So after the first Kagan workshop last week (which I still need to blog about), I took my colleague to RAFT (Resource Area For Teaching) which is basically a warehouse where teachers can get all sorts of supplies for discounted prices (with membership). If you live in the Bay Area in California, I would definitely recommend checking it out! Anyways, I came upon these awesome things while at RAFT...
Click the image to see it on Amazon.
Place value dice! How cool is that? RAFT sold each one separately which is great for me since we only go up to 100. I bought 2 tens dice and 2 ones dice to try them out in the classroom. I also made a worksheet for students to complete to help reinforce place value.
Click the image above to download it! I'm excited to see how it works out! :)
Boy was today an up and down day! First off, our schedule got completely mixed up due to some special guests in the classroom. One of our second grade teachers was running a little late and asked the secretary to take her kids to Music. Lucky her, the Music teacher called in sick this morning which left her class without a teacher for 50 minutes. So the first grade teachers split the class into three and took the 2nd graders in for the first 50 minutes of the day. It was kind of cool because I basically got most of my former students back in my classroom for a bit.
It was great to see my former students in the classroom again! However, our normal schedule is to do calendar and phonics during the first 50 minutes of the day. With around 10 extra second graders in the classroom, I didn't want to bore them so I had the second graders teach my class the first grade song for our school oratorical event. It was tons of fun but completely threw our schedule off which led to a frustrating late morning.
Somehow, the kids were able to turn themselves around after lunch and we were able to catch up on all the stuff we missed in the morning. I ended the day being in a much better mood and somehow most of the class ended up on on "Good Day" and "Outstanding" on my clip chart. Reflecting on today...it makes me really proud of my students that they were able to pull themselves together before the day ended (it doesn't normally happen, believe me).
And another sweet moment to share. When I was in college, I volunteered as a tutor in a non-profit after school program. I worked with third to fifth graders and helped them with their homework. There was this one student in particular who gave me a rough time at first. He would refuse to follow my directions and didn't seem to care much about his education at all. But I never gave up on him and kept going at it. One day, months later, it somehow clicked for him and when my semester with him was over, he was the only kid who wrote me a thank you note thanking me for my help. Now this kid is in high school (crazy!). It's his birthday today so I left a happy birthday comment on his facebook. And this was his reply:
Thanks Pam! Which school do you work for now? You were a great foundation towards my education!!
AWWWWWWW. That made my heart melt. You know, it's the tough kids who seem to show the greatest appreciation for all hard work we educators do for them.
Just had to share. I thought the teacher blogging world would be able to relate. :)
How many of you watched the Super Bowl today? So sad the Niners last the Super Bowl. But at least they made a comeback and we were very close in the end!
Hands up if you agree that you need more time! This weekend has definitely been a busy one with errands to run and things to create for class and a football game to watch! This month is going to be a crazy one for sure! Friday is the 100th day of school. Next week is Valentine's Day. Week after that is our school's Lunar New Year parade. And the last week of February is our school oratorical event. Plus, besides all the holidays and events, we also have our language arts and math benchmark assessments to take this month too! Yep, I could definitely use more time to prepare for and get everything done.
On my pet peeve..I see myself as someone who gives my trust out easily to those close to me. I am also not one to get mad easily (annoyed, yes, but mad? no) so there are a lot of things people can say to me and I'll be okay with it. That said, when people abuse my trust (basically...lie), then it's REALLY hard to gain my trust back. Let's just all be honest with each other, right?
And now on to the other part of this post's title...a new product!
Click on the image above to check it out in my TpT store!
And lastly, I know I'm sounding desperate right now, but if you have written about any ideas for Lunar/Chinese New Years, please join my linky party!
Even if you don't have anything to link, please share this with your other blogging friends! It's a bit discouraging to not see many link ups on the first linky party you host. Oh, awesome linky party hosts, please show me your ways! :)
Another short week for us again! We had no school on today for a PD day. I actually had an even shorter week with the kids since I was gone for two days for a training but more on that later...
And since it is Friday..it's time for Five for Friday! :)
1. Opened our new OCR unit, Journeys, on Monday. This is my favorite board to make because I get to display all my postcards! I collect postcards from traveling friends and students. :)
2. On Tuesday, we got a classroom visit from a local Arts & Science center. The art docent led my class through an art lesson in creating cardboard ducks using the style of artist James Castle.
3. I was gone on Wednesday and Thursday for a training with Kagan. If you ever have the chance to attend a Kagan training, I highly recommend it! I attended a workshop on higher-level thinking and win-win discipline and both of them were great! I learned so much from them, especially in the win-win discipline workshop. I plan to share some thoughts in another blog spot later this weekend. :)
4. Since I was "out of town" (40 mins away) for two days for the workshops, it wasn't REALLY considered a school night. After our Wednesday workshop, my friend/colleague (who went to the workshops with me) and I went to go watch Lincoln. Good movie!
5. Back in the classroom on Friday for PD day and I look through all the work my kids did while I was gone. Found this amusing. Not really sure how to read this so I just counted it as correct since I know this student can do it.
February is such a busy month for all elementary teachers and it's coming up! Just thinking about it makes me tired...all the holidays in this month (Groundhog Day, 100th day, Valentine's Day, President's Day, Lunar New Year) and all the assessing (DIBELS and district math benchmark). For such a short month, we have SO MANY things to get done. Good luck to all the teachers out there who are busy preparing for this crazy month!
