Call Me Maybe-Teachers' Edition

One of our local churches hosted Back to School Blue Jean Sunday and wanted to show that teachers can have fun, too! We had so much fun creating the video and were happy to be apart of something so positive. Hope you enjoy it!

Scrunchy Border

One of the most almost things I found on Pinterest this summer was the "Scrunchy Border"! It is so simple and looks soooooo amazing.

The 3-D affect is so cool. It adds alot of flare and style  to my classroom, and seeing as I am a "little" dramatic that is important!

So here is how you do it:
1. All you need is butcher paper, scissors, and staples
2. Get 6 or more feet of butcher paper
3. Cut it into strips that are about 5-6 inches wide
4. Fold it accordin style (my kids did this part)
5. Scrunch it all up like you are about to throw it away
6. Start in a corner staple and then scrunch
7. Continue stapling and then scrunching all the way around the board

Easy Breezy!

Time for a Change

After shuffling classrooms and grades for the first part of my teaching career (for the first 6 years I was either in a different classroom, different grade, or a different school all but 1 year), I have finally been in the same room and same grade for going on 8 years. This is both good and bad.

Doing the same thing for so long allows you to become an expert at what you are doing. You figure out what works and what doesn't. You perfect your teaching strategies for the concepts you teach. You learn from your students so that you can better teach future students.

But you CAN also become complacent and even lazy. For this reason, many principals like to perform "Topsy Turvy Turnovers" where they mix everything and everyone up.

I would not say I have become complacent or lazy with the way I teach (definitely not), but I think I had with my classroom design and decorations. I used to change themes and decor every year. However, I have had the theme of "Mrs. Hill's All Star T.E.A.M:Together Everyone Achieves More" for the last 5 years. It was a great theme that served every student I taught and lent itself to lessons on teamwork and goal setting. But it was time for a change.

So at the end of the last year, I cleaned out my room, dejunked my cabinets, and began a complete renovation of my classroom. I painted all of the bookcases and storage units black, whereas before they were all differing colors of wood grain. I also hired someone to repaint the walls and trim a cheerful yellow trimmed with a clean, bright white, whereas they were light blue walls with a dark blue trim.
The change in color did amazing things to change the feel and mood of the room. It is so cheerful that it makes you smile when you walk in! The new color coupled with  black, white, and red decor lends itself to so many themes. I love the scrunchy border! Check out how I made it!

My theme this year is P.I.R.A.T.E.S: Prepared Informed Responsible and Truly Engaged Students. I have added all kinds of pirate accessories from Oriental Trading, Hobby Lobby, Target, and Big Lots. It has definitely been a complete overhaul and I thank Pinterest for inspiration!

Even the outside of my room was completely redecorated so that it would draw kids in from the hallway. Check it out!

Getting to Know You

There are two days until the first day of school. My how the summer has flown by! But I am so ready. Not quite ready for the big reveal of my completely redone, revamped, and refurbished room...maybe tomorrow.

Seeing as I have 2 days, I thought I might need to start planning my first day of school:) I, of course, spend time teaching the rules, going over rituals and routines, and modeling procedures. We act out appropriate and inappropriate behavior. We practice coming in to the classroom correctly and leaving properly. We will even have a mock fire and tornado drill.

All of these things are important. However, I also like to have a little fun and provide some inspiration. Therefore, there are 2 activities that I always do on the first day of school:

1. I play the M&M game.

Each child gets a pack of M&M's. They separate out their favorite color from the bunch. They are allowed to eat the other M&M's but not the ones that are their favorite color. For instance, if they choose blue, they eat everything but the blue ones. Then we go around the room and for each M&M they have that is their favorite color they have to tell that many things about themselves. For example: If they have 4 blue, they tell 4 things. This is a great way to learn some basic information, find out what kinds of things are important to each student, and you will get extra points for letting them eat candy!

2. I always read Oh, the Places You'll Go by Dr. Seuss.

This is the last activity of each of my classes on the first day of school, and it is so inspirational. As I read we talk about the meanings of choices and plans, and how there will be times when things are great and times when they are so low that you feel you will never get up. I still get chills every time I read it. I want my students to leave my room feeling inspired about their new year, and feeling like they can accomplish anything. It is also the last thing we do for the school year. We perform it as a reader's theater at our end of the year program.

What are your first day of school traditions? Have you found any new things on blogs or Pinterest that you plan on adding in this year? Do share!!

School Supplies

What do you do with all of the school supplies your students bring in at the beginning of the year? On our grade level's school supply list this year, we ask students to bring in:

2 boxes of pencils
2 packs of paper
1 3-ring binder
1 package of dividers
2 packages of Expo markers
Clorox wipes
Germ X
Tissue

We use to ask for glue, crayons, and scissors, but these are uncertain economic times and we are trying to help parents out. We ordered these with our supplies.

