Monday 10 December 2012

My Word Work Savior!

While browsing my Teachers Pay Teachers "10 Free Downloads" email -- totally worth signing up for -- I came across an amazing resource for practicing Word Work in the Daily Five.

Check out the Fabulous Firsties Blog and download this resource from Mrs. M's TpT Store!

      Word Work Task Cards & Recording Sheets

Not only does this resource include a multitude of task cards with new and interesting ideas, it also comes with the accompanying recording sheets and graphic organizers for students to document their progress. Although it is designed for first grade, I have witnessed much success with my Grade 5's. I have never been so impressed with a FREEBIE!

Sunday 29 July 2012

Brain Break Kit

Here is a kit that I composed based on little activities or brain breaks that I have experienced. I made them up into cards for convenience. The general principle is that students' attention span is a minute/year of age. If that seems like too short a time, definitely change activities every 15 minutes or provide a brain break.


For the activity cards, click here.

For ease of access, I colour matted my cards according to approximate time needed. A purple card in my deck would take about 5 minutes of class time, whereas a pink card might take 5 seconds.

Friday 27 July 2012

Exploding Art -- The Best Kind


As mentioned in an earlier post, my classroom’s reward system was called the “Caught Being Awesome” Jar. When I saw kids following the classroom rules, they would get a slip to add to the jar. Well, we filled that jar for the first time on July 10th! To celebrate, we did exploding balloon art!

Materials
  • PAINT SHIRTS and OLD bathing suits (Trust the bold words!)
  • Tempera paint in a variety of colours
  • Balloons
  • Funnel
  • Garbage Bags
  • Large Paper Roll
Steps
  1. Using a funnel, add some paint to a balloons
  2. Blow it up
  3. Add it to a jumbo garbage bag for easy transport and a contained mess in case of a POP
  4. Roll out some large paper outside and dump the un popped balloons
  5. Unleash the kids!

This activity was sooooo much fun and the kids loved it. To add to their artwork, some of the popped balloons even stuck to the paper which we used as a mural for the inside of our classroom








NOTE: Make sure you are ok with paint splatter. We decorated the shed and windows of our centre, however it washed off after a few good July storms!


Saturday 21 July 2012

Bubble Party!

Initially designed to be outside, we had to move our planned bubble party inside when the winds in Regina were gusting to about 80km/hour. Although it was messy (and took a bit of elbow grease), we had a blast!


Before our party, we had to make sure that we were wearing our professional bubble explorer outfits! The kids loved the goggles.


We filled a kiddie pool full of bubble solution in the middle of the room.


Bubble Art: Give each kid a cup filled with some watered down tempera paint and a few drops of dishsoap. Add a straw and let the bubbles overflow onto some paper.

In addition to these activities, we also had bubble wrap taped to the floor all over the room and a bubble machine! The kids were engaged for the whole afternoon.

Empty Counter Top?


Friday 20 July 2012

Window Art

“In order to act as an educator for the child, the environment has to be flexible; it must undergo frequent modification by the children and the teachers in order to remain up-to-date and responsive to their needs to be protagonists in constructing their knowledge." (Gandini, 1998)

When looking for ways to improve the classroom environment, I sought out an art project that would also provide an opportunity for learning. Taking advantage of an open window space, I found the idea of using recycled milk jugs to make art. Not only did it turn out beautifully, but it also sends the important message of environmental responsibility and sustainability to children. Instead of using brand new art supplies, we made use of what we already had.


Teacher Prep
1. Save milk jugs. At the centre we use 14/week so it did not take long. Educators may also ask parents to contribute.
2. Wash them out thoroughly. Unwashed plastic exposed to sunlight in the window will not produce a smell to enhance your classroom environment!
3. Depending on the age of the children, you might want to cut off the handle and the spout of the jug.
4. To make the "paint", mix together about 1 cup of glue, a few drops of dish soap, and as much food colouring/water colour to get your desired colour. NOTE: This amount of paint will go a long way! 

Process
1. Have children cut out any shape that they want.
2. Using paint brushes or glue spreaders, have them decorate their pieces. Some may choose to spread it out, or make a drizzle pattern.
3. Hole punch either end of the piece and string them together using fish line.
* We used a fallen tree branch to add an earthy component to our window art.

