Starwars Yoga

All things are Starwars lately with the latest release of whatever Starwars movie just came out (I was supposed to see it but I messed up on the dates I was busy and so I didn't see it.. I'm not too disappointed except that it was apparently important to John and mine relationship that I did see it).

ANYWAYS, 

A couple weeks ago I was in a grade 2 classroom (I was lucky and had a student teacher that day and apparently I can’t stop talking about it).  Anyways, we started the day off with a 20 minute yoga video.  The kids all went and got a foam square to sit and exercise on (and to let them know where their space was).  I was not at all into the story or the yoga but the kids were!

Timelines

Looking for some classroom decor that can also lend itself to learning?  How about putting up a timeline around the border of your room?

The Social Studies curriculum where I teach would work perfect for this (at least in grades 5 and 6)... the curriculum goes over things that happened in Canada over a span of time (starting with the ice age and ending at anything current).  

All the grade 5/6 classrooms at my school last year came with this timeline already put up around the room (I'm assuming previous teachers did them) but not a lot else was done with the timelines (I'm also guilty of not doing much with the timeline in my room).  In my room the timeline included pictures of all the prime ministers and students would often check who was leading the country during a certain time OR if we were talking about one of them they would find them on the timeline to see what they looked like.  

If I ever teach in a grade 5 or 6 class again I would put my timeline to better use though.

How?

Before I do anything with the timeline I think I would have students create their own personal timelines.  We did this last year and students struggled with it a bit... BUT I'm not sure you can fully understand how a timeline works if you don't understand how to make one yourself.  If I did this again I think I would make the basic timeline for them (sectioning off the years of their lives for them and photocopying it).  I had my students put in 10 life events on their timelines.. it could have been anything:  the birth of a sibling, a trip they went on, first day of kindergarten, losing first tooth... whatever they wanted to include I was fine with because I mostly just wanted them to familiarize themselves with timelines.

Over the course of the year whenever we talk about a major event I would put it up on the timeline... perhaps with a picture and a sentence or two to summarize what happened.  I think it would be good for students to help write this summary... I'm starting to think of making up some kind of  Interactive Social Studies Journal where this would be part of what they do (because it is similar to what we did last year for our math journals).

Whenever students did some kind of project that could fit on the timeline I would select one project and put it up on the timeline where it belonged... of course not all projects will fit up there so in that case I would take a picture of the project and put it up.  

I think that even just by doing these couple of things students will glance up at the timeline more often and have it be a more useful part of the classroom.

What do you think?

Do you have a timeline in your classroom?

How do you use the timeline?

This Week At School

I go into sub for one teacher regularly and he had me help set up their classroom Christmas tree!  Well, the tree was already set up the kids just put on ornaments.

And boy do they have a talented teacher in their classroom!

I was told the teacher coloured this (it was on chart paper)

He had me do some Christmas art... this was my example

A picture one of the students drew for me.  At first I thought it was of me (because in the morning she was having difficulty thinking up something to draw for the word "pretty" so I had her list some things that she thought were pretty.  She said myself, her and the Christmas tree... so I suggested she draw us standing beside the tree... I never saw that final product).

Then I spent not 1, not 2, but 3 days in nursery/kindergarten.

Still not loving those younger grades!

But I walked out with 2 paper bracelets and a ring... so one can't really complain can they?

And tomorrow there is no school!

Hope we all enjoy our Christmas break!

Classroom Christmas Party

Welcome here!  Today I'm linking up with my other blog:  Confessions of a Modern Day Mennonite to talk about Classroom Christmas Parties for Blogmas.

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

Because.. tomorrow is the last day of school before Christmas break (oh how it's flown by... or not)

For those of us that are throwing together a Christmas Party for our students last minute have no fear!... I'm here to help!

Kids are easy to please... all they want is to eat and to hang out (most of the time)

So...

Make a sign up sheet for what kids can bring to the party (baking, drinks, veggies, fruit, chips, and whatever else you want to show up at the party!)  I've never had problems with kids not being willing to sign up... in fact last year I made them sign up for one party each (Christmas, Valentine's Day, Spring Break, and end of the year) so that we wouldn't have an abundance of food and all go home feeling sick.

One year I looked up a bunch of Minute to Win it games on Teachers Pay Teachers.  There are tons that are free and the supplies are super easy to get your hands on.  We formed teams and battled each other in them.

One year I made my students sugar cookies in the shape of gingerbread men and we decorated them (this likely wouldn't take very long... but it could take up part of the time AND you could even get students to practice measurement by getting them to make the cookies (and icing).

Movies.  All mine ever wanted to do was to watch a movie.  And so, we often did that.

