End of the School Year and June Randomness

1)  Today is my one year bloggerversery.  My first post ever featured this picture of Ton Jones from "Auction Hunters."  How did I get this?  He came to our school site last school year  and participated in a RC car show for the kids.  He was so sweet he stuck around after the show and met all the children. He even signed autographs for the 6th graders who were absolutely starstruck!!!


2)  My husband insists on doing the Soda Trick every year to entertain the children in my class. Unfortunately, it only lasts a few seconds. We recorded it this time, so the children can relive it as often as they would like!

3)  I cant say enough about the floating and sinking experiments done at the end of the year!  I actually tricked those little ones into learning when they were quite finished with learning!  I began with a group modeling activity and taught the word "hypothesis."  We used the following recording sheet to keep track. 

This picture shows a student's drawing of the item and his hypothesis before the object is tested.  (Can you see the picture of the bear?)

The plastic bear was placed into the water and it floated.

Hypothesis Recording Sheets

You can also return to the previous post to collect this free reader. It  accompanied these lessons! Click the image to return to the previous post.

4)  Having a class pet is a must!  I have a hermit crab that I kept in the classroom this year.  Despite the opinion that hermit crabs make boring pets, I found him to be rather active during the day.  He is a climber and was often seen on top of various objects in the tank.  Many visitors stopped to marvel at him, as well as the children.  As I said, he is a very busy creature.  I recommend getting one of these for  your classroom.  He is very easy to take care of, never became a burden or an extra chore.  

5) Father's day is just around the corner and my son and I plan to make this project from Smart-Bottom Enterprises for the special man in our lives. Check it out!

Floating and Sinking Emergent Reader Booklet Freebie

I was very disappointed that sinking and floating experiments were not included as any part of the next generation science standards.  I love doing this each year with my class and modeling the scientific method. It is simple, affordable, and fun!! 

At any rate, I managed to squeeze this in during the last week of school.  My class was done with intense lessons. They were ready for something different.  They were ready for some hands-on experimentation. And I was able to tie it into reading!!!

I have some nonfiction floating and sinking big books that we read together as a class, like the one below.

In addition, this emergent reader booklet integrates the floating and sinking theme into reading!! And it also your freebie today!!

Click the image below to grab a copy!!

I would also like to share this gem!  I was not able to share it with my class, because it is only available on YouTube and I could not access it through the district server.   However, I played it at home for my second grade son and he was glued to his seat! It is an interactive video. Give it a try on your computer!! (It doesn't work on the iPad.)

Plant Needs Thinking Map

1) By student request, I am embedding this beloved video... 

2) I loved how these Mother's Day bouquets turned out!!   Again, instructions here! 

 3) Plants, Plants, Plants!!  This book comes from Enchanted Learning.

Look at how these pinto beans grew!!

4) This freebie goes with our plant study.

Click the link below for your copy.

Thinking Map for Plant Needs

If you hadn't noticed, I really like things that go together.  When I created this thinking map, I used this video as my inspiration.   

5) Pajama Day!!

AM group

PM group

Digraph Accordion Books and Other Freebies

These are my newest Educreations lessons.  Educreations is a free App for the I Pad so you can download your own and create your own lessons.  Feel free to use these, but be warned there is no editing feature so I could not edit out my gawkiness.     

I used these with my own class and they seemed to enjoy them anyway!

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I decided it was time to teach my class digraphs when a Words Their Way Spelling Inventory revealed that most students would benefit from instruction in this area.  

So I went back and created more disposable letters for making "sh" and "ch" words.

Students have to cut these out quickly.  I tell them that this is not an art project!!   Here is a tip:  Don't have them throw away scraps until the end of the activity.  They may end up accidentally throwing away letters!!  

I alternate white paper with colored paper so that letters don't get confused with a neighbors.  When I  am out of colored paper, I might put a yellow marker line across the top of alternating papers for the same purpose. 

 Click on the image below to download your copy.

Click on the image below to download your copy.

Finally, my students are working on making these accordion style books for each of these digraphs.

Click each link to download a copy of these. 

Sorry about all the different downloads, but it is easier for me to make my files separate.

Accordion Books

"sh" pictures and words

"ch" pictures and words

Pig Craft, Earth Day and More!

