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Oh my. I'm at school and check out the weather outside!
So, this post will be brief!
I wanted to share with you some of the preparations we've made for St. Pat's Day tomorrow...or whenever we come back!
First, I updated my St. Pat's Scavenger Hunt! My kiddos will come in the morning and see a clue at the back of our book we'll read first thing, which will lead them on a hunt for clues and solving math problems!
This past week, we wrote about what we'd do if we found a pot of gold. We did A Cupcake for the Teacher's cute craftivity!
It inspired me to make one of my own! I've always wanted to do one, but honestly, what is in my mind never seems to come out right on paper. However, this one turned out pretty well!
In celebration of it being my first attempt at a craftivity (don't you love that word?) I declared it a FREEBIE! Click on the picture to take you to TpT to download it (it's also available at Teacher's Notebook as well).
Can't believe it's snowing in mid-March...booo! Better head off home before I'm stuck at school! Yikes! :)
Ugh. So tired of snow and sooo ready for Spring! Right now, it's raining outside, but there's the possibility that it might mix with snow tonight. Boo!
My family spent yesterday at Busch Gardens (Williamsburg) celebrating St. Patrick's Day with the leprechauns and generally just having fun! :) The weather was FANTASTIC! I mean, 60 degree day! Snow - tonight??? ARGH!
Anyway, we tried to bash away the winter blahs this week by going full force into our plant unit after losing 3 days last week to the "s" word.
We used this wonderful golden oldie AIMS activity to dissect seeds. I'd share, but I'm worried about copyright (hint hint: do a Google search....shhh! I won't tell).
Then, we created this Pinterest-inspired (slightly altered) activity. I like using the straw for a stem to help teach that it "sucks up" the water and delivers it to the rest of the flower. It's impossible to glue, so we taped it down. The flower is a cupcake liner.
We also "planted" seeds and are observing them day by day to see how they grow! Students are anxiously awaiting the first stage with the roots! We're documenting it each day in a plant journal.
We also had a visit from our "4H Lady" to get our 2nd grade gardens ready for planting! Students learned about the different types of soil, how worms help gardeners, and pulled out the old plants (that our cafeteria uses in salads and taste testings which is too cool!) to make ready for new!
Since I was out Friday afternoon and will be Monday afternoon thanks to a cancelled and rescheduled doctor's appointment for my son, the St. Pat's activities were confined to reading and writing (because we are too behind on math!). Students wrote a letter to the leprechaun asking him not to trash our room (with the sub). I warned students beforehand that if they didn't use the correct letter format, he'd trash our room!
When I went to school after hours on Friday, I checked where they had hung them in the hallway for "Lucky" to see, and most of them looked great with only a few errors! Good thing - I told them that in the past, my classes had always gotten some sort of treat from the leprechaun, and that it often included a treasure hunt! Students were MOST excited to hear that. Of course, some asked me how trashed was the room in the past, and I told them that I didn't know, since my students had always written their letters very carefully! hah hah :)
So, after resource (which we have at 8:15), students will find a note on the board from the leprechaun and the first clue in their hunt! The "pot of gold" at the end are shamrock stickers and "gold" (Rolos).
I have the leprechaun hunt as a freebie at my TpT store from last year. Click {here} to check it out!
We had a great time on Friday! Students participated in holiday-themed math centers, and we had a scavenger hunt that ended with a "pot of gold" (butterscotch discs, Rolos, and cute little temporary tattoos!).
This is my fourth set of holiday-math centers that I have created/found. You'd think by now I'd get it right but.... My thought this time, after there was a little dischord among some of my groups on Dr. Seuss Day, was to make enough centers so that we'd have groups of two.
The good news: everyone got along, there was no whining, students were more focused, and everyone seemed to be participating! The bad news? We started our math centers at 9:45 and ended at 11:05!!!! Granted, it was math-based with two literacy themes in there, but we kind of, um, missed our Science test and scavenger hunt time. However, over the years, I have learned that flexibility is the key to good teaching, so no worries! We did our scavenger hunt after lunch, then when my collab. teacher showed up at 12, she took her group out to test while I assessed the rest of the crew, and by 12:30, we were watching our weekly Electric Company episode! (That is a SACRED rite my students do NOT miss! The one time we did, they were in TEARS!). Normally, I follow up EC episodes with phonics centers based on the topics of the episode, but threw those out due to our lengthy morning centers! (I think the kids forgave me).