One year I had a karaoke machine show up to a classroom party (you can find a number of karaoke songs on Youtube)

A little while ago I posted about Just Dance.  I think students could still be into Just Dance even without the actual game... you can find it on Youtube too.

Get students to bring in any games they want to play.

When I was teaching grade 8 one year I wrapped a pencil up again and again so that it was in a box that a bunch of plates came in eventually.  I had students sit in a circle on the floor and roll a dice.  Anytime a certain number was called (like 1 for example) they had to put on a pair of oven mitts and try to unwrap the present... only using their hands.  They really liked it.  The pencil ended up breaking at some point in the madness though.

Print off some Christmas colouring pages and there you have it... you sir (or ma'am) have yourself a great party that took you no time at all to plan.

Are you having a Christmas Party in your classroom?
What are you doing for your Party?

Let me know in the comments!

Classroom Set Up

With it getting closer to the Christmas break you may be getting tired of the look of how your current classroom set up is.  So what better time to shuffle things around then right before the break so that it is all ready for you when you come back!?!  I mean… you’ll probably be switching up your seating plan anyways.

Here is something for you to consider when coming up with your classroom set up.

Things that I learned about how I set up my classroom last year:

-  I had it set up for group discussions and demonstrations (I LOVE this)
-  my colour choices led to a relaxing and comfortable classroom (perfect!)
-  I had clutter and not enough wall space with nothing on it... so student focus and engagement may have been lowered (but in my defense... I was using someone else's room for the year... I wouldn't have enough stuff to fill a room).
-  I needed to remember to open the blinds more often
-  
No one expects you to change everything (if you class is way far off from any of these suggestions)… technically you don’t have to change anything at all.  But it’s something to consider… that’s all.

Based on this I think I would keep most of my classroom the same as it was last year...
-  I love my colour choices
-  I really like having students sitting with at least one other "elbow partner" (sometimes 2 and sometimes 3... depending on how groups are set up - last year we used the U set up for the majority of the year)
-  If I had my own classroom that was empty when I got it I know I wouldn't have clutter... but I would be missing some stuff too 
-  If I had my dream room it would include some kind of library area... maybe a couch and some end tables and a couple different kids of chairs.  I like comfortable... and I want my students to be comfortable in the classroom (although not too comfortable probably).  I would also want lamps of some kind... then during some reading times we could turn off the classroom lights and just use the lamps.  
If you've seen a classroom like this you should probably leave a link to a picture of it below... I would like to see it!
-  I think I would wait to REALLY hone my skills at technology and all that.  Let me teach the same grade for a few years in a row and have my classroom running like a well oiled machine... and then I can start tinkering with some of this other stuff.

Is there anything you would change about your classroom?
What does your dream classroom look like?

Classroom Christmas Decor

Once again I'm linking up with my other blog:  Confessions of a Modern Day Mennonite for Blogmas!  If you've found your way here from there... welcome!

I'm also linking up with Doodlebugs Teaching for another Five for Friday post (only I'm posting mine early - because it is currently Monday)

No matter what grade level you teach (I would like to think) your students are going to get excited come Christmas time.  It may be because they get a break from school (where I live we get 2 weeks) or because they know Santa is coming, or perhaps they are excited about presents.... Whatever it is, one thing is for sure, they are going to get excited.  Just imagine how happy you'll make them when one day you come in announce that you need help setting up a Christmas tree in the corner or decorating the classroom door?  I think they'll be pretty excited.

So here are five ideas for ways that you can decorate your classroom for Christmas

1.  

Get a Christmas tree

Here is a tree that was in one of the classrooms I subbed in this past week.  The kids made some ornaments to put on it and the teacher left some that he bought at the dollar store to add on as well.  Unfortunately, the lights weren't all working... but no one was complaining about that!

If I was doing this (and I had a newer fake Christmas tree at home) I would just bring in my current tree.  I'm thinking of getting new lights at the end of this Christmas season so the ones that are currently on there could be used for my Classroom tree AND I have a bunch of extra ornaments from when I made an Ornament Wreath. 

2.  

Do some Christmas art...

to put up on the walls.  

This art project was super easy and the teacher loved the variety of things the students did for theirs!

3.  

3D snowflakes  

If I had table groups in my room that were numbered I think I would hang a snowflake above each table grouping.  

Find the instructions for how to make these here

I also found these stars (that light up!) at Ikea that I think are great.  But paper is much, MUCH cheaper (and likely free from the school) so I would likely go with that option.

4.  

Decorate the classroom door.

5.  

Christmas handprint tree.  

