I truly love to do) and explore D.C. with my family, I love to read! I know, I know, shocking that a teacher would love to read, but it’s true!

http://www.amazon.com/Number-Sense-Routines-Building-Numerical/dp/1571107908/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

My favorite professional read lately has been Number Sense Routines by Jessica Shumway. Developing number sense is something I’m super passionate about in my classroom, and I’m always looking for ways to beef up my daily instruction in that area. This is a quick, easy read with a WEALTH of information — I’m on my third read!

http://www.amazon.com/One-Only-Ivan-Katherine-Applegate/dp/0061992275/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1427942903&sr=1-1

My favorite read-aloud is (no surprise here) The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate. Reading this with my class changed our whole dynamic — and my life as a teacher — but it is genuinely just an amazing book to read aloud. The chapters are brief, the characters are endearing, and the content drives MANY discussions. I’m very passionate in my belief that every educator should read it!

http://www.amazon.com/Da-Vinci-Code-Robert-Langdon-ebook/dp/B000FA675C/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

My favorite pleasure-read is The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown. I first read it in high school and I’ve since read it four times, discovering something new each time. I love a good thriller — both in print and on film — so this is the PERFECT book for me. If you haven’t read it, you should! If you have, try reading a few of Dan Brown’s other great novels — I’ve read many of them!

I’m super excited to share with you this EXCLUSIVE Educents freebie, direct from my Matter Matters pack, just released (and on-sale). This freebie features a 20-question SCOOT game to help your students review the key elements of matter, its three states, and the phase changes that can occur.

If you’re not a big SCOOT fan, but you love task cards, you can use this game all the same and make it a science station or task for an early finisher. Likewise you can also change things up and do a daily review throughout your unit by featuring a single question or use it as a write-the-room — the possibilities are endless!

Be sure and follow my store for more freebies and exclusive sales — you can do it by clicking the image below, and then click on the gray heart that says “Follow Me!” below my store name. If you’re not sure where it is, don’t worry — I’ve got a handy graphic below!

http://www.educents.com/theres-no-place-like-second-grade

I’m THRILLED to be linking up with some other amazing educators to give away some Edubucks that you can use in the brand new marketplace or on the always-fabulous deals. Enter below, and then be sure and head to visit my other pals to see what freebie they’re offering up!

An InLinkz Link-up

VA is For… Book Lovers!

March 6, 2015 by Sarah Plum(itallo) 30 Comments

I am so excited to be teaming up with my fellow Virginia bloggers to celebrate our love of reading! As teachers — even math teachers 😉 — we all can appreciate the power of a good book, and I hope that you’ll discover some amazing new books through this hop… and win some too!

HOW A BOOK LOVER IS BORN

Scene. You’ve just come in from recess on a blistering hot day at the beginning of September. You’re still in the awkward stage of third grade — where you’re not sure who to sit with at lunch, or line-up next to on the playground’s blacktop. You’ve got this teacher, this wacky teacher, and for some reason there’s a patio set in the middle of your classroom library. It’s just been sitting there since the first day of school — untouched, unused.

Finally, though, at the end of this first week, you’re led in to that untouched space and asked to sit down. You and your classmates, sweaty and tired, sit crisscrossapplesauce, still breathing heavily from an epic game of kickball.

“One of my favorite traditions,” your teacher begins, “is sitting here, under our patio umbrella, reading.” You look at the people next to you. Reading? Reading? This can’t be good. “The first book we’re going to read is My Teacher is an Alien by Bruce Coville.” Jaws dropped. Suddenly, the sweat and heavy breathing and tired eyes are erased. Aliens? In third grade?!

She begins reading. The way she turns pages seems to take a thousand years. The voices she makes when reading each and every character… like the best voiceover actor in Hollywood. And when she stops? The anticipation for the next day — under your reading umbrella — begins immediately and eclipses the anticipation of just about anything, expect maybe Christmas morning.

That… that was Mrs. Butkus. I remember every moment of every day under our reading umbrella. I remember every book — and own them all, even as an adult — because she WAS reading. When I think of reading? I think of her, the gray plastic patio set, and the moments where I learned that books were cool. Books MEANT something to the human spirit — whether they be mysterious and funny or serious and life-altering.

HOW A BOOK LOVER IS RAISED

Fast-forward to the end of third grade. Mrs. Butkus took me aside, voice hushed, and handed me a book. The Giver. The cover jarred me — just an old man… a look about him that I couldn’t place. “Before you read it, ask your parents if it’s okay. It’s not a happy book, Sarah. But it’s an important book.”

