How to Use Spell Check

Once, when I was teaching grade 8 ELA I had a bunch of students who really, really, REALLY disliked writing... but they had an extra ELA period (with another teacher) in the computer lab so I set up blogs for each and every one of them so that they would have to write (I talk a bit about them here).  How did it go?  It went ok... I must admit that some students were not responsible enough to have comments enabled or unmonitored, there was some plagiarizing, and there were a bunch of boring topics.  BUT, this is not a story about any of that!

This is a story about how a student used the word "ovaries" continuously throughout his writing because he didn't know how to spell a word and just went with the first word that the spell check suggested.  And that pretty much sums up the story actually... I don't recall what the word he was trying to spell actually was but it was hilarious but he decided ovaries was the correct word.  So teach your students how to use spell check correctly, and if they really don't know if the word they are using is correct it only takes a minute to look up the definition of the word which would hopefully grant them more clarity. 

Kindness Challenge

Spring is here (and spring break starts tomorrow at 3:30)!

So here is a flower related kindness challenge (that could actually even work in the winter time because of the how this teacher is growing her flowers).

First, a bit of a backstory.  For Christmas I bought my husband an Aerogarden.  Which is a fancy hydroponic indoor garden.  We are growing tomatoes in ours (but I'll post about ours another time).  When I bought it for him I naturally tried to learn as much about it as possible and so I joined an Aerogarden Facebook group where not only did I learn about how to use our Aerogarden but how teachers are using them in their classrooms!

Here's what one teacher is doing:

It may be hard to read so I'll summarize it.  Basically, this teacher now has to Aerogarden's that she is planting flower seeds in.  Her grade 2 class has a kindness challenge in that when they see someone who's day needs brightening up they will come and snip a few flowers for them from their garden.

Awww....

How would you use an Aerogarden in your classroom?

Corona Virus and the Education System

Last week the province I live in got its first confirmed case of COVID19 and immediately things started happening.

There was an announcement with the morning announcements about social distancing, staying home if you are unwell, and washing your hands (I was in a middle years school).  Kids started talking about it more often - will they get it (or their parents or their grandparents), will they die if they get it, and of course, when will the school close?  The vice principal even came around at the end of the day to see if anyone had questions or concerns about it.

I've updated this a couple of times since originally writing this post on Thursday, March 12th but the latest news is that schools in my province will be closed for the week before and after spring break (so a 3 week break total). This means that schools will be closed from March 23 - April 13.  Glad it's going to be the weeks surrounding spring break as it's only 3.5 days that I'll be missing out on for work (that I already have booked - it could have been more).  Unfortunately, all meetings, professional developments, and extra curricular activities are also all cancelled leading up to the school closures which means days are being cancelled for next week as well still.

Other provinces have made similar decisions.  In Ontario spring break is this week and schools will remain closed for 2 weeks after spring break - which I get... better to do this now than regret not doing it later.  Quebec is also closing schools for 2 weeks starting this week.  I know a lot of places in the USA have also closed their schools for the time being.  

My friend told me about one school that she heard of and how they were encouraging students to wash their hands.  They gave each student a stamp on their hands at the beginning of the day and at the end of the day they checked their hands - if the stamp was gone it meant they had done a good job washing their hands throughout the day and got some kind of treat for it.  

Naturally, as I learn more I'll keep you all informed... but I'm curious, what's your school district/division doing to help ensure their students remain safe and healthy during this time?

Spring Bulletin Board Ideas

Now that you have some Spring Art done it's time to set up your bulletin board for spring (if you so choose to change it for the season).  Here are some spring bulletin board ideas I found

This first one you can find here

To make it I would have each student design a large flower to add to our vase.

You can find this one here

My personal favourite is the "Spring is in the Air" one. 

You can find this one here

I would have each student make the back of a bunny to add to our bulletin board

For the next 3 I would invite more than just my classroom to participate in... maybe all the grade 5 classrooms or, depending on how big your school is, the entire school.  They all require the student to create something but on that thing that they create I would have them write a goal or a wish for the remainder of the year on it.  They don't have to include their name.

So, you can find this one here

I would have each student make a butterfly (or maybe they would be premade) and on them each student would do some writing.

This one you can find here

I would have each student trace their hand and colour their paper hand however they want.  Then they would write on it what their goal is.

This one you can find here and I just thought it was SO beautiful!

I would have the majority of the students design a simple flower and write on it and a few of them could do a butterfly.

And this one is from here

Everyone gets a slip of paper to write their goal on and then I would (or I would have some student volunteers) make the paper chain for the bulletin board.

Do you make a spring bulletin board?

Which of these examples was your favourite?

If you are looking for bulletin board ideas for other seasons here are a few other blog posts that I've done:

Valentine's Day

Winter

Christmas

Remembrance Day

Halloween

Spring Art Ideas

Believe it or not but spring is just around the corner!