When I was teaching kindergarten I traced all my students hands (and then cut them all out) and made a bulletin board of a Christmas Tree using them.  In one of the craft centers that I would have up in my classroom we used as a Christmas ornament making center and anything they made there we stuck on the tree.  It all happened a number of years ago so I don't have a picture... but this is the same idea of the tree that I made.

Did you decorate your classroom for Christmas this year? 

Use the comment section below and leave a link back to any photos you have.  I would love to see them!

This Week At School

In all my years of teaching (and substitute teaching) this has never happened to me and let me tell you when I read about it in the sub plan I was pretty excited. For the first time ever, I had a STUDENT TEACHER! Want to know the best part? He was in his final year and basically ran the show. Did I sit there all day with my feet up? Not quite… it was grade 2 and there is always something to do or someone to help in that grade. But it was a nice way to start off the week (yes, I was lucky enough to score such a day on a Monday). It was a good day.

At the end of the day the student teacher gave the students the option of writing, drawing, or reading and one of the students wasn’t sure what to do… what was my suggestion? I suggested she write a book about her favourite substitute. It’s always a risk doing this because they could tell you all about another one of their favourite substitutes (yes, this has also happened before… apparently I can’t top a substitute that does magic tricks). She started to show me her book at the end of the day… I didn’t get a picture of it but she showed me a page that said “my substitute teacher is beautiful” *insert a hair flip picture here* no big deal.

Five Games to Play in the Classroom

Need to fill 5 minutes of extra time?  Or maybe 20 minutes?  Here are 5 ideas for games you can play in your classroom!

Today I'm linking up with Doodlebugs Teaching for another Five for Friday post

1.

Go Noodle

Great for grades K-4.  Any students that I've used it with in these grades have LOVED it!

2.  

Silent Ball

It will keep them quiet and they get to throw around a little and soft ball in the classroom!

3.

Telephone Pictionary

They get to draw (and write) and laugh about the progression that it all takes!

4.

Buzz

The kids will practice math facts with this game!

5.

SNAKE

For whatever reason kids LOVE this game.  Warning: it will get loud and you will always have at least one student that never wants to go out.  But they love it!  I've used it where you add the dice and multiply the dice.

Know any other really great and easy games to play in the classroom? 

Post about them below!

Christmas in the Math Classroom

Once again, some of you may have found your way here from my other blog: Confessions of a Modern Day Mennonite where we are celebrating Blogmas (a countdown to Christmas on a blog… obviously). If you found your way here from there (is that confusing?) Welcome! If you found your way here because you come here looking for my lovely insight, activities, and classroom procedures on substitute and regular classroom teaching then I’m glad you’ve stuck around.

Last week I gave you some (free) ideas for things to use in your English classroom and this week we are talking about Christmas in the math classroom. I’ve broken all the activities into grade groupings again but as I’ve said in the past… depending on the ability levels of your students you may want to look at one of the other categories for some ideas.

As per usual I’m starting with the grade groupings of kindergarten to grade 3

Christmas dice roll cover up games of a Christmas tree and snowman

Christmas addition math games

Here is an adding and subtracting worksheet where you colour the different colours of lights either red or green (depending on if they are even or odd)

colour by number (addition)

Here is another colouring activity where students will practice addition.

colour by by number (addition and subtraction)

more dice roll games

connect the dots

connect the dots skip counting by 2’s

what comes next patterns 

You can use glyphs as a way of representing things about each of your students.  After your students make their glyphs you can even graph some of the results by looking at them.  

Here is a gingerbread man template and here is the glyph information to go with it.


Now, onto the grade 4-6 catagory!

Here are some games that only require a printout and a dice (and a friend).  It works on doubling.

My grade 5/6 students could not get enough of coordinate pairs last year!  Here is a santa claus coordinate pairs activity!


Here is a fraction activity that involves drawing a snowman.  The end result isn't anything spectacular but your students have practiced their fractions in the process of making it!


An elf related number patterns worksheet


upper grades

I used these cards (ally year) last year with my more advanced students to get them to practice their improper fractions and mixed numbers.


I'm only assuming that students love 4 quadrant coordinate graphing as much as coordinate graphing (just scroll through to find the Christmas ones)

Santa’s route questions – how far does he have to travel between cities


and some Christmas word problems


And.... if you still need more ideas for what to do with your students this Christmas season check out Mama's Learning Corner for a bunch more ideas!

What are you going to do in your math classroom this Christmas?  Leave a comment below telling us what it is to add to the list!

Here is a list of ideas of things you can do in your ELA classroom.

