Not the same old Mother's Day gift

Allow me to introduce one of my favorite-amazing-third-grade-teacher-friends, Juliet. She is the brains behind a very new TPT store: The Tech Crazy Teacher. I asked her to guest post today to show you the fabulous Mother's Day gift idea that she had for this year, since I haven't gotten anything together yet. PS: You'll be seeing a lot more of her soon *wink*.

Here she is...

I really struggle to find the right projects on Mother’s Day.  I think it is because I am a mom, and it means so much to me.  I want to give my students’ moms something special--something they will treasure and that still has an impact 10 years from now when their kiddo is going off to college and is moving out.   Maybe this overwhelming need to make an extraordinary Mother’s Day project is because it happens to be my son’s senior year, and I just want to hang on to his little handprints from Kindergarten and cry. 

Last year I watched almost all the students in my school parade out on the Friday before Mother’s Day.  I would say a good 80% of them were carrying a planted flower in various types of containers.  I am not dissing the plants and flowers.  Okay.  Okay.  Maybe I am anti-flowers because their life span in my care seems to be about 2 weeks. 

So what is a teacher to do?  Pinterest search.  Check.  Teachers Pay Teachers.  Check.  Examine what I did in the past.  Check.  Blogs.  Check.  Ask teacher friends.  Check.  I am still not really inspired.  What is left to do?  Create a project that combines some of the best elements from the other hundreds of Mother’s Day gifts I viewed.

I brought my camera to school and took photographs of my students.  I focused on close-ups of their faces.  Any camera can do this and almost all phones will take great pictures.  Here are a few tips to take a great picture. 

1.  If you are in the sunlight, use a flash.  This will get rid of shadows.  Find the shade if you can. 

2.  Get close.  A picture becomes more personal the closer you are. 

3.  Take more pictures than you need.  I delete more than I save. 

4.  Crop and resize pictures.  Most sites will let you upload a picture and then crop them for free. 

5.  Try making the pictures black and white.  Black and white pictures are timeless. 

Here is a good list of tips from Kodak on taking excellent pictures.

Top 10 Tips for Great Pictures

I then chose 2 of the pictures of each student to print out.  Cropped, turned black and white, and then sent off to my local photo shop.  (I used Walgreens.)

At Hobby Lobby (any framing shop), I bought some matting board.  They had about 20 12x12 boards in a package for less than $10.  I then added white acrylic paint, double stick tape, and ribbon to my cart.

I painted each student’s hands with the paint and had them make a heart with their fingers.  (See picture).  Then we placed their handprints on the matting board upside down so the heart would be right side up.

  

I added the pictures and had the students write, “I love you!” the date and their names on the mat.  Attach the ribbon and you are finished.

I LOVE the outcome of this project.  As a mom, I would so hang this up and keep it forever.  That is exactly what I was looking for.  It’s different.  It’s meaningful.  It’s personal, and I think it’s extraordinary. 

~Juliet

Six for Saturday

I'm linking up with Doodlebugs Teaching to share 5...make that 6...things from my week. I wanted to wait until after school on Friday so I could post some Friday pics, and we all know how Friday afternoons go :) So now it's Saturday, and here I am!

Our Tournament of Books has ended! All of our fifth graders created cereal box book reports for their favorite book they had read this year. We then chose 16 to be in our Tournament of Books. (You can find the AWESOME product by Hedrich's Hive that we used to create this display here.) The kids were SO excited on voting day to cast their ballots and to see who made it to the next round! It really got our students talking about the books they've read and recommending them to their friends. (YAY!!) Even the other grade levels in our hall were excitedly watching our display. And the winner is...

I Survived the Japanese Tsunami! I was so excited to see this book win, because I love the series! I actually haven't read this particular one, so it's on my summer reading list. (I seriously doubt it will be available before then, because all of my students who haven't read it are waiting in line now!)

  

We are wrapping up Area & Perimeter this week with a fun partner project! Students are designing their own Zoo! I am using a fabulous TPT find: Zoo Design by Digital Divide and Conquer. They are having so much fun creating their zoos and deciding which animals to include, all while practicing their area and perimeter skills and doing a little animal research! 

We are just getting started with a writing tie-in. We were starting a research unit anyway, so students will be writing a mini-research paper on one of the animals in their zoos! I just love when I can so easily integrate multiple subjects without it being a forced correlation!

I am officially a cool teacher! One of my girls asked me to fill out a page in her friend book yesterday! Ahh, fifth grade...I love these kids!

   

Many things are different when you teach on an Army post. It's not always easy, but this week has really highlighted some of the more fun differences. Wednesday, the unit attached to our school came over for an afternoon of fun and demonstrations. We did some of their PT exercises, learned how to use their radios and night vision goggles, and played "how many fifth graders can fit in a Humvee" at every stop along the way!

   

If you follow me on Instagram, you've probably already seen this one. Career Day was extra fun this year! Soldiers from an EOD unit brought over two of their tactical robots. Our kids absolutely loved watching the soldiers operate them to climb hills, pick up trash and pinecones, and throw them away. They even got to operate the controls a little. If you ask my class, most of them would say it's the coolest thing we've ever gotten to do with our soldiers!

Friendly reminder...just because Scholastic sells it in their book fair doesn't mean it's appropriate for our little ones. This is a page from a book I picked up at our book fair this week. The book is US Presidents: The Oval Office All-Stars, by Dan Green, published by Basher History. It was in the reference section, and it looked kind of cool until I flipped to the most recent presidents. 