For more ideas on recycled art, check out the Recycled Arts and Craft Guide

Friday 13 July 2012

This is what tables are for, right?


Materials
  • Tempera Paint in a variety of colours
  • Masking Tape
  • PAINT SHIRTS
  • Drying Space (each of our kids made 5 or 6 pictures)
  • Prep Solution (Water and a few drops of dishsoap)
Steps
  1. Divide the table with masking tape into painting stations
  2. Create 4-5 palettes of paint to go in the middle of the table
  3. Before painting, spray down the table with a water and dish soap (just a drop) solution.
  4. Unleash the children! When they are done painting, imprint their design onto a piece of white paper.



Have fun! This is extremely messy, but the imprints that we pulled off of the table designs were              AMAZING! This is another great way to teach about colour mixing and imprinting techniques through inquiry and experimentation.







Tuesday 10 July 2012

Agriculture in the Classroom: Seed Kit

Living in a province with a large agricultural industry, it is important that Saskatchewan teachers accept the responsibility of educating our students in this area. By providing meaningful information and experiences, we can empower them to make informed choices when it comes to interacting in the world of farming.

One great way that I learned to involve students more in their Saskatchewan roots was through the organization Agriculture in the Classroom. Sponsored by the Ministry of Agriculture as well as the agriculture industry, they have a multitude of amazing hands on resources for students. The best part ... these resources are free for educators!

One of my favourite picks would be the seed kit. This kit comes with 14 different seed samples, a few lesson plans and a sorting graphic. It is great to use for all ages, I have adapted the activity for students aged 4 to 10.

I have used the kit as both an inquiry centre (set up with all necessary tools and information cards) and a structured guessing game competition. The kids seem to be amazed at all of the consumer products that the grain industry supports! Here are some pictures of my kids interacting with the centre. I will attach the link to my information cards and the AITC website at the bottom. Enjoy!

A real canola plant!

These seem to look the same...



Materials for set up:

  • A tray for the students to dump the seed samples (trust the kids to do this! -- we had a few spills but they all accepted responsibility and cleaned up their mess)
  • A magnifying glass
  • I had a mirror to place all of the bottles on for a beautiful visual display
  • I also got some real wheat plants from the field for the kids to see the actual plant.
  • The information cards
Check out this great website for over 250 lesson plans, activities, teacher guides, etc!

1950's Office Centre

"A high quality early learning environment supports children's learning through play. Adults contribute to the play by ... providing props and resources to enrich the play" (Jones & Reynolds, 1992) 

I was searching through my parent's basement when I found an old typewriter and rotary phone that I thought my children would enjoy as many were asking about the lives of their parents and grandparents. I placed both models together somewhere around 1950. I simply set up the centre without explanation to the children, and watched as they began to explore. This centre generated many questions, especially about Elvis Presley and what they thought was a "projector" (typewriter)!


We had many office scenarios take place as well as conversations with Lucy. Many of the kids just loved the sound of the typewriter and spent hours clicking away. We also supplemented this centre with dress up clothes and music (including Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley) as interest grew. Through play and inquiry, the children had fun learning about history and the lifestyles of previous generations.

Click here for the background pictures.

Friday 29 June 2012

International Mud Day -- June 29, 2012


As a daycare staff who highly value the purpose of “messy” activities in developing language, social skills, motor skills and a positive attitude towards learning, we knew that International Mud Day had to be a big celebration!  This morning, our daycare director ordered a tractor bucket full of dirt which was dumped on the cement pad outside our front doors. All you need to add to complete the recipe for fun is kids and a garden hose!







We enjoyed the rest of our afternoon making some mud pies! The kids had so much fun. These activities were great to build gross and fine motor skills, discover the names of our mud pie plants in their natural environment and build some exciting vocabulary such as squishy, gritty, brown, cold, slimy and goopy!




Tuesday 26 June 2012

Helping Hands

With fourteen kids in the room aged 5 to 10, keeping the room running smoothly could be a challenge on some days. For this reason, I introduced the Helping Hands in our room. For the older kids, it gave them a sense of leadership and responsibility. For the five year olds, they learned the value of taking care of their room. Some kids needed a job while some kids didn't. For this reason, I did not force the kids to do their job, but rewarded them with a "Caught Being Awesome" slip if they did.


