All in all, the week before Spring Break hasn't been too bad....lots of excitement. Lots of new ideas. And lots of excitement. Oh wait, I already said that!!!
This week, we finished our unit on sound, which I have to admit wasn't much of a unit. I wasn't able to find any sort of read aloud or shared reading that helped focus on sound except for our science workbook, which is better than most, but is the same ole-same ole and even I get board! But, one of my coworkers and I talked and realized we had an abundance of straws, so she encouraged me to make a pan flute. So, I did. It was a revelation, because we are a spring break and 10 days away from our standardized testing, and I realized that several of my kids have forgotten how to measure with a ruler. HEART ATTACK CITY!!! So, we extended that little project into today and saw some improvement with measuring. I think they were all in a hurry to get their flute made so that we could 'write' our spring break song!!!
So, here is a Google Doc with the directions for making a pan flute! I hope it is helpful! If you are a great 'sound' person and have any good ideas for that unit, feel free to leave me a comment! I need some new ideas!
For those of you that don't know me, or perhaps this is the first time you have been to my blog, I always try to have some sort of link to something wonderful from Amazon. I am HOOKED on Amazon. I love being able to shop from home---I hate the mall!! So, I have to be very very careful, because it would be easy to spend too much on Amazon....but then, who defines 'too much'?? hehe Teacher's can never have too many books or gadgets. So, today, I am going to share a gadget with you. I REALLY need this. I don't do well with the manual 3 whole punchers because somehow I always get them off track. So, last night when I couldn't sleep, I looked for this little baby and even did some comparison pricing at Staples, Office Max, and Office Depot. Amazon was by far cheaper. I have this on order right now!
Also, one of the things I have really tried to work on this year is picking a 'just right' book, a la Daily Cafe. I realized I need a new strategy, so I created a new anchor chart with new graphics and fonts and colors galore in the hopes that it would wake them up so that they could indeed smell the printer's ink! My kids are doing much better with their written reader's response. The main flaw at this point is that I made them notebooks with notebook paper and most of my kids have already torn out the papers because those holes aren't all that sturdy. I sure do wish I had bought a kajillion of those composition tablets when they are on sale for a dime! I have never liked them because the size of them is sort of strange, but at this point, I would take them over the notebook idea!
As I go into spring break, I am so excited because I have so many ideas rumbling around in my brain for centers and games. So, hopefully there will be a whole bunch of freebies available this next week!
For those of you that don't have time to make new games, centers, graphic organizers, etc., what kind of activities are needed? What do you see as something that you REALLY need in your classroom that you don't have available to you that can be created? There are several other bloggers that read my blog, so if you send me a list in the comment section, I'm sure it will give some others a few ideas. Maybe between it all, we can pull some wonderful activities together for you!
Talk to you tomorrow!
This week, we finished our unit on sound, which I have to admit wasn't much of a unit. I wasn't able to find any sort of read aloud or shared reading that helped focus on sound except for our science workbook, which is better than most, but is the same ole-same ole and even I get board! But, one of my coworkers and I talked and realized we had an abundance of straws, so she encouraged me to make a pan flute. So, I did. It was a revelation, because we are a spring break and 10 days away from our standardized testing, and I realized that several of my kids have forgotten how to measure with a ruler. HEART ATTACK CITY!!! So, we extended that little project into today and saw some improvement with measuring. I think they were all in a hurry to get their flute made so that we could 'write' our spring break song!!!
So, here is a Google Doc with the directions for making a pan flute! I hope it is helpful! If you are a great 'sound' person and have any good ideas for that unit, feel free to leave me a comment! I need some new ideas!
For those of you that don't know me, or perhaps this is the first time you have been to my blog, I always try to have some sort of link to something wonderful from Amazon. I am HOOKED on Amazon. I love being able to shop from home---I hate the mall!! So, I have to be very very careful, because it would be easy to spend too much on Amazon....but then, who defines 'too much'?? hehe Teacher's can never have too many books or gadgets. So, today, I am going to share a gadget with you. I REALLY need this. I don't do well with the manual 3 whole punchers because somehow I always get them off track. So, last night when I couldn't sleep, I looked for this little baby and even did some comparison pricing at Staples, Office Max, and Office Depot. Amazon was by far cheaper. I have this on order right now!
Also, one of the things I have really tried to work on this year is picking a 'just right' book, a la Daily Cafe. I realized I need a new strategy, so I created a new anchor chart with new graphics and fonts and colors galore in the hopes that it would wake them up so that they could indeed smell the printer's ink! My kids are doing much better with their written reader's response. The main flaw at this point is that I made them notebooks with notebook paper and most of my kids have already torn out the papers because those holes aren't all that sturdy. I sure do wish I had bought a kajillion of those composition tablets when they are on sale for a dime! I have never liked them because the size of them is sort of strange, but at this point, I would take them over the notebook idea!
As I go into spring break, I am so excited because I have so many ideas rumbling around in my brain for centers and games. So, hopefully there will be a whole bunch of freebies available this next week!
For those of you that don't have time to make new games, centers, graphic organizers, etc., what kind of activities are needed? What do you see as something that you REALLY need in your classroom that you don't have available to you that can be created? There are several other bloggers that read my blog, so if you send me a list in the comment section, I'm sure it will give some others a few ideas. Maybe between it all, we can pull some wonderful activities together for you!
Talk to you tomorrow!
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