But I have news! Lately, I've been joining a couple of linky parties that I've found while catching up on blog reading (so many to read!) and have found a couple of the weekly or monthly ones that I like. I recently saw a linky party (can't remember where I found it) for February holidays but it didn't include Lunar New Year! So I thought, hm, why not start a linky party for that! And here it is! (My first time hosting!)
I'll have to admit, Lunar New Year, or as many people call it, Chinese New Year, is probably one of my favorite lessons to teach. The reason? Well, I'm Chinese so it's the time when I can share my language and culture with my classroom. I am lucky that my school also celebrates this holiday by having a school-wide Lunar New Year parade. Many of the classrooms (including mine) have a luncheon before the parade and the students get to try a variety of Asian foods like potstickers, fried rice, cha shu, etc. I haven't exactly planned everything for Lunar New Year as the day of our parade is still a couple weeks away on February 22nd (Lunar New Year's is actually on February 9th, but it's a two week celebration), but I did want to share some of the things I did last year and plan to do again this year. I'm sure you will hear more about my Lunar New Year plans as we get closer to the actual date! :)
We're all about songs in first grade, so of course I have to introduce to the kids one of the traditional songs you will here during Chinese New Year!
I also went ahead and typed up the lyrics to the first verse and chorus using simplified and traditional Chinese characters along with the romanization and English translation. My first graders last year had a blast with the song and video and they begged me to play it over and over again. I swear, I played the video at least 10 times that day. By the end of the day, they were definitely able to sing the chorus!
I also did a fun (and challenging for some) chopstick math activity. I bought some small pieces of candies that I thought would be somewhat easy to pick up with chopsticks like mini marshmallows, gummy bears, and licorice bits. The kids were then given a set amount of time and had to use chopsticks to pick up as many items as they could and transfer them from the cup to their paper towel. It was definitely an interesting thing to watch since all the kids had different levels of exposure to chopsticks so some came up with some very creative ways to pick things up. Once they were done, they had to complete the worksheet below before they were allowed to eat the stuff the picked up. The kids had a blast!
That's all for now! Check back for more ideas for Lunar New Years as I come up with crafts and other lessons to do. Please link up if you have ideas to share too! Let's also try to follow the rule of three: visit and comment on the two links before yours and come back later to visit and comment the link after yours. Link away! Make sure to mention the linky party on your blog so that others can join too! Thanks! :)
My goodness! Even though this was a short week it was definitely an EXHAUSTING one. You know how right when we came back from winter break I mentioned how my kids were doing surprisingly well? Well, the coma is over, and we are all awake...a little TOO awake. This week was the first week I threatened to send a kid to the office. Some kids have gotten to become REALLY good friends and just won't stop talking no matter how much distance I put between them. T_T
On a positive note, the week is over! I really like this Five for Friday linky party that Doodle Bugs Teaching hosts. Hopefully I can get myself to keep joining on a weekly basis!
1. Seattle - Monday is still part of the week even if it was a holiday right? :) So I had Monday off due to Martin Luther King Jr. Day. I took advantage of the long weekend by going on a mini vacation to Seattle with my boyfriend and friend. It was a great trip! We entered Seattle in the fog and left Seattle in the fog. Read more about it in a previous post.
Entering Seattle
At the airport, ready to leave Seattle.
2. Clay Fish - My class has been blessed with an awesome art docent (parent volunteer). All I did was tell her what art concepts we need to learn in first grade, and she comes up with all the lessons and materials for each lesson. She comes up with some awesome art lessons that I hope to share some day! Anyways, we are learning about texture right now and so my art docent thought it would be a good time for the kids to do something with clay. so we made clay fish!
3. Handwriting Certificates - We finally finished our handwriting book! We use the Handwriting Without Tears curriculum. I find this an accomplishment since we were nowhere near finished with my class last year. It was also very exciting because the kids received "neat handwriting" certificates for completing the book and getting a "perfect" stamp on their penmanship assessment. I told the kids that there's no turning back once they got their certificates. It was a pretty big thing to them! It's a wonder how kids can get super excited just from receiving a piece of paper. :)
(P.S. See how some of the text is blurred out in the screenshot above? That's what I get on some of my pdf files when I open them. Anybody know how to fix this? I am using a MacBook Pro if that makes a difference. Thanks for the help!)
4. Terrariums - Our Science unit on plants and animals is my favorite to teach because the curriculum we have provides some really good hands-on activities. So far, we have grown mini lawns (rye grass and alfalfa) and "planted" wheat seeds in straws. Today, we made our terrariums with earthworms and pill bugs! My first batch of live specimen accidentally froze in my classroom fridge. But I ordered new ones and we got them all on time. The kids had a blast as did all the parent helpers who came to help!
Earthworms!
Hopefully our worms survive the weekend! They tend to die super fast. :(
5. TGIF! Went out for dessert with a friend and colleague. Ran into a former student there which is always bound to happen when you go out to a well-known place in the area. Where did we go?
Yup, that's right! The famous Fenton's Creamery in the Pixar movie, Up. That's not what it really looks like but it's more famous than before now that it's made it into a movie!
Okay, that took longer than I thought. Hope you enjoyed reading! Have a wonderful weekend! :)
Does your school have any school-wide evening events? Well, my school has a couple, one of them being Family Math Night.
What is Family Math Night? It's basically a night of math, math, and more math! Each grade level has a station set up with a variety of math activities. Parents bring their kids to school and visit the different stations and work on math activities together. It's a great family bonding time, especially if parents don't usually have time to get involved.
The first grade station...Penny Math!
The third grade station was already set up so I went ahead and took pictures of it too.
The families who came had a great time! Does your school have events like these? If so, please leave a comment to share what your school does! :)