Christmas in the LA Classroom

Some of you may have found your way here from my other blog: Confessions of a Modern Day Mennonite where we are celebrating Blogmas (a countdown to Christmas on a blog… obviously). If you found your way here from there (is that confusing?) Welcome! If you found your way here because you come here looking for my lovely insight, activities, and classroom procedures on substitute and regular classroom teaching then I’m glad you’ve stuck around.

Remember a little over a month ago when it was Halloween and I gave you a looong list of free downloads for a Halloween activity book or games to play or crafts to do or art projects to accomplish? Well here I go again breaking it all down by grade level once again… but this time it is for Christmas and this time it is just a bunch of writing activities (okay, some include more than just writing). Everything is free (or it was free when I found it).

Enjoy!

Much like with the Halloween one the early years grades have a ton of things that you can print off! Here are a few thought I thought were particularly great for kindergarten through grade 3.

1) A list of Christmas writing prompts from Snippets by Sarah

2) You NEED to visit Hand Me Down Mom Genes – she has a bunch of Christmas themed books up and a bunch of links and activities to do with them (they include art, writing, word searches, and math activities)… she has it all. Do one book/week leading up to Christmas break (if you want… I know I would!)

3) Have your students apply to be an elf with this Elf Application by The First Grade Parade. When they have filled out the application they can do the art activity to build their own elf.

4) I found a couple of Christmas books your students can make!

First, a Book of Christmas words and this second one on Christmas vocabulary (both pretty similar) and both found on Teachers Pay Teachers

5) Here is a bunch of activities that involve reindeer (including parts of a reindeer for vocabulary)  found on Teachers Pay Teachers

6) Get your students to write a how to with this How to Writing Pack

7) I thought this Christmas Sentence Flip Book was a neat idea. Students that have trouble forming sentences could use this to help them come up with a couple

Next up we have the grades 4-6 range. This one was still pretty easy to find stuff for (maybe because I was teaching it last year)… you can probably use some stuff from above for these guys too… just use your judgement for how easy it might be.

1) Last year when I was teaching grade 5/6 I read them the book “Snowmen at Night” and we did an art project on it. This year I found this Snowmen at Night graphic organizer… maybe we could have written our own versions of the story to go along with our pictures. Ps.  Here is the link to the art project we did.

My Classroom Museum of Language Arts

2) Writing Letters for Santa may be a little too young for grade 6’s but one could stress that the point is for them to practice their letter writing. Last year when I was teaching grade 5/6 we picked names for Christmas and bought each other gifts… we could always use these letters to let the person who has our name know what we want for Christmas. Then, as we get them done we could post them on the wall and the person who has the name could sneak it off the wall (or just read it and take notes). I think I would have put them in our MOLA.

3)  These Christmas Analogies aren't too exciting (in my opinion) but if you had 15 minutes to kill you could ask students some of them.. laugh about the silly ones and go "hmm" about the serious ones.

4) Last year we made How to Videos (and did some writing beforehand of how to do different things). Here is a how to writing activity for How To Decorate A Christmas Tree… maybe after students do this we could decorate a classroom Christmas tree.


And... just like with the Halloween activities the upper grades were the hardest to find things for.  The list is short (my apologies)

1)  Worksheet Place has a list of 34 Christmas Writing Prompts

2)  If you teach drama or are looking for something different to do for your classroom Christmas party I found these Christmas Improv Cards on Teachers Pay Teachers

3) This is just a regular how to write a persuasive essay page BUT you could alter it to be Christmas themed based on the topic… one off the top of my head are

Is Santa Real? (get them to write a persuasive essay that he IS real… because by high school everyone will likely believe that he is not).

I'm sure there are tons of other great ideas out there (that are also free) for things that you do in your ELA class around Christmas time.  If you are willing to share I would love to hear about them!  Tell me in the comments below what you do for Christmas in your classroom!

Countdown To Christmas In The Classroom

Some of your may have found your way here from my other blog Confessions of a Modern Day Mennonite where I am counting down to Christmas with Blogmas.  If you're a new reader I just wanted to say welcome here!

Today we are talking about ways to count down to Christmas in your classroom!

Only once have I done a countdown for Christmas in my classroom.  It was my first year as a teacher and I was teaching kindergarten on a week to week basis because the regular teacher had lost her voice.  So, my idea was not the most thought out... but I'm going to share it with you anyways!

What I did when I was teaching kindergarten was we made a green and red paper chain (I can't recall if I did this with the students or not but I do recall that we were learning about patterns at the time so it kind of just fit right in with that).  and we hung it up on the bulletin board... not in any fancy full way... we just had it hanging down the side.  Every morning I would call on a different student to come and snip one ring off the chain and every day we watched the chain get smaller and smaller until, on the last day of school, we removed the last one from the board!  It was okay... but I've seen better ideas!