We switch for reading, so that starts at 1, recess at 2:30, and before they left at 3, the kids told me it was the best day ever! :) So, mission accomplished and thank goodness over the years, I have learned to relax! (I laugh at myself when I think over my first couple years when I used to get so upset about a disruption in routine, like a weather delay or an assembly!).
Anyway, here are pics of center time. I would add pics of my leprechaun problems/clues, but after a long day of taking the kids to Busch Gardens (Season Passholder Preview Day! Gotta love it!) and fighting with pics on Blogger, and then docs on Google...whew. Please check them out as freebies on TpT. If you'd like for them to "manipulate" and make your own (using the same format or some of the same questions), please email me or comment below with your email and I will be more than happy to share them with you (I used Word and Publisher).
This hunt was such a cute activity! One of my teammates has done this before and shared it with us (she is new to our team this year). I was worried at first, because it's a one by one process, but even my VERY excited students managed to control themselves, and let each person have their turn!
Math Centers:
Estimation Station and Glyph: part of my St. Patrick's Day Literacy & Math Packet on TpT
3-digit matching/place value (also available on my TpT as a free download)
Centers that I found on other blogs and websites (thanks to all those that post freebies--they really do help!)
Leprechaun Scavenger Hunt:
*Ours was math-based since we are assessing this unit next week. We created questions based on comparing numbers, place value (to 999), rounding, and money. Students had to solve the problem before reading the clue to find the next envelope!
*I made mine into a more "Amazing Race" type game. When we came in the room, I asked my students if anyone put an envelope marked "Clues" on my desk. Of course, no one had, and then I "noticed" an envelope with one of my student's name on it. This, of course, caught EVERYONE'S attention (and this was sooo funny, because I had hidden the envelopes that morning BEFORE the math centers, and students did not see them at all until we started this after lunch!!!).
*So my student opened it, and read the math problem. Immediately my kids suspected a leprechaun (remember - he has been playing tricks since last week!) and one child even piped up that it must be a teacher leprechaun since he was trying to confuse them with math problems!
*She rounded her number and I gave her one of the clues (felt just like those people on Amazing Race, rewarding the contestants after doing one of challenges!). The kids were on the edge of their seat, but I was sooo proud of the fact that they let each classmate find things on their own. You should have heard them announce the name on the envelope! It became a bit of a "game show" atmosphere in my room!
So finally, the last clue was about finding a "pot" and looking in a "bag with a duck." (I usually have several bags around the room with things in them, usually center-related, so it wasn't hard to find). My last student found it, looked in there, and then was super happy! She showed it to the class, who then cheered LOUDLY! They enjoyed their spoils and I had a fun time doling it out the rest of the day to students who "earned" an extra piece (and what a great way to help control any excess excitement/sugar! Yep, not too proud to admit I resort to bribery on holidays!).
On a final note, one of the second grade rooms got hit hard by one of the naughty leprechauns! We found this out during our reading groups. My students then stated that if they had written warnings like we did (see previous post), maybe they wouldn't have had that problem! Too cute! :)
I really need to post about how we do reading groups at our school. I had a request earlier and had sat down at one time to write about it, but my apologies as it got lost in the shuffle! I'm going to work on it and post it tomorrow! Promise!
I'm so excited! I just uploaded my first "for sale" item on Teachers Pay Teachers! I worked REALLY hard this weekend on my St. Pat's day literacy and math centers! All are original and now at TpT for just $3.00! My fingers are crossed that my first "for sale" item will be a success!
With a 5 and 11 year old, it's tough, so it's going to be on the weekends (which means I'm sacrificing family time). Not that I think I'll pass the $20,000 mark some of these awesome teachers are doing, (I'm simply amazed at that!), but I hope that if 10 people buy my hard work, it's $30.00 in my pocket! Keep your fingers crossed!
So that leads me to a good question.....
How do you promote your TpT or Teacher's Notebook store? I would love to make this a success! So far, I've had lots of downloads for my freebies, but no followers to my store :(
