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?

Easter Bulletin Board Ideas

Now that you have some Easter art up it's time to transform your bulletin board (or, you know, maybe not because we can't be changing it for every.single.season).  BUT, if you are keen on changing your bulletin board (or maybe have a lot of parent volunteers in your room that can help) here are a few ideas I found on the inter webs.

These first 2 I couldn't actually find the site they originated from to link back to it... I thought the first one was fun though.

and this one I thought I would have each of my students decorate a paper egg to add to the bulletin board

This one comes from here

Do you decorate your classrooms bulletin board for Easter?

Post a picture of it in the comments!

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

Spring

Valentine's Day

Winter

Christmas

Remembrance Day

Halloween

Back to School

PS.  Happy April Fools Day!  I can't imagine there's a lot of pranks being played in a time like this but have you ever played a prank on your students?  Here and here are what I did last year to my students.

Easter Art Ideas

Here we are again with another holiday quickly approaching.  I'm doing this one a little earlier than what I typically do because spring break starts next week (and I don't plan to really be posting).

Anyways, lets get right into it!

I will have a link to a supply list and instructions for how to do each of these!

This first one is my absolute favourite.  Insta Bunnies

There are pictures on the link of what other teachers did with the bunnies too... all super adorable!

These "Easter eggs" are gorgeous you can find the instructions here 

Tin Foil Easter Egg

You may recall about a year ago one of the classes I was going into was doing string art... they were finding it challenging because they couldn't hammer nails into the boards, and then needles weren't holding the string.  Well, I think this paper plate string art is super adorable for Easter and likely not too difficult for even young students (though you may have to punch all the holes)!

Shaving Cream Easter Eggs

Suncatcher Easter Eggs

What kind of art projects do you do in your classroom for Easter?

 Share them in the comments!

If you are looking for art ideas for different times of the year here are a few other posts I have done:

Spring Art

Valentine's Day Art

Winter Art

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?

This Week At School

It was a not so busy week leading up to 2 of 3 school divisions that I work for having their report writing day yesterday.

I was teaching in the early years class at a colony school this week.  We read a lot of books and played some math games - it was a pretty fun day!

I also had a half day get cancelled on me only to be replaced by a full day (which I was super grateful for being that it was a slow week) where I was covering for the acting principal while he had to... act as principal.  On this day was the day my province had it's first confirmed case of the Corona Virus (which later turned into multiple confirmed cases) so the kids were in a bit of panic but we still managed to get some learning done!

I'm in the process of writing a post on the Corona Virus and how it's impacting schools in my province for Monday - so come back then to hear all about it! 

2 more weeks until spring break!

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

This Week At School

This week at school I had a class of grade 8 students spin me a tale of how they caused plumbing issues at the school the previous week due to how they used the facilities. It was quite the tale and obviously I didn't believe them. Come to find out a few days later that the school actually did have plumbing issues and the students were dismissed at noon one day because of it. Was it due to how a bunch of boys used the bathrooms that morning... I doubt it. A not so great smell had been coming through the library for most of the week so I'm assuming it had something to do with that.

I also had a half day turn into a full day due to a balloon popping in a teachers eye.

I learned all about Ruby Bridges and started watching a movie on her with a group of grade 7 students.

I administered the writing of a dividing and multiplying fractions test.

There was a snow day for the division I work for that is outside of the city (unfortunately I was not working in this division on this day... I was there the day before the snow day though).

The snow that we got was good news for my husband who has been working on making an autonomous snowblower all winter. It finally made the move from the heated garage to our house the week before so my husband was itching for snow to get to try it out on our driveway. Well the day finally arrived... here's a picture of it in action (of course it snowed at night so the lighting isn't the best).

To clean up the parts that it missed during its autonomous run he used an xbox controller to control where the snowblower went (because who wants to push the snowblower up and down the driveway these days anyway?)... then while moving the snowblower back into the garage be put the xbox controller on the back of my car... which is where it stayed as I went back and forth to work that day. Luckily, a person parked behind me on the street at school told me about a random xbox controller on the back of my car and I managed to save it for 2nd drive back home (I had gone home at lunch this day because it was the day my half day turned into a full day).

