Mostly May

I am loving my new blog design! Megan from A Bird in Hand Designs did an amazing job. She really captured the look I wanted. I would highly recommend her to anyone looking for a new look.

It has been so long since I blogged, I went through my phone last night an pulled off pictures of what we've been up to in the lab. My students are on a three day rotating schedule, so I see each class only 4 more times before the last day of school on June 4th. Crazy!

This post is a bit of a catch up. The pictures are mostly from May, with a little of April thrown in.

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I am responsible for this bulletin board. It is a beast. I still want to have every student get to take part in the design, so it takes me weeks! This one was put up before the Kindergarten Round Up. Each of my K-2 students drew a fish in pastels. The students got to select their shade of blue tempera paint. The sign hanging from the ceiling in front of the fish says, "We love our school!" Of course I had more fish than I needed, so they also swam down the hallway.

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Minecraft Club wrapped up at the end of April. At one of our last meetings I logged on to play. In exactly 2 seconds the screen flashed, "You died." I am seriously bad at video games. I do think that gaming in the classroom is a great tool though, so I am making an effort to learn. The staff member who helped me with the club brought in these cupcakes for our last meeting. Too cute!

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One of my favorite features of my STEAM Lab is that I have a working kiln in my room. I keep it covered by bright green curtains most of the time. For the big kindergarten Mother's Day Breakfast, the PTO asked if we could use the kiln. I had an art professor from the university help me. Even with guidance, it is a little unnerving to watch that thing get up to 1,800+ degrees. Cool, but scary!

The students made pinch pots that we decorated as lady bugs. (Inspiration came from this post.) There was not enough time to glaze them, so we used acrylic paint and a spray glaze. The students decorated the boxes like little gardens. For the cards, I embossed their thumb prints with red glitter powder before they added details with a marker.

For my first clay project in the STEAM Lab, I am happy with how it came out. I am going to apply for a grant for supplies so that I can do at least one clay project with each grade level next year. I've already started to plan my STEAM curriculum connections.

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The CHANGE Club gave me a mini grant to pay for new worms for my worm bin. I was also able to order coconut coir and gloves. The first bin was actually too full, so I found another that was empty outside the middle school building. My own kids came to school to help me transfer the worms. They thought it was the best thing ever!

I had a successful vermicomposting  program set up a few years ago. Fingers cross, it looks like I am on track again. I hope to have each grade level take a turn next year caring for the worms. There is so much potential there! Decomposition, mass of their food, life cycle, and so many other STEAM links.

This morning during my planning period I put up new signs around the worm farm. I'll post pictures of that soon. It looks as cure as worms can look now.

 

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The caterpillars are back on the outside my house. My daughter was terribly concerned that the lizards would eat them. We have not had a successful chrysalis in a long time. I agreed to bring them into school to "save" them.

I picked up some milkweed from Home Depot. I'd planned to move the caterpillars into a small habitat before they formed a chrysalis, but I misjudged the time. Instead I ordered a larger habitat from Amazon and put the whole plant in it. I brought in a total of 6 caterpillars from home. Two of them didn't make it, but 4 more have hatched. Thankfully my students haven't been paying much attention to the numbers. They are more concerned about when the butterfly will emerge from the chrysalis. I am afraid the first one will be over the weekend. We shall see!

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Enjoy your weekend!

Common Sense Media Digital Citizenship

This week my fifth graders were on a field trip so I ended up with an extra planning period. I decided to use that time to work on my application for Common Sense Media’s Digital Citizenship Certification.

The application asks for documentation of how you have shared about the curriculum with the teachers at your school. I realized that I had done that, but I had not shared it clearly enough on my blog.  This post is not an application requirement. I’m not getting paid to post this. I just really think that digital citizenship is important, and I think Common Sense Media does a great job of giving teachers the free tools they need to do just that.



A friend shared a Common Sense Media newsletter with me last spring. She suggested that I sign up. Once I looked around the site, I fell in love with their K-12 digital citizenship curriculum. I remember being at a conference years ago talking about these same digital citizenship skills that no one is teaching. Who owns this? I decided that the STEAM Lab was the perfect place for digital citizenship.