What better way to celebrate the impending arrival of spring but with some lovely spring artwork!  Here are a variety of ideas (ok, most of them have to either do with flowers or rain) for you to use in your classroom!

This time I tried to avoid going to my favourite art teaching blog to get some other ideas... which unfortunately means that they don't all have instructions for how to make them!... it's so much easier when you have instructions so I'll try to explain how I would make some of these that don't have instructions listed (in English) on their websites.

Anyways, to start off with we have some flower art pieces

You can find these here

To make these what I would do is have kids start by taking a piece of construction paper and decorating it to be their base.  They could then cut out the shape that they want but leave a little extra on each end to staple it onto the black piece of construction paper.

Then you could look up a bunch of different how to make different kids of flowers pages but what I would do is just have kids come up with their own ideas for how to create flowers (and stems and leaves) out of construction paper and see what they come up with!

You can find this one here

It's hard to know where to start with this one... I guess you could start by gluing half of a dixie cup onto a black piece of construction paper.  Then I would have kids make the flowers using the wrong end of a paint brush so that it makes dots.  Next, they could flip their paint brushes over to add lines to their flowers and the stems (which should all end up in the dixie cup).  Finally, have students create leaves out of construction paper and glue them down.

You can find this one here

To make this one I would have kids cut out different sized circles from construction paper and then spiralize them by cutting the spirals into them.  Then, make a vase out of paper and glue it down onto a piece of colored paper.  Next, glue down all those spiralized circles that you made earlier, but just glue down the outer circle so that the flowers can "pop" out.  Then add leaves.

You can find this one here and using the translate option on Google Chrome I was able to make sense of the instructions!

You can find this one here (with instructions)

You can find this one here (with instructions)

You can find this one here (with instructions)

You can find this bug art work here.

To start this project I would have kids water colour one piece of water colour paper (trust me, it works better than regular paper).  Then give each student half a piece of black paper and have them draw half of a bug along the edge of the page and carefully cut it out.  Glue the "scrap" piece of black paper carefully on one side of your water colour paper (line up the corners as best as you can) and then glue the half a bug you have to the other water coloured side of the paper (careful to make sure you are gluing it down so that it is symmetrical to the already cut out side).

You can find this one here 

To make this artwork I would start by having students draw a rainbow (using crayons) on a piece of white paper.  Then have them use a white crayon to make rain drops and/or puddles on the ground.  Then have them paint over everything with different shades of blue.  The paint should leave the white crayon showing through so that you can see the raindrops.

Then, take each students picture (I would just let them do it however they want) but tell them to pretend to be holding an umbrella.  Print the pictures and have students carefully cut themselves out of it.  

They will also need to design and colour an umbrella in a size that makes sense to their picture.  Glue down the umbrella, glue down their picture.

You can find this one here (with instructions)

If you are looking for some art ideas for other seasons here are a few other blog posts I've done similar to this one:

Valentine's Day

Winter

Christmas

Remembrance Day

Halloween

Borrowing Supplies from the Teacher

Are you one of those teachers that freely "lends" out all their supplies never really expecting to get much back (but wishing that you would get those pencils, erasers, pens, etc back)?  Well, here's an idea I spied in an art room recently:

The sign is hard to read because of the glare but it says that if you need a pencil you have to sign one out.  Then, I'm assuming, once the pencil is returned to where the students name is they can erase their name.  AND, if the pencil doesn't get returned you'll know who stole it because their name is on the board.  

Genius!

Also, this could work for a variety of things, whatever keeps going missing of your supplies the most I would do this with (I mean, lets not get crazy and have students needing to sign out everything... you get the idea).

Matchomatics

Anyone ever done a Matchomatics questionnaire?  

Essentially it's a bubble sheet of questions you answer about yourself or preferences you have.  The teacher will collect all of them once they are filled in and I guess they send it off to the Matchomatics people.  

What do the Matchomatics people do?  They compute a "match" for you (who will be someone else in your school) and who your ideal friends would be (according to your responses), etc.

But, here's the catch, it's a fundraiser.  So, in order to get your results you have to pay for them.

Anyways, back about a month ago I was in a school that was doing them (I guess students had gotten the question sheet the day before because they were all handing in these bubble sheets to me the day I was there) and I remembered doing one back when I was in high school (though I'm not sure I paid for my results).  I'm surprised a middle school was doing them... oh how the times have changed (now everyone needs to find their match in middle school apparently).  

I'm assuming right about now all those kids are getting their matches figured out.... just in time for Valentine's Day!

Anyways, I guess if you are looking for a really easy fundraiser... this might be one to consider? 

Valentine's Day Bulletin Board Ideas

Now that you have your Valentine's Day Art all done here are some ideas for what you can do for a bulletin board (if you feel so inclined, and I don't blame you if you aren't at all inclined.. switching a bulletin board can be so much work!)

