Weekly Inspiration

It's Spring! It's Spring! Let your phone wallpaper shout it from the mountaintops!

Save this image to your phone and set it as your wallpaper to enjoy for the week!

Spring & Easter Freebies for Upper Elementary

This week I spent some time gathering up some fun and engaging freebies! My favorite time of the year is Spring! Outside the weather is beautiful, plants are blooming, and in the classroom - students are on point. They get into the groove, gain a lot of independence, and are just more fun to be around {typically}. How are you enjoying your Spring?

Check out these amazing freebies & grab one {or all} and have some fun! I LOVE how the Journal Prompts tie into last week's post on curing Writer's Block!

Earth Day Promises: A Writing Activity

Earth Day Report Card

Poetry & Figurative Language Posters

March Journal Jar

Dissecting Frogs and Worms

Me?  Dissect frogs?  Umm no thank you.  Last year my 5th graders were dying to dissect something.  Anything.  "Please, please Mrs. G!" they would say.  I was talking it over with my co-teacher one day and she offered to do it with the kids.  Whhhhhattt?  I wanted to jump up and down for joy.  Listen- I am all about hands-on learning.  And I am all about dissection.  But teaching it?  Having to try it on my own.  I just wasn't so sure. 

But Mrs. Cahill is fabulous and she is a science goddess and she knew exactly what to do to wrap up our Human Body Unit.  And NOW, I recommend giving it a try yourself.  Seriously!  She made it SO easy and the students loooved it.  Skeptical?  I don't blame you, but here's all you need to do. 

First you'll need to order your frogs (I recommend getting worms too because they're cheap and great practice before starting on the frog).  We ordered enough worms for every students and enough frogs for every two students.  You can find all sorts of websites selling these guys, but we used HomeScienceTools and absolutely recommend it!  The best part is, the worms and frogs come shrink wrapped and can just be stored in a cabinet until you're ready to use them- no smell, no mess, no fuss! 

You'll also need tools- a dissecting pan, scissors, a scalpel, a teasing needle, and pins.  You can get kits with more, but these are the absolute basics you'll want to have and can be found pretty inexpensively. Our school had them on hand so we lucked out!  I've since discovered that a styrofoam tray, exacto knife, toothpick, and small scissors will work as well.

Mrs. Cahill began by discussing the basic safety that goes along with dissection.  A basic Safety Contract was sent home for students and parents to sign and in class students watched this great Safety Video. Before we could even start the lesson, Mrs. Cahill had students answer a question in their science notebooks.  Why are we dissecting worms and frogs?

After students were ready to be safe learners, Mrs. Cahill went over the basic tools and steps involved in dissection.  She did this verbally, instead of having the steps written down, so that students had to listen and wouldn't rush ahead.  Starting with worms gave students an idea of how to hold the scalpel, how hard to press when cutting, and what to expect.  The worms were MUCH cooler than I had anticipated.  You can find "how to" guides online as well as videos.  Mrs. Cahill followed these and tried it herself to figure out the steps, then wrote down steps that worked for our class.  She used those steps to instruct our learners.  

We had set aside an entire morning to focus on dissections so we moved right into frogs after the worms, but you could easily make this a two or three day process.  It can get smelly though- so I recommend a larger block of time :)

The frogs took a little longer and were  a little more difficult- but full of some amazing information!!   Some students even found food in the stomach of their frog- Talk about unforgettable learning experience. 

After the dissections, students reflected on the experience.  You can pick up a Dissection Reflection here!  This helps students think about the activity and put some knowledge to it.

Okay, so it took some work- but dissecting frogs was beyond worth the prep.  I will absolutely be doing this in the years to come!  It really taught me not to hesitate about doing a lesson just because it's outside of my comfort zone.  I hope it helps you too :)  Thanks Mrs. Cahill!!

After our dissections... me holding a bag of dissected frogs- yikes!

Keeping Students Busy Busy Busy During Spring Fever

Wooh Spring fever has hit hard.  It's hit me, the students, and parents.  Wait, what's homework?  Where do pencils go?  What are we learning next??  Oh. My. Lordy.  To keep students engaged I've had to jazz up a few lessons.  Last week I had to switch gears when I realized attention spans we're flying out the window- one after another.  I vaguely remembered reading about a game somewhere and decided to give it a go.  It is a fun vocab game for ESL students but would also be perfect for working with vocabulary in a traditional classroom, and for a quick and easy brain break!   You can super easily differentiate it!

