New Year, New Games

New Year, New Games...

I've purchased the Sifteo set already, however, it only come with three cubes and at a 'non-educator' type of pricing structure it doesn't appear that I'll be purchasing additional cubes any time soon (especially since classroom purchases come out of my pocket).

I saw this Scrabble Flash game in a store flyer over the holidays and thought at that sale price I could definitely afford to give it a try. Lo and behold, two days ago the game was discounted further so I got in my car and hurried on over to our local box store to pick one up.  Not only did I get the Scrabble game, but for the money I saved, I also purchased the Yahtzee set.

Can't wait for my kiddos to get their hands on these after the new year. That is, if they can pry it out of mine!

Halloween in the Gym

Halloween is my absolute FAVORITE holiday (as any child in our classroom can tell you!). However, I believe (truly, truly believe) that the Gym Teachers love Halloween more than I do! They decorated the gym beyond even my wildest imagination! Not only did they put in a lot of time and effort, but my sources say that they had a couple of ghouls and goblins helping them out. Check out just some of the amazing stations your child was able to participate in last week. Go ahead, ask them what their favorite station was. (Mine was the moving spider on the web.)

The Seasons They Are A-Changing

As scientists in our classroom, one of the main things we focus on is the power of observation -- what is it that we 'really' see?

During the month of October we 'observed' the tree outside the classroom window and discussed the changes that were occurring.

We documented the changes with a picture a day, which is embedded below.

Easy, Healthy Snack

Image Source: Flickr.com by Public Domain Photos (direct source when hover mouse over image)

I just ran across this tip yesterday and I decided this might be something useful for my parents, so here it is:

If you want to send something healthy for snack, but when you send in sliced apples they tend to turn brown before your child can eat them, then try this quick tip:
Slice the apple and soak it in either ginger ale or lemon-lime soda for 10 minutes.

Not only will you add a touch of sweetness, but it prevents sliced apples from browning -- but the BEST part? A healthy snack for your child.

Enjoy!

Marshmallow Madness

What better way to do math than to use marshmallows as manipulatives? I was never one to graph the number of dogs Billy has, or how many siblings Susan has, or even how you get to school. Instead, I like using tangible (and preferably 'edible' items). I saw some marshmallows and BINGO!, the lesson was born! The students were shown the marshmallow that they would have to fit into their mouth (it was the large sized one), they had to estimate (our first time estimating this year) how many marshmallows they thought they could fit into their mouth (someone actually said '60'! REALLY??? LOL). We then conducted the activity. As the student placed (or 'shoved' as the case was for a few of them) the marshmallow in their mouth, the rest of the class kept count. When they felt they were done the student raised their hand, then quickly lowered it so that I could get a picture of the 'Marshmallow Moment'. We graphed the results and discussed how our estimations stacked up against the actual number that we were able to fit into our mouths.

I hope you enjoy the pictures! (And the ONLY way they would let me take their pictures was if I promised to be part of the activity and if they could take a picture of me with marshmallows in my mouth. As if anyone would ever doubt that I would want to be part of this fun activity! LOL).

Gearing Up for the Start of a New Year

I'm soooooooooo excited! For me, the countdown to the first day of school has begun. Everywhere I go, I find new things to bring into our classroom. And while I am at home 'surfing' the internet I find things that we will be using in our classrooms, projects that we will be doing with classrooms around the world, and 'widgets' (think 'gadgets') to add our the blog. Below is a widget to welcome you.



I hope you are as excited as I am for September 7th to roll around!

"Beat the Teacher" is NOT What You Think It Is

Image from Flickr.com nicasaurusrex

This activity is really called, 'Making Words', but since I'm part of playing the game -- and I play to win -- it has been renamed 'Beat the Teacher'. Students are given between 6 and 8 letters and are given about 10 minutes to make as many words as they can from those letters. I then write all the words I have come up with on the board. Once I have exhausted what I believe to be all possible words I turn to the class and call out, 'Beat the Teacher'. At this point any student who has a word which I do not have gets to call it out and the class gets a point for the word. Points are tallied with the goal of beating the class score from last year (currently 235), with a resulting pizza party. At the end of the activity, students must write a sentence using at least two of the words from the board. Those sentences that are considered 'WOW!' are posted on our wiki for you to read (I do not edit student work). Enjoy!