The question is what do you do with all of the supplies kids bring in? I don't know about your classroom, but mine is usually overrun on the first day of school with supplies. I have piles of tissue boxes, paper, pencils, Germ X . . .  and my classroom has little, more like no storage.

I team teach with two other ladies and we all have different ways of dealing with the abundance of supplies:

1. Have the students take everything home, except the hand sanitizer, tissue, and wipes and let them bring in stuff as they need it.
(I tried that before but needless to say the stuff never made it back to school and I ended up supplying things from Christmas to the end of the year).

2. Have supply cubbies for each student and let them keep all of their supplies there to pull out when needed.
(This sounds like a good idea. The problem I have is that I don't have cubbies and what about those kids who never, ever bring in supplies. Do they just not have paper?)

3. This final one is my solution. I take up everything, except for the binders and dividers. I have storage bins where I keep all of the paper, markers, and pencils. Once they bring it in, it now belongs to the class. When someone needs paper, they just go to the bin and get some. We don't have a discussion. I don't get aggravated about them not having supplies, and they don't get embarrassed because their parents never bought them any. They just go get what they need when they need it.

I did this last year and actually have an abundance of supplies left over. I only had to ask students to bring in Expo markers during the year, and that is only because we use them all day long.

So what is your solution? What do you do with all of the supplies?

Pirates Ahoy!

Ahoy Mateys! We are diving into the Seven Seas this year. I have worked harder this summer than I ever have including the multitude of summers that I moved classrooms or changed schools. The teachers in my grade level got so creative! The teacher across the hallway for me is doing owls and another is doing a rainbow theme.

A noticeble change was my outside. Before I had a sports theme complete with a football field, soccer net, and goal posts. Now it has transformed into the Seven Seas! 

My theme this year is P.I.R.A.T.E.S. It stands for Prepared, Informed, Responsible, and Truly Engaged Students. The door was turned into a pirate ship with cute little pirate wall stickers, butcher paper, and a lot of hot glue.

The walls on the outside are part of a 100 year old building that have been wallpapered about a bazillion times and convienently act as a cork board. Therefore I was able to staple a phenomenal water bulletin board paper that I found at Hobby Lobby (best store ever) for $8.99 for a 12 foot roll.

I added fishing net that I boaught from Oriental Trading for $12.00 for a whole-heck-of-a-lot of it! The pirate banner was $8.50 for 100 feet!!! I will never use all of it! Then I added foam swords(I found them in the dollar section of Target) that I glued the students' names to.

The finishing touch was this sign that I created using Microsoft Publisher and will soon post as a free product in my TpT store.

Videos, Games, and Resources...Oh My!

For the last two days, I have been at a curriculum workshop. You know the kind...one that could be very helpful if you were allowed to do what you needed to do instead of filling in forms that someone else feels that you need to do.. I am not saying it was a waste of time, but there is only so much that 7 people with differing opinions can do when you are having to type into one document.

So while a couple of us were transferring our work to the aforementioned document, I started searching for electronic resources. I am not one to use "the book". In fact, last year my children never even opened "the book", and I am toying with the idea of not even handing "the book" out this year. I am not judging people who choose to use "the book", to each his own. It is just not for me, and is obviously not for my county since this is the year we are supposed to adopt a new math series and we are opting out. 



My point is....
there are phenomenal resources out there for people who do not use "the book" or who would like to supplement "the book's" resources. I am all for not reinventing the wheel, so I was very pleased to find websites where some wonderful, amazing, brilliant, and generous individuals and systems have listed and hyper-linked a variety of resources ranging from worksheets to videos to game to SMART board activities to ....anything under the sun that one may use to enhance the mathematical education of children instead of just using .....wait for it....."the book".



Here are some of the "Mother Loads" that I found:
(I tried to give credit where credit is due)


http://visalia.k12.ca.us/techcoach/thirdgrade.htm

http://www.elcerritowire.com/3/math.htm

Thank you, Rockingham!
http://www.rockingham.k12.va.us/resources/elementary/3math.htm

Thank you, Lee Summit School District
 http://mae.leesummit.k12.mo.us/kprideaux/math.htm


http://www.mathlearningcenter.org/resources/materials/parents/parents3


http://www.homeschoolmath.net/worksheets/grade_3.php


http://www.k-5mathteachingresources.com/3rd-grade-number-activities.html


http://www.oakdale.k12.ca.us/parents-and-students/MathResources/03/MathResourcesGames3.htm

And I can't help but include my own brilliant resources that I put together for my parents!

http://mrshillsallstars.weebly.com/ 

There are tons more resources out there, so get to exploring them!!