Five For Friday

I'm linking up with Doodlebugs Teaching for another Five for Friday post

Here are 5 things that happened at school this week

1

I taught Grade 11 Math and knew what I was talking about!

Okay, so I only became confident in what I was talking about AFTER I found the teachers notes (which is likely when we all became a little more confident in what we were doing)... but it counts... right?

2.

I taught Grade 10 Dance

That's right, dance.  A Mennonite teaching dance in a Mennonite community.

Confession:  We watched a movie and no dance was taught.

3.

I've been making the rounds at a new (to me) school

Huzzah for a new school that regularly books me as their sub!

Huzzah again for it being a really quick commute!

4.

I left a book behind

This has happened a lot in the past... sometimes it's a water bottle.  Luckily, this is only the 2nd book I've left behind (and one was at my old school so I eventually got it back).  This one I'm not so sure I'll be back to collect... and I'm not from the area (or town for that matter) that the school is located.  *sigh* "What's With This Room" may not be my go to read when I go subbing anymore.

5.

School wide breakfast!

I got to bring a class I was subbing in for a school wide breakfast with the local hockey team.  Muffins and cheese strings were devoured and shirts were won.  A fine time was had by all (and I didn't have a class to teach for the first period!)

It All Adds Up To Zero

I was subbing in a grade 5/6 class and the teacher had the students playing a very simple dice game to get them to add negative and positive numbers.  I tried to search for it online (she was calling it "It All Adds Up To Zero") but I didn't find anything... if you do know of a link add the link in the comments below!

Anyways, here is what you'll need (for each pair of students)

- one deck of cards with the kings, queens, and jokers removed

- one pencil

- 2 pencil crayons that are different colours

- 2 dice

- a piece of paper to draw out the board (or you could make one and print it off for them)

The board game would be simple enough to make (they could even use graph paper) just print off a sheet with squares on it and have them block of a playing area and an area to keep track of their scores.

How to play:

When it is your turn you turn over 2 cards.  Red cards are positive numbers and black cards are negative.  Also, a jack is 0 and an ace is 1.

You look at the 2 cards and decide which number you would like to write down (using your pencil) on the board any where you like (for the first player it really doesn't matter where you write your number).  Just make sure you write down the negative sign if it's negative!

Second player turns over 2 cards and chooses one to write down... this one doesn't really matter where you write it either (you'll see why in a minute)

Now it is back to the first player and they turn over 2 cards and choose one to write down.  The point of the game is to get 3 or more numbers in a row that will add up to 0 (horizontally, vertically, or diagonally).  So say you had a -3 and -4 already beside each other written down on the board and you happened to turn over a +7 (or a red 7) if you write it down beside the other 2 numbers you could circle them (in the colour of pencil crayon that you want to be yours) because those numbers all add up to 0 and get 1 point.  

Now that those 3 numbers are circled you cannot use all 3 of them again to make a longer set of numbers that add up to 0 (say you got a jack which is 0... even if you placed it beside the already existing chain you couldn't count it as another one).  You could use one number from that chain again in another one though.

You don't have to only make sets of 3... but the minimum number of numbers you need are 3.

When the space is filled up with numbers you can count up your points and see who won!

Easy!

(boy I hope this made sense... if it didn't let me know in the comment section and I'll do my very best to answer all of your questions).

Secret Bathroom

I've been subbing at this one school a lot lately. It is one that I had never been to before (unless going there for meetings or for a track and field event counts). Anyways, during those things I had never used the bathrooms at this school. Here's the thing, I'm convinced there must be a secret staff bathroom in this school and I haven't been privy to this information yet.

Why do I think there is a secret staff bathroom?

The bathroom that they have is located in their staffroom. Perfectly normal, the abnormal thing about this bathroom is that there is only one for all the female staff and one for all the male staff... which in a small school that could be okay but this school isn't too small.

I know what you're thinking... okay then... so you've had to wait to use the bathroom because there is only one.

Not at all, never once have I ever had to wait to use that bathroom. Not only have I never had to wait but I've never had anyone waiting on me either. How does this happen... I'm not sure. In fact, there is only one reasonable explanation. Secret Staff Bathroom.

Wear Pink to Stop Bullying

Today (February 24th 2016) was the day we were pink to stop bullying.  Luckily, I heard about it on the radio when my alarm went off this morning so I did a quick rethink as to what I could wear so that I could show my support to end bullying and this is what I came up with.

If you missed it it's never too late to teach your students about the effects of bullying.

Here is what I did last year (there is link to a free resource that went over really well in my classroom too - AND my administration liked it too!).  I used it in grades 5 and 6 but I think it could be used from grade 3-8.

Enjoy!

Did you wear pink today?