For a personal touch I had each kid add their own hand print. I would have the kids move them around once a week. In a classroom setting, I have seen hand prints already made under each job heading. The students then move their names around to save space.

Job List
  • Attendance Assistant
  • High and Low Leader
  • Awesome Catchers
  • Room Rangers
  • Snack Server
  • Tidy Team
  • Pet Patrol

Saturday 9 June 2012

The Black Book of Colours

It can be difficult to imagine what visual impairment might be like, but this book makes the challenge more attainable. Through a full Braille and written text, this book is accessible for a broad array of readers. It describes colours through the use of the other senses of touch, sound, taste and smell. The illustrations are also raised allowing every reader to explore the entire book through their fingers.



This book is an amazing piece of literature. Its accessible nature is not only great to include all readers, but also to teach students an alternative perspective and allow the world to be explored in a new way. It is truly a quality piece of literature.


Hearing Impairment Perspective Activity

In my Students with Special Needs course, we are learning about a variety of exceptionalities and inclusion strategies that may be used in the creation of a classroom community.

One activity that I particularly liked was a perspective activity that helped us to place ourselves in the shoes of a student who may have a hearing impairment.

1. Put music on and start quietly giving instructions for an activity.
  • Give a high five to ten students
  • Touch the four corners of the classroom
  • Tap your foot eight times
  • Complete four exercises
  • Write down two thoughts about this activity
  • Initial the board
2. Provide some students with written instructions, provide others hints, and for some students, reprimand
them for not listening.

3. Focus the discussion on the strategies that the students used to complete the activity. Make sure to hear the perspectives of the students with and without help. For example, "Was it easier to do the activity when you had written instructions?" or "How did you feel when you didn't know what to do?"

Perspective activities are a great way to help students understand and respect the struggles of their peers as well as the extra resources that they may need to be included in the classroom. If you ever have a scenario where students get jealous of the assistance received by a person with an exceptionality, this can reinforce the principle that "FAIR DOES NOT MEAN EQUAL." 

*Remember to consult the student with the exceptionality before engaging in these activities.*

Tuesday 5 June 2012

Caught Being Awesome!

This summer my job was to work with the school aged students during their summer vacation. Knowing that I would be interacting with students from aged 5 to 10, all from different backgrounds and schooling expectations, I knew I had to develop a foolproof classroom management plan. Inspired by Chapter 6 of Inclusion of Exceptional Learners in Canadian Schools, Climate, Community and Classroom Management (really one of the only useful readings of my entire university experience), I developed a set of classroom rules with the students and a positive reinforcement system.

As outlined in the chapter, I sat down with the students and took their ideas for the classroom rules -- both for the students and the teacher. Of course, we had about 30 different ideas which we were able to simplify to six. These were posted in a common area and also around the entire classroom.


To supplement these rules, I used a positive reinforcement tool called "Caught Being Awesome." This is a reward system that I learned about in pre-internship with my amazing co-op! The students would be given a slip when I caught them following the rules. When they filled up the bucket with the slips, the class would get a reward.

Caught Being Awesome Slips

This system took about two weeks to really take hold, but once it did, I had a very harmonious summer :)

Friday 6 April 2012

Holocaust Awareness Week

"We must continue to teach our children the lessons of history's darkest chapters. That will help them do a better job than their elders in building a world of peaceful coexistence." ~United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon


We were fortunate enough this week to hear from Carson Phillips, educator from the Holocaust Education Centre as well as Vera Schiff, Holocaust survivor, about the purpose and value of Holocaust Education in schools. Here are a few resources you can use to teach your students about the Holocaust. Included on these sites are videos, lesson plans, activities and further resources.


