A while ago I was in an early years classroom that was doing a project on Scaredy Squirrel
First, I'm assuming they read some Scaredy Squirrel books. According to my research there are currently 8 Scaredy Squirrel books out there. They likely read at least a couple of them to come up with such an extensive list of what he was all afraid of!
Then, I'm assuming they made a list of everything Scaredy Squirrel was afraid of (looks like they came up with 26 things)
Next, they made a map. Below is the teachers example (or maybe the one they did together). Above is the criteria they needed to include in their maps.
Finally, they had to do a little bit of writing as to why they thought this new BFF would be perfect for Scaredy Squirrel.
Personally, I loved the idea!
And, in case you are wondering "what are some possibilities for Scaredy Squirrels BFF?" well here is a short list that I saw kids writing about
1) Mrs Scaredy Squirrel (everyone needs a companion?)
2) A Couch (perfect for watching tv and now he won't have to sit on the floor!)
3) Ice Cream (yummy!)
4) A doughnut (no sharp corners!)
I looked and I looked for where this teacher might have gotten this project from but couldn't find it. BUT, if you Google "Scaredy Squirrel Class Project" lots of ideas do come up!
It was mostly just a continuation of everything we were doing last week.
In math we were talking about Pythagorean’s theorem
In ELA we were reading Half Brother (and we also did an Orange Shirt Day activity, a listening test, and some writing activities).
In Music Education kids continued making their mix tapes. I had them colour a photocopy of a tape to go with their themes and write in the songs for one of their sides… here are some of their tapes
In Social Studies they handed in their family trees or timeline assignments and we moved on to some textbook work.
And nearly all week my homeroom begged for me to take them outside (because I had taken my other math class outside to measure triangles earlier in the week) but it was such a crumby week outside that I decided they could do the activity with their regular teacher (today it was even snowing on and off throughout the day!)
I’ve been lucky enough to be in the same classroom all this week
(and spoiler alert: I’ll be back in this same room next week as well).
I’m also a pretty lucky substitute because I hit the jackpot considering what I believe a grade 8 class could be because they are amazing. They work quietly (and yes, most of them are working), don’t interrupt, and are just overall a lovely group of students.
So what have I been up to in this grade 8 class?
We are reading Half Brother by Kenneth Oppel and they are super into it. I read them about every third chapter or so and we are on chapter 10 already (they had started before I arrived though). Even I'm into the book... in fact I brought it home with me this weekend to get some reading done and have every intention of finishing it so that I know how it ends.
We are learning about the Pythagorean Theorem in math which is going pretty good. One of my math classes is definitely better than the other (behaviour wise) but for the most part they are getting their work done and understanding the theorem and how to do it… we are still working on recognizing if a measurement is an area or a line (I mean it seems so simple to me).
In Social Studies they have been working on a timeline or family tree. I assigned it for homework to be completed on Monday though so next week we are moving on to some textbook work.
I also teach a grade 6 music education class and they are creating a mix tape. I found a blank mix tape template online and had them colour it one day when we didn’t have access to the computer lab. Their mix tapes have to have an overall theme to them. There are a lot of “happy” “sad” or “dance” themes but I’ve done my best to steer them away from genre themes or artist themes so that there is a bit of variety in these mix tapes. I think the hardest part of the assignment will be to make sure when you add up the songs that they don’t exceed 30 minutes per side.
Yesterday afternoon I was missing about half my class because it was a fun afternoon spent outside (in what I would consider almost too cold of temperatures to be outside all afternoon... I should have tried harder to find some gloves to bring this morning I guess). We played a bunch of games keeping score and surprisingly the 8th graders came in 2nd place (out of 3 places)... I really wasn't sure they had it in them.
Overall I would say it’s been a really good week and I’m looking forward to having to be back for another week.
AND, this week I managed to book myself not only 5 days for October already but also another 5 days in January (and a few others in between). I’m predicting it being a fairly busy year.
I saw this bulletin board in a grade 2 classroom I was recently in.
Our Community bulletin board
There's a McDonald's, trees, a lake, people, houses, animals, a bowling alley, and oh wait... what's that. A minion?.... with a dead dog beside it? I only live a short distance from the school I saw this at... I'm not in the same community but am within a long walk to it... never have I ever seen a minion killing a dog around (thankfully) but I'm beginning to wonder what goes on in this community! I later asked the student what that picture was all about it... she told me it wasn't a dead dog but a stuffed teddy bear (one of the minions always carries one but I don't recall the name of that minion). I also asked her where in their community she saw all of this and she wasn't able to answer that question.
I was subbing a grade 8 classroom a couple of weeks ago and learned about different levels of hierarchy in Mesopotamia.
Isn't it fantastic when you have students that put in their very best effort (well, that's me assuming these are their best effort... they look AMAZING)?
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.
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 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?
