Ms. K
How Can You Use Your Spare String of Christmas Lights?
You can easily find a string of Christmas lights at this time of year. One year my mentor gave me the idea to put a string of lights around a bulletin board with this clever title: See Your Name in Lights. Post any type of student work and ta-da…a stellar bulletin board. The great thing about this title is that you can leave the bulletin board up after Christmas since it doesn’t actually refer to the season or to a holiday. It always makes me sad to put so much work into a bulletin board for Christmas, and then the holiday is over since we are only in school about two weeks out of December. At this particular school we didn’t have any actual bulletin boards, so this isn’t as artsy as one I have made in the past. We had to staple/push pin things into the drywall (shhh don’t tell), and the drywall doesn’t hold much. For example, you could staple little sunglasses into the wall to resemble Hollywood stars and use metallic silver border to make the lights reflect like a real sign.
Happy Thanksgiving!
I am thankful for all of you, my followers and visitors!
Edible and VERY Cute Indian Village
Well, I have just dirtied up just about every dish in the kitchen and had fun doing so…thanks to an image I saw on pinterest! I found this recipe at Christie’s blog for making teepee cone cupcakes, and decided to try it. I am bringing it over to my friend’s dinner tomorrow. I am hoping the kids will love them. I didn’t do this for anything school related, however, if you are studying Indians and pilgrims, you could have the cupcake cones ready made for the students to decorate. The only things I did differently than the recipe at Christie’s blog is I used a large foil roaster pan instead, and I iced the bottom of the cones in addition to using the chocolate. I couldn’t find leaf sprinkles at Wal-mart or Hobby Lobby, so I sifted through some colored ones I had and took out the pink and blue (I know ridiculous!). Sadly, the stocker at Wal-mart told me that they had replaced the leaf sprinkles with Christmas sprinkles–and to think Thanksgiving isn’t even officially here!
Another Festive Winter Christmas Door!
My colleague is still creating envy among the ranks and giving himself more to do. Here is yet another fabulous Christmas or winter door. The paper is a little wrinkly at the top but he still created a very handsome little snowman :). Sorry, I know the picture isn’t the best quality.
Did You Know Peppermint Candies Grow?
This is too cute not to try!!! I learned that peppermints grow from a very talented kindergarten teacher. Every Christmas season, she has her students plant peppermints in a cup of dirt. Students put glitter in the dirt for fertilizer and then just wait. In a few days, a small candy cane has emerged “growing in the cup”. In another few days, a candy cane of larger stature has “grown”. Children are oh so excited that their peppermint grew to such a large stature! Of course behind the scenes, their teacher is placing a small candy cane in the cup when the children have gone for the day, and then replacing the small candy cane with a larger candy cane. This all for the amazement and wonder in children’s eyes that comes from the magic of Christmas.
More Christmas Themed Doors!
In my post yesterday, I placed a picture of my neighbor’s door at school. So many teachers admired the door that they wanted their door decorated too! With some persuasion he decorated some other teachers’ doors as well (pictured below). These photos may give you some ideas if you are feeling festive this Christmas season!
Monkey Christmas Present Door
Christmas Tree Door in Progress. Students will put ornaments on the tree to decorate it.
Clever way to make snow for a Christmas Tree–just white bulletin board paper cut along the edge.
Do You Need an Idea for a Festive Christmas Door?
My colleague next door felt that I had given him a little competition with my Grapes of Math door earlier this year :), so he has festively decorated his door for each season this year. This colleague exudes artistic talent and can construct just about anything with some colored bulletin board paper and cardboard. This is his “gift” to everyone in the hall. I just love it–and all out of bulletin board paper too!
Have A Few Extra Minutes? Play SQUAT!
To practice math facts, spelling words, or any other quick answer type learning, you can play Squat. To play Squat, two students from two different teams approach the board. The teacher calls out a fact or a spelling word. The two students at the board race to answer the question correctly and then they squat when they think they have the correct answer. If they are correct they earn a point for their team.
When I have played this, I usually split my class into two teams. Different students on the teams take turns to be at the board to earn their team points. Team points can be taken away from students who aren’t waiting quietly or who blurt out an answer when it isn’t their turn. Students love this game and will beg to play it after you have played once. If you have some extra time (heh, heh, who has that?!) during a spot in your day, this is a fun way to reinforce skills or fill time.
How Can You Get Your Classroom Cleaned Up Fast?
Does this sound familiar? You are surprised when you look up to see the clock shows that you only have 9 minutes to pass out end of the day papers, close your lesson, to have children to clean their desks, to have children get their backpacks, and line up in an orderly fashion. You look at the floor and think the custodian will groan will he comes to your room. You think you don’t have any time to have the children clean the classroom floor, but that’s because you have never played “I Spy” the trash version! I learned this antic from a P.E. teacher.
The teacher says, “The person who gets the piece of trash I spy gets_______ (you fill in the blank–a treat or prize?). You have 30 (etc.) seconds. Go!”
Students then frantically look for pieces of trash and try to figure out what piece of trash you see. Don’t stop the game until the classroom floor looks as clean as you desire. Students will ask you if they found the piece of trash you spied, but don’t stop the game until you get the floor clean. Sometimes I tell students that I spied another piece of trash if I want to spur on more meticulous trash gathering. If you have a group of children that aren’t well managed this game can become rambunctious, but I have found that if you have high expectations and procedures with the rest of your day students will stay focused on trash finding. This game is fun for both the students and the teacher.
Where Can You Find Model Common Core Lesson Videos?
Today I was at a professional meeting in which we were working on building a pacing guide for the 3rd-5th common core standards. The presenter for our meeting showed us this fabulous website which has cutting edge materials pertinent to the common core standards. There are a few sample tasks for each grade level with rubrics. Not only are there tasks, but there are videos of teachers, coaches, and principals discussing student thinking before and after a video taped lesson as well as teachers teaching lessons. If you just want to view a part of the video sessions, they are broken up into parts: before the lesson, the different sections of the lesson, and the debriefing after the lesson. I really enjoyed hearing the teachers discuss why and how they were planning because I had a sense of the fact that I am not alone in the problems I am having with children’s mathematical thinking. These problems are found across our country–the one aspect about the second grade video that grabbed my attention is that this second grade teacher was discussing how her students see a word problem and want to immediately add the two numbers within the problem even though the problem may not be an addition problem. All in all this website is a fabulous find especially if you are responsible for doing any professional learning meetings at your school–or even if you just want to learn yourself. (FYI: As of the time of this post, there are a lot more upper grade videos than elementary, but the site is worth a visit no matter what grade you teach.)