First separate your class into 2-4 groups.  Have each group stand in a line in front of your whiteboard {or chalkboard!}.  Write a word on the board in front of each line.  Then, the first student in the line of each group must use the last letter of the word to write a new word below it.  So if the first word is Beautiful, the next word must start with "L".  Then the marker is passed back to the next student and they write a word.  If I were to incorporate this game into a traditional classroom, I would have students use only nouns, or only verbs, or words that are 7 letters or longer, or only words that begin with a prefix.  I keep a word wall nearby to support my ESL kiddos, but many don't even look that way.  Allow students to continue the relay for 2 minutes.  {That's more than enough time!}

Review the words, correct spelling, and cross out any repeats {I cross out any words that both groups used- this negates the copy cats}.  And then count up the words each group wrote.  The group with the most words "wins".  It usually takes one or two rounds to get into a groove but all of my students who have played this game really love it!  I hope you can use it in your classroom.  It makes for a simple and fun brain break!

Below I have included some possible vocabulary categorizations.  What other categories can you think up?!

Possible Vocabulary Categorizations:
-  Nouns
-  Verbs
-  Words that begin with prefixes
- Words about science
-  Words about math
-  Words about friendship
-  Adjectives
-  Words about holidays
-  Words about your house
-  Words about the weather
-  Words about movies
-  Words about school
-  Words about clothing
-  Words about food

And don't forget to enter my giveaway that's going on right now!!  The winner receives $25 to TpT!!  It's free to enter- check it out :)

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Back in Action

My computer is back in action and I am happy happy happy!  I must have needed a weekend away from it- because for whatever reason, it decided to stop working Friday afternoon and promptly begin again Monday morning.  I got the message.  And I rested and played. 

I needed to refocus on myself, my family, my friends, and this wonderful adventure I'm experiencing here in Spain.  Here's just a little glimpse into my much needed weekend.

I hope you're feeling rested, rejuvenated, and ready to tackle your week!  Be sure to stop by later this week for a GIVEAWAY!!  :)

March Mania

Did you know that Spain doesn't do their time change the same time as the States?  So we are still on "normal" time... which is nice for a few reasons- but mainly it makes me only FIVE hours (time difference) away from my momma, meaning I can call her earlier, and worry less about waking her up :)  We will be jumping forward at the end of March though... so I'll have plenty of time to whine about my lost hour then. 

Otherwise, this is my BIRTHDAY week!  My birthday is on Thursday and so to celebrate, I am having a sale in my TpT store AND a giveaway!  All products in my store will be 20% off on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday and this weekend I will be hosting a giveaway (I'm one of those people who have a birthday "week" instead of just one day.  Ridiculous, I know.  But if you would like to participate and offer up a product of your own for the giveaway- please leave your e-mail in the comment section below)!!  Make sure you stop by Wednesday to join in on the fun!  I'm a huge birthday nerd and loooove to celebrate my birthday, friend's birthdays, random birthdays, ALL birthdays!  They're just the best :) 

This past month I've finished two products that I'm pretty excited about.  Both are mini math units with a fun activity to do in your classroom.  The first one is a fraction product relating to art.  Students get to cut out and piece together fractions to create a lovely piece of art.  Afterwards, they add their fraction pieces together to find out how many whole pieces they have in their artwork!  Directions, worksheets, and fraction pieces are included (and differentiated!!).

The next product I've been working on is a planting/math activity I did a few years ago with my fourth graders!  I DO NOT have a green thumb- but it went pretty smoothly, so non-green-thumb people will be okay :)  It can super easily incorporate Earth Day and Mother's Day activities!  You plant flowers and track their growth over a 6 week period. A student booklet, directions, tips, graphs, and anything you could possibly need is included.  Perfect to begin a few weeks before Earth Day (Earth Day is April 22nd) and end in time to send the flowers home to Mom for Mother's Day (May 11th)!  Students will measure their plants every week, collect data, and then find and analyze the mean, median, mode, and range.  They will create multiple graphs and discuss their plants as well as the data.  This is a perfect activity for really exploring data!

Thanks for stopping by!  And please let me know if you would like to participate in my birthday giveaway by leaving your e-mail below :)

{Spring Sale!!}

Check out my SPRING items for a sale to welcome Spring and the Spring weather!  *Fingers Crossed*  Check out my store for 10% off of some great Spring items!

ENJOY :)