This Week At School

This week at school started off by teaching kindergarten and nursery.  This went relatively well, although I was warned about the afternoon class (14 boys and only 5 girls) but giving them lots of time to play (and not knowing which ones needed picture retakes so just sending a bunch) definitely helped!

I also went to one of the colony schools I frequent where I taught the middle school students.  When I got there one of the primary girls was looking through the windows of all the cars in the lot.  I asked her if she was checking out the contents of the cars and she told me she was!  I then asked if there was anything interesting inside and apparently there was as well (although I wasn't told what was so interesting).  Whether or not my car was peered into next I'm not sure as I went inside.

At the colony I taught gym which was actually a delight!  We played a quick game of dodgeball and then some ultimate frisbee and remarkably it went well!  We also read through a quick play in a magazine that the kids read super well (with accents and everything!) considering it was their first (and likely only) time reading it!

Then I was a grade 2/3 teacher where we spent a lot of time working on a Scaredy Squirel project (that I'll post about in a couple of months - sorry I'm very ahead of my posts at the moment!).  We also attended a Remembrance Day assembly (and not to toot my own horn or anything but I think my class was one of the best behaved during it).

I realize it's likely a little late for this but if you are looking for some ideas for your next years Remembrance Day assembly here is a post about a different Remembrance Day assembly I attended a few years ago.

This Week At School

It was another busy week at 4 different schools!

I was a gym teacher for parts of multiple days.
We watched some cbc kids news which reminded me a bit of CNN student news.  In my opinion, if you are looking for a short news program designed for kids either one of these is good but I think CBC is designed for a younger audience and CNN is for grade 6 and up.
I had multiple days of outdoor duty.
We did some crayon resist art in an early years class.
I had a lovely class of grade 6's and made them promise their behaviour wouldn't turn sour by the end of the year.
I attended a gym blast... which is all the grades meeting up in the gym and playing games against each other to earn points.  The grade 6's came in 2nd place so we did well!
The kids also made signs for the gym blast and one kids said something along the lines of how the grade 6's were awesome and everyone else sticks.  Then it said that the other grades were stickers.  Erm.. ok.  Sort of missing an important letter there.
All in all it was a busy but good week!

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

This Week At School

Well this is it folks, yesterday marked the last day of school before Christmas break and I had the day off (which I expected).  I'm back at it in exactly 2 weeks though... I managed to get a subbing job on the very first day back to school!... not only that but I'm at a school I haven't been at in a couple of years.. so it should be interesting.

Anyways, this week at school was actually a bit busier than I had originally anticipated.

I was a surprise gym teacher early in the week (I say surprise because I was actually supposed to be doing other things but the day got all switched around which meant I stayed in the gym apparently).

I did a bunch of Christmas math activities with some grade 7's.

I was back at the school with just 9 kids and this time 2 of them were away so I had only 7 (and only that many in the afternoon because they are split up for the morning)!  We cleaned in the morning and watched movies in the afternoon which was perfect for me because I was not feeling the greatest.

I hope you all have a very merry Christmas (and a happy New Year)

Here's a picture of our Christmas tree this year

Since it's Christmas break I find it only fitting that I also get a break for 2 weeks and so I won't be posting (at least I don't plan on it) until January 7th. 

Enjoy your break!

Take One and Trade One

I was in gym class with my grade 7's the other day and the gym teacher had them play an interesting game to get them to run laps, do sit ups, push ups, burpies, etc... I can't recall exactly what it was called but it was something along the lines of "take one leave one".  Basically, the gym teacher divided the class into 4 groups and each group would send a representative from their group to the center of the gym for the different rounds.  The gym teacher stood in the center of the gym with a deck of playing cards.  Each student took a card and looked at it... the number revealed how many of that exercise their group would have to do.  However, sometimes he would tell them to switch cards and so everyone had to switch cards with someone else in the middle of the gym not knowing if they would get a "better" (or lower) number or not.

Anyways, the game worked well and had everyone running laps and exercising.  He ended up doing it the entire class but I could see it even being used as a warm up.

This Week At School

Despite not feeling the greatest all weekend I managed to pull it together enough to work every single day leading up to spring break!