My learning goal for my class this year is based on the ELA technology standard for each grade level. I use the elements of STEAM to teach that standard. Each of these lessons is linked to other ELA standards as well.

I was a little overwhelmed last fall so I decided to just teach the lessons as written. There were a few plans that I taught with low expectations. I was shocked at how much they enjoyed it! We had AMAZING conversations. I was surprised how many of our elementary students were I honestly felt like these lessons made a difference. It changed the way many of my students thought about their digital lives. From keyword searches to cyberbullying to copyright issues, these topics are part of our world today.



I started by printing the entire K-2 curriculum and the 3-5 curriculum. I keep them in a binder so that I have originals to make copies. I did not follow the scope and sequence, but picked the lessons that matched what I had going on. Days I was relocated to the Media Center due to construction in my classroom we did Digital Passport lessons on the library computer. On the other hand when I did not have access to computers, I decided to wait to do the keywords lesson.

Funny enough, I taught most of these lessons before I had computers in my room. They are designed to be as low tech or as high tech as you want/need them to be. One computer with a projector was perfect to guide discussions.



If you do have access to more, the Digital Passport is a website from Common Sense Media for grades 3-5. My students loved these games. The Twalkers game is the best I have ever seen for explaining the dangers of driving (or walking) while texting.  You should try it yourself. They have also released an iBooks version of the curriculum I plan to use in the fall.



The resources available make it idiot proof. They have included everything you need – videos, handouts, extension ideas, computer games to reinforce, and more. There are even resources for sharing with parents or other teachers.  It is well worth signing up and exploring these free resources.

* The pictures in the post were from a bulletin board display we did for digital citizenship week. My 3-5 students each created a Twitter strip with a tip or something they had learned about digital citizenship.

Giveaway and THE Board

I’m happy to be taking part in an awesome giveaway with two of my favorite bloggers. Joanne at Head Over Heels for Teaching and Holly at Fourth Grade Flipper have each reached 1,000 followers.



To help with their giveaway, I’ve contributed two of my favorite products.

and

This are both task cards with self-checking QR codes. I LOVE using QR codes to provide instant feedback. I’ve blogged about it here and here.

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In other news, I have spent hours this week on my bulletin board display. I had it in my head that all 400 students should contribute to it. It has been a big headache!

This was the fall board:
Each student painted an old book page and I put it together.


I spent my teacher work day gluing down out funky Florida snowflakes. There were no kids around, so I put You’ve Got Mail on the SMARTboard while I worked.



It is almost ready to hang. It takes about four people and a staple gun to get this in the glass cabinet.



Fun times! I’ll post pictures when it is finally posted!

Math March Madness

I’ve mentioned before that I love SumDog. I gave a Tech Tuesday presentation to interested colleagues earlier this year. In the course of the training, someone mentioned having a tournament. I’ve been throwing around the idea all year. Now that March is here, it was time to act!

I managed to put together 16 teams from grades 1-6. I logged onto Sumdog and created teams based on each class. Then I entered an activity for each match-up. The two classes compete to have the highest average score. On Monday morning we will announce the classes that move to the next round in the bracket. Because the questions are adaptive, the students can compete across grade level for the highest number of correct answers.



I created this bulletin board to track scores daily. I used these awesome free basketball frames. I'm writing the scores on the teacher’s team sign using dry erase marker. The visual has been a big help to the students who weren’t too familiar with the bracket idea before this contest!



I often use SumDog contests in my classroom. I had monthly contests to find the “Top Turkey” and “Top Elf".” I offer the top 5 finishers a homework pass. To sweeten the deal I offer an extra homework pass for ever 5,000 correct answers. One month my top students answered over 15,000 math questions correctly. That is a LOT of math questions!



I created this little freebie that I use to award my “Top Dogs.” Click on the picture to download a copy for yourself!

While last year I did just fine with the free features, my school does now have a subscription to SumDog. For our summer challenge, the top student answered over 30,000 questions correctly. The numbers are impressive. The kids love the games. They will answer Common Core aligned questions for hours at a time. They do not view it as work – in fact they see time on SumDog as a reward! With numbers like that, I was able to convince my AP that it was worth the cost to get the reports and extra features.