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

This Week At School

This week at school...

-  We had a truth and reconciliation day.  It started off with an assembly with multiple speakers (one being Phyllis Webstad the author and main character in Phyllis' Orange Shirt).  Then we had a couple of other sessions throughout the day.  In one of those sessions we played a game where students had to try to collect rights that people have.  There were 7 in total that they were looking for and they started off with some (some may have had 5 of the same right, others had nothing to start with, and others had 12 to start with).  So they had to trade to get their other rights BUT they weren't allowed to talk or they would have to sit out for a minute.  Then we had a discussion about how frustrating it was for those that weren't given enough rights to begin with, how we obtained the rights we were missing (some people stole them from other people if they left them on tables) and yet how easy the game was for others.  We then related it all back to residential schools and how even still not everyone has their rights being met.  It was a real eye opener and if possible very much worth a play with your students on (or around) September 30th.

I was in a classroom that I hadn't been in yet... ever of grade 3/4 students.  Since February was I Love to Read month they were having a "battle of the books" so I read them one and we watched a video of "One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish"... they voted for the One Fish Two Fish book.

We watched a Bill Nye video when I was a science teacher (yes, they sang along... some with their own lyrics)

I spent the day teaching middle years basic French.



Wednesday this week was also Pink Shirt Day - a day to talk about bullying and how it impacks those around us.  If you didn't do anything for Pink Shirt Day it is never too late so here is a link to some things that I've done with my students in the past.

City Skyline Art Idea

I found this lovely picture in an art room I was in recently:

Middle Years City Skyline Art Idea

Now, I couldn't find the lesson online but it seems pretty straight forward

1)  Paint the background in some kind of gradient

2) Draw out a city skyline on a piece of paper and then cut it out

3)  Trace skyline onto black construction paper, cut out, and glue onto painted paper

4)  Create shadows in the water

The teacher also had some things the students had to include with their structures

I think these are some good criteria... that way you don't have someone doing a bunch of rectangles or houses and it makes it look more interesting.

When trying to find a lesson online to go with this I found loads of other city skyline art ideas (seriously, there are TONS out there).  So if you are interested in a slightly different version of this - they are out there!

If you are interested in reading some of my other art related posts here are a few:

What if I had Animal Teeth?

Winter Art Ideas

Halloween/Fall Art Ideas

Remembrance Day Art Ideas

Dutch Tulip Fields

This Week At School

This week at school was pretty swell.

I had a late start/early day off one day this week... which is kind of nice (because I get to sleep in a bit and get things done before my husband gets home) but kind of sucks because when all was said and done I ended up getting paid for less than a half day.

I had an afternoon with a couple of pretty easy ELA classes.

Then I was in kindergarten and found this

no nose picking!

And a giant Pet Palace.

It's hard to see but in this first picture there are even xrays of different animals inside the Pet Palace (I think it was like a vet)

I loved all the misspelled signs!

And that was my week!

I pretty much already have all of next week prebooked (which is nice).

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).

Bill Nye Makes an Appearance?

You may remember when I was teaching "dance" before Christmas break this year and we spent those classes watching High School Musical.  Well, according to one of my students they definitely saw Bill Bye (the science guy) in the movie.  This student was so insistent that he made us go back and rewatch the last 5 minutes until we were all positive that Bill Nye was not in High School Musical.

But... don't worry Bill Nye, you may not have gotten a role in High School Musical BUT the kids thought they saw you... so you are still very much a large part of their lives.

This Week At School

This week at school I....

Was a grade 1/2 Spanish immersion teacher (and no I do not speak Spanish)

English and Spanish word wall

Needless to say we had an English speaking day!

I was a home ec teacher!

We attempted to make brownies but very few groups had brownies that were done by the end of the class... so the vice principal came in to supervise them while I moved on to my next class (which was in another room).

