I've been procrastinating posting about my blog awards, mainly because I didn't want to have to think of stuff to post about me and who else I think should get an award! Selfish, I know. Anywho, the Caffeinated Teacher has given me the Amazingness award and Confessions of an Untenured Teacher has bestowed on me the Versatile Blogger award.
I need to:
A) Thank the people who gave me the award.
B) Share 7 things about myself.
C) Pass the award to 15 others. (I'm gonna narrow this because I'm giving out double the awards!)
A. Thank the people!
First of all, thank you both so much for thinking of me! My goal when I started this thing, was to just be a resource for teachers who are looking for ideas and strategies to use in their classrooms. These awards make me feel that I have accomplished this goal or at least am well on my way!
B. Share 7 things. (Well....you asked for it...7 things you never wanted to know about me!)
1) I have a freakish fascination with the show Monsters Inside Me on Animal Planet and have also become hopelessly addicted to Big Brother Season 12. I know, shame on me, right?
2) I eat grape jelly on my bacon, egg, and cheese sandwiches. People say it's weird, but I just think they don't know what they're talking about!
3) I am petrified of death by a killer asteroid and Bloody Mary.
4) I want to go on a tornado chase, which is ironic since my chances of dying in this situation are exponentially greater than death by a killer asteroid and even greater still that that of Bloody Mary.
5) I once asked a bum for money. Needless to say, he was none too thrilled. Yeah, I know I'm horrible. I can't explain why.
6) I recently convinced myself that there was a person hiding in my bathroom closet after my make up bag slowly fell over into the sink. (At the time, I didn't know it was my make up falling over). I'm not kidding though, I laid frozen in the bed for like an hour...
7) I have an obsession for Tudor history. I love me some "Tudors" on Showtime. I read all the books I can. I just find Henry and his wives fascinating!
C) Pass it on!
The Versatile Blogger Award goes to:
Babbling Abby
Classroom Confessions
Following the Footsteps
Is Our Children Learning?
Sneaker Teacher
The Amazingness Blogger Award goes to:
First Grader....At Last!
Notes From the School Psychologist
Regurgitated Alpha Bits
Science Notebooking
Teacher Stuff: Tales From a First Grade Teacher
I realize that some of these people may have already received these awards, but these are some of my top teacher friend blogs!
Science Notebooks
We have been setting up our science notebooks this week. I saw someone's blog that had the students cut out science pictures and glue them to the cover of their notebooks to make a collage and so I stole the idea! So glad I did! They turned out awesome! I had a ton of leftover student National Geographics and Scholastics and they went at it!
Here are a few--
Here are a few--
Then, for the first activity in the science notebook, I asked all of the kids to draw a picture of what they thought a scientist looked like. (One girl asked me if her scientist could be a girl? Well, of course! Sooo cute.) After they drew their picture, they were then asked to write down any words or phrases that described what a scientist does. We shared as a class and came up with things like experiments, read, study, discover, create, ask questions, mix things, potions (haha), observes, etc...
I then asked them some of the following questions:
1. Do you observe things around you?
2. Do you ask questions?
3. Do you ever create things?
4. Do you study?
They sould start to realize that they ALL do these things, therefore everyone is a scientist! I Here are some of their drawings:
This one is supposed to show the scientist making an accidental explosion! HAHA I love these kids!
Do you use a Science Notebook? If so, what activities do you put in them?
Here are a couple of great blogs about science notebooks.
My Science Lessons Blog (Great blog for lessons)
Science Notebooking (I totally love this one!)
I survived!
First and foremost, I survived the first day back to school with the kiddies! **3 cheers for Ginger** Only 14 showed up on my doorstep out of the 16 I was supposed to have and that, unfortunately, only means one thing...I will be inheriting all the new kids. Ugh. But, my class was lovely, and sweet and I heart them already!
The worst part of my day was the afternoon dismissal, which was a huge honking nightmare and took almost an hour to get ALL the little car riders into their cars and gone!! I guess that's what happens when you test out a new method on the first day! Generally speaking though, the first week always takes longer than usual so I am hoping our new plan of action improves throughout the course of the week.
Second, I recently recieved two blog awards which I will hopefully get around to spreading by this weekend, because I just don't have the time to sit down and do it this week being the first week of school and all!
My feet hurt, my brain is disheveled from all the "what's to come" thoughts swimming around in my head, and I am utterly exhausted from today (but in a good way). I will try to post a few times this week, but we will see how much energy I have!
**Note to self and others -- Do not wear even the slightest high heels on the first day back to school. Bad idea. Very bad.
That's all the wisdom I can muster today.
