Fire Drill

Well folks we had it the other week... the first fire drill of 2018.  This is pretty unheard of in Manitoba where the average temperature for January is  -16°C (that's +4 for you Americans).  But on this particular day it was a balmy +2 outside so I guess they took advantage of the nice winter day to have a winter fire drill.

Sidenote:  You know what I always appreciate as a substitute teacher.  Being informed of things like this.  On the day this fire drill was happening and everyone else got an email about it one of the teachers took the minute to come and tell me it was happening, when it was happening, and where my students would line up.

Luckily, it was just a drill as I've been in situations in the dead of winter where it has not been a drill and it's been freezing outside. 

This Week At School

It's likely not breaking news or anything but teacher's here are still steadily getting ill or going to meetings as I continue to be kept busy. I now have subbing days booked into May.

This week I subbed in elementary and middle schools. We did an Olympics web scavenger hunt (and watched some winter Olympic trailers from 2014). We played some Sumdog and played some bench ball in gym class. 

We also had explore time 

and ONLY when we have explore time!

I went back to the school I was teaching French at last year and we read and listened to A LOT of books.

I found this cute little reading corner

and some chairs/stools that I've never seen around before

Hot Chocolate Activities

The first week back from winter break this year I was in for a grade 4 teacher the entire week. I had already assumed that there likely wasn't going to be a plan left for me so I took it upon myself to do a little planning over Christmas break... it started with an art project about hot chocolate and went from there...

So first, I found a hot chocolate art lesson on A Faithful Attempt

To go along with the theme of "hot chocolate" for the week I also read them a poem about hot chocolate called "The Perfect Cup of Hot Chocolate"

I had told them that when I taught in my grade 5 and 6 classroom that for every piece of art work that they did in that class I had them write a poem to go along with it. So the following day I taught the class hot to write a Couplet poem and they wrote some couplets about hot chocolate.

Then I wanted them to write about their own perfect cup of hot chocolate... but figured we could have a bit of fun making our own hot chocolate before that. So, I had them write out the steps to making hot chocolate (using the supplies that I had to make the hot chocolate which were cups, spoons, hot chocolate powder in a container, and a kettle). I told them that I was going to follow their steps exactly and had them face away from me as they read their directions. Needless to say, the first few hot chocolates that we made didn't exactly turn out. We had a bunch where the container of hot chocolate was "inside" the cup (we couldn't actually fit the container inside the cup so it just sat on top), some hot chocolates that had cold water in them, and one where we put 4 teaspoons inside a cup and that was it. I gave them a chance to edit their work to make it more detailed so that I might actually make a cup and after they edited their work we were making a steady stream of regular hot chocolates. 

This wasn't the first time I did this... when I was teaching grade 8 ELA I had the students tell me how to make a sandwich

Lots of them complained that the hot chocolate wasn't chocolaty enough and that they make theirs with milk and why didn't I have any marshmallows. So, for the second part of their descriptive writing project I had them write about their own perfect cup of hot chocolate.

They were supposed to try to use up the entire page but some complained that their perfect cup of hot chocolate was nothing special and one said his perfect cup was the one he got at McDonalds. So I also had them describe the perfect cup to put it in.

Then, the following day I did a hot chocolate science experiment. The purpose of the experiment was that we wanted to know what the perfect temperature was for drinking hot chocolate AND how many degrees hot chocolate temperature would drop every 2 minutes.

I went through the scientific method with them for this and we filled out most of the page together. Here is our scientific results (the numbers on the far right show the number of students that thought their hot chocolate was at the perfect temperature for drinking then)

As you can see our results are a little inconclusive.

My best guess is that some students wanted for their hypothesis to be right that they just decided that temperature was right for them. A few also were out to lunch during this process and realized a little too late that we were doing more than just writing on a paper and enjoying hot chocolate and just voted for what their friend did.

For the record, the students that voted for the 90 degree temperature it was likely already closer to 75 degrees by the time they got it. Likely still a little too hot to be drinking but they forced it down I guess.

And there you have it folks, how to spend a week talking about hot chocolate

Please Pay Attention Quote

Found in a teachers classroom:

This Week At School

I had been back at school for just one full week and over the weekend I started to get the sniffles. Because I already had Monday and Tuesday booked I decided I would get through those days and then reevaluate how sick I was and if I could handle going in the rest of the week.

My week in for the teacher that I was subbing for last week needed me for one more day. I knew this on the previous Friday so I quickly sat down and planned an art lesson on snowflakes (you'll see it coming up on the blog soon) and figured that would likely occupy most of the day (they had library first thing, a double period of math that I decided I would take them to the computer lab for, and a double period of choir that I didn't need to worry about).

Snowflake art with a haiku

Tuesday I was at the colony and I knew there would likely be soup for lunch which got me through to at least lunch. I also knew the class sizes would be about half the size of my class on Monday and a lot quieter... so there were a lot of things that helped. 

I finished off the week feeling a lot better and back in for the teacher with no plan only this time there was a plan!

Snowmen at Night Activities

Before Christmas break I was in a classroom where the teacher had been away for a while and there was no plan... But, luckily for myself the students had gym first thing in the morning which gave me just enough time to look up an art lesson on A Faithful Attempt that ended up lasting us pretty well the rest of the day.

So, the first thing I would have done was read the book Snowmen at Night by Caralyn Buehner.... BUT... I couldn't find it in the schools library so I had them listen to it online (which, in case you are unaware, is usually a great option if you can't find a picture book you want your class to hear). While searching for a good version of the story on YouTube I stumbled across a person demonstrating the exact art lesson I wanted my students to do. 

It probably took them close to an hour to get the artwork finished (we watched the video all the way though once then I explained to them that they would be having their snowmen do some kind of activity and then we watched the video a second time but this time I paused it for them every so often.

For those that finished before the day was over I had them write a story to go with their art work... only about half the class ended up getting to this point so I ended up writing a sub plan for the next day's sub (or for the teacher if he was going to return) that the students could finish it.

Here are some of their finished products.

This wasn't the first time I had done this lesson in a classroom last year I did it with some grade 2 students and previous to that I had done it with my grade 5 and 6 students.

Favourite Substitute

A former co-worker was booking me to sub in her classroom and after confirming with me that I was free the day she needed me this is the text that I get back...

Glad to hear I'm still well liked there!

This Week At School

What I once again expected would have been a slower week back to work (what with it being the first week back for students and all) was actually a full week for myself. I worked every day in the same classroom this week.

I wasn't sure if there was going to be a sub plan for myself (and if I'm being honest I really didn't expect one) So.. a lot of stuff from years past became part of my lessons for the week

We did January's math poster, sudokus, and math games in math class

Math by the Month

We had a TUSC meeting

We did some Hot Chocolate art, poems, descriptive writing about our perfect cup of hot chocolate, and experiments to test what the perfect temperature to drink hot chocolate is.

Descriptive Writing

Hot Chocolate Art

Science Experiment

As you can see our results for what the perfect temperature to drink hot chocolate was inconclusive.

Hope everyone had a great first week back from break!

That's Never Happened Before...

Never have I ever had a student pinch my cheeks before... until one day when I showed up at one of the colony schools and the littlest boy of all, every time he had the opportunity, went to try to pinch them. The kids commented on how they looked extra red that day... due to all of the pinching.

And for the record... never have I ever pinched a students' cheeks either (or anyone's that I can recall).

Disney Quote

Spotted in a teacher's classroom