Most of them are things you can buy or make and although I'm no so sure about you I know that I NEVER had time to make anything around this time of year (although, hopefully, if you made it once you could reuse it every year).  For this reason I'm going to show you some that you could reuse every year (or you can just head to the Dollarstore and buy a cheap chocolate one... assuming you have 25 or fewer students (and I really hope you do!)

My other requirement was that they wouldn't take up a lot of space.  Now, I've always been in someone else's room waiting for them to return from their sick leave or maternity leave... so it has always been full of someone else's things.  Maybe if I had a room of my very own it wouldn't be so full.  But I'm just going to assume that space isn't always at a premium in a classroom and therefore these advent calendars can't take up a lot of it (space that is).

Growing up my mom had one that I'm assuming she (or my grandma) made out of felt... similar to this one

Felt Advent Calendar

I'm thinking you (the teacher) could make the tree and the pockets with numbers and every year each student could make the different ornaments to put on it... I would stick them on with pieces of velcro (just like my mom's)... one side of the velcro stays on the tree and the other side goes on the back of each of the ornaments.  Just before the break you can either give students their ornaments back or you can save them for the next year's crew to glean ideas from.

This next idea I got from The Primary Techie

She made her own out of a tool organizer thingy.  Where all those numbers are is a drawer which would hold a surprise for the student that opens it.  I think I would also include some kind of holiday trivia, fun facts, riddles, or problem of some kind (especially if I were teaching middle school)... something for the whole class to be involved in at the beginning of each day.   

The Primary Techie also reads the story "Waiting for Christmas: A Story About The Advent Calendar" which I think even my middle schoolers would have enjoyed.

Want more advent calendar ideas? 

Check out my personal blog for to see the advent calendar I made for myself to count down the days until Christmas.

Do you do anything special in your classroom to count down the days until Christmas? 

Just Dance

Did you know that you can find Just Dance on Youtube? 

Did you know that doing it with your class of nursery and kindergarten students is just the cutest thing ever?

The class that I was substituting for loved their One Direction!

We used is at a break after carpet time and as a replacement for gym.

Of course it doesn't actually monitor if you are doing it correctly but that class didn't know the difference!  Plus, the older grades might just want to dance and be happy with that!

I could also see this being used:

- For indoor recess 

-  To do during a class party (at the end of the year last year all the grade 5 and 6 teachers worked together to plan something different in their rooms.  We had a game room, movie room, and karaoke room (maybe this could have replaced my karaoke room).

How else could you use Just Dance in the classroom?

5 things I'm thankful for

T'is the season of recognizing that a lot of us are very blessed. I know I am. Although I celebrated Thanksgiving over a month ago (because I'm Canadian) I thought I would write this up for the American Thanksgiving instead (since most of my readers are from there anyways).

I'm linking up with Doodlebugs Teaching today for this post.

So, in no particular order

1.

This guy.

He is nice and awesome and sometimes he buys me flowers just because. And girls, we should all be so lucky to have someone in our lives that buys us flowers just because.

2.

My Place.

I love my condo and I love that I got it all on my own. I'm so fortunate to be able to find work and earn enough to buy this place.
Yes, the lighting is bad... it happens when you take the picture after you get home from work.

3. 

 My Friends.

These girls are wonderful. Sometimes we give each other scarves for Christmas.

4. 

 Food.

I'm also very fortunate to always have food in my fridge. I'm so fortunate that sometimes I have too much food in my fridge and it goes bad.  

5. 

My job. 

I may not have a classroom of my own this year but I still love my job. I'm thankful that I was able to work every single day last month.

I'm also thankful for my parents, my sisters (who are in the group of girls I called my friends), and the rest of my extended family, my boyfriends family, a warm house, a comfy bed, my slow cooker, warm showers, warm hugs, my lifegroup, snow (even though the cold comes with it), hot chocolate, cookies, my car, Christmas, my church, my pastor, a good book to read, frozen pizzas that are on sale (because sometimes a girl just doesn't want to cook), and anything else that's on sale... the list could go on and on.  I'm just really thankful!

What are you thankful for this year?

Days like These

Found this here

Had a day like this recently where you were just flying by the seat of your pants?

Maybe you went in thinking you would be an English teacher and ended up being the phys-ed teacher or maybe you went in thinking it was grade 9 and it ended up being kindergarten.

Whatever it is, we've all been there (or at least I have).

You can read about some of my experiences here or here.

Social Media in the Classroom

social media is big these days.  I would be shocked if you taught a class that was grade 4 (or higher) that didn't know about one form of social media (even if they aren't on it their older siblings may be or their parents).

first up, Facebook.