The worst part of my day was the afternoon dismissal, which was a huge honking nightmare and took almost an hour to get ALL the little car riders into their cars and gone!! I guess that's what happens when you test out a new method on the first day! Generally speaking though, the first week always takes longer than usual so I am hoping our new plan of action improves throughout the course of the week.
Second, I recently recieved two blog awards which I will hopefully get around to spreading by this weekend, because I just don't have the time to sit down and do it this week being the first week of school and all!
My feet hurt, my brain is disheveled from all the "what's to come" thoughts swimming around in my head, and I am utterly exhausted from today (but in a good way). I will try to post a few times this week, but we will see how much energy I have!
**Note to self and others -- Do not wear even the slightest high heels on the first day back to school. Bad idea. Very bad.
That's all the wisdom I can muster today.
Back To School Teacher Swap!
Jen, over at Following the Footsteps is hosting a Back To School Teacher Swap to share your favorite books for kicking off the school year!
I have a top 3 that I read each year. I will also be sharing pictures of my finished classroom since I didn't have any good ones on for the Classroom Tour!
My first back to school book is Crysanthemum. I love this book for the first day because it teaches about accepting the differences in others. Many of my students have names that I can't even pronounce so it's great because other students can learn that it's okay to have a unique name. There are tons of activities you can do with this book such as graphing your class names, doing making words with your name, sorting names, etc...
The second book I like to read is First Day Jitters. I enjoy having students discussing what jitters are and then writing down their own first day jitters. We always share them after!
I realize that the other two books are commonplace in elementary classrooms so this should be a bit of a change. My absolute favorite back to school book to read is Oh, The Places You'll Go! by Dr. Suess. There are soooooo many amazing things that you can do with this book and I'm going to share a few things that I am going to do this year since our classroom theme is Oh, the Places We'll Go in Third Grade!
* Have students write down their academic or behavioral goals for the year.
* Ask students to paint a picture of a place they want to go and write a few sentences about where they want to go, why they want to go there, and what they'll do there! (I will be doing this and hanging them outside my classroom!)
* Play Balloon Geography - Start by reviewing geography facts (continents, oceans, landforms, states, cities, etc.) Blow up a balloon and have the class stand in a circle. The object of the game is to keep the balloon from touching the floor, but every time a player hits the balloon they must name a geography fact. If they can't say one fast enough, they are out! I would focus on one topic at a time. Play one round of continents and oceans, then landforms, etc... This is a great way to review at the beginning of the year!
* Have students analyze different parts of the poem and discuss what they mean. For example, "You can get all hung up in a prickle-ly perch. And your gang will fly on. You'll be left in a Lurch."
* Give students a copy of the words to the book and highlight the words that speak to them and how it relates to their own lives.
* Make a book jacket for the book based on the students own uniqueness and goals.
These are just a few fun things you can do with this book! Here is my outside bulletin board that I will hang their watercolor paintings.
And here are the pictures of my classroom I promised! This is the view of my classroom when you first walk in.
Here is my essential questions board at the front.
Well, I hope you have enjoyed my activities and classroom photos! We have our first day with kids tomorrow so I will keep you posted as to how the week goes!
I have a top 3 that I read each year. I will also be sharing pictures of my finished classroom since I didn't have any good ones on for the Classroom Tour!
My first back to school book is Crysanthemum. I love this book for the first day because it teaches about accepting the differences in others. Many of my students have names that I can't even pronounce so it's great because other students can learn that it's okay to have a unique name. There are tons of activities you can do with this book such as graphing your class names, doing making words with your name, sorting names, etc...
The second book I like to read is First Day Jitters. I enjoy having students discussing what jitters are and then writing down their own first day jitters. We always share them after!
I realize that the other two books are commonplace in elementary classrooms so this should be a bit of a change. My absolute favorite back to school book to read is Oh, The Places You'll Go! by Dr. Suess. There are soooooo many amazing things that you can do with this book and I'm going to share a few things that I am going to do this year since our classroom theme is Oh, the Places We'll Go in Third Grade!
* Have students write down their academic or behavioral goals for the year.
* Ask students to paint a picture of a place they want to go and write a few sentences about where they want to go, why they want to go there, and what they'll do there! (I will be doing this and hanging them outside my classroom!)
* Play Balloon Geography - Start by reviewing geography facts (continents, oceans, landforms, states, cities, etc.) Blow up a balloon and have the class stand in a circle. The object of the game is to keep the balloon from touching the floor, but every time a player hits the balloon they must name a geography fact. If they can't say one fast enough, they are out! I would focus on one topic at a time. Play one round of continents and oceans, then landforms, etc... This is a great way to review at the beginning of the year!
