Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Florida Fall Leaves

One of my schools traditions is the annual Thanksgiving Feast. The entire school sits down at once to eat a turkey dinner. As in everyone. They close the office and all.

The idea is wonderful. In practice, it sometimes leaves a bit to be desired. Thankfully due to some…errr…issues with our cafeteria staff this year’s feast was catered by Boston Market. Yum!

I had my Synonym Turkeys hanging in the hallway, but I wanted to make name cards with my class. We have just finished states of matter, so I channeled my inner Girl Scout and came up with these:

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We started with a solid (crayon shavings), sandwiched it between layers of wax paper, and added heat until it melted and became a liquid.

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There *might* have been a bit of a boogie involved as we acted out how the particles were moving once heat was added.

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I’d planned to make one big one and then cut out smaller ones. It didn’t work that way. I also played with the thickness of the cloth on top and the setting of the iron. I ended up using an old men’s shirt and a medium heat to get the desired effect.

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In the end I gave each student a piece of wax paper. They sprinkled a little crayon shavings onto their paper and put a matching square of wax paper on top. They watched as I ironed each side quickly. Once they were done “ooh-ing” and “ahh-ing” I let them use a Sharpie to draw the outline of the leaf and write their name.

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I am thrilled with how they came out. This is as close as we come to fall leaves here in our part of Florida!  Better yet I have enough left overs to take it home to repeat the project with my favorite three-year-old.

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Multiplication Array Chart

I have more things I *should* be doing than I care to admit. I taped a lesson as part of a case study last week and tomorrow I have to watch it with a coach. I created a Nearpod presentation for the lesson and took a bit of a risk. My students’ behavior left a bit to be desired. I am not looking forward to watching the video tomorrow.

I also need to write sub plans and figure out what to wear on camera.

Oh, well!

We are in the midst of our multiplication study now.  I saw this idea on Pinterest and knew I had to try it. I have the best parent volunteers ever, so I recruited help to tape together the squares of construction paper.

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I wanted to color code the boxes for demonstration purposes. To fill it in I gave each student flashcards and centimeter grid paper.

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The students drew the array that matched the the card and then came over to show me where on the chart it belongs.

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The completed chart is posted in the hallway for all to see. I’ve heard more than one 4th/5th grade student comment about our arrays. Mostly things like, “Why didn’t WE do that last year?” and “Oh! I remember arrays!” 

I’ll take that as a good sign!