In one of my classes this week I hadn't been in since September (it was actually the class I subbed in for my first day of work this school year). It was nice to go back and see them but it was especially nice because I only had 8 grade 4 students (and after lunch we lost 2 of them and only had 6)! It was a nice relaxing day. I even taught them how to play my favourite game to play while substitute teaching - Snake 

At one of the schools I was at this week one of the teachers apparently brings her dog to work every single day... which is a lot less of a distraction than one might think (I guess the students are used to having the dog come to class with her). Anyways, she came into my class for one period and when she read a book to the class on the carpet the dog (which was a border collie) was sitting watching her read the book and looked just like one of the students... eager to see what the book was all about. while it sat and looked at the book.

The kids in this grade 3 class had what they called "science hats"

Science Hats!

I asked them what they were supposed to be and they kept telling me science hats so I'm not at all sure what that green stuff is supposed to represent... my guess was grass but they thought this was preposterous.

We did an Easter tanagram activity in math class that I thought was great and had them super engaged

Easter Tangrams

They coloured, cut, and remade the egg. Then they tried making those other shapes at the top of the page. Just remind them to be careful when cutting because the cuts have to be fairly presice for it to work well. The activity is from Mathsticks (and when searching for this tangram activity I actually found a bunch of other egg/Easter related activities so you might want to search it out!)

I ended the week going to swim and gym one last time with the one rural school I frequent that goes to this. It was the students last time there so we stopped at McDonalds on the way for a treat or in their case, lunch (my husband, who attended the school many moons ago, says they even did this when he was attending the school so I guess they've kept the tradition going). 

It was an easy end to the week as I was in the same class for 2 days and the list on the board was pretty simply: reading, math, and a science test were the harder things to do that we managed to get almost completed by the end of the morning of the first day.

And with that it's Spring Break!  

I'll be taking a break from the blog next week (although there is one post for next week ready to go so watch for that) and will be back to the blog (and school) after Easter.

Have a safe and happy Easter (and spring break if you happen to be on it)!

This Week At School

This week at school I...

- Participated in a cooking class (we made grilled cheese sandwiches and cut up carrots and pickles)

- Played a lot of Uno and Scattergories 

Card Scattergories - the kids loved it!

- Played some bench ball (some how my team lost... not sure how that happened since I excelled at Sink that Ship just last week) 

- Had a health day... and was reminded about Canada's food guide (after thinking about everything that I eat in a day I've come to realize I'm likely lacking in the fruit and vegetable category of the food guide and am eating an excess of grains)

- The classroom that I was in on this health day had a bit of a greenhouse inside that was kind of cool. We were reading a book about farms and food that is grown there and I told them about how I was going to go to the local library to pick up some seeds and we talked about the seeds that I picked up from the library after lunch (I went during lunch).

Greenhouse inside of classroom

- One of the classes I was in had done this art project

Tin Foil Sculptures

and it reminded me of these and these art projects I had done in the past 

- Ran into some of my grade 4 students from last year and I never noticed it before but a lot of growing up has gone on between grade 4 and 5... not only do some of them look more grown up but boy are they acting like a lovely bunch of students.

- But perhaps my biggest accomplishment was finding my way to a VERY rural school that I haven't been to in months without taking a single wrong turn. Go me!

Picking Teams

Sometimes you have to sub in a gym class and you need to put your students in teams to play (or you might even have to put them into teams for something in the classroom too). Here is my fool proof way for picking teams when you don't know the students.

You'll be tempted to line the students up and go 1,2,1,2,1,2 which is most of what I do. Except usually, you'll see a few students switch places in the lineup so that one team will be stacked or Jimmy gets to be on the same team with all his friends. If I happen to see students switching spots (and they usually do) I'll switch up the way I'm counting so it might instead go 1,2,11,22,1,2,111,222. That's it. Congrats, you've created a mixed team that doesn't consist of one person and all their besties. But I'm sure there are many more simple ways to create teams when you don't know the students... leave what you do in the comments.

This Week at School

This was the week of the big snowstorm here where I live in Manitoba (one has to happen at least once a year). On Monday the weather was fine. I was sending students out for recess and making them put on their snow pants even though they were claiming it was "so hot" outside (it was likely around -20... definitely not hot). 

I went to a new school this week and had such a wonderful time that I left my name and number to hopefully make a return trip there sometime. This new to me school had a climbing wall in their gym that my grade 3/4 students were climbing on during gym class. It was also here that I got to meet Bubbles... the class fish. 

Later in the week we did another Olympic activity (they had already seen the videos I had shown a previous week so we didn't watch those. 

