Our One Day Vacation

It's been summer break for 8 weeks, but we didn't really go on vacation until this past weekend.  Saturday to be exact.  Older boys had school through the end of June, hubby had work responsibilities, and then there have been a ton of appointments that we've tackled in July so weekdays just didn't work.  

But Saturday we went to Monterey.  Along with a ton of other people on the freeway.  Traffic was horrid.  Everyone was trying to escape the heat. 

It was over 100 degrees back home for the billionth time this summer, but Monterey was a nice 62. Lovely. We all even wore sweatshirts.  Absolutely wonderful.  

Anyhow, the main focus was our trip to Monterey Bay Aquarium.  We are members there, since it's actually cheaper for our family of 5 to buy the membership since we can go more than once during the year for the same price.  

I love the Monterey Bay Aquarium website for my classroom as well.  Have you ever checked out their website? It fits into our Life Science unit PERFECTLY!

Their EDUCATORS webpage has a TON of resources for us to use.  A lot of it is free.  

There are always kids in class that want to learn more about the animals and habitats, so the ANIMAL page has a lot of info for research.

But the LIVE Cam page is the absolute best for not just observation, but also for a calming background to present during a stressful test, silent reading in the Kelp Forest, etc.  There are a lot more options as well.  

I love being near water, the relaxation that takes over puttering around a town on the coast.  Thankful for our one day vacation.  

Hope you had a great summer! Next week is back to school - or at least all the meetings, and then kids show up on August 9th.  

Have a great day!

Our Class Musical

One of the highlights of every spring is our class Musical from Bad Wolf Press. 

Check out their products! (not an ad, just want to share what my team does)

This year I still wanted to do it, even though it couldn't be in the normal acting, songs, costumes, props kind of way... so we did it on our distance learning day as a Readers Theatre.  

In a normal year, starting in March, I start playing the songs during our independent work time.  Then eventually we choose parts, kids start working with their scene teams on lines and songs, and we practice the songs full class. After spring break we always kick it into high gear with staging and props. Then at the end of the year, parents are invited to 3 performances where they watch their kiddos shine.

Each class in my grade level has a different musical they are working on, so during those 3 performances, each class is able to take a time to come and watch their grade level classmates.  It's really a highlight of the year.  

The plays we normally do:

Mrs. P - 13 Colonies

Miss P - American Revolution

me - US Presidents: Washington to Lincoln

Miss H - Incredible Westward Movement

Last year the world shut down before we could even start the songs.  I'm kind of glad that we hadn't started yet.  That would have hurt even more.  

This year, I chose a Wednesday in our end of year countdown - our DL day - and we picked parts. Everyone had something. I shared my desktop screen with the script so the kids could all see, and had the file folder of songs open so they could hear.  They read their lines with emotion. They didn't sing, like they normally would, but they were still able to hear the lyrics.  It was good and it did my heart good.  

When it was all done, they turned their cameras on and they took a bow.  I'm really glad I was still able to give them this experience, even in distance learning mode.  I'm also looking forward to being able to get back to normal next year.  :)  

Hope this helps,

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, 

An Ode to State Testing

I don't know how to make an ode, but I just wanted to let you know the current plan for testing.  

Right now I just want to fast forward the next 4 weeks. Or we can even start the countdown to summer. That’s okay too. I’ve got spring fever and I’m ready for state testing to be over... 

Week of 4/19 ELA testing 

Week of 4/26 Science testing 

Week of 5/3 Math testing 

3 weeks... come on May! 

It probably doesn’t help that we got word that in class and distance learners can not test at the same time. The plan had been that half of the DLs would test with Group A, the other with Group B, so no afternoon testing would be needed, other than make ups. But that now won’t work, so here’s the current revised plan. 

Every morning all the kids will log on for a few minutes to take attendance and go over their must do’s. Then in class will start testing, and at home will go about their daily independent work. 

Monday am - Group A is in class, testing 

Monday pm - all Distance Learners log in and test virtually 

Tuesday am - Group B is in class, testing 

Tuesday pm - anyone not done with that part logs in to finish it up at home

Wednesdays- the only day we are all together, virtually, doing review, catching up, moving forward together. Hopefully we can also have some fun. I feel that testing is going to suck up all the joy of school. :(

Thursdays and Fridays - more testing, same schedule. 

The kids at home that aren’t testing will have work to do that is due that same day. Distance learners will have both days to do the must do’s since they are testing in the afternoons. I figured out a basic outline that I can plug in content. We are still at the limit of 4 hours of school stuff per day, and with testing that pretty much doesn’t leave a lot of other time. 

