Butterflies!!

I love spring and all its wonders.  My college roommate and the lovely Ms. Ehlinger created a cute Butterfly Book today and shared with me.  Love It!  I worked on butterflies with my darlings last year and will be ordering ladybugs instead.  We will be creating "The Diary of a Ladybug" in our class!

Butterfly Book

Here is a cute Butterfly Activity too!

Butterflies

Here is a video of an activity my kids completed last year.  We loved our butterfly unit!!

Spring is Hatching

Several weeks ago, I noticed a nest being created in my flower pot.  No bird, No eggs...Just a Nest.  

A week ago, I noticed EGGS!!!

I checked back and captured the mother sitting on her eggs.

Yesterday, we had five squawking CHICKS!!

The Techy Teacher's Music Video

The Techy Teacher made a post this morning sharing this video she created last year with her class to Jack Johnson's The Three R's.  

In her post, she mentioned that her class talked about ways to "go green" and how to reduce, reuse and recycle.  Along with her post, Mrs. Mathes gives steps to how she created the video.

Fun In First's Poster

OMGoodness. I forgot to post this document week ago. We are reviewing the concept after spring break.  I am working on my plans so that I can enjoy a worry free break!! Jodi from Fun In First created a fabulous poster for her class.  I emailed Jodi and asked if it was okay to recreate and post the poster for my lessons.  With the help of my intern, Caution! Stealing Y is available for you.  Thanks Jodi...AWESOME idea! 

caution y

10 Things I've Learned from Teaching

1. Create an Ouch Pouch.  Unless it's a gusher, kids realize they really DON'T want to write about their ouch before receiving a band-aid. (P.S.  They don't have to ask, they just write and receive...NICE).

2. Tell kids what you think you might forget.  They WILL remind you at least 100 times before the end of the day!

3. On the flip side, DON'T inform if you CAN'T follow through.  They WILL remind you at least 100 times each day of the week until the end of the school year!

4. Rubrics Change Everything!  Embrace, Create, and Teach THEM. Results will follow!!!

5. Learn the Flamingo when wearing open toed shoes.

6. Students will cut, poke, tear, or loose their eraser.  I  now cut the pink erasers in half at the start of the school year.

7. Allow students to take ownership of their learning and make decisions on what or how they learn.  The rewards will exceed your expectations. 

8.  Hand a student a FLIP, Camera, or Video Recorder and allow them to capture their classroom in their perspective.  It will teach you a thing or two and GUARANTEE a GIGGLE.

9. Art is soothing to ALL.  Add more projects to your curriculum. 

10. Anticipate 20 minutes but Plan for 30!!  Murphy's Law...


Experience is not what happens to a man.  It is what a man does with what happens to him.  ~Aldous Leonar  


Now I want to learn from you...

Death Crawl

Ok, we now need an inspiring clip.  This was shared prior to school opening by my principal.  We face many challenges as teachers.  We sometimes feel as though we can't but WE CAN!  This clip comes from the movie, Facing the Giants.  It's only 6 minutes and worth a watch!!

Sqworl

Have you heard about sqwol groups?  I now have a group organized for my students.  I have uploaded the link to the homepage of our classroom computers.  I have another group of password protected sites required by our county on the computer lab homepage.  Although my class has become pros at working the computer, its nice to have a one stop shop and remove all the url sentence strips on my cabinets.  The kids click the left corner to link to the website.  AWESOME!!!  Here is my sqworl group for kid friendly websites.  Leave a comment and let me know what you think.  Do you have other sites you recommend?

Interview Project

Really Good Stuff

Diving into content standards, I recently offered kids in my second grade class an opportunity to conduct an interview of an inspirational individual from our community. Students were given a rubric for presentation and shared their projects with the class. I received permission from this darling's mom to post her interview. It is adorable!

 Little Background

The date of the interview was March 13, 2011.  Kalise interviewed Mrs. Maude of Mrs. Maude's School House Museum.  She was born on February 27, 1942.  This retired teacher and civil rights worker has touched the lives of many children.  Truly an inspirational educator!

The Interview Project

Habitat Food Chains

We completed our Habitats Unit with Mrs. Perry of Primary Perspective's Food Chain.  Kids decided which habitat they wished to illustrate and determined the order of their chain.  I added a spot to write a sentence about their picture.  We hung the food chain from the ceiling.  I was too tired to post last night after the video stream but they were a hit in the video!  Thanks you for the inspiration Mrs. Perry!

Brady wrote: The mouse eats the grass seed.  The snake eats the mouse.  The hawk eats the snake.  A coyote eats the hawk.

Tyler wrote: The plant absorbs the sun.  The crab eats the plant.  The fish eats the crab.  The big fish eats the little fish.

Devin wrote: The carrot might think its not going to get eaten but it is.  Crunch! The rabbit ate the carrot.  The rabbit might think its not going to get eaten but it is.  Yum! The snake ate the rabbit.  Now, the eagle won the round!  (too cute)

Zemira wrote: The kelp absorbs the sun.  The sea urchin eats the kelp.  The sea gull eats the sea urchin.  The orca ate the sea gull.

Poppin with Babbling Abby's Adjectivies

Photo slideshow made with Smilebox

A Touch of Technology...

I have been working on a button for hours.  Silly, I know!  

I found a free photo editor online.  I use Power Point to created my buttons. Once created, I uploaded the image to imgur. I found a code online in which the image will need to be embedded.

<center><a href="http://YOUR WEB ADDRESS/" target="_blank" title="BLOG TITLE"><img alt="BLOG TITLE" src="http://IMAGE WEB ADDRESS"/></a> <center></center><center><textarea id="code-source" rows="3" cols="13" name="code-source"><center><a href="http://YOUR WEB ADDRESS/"><img border="0" src="http://IMAGE WEB ADDRESS"/></a></center></textarea></center>

You will need to fill in the red, blue, and green web addresses and titles.  To add a button to your sidebar, you'll need to open your account options {design} and add the html gadget.  Past code and save.

Rainforest Parts of Speech Sort

I created this freebie for my book club tutor group tomorrow.  Hope you find it useful!

 

Click Image to Download

Jump Into Action with VERBS!

Verbs, Verbs, Verbs. This past month students learned about vivid verbs. With Earth Day around the corner, I decided to create a verb tense sort.

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