Everyone and their mom has Facebook these days (except I don't have it... nor does my mom).  If you Google for a Facebook template you'll get a lot of good options.  I found this site which has 7.  My favourite?  #6.  It has a lot of information that you can include (perfect for older grades) and I would take out  the last page for sure for anything below grade 6 I think.

How I would use a Facebook profile in the classroom?  I think I would introduce the idea near the beginning of the year with them having to make one for themselves.  We are all experts on ourselves so knowing what information to put in the spaces wouldn't be the issue... we would spend the bulk of our time getting to know the template and what all has to be changed (before doing this I think I would make one for myself as a way to introduce myself to my students)

Now that we all know how the template works I would use it in one of two ways or both ways if they are really loving the Facebook.

1.  Make a profile for the main character in a book we (or just them) are reading.  Last year we did The Westing Game as one of our read alouds which has A LOT of characters in it.  I gave each student a different character and their job while I read the book was to gather information about their character.  Because it was a murder mystery we made wanted posters for our characters near the end of the book... but it could have been these Facebook profiles.

2.  In Social Studies you learn about all kinds of people from the past.  Students could take the time to make a Facebook profile for anyone that we are studying here.  Past prime ministers, an explorer, a famous Canadian... the options would really be endless and it might almost be hard to not make these over and over again!

here's a bonus third way if you are an art teacher... you could make the bulletin board yourself or get your students to help.

Next, we have Twitter.

Much like Facebook I'm not on Twitter either but I know enough about it that I could use it in my classroom.

A long, long time ago I saw this filing cabinet in one of the classrooms I was visiting.  Students used it as a space to regularly say what they were up to or had been up to.

Here we have an example of a bulletin board where students can write about what they are doing

But, as a way to link this back to the curriculum you could also use it in in Social Studies (or again with a book students are reading) where students write out tweets for what their character is doing in the book they are reading or what they are learning about in Social Studies.

If I were using this idea in my classroom I think I would just stick with the filing cabinet idea.  No need to make everything big, elaborate, and amazing.  Students will love to write on the filing cabinet and inform their classmates of what they are doing.  Plus it gets them writing... even if it is just 144 characters at a time (no, I wouldn't hold them to this number... but no writing novels on the filing cabinet either!).

Next up, Instagram (are you shocked that I also do not have this?)

Just like above I think if I were to use an Instagram themed bulletin board or space in my classroom I would be keeping it simple.  Print off some photos that we had been taking them, crop and cut them so that they are a square and post them for students to look at.  Voila!  Instead of using it for just one classroom you could also use it for the whole school as one of the main bulletin boards in the hallway

Finally, Pinterest (which, you guessed it, I'm also not on).

This one I struggled with for a bit but in the end I thought you could use it as a way for students to write (and draw) about their favourite thing they learned about in the last week, or month... or however often you want to do it.  You could post them on your Pinterest bulletin board because it is what students were (hopefully some still are) interested in.

Funky Friday

... On a Sunday

The other day I was in a grade 4 classroom where they subscribed to the idea of "Funky Friday".  This meant that at the end of the day; once the classroom was all cleaned up and everyone had filled in their agendas the students would stack all the chairs, push the tables to the side of the room, and turn out all the lights (yes, we even closed the blinds).  And then... we danced.

Here was the set up... they knew Funky Friday was coming and we were writing in our agendas and let me tell you... I've never seen an entire class get their agendas done faster than this one.  I barely had time to put down the white board marker and pick up a pen (and find the princess stickers in the teachers desk because they insisted on stickers) before I had a line up of students waiting to get their agendas signed.

Then all of a sudden I had a student pulling a chair up to what I'm going to call the dj station (he was creating a play list on YouTube of all the songs we would listen/dance to in a couple minutes.  Another student found a disco ball somewhere... I swear they just pulled it out of their pocket.  And another one had a flashlight.

Then the lights went out and the blinds went down and the music started playing.

Most of the class was dancing.

I had one student hiding under a table and one student was always holding the flashlight while sitting on a table.  Their job was to apparently shine the flashlight at different people and then they would have to dance for everyone.  This didn't always happen though so their job was also to shine the flashlight at the disco ball (because it wasn't a fancy disco ball that lite up anything).  Another student was in change of holding the disco ball... although they also told me that they hang it from the lights (which were about 10 feet above the ground so I didn't let them do that).

What kinds of dance moves did we bust out?  I had students "break dancing" which is also known as acting like a crazy person on the ground.  Others were doing the worm.  But the best part was when pretty much the entire class danced to Watch Me Whip/Nae Nae

FINALLY, I know how to Nae Nae

Five Apps to use in the Classroom

(that are all free!)

