Sunday, March 31, 2013

April Showers Bring Freebies

Tomorrow is April first after a week off from school.  The first day back after vacation is always a bit slow moving, so I have some easy-going goodies lined up for my kids.  First of all, I will be playing some April Fool's jokes throughout the day.

To get their creativity flowing again, I have this little activity for them:
"April Showers Bring Flowers...but I wish they would bring______________!"  Go ahead, grab your copy below for a quick activity that your kids can do, too!  Happy April!


Despereaux Update

Hello everyone!  I was on spring break this past week, so I had a technology free-week!  The whole family did, actually.  I am happy to report that my children survived a week without their phones!  Hooray!

So many exciting things coming up in the next few months!  I've been reading through everyone's spring time posts!  I've been pinning like crazy and am looking forward to trying some new things in my classroom.

As some of you know, I am giving away my Tale of Despereaux reading response sheets on my Facebook fan page.  I am giving away a few a week before they all go on sale at my stores.  Up next are the strategies of "predicting" and "cause & effect." Come grab them on Facebook- Look under the Fan Freebies tab on the top.  Click on either picture below for the link.  Enjoy!


Thursday, March 21, 2013

The Tale of Despereaux

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In general, I am not a lover of mice, but I do have two favorites.  This guy:
and this guy:

We are currently reading one of my favorite read-alouds: The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo. If you have never used this as a read-aloud, I encourage you to seriously think about it!  The kids absolutely love this story.    I have a collection of reading responses that I would like to share with you. I am going to share them one at a time as freebies on my Facebook page.  Grab your first collectible here:
Collect them all like trading cards before they go on sale in my stores! You won't be able to find these freebies anywhere else, so head on over to Facebook to get your copy now!
In the famous words of Despereaux Tilling, "I honor you."  Enjoy!

Magazine Love

If you know me, you know that the little poster below sums up how I feel about books.


But...I've always been a huge fan of magazines as well. From Highlights and Mad Magazine to Cosmo and Better Homes and Gardens, I've loved them all. Recently, my magazine passion has included Food Network Magazine mainly because my youngest daughter and I have created a bit of tradition in snuggling and reading each new issue together.

However, if you asked me what my go-to magazine is as a teacher...I would have to say, I have a new favorite (drumroll please):
Charity Preston, author and creator of the Organized Classroom Blog, has done it again!  Not only is she responsible for providing teachers with timely and useful information through various venues (see below), she is now giving us the option of having it all delivered right to our inbox!
You can rely on this publication to bring you the latest in best practices, technology, organization and trends in education. Thanks for the magazine, Charity,  and for your undying quest to make the working lives of teachers a bit easier!
Click on the picture above to get your subscription now! 

Monday, March 18, 2013

Solids, Liquids & Freebies, Oh, My!

Happy Monday everyone!

Before I get started with some freebies for you, I wanted to let you know that I am moving on over to Bloglovin'.  Did you know that Google Reader is retiring soon?  If you are a current or former Google Reader user, this is going to be really easy for you! You can import all of the current blogs you follow with just one click!  Come on over and join me :)

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I don't know about you, but this weekend went by in a flash.  In between Lacrosse practice and a State Gymnastics meet, it was like project central at my house.  Here's the short list of everything that had to be done by this morning:

  • The science fair presentation board for my school
  • Daughter #1: Edit and burn two social studies videos, complete 3 reading logs, study for test
  • Daughter #2: Justin Bieber music poster & biography (which meant nonstop playing of his music to keep her "inspired"-oh, Lord), complete 3 reading logs, study for test, begin Power-Point for Spanish project.
  • Husband: Oh, don't worry...I made him a Honey-Do list!
Needless to say, there was not much blogging time this weekend, but...I am in a science-y mood thanks to our science fair this week.  You may already know, but we did some experimenting with Osmosis.  We did 3 class experiments that the kids LOVED.  I promised some pictures, so here they are...

The Finished Display Board


The Colorful Celery Experiment was up first.  The kids were excited to see how the colored liquid moved through the celery.  This was their first exposure to Osmosis.


Our second experiment involved soaking a raw egg in vinegar.  We concluded that the vinegar dissolved the shell.  The vinegar then passed through the egg's membrane through Osmosis and made it grow larger.  We could not believe that we were able to bounce the raw egg!  We got a little carried away and dropped it from a height that was a bit too high. The kids were literally covering their eyes with their hands...they were sure their crazy teacher was going to get splashed with raw egg. It was amazing- the membrane separated from the rest of the egg and the yolk stayed intact!



By the time we did the Gummy Bear Project, the kids were Osmosis pros!



I was looking at some of my past experiments and I put three together for you that I think you may like, especially if you are studying matter in your classroom! Grab them right out of my google docs! Click on the pictures below.



It's Monday, so I am linking up!
Classroom Freebies Manic Monday
Have a great week everyone!



And the Winner is.....

Congratulations to the Oh, Lucky Day Mega Giveaway Contest winner:
Crystal from The Lamppost in First Grade Math
The Teacher Wife

Thank you to all of you who participated!

Friday, March 8, 2013

Problem Solving and Model Drawing (Bar Model)

There's still time...



A few weeks back, I linked up a Freebie called, "Problem Solving, Magic and Happily Ever After:  A Student and Parent Guide to Common Core Word Problems."
You might remember it...you can see it below and grab a copy for yourself!

