Back to School Fun

We've been doing lots of fun stuff since school has started back and I'd like to share a few of those fun things with you! First, Math can be a pain for some kids. I like to spice it up and play lots of games and do lots of hands on stuff. I think I mentioned a few weeks ago about the marshmellow place value idea, but are some pictures of that activity.

Another fun Math activity is the game Finish First. Partners share a game board where each side has 12 spaces (1-12). Each partner should have game pieces to cover up their numbers and one set of dice for the game. Partners take turns rolling the dice. They can either add, subtract, multiply, or divide to get an answer to cover up. The first time we did this, we just used addition and subtraction. The object is to cover up every number on your game board. If you rolled a  5 and a 4, you could add for a sum of 9, or you could subtract for a different of 1. They can only cover up one number though. The strategy here is to realize which numbers are harder to cover up (1's, 2's, 11, 12) since there aren't as many ways to make those numbers with the dice. The kids love this game! Here are some fun photos from the game!

We've also been doing lots of fun science experiments! One of my favorites is Boat Afloat. I allow each student to make a boat out of tin foil. I tell them that the object is for their boat to hold the most number of pennies without sinking. They had so much fun building and testing their boats! And of course, we recorded all of our data in our Science Notebooks! Here are some of our boats!

I believe the rectangle boat held the most pennies.

The kids had a great time constructing their boats and testing them! I had a lot of fun watching them! I'll post more later!

Now that school is in full swing, I am finding it hard to make time for blogging about the things I am doing in my classroom and the things I am learning along the way. I love my students to pieces, but good gracious they are sooo low this year. I have to take everything down a notch when I am teaching so that they are ALL with me. I feel bad for the couple of high ones I do have. They are probably bored out of their minds!

Anyway, onto the goodies for today. This week we have been talking about SC symbols. The state tree, bird, gemstone, etc...As a culminating activity to the two day lesson, students cut out pictures of the symbols and glued them into an outline of our state. I thought they turned out really cute and you can do this with any state! Here are a few examples:

I thought they turned out pretty cute!

I hope everyone is having a great school year so far! I'll try to keep posting on a regular basis, but I can't promise multiple posts per week. I'm a busy girl these days and I my students require ALOT of attention.

What's My Rule?

I learned this vocabulary strategy a couple of years ago and my kids love being the detectives and figuring out the rule!

Present kids with 5-6 clusters of three words from whatever story or novel you are reading. See if students can figure out the rule that ties them together. Let them guess a few times before revealing the rule.

Examples:

bonnet, corset, hankie (things you wear)

emigrants, marmalade, silhouette (3 syllables)

hurricane, tornado, flood (disasters)

Your clusters of words probably won't be this different, I just wanted to give you an idea of what you could do.

Some other ideas for rules are plural nouns, places, jobs, etc...

What vocabulary strategies or activities do you use in your classroom that kids find entertaining?

Teaching Relative Location

Being at a Title I school is tough. Most of the kids have little knowledge about where they live, many don't get the support they need at home, and most of them have never even been outside their own little towns. It breaks my heart. I took a few students to the movies last year as a reward, and two out of the three said they had never been to a theater. I almost cried. I showered them with popcorn and soda until their little hearts were content.

Last week, we began reviewing where we live. We reviewed the continents and oceans (which many of them couldn't recall from second grade--I've got my work cut out for me...), we talked about what continent we live on, what country we live in, and which state, county, and city we live in.

Since third grade focuses on South Carolina history, I really want them to have an understanding of our state, what it looks like, WHERE it is in relation to our country, our continent, and the world. We looked at the shape of South Carolina and brainstormed a list of things it looks like. They said a triangle, pizza, a pie, an eagle head, an ice cream cone, etc...You get the idea.

Then, I had them get in groups of three or four and make a tableaux of South Carolina. Here is what they did.

They did such a good job! After this activity, I had them take a sticky note and draw a picture of SC without looking at a map. Inside the picture, they had to write two things they learned about our state. We still have a lot of work to do understanding our relative location, but I am ready for the challenge! I have a bunch of eager children and I'm going to give them everything I can!

Blog Awards!

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!