Hat Day

A month ago all the schools I was in were having spirit week (because it was right before Spring Break).  Well, at one school they were having a hat day and I was in a grade 1/2 classroom.  It was here that I ran into a little boy wearing a Pokemon hat.  He didn't have much to say to me but he did tell me that he was a gangster... because he was wearing his Pokemon hat.

This Week At School

This week at school I was only in for 2 teachers... because I managed to book myself in for 3 consecutive days for the same teacher which was really nice.

The teacher I was in for just one day was a new to me classroom for this year and it was probably the most amazing class that I had ever had.  Which was really lucky because I was feeling REALLY crumby when I woke up that morning but I had prebooked it and I knew the guy I was going in for so I didn't want to cancel it.  

My Monday illness made me a little concerned that I still had at least 3 more days of work this week following it but when I got home I took some allergy medicine and quickly dozed off.  When I woke up an hour or so later I was already feeling quite a bit better.

The teacher that I was in for the remainder of the week (kids were off in 2 of the divisions I work in this week) asked me if I wanted to plan an art activity for them so I looked back on my handy dandy blog from when I taught grade 4 and picked my Dutch Tulip Fields art lesson.

Here's what some of the students came up with:

Dutch Tulip Fields

They did such an awesome job!

Some things we noticed were:

Not all Crayola Washable markers are created equal for this task.  We specifically had problems with some of the pinks and the grey and Mr Sketch markers despite being washable do not work.

What I love about this art project:

It doesn't actually require paint!  Markers and water are SO much more manageable (and easier to clean up)!

To go along with this project we watched a really quick video on how those classic dutch windmills worked and we talked about what windmills today and in the past were used for.  Now that I think of it I should have had them write a poem to go along with their art too... ah well... I'll save that for my one day class to do!

Mixed Media Art

I was in a classroom the other week and saw these mixed media pieces of art.  Looks like they used different types of fabric to help create their pictures (along with some paint).

Mixed Media Art Lesson

The nice thing about this art lesson is it would work well for a variety of grades (the kids who did the ones at this school were in grades 1-8).  

Plus, who doesn't have some extra scraps of fabric laying around?

To see some other art lessons see

String Art

Abstract Scribble Art

Spring Tulip Art

Tie Dye Snowflake Art

Edgar Degas Art

How to Look Like a Witch

*ahem* I mean rich.

It was a bit of a misunderstanding the other day in a grade 6 class.  I had just finished taking attendance and was walking across the room when one of the students asked what I thought was "why do you always look like a witch?"

"what" I responded"

"why do you always look rich?" the student said again.

Ohh....

So apparently looking rich means you've got a simple necklace on and are wearing a watch.

This Week At School

This week at school I...

-  Led a pride meeting.  One school that I go to every so often holds these where a teacher meets with a small group of about 10 students from various grades to discuss something.  This particular day we discussed how we are all different from one another and that these differences are something to be celebrated.  To do this I asked them a bunch of questions such as do you have a brother, a sister, do you like music, do you play a sport, etc.  For every question they answered yes to they put a bead on a string.  In the end they had a string of beads (that we tied into a bracelet for them) all about them.
-  Had a student teacher in my room.  To be honest, I haven't had a lot of these days and the class that this particular student teacher was in can, on occasion, be a little challenging so I was more than happy to let him take the reigns and for me to assist him.
-  Went to swim and gym.  The school of 9 kids is officially shutting down at the end of this school year so now they are just spending up their budget because they don't have to save anything for next year.  This means they are going to camp and doing all the "boujie" activities that most schools wouldn't pay for and going back to swim and gym for a second time!  This time the kids loved to watch the university students that were all taking their exams (boy am I glad those days are behind me!).  Since we couldn't use the actual gyms for our gym class (because that was where they were writing exams) we played some dodgeball in a squash court... and I brought a book with me that I read outside of the squash court. 

No classes yesterday due to Good Friday but the kids will be going back for Easter Monday.  Do your students/children get Easter Monday off?

Characteristics of a Hero

I was in a grade 6 class the other day and I guess they had been talking about different characteristics a hearo could have and I saw these lovely pictures all around the room

Hero Ice Cream

Hero Burger

Hero Cake Slice

Hero Popsicle

Hero McDonald's Fries

Hero Starbucks Frappuchino

Hero Macaroons

Hero Cake

Hero Pancakes

Hero Popcorn

.

I love how creative they were... there wasn't a lot of repeats of pictures which is why I've included so many!  I also love how the project included both art and ELA.

