Pinterest Obsession Gone Good

Good Evening!

I have spent the past two hours filling out online applications...yuck, but absolutely necessary to achieving my end goal...A JOB! As always, Pinterest has pretty much taken over my life, but it has been in a good way :) We have done TONS of Pinterest activities in class this week and the kids have just been lovin' it! They are super engaged and it's more fun to teach too :)

Here's what we've been up to in Math: Fact Families and Arrays

The kids each made a Fact Family Flower and they got to choose whatever fact they wanted to for the center

 Our beautiful spring looking front board...if only it would be nice enough for these flowers to grow outside ;)

 Lots of practice with arrays, and you know a kid's best friend...FOOOD!! We used Cheez its to represent different arrrays!

 Lots of crumbs which could have resulted in a total mess, but I caught that one before it became a disaster ;) Cheez its on the desks only!

 I got these foam dice for Christmas and have yet to use them, so today was the day! The kids rolled the dice and had to draw the array. Whichever partner filled their sheet up first was the winner! :)

In Language Arts, we are quickly approaching the state assessments, so we are working on reviewing lots of concepts with the kids through their weekly reading story. This week we focused on a story called Alejandro's Gift (which was quite the hit since a kid in my class' name is Alejandro ;)

  The kids made paper plate Venn Diagrams and compared this story to another story we have read this year. They turned out so good!

 

Kids LOVE stations/centers! (Of course, this is way more work for the teacher) but it is worth it because the kids get so excited about them AND they get to review multiple skills at once. Today we did five different stations that focused on homophones, r-controlled vowels, prefixes/suffixes, and spelling practice. We had a great time!

Of course each station had a Directions card so the kids knew what the expectations were.

 

You can kind of get a glimpse of the kids sheets, but this was rainbow spelling!

 

 The homophones station which incorporated paint chips! The kids LOVED THESE!!!

 

 This was a game I created during my block classes and I actually got to use it in class today! Safari Adventure was quite the hit (even though half the groups argued the whole time about who's turn it was, who was cheating, etc.)

 

 Prefix and Suffix trees...they turned out so cute!

 

 Each student had to choose a prefix or suffix, write the meaning, and then write examples on the leaves of the tree.

 

 Yay, so cute! Thanks Pinterest :)

 

Tomorrow is Friday folks, yahooo!! Have an amazing JEANS day!

 

Happy Teaching!

 

Ms. Boyers 

Measurement Unit

WOW. It has been FOREVER since I have blogged. I vaguely remember thinking, "Oh gosh, it will be easy to blog during student teaching...how busy can I possibly be?" Boy oh boy was I ever wrong! I have been very overwhelmed (the good kind though). I am teaching everything but the last 45 minutes of the day so planning, organization,  and enthusiasm have been essential! I finished up my unit (yes, I have already taught my unit, hard to believe!) last week and I was amazed at how well it went. The kids absolutely loved the activities and numerous kids said, "It doesn't even feel like we are doing Math!" SUCCESS. I decided instead of making a boring update with all that I did, I would give some helpful hints of how to be successful for your unit (and I have TONS of pictures to share along the way!) So here goes nothing.

1. STAY ORGANIZED!!! This can be one of the hardest things to do during your unit since you have so many things going at once, but the more organized you can stay the better.

I kept a binder with clear pages for each day of my unit. I kept all of my original copies in here in case I needed to give them to another teacher or I wanted to reference them. I clear containers that I kept copies and activities for each day in. This kept me organized day to day and allowed me to know exactly where all my supplies were. This helped a ton!

Keep a folder with all your student assessments! You will need to analyze each formative assessment so have a place that you can keep all the student work so you can later refer to them in your unit when you are making assessment tables :)

 Have all of your supplies for the kids set out BEFORE the lesson begins! I had lots of hands on activities and had I not organized everything beforehand I would have died out of mass chaos going on in my classroom (there is still probably going to be mass chaos even if you are organized, so don't worry!)

2. Create engaging activities...even if it takes a little extra time! It's hard to take the time to create activities, but believe me, it pays off! The kids LOVE innovative ideas and activities that make learning fun! I spent LOTS of time creating my own worksheets and activities (with the obvious help of fellow bloggers and Pinterest :) but it was soooo worth it in the end! I was pleased with the learning that occurred and the kids had fun in the process :)

  Non-standard measurement with honey comb cereal and twizzlers. Kids love candy, so use it whenever you can!!

Measurement Olympics!! Kinesthetic, fun, AND ENGAGING!!

 

 The beanstalk I attempted to create (I think my kids are MUCH more artistic than I am :)

 

 Every day we did a different object for our "Estimation Station." The kids got so into this and it helped them practice measurement and estimation all at the same time!

 

Countdown to Valentine's Day...kept the kids engaged and looking forward to the holiday!!

 

 We created meter long links to see how long a kilometer really was. 1000 meters!!!

 

3. Encourage cooperative learning groups!! The kids love working together and it will impress you CT and CI if you use them...so do it!! It's fun and engaging and it boosts the students' confidence.

 

  Measuring the length a toy car traveled at a measuring station.

 

Candy bar measurement...another measuring station!

