20+ Cool Plastic Bottle Recycling Projects For Kids

I love these, especially the penguins! Check out the link for more ideas and specifics!





Some great ideas here!


Source: http://notedlist.com/plastic-bottle-recycling-projects/

5-10 minutes of class... what activities can you do?

What to Do With That Awkward 5 or 10 Minutes of Class You Have Left

Read the entire article here: http://www.weareteachers.com/blogs/post/2014/09/25/what-to-do-with-that-awkward-5-or-10-minutes-of-class-you-have-left

Create fun structured conversations. Give the whole class a sentence stem that they have to fill in themselves, and then make them go find at least 10 different partners to practice it with. The repetition of both speaking and listening will help cement it in their brains, and the not-sitting-in-their-chairs will make it fun. 

• "One thing I will remember to tell my future grandchildren about differential equations is _____"

• "I shall uphold the honor of my English teacher, Ms./Mr. _____ and never mix up 'you're' and 'your.' I will remember the difference by _____."

• "I'm going to go straight home and tell everyone on Facebook how the most important thing I learned about cells is ____."

• "If I made a modern-day movie about the Shakespeare play we read today, I would cast _____ as _______ because they are both ______."

Have students face off in Trashketball to decide which half of the class gets dismissed first. For Trashketball, first divide the class into two teams. Each team sends a representative to the front (or you can choose a representative). The representatives are then asked a review question. If the question is answered correctly, the representative's team earns two points. Then the representative has a chance to earn another two points for his/her team by shooting a ball made of trash (see the featured image) into the class trash can from a set distance. Then, a new set of representatives face off. Whichever team is in the lead when the bell rings gets dismissed first.

Read whole article here:
http://www.weareteachers.com/blogs/post/2014/09/25/what-to-do-with-that-awkward-5-or-10-minutes-of-class-you-have-left

Shakespearean Insults...

When I was job sharing with a friend of mine a couple years ago, we were both teaching Shakespeare and did an opening to the unit that involved creating "Shakespearean insults"

So, when I saw this on facebook today, I just about fell out of my seat laughing.... too funny!

#FirstWorldProblems - put into perspective

Ah, First World Problems. If you live in a western country, for one reason or another, you’re probably guilty of uttering one of these phrases.

Sure, minor inconveniences can really make a day unpleasant, but when put into perspective, having cold leather seats when you get into your car during the winter isn’t the end of the world.

Not having clean water, however, is an entirely different story. In order to highlight what “problems” actually are, Water Is Life launched the “First World Problems Anthem” video last year.

The video consists of people in the Third World reading tweets that were labeled with the hashtag #FirstWorldProblems. The stark contrast is sure to make the line at Starbucks seem like much less of a big deal.

Read More Here

I am thankful for Pumpkin Pie... Craft/Writing activity

While I celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving back in October, my teacher friends to the south celebrate this week. I am planning to enjoy some American (late) Thanksgiving Saturday night with friends and family, and can NOT wait for some delicious turkey and pumpkin pie.

This easy-peasy craft / writing assignment can be done with elementary students. I have included photos, materials, instructions and source links in both French and English.

My Canadian colleagues may wish to file this away for next October, but my American readers can enjoy it this week. All you need is some orange paper, paper plates, scissors, markers and paper fasteners/pin (for the middle so it can spin)

Students can write a few things they are thankful for, cut the orange paper into a circle slightly smaller than the paper plate with a "slice" cut out. Then fasten together like so.....


   

Easy-Peasy? You could even do some cutting prep ahead of time if they are younger/primary.



http://www.pinterest.com/pin/61431982390903366/

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/61431982390903395/

C is for Cookie....

I love this! Since I am teaching Home Ec two days a week this year, I am always looking for visual aides to help in my teaching. We are in term two now, which is exciting because we got through term one and are repeating most of the recipes and lessons now. As part of the cookie making home lab for our students, we had a variety of shapes, sizes and textures created. This is a nice photo I will show my class as we discuss why cookies turn out differently and what role certain ingredients play in baking.



