Spark Student Motivation: Student Name Picker

Happy Saturday! I hope you had a great week and want to share something you did to motivate your students! I appreciate all the link ups and comments! It keeps everyone motivated!

 

How many of you use the popsicle sticks with the names to call on students? I do, too! And, I still like that method because it's quick and always readily available, but doesn't this app look like fun??!!

 

 

Imagine everyone sitting at the edge of their seats waiting to see if they get picked!

My students love it! When we're doing a lesson, they're asking if we can spin the wheel! I don't use it all the time, but it definitely adds interest and excitement to any lesson!

 

 

I love when it lands on a student and they say, "YES!!". What I don't like is when they see their name pass and say, "Phew", like they're off the hook (which is why I wouldn't use it all the time).

However...I have tricked them! After the person is selected on the wheel, I tell them to pick someone else in the class!! Tricky, right? We have to keep these kids on their toes!

 

The possibilities are endless...class rewards (shown below), assignment choices, next read aloud, decision breakers, class jobs, amount of minutes to spend on a fun activity, etc.

These wheels are very quick to make, so it's perfect to collect student input for decisions and assignments! I love student collaboration and giving them choices. You get "buy in" because THEY made the choices. :)

 

This is an app called Decide Now, I paid the $0.99 upgrade to have more features, there is a free version though. Because it's an app, I have to hold the phone under my document camera so everyone can see it. However, it's nice to be able to "carry" it wherever you go!

 

It's perfect for home too! It can be used for chores, plans for the day, how many minutes can be played on video games, lunch choices, tonight/not tonight! :)

 (Again, lots of possibilities!)

 

 

I also like this wheel from ClassTools.net. This can be displayed on your smart board so everyone can see! Quick and easy...only takes seconds to input your names!

 

 

 The spinning and sound effects make these tools for your classroom SUPER FUN!

I'd love to hear what you think about it! How would you incorporate this in your classroom or how do you already use this gadget?

 

I hope you had a wonderful week! Please link up any lessons, ideas, tips, tricks, incentives, ANYTHING you do get your students motivated or excited!

Don't forget to grab my button and link back to this post!

Check out all the wonderful ideas from my friends who link up and don't forget to leave some love by commenting....we LOVE comments!
***Please include the topic in the link up with your blog name.

An InLinkz Link-up

Spark Student Motivation: Classroom Magnetic Spinners

Happy New Year Friends!!! I hope you enjoyed your break and are slowly thinking about going back to school this week. Slowly because we STILL have a little more time! :)

This actually is going to be a quick post to get you RUNNING to the Dollar Tree and a follow up on a previous post (click here).

 The spinners I blogged about were a set of 3 or $20, these are $1 each!!!

They had four different choices, I bought them for my teammates too! I'm not sure if they're the same quality as the ones I purchased, but for a $1...I get excited!!

 I plan on breaking these spinners out when we return to school.
( I haven't used them this year yet...I like to keep some tricks a surprise!)

I just know whenever I broke them out last year, there'd be a little squeal from my students. Giving students choice gives them ownership and buy-in. I let them come up with the categories for assignments or review games. It's a win-win!

I'm thinking of using one at home with my own children. I'll put chores that need to be completed in the spinner and whichever chore each of my children spins, they have to complete!

(I'll keep you posted on how this works!)

 

 NEW PRODUCT & PIN TO WIN!!

 I have a new product that will be MOTIVATING to your students you may interested in:
Winter Reading Wreath Craftivity-what a fun way to get your students reading when they return from break. PLUS, it makes a great bulletin board or wall decoration for your class!
Use with any text: fiction and non-fiction templates are included.
Perfect project to promote reading at home too!

OR, you can save by purchasing the BUNDLE! There will be 8 wreaths total, perfect monthly project that your students will enjoy much more than a traditional book report. The cost for the "growing" bundle is only $10, individually purchased will be $24. (Cost will increase as wreaths are added, but you will not pay any additional cost for your purchase today, just redownload!)
Click here to check it out!

PIN TO WIN! I'll give away one winter wreath and one bundle on Monday. This will give you a great activity for back to school! :)
Pin any of the wreath images above, copy the URL, and leave in the comments. Be sure to include your email if you're not a blogger so I can send you the file if you win.

 

 

I hope you had a wonderful week! Please link up any lessons, ideas, tips, tricks, incentives, ANYTHING you do get your students motivated or excited!

Don't forget to grab my button and link back to this post!

Check out all the wonderful ideas from my friends who link up and don't forget to leave some love by commenting....we LOVE comments!

***Please include the topic in the link up with your blog name.

 

Spark Student Motivation: You Be the Teacher!

Happy June!

My husband and I just got back from Napa Valley Thursday night-it was an amazing trip! It was a much needed relaxation time for both of us, but we missed our children so much while we were gone (we haven't been away from our children since my first son was born, 15 years ago).

We visited The Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, Muir Woods, and 7 different wineries. (I also had two massages!!) My husband worked very hard to earn this trip from his company and now I'm already telling him he has to earn it again for next year! :)

Here are a few pics:

 If you ever have the opportunity to visit Napa Valley, I highly recommend it! It's a beautiful place!