I was an art teacher... we used clay and drew.

And on Valentine's Day I was a kindergarten teacher!

For some reason I thought it would go over better than what it did... they had WAY TOO MUCH SUGAR!

We also watched a movie for part of the day (thank goodness)

Naturally I had to get a picture of me in my Valentine's Day ensemble... so basically the pink shirt with blue hearts all over it.  One of the kindergarten kids added a sticker onto the pocket of my sweater though.

And yes I purposefully included all the words of encouragement this mirror had to offer.

I'm on fire...why thank you!

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? 

This Week At School

This week started off with an hours long power outage!

I was working outside of the city on the power outage day and had a late start to my morning so I started around 10am instead of 8:30. When I got there the secretary was outside (I think to get cell reception) and informed me that the power was out and likely would be out for a while. What dis this mean for classes? Well, apparently when you have newer septic tanks (or something) it means classes continue on [relatively] as normal. We didn't have heat so kids weren't going to go outside for their lunch or pm recess' so that we wouldn't let the cold air in and they put little lanterns in the bathrooms (because they didn't have windows to let in sunlight). The class that was most effected by the power outage would have been gym since once the emergency lights went out after an hour it was pitch dark in there! For lunch, anyone with a frozen lunch was going to be given bread and cheese to make a sandwich out of since they couldn't warm up their food. Everyone else was left to eat what they had (cold soup - yuck!). Luckily, the power ended up coming on for brief spurts around noon so even though we were still in class I let the kids warm up their food (30 seconds at a time since the power still continued to go out every 30 seconds). 

The power outage reminded me of another time when I was teaching grade 4 and the power was out for an hour or so one morning and then there was the time I was teaching grade 7 and it went out (thankfully at the very end of the day). 

The rest of my week wasn't nearly as exciting!

I went to the colony a couple of times where I was a little bit of everything) and spent a morning in a middle years classroom.

** Edit **
I nearly forgot!
This Friday is Valentine's Day!

So if you still need some Valentine related things to do (or make) here is a short list:

Valentine's Day Art
Valentine's Day cards (free printable)
Valentine's Day box ideas

I printed the mustache cards for my students when I taught grade 5/6 and put a Tootsie Pop through them... they loved them (and I still have our class pic of us all with our mustaches)!

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?

How to Teach Your Students to Write Descriptively

I was in a grade 3 classroom a while ago and had the opportunity to co-teach a lesson with another teacher (which pretty much meant she led the lesson and I helped the students with it).  The aim of this particular lesson was to get students to write descriptively and here was how it went:

Prior to teaching the lesson to the students the teacher pulled me aside and told me that another teacher was going to come in all in a panic that a scary dog chased her through the school but wasn't going to describe the dog anymore than that.  

So this happened and she came busting through the classroom door and the students got all excited.  She told them about the dog and that the principal wanted them to make found posters for the dog so that they could find it's owner.  

All was going according to plan until one student freaked right out and dashed over to some counter height stools and climbed on top of them.  He was terrified of dogs (and it didn't help that the only describing words for this dog was that it was scary).  The rest of the class loved it but the one that was afraid I had to continually console him from off a tall table (that he tried sitting on multiple times) and their pictures all looked very different (which was the point of the exercise).  

At the end of the period the teacher confessed and told them that there was no dog and explained why it was hard to come up with an accurate poster for this found dog because we didn't actually know what the dog looked like!  

But alas, even with the confession the terrified student couldn't be convinced to leave the classroom.  So while the rest of the class went to music he stayed behind and read a book (at least he wasn't on top of the table anymore).  Eventually I convinced him to leave the classroom and walk with me to go pick up the class from music (and then it was the end of the day so he went home). 

So, have you ever had a lesson backfire in a pretty major way (even if it was just for one student)?

What are you doing to help encourage your students to add descriptions to their writing?

Here's another post I did about a project where students described a hero, here is what a grade 5 class did to describe hot chocolate and here is what I had my grade 8's do when describing how to make a sandwich.

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?