I figure the only way to move forward is to record intro. videos for Social Studies and Science. I do an overview, and they do the independent work. Then I will also record sections of our novel so they can still listen to our story. We will be starting Ben and Me over the next few testing weeks. :) 

I’ll have to record the lessons the week before to add to our assignment tab and our Weekly Breakdown. So more to do on my to do list. I really like Screencast-o-matic. It has made it so easy this year!! 

For Math, they will be working on their game boards for Are you Smarter than a 5th Grader? to review for the math test. It’s a whole thing in itself, so I’ll share about it in a separate post. 

It’s about to get a little crazy up in here... who am I kidding?  I guess it’s been crazy all year long. I can’t wait for things to be back to normal. Whenever that happens it will feel like a piece of cake compared to all this. 

Now I want cake. Baking does relieve some stress. 

Hope you are well. :)

Fly Like an Eagle...

Over Winter Break I fell in love with a little eagle family over on the Dick Pritchett website - a live Eagle Cam.  Eagles have always been special to me, maybe because they have been every mascot in the 4 schools I have worked at, or maybe it's because of what they represent, or specific facts about them, but I fell head over heels in love with them....

When I first tuned in the expectant parents were busy taking care of their two eggs, about to hatch at any moment... which I then learned "at any moment" was actually three days later on New Years Eve.   After investing days of tuning in, when school started back up I decided to bring them with me.

It was a very powerful motivator this past week in my classroom.  Students were trying to earn extra points in order to take a peek at the new eaglet.  We watched as a class as momma fed her baby some fish, they made inferences as to where dad was at the moment and why baby needed to snuggle up close to the parents.  

I wanted to share, just in case you didn't know about the website.  I'm hoping they leave the cameras on in the coming weeks to watch baby grow up.  If not, well there are other Eagle live cams out there.  :)  

I hope you have a wonderful night.

My Students LOVE our Bouncy Bands!

Over Winter Break I had two Bouncy Bands delivered to my doorstep.  Since my own son was diagnosed with ADHD, I've been on the look out for tools that would help my students as well...  I was so excited to try the bands too!  Anyhow, the two bands were delivered and then I realized I had a huge problem! Every single person in my class wanted to be the first one to use them.  I couldn't just give them to the kids that have ADHD (and there are many in my class), I needed to let everyone try them.  So I started a rotation... and now all 32 of my students have had a chance.  

They LOVE them.  They say they are comfortable, my fidgeters aren't fidgeting as much, and we are able to tackle our standards.  The kids that tend to get up a lot (to get a tissue, sharpen their pencil, throw away trash, etc) are able to sit longer when it was their turn to use the bands.  I'm impressed. 

The bands come with 2 heavy plastic tubes that slip onto the front desk legs.  Before you slip them on, you loop the extra thick rubber band onto the tubes (there's an indentation to keep the band in the perfect place).  Sliding the tubes onto the desk wasn't hard, what was difficult was having to lay down the students' full desks (without tipping all their supplies out).   That first switch the kids tried to "help" by tipping their desks forward thinking that I could easily slide them on and off, which made all their supplies go flying.  It was a lesson on common sense.  :)   That's only an issue because I only have two of these beauties and wanted to be fair.  

Of course I got the brainstorm (after the fact) that I should have created 2 VIP desks where the bands stay put and the kids have the special throne for the day.  That's what I'm trying this next round.  Two extra desks that are equipped with the bouncy bands and a tub of supplies that they won't have to share for their special day.   I really want to also create a Donors Choose project to get more of these into my classroom (a class set would be ideal).   

I checked out the Bouncy Bands website and found they have a Donors Choose Sample Page that will make it really easy & fast to upload the project.  That's on my to do list.

On their website I also found this data, which confirmed what I found in my own classroom.  

It's an absolutely wonderful product, and I'm so glad that I learned about them.  Anyone have a class set?  You know what I'm talking about!

   

Hope you have a wonderful day!

My Students Love Flocabulary!

A couple of months ago my school had these mini workshops where teachers could share what was working great in their classrooms.  We were given the opportunity to visit classrooms, and choose what we wanted to learn more about.  It was awesome and productive!  My fifth grade colleague shared about Flocabulary.  It was the first time I'd ever heard about it and I got so excited about the options available.  I signed up for a short term membership and emailed my administration that I was interested in a school membership. 

Let me back up... What is Flocabulary?  It is a collection of lesson resources with TONS of Songs and Videos.  It is perfect for my upper elementary kids.  They have raps and songs for everything under the sun, and they are adding more every day.  At first being on Flocabulary was like a treasure hunt.  I kept finding more and more things for my list of favorite videos.  