* Have students analyze different parts of the poem and discuss what they mean. For example, "You can get all hung up in a prickle-ly perch. And your gang will fly on. You'll be left in a Lurch."
* Give students a copy of the words to the book and highlight the words that speak to them and how it relates to their own lives.
* Make a book jacket for the book based on the students own uniqueness and goals.
These are just a few fun things you can do with this book! Here is my outside bulletin board that I will hang their watercolor paintings.
And here are the pictures of my classroom I promised! This is the view of my classroom when you first walk in.
This is from the other side of the front of the room looking at the back.
This is from the back left corner looking to the front.
And this is from the back right corner looking to the front.
Here is my essential questions board at the front.
Well, I hope you have enjoyed my activities and classroom photos! We have our first day with kids tomorrow so I will keep you posted as to how the week goes!
Teacher Week: Online Resources
I am a little sad that today is the last day of Babbling Abby's Teacher Week! I have so enjoyed reading everyones ideas and viewing all the lovely little classrooms! On top of that, I've gained about 7 new followers! I want to take this opportunity to welcome you and I hope you keep stopping by and sharing your ideas and thoughts!
Today, we are sharing online resources and I have been so excited about sharing new ones that I have recently discovered! I posted my Top 10 Websites when I first began this blog, so I wanted to try to share some new ones that I have found useful.
1. Delicious - This is a social bookmarking website that is great for accessing your favorite websites from any computer location. You never know when you will need one of your "favorited" websites, so this is just a good way to make sure you always have access to them. If you are familiar with PortaPortal, then this is very similar.
2. Curriki - This website provides amazing free lesson plans and resources for educators at all grade levels. I just recently discovered this one and thought it would be just like a lot of those not so great teacher lesson plan sites, but this one has it all!
3. Prezi - The coolest new way to create a presentation. I call it the next generation of presentations! You can see an example of one my prezis here. Soooo cool!
4. Critical Past - I also just recently discovered this website and I love it! If you teach Social Studies, this site will be your new best friend. There are about a gazillion video clips and images available in this database for use in your classrooms! The best part? It's freeeee! Unless you choose to download any of the material, in which case you must pay.
5. Creat-a-Graph - I love this website because you can quickly and EASILY make several types of graphs with just a few clicks of your mouse!
6. Knowitall - This is mainly a resource for teachers in South Carolina, but you may find some of the activities useful. If you teach 3rd grade in SC, you will love this website. It has so many grade standards based activities to teach your students!
7. Internation Children's Digital Library - This website is full of books available online from all around the world.
8. Prepdog - We use MAP testing to assess our students learning throughout the school year. This website contains practice test questions, education tools, and video tutorials for parents, students, and teachers! I always use this website to practice and prepare my students for the state standardized test.
9. Free Teacher Resources - Jam packed full of great stuff for teachers from lesson plans to professional development to worksheets! I'm lovin' it!
These are just a few more of my go to online resources!
Today, we are sharing online resources and I have been so excited about sharing new ones that I have recently discovered! I posted my Top 10 Websites when I first began this blog, so I wanted to try to share some new ones that I have found useful.
1. Delicious - This is a social bookmarking website that is great for accessing your favorite websites from any computer location. You never know when you will need one of your "favorited" websites, so this is just a good way to make sure you always have access to them. If you are familiar with PortaPortal, then this is very similar.
2. Curriki - This website provides amazing free lesson plans and resources for educators at all grade levels. I just recently discovered this one and thought it would be just like a lot of those not so great teacher lesson plan sites, but this one has it all!
3. Prezi - The coolest new way to create a presentation. I call it the next generation of presentations! You can see an example of one my prezis here. Soooo cool!
4. Critical Past - I also just recently discovered this website and I love it! If you teach Social Studies, this site will be your new best friend. There are about a gazillion video clips and images available in this database for use in your classrooms! The best part? It's freeeee! Unless you choose to download any of the material, in which case you must pay.
5. Creat-a-Graph - I love this website because you can quickly and EASILY make several types of graphs with just a few clicks of your mouse!
6. Knowitall - This is mainly a resource for teachers in South Carolina, but you may find some of the activities useful. If you teach 3rd grade in SC, you will love this website. It has so many grade standards based activities to teach your students!
7. Internation Children's Digital Library - This website is full of books available online from all around the world.
8. Prepdog - We use MAP testing to assess our students learning throughout the school year. This website contains practice test questions, education tools, and video tutorials for parents, students, and teachers! I always use this website to practice and prepare my students for the state standardized test.
9. Free Teacher Resources - Jam packed full of great stuff for teachers from lesson plans to professional development to worksheets! I'm lovin' it!
These are just a few more of my go to online resources!
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