BEST ever management system.

Did I ever tell that I found the BEST ever classroom management SYSTEM ever, ever, and ever? No, why here it is! If you look at it, you will see that students have nowhere to go but UP. Students that are doing what they should and behaving move up. Students that make wrong choices move down. This system really works and it reinforces the good behavior. That is the beauty of it. Kids like to get recognized for good. It makes the negative behaviors go away. You will find the link to an e-book that talks all about it. I modified my chart to fit my needs. I still follow the rest of the plan...I do suggest that you do follow the dude's plan closely.

I have had one child this year make it to parent contact. I may have one or two go to think about it or teacher's choice but the rest go up. Even though it looks like it can only go to outstanding, you are wrong. After outstanding, a child can go to the "top" of the chart and then I put a rhinestone on their clip. After the top of the chart for really exceptional behavior, they can go "off" the chart and latch onto my lanyard and then I put two rhinestones on their clip. I told my students once they get 8 rhinestones on their clip..something magical happens..

Well, it happened on Friday for two of my students. I recognized them in class. They got to pop virtual bubble sheet. The goal was to see how many they could pop in 20 seconds. Then I gave them an Eagle pride dog tag to put on their necklace. I also retired their clothespin to my clip hall of fame and they now have a new clothespin that I colored yellow. It looks really cool by the way...

So if you decide to do this..let me know! Because it totally rocks!

Just a side note! A couple teachers in my school implemented but they are not as consistent with it as they should and I could tell they did not read the e-book and I really don't see the success that I have had in my class.

How to NOT to eat fried worms

This was once piled high with worms. This is what was left over!

I started doing activities with the chapter books that I read aloud in class a couple years ago. This year, I was lucky to find different activities with How to Eat Fried Worms. I remember reading that when I was young so I thought I would share it with my class. For a culminating activity, the students had to pretend that if they eat four worms they would get $400.00. We brainstormed on things that they would eat with their worms. Here are few that they brainstormed on: peanut butter, caramel sauce, salsa, nacho cheese, whipped cream, ketchup, mustard, relish, bbq sauce, honey, ice cream, and lots more. I chose a couple from the list. They voted that they would all try honey, bbq sauce, taco sauce, whipped cream. However they did not know that I was bringing worms the next day for them to try.

I walked in the classroom with a platter of worms (okay they are really not worms) They are hot dogs sliced in half lengthwise and then again lengthwise. Then cooked in the microwave so they curl up.

The kids tried their "worms" with cool whip, bbq sauce, taco sauce, and honey. I couldn't bring in pb. I just couldn't. The looks on some of the girls were priceLESS. They all tried the different toppings.   

                                            

This crazy one above mixed all together to try.  Can you believe that the majority of the class picked honey as the favorite??

Raising Dragons

I loved the story for the week that we were focusing on. The story is Raising Dragons by Jerdine Nolen. This author is fabulous and has several other books. One book was made into a disney movie called Disney's Balloon Farm. Here is a little summary about this story:

A young girl hatches and raises Hank, a dragon, on her family’s farm.  Hank helps out, but soon the girl realizes she has to find him a new home.  She says good-bye to Hank on Dragon Island, but returns to the farm with a new batch of dragon eggs.  After all, raising dragons is in her blood.

This is one of my favorite stories that we read with my students. I love how it can make them think more creatively and outside of the box. On Monday, the students were given a bag and construction paper to create their own baby pet dragon. I had some models in class for them to go off of as a start. Students started putting wings, fire coming out of their mouths, etc. They each took the task to their own level and I loved watching the fire in their eyes. Then during writing, the students had a manual to complete on how to care for their dragon. After it was finished, it was a nice little flip book.

One thing that really made me happy is that a student took extra care for her dragon. I told them they could take them home but they needed to return the next day for school. I wanted to see how well they could take care of them. She returned with her dragon in gift box along with a pillow, bottle, and blankie. What a cute spin on that!

Classroom Christmas Party

My Halloween party was crazy because it was not organized how I wanted it so I wanted my Christmas party to be more less crazy. I had five stations and some great parents that came in and helped. That is one thing I like about living here is the willingness to help and I know I don't ask for it enough. That is the controlling part of me.
Here is how I organized my part. I first told my parent volunteer that was in charge of the party  that I want stations around the classroom. This is what it was and I had a parent at each station except for the first one.
1: Bookmark station. Students created a bookmark with their picture on it. I ran this station because we laminated them and I used my personal laminator. Then after we laminated them. I punched a hole in the end and the students chose ribbon or yarn (I had girly or manly colors) to put it in through the hole.
2. Craft station: Students created candy cane reindeer and snowflakes with glitter.
3. Cookie decorating station: Students frosted, decorated, and ate their sugar cookie.
4. Game station: Students played bingo with another parent.
5: Storytime station: A parent read the story to the students. Then the students were supposed to draw a nighttime picture of what they think their snowmen in their yard would do at night. Then they drew them on black paper to represent night and they used chalk. White crayons would have worked too. But the chalk looks cool.