This is not a sponsored post. I just really love using SumDog in the classroom and at home. I do not have to give nearly as many timed multiplication tests as I used to do. SumDog at home and school is a much less painful option!

Have you tried SumDog?

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I’m linking up my Spring Bulletin Board with a Techie Twist:

Happy Tuesday!

Hall Pass

I saw this earlier in the week and meant to participate. My Google Reader Account is now full of Hall Passes! Such a great idea!

P- Product

My favorite product in my store is my (Math) Operation Snowball Fight.



My class still asks to play this as a review during math centers. I  am a big fan of the self-checking QR codes!

A- Area

This corner of my room is my favorite. In fact I just moved the carpet over so that it faces that direction.

What I like about it:

The quilt on the chair was part of a service learning project I did as an undergrad for my honor’s thesis. The class voted to have me keep the quilt so I could repeat the project with future classes. Since then my future classes have donated quilts for media centers post-Katrina and raised $3,000 by auctioning quilts for Haitian Earthquake Relief. 

The frog chalkboard was a class auction gift a couple of years ago. As I’ve mentioned before, the principal let me paint the rest of the door with the chalkboard paint. I post a question of the day for my students to answer. The kids still get a kick out of writing on the door and we’ve done it all year!

The curtain was one of my projects this summer. It is actually half a fitted bed sheet wrapped around a tension rod. (I got the idea from this pin.) I tied it up with two pieces of ribbon and had instant no-sew curtains. I used the flat sheet as the background on my bulletin board. (see below)

The flowers are a recent addition, but daffodils from my Irishman make me smile!

S – Signal

I was fortunate last year to take a slightly extended maternity leave. My sub started the year and I took over mid-December. For the most part it was great. There was one habit though that made me crazy.

My students had been trained to use the finger signals when they had to go to the bathroom. As in hold up one finger or two depending on….well….you know. I couldn’t handle it. To me that falls in the category of TMI.

Then I found this on Pinterest. The link here is for free printable classroom sign language posters. What I love most is that they are based on real sign language.

My students use sign language to ask to go to the restroom or to get a drink of water. When they raise their hands, they use the sign language to let me know if they have an answer, a question, or a comment. 

They have small individual posters for each sign or the one page overview. I used the poster machine to enlarge the one pager, but I may go back to smaller signs and post only those we use regularly.

To transition between activities I try to incorporate a brain break. I posted about a few of my favorite websites for transitions last week in this post. Also pictured here are even more free brain break resources. (Link 1 and Link 2)

S – Sanity

I used to live for reading blogs during my lunch break. Everyone at my school takes a working lunch alone in their classroom. Now that I have a student teacher in my room with me, sitting at my desk reading blogs might be considered a *tad* antisocial!

Other sanity savers: audiobooks from the library on my phone and photos of my kids posted behind my desk.

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Now I’m off to read some of the other posts with a cup of tea and a cupcake from Costco. Yummy!

Five for Friday

 

TGIF! I’m linking up again this week with Doodle Bugs for Five for Friday. It was a busy week!

 

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I found “Edible Idioms” in this book from Scholastic. I’ve done them for the last several years. My student teacher did it with the class last week. They came out better than ever!

 

Piece of Cake – Bowl of Cherries – Go Bananas – In a Pickle – Cut the Cheese – Hot Potato – Hard Egg to Crack - Cool as a Cucumber - Spill the Beans - Top Banana - Peas in a Pod - Bringing Home the Bacon - Apple of My Eye

 

 

The used construction paper scraps to fill their plate with idioms. I love it!

 

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I found these printables from The Teacher Wife that I used to make Valentine’s for my kids’ day care classes.

 

In rereading it I found that she taped the hearts onto the glow sticks. That would have been much faster than the hole punching I spent far too long working on. Oops!

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Also from The Teacher Wife was the Love Pox. I was at Michaels the night before looking for heart stickers. I found one sad little package left on the shelf, but it worked perfectly. I will be spreading the Love Pox again next year!