Azrieli Foundation
Centropa: Teacher's Area
Conversations About the Holocaust
Institute of Education: Holocaust Education Development Programme
Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research


Friday 30 March 2012

Last Day

After a fun day with the "Physical Activity Scavenger Hunt," and Pre-Intern Farewell Party, my time at this school is over. I want to take this opportunity to thank the school, my students and especially my cooperating teacher for teaching me so much. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time here and everyone has taught me so much. I wanted to close with another reminder of how thoughtful and selfless the upcoming generation is with a quote from a student that reaffirms the value of this wonderful group:

"My low for the day is that Ms. Schebel is leaving, but my high for the day is that other students will be able to enjoy her."  ~ Deleah

In response to this love, I have found a quote that I feel summarizes the way I feel about this experience:


"If you want to live more, you must master the art of appreciating the little everyday blessings of life. This is not altogether a golden world, but there are countless gleams of gold to be discovered in it." -- Henry Alfred Porter


My students and cooperating teacher are these gleams of gold in my life. I am so blessed to have been a part of this school and been allowed to be a part of their life journey. In two words -- thank you.


Thursday 29 March 2012

Lesson Ten: Your Ideas of "What Learning Looks Like" Will Differ from Those of your Students

Thursday Afternoon
Noise Level: High
Task: Finish up rich performance task related to physical activity and nutrition (write song, write story, make healthy living advertisement or research physical activity opportunities in the community)


I am running around the classroom answering questions, keeping students on task and assessing at the same time. I notice over time a student constantly cruising around the classroom. Thinking that this student was not working, I walked over and asked to see their work. Surprisingly, he handed me an almost complete project. I realized that although this student appeared to be off task, he was really just self-regulating so that he could do his work with more efficiency. Over these past few weeks I have noticed more and more that my conceptions of "learning" and what it should look like do not align with the embodied experiences of my students. When I was in school, learning meant that you were sitting quietly in your desk, complying with the teacher's expectations. In the school I am in, beautifully enhanced with diversity in culture, learning styles, life experiences, etc. I have learned that in many cases, sitting quietly in a desk is not learning. The question is, do we want our children to be experts at following directions and complying with demands, or do we want them to be critical thinkers, questioning norms and having the skills to self-direct and make a difference? I would imagine that educators today would choose the latter. It is still important to have expectations, but we need to analyse our foundational ideas about school. Do I get caught up in the fact that my student is not sitting quietly in his desk, "working" (the way I imagine working to be) or do I celebrate the students ability to self-direct and demonstrate self-regulation, self-control and responsibility for learning? Well today I celebrated and it is my goal to do so in other environments as well. Whether a student is doodling, walking around, chewing on their pencil, or sitting, students self-regulate and enhance their learning in so many ways. The challenge is for us educators to recognize that and include it in our conceptions of learning. 

"The great end of education is to discipline rather than to furnish the mind; to train it to the use of its own powers rather than to fill it with the accumulation of others" -- Tyron Edwards

~ Let's change this.

Tuesday 27 March 2012

Lesson Nine: Be Careful of what you are Assessing

I was lucky today to be a part of another student-led conference. I am always really excited to sit in on these because the idea of the student led parent teacher conferences is a new idea to me although it has been around for a long time. I like that the student is able to showcase the work that they are proud of as well as taking responsibility for their learning goals. However, as I was sharing with a student’s parents about his success with the nutrition content matter, his father shared with me that the student had already taken this content as a part of his scouts program. This immediately raised the question in my head, am I truly assessing what the student has learned, or the experiences their families are able to provide for them. I am not sure yet what this means for me as a teacher or how I can change my assessment designs, but it is definitely an important component to consider when designing assessments for your students.

Monday 26 March 2012

Happy Moment

Today was a great day of student sharing and reflection of the past two weeks of our experiences with Nutrition and Physical Activity. At the end of the day, we gathered in a talking circle and shared what we had learned. I shared with the students about how much they had taught me over the past few weeks. I am so grateful that I was placed in this school as it has influenced my identity as a teacher and who I am fundamentally. All of the stories of my students inspire me and solidify my desire to teach. Although they all shared amazing understandings that they have come to, here are a few of my favourites:


I learned that you don’t need money or to go to the gym to exercise ~ Sandy

I learned that there are lots of things and people that can influence us so we need to be careful~ Aleah

I liked all of the funny jokes you brought every day. They made health funner. ~Reanne

I learned that our food gives our brains energy and I liked watching the food digest in the stomachs we made.... it was so.... gross. We need to balance what we eat with exercise, or the other way around, to make sure that the nutrients can get us healthy. ~ Melinda

Although everyone learned something different, I was impressed that their learnings seemed to either help them develop a deep understanding of a big idea or a positive attitude towards school. Hearing their stories was important to me because as teachers, we are supposed to teach our students the prescribed curriculum. In reality, they are all going to take away something different depending on their pre-disposition to the subject matter and their background knowledge. No matter what we teach it, they will align it with their personal experiences and I am glad that they were able to share these differences with me. 

