Book Raffles to the Rescue!

Welcome, welcome, welcome!!!! 

I am so happy to be joining this month's Bright Ideas Link Up!

So for my post today, I'm going to tell you all about how I use BOOK RAFFLES in my 2nd-grade classroom and how it RESCUED me from a huge stress factor! 

I posted a couple of snapshots of my book raffle set ups on IG a while way, way back. There was lots of excitement and interaction on those posts which lead me to write this blog post.

In order to explain this in an organized manner, I'm going to address the questions that were asked of me when I posted on IG in the hopes that I will explain it clearly enough that YOU can implement Book Raffles in YOUR classroom on Day 1 this upcoming school year! Yay!

Answer: In a nutshell, book raffles are a way of motivating students to work hard and get excited about reading! Students earn tickets for various things and then get to try and win a book that they want. I pick random winners to keep those books and then it starts over again. 

Now to expand upon that with more detail.... 

Answer: There are truly many different ways you could set up book raffles in your room. I will tell you how I do it, and then feel free to adapt to fit your classroom needs! 

I set the raffles up in 2 different ways this past year to see which I liked better:

As you can see, I tried cups and I tried with baskets. I found that the cups worked better for my set up personally and by displaying the books on the board, they were able to be seen easier. The baskets worked well too so definitely give that a try if you don't have any cups handy for ticket collecting!

Here's the process for implementing raffles into your classroom:

I raffled 4 books every 6 weeks. For drawings near a holiday, I added a few extra books as a bonus! I displayed the books using the tray of my whiteboard and next to each book was a cup where they placed their tickets. I drew an arrow from the book to the corresponding cup so they knew exactly where to put their tickets for that specific book. I wrote the drawing date and how may winners there would be right above where the books were displayed so they knew their deadline for those particular books. I also had frequent discussions with my kiddos about how to be strategic about using your raffle tickets. For example, if you like all of the books up for raffle and you see that one cup has very few tickets in it, you'll have a better chance of winning that one if you put your raffle tickets in there. On the other hand, if there's only one book you like, work hard to earn lots of tickets and put all of your tickets in the cup for that one book to raise your chances! 

I allowed my students to earn tickets for a variety of things although I mostly centered it around AR. You may ask WHY I centered it around AR and that's because my students were not motivated. They did not want to read books more than once. They did not want to take quizzes and when they did take quizzes, they were BOMBING them. It goes on and on and something had to change. For them. And for me. That's why I started book raffles in the first place and WOWZA, it worked! It became such a success that I added more ways for students to earn tickets that focused on the behavior side of classroom management. 

Tickets are earned as follows:

- 1 ticket for every 100 on an AR quiz.

- 6 tickets for meeting your AR goal. 

- 3 Bonus tickets if you met your AR goal EARLY. 

- 1 ticket for every student anytime we receive a class compliment in the hallway or at specials.

Those are the main ways. I would also randomly find other reasons to give tickets. For example, give a ticket to the fastest table to get quiet or a ticket for someone doing something extra nice...you get the picture. My students became more motivated to read AND comprehend their reading. They became more EXCITED about reading and more interested in the different series out there in the world to read! They also became more focused and harder working because they just never knew when I was going to randomly give out more raffle tickets!  

I know this is probably the top question because we ALL know that, as teachers, we spend way too much of our own money on classroom items. 

The way I got all the books needed for my book raffles this year was through Scholastic Bonus Points. Every school year, the Scholastic Book Club program does a special bonus points offer such as "On a class order of $100+, you'll receive 3,000 bonus points" or something to that effect. The first one of the school year is always the best offer and the perfect time to capitalize on your classroom (and personal) orders. I really try and rally the parents to place orders during this first month to get my total class purchase as high as I can. I will then factor in any book purchases I know that I will need to make for my classroom that year and combine it. This allows me to have a fairly high order and then I can claim all of those extra bonus points. If you are strategic in using those bonus points, you can easily get enough books for book raffles for the entire year. I got enough last year to last me through this year's book raffles! 

If you don't use Scholastic book Clubs or you don't want to, I would try seeking book donations, a project on DonorsChoose, yard sales, Dollar store books, etc. 

Where there's a will, there's a way! :)

I stated this above, but in case you missed it, I raffled books every 6 weeks. This allows them time to work on their AR goal and make those 100s on their quizzes AND earn their tickets for meeting their 6 week AR goal. But as I said before, that's what worked for me! Adapt as you see fit! 

I wanted to make sure that the book raffles were fair. If a student had already won a book, I didn't want them winning another and another while some students hadn't won any yet. At the same time, I didn't want those who had already won to be discouraged either so I had to come up with a solution. 

