Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!
Happy Teacher Appreciation Week! Did you know? I am sure you did– that this Tuesday and Wednesday there is a SALE on TPT! Many stores are offering BIG discounts! Mine is! Stop on by my store to see the sale!
How Can to Get Kids to Manage Time While Working on a Project {Giveaway}
I recently had my students do an extended project on Greek Mythology, but this idea could work for any subject. The students had to do several steps to get to the movie making part. They had to research different myths, gather details, make an outline, make a story board, make a costume, and make a prop. Then they had to learn the iMovie software, including how to edit, include a sound effect, and include music. In the end the students’ projects turned out wonderfully, BUT to get multiple students to work together and not fight without a project going ON AND ON, there has to be some sort of time limit. Students of the 9-10 year old range have to have some sort of deadlines.
I incorporated two methods to help them stay on target while working.
- As a class we talked about the due date before they had been working very long. We planned together on their student calendars different due dates for each part of the project to be done. Now these weren’t actual due dates. These were just dates to help students pace themselves.
- Next, I wrote each student group on a sticky note–one of those sticky- on-the-whole-back notes. Above the sticky notes, I placed the items that were necessary for them to complete (on white cards above). As a group finished the task I moved the notes along. This puts a little positive pressure on the kids to get finished with each item because they don’t want their names to be left behind on the wall. Above I blurred out their names for privacy.
Now go forth and do great projects!
Guess what! It is giveaway time!
GIVEAWAY DETAILS:
Prize: $100 Teachers Pay Teachers Gift Card
Giveaway Organized by: Kelly Malloy (An Apple for the Teacher)
Co-hosts: An Apple for the Teacher, Mrs Wenning’s Classroom, The Chocolate Teacher, A Plus Kids, Kamp Kindergarten, Samson’s Shoppe, Helping Kids Shine, TheBeezyTeacher, Kelly McCown, Catch My Products, The Cozy Crafty Classroom, Chocolate 4 Teachers, Jackie Crews, Star Kids, The Fun Factory, Sandra Naufal, The Best Days by Julie Santello, 180 Days of Reading, Roots and Wings, Globe Trottin’ Kids, Priscilla Woodard – Tasked 2 Teach, Ms. K, Glistening Gems, Josie’s Place, The Froggy Factory, Mickey’s Place, and Guide Teach Inspire.
Rules: Use the Rafflecopter to enter. Giveaway ends 5/13/19 and is open worldwide.
Are you a Teacher Blogger or Teachers pay Teachers seller who wants to participate in giveaways like these to grow your store and social media? Click here to find out how you can join our totally awesome group of bloggers!
a Rafflecopter giveawayFun Hands-On Geometry Lesson for Kinder and First
At this time of year attention spans are short so it is always good to bring in a fun hands on activity. Why not use shapes to make new figures? I used this for an enrichment unit to see which of my students could demonstrate different perspectives in an enrichment class, but you could easily use it to meet these common core standards for kinder and first graders.
Kinder: CC KB6: Compose simple shapes to form larger shapes.
1st: CC standard 1GA2: Compose two-dimensional shapes (rectangles, squares, trapezoids, triangles, … to create a composite shape, and compose new shapes from the composite shape.1
This will take a little preparation because you will need four right triangles cut out of card stock. Each triangle needs to be of a different color. I used the Ellison die cutter at school and cut out squares. Then with a sharp pair of scissors, I cut down the middle of the square to make 2 triangles. Of course remind students to take care of the triangles so you can use them over and over. I chose not to laminate because I felt the plastic edges would probably make the shapes not fit together very well.
Next, you pose several different figures for the students to make. Students have to use all four triangles for each figure.
- build a square.
- build a triangle.
- build a rectangle.
- build mountains.
- build a diamond (really just the same as a square but turned differently. See if your students know to do this.
- build a house
- build a pinwheel (if you attempt this one be prepared to show students a picture of a pinwheel. This one proved to be most difficult for students because even after they had built it, they had the triangles turned the wrong direction and thought they were correct.)
Solutions are below.
I had my students sit on a circle around the carpet and build their figures. Some of them looked at others work to help them. If you really want to know who knows what, then this configuration wouldn’t work well, but at times, I think it was helpful for students to see their peers work. I liked sitting in a circle around the carpet because I wanted to see the students closely during this time.
Alternately, you could tell the students to build as many different figures as possible with four right triangles and record them as they find each solution. This could be done on a separate day. Heres a link that shows the ways and other activities to do with right triangles.
The four triangles
Cute and Encouraging Spring Bulletin Board Idea!
I just happened across this bulletin board the other day in the hallway at another school. I wish I could have taken credit for it, but I didn’t make it. It appears the maker of the board used a silhouette or circuit die cutting machine to get the figures, but it wouldn’t be necessary to have a die cutter to make this. One could even take a picture of a couple of children in the class and make the children at the bottom for a more personal touch. Also, one of my friends always said that a great bulletin board has a 3D component AND this board has it with the butterflies coming off the board with their wings. How would you make this board your own?
