Testing time interrupted....

We all know that testing has been a very hot button topic lately. There are many forms of assessment and yes, sometimes kids have to sit down and take a test. :) Just as my kids sat down for their big end of unit science test we head a loud grinding noise.....and then a jack hammer....and then a huge machine rolled up next to our window.  I spoke with my kids about distractions and that this would be perfect practice with zoning out the background noise and staying focused on the task at hand. Five minutes in even I couldn't concentrate.  The kids all wanted to watch so over to the windows we went. :)

Earlier in the year we studied simple machines and at the end of the unit they had to build, with Legos, a machine that could help us do something.  Our challenge began...how many simple machines can you find?  They named a ton! I was so impressed.  

This was the beginning of what became a 2 hour long adventure in my classroom. The road was sawed, jack hammered, dug up, pipes lined up, and concrete poured.  Needless to say, the test was saved until the afternoon and it was a perfect lesson in flexibility.  But, it does make me reflect on the high stakes testing we have to administer. In that situation I would not have been able to put the test away and use it as a teachable moment. The test would have gone on with an incredible amount of distraction for children.  

I have always been a firm believer that if you are going to complain about something, you should try to fix it.  I was speaking to a colleague about our "teachable moment" and she mentioned that in some cities, construction like this is completed after school hours. They actually plan their construction in school areas around the school schedules. How amazing is that?! Maybe something we should look into? :)

Pebbles, Sand, and Silt Unit

Last week we started our Pebbles, Sand, and Silt unit. This unit and all materials are provided to us by EBEC (East Bay Educational Collaborative).  The science standards line up wonderfully and we can easily tie in our writing standards during the science notebook time.  On Thursday the students experimented with three rocks, basalt, tuff, and scoria. They could use water, magnifying lenses and the three rocks. It was so fun to just give them the materials and say "experiment, observe, discuss".  They had amazing conversations with each other.

Many of the students observed that when they placed the scoria in the water, air bubbles escaped. Simply through discussion with each other (and a bit of guidance on my part) the students were able to conclude that there was air in the cracks and holes of the rocks!  One student even told me it was porous! He remembered our vocabulary word from months ago. :) Inquiry learning at its best! 

Shameless Plug of the Week!

Here is my shameless plug of the week....Alicia T! (click her name to go directly to her TpT store.)

I have worked with Alicia for the past few years and she is full of amazingly creative ideas. She is actually the one who convinced me to start a Teachers Pay Teachers store. Although all of her products are great and very professional, her Mega Packs are amazing.

One of my favorites is her First Grade Math Mega Pack. It is incredible thorough....click here to view it. It includes an activity or two for every first grade Common Core math standard.

And for my shameless plug of myself- I just added two new items for common core language standard L 2.2. My goal is to have a packet for every ELA and writing standard in the common core. It is hard enough switching standards- I want to make it an easier transition.  I have many items completed but like to use them with my students before I post them. Kid tested I guess you could say :) Check to the right of your screen for a link to my TpT store.

Reading Week 2014!

I love reading week...maybe because it is the week before vacation....maybe because I love books.....

This year we continued our tradition of a Miss Alaineus parade.  If you haven't read the book by Debra Frasier, put it on your list! Check out her website here. It is a great book about a student who mistakes the word "miscellaneous" and it leads to a classroom catastrophe! It is a great book for vocabulary studies.  For the parade, all of the students pick a word and represent it in some way. This is one of a few things we do at school where the kindergarten is as excited as the fifth grade! Unfortunately, I can't put up their pictures but you can check out other parades on Debra Frasier's website. This year our staff decided to pick characters from The Wizard of Oz and then choose a word that represents that character. I was the yellow brick road and my word was journey. These pictures I can post :)

We also added the "Guess the Young Reader" board this year.  Teachers and staff provided pictures of them reading as youngsters with their favorite book. Students had to put a name to a face. It was a blast! (I'm number three!)

Mini Note Takers

I don't know about you all, but my students love to do things that they "older kids" get to do. During our recent Solar System unit I taught the kids how to take two column notes. We started slowly and with a ton of modeling but they loved it! (I should remind them of this when they get to middle school. hahaha)  As a reward for "class compliments" my students chose to watch a Magic School Bus movie on space. I was correcting papers when I noticed one of the kids not on the carpet sprawled out like the others. He was taking notes!!!! How adorable is this? I asked if he wanted to join the others but he told me "I have to study and go to college. I can watch movies at home."  Can't wait to see where this kid goes!

My Creative Ma!

Since I can remember my mother has created things; cloths when we were kids, cabbage patch kids because the demand was so high, beautiful woven scarves, amazing quilts, and most recently these amazing art quilts (and cards too!).  I hope that her creative gene rubs off on me!

My sister-in-law is a school librarian in MA (MrsLodgesLibrary.com) and she is incredible! My mother made us these alphabet letters for our classrooms.  I use them for for centers and decoration. Each letter has fabric that represents the letter. X has xray, Y has yellow and yoyo.  If you want your own, she sells them in her Etsy Store - To Keep Ewe Warm.  We have spent many trips to fabric stores trying to find fun fabric~

Math Manipulatives

Our current math program calls for the use of a lot of manipulatives. I am a firm believer that students at this age and developmental level rely heavily on the use of manipulatives.  I do find about 25% don't want to use the materials because they know how to solve the problem in other ways or as they say "faster ways". I usually have these students show me they know how to do it and then allow them to use their own way to solve.  It is important that students learn many ways to solve problems and then independently choose the strategy that works best for them. 

For this particular lesson, students were just starting to learn about arrays, making rows and columns, and understanding that this represents multiplication.    On a previous worksheet, the students were asked to draw lines to represent the rows. I thought this group was so creative. Although I didn't ask them to draw the rows, they used their pencils! So creative. Just another reminder that allowing students to be creative always leads to something great! (my apologies for the crooked picture...looks like columns here :-) )