Science Workshop, and SMART SWAG

Soooo, my summer has not actually summer since I spent my entire month of June in PD, but hey its what we do for a better classroom.

However while I was in PD something awesome happened I was inspired to design a new Science block. Teachers please keep in mind at my school we are departmentalized and now only teach Science and Social Studies (but if I see something awesome in one of the other subject areas I will blog about it just for you guys) :)

Back to Science, oh my ADD. Anyway I thought of making a Science workshop, the lesson would begin with inquiry minutes (what questions do we still have), then Vocabulary review game, then lesson and language objective overview, and then the students would break into 4 rotations

1. Guided Practice (with the teacher)
2. Seat Work
3. Hands-on (perfect for Science)
4. Research (At this station the students will use books, etc. to find the answers to the questions we have come up with in our inquiry minutes and site them (good R/LA practice)

Finally we will have a closure activity.

I feel like it is going to make my classroom even more student driven!! HOORAY!

Here is a picture of the pieces for the board I am making

inspired by this board from Clutterfree Classroom . Her site is awesome the one she did is Math, but I thought it could work with Science.



Here is are my pieces they are done picking which room in mine yet so it will have to wait to go up.

I also was inspired by another teacher Mrs. Brown at Mrs. Brown's Blog, and made something else this week. A no name board to hold no name papers. Mine is not quite as cute, but it will do.
Hers

mine

And finally my most exciting project that I have really thought about, and was just able to complete. EEEEEE!!! This one is from Dandelions and Dragonflies she gives her kids Smart Beads for various things, so I thought I would put my own twist on it.
Hers 

and wait for it mine..........................SMART SWAG!!! OMG!!

I got the idea by watching the The NBA playoffs, and these men where seen like this, and then every time I go to the mall all the kids are wearing them. 

 
(all of the above images were from google images)

So I asked local movie theaters to donate their use 3D glasses and painted them, and Viola. I also left some of them black. Different theaters have different types of 3D glasses, so be aware. My favorite to use are the Real D kind that I am wearing above.

Anyways I'm sure that is enough for today. Thank you again for reading!!

New computer = more post, Hooray!!

 I GOT A NEW COMPUTER!!! PRAISE THE LORD!!! okay anyway down to business.

I wanted to post I writing prompt that I did with my students a while back. While readying the book Shiloh, when my students went out of the room for related arts I put a picture of a puppy on each of their desk. (The puppy pictures are from the dailypuppy.com) When the returned I gave them the prompt.

Just like Marty you have found a puppy, now you must convince your parent to let you keep it. Before we started writing we went over the different ways to persuade: guilt, flattery, etc. After writing and proofreading, I had the students glue their final drafts along with their puppy picture to construction paper and decorate. Here are some of the pictures. The students really loved it and it was a great way to get them into persuasive writing.

 Alright this my a cool thing that actually one of my students came up with. So for erasers I buy lots of felt because it cost like nothing and this is what they use to erase their practice mats (my alternative to white board: just a piece of card stock inside of a sheet protector). Back on track Cassie Focus!! Okay so the felt we use for erasers. I am checking their practice mat one day, and I notice one of my sweet angles has attached the felt to the end of her marker with a rubber band, and BAM dry erase marker with an eraser. So now all my kids have one except for those who can not handle the rubber band, their felt is hot glued on.

OoOoOo!!! Right!!!

Thank you all again for stopping by and please tell you teacher friends about my blog!! Thanks for following!

Mrs. B

sorry no post yesterday, but here is my tip of the week

Sorry I did not post this Sunday, as I normally do, our principal decide to change our Related Arts and Lunch Schedule for the third time this year. So I spent Sunday completely re-doing my routine. Oh well, as teachers we know we just have to go with the flow, and as Tim Gunn would say, "Make it work!"

So last year I had a really hard time of telling which children had done their homework. We have the students do a working lunch to ensure that they turn in their practice, but I would forget to call out their names before they went to the lunch room, etc. Well thank you to my super smart love her to death colleague Katie Bridges (who sadly got displaced to another school, BOOOOOOO!!!!!).

On each locker you place a magnetic clip. When the students come in the morning the clip their homework to their locker. Now I can quickly glance and see who didn't do their homework. It is also great for turning in work because when I take their work up it is already in alphabetical order for my grade book. Yay!!!

Now next year I am going to splurge on more expensive clips because these dollar store ones sometimes fall of, but those metal ones you buy at wal-mart are amazing. They are more expensive, but you can use them every year so it's an investment. Well I hope this is helpful tip. Stay tune for my post on our chip adjective lesson and fact family projects this week. Wish me luck!!!

May Beasley

Class scoreboard

So since last year I have been really interested in whole brain teaching (Power teaching) by Chris Biffle. I really love it!! One of my favorite parts is the class score board. Now in a tradition power teaching class the score board is just a smiley face and a sad face on the board or a T for teacher vs. S for student board (for troubled classes), but I have slightly modified it to fit my elementary school needs. So each year I come up with a class villain, last year it was the EVIL Petey Piranha (to suit my "think tank" theme) and this year it is the evil Dr. Wormwood because I used a lot of birds this year. The first day of school, I explain to the kids that the Evil Dr. Wormwood hates learning and wants us to go home having learned nothing all day. So every time we do something that hinders learning or makes it difficult to learn Dr. Wormwood gets a point. (example: lack of participation, groups being off task, etc.) Now on the other side of the score board is the US side, We love learning and want to learn something new everyday. So every time we are doing a great job and working towards learning; we get a point. Every time we get a point we get to do a quick cheer, we always start of the year with me clapping and the students just yelling "oh yeah!"

Here above is a picture of Dr. Wormwood, it is just poster board that has been laminated to make it dry erase.

Now many people wonder what to do when the students beat the villain, the whole brain teaching website suggest extra recess, etc. Unfortunately I do not have time to give my students extra recess everyday, so what I do is everyday we win we get a letter to the word CHEER. Once we spell out the word cheer we earn a new cheer to do when we get a point. All of the cheer are cheers my kids have made up over the last two years or cheers from Dr. Jean's Website. Last Year I did PRIZE and we did a free prize when we spelt it out, like learn a line dance, learn a new word in a foreign language, etc. I'm sure you all probably have tons of ideas in those brains of yours.

Above here is the rest of the board that has the cheers earned and the cheers to earn. On Monday's we pick the cheer of the week out of the cheers earned.

IMPORTANT TIP: never let either side be more than two points ahead, if the villain gets too far ahead the kids will sometimes give up, but if the us side is more than two points ahead the students sometimes think they can use those points like insurance run in baseball. :)

This is a great program if you are excited about it,  the kids get excited about it.

Love to hear your thoughts and comments. Have a great week!!