You Need These to Start Your Year Off Right!
Every year I like to have a good supply of Young Living essential oils to help everyone in the classroom to have a good attitude–me included! You also will need an ultrasonic cool mist diffuser to get the maximum benefits from the oils. I ONLY use Young Living because they are the purest. Lemon, lavender, and peppermint help me to stay focused personally, and I believe they have the same effect on my students. In addition, I like to have a bottle of Thieves oil for months where sickness abounds. Before school begins, I clean tables and chairs etc. with Thieves Household cleaner.
Also, who can start the year off without a subscription to Super Teacher Worksheets?! When I need a quick review on a topic, a collection of items for children to do when a substitute is expected, Super Teacher Worksheets “always has my back”. At such a low cost for a yearly subscription, you really must invest. You will be glad you did!
I also use these posters in my TPT store to teach procedures to my enrichment groups. This is when I “push in” to a classroom and teach a 30 minute or so lesson.
Try This Original Way to Decorate Your Chair!
I have been looking at this ugly, 1970s orange plastic chair for years thinking I wanted to get rid of it, cover it or something. I bought spray paint, yet I delayed the painting since I thought it may be messy. Well, I finally committed to wearing old clothes on a PD day.
Since I teach GT, I wanted the chair to be original, so I got some die cut circles and covered the chair. Then I let the painting begin! I chose purple. I’m pretty proud of the end result, but I wish I had taped the circles down better so that they didn’t move when the paint came by each circle. It would have made the lines sharper.
What do you think? Do you like it? Would you paint your chair a different way?
Easy End of the Year Hack!
Do you traipse to the work room at school to grab a spool of bulletin board paper to cover your shelves? This is chore seldom few look forward to except that it is getting one closer to packing up for the summer! I learned this helpful trick from my wise and soon to retire teaching partner. She had a lot of black cloth. These cloths served as easy cover ups for the end of the school year for shelves, bookcases, computers, and the like. No more cutting large pieces of paper from the workroom since these different sized sheets of cloth served to cover just about anything! During the school year, the pieces of fabric worked well to don showcase tables, cover open house tables, or create costumes for children! The ideas are endless. I keep them folded within easy reach during the school year. I just happened to have black, but you could use old sheets or others colors of fabric. This time saving tip rewards you every year!
How Will You Celebrate National Crayon Day?
Did you know National Crayon Day is March 31? This year we designed and built boxes for crayons. I did this to get children to think about the shape of solids such as rectangular prisms. First we discussed and built a net for a cube. I had children do this and we discussed the number of faces and if there were other ways to make a net for a cube. Children enjoy this and it supports their math. I bring in boxes that I have cut apart and we discuss different packaging. We also discuss careers of graphic designers and how they design the printed packaging on boxes. In the second lesson, I give students ¾ inch grid paper to draw a box net and cut it out. Next, I tell them they can draw an outline of their net and cut it out. The next step is designing their packaging. I do this lesson in two steps but honestly this lesson could take longer. as they are packaging designers. Many students need longer to create a correct box. Prepare extra sheets of paper.
Here is the lesson if I were to teach it in steps:
Lesson 1: Bring in snap cubes and discuss the number of faces on a cube. Give each child a sheet of paper. I do not give them grid paper, but only a white sheet of paper. I have a few students who figure out how to do this successfully and have them share.
Lesson 2: Review the nets for a cube and show students other rectangular prism boxes. I allow children to look at the rectangular prism boxes as needed. Tell students to use their own crayon box in their desk as an example. I give students a sheet of grid paper to draw their box outline, cut the outline, color, and build their box. I allow them to use a glue stick ONLY after they can fold their box without glue.
Here are some of the students at work!
Below is a net lesson I enjoy that helps discover nets for a cube!
Make These Easy St. Patrick’s Day Treats!