 

 Tracing and measuring a teammates body from a lesson based off of the book, "Jim and the Beanstalk" by Raymond Briggs.

 

4. Allow yourself, and your students, to be creative! I don't know about anyone else's kids, but mine LOVE anything have to do with drawing, coloring, and creating! Lessons that involved the kids doing any of these things always turned out well :)

 

 We read the book "Actual Size" by Steve Jenkins and then took animals from the book and the kids re-created them and then measured them at actual size. This was a walking stick that is 22 inches long!

Gian anteater...7 feet long!!

  Goliath frog

 

12 inch long moth!

 

 I created a visual for the kids to remember conversions! This was a meter stick with 100 beads glued to it to signify that 100 centimeters=1 meter

 

5. Utilize children's literature!! My kids loved reading books and then relating it to a lesson. They were always super engaged in the story and did a great job of using the book during the rest of the lesson :)

 

  6. Display student work and give quick feedback! When the kids know their work will be displayed, they will work that much harder to do their best, quality work. Beyond this, giving quick feedback is helpful. If a student struggled with an assignment, pull them aside and help them one-on-one so you don't leave them behind as you move onto more difficult material.

Our animals in the hallway :)

 

 Our links that we made to demonstrate how long a kilometer really is!

 

Hilarious response.

 

 At one of the measuring stations the kids created measurement riddles. Some were sooo good. The answer to this was a piece of candy corn!

 

 BEST RIDDLE EVER!! The answer was a pillow! 

 

7. HAVE FUN!!! It can get overwhelming at times with all the tedious things that are due for our portfolio...but just have fun and don't get caught up in the stress of it all!! Focus on teaching and the details for the portfolio will come later :)

Had to cut out the kids faces, but if you could see their smiles then you would know that we are having a great time!!

So there you have it...my advice to surviving the unit! It is getting time for bed (haha oh the joys of having a full time job) but maybe I will get around to adding all my worksheets to a google doc tomorrow so you can use anything I did :) Best of luck to you all who are planning and implementing a unit. It's a great experience...so enjoy it!!

Happy Teaching!

Ms. Boyers 

 

Week 1: Check!!

Week 1 of student teaching is officially COMPLETE!! This week has proven to me how fast this semester is going to go...pretty soon I will be a "real teacher" having to figure things out on my own!! But as for now, I have the world's GREATEST cooperating teacher who has already taught me so much about what it takes to be an effective teacher. She is the most energetic teacher I have been with while at KSU, and I feel like our style of teaching is really similar so it should be an easy transition for the kids when I become the teacher! (Some of them have already asked me when I am going to start teaching...that makes me so happy and excited to actually begin teaching lessons!!)

The physical layout of my classroom is AWESOME!! It is bright and colorful and so inviting for the kids...I snapped some shots today of some of my favorite ideas in the classroom :)

 Here is a shot of the front half of the classroom

Here is a closer view of the front board where there are posters for their weekly vocab words (the words the kids study in their reading book), plus the Daily 5 posters. On the right hand side of the board you will see a picture with some writing below. The kids began a writing project on Harris Burdick by Chris Van Allsburg this week where they use a picture from the book and create their own stories. It allows the kids to be sooo creative and they LOVE the freedom they are offered...they can make their story about anything!! (3rd grade appropriate of course :)

 Part of the 3rd grade Social Studies curriculum is studying the different regions of the US. To celebrate this, the kids are encouraged to bring in postcards from different US attractions (ie: The Arch, Wrigley Stadium, Mt. Rushmore, Golden Gate Bridge, Statue of Liberty, etc). The kids adore this and get so excited to share any postcards they receive :)

 I love the discipline system my teacher uses. Each kid has a number and a pocket, and in each pocket is a slip of paper labeled A+, A, A-, B+, B, B-, etc. Each time a kid misbehaves or is acting inappropriately in class, the child cuts of a letter. By the end of the week, they have the letter grade of how their week was. As you can see, the kids all had a wonderful week....I see lots of A's!!

 This is a simple idea but I loved it! On the cabinets are different posters that have numerous genres with a description and pictures of popular books that fit that genre! This could help students understand the different types of genres when choosing books to read!

This is such a great idea!! My teacher uses a plastic pocket chart to keep all of her copies for the week. This way, if we have some extra time there are plenty of worksheet/activities to pull out! Love this and it's an efficient use of space for organizing papers :)

 Here is my cute little desk that my teacher supplied for me :)

After a rewarding, but tiring first week and a 2.5 hour student teaching meeting, some fellow student teacher friends and I decided we needed to kick back and grab some dinner and discuss our first week! Off to Talk of the Town we went...

 

I had an AMAZING first week and I am so excited to start teaching this upcoming week (we don't waste any time!!) On Monday I am going to begin doing some Kim Sutton math (the kids are working on 11 times tables) and I will be teaching Social Studies (we are currently focusing on the Midwest!!) I am giving an introductory lesson in which my clinical instructor will be watching, so many exciting things are coming up for this upcoming week!

My lesson plan notebook....it has already begun!!

For now, time to enjoy the rest of the weekend and cheer on the Cats (yikes, it's 29 to 16 right now :( Have a wonderful weekend and get some much needed rest!!

Happy Teaching!

Brittany