To see other ways I've used ELA and art together see the following:

Tie Dye Snowflakes and Poetry

Hot Chocolate Art and How to Make the Perfect Hot Chocolate

Monster Art with Description

What You Can't See When You Look At Me

Making An Art Portfolio

How to Draw A Pig

This Week I learned how to draw a pig when students sang this song while drawing....

Wasn't aware drawing a pig required a song (especially in middle school).

This Week At School

What started off as a week with only a half day booked turned out to be a fairly busy week in the end!

This week I worked in 3 new to me classrooms all in the same division (I have the ability to work in up to 3 divisions in any given week... and often will work in all 3 throughout the week)!  One of those classrooms was French immersion (luckily for me it was the kindergarten class).

I also only subbed in early years classrooms this week (grades kindergarten through 6th grade).  There isn't much to report on what we all did this week at school but I got to take the kindergartens outside on a shape hunt (even though it's snowing... yes SNOWING... that marks 8 months of snow for us).  I also got to take a grade 4 class to the computer lab and when I gave them free time nearly every last one of them went to play Roblox so I got to learn a little about what that is... prior to them having free time they were playing Prodigy which is nearly equally as appealing to kids.

Kindergarten classroom

Next week is a shortened week due to Good Friday... so far I've only got 1.5 days booked but I'm sure it will fill in at least a tiny bit more.

Easter

Hop into the Easter season with this fun crossword puzzle. For more educational resources that make learning fun, visit Education.com!

And for a different spring resource from Education.com you can click here

Recognizable Voice

I wasn't aware of it but apparently I have a very distinct voice.

I was talking to some students in a hallway at school when a voice from around the corner goes "I'll always recognize that voice" as a boy walks around the corner.  He knew it was me.  I guess I've been going to that school a lot!

For the record, no one was in trouble in the hallway (teachers are allowed to just talk to other students in the halls without them being in trouble).

This Week At School

I was lucky enough to book the first 3 days back from Spring Break in the same classroom a while ago so it ended up being a busy first week back!

First, it was April 1st on Monday which means April Fool's pranks abounded.  I told you how I wrote a "test" for them to do and wrapped up some carrots in Tootsie Roll wrappers.  None of them understood the test.  I told them it was was serious and I had to time them and that they couldn't use up more than 10 minutes so they started off all quiet and serious but then they read the first question and someone shouted out "What!?!  I wasn't around in the 1930's how am I supposed to know this!?!"... not even taking the time to realize that the "question" didn't even ask a question.  They continued to complain about how they couldn't possibly know the answers to any of the "questions" and by this time the "serious test" had turned into a not so serious test and they were all sharing answers.  In the end some of them decided to each pick a different letter... that way one of them would be right for each question... which even if it was a true test how would that make any sense?  I wasn't taking a group score in the end.  Then they got to the April Fools question (#7) and announced "Oh finally, an easy one, everyone knows when April Fools day is".  Then the proceeded to argue as to whether Monday was April 1st or not.

Anyways, I went over the answers to the test (they have a star beside them but I deleted all those stars for their copies) and some of them actually passed!  Then we went over some clues I put in for them to realize it was all a joke and they went "oohhh" and insisted they were going to get me back and I called them all a bunch of April Fools

Here is the answer key version of my April Fools Day test.

Then the pranks started happening.  One of the girls left a wadded up (log like) paper towel on the floor of the bathroom which every other female adult in the building ran into but me.

Some of the boys took the secretary's candy and hid it on her (she was on vacation for the last couple of days of school and told the kids they could only have 2 pieces a day so there should still be lots left when she came back).

Somehow one of the early years students set the clock behind by a bit (how they managed to reach the clock I'm not sure... and why they decided to extend their day by setting it back I'm also not sure).

And finally, after everyone came back inside wet and muddy from recess one student told me had hurt himself and his leg was bleeding. I was about to tell him to wash it up when it dragged his finger through the "blood" and put his finger in his mouth.  I told him he was gross and he told me it was ketchup... good one.

Then my 2nd prank of the day happened when I gave them all a delicious candy they had earned only to realize they were carrots.  They all ate them anyways and at the end of the day I gave them each 3 real candies.

They still insist they have something better in the works for me but I'm not so sure.

But other than pranking... we also did school work!

They were in the process of creating some really cool book trailers (stay tuned for a post on that in the next few months)
They practiced guitar
We played some Blind Mans Bluff
And they finished off their math packets.

