Need a Smile During Testing?
Since I have been helping our school test coordinator all week, I felt a little humor was needed for the week with the heavy stress of it all. We have several new mothers at school so I borrowed a diaper and ta-da!!! I hung this on her wall. When she saw this, of course she laughed–my ultimate goal!!! 🙂
Oooooh! Look at all the school supplies!
So I went into Office Depot the other day to pick up something I had printed…and then…I noticed the school supplies! I just can’t help myself! I walked deeper and deeper into the school supplies until finally I found the tape. Colored tape, patterned tape, duck tape, masking tape, etc. Do I need tape? NO! But I muuuuuust have some! Pink tape, polka dotted tape, chevron tape, mustache tape, striped tape–they are all calling my name!
Then I showed some restraint and thought…what would I do with all of this pretty tape? I had absolutely no idea! So I left it there :(, but I’ve still been keeping my eyes opened for ideas. Then I happened across this blog post from Peace, Love, and First Grade. She shows lots of ways to use pretty tape in your room. Also, I found My Own Twist on Things did adorable makeovers to her bookshelves and file cabinets with tape and contact paper! I’m so inspired!
Teacher “Happy” Freebie before Teasting
The weeks that precede testing tend to be the most stressful at school for teachers. Because I see the frantic looks everywhere, I thought I would put a little cheer in everyone’s mailbox. I put one little “happy” in each teacher’s mailbox during the middle of the weeks before testing. One of the teachers called them “little happies” so now that is what they are!
In case you want to cheer some teachers nearby…I am providing the documents I used. They are editable so you can change the wording a bit if you want! Just click on the link below the pictures to download the file.
What NOT to Do with Dry Erase Markers!
Ya’ll are going to love this one!! Just when the custodian was fussing about the painters tape on the floor and my door being open…I did a doozy….
Since I have been working with lots of intervention groups, I am trying to teach them concepts in a short amount of time while I have them out of the classroom. Yesterday I thought I would work on some measurement estimation. I gave the students 3 choices to estimate the length of a car. 12 inches, 12 feet, and 12 yards. Since these students don’t have a lot of experience with measurement, I had many students say 12 inches or 12 yards so….
I saw the need to draw on the floor with a dry erase marker of course! I drew a 12 inch line with a ruler, a 12 foot line with 12 rulers, and a 12 yard line with yard sticks so students could see the difference. They were easily able to see that the 12 foot line was the best estimate.
Then it came time to rub the line off the floor and whadaya know…but…you guessed it…the dry erase marker wouldn’t budge off the floor! AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH! Oh, no! Well, after soliciting some help
someone suggested dry erase board cleaner…and it worked! YAY!
Now if I had it to do over, I would still write on the floor because it didn’t take too much elbow grease to rub off–and the floor is like a new giant white board with endless possibilities!
The Teacher in Me Had to Share This!
So , I was out walking my dog and I just happened to notice this clump of straw on the ground in my yard. My curiosity made me stoop down and pick it up. To my surprise, I found a bird nest!!!! I’ve seen bird nests before, but somehow I’m always amazed at the work that a little bird did making such a sturdy structure. The nest was soft like a bed on the inside but the nest walls had mud packed in to the sides to help strengthen it. More coarse grassy materials were on the outside. Birds–little engineers! Yep…nothing mathematical to share at all here except there were 0 eggs in the nest. Needless to say I brought this to school to share with a teacher who could use it in her science lesson. Just the secrecy of what was in the cardboard box I carried around on the way to delivery caused plenty of kid curiosity.
Losing My Dignity as a Mathemagician…
You know how you try things out at the end of the year preparing for the next year? Well, I tried out something and DID lose my dignity, but the kids loved it! I dressed up as a mathemagician …more specifically The Masked Mathemagician! I told the kids that Ms. K had sent the magician to tell the special news. I did this to announce our Math Wars awards. I had one big contest at the end of the year where I awarded students in the top three places for Reflex Math AND the top three classes in K-2 and 3-5. I bought a cape and mask at Wal-Mart in the toy section for $6.97 and borrowed a glittery black hat from a teacher down the hall. At the last minute, I thought to use a ruler for my magic wand. I just used a plain one, but I think I will glitz it up for next year. I’m also thinking of adding white gloves. Anyhow, I ran into our morning meeting (that we have every day) dressed up, and children’s gasps could be heard as I ran in. One of the teachers told me later that the students stopped eating when they saw me. (Our morning meeting is in the cafeteria.) After I announced the winners, I took off my little costume in the side room, so that the kids wouldn’t see me change. The kids told me all day that they saw me dressed up. I kept telling them that it wasn’t me dressed up, but my friend. Most kids knew it was me of course. One kindergartener said, “Really it looked just like you!” 🙂
I dressed up like this on a whim because of a presentation called “Math Math, Better Than a Bath” that I saw at the NCTM conference this year. The presenter described wearing a silly hat etc. to do math contests like creating silly math poems and math jokes. I think in the myriad of test prep and accountability we forget that kids live in a world of make believe, imagination, and fun. To really reach them, sometimes it is necessary to speak their language of imagination…and this coming from someone who likes to remain behind the scenes and not make a spectacle of themselves…me!
Below is pictured my $6.97 cape and mask, borrowed glitter hat, and magic ruler wand (which I will be improving in the future).
Integrate Math and Literacy for a Halloween Costume!
For our fall carnival, we dressed up like a book character. Me being the math coach, I wanted to incorporate literacy AND math. I decided to become “The Greedy Triangle.” The librarian says that kids LOVE this book.
I looked everywhere for cardboard large enough to make a human sized triangle and finally found some in the storage room–chart paper boxes. The bottom of the triangle is as large as the box. Unfortunately, I was disappointed that I wasn’t able to be equilateral like the true Greedy Triangle. I’m isosceles, but that leads to some great geometry discussion with kids!
I covered my front and back triangle with yellow bulletin board paper. Then I made the mouth eyes and nose with white and colored paper, and just glued it onto my front triangle. I just drew the eyes and nose and mouth free handed, and outlined them with marker. I folded the eyes in half so I would have a symmetrical shape. The cheek circles I made by tracing a round cup. A teacher next door helped me staple the yellow ribbon, which I had at home, to the two triangles. The costume fits over my head like a sundress. Underneath as you can see I wore black tights a black cotton T-shirt and skirt which I already had. I would say this whole project took me one hour and cost me nothing–not bad.
The costume isn’t user friendly however if you plan to sit a lot. The cardboard doesn’t bend of course. When going in and out of small areas I found that my vertices would bump into a lot of things. However, this was a plus because I was able to use math vocabulary all day such as….”watch out for my vertices.” 🙂
I received lots of complements on this costume…some “aww how cute” from parents, kids, and teachers. One parent thought I was pizza…but then where are my pepperonis? I guess I could be a happy block of cheese, too! 🙂
With that said, I suppose you could adapt this costume to many things when trick or treating…
Picture this…
“Trick or Treat”
“Hi, honey, what are you dressed up as?”
“A block of cheese, but I’m lactose intolerant.”
“Oh, honey, here’s some extra candy!” 🙂
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!
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.
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.
