Virtual Field Trips

This year I used my email drafts to store important links for easy access.  Everything was just a click away.  One thing, maybe the best thing, I learned this year was this link for virtual FREE field trips.  

Here's the link: Virtual Field Trips by Wide Open Schools

A lot of them tied into things that my class was already going to learn about... and then others that I used in the countdown to summer, when I added onto my own "theme" days. Here are the ones we watched and how it connected.  

(The images below are screenshots from their webpage, look for these images over there.)

Lego - this was one that I had the kids watch during an asych. time.  They then had to give me a RACE paragraph to explain the steps of engineering that they observed.  

Pencil - This was one that we watched during the final summer countdown - I screenshared the webpage and the kids chose this.  They got a kick out of listening to the accents, but also learned how pencils were created.  

Tesla - We watched this together in class when we were discussing how machines are built to make things easier.  It tied into our science unit.

White House - We watched this in our summer countdown on our White House Day, and this one as well to go inside.  Then we created our USA Paper Pillows, and also used the Art Hub for Kids link to draw the White House.  

Mount Rushmore - we watched on our Presidents Day countdown to summer. We had gone over the musical that I normally do with the kids, and watched this as well.  When we were done with the field trip, I let them spend some fake money in the real online gift shop. They had to review adding and subtracting decimals, and then share what they decided to buy. We ended our time with having them drawing Mount Rushmore. 

Animal Shelter - We live about an hour away from Sacramento, so in our countdown to summer, the kids asked to watch this one about the animal shelter.  

National Parks - Back in March I had to take a day off of school.  We were in the midst of our earth sphere's unit, and this tied in perfectly.  It was an easy thing for my sub to do with the class, love how it was guided.  

Chocolate Chip Cookies - the kids asked to watch this in our last week countdown to summer.  It was really interesting!

Space - we watched these during our Space unit. It tied in perfectly.  

Toilet Paper factory - We watched this because they are 5th graders... :)  

The link above has a ton more, sorted by grade spans.  These were all from the 3-5th grade level. 

Hope this helps, 

The Day I Let My Students Dye My Hair...

This fall my grade level had our walkathon (like we always do).  We sent home a letter asking families to please consider supporting our classrooms, to raise enough money for our big field trip and for enrichment activities.  The walkathon came and went, and the money started coming in... but it didn't look like we were going to raise enough... so we offered a little incentive if we reached our class goal.  This year we decided to let the 2 top earners coat our hair with colored hairspray (the stuff that they sell in the Halloween aisle).  My hair was a lovely shade of purple, pink, and orange... it was nice and crispy afterward, and took 3 washes to get it all out.  :)  Will I do it again next year? Of course!

Do you do any incentives to raise class funds?  

Busy Day - Dollar Deal, Lesson Plans, and Field Trip

Did you like all the freebies yesterday?  Didn't know about the Surviving Spring to Welcome Summer Hop?  It's not too late to grab the tips, freebies, and enter the giveaway!  I loved all the ideas from my BBB's (Best Blogging Buddies).  After a year of talking on a daily basis - brainstorming, gathering ideas, venting about our difficult days, and celebrating the achievements, I can honestly say we are all very close friends.  I am so blessed by this whole bloggy world!

Speaking about venting...being an adult sometimes stinks!  I already had a broken ice maker, which we can live with because who really needs ice in their sweet tea... (I'm being sarcastic), but as of yesterday afternoon the AC in my car decided to quit and it's supposed to be in the 90's this coming week.  Stinky, sweaty boys in a hot vehicle make for a grumpy family.  Anyway - long story short, I need your help.  My family needs your help.  

I have put these 4 wish listed items up for $1 in hopes that they will fly off the virtual shelves.  My Pay Pal account has been drained between fixing the fridge in December and February, replacing our broken washer in January, and taxes in April... I'll keep them for $1 until Monday night.

Onto this next week's Lesson Plans... what are those??  I have end of the year teacheritis... I did end up grading my huge stack of papers the other day - ended up taking 2 episodes of House Hunters, and the HGTV Dream Home Behind the Scenes Special to get through them.