Fun Brain Break Idea!

Plates: Have kids all put a paper plate on their head. Have them move about the room (this can be done to music). If their plate falls, they are frozen and someone else has to bend down without having their plate fall off their head and put it back on their classmates head. The object is to keep everyone in the game. Not only does this activity work on balance, it is cooperative too! This will help keep all students feeling included as well as build the classroom community. 


This and many more great ideas on:
Proteacher.net - Quick Brain Breaks

Friday 23 March 2012

Lesson Eight: Have Faith in the Upcoming Generation

So often today we hear the statements, "kids these days are so spoiled, have it so easy, have no manners, etc" in combination with a "what is the world coming to?" There is truth to the fact that today's generation is much different than the generations of the past, but I have faith that these differences are positive. Here are some quotes from my students that have inspired and gained so much respect from me:


"If I caught a leprechaun, I would take the gold and give it to all of the poor people in the world. I just feel so bad for them, it's not fair." ~ *Kaitlyn, Grade 3


The students asked us, "If you had three wishes, what would you wish for?" I answered knowledge. My co-op said she would go to Hawaii. We both asked for three more wishes.


" I would wish for world peace, and an end to hunger, and an end to homelessness" ~ *Brayten, Grade 5


"I would wish for no more racism" ~ *Jacob, Grade 5


"I would wish for no more bullying I think, I mean its so mean." ~ *Jessica, Grade 4


* Names have been changed.


Boy, did we feel awesome after that. This upcoming generation has so much potential and are also demonstrating such empathy, consideration and kindness towards others. So, what is this world coming to? I think a more caring and equitable place. We seem to be in pretty good hands. 

Wednesday 21 March 2012

Lesson Seven

Does this even need explanation?


Lesson Six: KISS (Keep it Short and Sweet) or in my case (Keep it Simple Stupid)

Success! I have finally planned an impromptu lesson in under an hour! Before entering this experience, we had our unit plans outlined and planned out. However, I have had to almost completely scrap my initial plan as my expectations were very different than my classroom reality. I have learned to keep it simple and allow your unit to be emergent (develop according to student interest). I have been told that this "is what real teachers do anyway." It is good to have a general idea of where you want to go, but it is unrealistic to have a unit completely planned down to the last detail.

Monday 19 March 2012

Lesson Five: Go Outside of Your Comfort Zone

Although I am talking about this lesson within a classroom context, it is such an important lesson in life. I was once given advice from a professor in my second year, "Every chance you can, make yourself uncomfortable, there is no other way that you will learn about yourself faster." As teachers, it is very important to have this self awareness in a broad variety of situations. If anything, teaching is unpredictable, and for the sake of your students, it is important to be adaptable. Every time I have taken this advice to heart, I have learned in a deeper way than I ever could have imagined.


Today was very similar to my previous experiences. I am person who craves order and planning, so it was outside of my comfort zone for students to create their own groups and make a healthy food commercial. There was so much noise in the classroom, conflicts within the groups, and some students who simply could not self manage. However, in the end, the student products were amazing. The conflict ended sorting itself out and the students had a blast! The learning was rich and the positive attitude developed towards learning was so important.

Friday 16 March 2012

Lesson Four: Have Fun

It just so happens that as soon as I decided to truly make this a learning experience, rather than trying to be perfect, I had a great day! My lesson went significantly better with the students when I was more relaxed and they were able to learn in their own way without me trying to control everything. In addition, the afternoon presented us with some free time. My teacher could have used it to catch up on work, or expand on a lesson. Instead we spent the last hour dancing, playing games and just chatting with the kids. Although we might not have gotten ahead in our planning, we built important relationships. These relationships are the foundation with which we do our teaching and they are so valuable!


