Leprechaun Traps

On the last day of February, I read a St. Patty's day book to my students about how tricky leprechauns are. Then I give them an assignment to create a leprechaun trap at home with parents. Students then bring them the Monday before St. Patty's day. I bring the little first graders and Kindergarten classes down to check them out. My students in turn show and tell those little students how they work. Then I have them take them home the night before so they can set them at home along with a note to parents on what to expect if "a leprechaun" gets away or visits the trap.

When students come in the next day, I have a scavenger hunt planned. A "leprechaun" knocks on my door and slides a note under the door. The note takes us to the office, then to the library, and then to the lunch room. While this is happening, a "leprechaun" is dumping all the desks that are soooo messy and stealing my gold from my trap. When we get back to the room, the students freak out about the leprechaun. They believe it because I was with him. I mean who else would do it right? And I get the messy ones to clean up their messes.

*Note last year when I did this. I had kids looking in the cupboards for the little man and some even saw a hump in the snow at recess and thought it was the leprechaun. What a hoot it was!

(sorry no pictures)

Multicultural Grant

My coteacher and I got approved for a $2000.00 multicultural grant and everything that we wanted is getting ordered.Yay! We have big plans for our school next year.

How to find the just right book

My first grader came home today with his first chapter book. As a teacher, I knew he was not ready. I know that he reads at a first grade level and does not have the confidence yet for a longer book.The book that he checked out was almost at a third grade level. I don't think the teacher realized that students need to know how to find a book just right for them. I discussed with my son about how books might be too difficult. We talked about the five finger test and I showed him the poster that I use in my class.

In my own class, we discuss how to find the "JUST RIGHT" book.  I am not saying that the Accelerated Reading (A.R) program is the best thing EVER. but it serves as a good tool and starting point to help students pick out books to read.  Students do read a different levels and have been exposed to different experiences and vocabulary. Even though students may know their reading specific level. They also need to have the tools to help pick out books for them.  I have found that students pick out books that are similar to the ones that other friends pick out. However, they end up being too hard and it is discouraging. So this is why we practice and work on finding "just right" books.

The black boxes cover my picture of some of my students. For an object lesson on teaching students how to find a book that is just right.

1. I bring in two shirts: my husband's football jersey and my son's baby clothes. I purposely choose a smaller child for the jersey so it looks like they are totally swimming in it.

2. I take a picture of him in it and we talk about how a book might be "too" big or difficult. 

3. Then I take a picture of a student holding the baby clothes. We discuss how books are too easy.

4. The last picture is of a student in his or her normal clothes. We talk about how you know when a book is just right.

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!