I had been a reluctant reader. Despite my ability, a reluctant one. Despite my parents filling my bedroom with books, weekly trips to the library, deep-down I was reluctant. Reluctant to invest and relate in what I read.

And yet again, Mrs. Butkus changed that. The Giver changed my life. Her handing me that book is such a large part of why I became a teacher. I’ve read that book DOZENS of times. I’ve given it as a gift to every adolescent child in my life. I’ve given it as a gift to adults that need to be book lovers, too.

Each time I read it, I think of Mrs. Butkus. How she knew, just knew, I needed it.

HOW I’M RAISING BOOK LOVERS

Reading, to me, is an experience. I want my students to feel the way I do about reading — to love it, to cherish it. Some students have barriers — no books at home, limited ability to read the ones that they do have — and some just haven’t yet had that moment, the moment when you become a reader.

In December, I took my students to see a play at the Kennedy Center. Most had never been to a play, much less to one at one of the most beautiful theaters in the nation. They were in awe (as was I). Gosh, I wish you could’ve seen their faces. The joy it filled my heart with must have added ten years to my life.

The Gift of Nothing was the basis for the play. A story of a cat and dog — unlikely friends — it lightheartedly allows students to see through the “I want that toy!” and “I want that video game!” culture that we’ve seemed to cultivate to what’s really important: each other. The time we have on this earth… with each other.

We laughed, we smiled, we sat in important silence at times, and yes, some of us cried. And when we came back? We talked. “What was the message, friends? What is the gift of nothing?”

One of my sweet little friends uttered these words of beauty: “The gift of nothing is the gift of your heart.” Another: “The gift of nothing is showing someone you care.” And another: “The gift of nothing is playing with a friend on the playground when they’re alone.”

They got it. Not only did they get it, but they started to live it.

We, of course, read the book together. And then we celebrated what we learned by making our own boxes filled with nothing — and everything, all at the same time. The boxes on our bulletin boards didn’t have anything in them. Except, they had everything: the hopes, the dreams, the love, and the passion of 20 little readers, thinkers, and joy-filled hearts in Room 108.

Not all books have to mean something. Funny books, books that make you smile… those are nourishing too. They help raise readers, too. But sometimes, sometimes you need to read a book that gives you a gift of nothing, a gift that is everything. The gift of becoming a book lover.

I’d love to giveaway The Gift of Nothing to one of you and your students. Please enter in the Rafflecopter below. CONTINUE hopping through to enter the rest of the giveaways and for the grand prize!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Please enjoy this FREEBIE writing craftivity to celebrate giving The Gift of Nothing — and the gift of reading — to your students.

I hope you enjoyed reading about my history as a book lover, reading about The Gift of Nothing, and grabbed your freebie! “Turn the page” on this blog hoppin’ adventure and see what my pal at SOL Train Learning has up her sleeve…

Attention Virginia Educators! There are several SOL support pages based on grade level to join on Facebook if you are interested. These pages are a place for Virginia teachers to share ideas, resources, links, and ask questions of each other specifically related to teaching to the Virginia Standards of Learning.

Teachers K-2 SOL Support

Teachers 3-5 SOL Support

Teachers 6-8 Support

Teachers VAAP / SPED Support

Cooking Up a Great Year

August 15, 2014 by Sarah Plum(itallo) 5 Comments

I am THRILLED to be teaming up with 24 other amazing bloggers to offer you ideas, recipes, freebies, and best of all — a giveaway of awesome prizes! — to get you prepped and ready for a great year! At the end of this post you’ll find a way to enter the giveaway and links to the next stop on your hop, but I hope you’ll settle in and enjoy what I have in store for you first!

I love using cooking as a part of my classroom because it is such a concrete, real-world application of skills and often integrates multiple content areas. One of my favorite activities I did using cookie last year involved cooking-play, writing, and oral language!

What kid doesn’t love pizza? In all my years of working with children, I’ve only met one. And that one child had a good ‘old time sharing his opinion of why he didn’t like pizza, and what toppings he thought would make pizza the worst.

But for everyone else, they love this activity! I start a menu checklist of sorta for each student; this serves as a brainstorming activity for both the play and writing aspect of this project. Then, I provide each student with blacklines of dough and sauce. Each child then “shops” a “buffet” of toppings — but they can only choose three. I do this so that the writing component is manageable for each kiddo (and me, when editing). Students have the freedom, however, to choose how much or how little they want of each topping!