Okay folks, technology is big, BIG, BIG these days… it’s even bigger than us just having computers in our classrooms.. now we get SmartBoards and tablets, and iPads as well. Some of these app suggestions require an iPad (or something similar) that you are willing to let your students use. Others you can use just on your iPhone… I decided that any that required you to have multiple iPads in the classroom was perhaps asking too much (so I left them out). Also, I don't have an Android device so I don't know if you can find all these Apple apps for Android as well... but I'm sure there is something similar out there!

Today I'm linking up with Doodlebugs Teaching for another Five for Friday post!

Let's get started,

1.

Plickers

Great for exit notes! The best part about using this for exit slips is that you get your results right away – no trying to decipher students writing that they quickly scribbled down at the end of class.



2.

Aurasma

I used this app in my classroom last year (when we had an iPad). With this app you have to be willing to give students the use of an iPad (preferably) but an iPhone or iPod (with a camera) would work as well.

In my room we used it when students did a written piece for our Museum of Language Arts (MOLA) they would make a video to go along with the piece. It was usually up to them and could have been them reading the work, an about the author, a demonstration, or the next part of their writing. The only rule was that it had to have some kind of connection to their writing. Then, when a student held the device up the work the app would recognize the writing and pull up the video for them to watch.

By using this app I had students reading others work AND doing some presenting in front of a camera as well!



3.

My Math Flashcards

I could see this being used in a small group. It would be awesome if you had a couple iPads/Phones/Pods to play it on so that a small group of 6 could pair off into 3 groups but this may not be the case (maybe you could get all your friends to sell you their old idevices for super cheap?).



4.

Random Name Selector

Do you keep a jar of popsicle sticks on your desk with the student names on it? Because I always have. It just made it super easy to pick a few names from there for making groups. But gone are those days. Now an app will put your students into groups for you (or pick students to call on randomly).

5.

Epic Books

I could also see this one being used in small groups (maybe during my writing centers?). Luckily, all the classes that I have taught have still found books to be exciting BUT if that started to change you could just pull out your iPad with this app on it. You can choose to have it read to you or you can read the stories yourself.

Last year I think I would have let a different student use it every day we had buddy reading… we didn’t have a lot of picture books to read to our grade 1 buddies and that is what my students wanted to read... despite me insisting their buddies would be happy with a chapter book!

Last week I did a Five for Friday post on 5 Ways to Use Technology in your Classroom.  So, if you are still looking for ideas for how to use technology in your classroom you should definitely check out that post!  Some of the things I talk about on there can also be found in the apple store (Spelling City and Sumdog)

Giving to Others This Christmas

I know it's a little early to start talking about Christmas but I just finished a post on my other blog and I thought it could apply in a classroom setting as well.

The last couple of years that I had a classroom of my own I've always asked my students what they want to do for Christmas and they have always decided to pull names and buy a present for one of their classmates.  It has always worked with great success!  I feel like I've been pretty lucky to work in an area where students needs are being provided for them... but this isn't always the case.

John and I filled two reusable containers instead of shoeboxes

I wrote about Operation Christmas Child on my other blog and I think it could apply here too.  To get your students to think about others on a global scale why not try to see how many shoe boxes your classroom could fill?  You may not even have to have any specific requirements... just to have them bring in what they can (letting them know the guidelines set out by Samartine's Purse of course).  Shoe boxes are likely due back before December even starts... so you could do this and talk about others around the world and then on the last day of school have your own Christmas party where you exchange gifts with each other.

Later on in December, your class could also do a hamper for a needy family in the city/town that you work in... we have a Cheer Board where I live that a class could likely easily put a hamper together for.

This is everything we manages to fit inside... we filled
them for boys in the 10-14 age category.

Christmas shouldn't just be a time about giving to your friends and family... or getting from your friends and family... it should be about spreading cheer to EVERYONE!

AND... you could also learn about some of the places the boxes go to... I know that where I live in the grade 4 social studies curriculum they are to learn about 2 different places in the world.  Maybe this could be how you pick those 2 places?

Anyways, like I said at the beginning I wrote about this on my other blog Confessions of a Modern Day Mennonite (if you want more information).

Let's Remember

I originally had a different post planned for today but then I realized that I had a Christmas post scheduled on Remembrance Day and that didn't seem right.

If you are anything like the teachers I am subbing for you are in the midst of report card writing.  But maybe in between figuring out what kind of grade to give Amber and Jodi you could take time to think about all those people that fought for and gave their lives for your country.

And today's original post will come tomorrow.. let's not forget what is important today though.