 

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My class had a breakfast party for Valentine’s Day. The room parents came in and made fresh waffles. We started the day with fruit and waffles and Valentine’s. I LOVE breakfast parties. I also love waffles. It is a win-win!

 

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My husband delivered these daffodils to school on Valentine’s Day.

 

My fourth grade teacher had us memorize the poem “Daffodils” by William Wordsworth. When the Irishman and I were dating, I went to visit him several times across the pond. In Ireland and then in England when he was in uni, we walked through the daffodils reciting the poem. I love flowers with meaning!

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Happy Friday!

 

Have a great weekend!

Five for Friday

 

I'm linking up with five random things from my week:

1. Date Day with the Irishman
My husband and I were both off on Monday. We don’t have family or babysitters around, so we try to go on a daytime date on the two or three days a year that we are both off and the day care is open. We splurged on the new movie theater with the recliners. Such a treat! We saw Les Miserables – I loved it! My sister-in-law is coming to visit from Ireland next month, and my husband has already decided it should be his pick for the movies. Nothing says,”Happy Valentine’s Day” like the latest Die Hard movie!

2. Division Strategies
I had this popcorn clip art and wanted to find something to do with it. I came up with “Poppin’ into Division.” We used popcorn as manipulatives and recorded multiple division strategies. We are fortunate to have a color printer at school.



We also have a giant printer. I sent it off to the right person and had posters printed for my bulletin board.  I love the way it came out. I hope to have the activity pack posted to my TpT store next week.

3. Balance
I was talking to a second grade teacher this week who said, “I don’t know how you find the time." I’d been sharing something I created for our “Revising Knowledge” deliberate practice group, so I thought she was referring to time in the classroom, but she meant home/work/etc. Most days I feel like I am just getting by. If I’d been quicker on my feet I’d have given a more honest answer. My house is a mess and I have been known to skip a shower on cool days in exchange for time to sleep. Funny how that would have seemed a crazy idea before I had kids! The things you do as a mom...

4. (Math) Operation Snowball Fight
I have had this planned for a few weeks now. I put in in my plans this week so that I would have to get it finished.



After spending the last few months on multiplication and division, my students are trying to multiply or divide every word problem that they come across. I wanted to create some mixed operation word problems to get them thinking.



There are two versions included – one with QR codes and an recording sheet for the cards without QR codes. These Florida kids were happy to have a snowball fight, even if it was just math word problems!

For my first little mini-giveaway I'll give away two copies of (Math) Operation: Snowball Fight to lucky readers who follow my blog and leave a comment on this post with an e-mail address. The Irishman (my husband) will pick a pair of random numbers on Sunday night.

5.  Giving it up
My student teacher is at 50% next week. It is always at this point that I struggle to hand over a subject. I’ve had some amazing student teachers over the years, but each time I reach that point. Do I give up my reading block? Do I want to have her introduce fractions to the class? Decisions, decisions!

Have a great weekend!

"Who Am I?" and A Pumpkin Freebie

I was up late last night entering end of quarter grades in the online grade book and adding items to my TpT store. It is still a slow process, but I'm getting there!

 I added my back to school "Who Am I?" activity. I always do this on the first day of school and post on my bulletin board until after open house. The parents come and try to find their darling. I usually do an owl "Whoooo am I?" theme, but this year I was all about polka dots. I ended up with "Can you spot me?" I was happy with how it came out.








 Yesterday was a hurricane day and it lived up to expectations. It just brushed the coast so we didn't get any damage other than some beach erosion. It was a rough day to be stuck inside with two kiddos that woke up WAY too early though!

Thankfully today is a beautiful day! The sun is shining, the weather is cool(er), and the cranky children I put in bed last night woke up early but refreshed! We've already made banana bread and are making plans for the day. 

On my list of things to do today is a trip to the post office to mail some Halloween Cards I ordered with a Shutterfly coupon code a couple of weeks ago. I decided to create a little note card for my daughter to write on in each of the cards and the result is this Pumpkin Notes Freebie.

Enjoy