Next, students make their pizzas at their desks like chefs. I often play music while we’re doing this, music that will transport them to the kitchen of their favorite authentic-Italian pizza place! (For me, this would totally be my mother-in-law’s kitchen, as my husband is Italian, but this music from YouTube is the next best thing!) I love seeing their creations and how VERY different they are! Students love to pile on the cheese, but surprisingly, tomatoes and peppers too!

After their pizzas are made, we work on a graphic organizer to help students get their opinions on paper. I model for them writing a good opening statement, and then they — with the help of their pizzas — write their own. Next, we work on giving a clear and compelling reason we picked each topping. This is totally where the drama happens! I suddenly become very opinionated and pushy with my kiddos and then a little light-bulb goes off — they need to be opinionated too!

Next, we use our graphic organizers to write rough drafts. Students will often use their word dictionaries at this point and also rely on their peers for a little peer-editing! (Which I *love*.) Finally, after I’ve conferred with them, they write their final copies and prepare their pizzas for their pizza boxes! {Sometimes you can get your local pizza place to donate personal-sized boxes — definitely ask and mention why you’re using them, they may even throw in some coupons for your kids!}

This writing project is one of my favorites all year because it is something that is so relevant to the kids and their writing just soars! I’d love for you to be able to do this project too, so click below to get it as a forever-freebie from me to you!

Before you go, I’d love to share one of my favorite school-year meals! My husband and I have two little boys that take up a great deal of our time, so between commuting, teaching, and mothering, dinner is always a challenge!

I love utilizing my crockpot to make things easier. I’ve found I can make the most delicious BBQ you’ll ever eat with just three simple ingredients! Fire up your crockpot, dump them all in, and cook on low for 8 hours!

Ingredients: pork loin {we use about three pounds at a time}, Stubb’s BBQ dry-rub, and Stubb’s BBQ sauce. That’s it! Serve with coleslaw and your other favorite fixins and it’s a TOTAL hit!

Alright — who’s ready for some prizes?

Enter to win all of the awesome prizes above using Rafflecopter:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Now that you’ve entered, head on over to your next stop, Kelly and Kim’s Kindergarten Kreations, to see what they’ve cooked up for you!

Five For Friday and a TpT Gift Certificate Giveaway!

August 1, 2014 by Sarah Plum(itallo) 5 Comments

Whew — that is a LOOOOOONG title. And I’m going to take a wild guess and say that your favorite part is that teensy-weensy little word “giveaway.” Yes, that’s right, there’s a TpT gift certificate to be had, just in time for the HUGE Back-to-School sale.

But first, it’s Friday, and I’m linking up with Kacey from Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday!

I have been working like a mad woman this week to finally fulfill all the requests from last school year and get more products up in my TpT store. Let me tell you, PowerPoint has never gotten such a workout! I’m still working on a few, including the debut of my year-long bundle of place value centers {Place Value Through the Year}. Be sure and follow my TpT store because there’s going to be a fan-exclusive freebie released through the “note to followers.”

My sweet, sweet cousin left on Tuesday. {Insert super sad face here.} I had such a wonderful time catching up with her, and I am so so SO happy she finally got to spend some quality time with my boys — including a mini-photo shoot by the river. Family time truly is important, and I feel blessed to have the opportunity to soak it up during the summer months.

Speaking of family… my INCREDIBLE {seriously, y’all, they are the best} in-laws have invited us to come to the beach with them and some of our other NY family. The best part about this — other than seeing them after 8 months! — is that the beach is Ocean City, MD! You might remember me talking about it before, but if you don’t, my heart belongs to Ocean City in ways that are hard to express! I look forward to spending my last few days off {we get back and then I immediately have inservice days} in such a beautiful place with those that I love.

I have decided to get rid of my clip-chart! Stop. the. world. I’ve never been a huge fan {for me, personally; I know they work for others and that’s totally okay} of using them in my classroom, but I have had to as a part of grade-level collaboration. This year I’m trying something different, and I cannot wait to share with you what it is. I’m so excited I almost want to spill the beans now… almost. 😉

I am SO excited to be giving away a $10 TpT gift certificate for you to use during the big sale, as well as the first installment of {Place Value Through the Year}, the Back-to-School edition. Enter using the options below, and be sure to share with your friends — that way they can enter, and you can earn more entries for spreading the word! I so look forward to giving one lucky winner some extra spending money to buy those awesome items on their TpT wishlist! Hurry and enter, it’s a quick one — the giveaway ends when the clock strikes 12 on Sunday night!

a Rafflecopter giveaway