 See below.

Jumping on a trampoline. I had a couple of those. Cute!

Trampoline and a pogo stick.

Sledding and snowball fights.

This one and the last one were my favorites. Who would have thought to bake birthday cakes?

My husband even came in and said this party was so much better. The kids were not wild. I am so going to do it again next year but I will be using a different story book. I was going to use this cool one...but you will just have to wait until next year. Happy Break!

Student Christmas Presents

I know..What does the book have to do with my Christmas presents? I will get to that in a minute.  Last year, I got the idea to make play dough for my students and then attach a worksheet that has a game that I created. I wanted something that they could play with their family or alone. They loved it. Atleast, I think they did.  So this year I decided to do the same. I made the dough, colored it, and glitterized it. Then I thought I need to step it up a notch. I added some of my lotion scents to it. So here are the flavors, the yellow is banana laffy taffy, the pink (supposed to be red) is candy cane, and the purple is blueberry pancakes. I can tell you it was a hit. I even made extra to give to my niece and nephews. They played and played with it. I even made extra to give to the neighborhood children with their treat trays for Christmas. I made three batches with getting about 10 from each batch.

Back to the book, we read that book for a our reading story. Then I asked the students if they could sculpt any statue, what would they sculpt. The students brainstormed and then drew their sketches. I then told the students that I have their Christmas presents for them and they could open them and sculpt their sketch. The following pictures are some of the masterpieces.

In case you did know this one was a motorcyle.

a flower

crazy...but it is an eyeball.

The kids loved it and it was a nice unique gift that the kids could use! I am thinking about selling it on etsy.

Candy Mice

What does 4 Tablespoons of evaporated milk to 3 cups of powdered sugar equal? Dough to make candy mice! Or even dough to make something else fun! (I would even put food coloring in the milk next time)

This week we read Dogzilla.

It is basically about a giant dog terrorizing a town of mice. For an enrichment activity after testing,  I had the kids create a movie poster for the book and the mouse would be one of the characters from the story.

This reminds of one of those zhu zhu ninja pets.

 This one was a cutie. Kind of reminds me a little pig.

(this one is my favorite)

Next week: Twas the night before Christmas (in Idaho) Yup! There is an actual book!

My moments in the classroom

So here it goes, I created this blog about a year ago and left it blank. I did not want to mix in my personal family blog, But I did the other day.....So I decided in my spare moments create this blog to showcase some of the theses that I do in my class or write about my day in the classroom. I do have ups and downs occasionally but not too often.

I started teaching back in 2001. I started in the 4th grade at an inner city school...real inner city. 43rd Ave and McDowell. I am not going to lie but it was scary. I worked there for 2 years. My second year of teaching I decided to dabble in softball coaching. I coached the Varsity team there. We had a crappy pitcher and girls that had attitude and didn't care if they lost or won. We lost every game. Then I went to Mesa and taught 6th grade at another Hispanic school. It was okay. The female principal was PMS bear and she did not like me and I did not like her so I left and settled back in Phoenix for three years teaching 6th grade and 4th grade. I loved it there. I loved the kids and the staff. I had a male principal that was not hormonal. It was great.

Then we moved to Idaho. I had never taught white kids...White kids with wholesome values. It was heaven. The downsize is that I went down a grade to third. I did not really like the school. I hated travellling it during the winter as well. It was old and outdated. It was sad because I just came from a school  in AZ where I had laptops for everystudent and a smart board in my room.  Even though the teachers were great and so nice, I was counting down the days. I was also very happy to hear about a brand new school in the works. I held out and had hopes that I would go. The current principal told me in my last evaluation of my first year at the school that he would be the principal and that he was planning to take me there. Yea! I left for my new school after another year at the old crusty school. I told him that I wouldnt mind doing fourth grade but he put in third again. I thought I would hate it because I really like the upper grades. I am still adjusting after four years in the third grade. I am at the new school with smart board in my room and I LOVE it. However, I want to move up when my own babies move up.

So...Here I am my fourth year in the 3rd grade but I am in my 10th year of teaching.