Five for Friday.....September 27, 2013

It is time for linking with Doodle Bugs!

1. I've been refining our listening center. It is on our workshop rotation twice a week. It has been a process to teach students how to use the machines and follow the directions. One day we have an audio book, the other day is the card reader. I added a booklet this week to fill in the blanks with a high frequency target word. One of the students need the words "pre-written" with a highlighter, one needs a starter word, then he can continue on his own, and another doesn't need any help!  I also added more specific directions and introduced them before we started workshop. It helped a lot!

2. Next, I displayed the basic directions on the Promethean Board for a group project. The visuals were more effective then me talking!

3. Tumblebooks.com  is awesome! The kids love it and with our amazing Promethean Board, everyone can see just fine. Our school has a subscription to the website.

4. This week I dug out my trusty stamps and scented ink pad. I was once again wowed by the fact that the ink pad is still working! This ink pad and turtle stamps were a gift from my sweet sister almost 20 years ago! I received it in Oklahoma, packed it when we moved to Tok, Alaska, again to Wrangell, Alaska and finally now in the great Mat-Su Valley. Out of curiosity, I looked up Ranger Industries of Tinton Falls, NJ and they're still in business. I didn't see this exact ink for sale but I'm going to write them.

5. Finally I want to share a picture of my youngest daughter and her sweet kitten. She could make a cat food commercial!

There's my week in a nutshell!

Have a great weekend and tell me about yourself,

Paula

Building a cabin with cardboard

I want this to be the most fun summer school class ever! Following the "Camping around Alaska" theme, our centers will be things like tents and camp chairs. Instead of sitting at a typical calendar area, we will sit around the campfire!  With that in mind I started looking closer at this big TV box sitting around our back porch since November, we were reluctant to let go of it, we just knew it would come in handy. I got to thinking "Wouldn't it be cool to have a cabin as one of our centers", it could be just a "front" of a cabin, with a door they could crawl through. I didn't want to spend anymore money then absolutely needed.


To begin, light the mosquito coil so I won't get eaten alive on the back porch!

Materials: BIG box, brown paint, medium size brush, black paint or black marker, scrap wood.

Next, cut the box apart.  Paint it brown.   Let it dry.



I started applying the "logs" with black paint...didn't look right. Switched to a black marker...better. My hubby and I looked at it, didn't look all that "log like". Drew ovals in ....better, added "tree rings", even better!
I noticed that it was already developing a weak spot above the doorway, uh oh...will it last 5 weeks,(the length of summer school) maybe with some duct tape reinforcement? My hubby disappears awhile into his "shed", he returns with a piece of scrap wood, light weight, cuts it and viola! reinforced and attached with staple gun.

I think we can have some fun with this! 

Let me know about some of your home made recycling projects, leave a comment and a way to see them. I would do a linking thing if I knew how, so for now just leave your blog address, I would love to see more ideas.

Thank you, Paula