Seriously though - Here's the plan for this coming week (3 more weeks of grades):

Reading - Communication Unit - story: Koko's Kitten

I love this story, and I love teaching the kids sign language.  We start with the basics - just practicing the alphabet to learn their names.  We use the website: www.koko.org and watch the videos of Koko. So many of them are stories straight out of the text.

Math - We are finishing up a review of Area & Perimeter, planning on using my Zoo Maps (we ran out of time before break).  Kids design their own zoo by planning out the different enclosures, measuring area & perimeter, and using the enclosed clip art to decorate.

Science - Finishing up Magnetism, still using I {Heart} Recess' Magnet Interactive Notebook

My class has really enjoyed using file folders to create our interactive unit file folders this year.  We have made a file folder for every unit in Social Studies and Science this entire year, and now they will have all of them on their desks for Open House.  I'm still trying to figure out a good way to display all the folders on their desks... thinking of making treasure boxes with all their goodies inside...

It's a short week for us... only 4 days because Friday is a Staff Development Day.  On Tuesday my class also has our BIG field trip to Sacramento.  It's an all day trip... and it's supposed to be HOT, riding on a school bus with 64 kids.  The nice part about it though is that the the other 4th graders happen to be my son's class and my husband is chaperoning.  :)  I get to have a seat buddy!

Want to see what I pack in my field trip backpack?  Here's my post from 2 years ago.


Have a wonderful week!  Linking this all up with Mrs. Laffin's Laughings as part of her Peek at my Week Linky.

   

Field Trip Day! Yeah, you'll laugh...and then be glad it wasn't you!

Oh Mylanta!  Actually, it's more - Oh, Aleve!  

I AM SO TIRED!!!

...and to think, I didn't even have all my students today since in March the office gave us permission to have families sign a behavior contract.  

Basically it meant that parents needed to sign a sheet of paper that said they understood their child would not be eligible to attend the field trip if their child received 2 or more referrals, or a suspension before the field trip.  It was written by the entire grade level as well as administration.

  Those ineligible kids stayed behind with their soon to be next year's teachers (but they don't know that part yet) to complete the 7 hour Roller Coaster Sub Plan.  It was so easy having this as their project of the day.     

So between 2 non eligible children, 1 child who never brought it back signed, and an absent child, I only had 28 children that went with me (and 5 chaperones) on our field trip to our state capitol.

Last year we got to be fancy and ride on a charter bus - complete with air conditioning and a DVD player since the school busses were completely booked.  This year we were told that we had to take a school bus.  Needless to say it wasn't as comfortable a trip.  

But it was $100 cheaper, so we lived with it.

A little about my trip - I'm sure someday I will smile :)

*We were on the freeway and the trunk of the bus flew open - 

so we had to pull off on the shoulder to have the driver get out to shut it.

*At the first museum it was interesting, though freezing cold, and the kids had fun wandering around with their chaperones doing a scavenger hunt.  I never take a group since I'm the official fixer-of-all-problems. 

totally not my picture...

*Even with the big museum of wonder, I think the kids most liked looking out the window and seeing a policeman riding a horse.  It was random, at least until we realized what was going on down the street.

*I bought a ton of stuff but I justified it as I am using it to further my 

future students' educational experiences.

another totally not my picture - but imagine this covered with tents.  Can't show my own picture with all the cute kiddo faces.  

*  We did the block walk down to the capitol - which had a ton of tents up.  Don't know what they were protesting/celebrating/etc... don't know if I really want to know.  Just glad to be able to take my picture of the kiddos with the capitol in the background.  Instant student gift!

*Then we went onto our next stop - the State Indian Museum which is located right next to Sutter's Fort.  We didn't get to go into the fort today, but it was alright.  Instead we saw the tiniest woven baskets in the world - seriously, you need a microscope to view them.  There was other cool stuff too.    

*Before we headed inside the museum we ate lunch at the park.  Lots of kids actually listened to me when I told them to pack a plastic garbage bag to sit on.  My bag became the trash bag for everyone.  It was during lunch that a random duck decided to walk by, and then the poor bird was chased by half my students.  I never thought I would have to yell, "Stay away from the duck!"  

All in all a good day!