Biathlon was a popular pick for a sport to play

and we played "Sink the Ship" in gym class where I was picked first to be on a team both times (yes I played with them.... there were only 5 of them and they needed me to make the teams even).  I also scored all the points for both teams that I was on 

*pats herself on the back for beating a bunch of grade 1-3 students*

I also got to go on a bit of a "field trip" and we headed back into the big bad city (in which I live) to go for some swimming lessons and gym time (I was at a small rural school this day). It was a super easy afternoon since all I had to do was help with supervision.

I was supposed to be at 2 rural schools on the day of the snowstorm (one in the morning and then driving about 30 minutes to the next one for the afternoon). I checked for school closures multiple times that morning and never heard of any so off I went to the first school. This was also the day I failed to realize I was nearly on empty for gas until I got to the first school (which is when my gas light came on). Not a big deal though... there was a gas station about 20 minutes away that would be on my way to school #2. Anyways, it was on this day that no one (other than the principal) managed to make it in to school. I mean, there are only 2.5 teachers at this particular school but there are 4.5 staff members. Luckily for me, it was jello day on the colony and so I didn't have to share my dessert with anyone!... The staff at the kitchen must have been told I was the only one here though because they did end up sending more individual sized portions

Anyways, in the end, because visibility was so low (which is why no one was making it into the first school) they decided they didn't need me at the 2nd school that day and I should just stay at the colony (which was fine by me). I finished up my day there, drove home (and stopped for gas once I got back into the city) without a single incident (thankfully)

the view out one of the classroom windows during the snowstorm (yes, it's rural so there isn't much to actually see out the window but there is a building out in the distance that would easily be visible on a more clear day - I'll take another picture one day soon).

Sidenote: When I got to the school I mentioned to the principal how I was surprised that school wasn't cancelled for the day and he told me that apparently if the snowstorm would have started an hour earlier and they would have seen then how bad it was going to be they would have cancelled school. So for all of you living in the states (or elsewhere) that get school cancelled at the drop of a single snowflake.... just think of us up here in Manitoba freezing cold, a foot of snow, and with next to nothing for visibility and still going to school.

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!

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?

What I Wore

Today is my first ever snow day (that I can remember at least)!

Yesterday I also got my internet hooked up so I'm back online and ready to move on with my life in my new place!

So to start off this first ever blog post from my new place... What did I wear to school yesterday?

With just over 2 weeks until Christmas things are starting to wind down at school.  Kids are getting antsy and the teachers are having to entertain them more than usual.

So yesterday we played floor hockey against the grade 8 boys at lunch!

I debated on whether I would want to change at school or to just play floor hockey with what I was already wearing and since I was already bringing a large container of cookies for snack I opted for a more casual look

The kids commented on how different I looked and even told me that I looked more casual!

Plus my snoozing sushi shirt was a huge hit.

The teachers lost both games (but hey, we were low on players)

Dressing for the Job

This one particular day I was sent to a school to sub for a teacher only to find out once I arrived at said school that the teacher had gotten a new job at a different school.

Not to panic. It wasn't too far from the school I was already at so in just a few more minutes I would be at the proper school and all would be alright.

So I arrive at the proper school and find my classroom only to find out that the teacher is still in the building and just getting ready to leave for some PD. That's fine. He can just tell me about the day and I don't have to read through a sub plan.

But let's back up. I want to tell you what I decided to wear this day!... it's important so just go with it!

Since the job description clearly said I would be a science teacher I opted for some flip flops and a black skirt and some kind of shirt... that's not really the important part.. the skirt part is.

So anyways, the teacher fills me in on the day looks at me and goes "oh by the way, I teach a couple classes of gym"

Well this is just dandy. I am clearly not dressed for any kind of gym class.

Gym class rolls around for the last couple of periods of the day. It's a boys class which is even better and they decide to spend it outside playing baseball.

So we head outside and luckily for me no one wants the substitute wearing a skirt and flip flops to be on their team so I stand around outside acting like I know what I'm doing but mostly just hoping no one runs away and that maybe I'll get a little bit of a tan from this.

A photo of my most recent day of a surprise phys-ed teacher.  I did have runners in my trunk but when I went to pick up my first group of kids the teacher smiled at me and said "you're far too cute to be the phys-ed teacher".  So I rocked my flats and my cute look instead.