Now, time to share how I sparked some motivation the last week of school!

I blogged about this motivating and engaging idea a few weeks ago, but I wanted to share some of this year's lessons with you. My students thoroughly impressed me!

It's so funny to see how the kids imitate me!

This young lady did a bullying lesson on feelings. I was quite impressed with her lesson and the way she managed the class. When she called them to the floor she said, "I want you to push in your chairs QUIETLY," and then she said, "Raise your hand if..." She also pulled name sticks to make it fair for everyone participating. Most impressive to me was the way she modified her lesson midway when it wasn't working...a true teacher!

 Another creative lesson was presented by this little teacher...she taught her students how to make Moon Sand! She was very clear with her instructions and had the kids' full attention! I think her favorite part was wearing the microphone! 

 I didn't realize how "crafty" my students were until week! This teacher taught her students how to make homemade ice cream! She was super organized with all of her materials. She was definitely a prepared teacher!

 This young man taught his students how to correctly throw a baseball (YES, this is the one who dunked me!!). Don't worry, we went outside for this lesson...they were just warming up! My favorite part of his lesson was his hook-he showed a YouTube video of Fifty Cent when he threw the opening pitch at a major league baseball game and it didn't exactly go to the catcher! This was his rationale for teaching them how to throw and aim correctly!

 We also had some teachers teach writing, double digit multiplication, how to check division problems, how to make a door hanger, and more!

If you need a motivating idea for your students, you've got to try this!
It's such a wonderful way to showcase your students' talents!

*My only suggestion is to at least give yourself a two week window. We started late this year and unfortunately, we didn't get to everyone (it was optional, but I'm sure there were couple of shy kiddos who were relieved!).

Pick it up in my TPT Store...FREE! Please be kind and leave some sweet feedback!

Have a super weekend!

 

**Trying to decide if I should keep this linky going through the summer since we don't have students. I was thinking we could post items/ideas we find during the summer that will motivate our students when we return to school.

 I'd love to hear your thoughts...

I hope you had a wonderful week! Please link up any lessons, ideas, tips, tricks, incentives, ANYTHING you do get your students motivated or excited!

Don't forget to grab my button and link back to this post!

Check out all the wonderful ideas from my friends who link up and don't forget to leave some love by commenting....we LOVE comments!
***Please include the topic in the link up with your blog name.

Spark Student Motivation-Giant Magnetic Spinners

Do you know what today is? It's Spark Student Motivation Saturday!
And, it's the day after my co-ed kickball team won the CHAMPIONSHIP!
We had to play 3 games last night, but we did it! Undefeated season!

I'm so excited to present another easy idea to get your students excited and motivated!

Giant Magnetic Spinners!

I actually won these at the Florida Blogger Meet Up!

As soon as I pulled these out of the package I was excited!

These can be used for EVERYTHING!

I wanted to review for vocabulary, so I asked my students for some ways they like to review and this is what they came up with. I try to give them choice and allow them to be part of the decision making in our classroom, I get more buy-in this way.

*Side note: They were a little disappointed the spinner didn't land on the snowball fight! LOL!

 

I put numbers in the next spinner to use for a math review game. The number spun was the number of tickets they could earn. They REALLY wanted the 10 at the top!

After reading a mentor text, I gave them choice again...choices of how to respond to reading. They loved spinning to find out their assignment (they still had to work, but spinning to find out makes it more exciting!).

It can also be used for vocabulary review. Students give a synonym, antonym, part of speech, sentence, definition, analogy, etc. 

 

 
Or an academic incentive! I love when students pick the things that you love to teach them as the "FUN" things for an incentive! :)

 Are you wondering how I made the circle? Do you have one of these? It's a chalkboard compass-I had to dig to find this baby! I've been at my new school for 6 years and it wasn't built with chalkboards, so I was worried I may have gotten rid of it (but I save everything!). I just put a skinny dry erase marker in the end where the chalk is supposed to go.

 

These spinners offer endless possibilities and could be used for ANY grade level!!! Grammar, science, review games, read alouds, computer sites, assignments, math, the list could go on and on!

The important part is to have your students help you fill in the spinner sometimes to offer choice, plus it's enlightening to see what assignments they like and what they view as "fun" in your class. Plus, they're usually so much more creative than us, let them do the thinking! Of course, you get the final approval, so you don't have to write it if you don't want to. :)

 

The pack comes with 3 different spinners and they wanted me to switch it every time we used it. Because I won them, I'm not sure where they were purchased, but I found them here at Amazon.

I hope you like this easy and motivating idea to use in your classroom!

*I will be on a cruise next Saturday, so I will not be posting live, but the Spark Student Motivation link will be open for the next two weeks, so feel free to link up!

I hope you had a wonderful week! Please link up any lessons, ideas, tips, tricks, incentives, ANYTHING you do get your students motivated or excited!

Don't forget to grab my button and link back to this post!

Check out all the wonderful ideas from my friends who link up and don't forget to leave some love by commenting....we LOVE comments!
***Please include the topic in the link up with your blog name.

And, other motivating news is that my super BBB Jivey is having a super giveaway!
Check it out here!