Tattling

Is it just me or is tattling a bit of a problem among early years students especially. 

Well, I found this in a teacher's classroom

In case you can't read it...

Tattle Battle Pledge

If a friend is sick, hurt, 

or in harms way,

then telling someone is okay!

Unless it's sickness, danger,

or bullying I see,

I will mind my own business

and worry about me

The teacher had each of them sign it and I actually haven't heard too much tattling is this particular classroom

Display the Books You've Read

I saw this in a classroom I was in recently...

I thought it was a neat way to show students that you (the teacher) are reading books too and letting them know which ones you've read so far this year (if you wanted to take this even further you could write a couple of sentences about the book - like why you liked it or something).

Psst.. under all the books the teacher has read you can see the Bingo game the students use for the books they read in this particular class.  I've talked about a similar Bingo game here.

This Week At School

It was a busy (and cold) week at school this week!

Our typically wintery temperatures officially caught up with us this week and I was often running outside to run my car during the first bit of the lunch hour so that it would start after school - temperatures dipped below -25 degrees Celsius but with the wind factored in it's usually about 10 degrees colder! Needless to say this also meant indoor recess'.

I started off the week in a new to me school where I was the science teacher. The teacher was only part time though but since they can only book subs in for half days and full days I just had a lot of preps... so I also helped out in the library and put up part of a bulletin board... it was a pretty easy day.

Tuesday I was at the school of 9 kids. I was supposed to have all 9 but we decided to keep them split up in early and middle years so I ended up only having 4 in the morning. For the afternoon I had to switch schools and usually there would have been a good size class at this school but most of the students were out doing other activities (and by most I mean all but 1).... so I had one student in the afternoon. We read and studied for a test and then joined the early years room (which only had 4 students) for some art and a video.

Here is my version of the abstract art that we did

It's a super easy concept for most kids to understand... stay tuned to the blog for a post about it!

The next day was only a half day and this time it actually stayed a half day (no one went home sick and needed to book me last minute). Nothing too amazing happened at this school.... regular sized classroom of about 24 students.

On Thursday I was at a school I haven't been to in about a year! It was a busy class of grade 2/3 students. This day ended up getting extended until Friday which worked out perfectly as my Friday got cancelled Thursday morning! We did a lot of writing (they were really into making comic and flip books), Dreambox, and Jump Math. On the Friday I did a Valentine's Day art activity (stay tuned to the blog to see what exactly we did)

One of the schools I was at this week had a room in each class to be used as closets (actually, a number of the older schools in this particular division have these coat rooms)... with all their winter gear packed in there it's overcrowded without there being a single person in there!

School coat room

Finally, one of my students made me a picture on Friday.

No idea who Emma is (it wasn't anyone in our room or myself)

All Kids Should Play

So, there's a short film about playground inclusion that's been circulating around lately

Some things I would do with this video:

Show it to my students

Have them talk about what they think is happening (especially in the first half)

Have them come up with ways to include everyone at recess

Have them share with the class when they follow through with some of those inclusion ideas.

In my opinion kids are often excellent at including others which is awesome because sometimes I'm sure kids don't want to spend their recess with their EA (Education Assistant)... it's like having to spend your recess following your teacher around.

But I'm not so naive as to think that all kids are excellent at doing this.

This video could help.

How would (or how have you) used this video in your classroom?

If you want to know more about the video or find some resources visit Respect Ability

Found in a Teacher's Classroom

A bunch of the teachers at this particular school have painted some closet doors in their classroom with chalkboard paint. I'm not sure if they do it or have their students do it but they often change up what's written or drawn on these closet doors. This particular teacher had a quote that I liked

This Week At School

It was a bunch of half days for this week at school

At one of the schools I was at they got these fancy new tables

white board table

I'm not sure what they are actually called but you can write on them with a whiteboard marker.  I'm not sure how super useful they would be but I guess kids could use them as "scrap" paper for when they might need extra space to do some thinking but not have an extra piece of paper (because lets be honest, a lot of them don't even have a pencil).

I also learned about glue sponges and let me tell you the grade 1 and 2 class I was in were using them like pros... in my opinion... they ARE worth they hype (although I obviously was in the dark as to the hype surrounding these)

I subbed for a vacancy... which just meant I was covering in different classrooms while teachers went for meetings.  A vacancy is kind of actually a nice gig because you get to be in multiple classrooms (so if one classroom isn't working out for you... have no fear because you get a new one in a bit!).  Of course if you end up loving one of your classes you won't actually get to be with them all day (but be sure to let that teacher know you want to come back!)

One of my half days turned into a surprise full day when another teacher went home sick.  Worked out great for me as I was close enough I could go home for lunch (plus I got a full day instead of a half day).

I ended off my week in this classroom

Would you look at all those windows!?!

I would LOVE this classroom!

Instagram Book

I was in a grade 2 classroom a while ago where the teacher appears to take a picture every day and post it to his classroom Instagram account. Then, when the month is over he prints all the pictures off and turns them into a book for his students to look for (because, you know, not EVERYONE has Instagram - myself included). He included the captions with the pictures too and sometimes you could see some of the people that had liked a picture or commented. It was cute and the students were into them. His didn't look like anything special on the outside... 

Instagram Books

But the inside held tons of great memories for them!

Bird Box Challenge in School

The Bird Box has officially infiltrated the schools.  

Students are walking around with bandannas blocking their eyes (similar to what they do in the movie).  

So congrats Netflix, you've made a movie that everyone is watching.  

Now bandannas will be blocked for a different reason (when I went to school they thought bandannas/certain colours were gang related)

This Week At School

It was a pretty easy first week back at school...

I was at a school that I hadn't been to in a couple of years and another school that I frequently go to but within that school a classroom that I've actually never been in.

At one of the schools the students were doing extra health classes and so 2 of my classes turned into these bonus health classes which meant I didn't have to teach for 2 extra periods that day.

Nothing too exciting or interesting to report on for this week.

It was a good first week back to work!

Presents from Santa

I overheard 2 boys talking about Santa in the grade 2 classroom I was in:

"Once my brother asked Santa for something and he brought him the wrong thing"

They were leaving the classroom as they were talking about it so I didn't get to hear the rest of what they were saying but I'm left with just one question...

What did he ask for?

Winter Writing

It feels like winter is just getting started where I live and we still have the rest of January and all of February to get through... but depending on where we all live winter could be winding down soon for some of us.  So, to go along with winter I found this great writing activity from Mel D-Seusstastic that is winter themed.  She has a coloured version and a black and white version... I would print the black and white version for my students and get them to colour it once they were done writing but I would use the coloured version for myself probably to fill in and share with the class what I like to do in the winter.

If you happen to use this freebie in your classroom why don't you leave us a comment to let us all know how it went?