After the very first round of book raffle winners, I added a PRIZE CUP next to the books that were being raffled off and wrote the list of prizes up for grabs (pencils, stickers, sharpeners, etc.) I made it a rule that once a student had won a book, they would then start putting their tickets in the Prize Cup for a chance to win a prize. When I picked book winners, I would also pick about 3 or 4 names from the prize cup. 

I made it a rule that once every student had won a book, we would start over fresh and THEN it would be OK for someone to win a second book. 

This was a personal choice because I wanted every child to feel the excitement of winning a book they had wanted so badly. You may want to do it differently! 

Kudos to you and THANK YOU for checking out my post about book raffles today! I truly hope you will give this a try in your classroom this school year. As the image I made above says, book raffles motivate students to read. It feeds their interests, and it gives them CHOICES which they don't always get. If there are any questions you have that I didn't answer, please leave a comment or email me!

If you enjoyed this bright idea, please consider joining me on Facebook, TpT or check out one of my other bright idea posts!

For more bright ideas from other bloggers, please browse through the link-up below and choose a topic/grade level that interests you. Thanks for visiting!

An InLinkz Link-up

Bright Idea: Book Checkouts from Your Classroom Library Made Easy!

I'm back for another monthly edition of the

where teacher-bloggers are bringing you all kinds of great tips and tricks with zero product promotion! 

Today I'm sharing a quick tip that's going to save you a TON of time and headaches!

Want to send home books with some of your students but check out lists and keeping track of who has what got you down? 

I have a super simple solution for you!

Follow these easy steps for a stress-free, hassle-free book checkout system!

There you have it! My secret to a no paperwork checkout system that takes about 5 seconds to check to see who still has a book out! I hope this is a helpful tip for you and you are able to checkout books to students and trust that you can manage the "who took home what" issue with very minimal time spent! :)

If you enjoyed this bright idea, be sure to check out my other bright idea post about an easy way to make sure 100% of papers turned in have a name on them, and consider following me on Facebook and Instagram for even more bright ideas!

Please browse through the link up below for even more bright ideas from more than 100 different bloggers! Simply search for a topic/grade level that interests you! 

Thanks for stopping by!

An InLinkz Link-up

Bright Ideas Blog Hop: No Name Paper Solution!

Hello friends!

 

So happy you have stopped by for the second

 

Today's post will be short and sweet (cause I know there's TONS of other wonderful bright ideas to read today!) but I promise your time here will be worth it!

 

So, let me set the scene:

It's finally Friday and you're so excited for the weekend but grades are due by Monday so you're lugging home your 2-week pile of papers that HAVE to be graded and recorded before Monday morning. You think to yourself, this won't be so bad, I'll get my favorite series on Netflix playing and will just grade papers and plug them in and I'll be done before I know it! Then the unthinkable happens. As you're halfway through your stack, you find a paper with NO NAME on it. You think to yourself that that is certainly frustrating but one paper isn't so bad, I can just see who is missing a grade for that assignment and I'll know whose it is! But wait, another paper with no name, then another, and another until you're stuck with 7 NO NAME papers for the same assignment. And of course, it's a MULTIPLE CHOICE activity so there's no handwriting samples to analyze!

 

What is a teacher to do?!?

 

Please tell me I'm not alone and that a similar scenario has happened to you before as well!

 

Well, I'm here to share my BRIGHT IDEA with you to permanently fix that problem.

 

My year has been full of no name papers and with 50 students, that just won't do! About a month ago I decided enough was enough!

My kiddos are ALWAYS asking to use markers in class. One day I was strolling through the new CLEARANCE section of Walmart and I saw this adorable little chevron bucket for only 75 cents. Um, YES PLEASE!

 

Then, a few sections down there were some Scentos markers on clearance! I knew right then what my solution was going to be for the no name paper dilemma!

  

So I whipped up the label you see pictured in the first picture, taped it securely to the mini-bucket, put 4 Scentos markers into the bucket and placed it next to the turn in tray!

 

I had a long chat with my kiddos about how we weren't going to SNIFF the markers BUT that they could smell their papers once they circled their names! It was pretty adorable to watch them all circling, sniffing, turning it in. I was skeptical that the novelty might wear off but I can now say that after a solid MONTH of implementing this... I still have a 100% of all papers being turned in with NAMES on them! 

 

That's all it takes folks! Some scented markers, a label reminder and a mini-bucket and your sanity will be SAVED!

 

I truly hope this idea brings you some grading peace!

 

*Credits: Clipart by Melonheadz, Fonts by KG Fonts, Papers by Mr. Magician*

 

Next up on the blog hop is Michelle from Teach123! Michelle has a great post for you about a discipline tip that's sure to make things easier for you! Just click the button below to check out her post!