When we educators get hung up with organizing every little detail (whether a lesson plan, unit or school system) we do well to remember that the world is effortlessly self-organizing in its own chaotic way.
~ Adapted from Gary Turner by David Gray

Wednesday 14 March 2012

Lesson Three: Stop Trying to Be Perfect... You are Messing Everything Up!

So it was midnight, and based on my traumatizing experience yesterday with my out-of-control class, I was trying to make my lesson perfect. I had spent three hours looking for a video that they might like, as well as  finding visual props and re-arranging my lesson over and over. Finally my helpful, but tired and frustrated, boyfriend came up to me and yelled, "Stop trying to be perfect, you are messing everything up!" At this point, I would only get six hours of sleep, I was sick and I was not getting anything accomplished. The point of this experience is to learn -- in fact in education, teachers are learning all the time.


Take Chances, Make Mistakes and Get Messy! ~ Mrs. Frizzle

Tuesday 13 March 2012

Lesson Two: Shut Up!

Today I had the students do a Canadian Food Guide Exploration. We started off by reviewing our ideas about influences by making an idea web. I had them talk about an influence in their life, then they grabbed onto an end  from a ball of yarn, and tossed the ball to someone else with an idea. Eventually we had a huge web going around the whole classroom! It was great. Afterwards, I introduced the Canadian Food Guide with a PowerPoint, which took about 20 minutes and then we did a serving size demonstration which also took about 20 minutes. Throughout the PowerPoint and the demonstration, the classroom energy was extremely high. The students were not following instructions and were extremely chatty. It was the last class of the day, and they could not focus on what I was trying to teach them. In addition to the regular end of the day excitement, I had a surprise visit from my faculty advisor at the University. This was an additional distracting component for the students. I felt like my head would explode and my cooperating teacher had to step in four times to help control the class. I was embarrassed that I could not control the class in front of my faculty advisor. 


After everything was said and done, I ended my lesson and tiredly made my way over to my things. I looked at my faculty advisor and he said, "well how did you think that went?" I just sighed and lifted my hands, shaking my head. This is when he asked me an important question. "How old are the students?" My class is composed of eight to eleven year old students. This means that for each year they are old, that is their average attention span. I had gone way too long with my PowerPoint, and also with my demonstration, despite the hands on nature and student involvement. Reflecting back on the lesson, I had talked for almost an hour! No wonder the students could not focus! My lesson of the day was to allow the students to formulate some knowledge for themselves, and allow them to be children! They need to share their ideas, explore and have fun.  If I would have shut up for a while to allow them to explore, my lesson might have gone a lot differently. 

Monday 12 March 2012

Lesson One: Be Flexible

Ahhh, exhale! My first day is over. It was a very busy day and my focus was introducing the students to my topic, nutrition and physical activity. The junior 3, 4, and 5's started off by exploring influences in their lives that impacted their ideas or decisions about healthy living. The initial discussion and activity were a success. To expand on their ideas, I wanted the students to do a "speed interview" of one another (similar to speed dating) where they compared ideas about their influences. There were four steps: 1) Make two standing circles, 2) One circle of students stands around the first circle of students, 3) The inside circle and the outside circle face each other, 4) The outside circle stays in one spot while the inside circle takes (x) number of steps to the left or right to get a new partner every few minutes. However, what I thought was simple did not work for the students. After many puzzled looks, "I don't get this" comments, and numerous failed attempts, I said, "OK, everyone just sit down!" Afterwards, the students sat down, we had a group discussion and it was great!


I had to make the decision today to be flexible enough to abandon my planned activity and do something that was meaningful for the students. Instead of wasting time, trying to force learning, I had to step back and let the learning take place in a way that made sense to the them. It took me outside of my comfort zone, but it worked for my student and helped me in the long run. 

Sunday 11 March 2012

The Day Before

Hello all! This is my first blog post.... ever. I am a pre-intern and I am about to enter the school setting for three weeks. Prior to entering the school, I have my first week of lessons prepared.I am excited to begin this new part of my journey, but I am still very nervous at the same time. I worry that my students will not learn, or that they will be bored. Luckily I have the support of an amazing and supportive cooperating teacher, and I know I will be ok. I love my students as well as being in the classroom, and I will hold onto that love to get me through tomorrow!