Each year, I like to do something different for the gift the students give to their parents during the holiday season.  I like to keep it less holiday focused and more family focused, as I truly don't know what holidays the kids celebrate (or don't celebrate) at home.  Because of this, I tend to steer clear of ornaments or traditional Christmas-themed faire.   So this year, I decided to do a Silhouette All About Me.  This project, which we did for our holiday family gift this year, actually would be awesome for the beginning of the year or Mother's/Father's Day...and I think I may switch it up next year and do just that!  Anyway, here is what we did. We began by brainstorming some activities that the kids liked to do.  These could be anything from playing a musical instrument to reading to playing video games to joining in a kickball game.  The only thing I asked them to really think about is how could they show themselves doing that particular activit......

The past few years we have learned a bit about some of the traditions of Lunar New Year.  One tradition we learned about came specifically from China -- the Chinese Wishing Tree.   We began by reading the story The Wishing Tree by Rosanne Thong . (my affiliate link will take you to Amazon)  It is about a grandmother and her grandson who make wishes on the Banyon Tree in Hong Kong.  This is a fictional story but has a great author's note with nonfiction information about the Lam Tuen Wishing Trees in Hong Kong.   We then watched this very short video about the Banyon Trees in Hong Kong from the Associated Press.  It has no narration and is about 1 1/2 minutes long.  Just enough to show them how people attach wishes to long red ribbons with a tangerine on the other end to weigh it down.   We discussed our own wishes for the world and what we would want for the new year.  I had kids write down their wishes on a piece of paper.  The first ......

So it is Halloween Week here in my Distance Learning classroom and we are changing things up a bit.  I am finding that keeping things consistent and the same, while important, can be a bit dull day in and day out just sitting in class on a computer screen.  So this week we are veering into our standards, with each day having a Halloween-thematic twist. Bat Day (Day 1) So we started the week looking at BATS.  Since our current science unit is on animal adaptations, it fit in just perfectly.  I have three hour-ish long blocks during my synchronous time with my students, so I broke up what we did into those sections.   We began the day with a reading comprehension page.  I haven't really ventured into "test taking" comprehension strategies yet with my 3rd graders, so I took this opportunity to do so.  I gave them this reading passage that had some "right there" questions.   I used this freebie from 24/7 Teacher .   I simply put it on a Google ......

Each year, I try to have my students create a gift for their parents that showcases their creativity, is something the families will remember, and won't cost me an arm and a leg.  This year, I blew myself out of the water with our end product ;)   I really didn't have a lot of time to have the kids create a present this year.  With everything else going on, the holiday just snuck up on me.  So I needed something quick.  I went to the Dollar Tree and picked up 23 $1 frames and a roll of foil.   I asked the kids to draw (on paper first) a family portrait.  They could draw whatever that meant to them, but I basically wanted a picture of their family in some sort of background.  The kids were so creative in their interpretation of this.  Some drew winter scenes.  Others drew their house.  Still others just drew their families outside. Then, they transferred that drawing onto the glass of the frame using black sharpies to ......

My second grade son recently brought home a note from his teacher asking him to bring in an apple so they could make applesauce in honor of Johnny Appleseed Day on September 26.   So, me being the history lover that I am, decided to do a little bit of research on Johnny Appleseed and discovered that there was a lot there for my fifth graders to work with too.  So this week, I teamed up with my partner teacher, Susie the  Panicked Teacher , to have a little fun and learn a little bit about Johnny Appleseed at the same time. We began the day reading two paired texted about the man who came to be known as Johnny Appleseed.  The first was a legend that was filled with lots and lots of legendary notes about him.  My students picked up on the fictional facts immediately.  As one of them said, "No one on earth can possibly walk across a whole state in one day!  Especially not if he is planting apple seeds.  That takes time!"  When we were ......

Creating holiday gifts for the parents of my 5th graders is probably the most stressful part of December for me.   I want them to have something that is really great and fun, but I also want it to take as little time as possible from the academics that we really do need to cover.  So this year, when a fantastic parent of mine volunteered to help with the project, I jumped on it! She had a great idea to create little ornaments out of pinecones.  She walked her neighborhood, found pinecones, and brought in a few for each student. The kids painted them either white or green, then decorated with sparkles, sequence, or other colors of paint.  They used tempra paint, so it was something we already had at school....and they came out AWESOME! Here are a few.  We then added a little ribbon hook and a sign that said "Happy Holidays 2014" or a more specific holiday greeting if they wished.  (I don't have pictures of that...sorry!) These took abo......

This is NOT a teaching post.  BUT it is something that can help you if you have, say, a potluck at school for your holiday party.  This Thanksgiving I made a fantastic little crockpot dessert that was *demolished* by all in attendance.  It was SO easy, that I thought it would make the perfect Potluck dessert for school. What was it? Crockpot Chocolate Lava Cake Yes...you read that right.  Chocolate.Lava.Cake.  YUM!!!! It takes 3 ingredients (sort of) Chocolate cake mix Chocolate pudding Chocolate chips Here is what you do.  Prepare the cake mix as the box says (so you will need eggs and oil).  Pour that into the crockpot.  Then prepare the pudding as the package says (you will need milk).  Pour that on top of the cake batter.  Pour the entire bag of chocolate chips on top of all of that.  Turn the crockpot onto high and let it bake for 3 hours. That is it.  SO EASY! Top with cool whip and you have an amazi......

Halloween is just around the corner and, if you are anything like me, you are searching and searching for the perfect costume to wear to school.  I mean, it has to be something comfortable, relatively affordable (read: cheap) and easy to put on after lunch before the parade.  So I asked my friends, both in my network of teacher friends and on Facebook in our Teaching in Room 6 community, if they had any ideas for costumes that fit that bill, and here is what they came up with. Now, if you teach preschool, I KNOW you know who this is.  Or if you have toddlers around the house these costumes might ring a bell too.  Well, this particular year, each of us had toddlers hogging up the TV, so we dressed up like DJ Lance and the gang.  Can you spot me? What a wonderful peacock Heather, from Teach It Today makes!  Just a tutu and some feathers created this easy costume. This middle school team from Oregon decided to go as the Duck Dynasty gang last......