February Fun

I just love the last half of the school year! We do so much fun learning! The kids really "get" it. They have procedures down (most of the time) and we can really just dive in to the content and explore what we are learning about. I also love, love, love our themed learning!

February is Dental Health Month. Soooo many science experiments can be done with this theme! Science experiments are awesome! I was talking to a little boy from my class who is in 3rd grade now just the other day. He told me that the thing he loved the most and what he remembered the best was all of our science experiments! Hurray!

We hypothesized what would happen to our teeth in different liquids. We used Kool-Aid, Coca-Cola, and water.

Yuck! The Kool-Aid left a sticky, sugary residue and stained the "tooth" red! 

The Coke stained the "tooth" brown.

 Well, look at that. The water didn't change our teeth at all. It left it nice, white, and clean! We talked about how we can sometimes have sugary drinks, but if that was all we drank or if we didn't brush afterwards, then our teeth might get discolored with residue, just like the eggs did. Moderation, kiddos!

 The next experiment was a new one that I hadn't done before. I put a non-hard boiled egg in vinegar to see what acids do to our teeth. It took a little longer than expected, so give yourself a day for this experiment to work. I put the egg in when we got to school in the morning, but by the afternoon, it was just a little soft, but nothing had really changed. By the next afternoon, the shell had disintegrated. That's what I wanted to have happen, but the pictures below show even more coolness than I imagined! The yolk stayed in it's egg sac. It was so neat to see. This would make a great lesson on reproduction for older grades. We stuck with the tooth decay. ;)

 Of course, we had to do writing about teeth. We read What If You Had Animal Teeth by Sandra Markle. Awesome book!

The kids love it. It has interesting facts and is so engaging. After reading, they chose what kind of animal teeth they would want. We are working on opinion writing, so this went along perfectly. They had to give me their reasons why they wanted those teeth and they weren't allowed to say"because they are cool! " Haha! I'm mean and make them think and give details. Then they got to decorate themselves with the animal teeth they had chosen. Fun, fun!

We are also learning about living and non-living things this month. What better way to do this, than by having real, live things to explore. Here they had to tell me if an Earthworm or Gummy Worm was living and why. It also gets them out of their comfort zone and really exploring and explaining how they know.

Of course, it is also Valentine's Day. We play lots of Minute to Win It games, while throwing in some learning, of course.

 We are also fancy at or parties. We eat "adult" food and have chocolate fondue. Yum, yum.

Ahhhh, nothing is more fun than 1st grade. I am definitely in the right spot. :)

Be fun and fabulous!

~Mrs. Sweeney

Last Bit of Freedom

This is my last weekend before school is in full swing. Yes, we went last week, but we only had kids for 2 hours, so it doesn't count. :)

My kiddos are sweet. I think it will be a good class. I did have 4 not show up, but I think they will all make it on Monday. I did get a new one yesterday, so I am now up to 19. I did not get to meet her, but Monday will come soon enough. I have several good parents who want to be involved so that will be nice. I can't wait to get started.

I have no plans for next week though, so that is freaking me out a bit. We still haven't really gotten a schedule, so it is hard for me to plan, when I don't really have a plan! I'm going to buckle down and figure out something after this post though. Instead of working on lesson plans like I should have, I worked on stuff for you.

Our school wants to really focus on Accountable Talk and student learning this year. Pretty much what Common Core is all about. We got to tour some of the upper grade classrooms and the buzz was about some Accountable Talk posters they had in their rooms. I liked them, but didn't think they would work quite right in my classroom. Several other teachers mentioned that they would put up the posters for THEM to use to guide student talk. That's all well and good, but I want the kiddos to be able to use them on their own. So, I decided to make my own. I changed the wording a little bit  and added pictures to help the kiddos understand them more so they can actually use them. Plus, I have a mostly ELL class and they would definitely need help. Pictures are worth a thousand words, right?! Anyway, I think they turned out great and I have already printed them out to put in my classroom.

I put them on Teachers Pay Teachers for you. Just click the picture below to take you to them. I hope they work in your classrooms, too.

I really think they will help my kiddos use them more easily without me having to feed them the words. Woohoo for growing in-depth thinkers! I can just imagine all the conversations that can happen with these little gems. 