Thanks pinterest!

Candy Corn Craft

Neat Halloween themed idea. You could also use numbers to do math, or spell three letter words.

 

http://pinterest.com/pin/266275396691778327/

Noodle Skeleton - Halloween Craft or Science Lesson

 

What a neat way to learn about the bones and structure of our bodies..... or as a Halloween activity?

Source: http://www.marthastewart.com/275300/kids-art-projects/@center/276975/marthas-crafts-kids#269167

Educational Activities for Popcorn Month

October is popcorn month. I love popcorn, especially movie theatre popcorn.... but there are some amazing ways to use popcorn in the classroom. As a TTOC this is a sure way to be memorable (but still educational) Similarly, I have used candy hearts as BINGO markers on Valentines day and other food items for learning.

This awesome site posted this:

• Use kernels for an estimation activity.  FirstGradeParade posted this and included cute little autumn-themed, printable cards for students to estimate how many popcorn kernels will fit on it.  After they estimate, they count the kernels to see how close their guess was.
• Have students describe popcorn using as many adjectives that come to mind.  Here is Room-Mom101's take on BabblingAbby's adjective activity.
• Challenge students to create a box that holds the most popcorn.  Fawnnguyen did this activity for sixth-graders studying volume.
• Make a popcorn book club discussion.  This is also an idea from FirstGradeParade, complete with printable discussion-starters.  Students discuss their books and eat popcorn.
• Create popcorn writing by crumpling up popcorn-shaped papers with characters and settings written on them.  Students randomly choose the papers and write a story using the elements written on their papers.  This comes from ApplestoApplique and is similar to my Build-A-Story activity, but with a popcorn theme!

BINGO Fractions

I often have blank BINGO sheets in my 'Bag of Tricks' so that I can easily fill it in depending on the class, subject, grade I get called into.

I really like this idea, as I think a lot of kids struggle with fractions and this is a fun way to help them learn them

http://pinterest.com/pin/96616354479291529/

Oreo's for Science? Love this idea...

Love this..

 

What a fun (and yummy) way to teach science....

 

 

Source

Texture Art: Out at Sea

I love the texture of this art project. I've always had a love for the ocean, so this really appeals to me, but I could see students doing it with mountains or hills or desert dunes or the sky....

http://pinterest.com/pin/61431982390432660/

Craft Idea: Treasue Chest Books

I just love this idea, it is so cute.... I wonder if it would work as well with a larger box and paper?

These small ones are just too cute though....

Treasure Chests

Our kids' art projects make it easy for children to create beautiful crafts all by themselves.

Here's a simple way for kids to store their collections: Accordion-fold a strip of paper, and glue the first and last pages to the inside of a box's lid and bottom. Keep some pages empty so the collection can grow.

Source: http://www.marthastewart.com/275300/kids-art-projects/@center/276975/marthas-crafts-kids

Hooks: Reading & Writing Lesson or Worksheet

Another pintrest find: http://pinterest.com/pin/61431982390432599/

Mosaic Math

I love reading about PBL in various classes. Here is a post about mosaic math:



He writes:

Here's what my students did....they were given a piece of large chart paper. Then they were given a ruler and had to decide if they were going to make their squares 1 in by 1 in, 1.5 inch by 1.5 inch, or 2 in by 2 in.

After they made that decision they went and got construction paper to begin cutting their squares to make a mosaic self portrait of themselves. This took QUITE a while because I was continually going around making sure they were actually measuring and making squares instead of a bunch of rectangles. It took two class days for each class to finish (which totals to about 2 hours); and some students had to have a working lunch or take it home to finish it.

So after everyone was done, on Thursday we did the math with it! First they had to write a fraction displaying how much of each color they used. Then they had to simplify those fractions....yes some of them had VERY large denominators (that we normally don't work with in 5th grade) so I let them use calculators when simplifying the fractions (hey, we use calculators as adults!).