I kept writing them down so I would remember where to go back to... and then I found this:

Yep, that little gold star is my collection of Favorites.  I was able to make a menu so it really is easy to pull up exactly what rap I want the kids to hear.  

Just a little snapshot of my favorites... My kids beg to listen to the Challenge Raps before
taking their Thursday Math Fact tests.  It's a win when kids are excited to practice their facts!

Here's a short clip of the kids watching the challenge rap.  It's interactive!  The kids love to sing along to the raps on all the songs - the words are on the screen.  

The last few weeks I've been using the grammar raps on a daily basis.  We focus on a certain part of speech per week, so it is a daily thing - I want these songs to get stuck in their heads, especially with testing coming up!  Last week was prepositions!  I use the raps as a transition to start our lesson - that engage piece.  Next week we are going back to review adverbs.  :)    

Something that I didn't know about right away was the Week in Rap, Week in Rap Junior, and the New Video portion located at the bottom of the home screen.  I get so focused on my favorite list that I sometimes forget to scroll down to the bottom of the page.  Thankfully, Flocabulary sends me email updates with the highlights.  This last week there was a fun groundhog video that was perfect on Groundhog Day.  

I just wanted to share how awesome this resource is!  Flocabulary found out that I am a teacher blogger, so they offered to give YOU an extended 75 day trial so you can also see how great it is.    Click the link below to see for yourself.  Sign up between now and the end of February!  

Want to try Flocabulary for 75 days?  Here's the link:  https://www.flocabulary.com/promo/WTB2016/ 

I hope you have a great day!  

The Perfect Classroom Cup

Disclaimer:  I am not being reimbursed to spread my joy about these cups... I just really really love them.  They come from Bando and they are really THE PERFECT CLASSROOM cup.  They do not drip condensation all over my desk and papers.  Ice stays cold for hours.  They aren't glass, and are heavy duty.  The downside is that I can't throw them into the dishwasher, but that's not the end of the world.  I usually just fill the big cups up with ice and a slice of lemon at home, and haul them to school where I add water to get everything nice and chilly, then just continue to add more water throughout the day...  I do use them at home too. :)  

Have you shopped at Bando?  It's an addicting little shop!

California Social Studies Websites

I'm sure you can relate... you have your "Go To" websites that you rely upon every year when it's time to have your students research.  I wanted to share mine.  :)  

Maybe you visit the same ones, maybe there are different ones...  This little 4 page PDF freebie I just added to my California History Bundle to help teachers and students with their research.  Go redownload, or just click any images on this post to grab it for yourself.    

Regions, Native Californians, Explorers, Missions, and Gold Rush... it's basically our full year!  So thankful for these sites that make it so easy for my students who are just learning how to find information via the internet.  

The PDF has the websites in 2 formats - both a bit.ly which will help if you are having the kids type them into the search bar themselves, and/or the main website itself in case you want to know where they are supposed to end up.  I hope it helps!

Research can be fun!  My class has finished our Region reports, and today started researching our Native California Tribe!  Between the websites, my Native Tribe Reading Passages, and some library books we will be busy bees.  Never a dull moment in my classroom.  :)

Hope you had a great day! 

My 4th Graders Are Typing Maniacs

My students love to type. Well, that generalization probably isn't true, but they have learned the importance of knowing the keyboard, and they are physically excited when I announce it's time for the computer lab. 

This year our school received a 2nd computer lab to help us get ready for all the online testing that is coming, which means that my 4th graders get computer access 2x a week (instead of once every other week of past years). 

On Tuesdays we head in for 40 minutes and I have them type their summaries of our weekly story. It's been amazing watching the transformation throughout the year. When we first started many spent the entire time on a single word or sentence, now we are up to full paragraphs with quotations.  They love having the ability to personalize their text with color, font, etc... They know the keyboard! 

We create our story maps back in class, so they bring it and their texts with them to type. Near the end of the session they raise their hands and I run walk quickly around the room reading their one paragraph on the screen, and giving a grade on their writing. If they get less than half of it completed they need to hand write the summaries in the classroom. It's motivation to get it done. 

On Thursdays when we go in for 30 minutes, the students are taking AR tests, taking math tests, practicing skills on IXL or our My Math program, playing games on Fun to Type, or whatever else I have for them to do. 

I am so thankful for technology and I really feel my students are going to be ready for all the typing they will complete during the upcoming assessments!  What do you do in the computer lab?