Back to the Basics

With only two months left in school, I have finally found a reward system that my kiddos are responding to.  It is rather basic and probably overlooked a majority of the time.  I simple stamp book.  At first we called it a sticker book, but my kiddos are quite sneaky with those stickers (they would remove stickers that were traded in and put them on a new page).  But I one upped them and switched to stamps!  We started by having students pick their two favorite colors.  I then cut the paper in 4 inch squares and stapled them together to make a book.  They put their first names on the front and added a picture if they wanted.

Front cover of book

Stamps from Vista Print...self inking
and better than a stamp pad.  I only
have three so far, but ready to order more.

Inside pages

Each time they complete a desired task they would receive a stamp.  The first task we worked on as a group was cleaning up centers in a timely manner.  I encouraged team work because it was all or nothing.  I would set the timer for 2 minutes and if they had all 3 centers cleaned up they all would get a  stamp.  Then we got it down to 1 minute and 30 seconds.  Now I use it various times throughout the day if we are struggling during transition.  After 5 stamps they get to go to the prize pouches.

An over the door shoe organizer works great for small treasures.

Inside the pouches are pencils, erasers, small bouncy balls, fruit punch drinks, stress balls, sugar free root beer candies, mints, classroom coupons, and other small items.  This has been a simple, easy reward system.  The most chosen items are pencils, mints, and root beer candies.

The other reward system I use is a treasure box.  They all want to go to the big treasure box and can if they stay in class, finish their work, use nice words, and safe bodies all 5 days.  I move their little person across the pocket envelops each day.  Those names on number 5 on Friday get the prize.

Prizes include sensory balls, coloring posters, stuffed animals, Frisbees, and small individual snack candies.

Each day their name moves across the pockets.

So...maybe if I started this in August I would have saved a lot of time finding what motivated them the most.  Bet I will next August!!

Welcome Baby Chick

To kick off our life cycle unit (and just in time for Easter), we hatched baby chicks and ducks.  We purchased plastic eggs from the dollar store DEALS that simulated the life cycle of a baby chick.  It was amazing.  Instead of keeping our eggs in an incubator, we kept them in water.  Students recorded the life cycle in a journal, we read several non-fiction books, and watched videos on United Streaming. By the end of the week, we had a fully developed baby.  Students then had to dry them off (just like a real baby chick, they are born wet).  They each filled out a birth certificate, named them, and created an information sheet on how to care for them.  The students were super excited and it was a great way to start a unit.  Now if the butterflies would just get here.  I guess on to tadpoles and frogs while we are waiting.

Day 1:  Egg is placed in water.

Day 4:  Egg has hatched!

Blast Off!!

We finished our Space Unit and the planets are orbiting our sun.  That was so much fun!

Uranus and Neptune up close.

We used construction paper and cut them proportionate to planet sizes.  Students used tissue paper crumpled up to give them texture and add color.  Super fun!  They were hung in order orbiting the sun hanging in the middle of our room.

We also finished our Space Alphabet class book.

We filled in this chart as we worked through our unit and added words when we came to them.  At the end we had a few to fill in with words found in non-fiction space books.

On black paper, we used a yellow crayon to write the letter and stars to create a constellation.

Students then drew a picture to go with each letter.

Now excited to work on our Life Cycle Unit.

3, 2, 1...Blast Off!!

One of my favorite units for science is our space unit.  We have so much fun turning our room into the universe.  I use several resources for this unit, but my favorite is Out of This World by KinderLit. First we brainstormed a list of what we thought we knew about space.  Then we created a class book to go with the poem I Looked in the Sky and What Did I See?

Next we learned about clouds and made 3-D clouds to hang from the ceiling in one corner of our classroom.  Student cut out one 12X18 sheet of white paper folded in half with a template of a cloud shape.  Then we hole punched around the edge.  Students took blue yarn and laced the two pieces together, stuffed with cotton balls, and then hung them from the ceiling.

 We also read It Looked Like Spilt Milk and made a class book.  Students spilt white paint in the middle of a folded 9X12 paper, opened it up and identified what they thought the picture looked like.  Interesting thoughts!

 Next, we learned about the Moon.  After reading several non-fiction books about the phases of the moon students got to marble paint black paper with yellow and white paint.  The next day they cut their paper into phases of the moon and we hung them up in another area of the room.

Then we learned about the sun.  Again, we read several books and poems before students sponge painted 12X18 sheets of yellow paper with orange paint.  The next day we cut out our paper to piece together to make one giant sun to hang in the center of our classroom.