After they wrote and simplified their fractions, then they had to determine the perimeter of their shape (depending on what measurement they chose to use at the beginning).

And after they determined the perimeter of their picture they had to determine the area of their shape (not counting the eyes, hair, or neck).

It was a lot of math, but it was really fun! And afterwards we got to display them in the hallway. Since my kids are now Minecraft addict they were all commenting about how much their people look like Minecraft characters, which I found pretty funny.

Via: http://nesloneyflipped.blogspot.ca/2013/04/archery-mosaics-and-xc-oh-my-week-27.html

On teaching people a lesson

  Love this blurb from this blog:

You're actually not teaching them a lesson, because the people who most need to learn a lesson haven't, and won't. What you're actually doing is diverting yourself from your path as well as ruining your day in a quixotic quest for fairness, fairness you're unlikely to find.

Sure, you can shut someone down, excoriate them, sue them or refuse to let them win, but odds are they're just going to go try their game on someone else.
When you fire a customer and politely ask them to move on, you are withdrawing yourself from their trollish dance. When, instead, you focus on the good student, the worthwhile investor, the delighted vendor, you improve things for both of you. The sooner you get back to work (your work), the sooner you can move toward your best outcome, which is achieving what you set out to achieve in the first place.
The real tragedy of the person who dumps on you is that you pay twice. The second time is when you get bent out of shape trying to get even.




Via: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2013/05/on-teaching-people-a-lesson.html?utm_source=Seth+Godin&utm_campaign=website&utm_source=sendgrid.com&utm_medium=email

Anchor Charts and more ....

Source: missklohnsclassroom.blogspot.com via Faten on Pinterest

Has anyone used anchor charts before???

Check out This Blog for more.

Science: Pizza Cells

Source: journey2excellence.blogspot.com via Amanda on Pinterest

I don't know if I could eat this, but it looks like a fun way to learn about cells no? If you like food ans science here is another one...

Source: teach.genetics.utah.edu via Amanda on Pinterest

Colourful Paragraph Structure

I love this. I have used paragraph diamonds, colour coding writing similar to this, but this is a very clear way to teach students.

Source: spendadayinsecondgrade.blogspot.com via Amanda on Pinterest

But that isn't fair....

One thing I find most challenging about teaching Elementary, in particular primary, is not the the germs (although I've had one too many sneezes at and on me by now) but the constant bickering and blaming and whining, "it's not fairrrrrrrrr"

I saw this on pintrest and then on a few blogs and wanted to share this simple activity with any teachers who face the same whining "it isn't fair" comments on a daily basis.

This post is from  this teacher blog:

When I was student teaching in third grade, there was a major epidemic of claiming that things in the class weren't "fair". As any of you who are teachers or have kids of your own know, the kiddos think that it's just not fair if they don't get the best of everything! I saw this idea in various posts on Pinterest and decided to try it out! I had the students sit in a circle on the rug, close their eyes, and imagine that they had an injury somewhere on their body. I received several "but why?"s and curious glances, but they were good sports and went along with it. I then called each student up to the rocking chair one at a time and asked them where their pretend injury was. After each student answered, I placed a band-aid on the back of their hand without explanation. One student said she had a broken arm...and she got a band-aid on her hand. One boy said he had a "terrible horrible cut" on his leg....he got a band-aid on his hand. The kiddos all whispered to each other about what was happening, but never asked a question.

After the last student received his band-aid and sat down, a little girl said "Miss Hunt, how come I said my knee had a bruise but you didn't put the band-aid there? I wanted it on my knee! This just isn't fair!" DING DING DING! That's exactly what I was hoping for! I responded, "but why isn't it fair? Everyone got a band-aid didn't they?" A boy said, "Well YEAH, but what good is it if it's not where I needed it:?" This activity worked out so much better than I expected! We then launched into a long discussion about what fair truly means. One student summed it up best when she said "So maybe fair isn't when everyone gets the same thing...it's when everyone gets just what they need!"

I love it!

Via this blog