Long Time, No Post

I have dozens of pictures and tons of ideas for posts, but this year has gotten the best of me! I haven’t even managed to find time to read blogs. I miss it!

I’d like to say that I have spent all my time cleaning my house and that I am all caught up at work, but I can’t. I am happy to say that I finally have all the computers set up in my classroom.



I’m thrilled with the computers and the tables I picked out. They are set up and functional, but there are still a few things that need to be installed/updated on the computers. I’m thrilled to actually HAVE computers though, so I won’t complain!

I also just registered for FETC. Anyone else going? I've signed up for two workshops that sound fantastic. This will be my first time and I can’t wait

At home, we’ve spent the last two weeks celebrating our birthday princess. She has never actually watched The Little Mermaid, but she loves all things Ariel.



We brought a cake to her class at day care and celebrated at home. Instead of a party, we went to Disney last weekend. She beamed every time someone wished her a happy birthday at the parks!

My how the time flies!

Using the Wii in the Math Classroom

At the FCTM Conference last month I went to a session on gaming in the classroom. I am not a gamer. The only game I could almost play successfully was Tetris back in the day. I really stink at video games.





I bought my husband a Wii several years ago, but we haven’t used it in a long time. We decided to donate it to my classroom. My students were THRILLED!

At the conference we used Wii Golf to practice subtraction. I did this with my 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade classes.



We did this as a center. I had 6-8 kids at the Wii at a time. They split into two teams. The first group recorded the math, while the second group golfed. After each student had a turn to swing they switched places. I used the SMART board to record answers.



My first and second graders were bowling. They wrote an equation to show what happened each time a player bowled. I talked them through it. “There were 10 pins. I knocked down 8 pins. How many pins are left?” (One of those pictures was taken on Halloween. They do not usually dress like that!)



I’ve been researching ideas online. I’ve used this site quite a bit. My students are now looking for a “math excuse” for some of the other games. We will definitely be doing this again!

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I’m linking up:

 

Be sure to join the math fun!

The S.T.E.A.M. Lab Pumpkin Patch

I submitted a proposal to the PTO a few weeks ago for Pumpkin Week in the S.T.E.A.M. Lab. 

They provided the funding to allow me to purchase two pumpkins for each of my 18 classes. (I wrote about my wonderful husband’s buying adventures here.)

Thanks to a few additional pumpkin donations, we decorated about 45 pumpkins in three days. Each class had one 50 minute class period to complete two pumpkins. I’m still recovering from the craziness of it all!

I’d planned to do a little more on the math and science components, but because I was at the math conference last week and my pumpkin deadline, it didn’t happen to the extent that I’d hoped for this year. That aside, I’m calling it a success! I’ll make changes for next year.

We auctioned off the pumpkins at the school Halloween Howl Friday night. I haven’t seen the final figures, but two of the live auction pumpkins went for $50 each, so it should be a nice ending figure. The rest of the pumpkins were part of a silent auction.

I’m really proud of my students. I figured out that tissue paper was the best way to “paint” the pumpkins. I coated the pumpkin with a glue/water mix using a foam brush and then the students all got to place and flatten a piece of tissue paper on the pumpkin. This way everyone got to take part and the end result was a pumpkin that looked (nearly) perfectly painted.

I took pictures of most of the pumpkins. My own two little ones arrived for the carnival at about the same time I got my pumpkins put out, so I missed a few.

 

 

  

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

  

I let the 4th and 5th grade carve pumpkins with varying degrees of independence. 

So there you have it! Pumpkin Week in the S.T.E.A.M. Lab. Enjoy!

Pumpkin Week

My husband is amazing. Last night he went to Walmart to buy pumpkins for Pumpkin Week in the STEAM Lab.



Not only did he get them for cheaper than expected, but he managed to load 36 pumpkins into our minivan. Impressive!

Math and Mickey

I found out last month that I would be presenting at the FCTM conference in Orlando. I was going to be the only one from my school going, so I suggested to my husband that he and the kids come along. The hotel is right next to Sea World, so I thought they could spend the day at the park while I was at the math conference.

Then we got a letter in the mail from Disney. We could upgrade the tickets we had from this summer to season passes for about $100 a person. My little guy is still free, so for $300 we could have passes good until June. The offer was too good to pass up. Sea World was out, Disney was in.

The plan was to leave right after work on Wednesday. My daughter was so excited she couldn’t sleep on Tuesday. After finally getting her to sleep, I was up until 2am packing/prepping. Then Wednesday the Irishman and I both ended up working later than planned. By the time we got on the road it was 8:00pm. When we got to Orlando just before midnight, the kids were suddenly wide awake. It was 1am before we got to bed.

My little guy woke up at 5:50am. We were exhausted. The kids were wired. I got them dressed, packed, and ready for the 7:30 bus. Unfortunately that meant that I threw on clothes to check in for the conference and attend the opening session.

I headed back to the room after that for a nice shower and to make the finishing touches on my presentation. I ate lunch and headed to my session.

I was worried that no one would show up. The presentation started at 12:45. By 12:30 it was standing room only. I was so nervous.

I am not a fan of session where you have to get up and move around. I don’t particularly like to chat with my neighbor. I teach that way in my classroom with my students, but it is not my thing at a conference. I decided to try having people backchannel using Todays Meet. It worked! In hindsight I wish I’d have stopped to talk about the comments in the middle, but live and learn. People actually logged in and took part in the discussion.

I am really happy with how the whole thing went. I titled my session “New Ideas in Technology for the Elementary Math Classroom.” I did finish a little early, but then again it started a little early due to the full room, so one seemed to mind. I’ve met some lovely people and had nice comments from others who were in my presentation. All in all, I’m considering it a success!

While I was presenting, my husband sent me this picture:



When the kids got back we had dinner in the room (we brought food) and explored the playground/mini golf. The room only has a shower, so we decided a quick swim in the pool and showering off there would work. (Don’t judge – you wouldn’t want to manage a 2 year old and a 3 year old in the shower here!)

As a special treat, we used the projector I brought along for the presentation to show the kids a movie.



They lasted about 15 minutes before falling asleep.



After getting about 5 hours of sleep the night before and then spending the day at Disney, they slept solidly. I can’t remember the last time we all slept to 7:30!

Today was another day of conference for me and Disney for them. I picked up a few new ideas I’ll be trying out soon. It looks like our old Wii may be coming to school with me for some golf subtraction fun! The Irishman and the kids aren’t back yet, but from the pictures I got I’d say it was a good day today, too.

 



I’m excited to get to join them at the park tomorrow after a couple of morning sessions. I’ve questioned our sanity a few times this trip, but in the end it has worked out really well!

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I wrote this on Friday, but the hotel Wi-Fi wasn’t working and this is the first time I’ve had a chance to get online. We had a great time at the park on Saturday and a lazy day around the house today. I was all set for a productive teacher work day tomorrow, but it looks like I will have my little guy with me. It wouldn’t be so bad if I didn’t also plan to purchase 18-36 pumpkins tomorrow for pumpkin week in the STEAM Lab. This could be interesting!