 

 

You can also browse through the link-up to see all of the ideas being offered on this wonderful blog hop!

 



 

An InLinkz Link-up

An InLinkz Link-up

The Best Sharpener Ever... Now in PINK!!!!

Hi guys!

 

I did a pencil sharpener giveaway a couple weeks ago and it was awesome!

 

So, I have reviewed the pencil sharpener (which you can check out here) and I've given one away.

But now I'm giving away another one!!! Woo!

Why you ask?

Because a BRAND NEW COLOR was just released and I am IN LOVE with it and I know you will be too!!

Meet the PRECIOUS PINK pencil sharpener!! Isn't it a beauty?

 Now, don't fret! If you AREN'T in the market for a pink one, you will be able to choose from any of the available colors if you win!

Check out all of the options here.

 

Just a few things before you enter. Unfortunately, this giveaway is not open to international residents. You must have a US shipping address! Also, if you are the winner, you must be comfortable with sending me your name, mailing address, email address and pencil sharpener color choice! If you aren't comfortable sharing that information with me, please don't enter as I will need that information to get the sharpener shipped to you! :)

 

Lastly, I WILL be verifying the entries from the Rafflecopter below. If you are entering, please make sure you are doing what's asked. Thanks so much!

 

Good luck to everyone! Please enter using the Rafflecopter below.
a Rafflecopter giveaway



                                

Guest Blogger: Sara from Miss V's Busy Bees

Hey y'all! I'm Sara from Miss V's Busy Bees.

What do I blog about? Well, a variety of things! A few things I blog about are my life, family, friends, and interests - just to name a few!

But, one of my big interests is Pinterest. Who DOESN'T love Pinterest? We've become such a social society and Pinterest honestly just fueled that for me!

I'll be honest, I have my wedding planned out, my house decor picked out, and my classroom already designed. BUT, none of those has happened yet!! Oh, Pinterest...

Since BTS is coming right around the corner (literally around the corner for a few people I know!), I want to delve into some of the pins I've got for classroom design and organization.

Who knows... maybe you'll find an idea or two to implement this fall!

**Warning: cute pictures and great ideas to follow! You may or may not want to make/create everything below... most likely you may. BUT, you have been warned!**

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This chair is one of my FAVORITE chairs that I have seen on Pinterest. There are a ton of reading chair ideas floating around on the website (many cute ones, of course) but this is my favorite. The simplicity of the chair in the red, black, and white, along with the sayings that this teacher put along the seat of the chair and the backing of the chair just make me want to read! I think students would have that same feeling if THEY were the ones that got to sit in the chair and read to themselves, the class, or to you as the teacher during fluency passages or what not.

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Although this link takes you to a duvet cover that one is able to draw on, the pin pointed out something TOTALLY different. Grab a shower curtain liner, draw on the "notebook paper" with permanent markers, and then give your kiddos some dry erase markers that you can just wash right off! What a fantastic indoor activity on those super monsoon-y (South) or snowy (North) days. Cheap entertainment is all I've got to say!

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I went to a conference last year and one of the speakers was Donalyn Miller. Yup, the Donalyn Miller that wrote The Book Whisperer. She was HILARIOUS, very personable, and had such great ideas that I couldn't wait to get home, write down, and remember to implement in my future classroom. This idea is something similar to what she showed us - her "recommendation board" that she has in her classroom. Students read books and then write recommendations on those books with a short synopsis of each one so that other students know what the book is sort of about and that will help them decide whether or not they want to read it. SO, when I found this pin, I absolutely HAD to pin it. It's called a "graffiti board." The woman who owns this blog actually has this post as inspiration FROM Donalyn, too! Anyways, students write a quote from the book they've read on black paper with a silver sharpie. Not only does it give students the opportunity to write down their favorite part of the book for others to see, but it requires a deeper reading for students to find that "just right" quote.

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The idea of an "Author of the Month" absolutely delights me. Instead of "of the month," I would almost do "of the week." My reasoning behind this is because it gives students exposure to a variety of authors who write for a variety of genres, some of which may be out of their "norm." Giving students the option to read a variety of books expands their minds, their ideas, and their thoughts, along with giving them exposure to different writing styles, too. Also, providing an author of the month/week board provides somewhat of a mini-biography for students to explore. This non-fiction reading is yet another exposure to ANOTHER genre, one that doesn't often get too much attention. What potential!

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While the original pin and post state "a fact a week," this could be changed to a fact a day. Giving students these facts not only gives them the perfect way to become well-rounded individuals, but putting out literature that goes with the facts (for example, books that might go with the fact above could be weather or temperatures around the world or something along those lines) gives students the opportunity to read, wonder, and explore new things daily/weekly! 