Next we discussed day and night.  Students created a day/night paper by placing a 9X12 blue sheet of paper on top of one side of a 12X18 sheet of black paper.  On the blue side they drew a picture using colored chalk about something they like to do in the daytime and on the black side something they like to do at night.  

In the day I like to go shopping with my mom.
At night I like to go to bed.

Stars came next.  We learned what stars were made of and that they could be different colors.  We also learned that they formed constellations.  We made stars out of glue and glitter.  We made 12, but only 3 survived.  If you choose to make these, know that it takes a LOT of glue.  I thought we had made them thick enough, but when we peeled them off the wax paper they broke in two.  We took a star template, placed wax paper on top, and traced the outline of the star with glue.  Then they chose what color star they wanted by sprinkling glitter over the glue.  Let dry overnight and peel from the wax paper.  We hung these in another part of the room to form a constellation.

The final piece to our classroom universe is making the planets to hang in orbit around our sun.  We will be making these this week.  Each student will get to pick a planet and use tissue paper and construction paper to create a replica of their planet.  They will tear little pieces of paper to create a collage before hanging them in space.  Sounds fun!! 

This unit is very engaging and the students absolutely love it!  Every day they come into the classroom and ask what is next.  Very exciting to see them this engaged in a science unit.  Hope you enjoy these activities as much as we did. 

Enter to win a free pencil sharpener :)

http://www.classroomfriendlysupplies.com/pages/free-sharpeners

The Leprechaun is Coming!

This week was amazing.  I had no idea how much fun it was going to be having the Leprechaun visit our classroom.  I used ideas from Pinterest and combined them to create my own version of St. Patrick's Day fun.  I used ideas from Homemaking Fun (http://partiesandholidays.blogspot.com/) and HoJo's Teaching Adventures (http://hojosteacherstore.blogspot.com/).  First we read St. Patrick's day stories and I got them hyped up about Leprechauns.  Then we made traps and hid them in the room.

Since this was a spur of the moment activity (because March has flown by and I have not done a good job of really looking at the actual date lately) we used cherry tomato containers for the base of our traps.  I then got out as much green art supplies as possible (stickers, foam pieces, yarn, construction paper, bubble wrap,  and pipe cleaners) to decorate them.

First attempt to catch the Leprechaun
 before adding the glitter.

After they made their traps I read more books about Leprechauns and legends.   We then decided that we needed to add fruit loops (rainbow colors) and glitter around our traps to attract the Leprechaun.

The students also had to write How to Catch a Leprechaun in three steps courtesy of TPT How to Catch a Leprechaun.  Then the real fun began!  I had a teaching partner tap on the outside of our classroom and leave gold whenever she did it.  The students absolutely loved it.  They would run out of the class and all they would fine is the gold.  This got them engaged.  When we left for specials, that pesky little Leprechaun would mess up our room and leave gold candies and treats for us.  He even moved  the traps around a bit and left notes behind.

You almost caught me
but as you can see
I got away
HEHEHE!

So now I cannot wait for Monday.  The room will be a mess and the kiddos will go on a wild chase to find the basket of treats left by the Leprechaun (Leprechaun Hunt Clues).  I think I am more excited than they are.




 

"Seuss" Much Fun

Friday was a fantastic day celebrating Dr. Seuss's Reading Across America week.  We made green eggs and ham, wrote our own version of There's a Wocket in my Pocket, and counted how many feet to various places in the building.  Students did a super job working cooperatively in their assigned groups and helping the younger kiddos on ABC order while I was cooking.  Days like this are exactly why we do what we do!!

After reading Green Eggs and Ham, students predicted whether they would like it or not by placing a yes or no on the graph.  After they tried it they got to take a yes or no home as a talking point about today's activity.

 Students enjoying the green eggs and ham.  All students had to take at least one bite of the eggs and one bite of the ham.  

We read several Dr. Seuss books this week even though we did have two snow days.  At the end of March we will revisit Dr. Seuss before our family reading night at school.  I am excited.  I felt a little cheated this year.  There are so many fun activities to link literature and other subjects with his books.

The Classroom Library collection of Dr. Seuss books.

After reading The Cat in the Hat students made stick puppets and are preparing to retell the story to our other REACh classroom.  They are so excited.  They wanted to do it Friday, but we weren't quite ready.  Still working on sequence of events and using a loud voice to retell so the audience can hear us. Wish us luck Monday.  We might need it!

The Puppet Stage