First of all, there's this lovely reminder of Bill Clinton's indiscretions - why we need to give that much information to elementary students is beyond me. And how exactly is a teacher supposed to explain to our kiddos what sultry means without being inappropriate?

     

Then, there's the extremely obvious political bias. Regardless of your political persuasion, shouldn't we be trying to present facts to our students in a non-biased way so that they can make up their own minds? With only two paragraphs per president, the author's choice to push a political agenda, throw out insults, and play up scandals really bothered me. Even the pictures show bias...

Needless to say, this book will not be appearing on my classroom's bookshelves. I'll choose to go with factual reference materials that show the proper respect to our highest political office and avoid bias, thankyouverymuch.

And number SIX...

I found out Monday that I have a JOB next year! Thanks so much to everyone who extended well wishes and said prayers! There's still some uncertainty as to what school, and even what grade I will be in, but everyone at my school will still be employed by our district next year. The sigh of relief was audible when the announcement was made! I am so thankful for a God who cares enough to get involved and take care of these things.

Morning Trivia {Spark Student Motivation}

Hi everyone! We all know how frequently students learn a concept just long enough for a test, and then forget it once the test is over. Well, I have an idea to help keep those concepts fresh, as well as teaching your students some random fun facts on a daily basis: Morning Trivia!

Here's how it works in my room:

• Every morning, I write a new trivia question on the board. Sometimes it's a random question from my Morning Trivia pack, but a couple of times a week, I use a review question from a concept we've recently learned. (This is *perfect* for reviewing right before standardized testing!)
• Students may work on morning trivia first thing in the morning or throughout the day if they need to do some research.
• Students may use any resources available to them other than the internet. They can use books, encyclopedias, or even ask other adults in our building. (I "outlawed" Googling the answer because it was too quick and easy!)
• Students write their answer on a slip of scrap paper and turn it in to our trivia box - which is just an empty baby wipes box covered in colored duct tape.
• At the end of the day, I draw one answer. If it's correct, that student gets a ClassDojo point. (You can read about how I use Dojo here.) If not, I keep drawing until someone gets it right.
• Usually, if no one is correct, I will tell them that the first person to tell me the correct answer the following day gets the point, and they may use internet sources at home.

I've been doing Morning Trivia in my room since sometime in January, and I keep meaning to write down all of my questions to create a product. Well...I finally got around to creating a Morning Trivia packet that includes 24 questions and answers for May/June as well as half page signs for each question and a printable answer sheet.  It is half price now through Sunday night, so grab yours now in my TPT store!

This is amazingly  motivating for my students! They just love seeking out the answer and wait with baited breath to see whose answer is drawn at the end of the day. Since this is so motivating, I'm linking up with Joanne at Head Over Heels for Teaching for her Spark Student Motivation Saturdays linky. Hop over to check out all of the motivating ideas, and to enter a fantastic giveaway!

Positive Thinking Friday

I know I'm a day behind, but I need positive thoughts far more today than I did yesterday. My district is losing several teaching positions this year, and I will find out either today or Monday (yes, that means I may have to wait over the entire weekend!) if I am losing my current position or not. Needless to say, it's going to be a long day, or days while I wait to find out. Trying to keep my thoughts positive and just focus on the kids today. Keeping this in mind all the time...

Thoughts and prayers are much appreciated this weekend!

Tried it Tuesday - Exploring Area & Perimeter

This week, we are working on area and perimeter of rectangles and squares. I am trying something new, so I wanted to link up for Holly's Tried-it Tuesday!

This lesson kind of came to me last year in the middle of teaching area and perimeter, so I made one of those last minute changes to the lesson plan that we are all so familiar with. It went well, but I knew if I really planned with this idea in mind, it would be much better. So this year, when we got there, I made an actual lesson plan around the spur-of-the-moment idea I had last year. I am super excited about how well this lesson went, so I wanted to share it with you!

We always seem to struggle with the difference between area and perimeter and when to use units vs. square units for measuring. Since our floor is covered in handy-dandy 12x12 tiles, I used them to show life-sized examples of these concepts. I started by taping off 3 different sized rectangles and 2 squares on the floor, spaced apart so there's plenty of room for students to work in small groups. Before we started, we did a quick review of what area and perimeter were. I had at least a few students who already knew the definitions, but no one remembered how to find them. (Which was *perfect* because I wanted to start from scratch here!)

Students worked in groups of 3-4, rotating through the 5 shapes. First, I asked them to figure out the perimeter of their shape. Most of them did this pretty easily by counting the edges of the tiles around the shape. Then, I asked them to write an equation to show the perimeter. Most of them figured out immediately to add up the four sides. The only groups who had trouble were the two with squares, so I worked with them until they had it.

Then I asked them to find the area, which they again did by counting the tiles in the middle of the shape - exactly as I expected. Then, we worked together to figure out that they could multiply the length x width to get the area. There were a few skeptics in the room who wouldn't believe it always worked until they tried all of the shapes. I loved it!

I had a "Challenge" shape taped off too, but we ran out of time, so we will be working on it tomorrow. Hopefully, we will be able to figure out how to find the area of this shape on their own with the knowledge we have built today!

I whipped up a quick answer sheet for students to show their thinking as they traveled to the different shapes. You can grab a free copy by clicking the photo below!

That's it for today. How do you teach area and perimeter?