I like this one a lot because they really have to explain why they answered a certain way. They have to really think about it to explain it. Who am I kidding? I really like all of them. :)

Monday begins the start of an awesome year! I hope yours starts off great as well!

Be fun and Fabulous!

~Mrs. Sweeney

Are You a Pirate?

Ahhhhh, learning, how I love thee. I got to spend the last 2 days at a big conference our district puts on each year. I love to learn new things, so even though I had already gotten more than my required inservice hours for this year, I decided to go. Boy, am I glad I did. Yesterday wasn't too exciting. I learned some cool,new Math games, got to see Rick Morris again (mostly the same topic I heard last week) but nothing that blew me away. I do love some Rick Morris though! Today was the blow me away day! I had read a little about "Teach Like a Pirate" on some other blogs I follow, but didn't know much about it other that that it was a great new teaching book. Then I happened to see the book at the exhibit yesterday, and the cover alone intrigued me, but again just sort of passed by. 

Then today, I went to my first class. It was by a presenter that didn't really excite me yesterday. I sat down, sort of dreading the class. Then I started freezing. WHY do they keep these things like ice boxes??? So to take my mind off of the coldness, I started glancing at the schedule for the day to see what else was going on. My eye immediately fell on "Teach Like a Pirate" with Dave Burgess. In my mind I said, "Ahhhh, I wish I could go to that". Then I looked at my watch and realized I still had 15minutes before the first session started! I gathered my stuff, felt bad for a split second that I was leaving, and then walked out of that class and found my way to Dave. Boy, did I find my way. I might be a little bit in love. ;) I already told my husband that, so it's ok. 

Before the class even started, I was intrigued. He was dressed in a pirate outfit. Of course, who wouldn't be dressed like a pirate at a teaching conference?! He was playing cool music. There were silly things written on the board, fun props on the table, etc. Then I got passed a note passed to me from him. That sort of dampened my spirit a bit. He picked the wrong girl for that job! Haha! I'm not going to tell you what my "job" was, just in case you get to sit in on one of his sessions, which you MUST do if you ever get the chance, but it was definitely not me and not in my comfort zone. Oh well, I lived. It was worth it to be in there. 

Anyway, student engagement was the main focus. It was all about making learning fun and active. Ummm, right up my alley! I wanted to get right up there with him and shout from the rooftops that he was exactly right! If only everyone could see that! Learning CAN and SHOULD be fun and interactive! The class was constantly laughing, everyone was involved, it was magic! Again, exactly what the class was about! Pirates are unconventional, and that's what we can be in the classroom. Do crazy things,be crazy  things.Getcreative! People always tell meI'm creative, but no, I just take several different ideas and meld them into one to create the best ideas.  That's exactly what he was saying. Creativity is not something you are just born with or some bolt of lightning that its you from the sky. It is work! It's not really magic.It just looks like it!

Anyway, it was so awesome. I loved every minute of it. Get the book. Go see him! At lunch, I told my tablemates all about it. I decided to change my schedule and go to all the rest of his sessions for the rest of the day! That's how amazing he was! Well, I convinced some others to come with me. We went in, got a seat, and guess what?! The room was overflowing. In fact, it was so overflowing they had to come in and tell us to leave if we weren't signed up for his class! MAJOR disappointment! News had traveled fast and everyone wanted to get in on his sessions! 

So I went to my regularly scheduled class. Um, can I say bummer! This guy was pretty much the exact opposite of Dave! In fact, his big thing was that you had to cause anxiety in students to get them to achieve. Um, no. He needs to go sit in on "Teach Like a Pirate" that's for sure! Anxiety does not belong in my classroom, but fun and engagement sure do! I pretty much tuned out at that point. Hmmm, which way might be the better teaching style? ;/ 

Thankfully, after that class, I was signed up for Dave again and didn't even know it! Woohoo! This one was about teaching outside the box. It wasn't quite as good as the first one, but it was only and hour and 15 minutes long, so not enough time and too much info to fit in,but it was still great! 

So if you didn't get my message, let me just tell yon again that Dave Burgess is awesome andI definitely teach like a pirate. I hope you do too! Don't be scared! Anyone can do it! Go grab the book and change your classroom into an environment that kids want to be in. He asked us to write down 5words that  you would want your students to say about your class at the end of the year. What do you want your 5 words to be?

Be fun and fabulous!

~Mrs. Sweeney