Remembrance Day/Memorial Day in the Classroom

On November 11th we are going to be honoring all those who have fought (and are currently fighting) for our country.  On November 10th schools across this great country will hold a service to remember those same people.  I've always struggled with what I can do with my students to honor this day and to make sure they recognize what an important sacrifice these people made.  Here are a few ideas that I've found though

Once again, everything is free...

This anyone can easily do and shouldn't really require a link but I just put in Remembrance Day into a search on teachers pay teachers and then organized it all by price... there were quite a few free things that I think you should check out.

I was subbing in a grade 5 classroom this past week and the teacher didn't leave much of a sub plan.  Luckily, I had an EA in my room who was happy to go and find supplies that I needed for an art project and I knew I had done one a couple of years ago when I taught grade 4.  Unfortunately, they didn't have paint so I altered my Poppy Art Project just a little and I think they turned out quite good.

I searched on the Canadian Government site and came across all of these resources

I was also subbing in a grade 4 class this past week and the teacher asked me if we could create a poppy wreath (for this schools Remembrance Day service a representative from each class walks in carrying the wreath.

  In that same grade 4 classroom the teacher had left a book for us to "read" I put read in quotation marks because this was a wordless picture book.  But the message was a strong one (I wonder if she choose it for now because of the message... she probably did).  Anyways, I took a picture of one of the first pages and the last page.  Basically, it appears that the mouse starts a fight with the frog because he has a flower.  It turned into both of them gathering up all their friends and starting a big fight (one might even say war).  You can tell that a lot happened just by looking at the first and last pages... the first page looks beautiful and green and a fantastic place to live.  Whereas the last page looks dirty and ruined and desolate and a not so great place to live.  We talked about how war can do more than just take lives... it ruins the places that it takes place too.  We talked about how the tiniest of things can blow up into something much bigger. We talked about how war and fighting is not the answer or the way to solve problems.  The book was titled "Why" by Nikolai Popov if you are interested in seeing if your library has it (or if you want to quickly run out and buy it).

Activity Village has more activities to do for Remembrance Day (colouring pages, worksheets, word searches, information, and poems).

Also, in that grade 4 class (this teacher had it together for Remembrance Day stuff!) we read Bunny the Brave War Horse by Elizabeth Macleod.  The students loved this book!  It was a bit of different spin on regular talks about Remembrance Day because it was about an animal.  I really liked the part in the book where it talked about how animals didn't get the choice but to be in the war.  It also gives facts throughout it and at the end.  But I think what really drew the students in was that it was based on a true story.

And finally, here are a couple of videos you could show your students

This first one is by poppy Scotland but I showed it to a class of grade 5 students and they enjoyed it.

This one is a song and photos.  I like that there are more current photos and ones from a long time ago.

What activities are you doing with your class this Remembrance or Memorial Day?

Five for Friday – Five Ways to Use Technology in your classroom

Technology is big in schools (at least around here it is).  I'm sure your principal, superintendent, and community would be pleased as punch to see your utilizing all those expensive technological things your classroom (in my old classroom we had 2 of them... perhaps you've heard of them - computers).  So, here are 5 ways to use those computers to your (and your students) advantage.

So, once again I'm linking up with Doodlebugs Teaching for another Five for Friday post. 

1.

CNN Student News

Be sure to review the news program before you show it and then give them a sheet to record some summaries and thoughts on.

2.

Kidblog

Have students create their own personal blogs.  You can make it so they can comment on each others too.  This way they are writing AND reading.  You might want to make sure you have it so that you review the posts and comments before they get published to eliminate any inappropriate comments/posts or plagiarism.

I briefly talk about Kidblog here

3.

Go Noodle

Use it in an early years classroom for brain breaks or for something to do during indoor recess or as something to do to calm the students down after recess.  I’ve been using this quite a bit while subbing – I recently had a busy class of grade 2 students that we would “play a game” after each recess to get them quieted down after recess.

4.

Sumdog

Set each of them up with an account (you might want to send home a letter before doing this to give the parents the option for using their child’s first and last name on the site or if they would rather you make up a name like “batman” for them to use on it.

5.

Spelling City

I wouldn’t use this beyond grade 6 (even then it may be stretching it a little).  But if you register for the site you are given your own home page and you can put your students spelling words on there for every week.  If you have your students in different spelling groups you can give them each a colour (or animal, or number, or whatever you want) and all they have to do is find their groups words.  Then they get to play games that help them practice their spelling words and do practice tests with them to get them ready!  There is a letter you can print off to send home so that they can do this at home (and not just at school).

My lasat Five for Friday post was a couple weeks ago on  teacher organization for substitutes.