I made these little “pots of gold” in no time! The Dollar Tree had nearly everything I needed. I was looking for some cuter cups, but these worked just fine. I found them in the disposable dishes area. I bought some multicolored little cups that hold about four ounces. The packages I bought had multicolors. I bought several packages and pulled all of the green colored ones out. Then I bought some gold Easter grass and put a little in each cup. Next, I bought some Rollo candy…Who doesn’t love to receive a treat for an occasion. Of course, I attached a cute note about begin worth more than gold and ta-da…I made a cute treat to brighten all of the teachers’ day! I hope you get a chance to do something kind for those you work with, too!
Has Engagement Hit a Slump? Try this!
I’m back at it with worm and ecosystem lessons this year. Because I have a smaller group of students that I taught this time, my lessons were a bit different. Here are my previous lessons on worms and ecosystems. In this case each child did NOT have their own worm, but there was a class worm farm. I did this previously in other teachers’s classrooms, so I wasn’t able to tend to the needs of the worms all the time.
WARNING: If you want to do this start saving your glass jars now. Plastic jars work okay, but I prefer the glass ones because the lids are metal and easier to punch holes in. With plastic jars, the lids are thinner and harder to puncture without cracking the lid. I requested children’s parents send in a jar, but not every child will bring one, as you know. I punctured the metal lids with a very small hole so that oxygen can pass through, and we don’t kill the worms. If you are able, it really does seem to benefit the children more and give them more responsibility to have their own worm farm.
DAY 1: Talk about ecosystems and layers of soil. Have the children make a diagram, color, and label the layers.
DAY 2: Preparing the jar will take one day’s lesson. Before preparing the jar, we had a discussion about the layers of soil and especially discussed topsoil and humus where the worms reside. We put cardboard and or brown paper in the bottom to absorb the water. I also gave them black construction paper and tape to give the worms the illusion of darkness around the jar. Some children make peepholes in their black paper. Flaps seem to work best so that they can flip them up and watch the worms work.
DAY 3: Next, I let them dig up their own dirt this time outside and one child even found a worm this way! It doesn’t take much dirt to fill a jar, but be prepared to know where a bare spot is outdoors so that digging isn’t too difficult. Bring a small shovel or a few to school that children can handle. The $1.25 Tree (now) usually has some of these. You will enjoy finding out which children LOVE getting dirty and which ones don’t! (This is fun to watch!). Leave a few inches of space at the top of the jar. Worms are good climbers you will find. Some are adventurous daredevils and will skydive off the table if you aren’t careful!
I had planned three experiments but found I was only able to have the kids accomplish one experiment and journal about it in each class. I repeated the experiments I did when I had the big worm farm in my initial worm farm post here.
DAY 4: Make friends with your school nurse beforehand. Some children will have a stronger aversion to worms than others. It isn’t always just the girls! Ha! I let the children look at the worms for a short few minutes prior to DAY 1. I told them they didn’t have to touch them and gave them a popsicle stick to move the worm with. I asked the nurse if she had gloves after this experience and had the children put them in a ziplock baggie with their name on it. This way whenever we get the worms out everyone has their gloves if they choose to wear them. This helped most kids, but I did still have one who said she didn’t even like to touch the worms with gloves on.
Experiments: 1. Does the worm like to be dry or moist?
Experiment 2. Does the worm like light or dark? At time of the writing on this post we are currently on experiment 2.
Experiment 3. Does the worm like sound/vibration?
Each time we pull out the worms, I have the children journal about each experiment and their worm observations. They record the hypothesis and results of the experiment. In order for this to happen, the worms have to be put away because they are a huge distraction from pencil and paper work.
On a personal note, I have noticed that the worms are all different and respond differently. Some like to wander off, some like to wrap around children’s fingers, some like to jump around, some stay coiled up. The observation is all very intriguing.
Have a mundane or difficult teacher conference? What a great way to add a positive note and distraction to a teacher conference if you happen to need a distraction.
*In case you aren’t aware, you can buy worms at Walmart in a tiny fridge in the sporting goods section.