Will Schools Continue to Push Screen Time?
I have taught a little over 15 years now. I have seen the educational craze for technology–making sure all students have technology in the building such as Chrome Books or iPads. Could this trend be going in reverse?
I have also noticed the following results in students as I teach gifted children now. There has been a decline in creativity scores when students are tested for the gifted program. Students are less excited about getting to draw and color when given opportunity.Even fifth grade gifted students aren’t sure which side of the paper to write on when they are given a writing assignment. They put the notebook paper holes on the right instead of on the left of the page. Because of the focus of online testing, there is less perfection of pencil and paper work and more screen time practice.
Just this week our governor signed a law to give children extra recess time. Children now get 40 minutes of recess! Being outside looking at green spaces in unstructured play adds to students’ creativity–a way better use of time than screens.
There are several articles about the effects of screen time on student creativity including comments by Steve Jobs and Bill Gates themselves. Here is one such article. I challenge you to find other articles like this one and make the best decision for your own students and children.
How Can You Manage Peer Help?
I am currently having my students make videos. This is the third year I have done so. I don’t mind students helping one another if one wants to be in the video while another holds the camera for the rest of the students. However, what I do mind is when the students seem to be spending too much time helping someone and then forget about themselves. Kind and caring kids seem to have this happen often. To help avoid anyone being taken advantage of, I made these time sheets. These would work for any task–not just video work. In the past I have also had that problem with students helping others with math problems
I have developed a solution to this problem, and you can have it here for free to help you manage your students, too! 🙂 At the top you tell students how many minutes they are allotted to help others and they keep track of the time they have helped others on the sheet. Have them keep this page in an easy to reach place, so they can easily pull it out when they are helping other students.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
Thanks to Glitter and Glue Designs for the beautiful shamrocks.
A Cute Funny & Giveaway Time!
So this week I had students write some “I Wonder” poetry. I did this for an enrichment class (totally unrelated to math here). I showed students two examples of I wonder poetry. Then I presented them with a paper to write their I wonder statements. To my surprise I had one very “clever” second grader write an amusing line to his poem. See the story below for your own giggle moment.
GIVEAWAY DETAILS:
Prize: $100 Teachers Pay Teachers Gift Card
Giveaway Organized by: Kelly Malloy (An Apple for the Teacher)
Co-hosts: An Apple for the Teacher, Chocolate 4 Teachers, Mrs Wenning’s Classroom, Teacher Gone Digital, Kamp Kindergarten, TheBeezyTeacher, Simone, A Plus Kids, The Literacy Garden, Jackie Crews, Resource Room Relevance, It’s a Teacher Thing, The Fun Factory, Star Kids by Naomi, The Chocolate Teacher, Samsons Shoppe, Ms. K,The Froggy Factory, and The Cozy Crafty Classroom.
Rules: Use the Rafflecopter to enter. Giveaway ends 3/13/19 and is open worldwide.
Are you a Teacher Blogger or Teachers pay Teachers seller who wants to participate in giveaways like these to grow your store and social media? Click here to find out how you can join our totally awesome group of bloggers!
Share Your Life with Your Kids
This is a very random post, but I must share this because I am rather excited about it. The other evening my dog who is an AH-dorable fuzzy 12 pounds would not come inside when I called her. This is not normally a problem, however this night it was! I finally went outside to see what she was distracted with and took my flashlight. I heard something squeak as she was pouncing in the leaves. I looked closer and saw something gray. I was like…WHAT IN THE WORLD!? I thought she had found a mole or something. Then I got closer and picked up the small gray animal. As I looked I realized she had found a tiny, baby rabbit. The eyes were still closed and the umbilical cord was visible. I picked it up so she wouldn’t damage its warm body. My dog fussed at me for taking her potential chew toy. My dog continued sniffing the leaves. It was then I realized that there were two more babies. I picked the others up, snapped some pictures and panicked about what to do with them. I called my veterinary technician friend. She said the mother was probably nearby watching us and may not want anything to do with her babies since we had touched them. I put the bunnies back down and went back inside. The next morning they were gone without a sign of harm.
I ended up sharing this story and the picture with my students who were equally excited about them…especially the younger students. I even was able to use a little deductive reasoning about what type of animal I found since I didn’t initially tell the students that they were bunnies. I say all this to say when something fun and exciting like this happens in your life, take the time to share it with your students. Chances are they will remember it more than other things you teach them…and sometimes these are the most important moments! (Hello?! life science!)
Cute Winter Bulletin Board
I wish I could say I created this bulletin board, but I did not! I saw this bulletin board a colleague of mine made. She said she actually saw the idea on Pinterest. They are little snow globes that the students made with themselves inside of them. They decorated the scene inside the snow globe. The “globe” part of the snow globe is actually a clear plastic plate with a rounded edge. The teacher was able to have the children make these to go with a writing piece the children had done. Aren’t they cute?!