I am really excited to finally be finished with the workbook to go along with it!
Addition and subtraction problems can be presented in many ways and students must be able to solve problems of any situation.  Below you will see the "Common Addition and Subtraction Situations" as set forth in the Common Core Curriculum.
That is some chart! Not to mention a huge responsibility for teachers!  In order to provide plenty of practice for my students,  the workbook I created provides 4 practice sheets with 6 word problems for each type of situation. (That's a lot of practice!) In my classroom, I used two of the sheets for guided practice and two for homework.  I also sent the handbook home to the parents as a reference guide (it was very appreciated!).

Did I mention that I used one of my favorite illustrators throughout this packet.  Nikki from Melonheadz Illustrations, how I love your work! Thank you for helping me make such a cute workbook!
This packet utilizes the Singapore Math Strategy of Model Drawing or "Bar Models."  You may ask, "How can Bar Modeling help my students with word problems?"
Well, here you go:
Using the Bar Modeling strategy has made a huge difference in the way my students handle word problems.  They know that once they can identify the parts and whole in the problem, they have a great visual that quickly helps them to see which operation to use.

The worksheets in the workbook are scaffolded.  For the first two problems, a bar model is there for the students to plug information into.  There is also space for them to Record, Illustrate, Compute & Explain their thinking (R.I.C.E. method...also from Singapore Math).

The remaining problem solving tasks require that the students provide their own Bar Model, Illustration and Computation.


To introduce the concept of Bar Modeling and provide great visuals in a whole or small group, I suggest you take a look at "Thinking Blocks."

I also have some great resources compiled in my Live Binder.  

I'd love to know if you have any tips and tricks for helping your students solve word problems like magic!




The 100 Dollar Business Deal

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The 100 Dollar Business Deal.....if it were only that easy!

This year, the 100th Day of School coincided with the culmination of our money unit.  In the past, I have given my students the assignment of writing what they would do with $100.  This year, I decided to make a game out of it.  It was supposed to stop there, with the game.


...but I should have known that would never happen;  not with this group of eager kids.  This little game snowballed into a mini-unit and I really have the kids to thank for that.  They are the ones who took us here with their money hungry and competitive attitudes questions, curiosity and heightened interest in money!

As I said before, this was a culmination.  The three weeks prior, we spent a lot of time adding and subtracting money, mostly through hands-on activities and games.  After that, it was time to develop some entrepreneur skills!  First up, an introduction to finance.  To help us out with that, let me introduce you to my little friend, Edcanvas.

Do you use Edcanvas?  It's definitely worth a look and try!  It's a great way to organize your teaching content.  It goes a long way in helping develop self-directed learners because it has a feature that allows you to weave together presentations with text.  An example of this would be the students watching a video and then following it up with some kind of written response.

This is my Financial Edcanvas...




If you like this Edcanvas and would like to learn how I made it,  check out my quick video tutorial!


After the kids had the financial introduction, we went on with the rest of the unit.

In the "Hundred Dollar Business Deal," my students had the opportunity to:

  • Create and name a business
  • Debit and Credit their Bank Accounts
  • Record Transactions
  • Create an advertisement for their business
  • List and add Business Expenses
  • Create a Price List for the items sold through their business
  • Define vocabulary specific to finance
  • Shop at their friends' businesses!
  • (As an extra challenge) Write a letter to Potential Investors and create a Stock Certificate for their company

You know you have an exciting project on your hands when the kids are asking to work on it every day.

To top it off, my very creative student teacher created a "Monopoly-type" game that incorporated our student-created business ( I may have to ask her to do a guest post!)

Do you think your kids would like a project like this?  I would love to hear your thoughts!

Edcanvas Tutorial

Hi everyone!
I mentioned that I used Edcanvas as part of our Money and Finance Project.  Now I'd like to show you how I did it.

If you are new to Edcanvas, you should know that it is a place where you can organize, present and share information.  I love the option of tying in student responses to multimedia presentations.  You can use Edcanvas in any setting: whole group, small group and individual work.  The students have the option to leave comments and/or questions on the presentations.

Better yet (and I have not ventured into this area yet, but want to soon) students can create their own Edcanvas to organize research, annotate websites and present information!

Speaking of student use...Edcanvases can be shared with parents and students.  Files can be attached, too.  Hmmmmm...I'm thinking this may be a great idea for homework!

My little tutorial can't begin to cover all of the awesome Edcanvas features, but it will help you get a feel for it.  For more information, check it out and sign up - it's FREE  and easy to use!




Still Time to Enter!


Monday, March 4, 2013

Science Fair, Anyone?


After reading this post, be sure to enter the Oh, Lucky Day! Mega Giveaway... 


Does your school have a science fair? Ours does and it is something that the students have really come to look forward to each year.  In our school, fifth graders get to do their project in science class.  The rest of the children have the option of doing it at home.  Classrooms have the opportunity to
participate and over the years, we've had fun experimenting!

This year, we are going to do a two small experiments with Osmosis that lead up to the GREAT GROWING GUMMY BEAR experiment.  You can easily find these experiments online...I found great information and compiled them in my LiveBinder.  I made it public so you can take a look at the goodies that I have in there.  Click on the the LiveBinder icon below to see my Science Fair 2013 binder.
New to LiveBinder?  Be sure to click around to learn more about this awesome resource...or you
could always go visit my friend, Kate at Purely Paperless...she did a great blog post about it!

Our experiments wouldn't be complete without cute science journals!  The kids will be using three different science journals. We'll show one of each on our science display board.
I've got a little FREEBIE FOR YOU this morning...You can grab your copy of the Colorful Celery Experiment  below...
If you are interested in the other two experiments, you can get them in a bundle or separately...
We start experimenting today, so I'll be posting pics soon!
It's Monday, so of course, you'll find me here!

Classroom Freebies Manic Monday

Happy Monday, everyone!