1) We are continuing our reading of Mrs. Wishy Washy. We have read other versions of the story as well.  We had even more fun making this pig craft and incorporating some writing with it. 

This is a paper plate painted pink, the nose and ears are printed on pink construction paper.  The eyes were made with a craft punch.

If you happen to want the template for the pig nose and ears. Here it is: Pig Pieces Template

2) Check out what you can do with this App for the IPad!!  It is called Talking Larry and it was free!! It repeats what you say and you can record that.  However, your message had better be brief because you only get about a minute of recording time.  I recorded some rules.  Take a peek and see if you are interested in obtaining your own copy.

3)We had a great Earth Day.  We discussed and wrote about how we could help our planet.  When each child finished writing they received an Earth Day Badge.  These badges are made in color. However, being that it is near the end of the year, we are low on color ink!! I printed these on construction paper instead.  These are rather large and could even be worn on yarn as a necklace. 

If you would like to use these yourself, click here!

4)We also planted our beans on Earth Day!! They are just starting to push up through the soil, so this picture is rather boring!!  Each student colored, cut out a tag, put it on a stick, and placed it in the soil.  If you would like to use this tag get it here!

        As you can see I recycle yogurt cups for this purpose- a money saver!!  Also, I use pinto beans to plant. These are just the regular pinto beans you buy at the grocery store for the purpose of cooking.  I buy a bag and it costs about $1.70.  There are plenty of beans in it and students get to plant multiple seeds. This makes planting super cheap!!

5)Finally, I am getting my Mother's Day project ready.  If you missed the video of how to make it, you can catch it now. Click on the image below.

Mother's Day Craft Idea

Mother's Day will be here soon and I wanted to share a craft that has been floating around our district for the last decade. I don't know where it came from, but it has been passed on from teacher to teacher over the years. It has saved me more than once, when resources have been scarce and a last minute project for Mother's Day was in order!

I know what you are thinking, "Not another Video!"

Well, I grew up in the MTV generation, perhaps my video craze is an unconscious side effect of that!

Seriously, this was the best way to explain this activity.  I don't think a series of photos would have been sufficient.

                               

I also made a card to accompany this project.  It can be used as a simple card or made a bit more elaborate depending on what kind of resources you have available.  

This one has been printed on yellow cardstock, colored with markers and had a photo of the child's head  glued over the bee's face.

Click on the images to download the boy version, girl version  or the inside if desired.  

                                                    

Working with Mathematical Practices and More

1)Recently I had a short training on Standards for Mathematical Practice.  So this week I thought we would work on some math story problems and see how many of these mathematical practices we could incorporate  into this activity.  Students listened to the story problem and were asked to solve the problem using pictures or number sentences.  Then I  asked some students to come up to the ELMO and explain their answers in front of the class.  

Here is a short video of a student's response.

I think we really accomplished  K.MP.1 and  4, but I could have extended this activity by asking other students to explain why they agreed with or disagreed with this child's response and incorporated K.MP.3.  

Oh well, it's not a bad start for an old dog trying to learn new tricks!

Then we tried this problem which involved using various pattern blocks to make the triangles.  The problem was that they had to be made in 6 different ways 

The students persevered in this and soon discovered that some pattern blocks were not helpful in solving this problem. They also discovered which ones were helpful.  They requested more of the helpful blocks!  (K.MP5)

2) We read Mrs. Wishy Washy and created these responses for what she would say after she discovers the animals have jumped back in the mud and gotten dirty.

The Mrs. Wishy Washy Template is from Making Learning Fun printed on colored construction paper. We did not use the hair from the template because it was the wrong color (after being printed on colored construction paper.) I used yarn for the hair.  I cut out my own dialogue bubble. Find the template here:  Mrs. Wishy Washy

3) We also discovered while students were working on their computer activity that they were having trouble finding missing numbers!! GASP! Then we realized that we did not do much with this because we had no resources available. GASP!! 

Naturally, I had to create some worksheets for the purpose of review!!!

I am sharing these with you.  The missing numbers 1-10 is on Teachers Notebook.  Click the image to download your freebie.

The missing numbers 11-20 is on Teachers Pay Teachers.  Click the image to download your freebie.

4) Here is a collage of the Easter activities we did way back when.

5) We finished our butterfly vowels! (Set available at my store on TN or TPT $2.00)