I ended off the week in a new to me classroom for this year
Where we did some science worksheets
Listened to a couple of stories on Storyline Online
And played Herds of Words

Pastel and Magazine Art Lesson

I saw these in a classroom a little while ago and thought they were really well done!

Parrot magazine Art

Succulent Magazine Art

Winter scene magazine art

panda magazine art

bird magazine art

I wasn't sure exactly what to search to find a lesson online so here's what I would do:

I would have a stack of magazines for students to go through to find a picture of something that they want to "recreate" (I use the term recreate loosely because I don't think it has to look like it did in the original).  Students would be allowed to cut out a small section of the picture.  Then I would have students use pastels (because they look really dark and vibrant) to first finish off the animal (or whatever they cut out from the magazine) and then add to the picture, encouraging them to use up the whole piece of paper.

Honestly, for some of these it took me a second to see where the magazine clipping was.

Here are some more art lessons I've done and seen around while teaching/subbing:

Snowmen at Night

Think Outside the Box

Name Art

Owl Art

Aboriginal Dot Art

April Fools Day in the Classroom

It's the first day back from Spring Break up here and it also just so happens to be April Fool's Day as well.  Luckily for my I'm working today and I've been in the school/classroom that I'm in today a bunch so I know the kids really well.  And for these reasons I feel 100% okay about playing a couple of April Fool's Day jokes on them.

I did a little bit of research and the first thing I came up with was to get those tootsie pop suckers and cut off the sucker part of it.  Then, on the top of the stick put a piece of broccoli and re wrap that the sucker in it's wrapper.  It would have been especially good because the week before Spring Break they had a Read and Feed day and they all complained about the smell the broccoli gave off.  But alas, I only had frozen broccoli which likely would have turned into a goopy mess and I wasn't interested in buying more just to trick some students.  Plus, I would have to buy them extra tootsie pops and eventually give them an actual one.

So I mentioned how I had bought a bunch of tootsie rolls in the states.  I actually love these candies (dare I say that they are one of my favourite candies?)  and you can only get them here around Halloween time and only at the Dollar Store (so they are in small bags).  But not in the USA... there you just waltz into target and pick up a 1lb bag of them like it's nothing.  My plan with these is to unwrap the candies and use the wrapper to wrap up a small carrot instead.  They'll be so pumped that their substitute teacher brought them candy (and I bet a lot of them will still enjoy the carrot too).  I will bring extra candies for later in the day for them though... I do have a few I could spare after all.

Making them was super easy...

Step 1: 
Cut up carrots into smaller chunks (you'll likely have to trim them a little to make them a better shape and size to fit into the wrapper later.

Carrot pieces for an April Fool's day prank

Step 2:

Place the now smaller carrot piece into the wrapper and wrap it up.  Be careful no to rip the packaging while tightening the ends... it does happen!

Wrap the carrot in the packaging

Step 3:

Voila!  Can you tell the difference?

Carrots are on the left and Tootsie Rolls are on the right!

Step 4:

Enjoy the leftover now unwrapped pieces!

unwrapped tootsie rolls

Step 5:

Don't mix up your carrots with the actual candy!

Carrot Tootsie Rolls

I put my carrot Tootsie Rolls in a small back to put in the fridge at work but I also brought them some actual candy for the end of the day which I put in a larger bag.

I was telling my husband about my plans and asking him for advice on what I could do so he said I should give them a test but make the questions (and answers non sensical) 

so for example:

The Empire State Building is 102 floors high and was built in the year 1930

a) March 17th

b)  April 1st

c)  May 4th

d)  June 27th

The "correct" answer would be March 17th as that's the date it was finished but they don't know that's what the question is asking.  All the "answers" to the 6 questions are dates and one of the answers is always April 1st... we'll see if they catch on.

My plan is to give the "test" in the morning when I only have the middle years students and the candy I'll do right before pm recess with the elementary and middle years students.  My hope is that they won't be expecting a 2nd April Fools joke after the first one.

Some things that I didn't want to do for my joke:

Tricking students into eating something gross.  So like making a cake pop with a piece of broccoli in the middle... I wanted them to know what the item was as soon as they unwrapped it this way if they don't like carrots they aren't being tricked into eating it as they should know it's a carrot right away.

Something that would require a lot of set up time and they wouldn't care much about.  Turning the room all backwards for example would likely take at least an hour and it's not even my space to turn everything around in anyways.

Did you play any jokes on your students today?

What did you do?