These first 3 I all found here

This first one looks like an art activity where they made cupcakes out of construction paper - great way to incorporate an art activity into a bulletin board!   Of course you could switch it to Forth Grade is Sweet! as well... or whatever you need!

Is Frozen still popular?  I think it is.

I'm not entirely sure on this one but it definitely looks like the teacher had a writing activity for the students and put it on the bulletin board... I wish I knew what the written words were!

And the rest of these I found here

Because one Olaf bulletin board is never enough.

I thought this was beautiful bulletin board for a library!

Another teacher that looks like she used an art activity where the students made owls and incorporated them into her bulletin board idea for Valentine's Day!

Do you make a Valentine's Day bulletin board? 

What does it look like?

Morning Check In

If you are looking for a new way to check in with your students and how they are doing (and maybe something a little less elementary from the zones of regulation stuff) a friend posted this online

Looks like this teacher has a few kids she could be checking in on today to hopefully help them have a better tomorrow.

Do you use a check in system in your classroom?  

What does it look like?

How to Spell "Their"

I think we all need a copy of this to put in our classrooms (elementary through high school)

Winter Art Ideas

Winter is right around the corner (or if you live here you'll think it's already been here for a while) so what better time than to start planning for what you are going to do in your art class during the winter season?

Here are a BUNCH of ideas

First up, Snowmen!

Clay Snowman

Snowmen at Night

This is one of my all time favourite winter art activities I did it when I was teaching grade 5/6 and I did it again when I was subbing in a grade 4/5 class.

Doily Snowmen

Hot Chocolate

If you are looking for some activities to go with this art check out my blog post on what I all did with a grade 4/5 class I was subbing in!

Trees

Evergreen Trees

I found this one to be similar to the water colour and tissue paper trees I did with my grade 4 students.

Birch Trees

Self Portrait Ideas

Snow Angels

Snowy Self Portait

Winter Landscape

Bids

Penguins

Water Colour Penguins

Warm and Cool Penguins

Paper Mache Penguins

If you are looking for more penguin art here and here some that I found in a classroom once

Polar Bears

Chalk Polar Bear

If you are looking for more polar bear activities to do with your class check out the post I did on a grade 1 polar bear unit.

Snowflakes

Tie Dye Snowflake

I love these ones so much that I've done them in a grade 4/5 class I was subbing in before.  You can see what we all did here.

Layered Snowflake

Pop Art Snowflakes

I did this one when I was teaching grade 4

You may have noticed that all my links are to just 2 other blogs... I'm sure there are many more excellent winter art themed activities but these are 2 blogs that I trust and use frequently when looking for good art activities.

What can I say, I found something I like and I've stuck with it!

Do you do any winter art activities in your classroom?

What are they, we'd love to hear about them!

Summarizing Reading

Here is a way to get students to summarize what they've read that I saw a while ago:

The teacher called it CSIW (Colour, Symbol, Image, and Word).

In this particular example a student was summarizing on of the Hunger Game books.

She or he chose the colour red to symbolize the anger in the book (and explains why)

She/he chose the symbol of a fist to represent the power in the book (and explains why)

She/he chose a crowd of people where Katniss is volunteering as tribute as her image because it was what stood out to him/her.

This student hadn't picked a word yet to represent the book but you get the idea.

The template is super easy to make in a couple of minutes and it doesn't just involve writing (I think the drawing and colouring will hook a few more students).

If you are looking for other ways I've seen teachers get students to summarize what they've read here is another post I've done on the topic.

How do you get your students to summarize things?  

Christmas Bulletin Board Ideas

Now that you have some Christmas art done (or you are starting to think about getting some Christmas art done) you'll need to put it up!  Whether you decide to display it on a Christmas themed bulletin board or somewhere else here are some ideas for bulletin boards for the season!

Christmas Wish Tree

This one is pretty easy.  All you need is for students to make some white snowflakes and write a Christmas (or holiday) wish on it.  This one may not fit on a bulletin board but it's beautiful and I thought it was worth mentioning.

Origami Christmas Tree

This one I couldn't find a source to but I think it looks beautiful.  You'll need a bunch of wrapping paper though!

Gingerbread House

This one I thought was pretty cute (I can only imagine how long it took the person who set this up to do though!)

How the Grinch Stole Christmas

This one as well probably took FOREVER... look at all those letters this teacher had to cut out!

Ornaments

I like this one because it is simpler than some of the other examples I've listed AND you could get each of your students to make their own ornament (or 2) out of paper to put on your bulletin board.

PS. I love the reindeer ornament in the middle!

Fireplace

This teacher had her students not only design their own stockings for her bulletin board but also some mugs of hot chocolate!

If I were doing this one I would be sure to include some of my hot chocolate activities I came up with while subbing a couple of years ago!

So, do you make a Christmas theme bulletin board for your classroom?

What does it look like?