Brinca Into Bilingual (Mrs. Nicolau): What works - Teacher Appreciation Week Linky Party & Giveaway!

Hello everyone!! I am so happy to be part of this HUGE giveaway to thank all the great teachers out there! As a teacher, I know that sometimes (let's be honest, most of the time) we are running out of money for resources, snacks, classroom materials, holiday/classroom gifts, color ink (you know it's true!), etc. So I have teamed up with great bloggers to bring you some AMAZING prices to just thank you for ALL you do for our children.

Before I introduce you to the giveaway, I'd like to share with you some tips that are a must in my classroom, hope they are helpful and you get a chance to do those in your classroom as well! If you can show me some love by leaving me a comment! Thank you for stopping by, I hope you enjoy this great linky party!!

Classroom Management is definitely one of the most important areas in a classroom, and I just loved the CHAMPS implementation. The school district where I was working was very strong about implementing CHAMPS, so I came up with an interactive bulletin board in my classroom. I created this for a foam board, but you can honestly just put some magnets and have it up on your classroom dry-erase board (or chalkboard if that's what you have). At the beginning of the school year (maybe the first 3/4 months), I was mainly the one who used this board. We would use this board ALL THE TIME. For every activity, including: independent practice (I would just say independent practice and clarify with my students what kind of independent practice we are working on. In that way, we are not having illustrations for every specific activity), cooperative groups, carpet time, centers, and tests. However, after those months I would start picking students to do it and the rest of the class would participate on answering what was expected. When they realized I started picking students, they all wanted to be "the teacher." I didn't expect them to want that since they were in third grade, but they just loved it!!

Alright, this board works as followed:

I would go letter by letter "C is for conversation (I would expect the students to answer after months of doing this)" Then I would say "What voice level are we on? Level 1 (Expect students to answer). Then I would say, show me what level 1 sound like (this level is whispering so students would start whispering to me). Then I would go letter by letter until we finish the word CHAMPS.

If you would like a copy of this, please click on the picture below to take you to my store. The only items that this product doesn't contained is the border that I used to decorate the foam board and the foam board. On the product, I included more pictures of how the board looks like and the illustrations come with labels so you know what they are used for. I also included a video on how to use the board, if you are more of a visual person like I am :)

This is my second most favorite thing to do in my classroom! The big/HUGE plus is that my students liked it even more than I did, so you know that made it even better!!

I was a big fan of cooperative groups/turn-n-talk kind deal in my classroom. My district had principals doing a workshop and they taught us a great and dynamic way to partner up students. So I started implementing the same thing in my classroom and my students would beg me to do it ALL THE TIME!

All that you do is become best friends with Pandora (I am just kidding you can play whatever music you would like), ok here we go:

1. Play a song for few seconds (maybe 15 seconds or so). 2. Students walk around the classroom, they might try to walk by the person they want to partner up with, but if you catch it, just remind them they have to walk in different directions).

3. When the music stops, students turn around to find the closest partner and they "high 5".

4. If there is anyone left out, they raise their hands so they see if someone else doesn't have a partner and they partner up OR you can find a partner for them (this happened to me when I had an odd number in my class or someone was absent).

Since I am not in the classroom this year, my dearest friend was very kind to create this video for me. I am just sharing this because my classroom would sound just a little different; with Hispanic music and some of my students would dance to it while walking, too funny!!! :)

Here is the live video as an example, please click HERE to take you to my GoogleDocs :)

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE THIS VIDEO HAS ONLY ACCESS TO THOSE WITH THE LINK. IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHARE THIS WITH A FRIEND, REFER THEM TO THIS BLOG POST SO THEY CAN SEE IT AS WELL, THANK YOU IN ADVANCE!!

Hello, my name is Mrs. Nicolau and I am an eraser addict... YES, I admit it!! (please don't let my husband see this post because I could hear him saying "I told you so!" LOL - Just kidding, he knows that I know that he is right lol). However, I always say it's not an addiction, it's just that I really NEED this stuff! I will prove it!! :)

I love me some mini erasers!!!! and if you could have a bunch like I do, it's even better!! (Just so you know, the picture above was taken BEFORE I found some more online! ooopppsss) You can use these for almost everything; manipulatives in small groups, modeling an activity, cooperative groups, and centers! 1. Manipulatives in small groups: I used them in Math and Language Arts as manipulatives, they could work for counters for the little ones and for the upper grades if you have those students that needed accommodations (I had my little person who was attached to these). I also used them in Language Arts to count syllables or to break down words into sounds (when I was in 2nd, these work amazingly for my low readers and needed interventions in phonics). 2. Use them to model an activity: when I was showing an array in front of my class, graphing activity, creating fractions, and word problems (I used them as a visual while reading and solving a word problem).

3. Cooperative groups: Since I used them a lot, I expressed to my students these were so special to me, so they took proud and responsibility while using them. So I would have activities as mentioned above and have them use them independently. 4. Centers: I used these in centers especially while doing graphing skills and fractions. Instead of having a sheet of graphics, I would drop some erasers and have them create bar graphs or pictographs. For fractions I would have my students create a foldable, create a fraction with the mini erasers, and then illustrate what they created on the foldable along with the corresponding fraction.

These are only a few ideas that I came up with from seeing other people using other hands on materials, do you have some more?! I hope this idea makes you very excited and makes you an addict like me... I mean, a big fan of mini erasers like me! :)

As I mentioned above there is this HUGE giveaway for all teachers!! There is no prize enough to cover all what we need, but it is just a way to express how grateful we are to have you in this field! Remember that the more entries you have on the Rafflecopter, the more chances you have to win!