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THINK board. I think this is ULTRA important what with all the bullying, negativity, and hatefulness that has been happening around us. It's a GREAT lesson to remind students to think about what they are saying and why they are saying it. This acronym is great for students in younger grades just as much as older grades, which is why I made this board for my own future classroom. I simply found a wooden board at Michaels, cut out the letters using my Cricut, and mod podged it on. BAM - a THINK board to put on a wall, my door, or by my desk to remind students to THINK before they SPEAK! Really, it's a lesson that EVERYONE needs, including myself. Which is why I love it.

SO, do you have any MUST HAVE decor ideas that you'll be using in your classroom come this fall? Any sort of bulletin boards you want to put up? Show me, tell me, talk to me! I want to hear all about your ideas.

If you want to see more, check me out on Pinterest by clicking the button below :) I'd love to have ya!

Before I go, I just want to thank Daina for allowing me to write for you! I hope you're having a blast moving & settle in well!!

Have a good day, y'all!

Wishlist Sale - Day 2 & 3 Items

Day 2 of the Wishlist Sale is underway which means there's a new product on sale for today! 

 

My number TWO wishlisted item is my Classroom Management File!

 

This is an in-depth file regarding 3 classroom management strategies I use in my classroom. I have included pictures of the actual items I use in class, product recommendations, a parent letter and a reproducible which enables you to have daily communication with every parent regarding behavior.

This file discusses the A+ Behavior Bag system I use, the Stop Light Pocket Chart System, and my classroom library organization method that works for any grade level but is especially helpful for the younger students who can't read or are limited readers.

 

This pack is usually $2.00 but is on sale for TODAY (August 1st) ONLY for $1.60!

 

Click here to check it out on TpT!

 

Day 3 Item - On Sale August 2nd ONLY

 

I'm also going to tell you about my Day 3 Wishlist Sale Item because there's a guest blogger post tomorrow that I don't want to interfere with!

 

My Day 3 Wishlist Item is my Short and Long Vowel Sounds Word Hunt Pack!

 

This pack is great for practicing and reviewing short and long vowel words!

 The original design for this resource is to use as a word hunt where you hide the words around the room and students have to find it, read it, and record it! The kids love it!

Here is everything you will get:
1. Ideas on how to use this resource in your class!
2. 22 recording sheets so that you have one to use no matter what vowel sound you are working on in your classroom!
3. 9 Header Cards for Sorting
4. 50 Short Vowel Sound Word Cards complete with corresponding picture to help any ELLs, ESE students, non-readers, or beginning readers you have. (10 word cards per vowel)
5. 40 Long Vowel Sound Word Cards complete with corresponding picture to help any ELLs, ESE students, non-readers, or beginning readers you have. (10 word cards per vowel EXCEPT LONG E) **All long vowel sound cards are based on the CVCe pattern such as a-e, i-e, o-e, u-e which is why there are not any long e cards**

This pic shows my kiddos from last year working on it as a huge end of year word sort activity!

 

 

Remember, this pack is on sale August 2nd ONLY.  It's usually $3.00 but you can pick it up tomorrow for only $2.40!

Click here to check it out on TpT!

                                 

Watch Out Electric Sharpeners!

Calling all electric sharpeners that can't survive 1 month in a classroom!

 

It's time to pack your bags and get out of town cause there's a NEW sharpener in town!

 

It's the amazing, must have Quietest Classroom Pencil Sharpener from Classroom Friendly Supplies!

Just look at those beautiful, sharp points!

This sharpener is amazing because it gives you a beautifully sharpened pencil in the end but also because it's QUIET and students can sharpen pencils BY THEMSELVES!

                                                                

I know that as teachers, we are usually thinking this:

But, with this pencil sharpener, you will finally be able to feel like this again:

 

The pencil sharpener is very user-friendly for students.

 

You simply pull out the silver part in the front until it stays in place. Then you squeeze the two black "knobs" together while inserting the pencil. The nifty little prongs on the inside hold the pencil in place. Turn the handle until it automatically stops the pencil, squeeze the knobs and take the pencil out and you're done!

 

I have my sharpener free standing so it can be moved around the room so I teach the students to hold the sharpener down with their left hand and turn the handle with their right hand. They have no problem doing it and it's very quick! But, don't worry, it does come with a mount in case you want to secure it in one spot!

 

From the day I unpacked the sharpener, I never heard the words "Mrs. Roberts, can you sharpen my pencil??" again! That's like heaven to a teacher's ears! :)

 

Overall, this sharpener is compact, super quiet, and kid-friendly. What more could you ask for?

 

Go ahead and click the button below to pick up one (or a whole pack) for your classroom! You WON'T regret it!