New Classroom!

Here's my sparkly, new, organized classroom! I'm so excited with my layout and decor this year! I loved setting up my bulletin boards, but I just can't decide what to do with the blank black one on the back wall. I'm sure it'll fill up quickly! I have 20 students this year, which is a lot for the small town of Concordia. I even had to add another student table to make room! My favorite thing though is the color-coordinated drawers and pencil caddies on each table. This will make life so much easier! Can't wait to see what this year brings!

This is Emily. She's my new partner teacher this year! 

We have the BEST staff at my school!

"Summers Off"

I just love it when people tell me how lucky I am that I'm a teacher and get my "summers off." NOT! By the time I'm done moving my classroom furniture back into my room after the floors get waxed, making copies for next year, coming up with new and exciting lessons, redecorating, attending workshops, etc., I literally have almost no summer left.

My bare classroom!

BUT, I love what I do, so I gladly spend my summers getting ready for next year. I actually consider it fun! I can't wait to get going again and try out some of the new ideas I've found. (Plus, I enjoy getting to sleep in every now and then.)

I love some of these bulletin board ideas that I found on Pinterest! 

First, I love this idea of using #hashtags for Social Studies! I think the kids would enjoy it, too!

I also like the idea of taking pictures of the kiddos doing science experiments and posting them on the bulletin board throughout the year.

Since read tons of books that take place in different countries all over the world, I would love to make a bulletin board like this one to have kind of a "road map" of where we've traveled to in our readings during the year. I might even let students post their own personal reading books on the map to get other students interested in that book and to encourage everyone to read more books from other countries to try and fill up the board. We could make it a competition to see how many countries we can mark before the last day of school.

I also really like the idea of showcasing student work somewhere. (Plus, my boyfriend loves the Hulk.) I thought about using my principal's face printed on green paper instead of the Hulk. I figured he and the kids would get a kick out of that.

I don't use a word wall in my room, but I loved the idea of using feather boas as a border. I bought some hot pink and black boas from Dollar Tree, but I haven't figured out quite how I want to use them yet.

I'm terrible at keeping track of absent work when students are gone. I have cute absent folder covers from Kindergarten Works. I think she's updated them since I first downloaded them, but I like her first version much better.

Lastly, I always have classroom jobs for my students, but I never thought about having them "apply" for them. I usually just assign them in alphabetical order and then change them each week. I love the idea of them writing about why they would excel at individual duties. I might have to try this one this year!

I feel like I have so much to do and not enough time to do it! Time to get printing! Enjoy what's left of your "summer off!"

Father's Day

Hello, all!

So, I'm teaching summer school this year, and I decided to have my students make a fun Father's Day craft to give to their dads, stepdads, grandpas, whoever on Father's Day yesterday. I got the idea when I was cleaning out my teacher cabinet and came across some plastic tubes with colorful caps that I think we used for powdered candy at a school fair a long time ago.

Anyway, I also found some balloons and had just been on Pinterest looking for some fun Father's Day ideas.

Here's what I found in my cabinet:

First, I had the kiddos color a picture of their dads using this template from Totschooling. I also had them write a nice note on the back of their pictures.

After that, I used a pencil to help roll up their pictures to fit inside the tubes. I just slides out after I got the paper inside the plastic tube. I had to use the pencil to kind of push the paper into the tube so I could get the end-caps on.

The kiddos got to pick their cap colors and balloon color, and I wrote "Happy Father's Day" on the balloon. (I blew them up myself to save time.)

Then, I attached the balloon to one of the end-caps and wrapped a piece of tape around it to make sure it didn't fly off on the bus.

The kiddos had a blast and couldn't wait to give their gifts to their dads (or dad figures) on Father's Day. Here's the final result:

If you don't have any of those tubes, you could use PVC, pop bottles, really anything that's hollow with a lid. You could even roll up the picture and put it inside the balloon if you're feeling really festive!

Hope you get some good ideas from this, and happy belated Father's Day!

Electrical Circuit Quiz Folders

When I began teaching 4th grade, I inherited a bunch of old science materials (lesson plans, old activity books, tubs of supplies, etc.). I found a really old electricity activity book from 1991 called "Electrical Connections: AIMS Activities for Grades 4-9" with some pretty fun (and relevant) experiments in it.

Today, we did the Circuit Quiz Boards activity on pages 35-37, but I modified it slightly. I didn't use the quiz template, and we only made 3 holes to make it easier. You can find a PDF of these activity pages here.

Our procedure:

• I pre-cut some manila file folders so that they didn't have the tabs at the top and used my 3-hole punch to make holes on each side. Then, I had each kiddo grab one.

• Then, I passed out a box of aluminum foil, a roll of masking tape, scissors, batteries, light bulbs, and wires to each group.

• I explained that they would need to make a quiz folder like my example (shown below) where the question and correct answer completes a circuit to make a light bulb light up. I didn't show them how my example worked. I asked them how they thought it worked, and they figured it out!

• We talked about how the foil was a conductor because it's made of aluminum which is a metal and how the tape was an insulator because it was made of paper. I also had them explain to me what would happen if we didn't insulate the foil. They surprised me with how quickly they came up with the right answer. They told me that if metal crosses metal, it can complete a different circuit possibly making the wrong answer light the bulb.

•  I told them that we would just focus on getting our foil cut, folded, and taped into our folders today and then we would write our quiz questions Monday. I told them that their questions had to be school-related (science, math, social studies, etc.) I also told them they should probably check each foil strip after they tape it to make sure the circuit is completed correctly before they moved on to the next strip.

•  I gave them the rest of our science time (we only have 30 minutes total for science) to work on their circuit folders. They really enjoyed this activity!