Five for Friday....July 18, 2014...Zoo theme Week

Annnnnnnd.....another week has flown by! ESY is officially completed.

There is one week until my daughter's wedding...


There are 2 and a half weeks (eek) until we officially return to school.

Who knows when we will close on our house, it's a mystery at this moment.

However! today it is time to link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching, that is absolute and there is NO WAITING.

1.

This week we had a Zoo theme.

2.

Our read aloud books for the week....

3.

We began with "Wild thing" puppets made from paper bags and a variety of items.

The students never disappoint in being creative!

4.

We made a giraffe and Zebra using toilet paper tubes and free templates from Huggies.

5.

On the last day of school, we wrote our final message. At the beginning of summer school 5 weeks ago I wrote the messages from myself to the class. Gradually, the students volunteered statements to the message until on the last week they dictated the entire message. They did well. : )

Here's the last message...

That's it for this week!

Later,


Paula

Five for Friday or maybe Sunday!....October 18, 2013

Here I am at last...linking up with Doodle Bugs!

1. Twenty-Six Pirates  with a paper bag pirate puppet! Just try saying that 5 times! Which I did because one of my little guys lost his puppet while we walked around the school. The wonderful puppet was in a bag, but my guy is so BOUNCY, a lot like Tigger, that the pirate jumped right out! Soooo...we walked around asking various people "Have you seen a paper bag pirate puppet?"  We never found it, I'm hoping it turns up. In the meantime, I gave him my demo model. I hadn't taken a picture, so my daughter colored another for me and put it together, it is much nicer then my first one!

The pirate template is from Teacher Created Materials, I got a copy from another teacher, then covered the letter that was on the him (I think he was Pete the Pirate). We read the book, Twenty-Six Pirates by Dave Horowitz,  and we noted how each pirate name's beginning letter was somewhere on their person...on their shirt, hat or on a necklace. Their names always rhyme with the next line, for example..."Pirate Arty. First to the party!" I instructed the students to choose a letter and name their pirate. They loved this activity! 


2. Behavior Program adjustment!  Things were just not going well with my current clip system, moving the clip made everyone more volatile! I took a long, hard look at my behavior system...the token cards were working (see my September 27 post), BUT they were bulky and I had to carry three (yes, yes, I tried having them carry their own...). The clip system wasn't going anywhere, they really like getting a sticker on a chart daily when they stayed green. When the chart is full, treasure box time! So I retired the green,yellow, red light poster. I explored Teacher Pay Teachers and found a replacement for the token cards...punch cards! I chose a FREE design from http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Kristi-Deroche . There are A LOT of punch cards to choose from on that site, however, Kristi's has paw prints which goes with our school mascot and there are 10 prints.  Thank you Kristi!  I kept the sticker charts, if they fill one punch card, they get a sticker and play time. Tally marks are used when I get a point, The points transform into "reflective minutes" or timeout, take your pick. I put the punch cards on a lanyard around my neck, carry a hole puncher and a dry erase marker.

3. A new rug! 

4. I tweaked the math area a bit....

5. Preparing for Halloween! I hummed that Garfield Halloween Special tune..."what will I be, there's so many sides of me..."while I went through our boxes. My daughter and friend carved pumpkins, I'm not sure they will keep 10 more days..we shall see.

I am wearing down, working 9 weeks now without a lunch or prep time! I do eat with the first graders, so I'm not starving, but I get cranky before the day is over and I don't like to do that. My teacher assistants and I look at our schedules constantly, but there is just not an opening for me to hand kids to someone else and walk away for a little bit. This week, I'm going to talk to my supervisor about it, I hate to be a whiner and don't want that label. There is also a concern that no one will sub for me because they don't get a lunch!

Next week, I go to MANDT training! 

Paula

Binoculars Art Project

This is a quick and fun art project, every kid loves binoculars and the price is right on these!

Materials:

• empty toilet paper rolls (2 for each student)
• stapler
• duct tape (it comes in many colors and patterns!)
• yarn or string
• stickers
• hole puncher

Prepare in advance:

• Staple toilet paper rolls together.
• Make dots where the holes for the string/yarn should be.
• Cut string or yarn a length that will go over their heads. Tape one end so it is easier to thread through the holes.
• Make a demo model to show off

Procedure:
1. Give each student a pair of stapled TP rolls.
2. Instruct them to hole punch the dots for the string. Give each a hole puncher. Depending on your hole puncher and the student's hand strength, you may need to help them.
3. String through the holes. Tie together.
4. Give each student a piece of duct tape that will wrap completely around the pair of TP rolls.
5. Apply stickers.

Suggested Activities:

• Indoors or outdoors, take a walk around and take turns announcing "I see a ____". Great expressive language practice!
• Call out something such as "I see the letter E". Everyone looks through their binoculars and repeats it as they find it. Skills: shapes, letter names, letter sounds (I see the letter that says /b/), numbers, high frequency words, classroom vocabulary......
• Call out "I spy with my little eye something (color word)". Take turns with students.

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