Make a Bad Lesson Good

Good Morning Everyone!
Today is a ......... Wait for it......

I know many of my blogger friends who have wind chills lower than ours here is Ohio are still in school but I think EVERY school is Ohio is closed.

Sooooo I thought a perfect day to write a post on my blog. 
Also I had a blooper of a lesson yesterday with my fifth grade classes & what a perfect was to reflect on how to make it better.  Both classes you are saying to yourself...yep both! One was worst then the other though.

We are currently finishing up food chains, food webs & energy pyramids.  I had the kids do a lab on yeast which is a decomposer.  You know the one where they blow a balloon up....

First I told the classes that it will take 5 - 10 minutes for anything to happen.  Well the "instant gratification" generation could not stand to wait. They were shaking and squeezing the bottles and getting all upset that "nothing" was happening.  Vinegar & baking soda has ruined the wait time.  Ugh!  It was wonderful to hear the "yeah" where it did start to work & the excitement when the balloon kept getting bigger.

I also assigned jobs & went over what they were before we started.....that was a waste of time.  Nope they did not stick to their jobs especially for the supply getter (gets, cleans up & puts away all supplies) & lab assistant (preformes the experiment) jobs.  Everyone in the group was assigned a job. That's was one of my biggest problems with the lesson. 

The supply getter was suppose to take the balloon off in the bathroom (I do not have a sink in my room.) and pour the watery yeast mixture down the drain & then rinse the sink.  Half the class was in the bathroom "helping" not just the "supply getters!"  GRRRRRRR! You can imagine how that went...kids unsupervised making their own experiments (turning the bottle upside down & squeezing the balloon & bottle until it does exploded) & making a big mess.  GRRRRR!

So I do not want to totally throw out the lesson because I think it is a great experiment.

Solutions.....
1.  I need to do the experiment as a demo and have the class research the answers to the questions I posed while waiting for the yeast to activate.  How is yeast similar & different to a green plant?  How does Baker's yeast work?  How is yeast a decomposer?  What does it decompose?

2.  Or have the class research the questions above.  Then assign each group member a job and really stress if the jobs are not followed the non-followers will lose a privilege.  Stand at the door so only the "supply getter" leaves.  Walk around and "grade" how they are doing their jobs.

Tomorrow is damage control with this lab.

 First I am going to have the kids reflect on how they could have made this experiment better.  Go over how important jobs are in a lab.  This is a learning experience for everyone.

Then discuss the questions I posed which will be written in their notebooks. 

I reflect daily on my lessons...what went well, what I can do to improve & what I am going to do tomorrow.

What do you do to control labs?  I would love to hear your input on how I could improve the lab.

If you are home...enjoy!  If not stay warm & safe!

Take a Leap of Faith? Ummmm? Ok!

Well I did it!
I am a little nervous.... but I just had to take a leap of faith!

I started a Facebook page for my blog and TpT store.  I keep checking it like an obsessed lover. Ugh!

I have a few likes but no followers:(  Boo!  I know it has not even been 24 hours but.... If you would like to follow my Facebook page I would LOVE it!  I would love to hear from you too!

Here is the link to my Facebook page 4th & 5th Grade Happiness

Hey did you notice I blogged twice in one week!  I love winter break!  Monday is going to come too soon.

Happy New Year!

Ear, Butt, Fairy & Laughter

First!
Happy New Year!
Its Farley's Currently Time!
I absolutely LOVE reading her blog, Oh Boy 4th Grade. and joining her linky party! Woot Woot!

Well I hope my title, "Butt, Fairy & Laughter" got your attention!  It gave me a chuckle!  What a way to start the new year but I am positive it is going to be an awesome 2015!  So here is my New Year Currently.... 

Listening....My 14 year old is trying to convince my 7 year old that she is watching the ball drop with some video she found on Youtube.  LOL  Keeping my fingers crossed it works!  I love listening to my kids interact when they are not fighting which some days are few and far between.

 Loving....Of course winter break but mostly importantly my new hearing.  I had my "ear" drum replaced this summer that has been missing for at least 5 years.  Today I went to my last post op hearing test and was told my hearing is back to the normal range.  YAHOO!  I did not realize how bad my hearing had become until it was given back.  Wow what a difference! Love!

Thinking.... I need to get my "butt" in gear and start some school work done before this breaks slips by. 

Wanting... I feel like I have been in a creativity slump.  I don't feel inspired to blog or create any new TpT products.  I did make one product over break because I felt my "Flashlight Friday" needed something more.  Flashlight Friday is where the kids read for the entire period on Fridays with a flashlight but it needed some accountability for the kiddos.  So poof I created 4 different quick worksheets for them to fill out, one for each Friday, on what they are reading.  Here is the TpT link if you would like to take a peek.


Needing.... I always need a cleaning "fairy" godmother.  I hate to clean anymore:(

Yes... I have been thinking of some new career challenges/adventures that still involve teaching.  Hopefully more to come soon.

Maybe... A second job.  I like Farley, have some BIG medical bills and I have decent insurance.  See loving!   So I need to bring in some more money to pay off those bills.  Gosh if I could only start creating some more TpT products. 

Wish...For a year of new adventures, good health and laughter!

Share some linky love, find a new blog or two and have an amazing new year,

Hour of Code - Coding? Me?

Happy December everyone!
The school year is almost half over!
I just can't believe it!

Well I wanted to share something that I am working on for my 4th and 5th graders next week.  Have you hear that schools are being invited to teach one hour of computer coding sometime next week (Dec. 8th - 12th)?  They hope to get 10 millions kids coding next week.  WOW!  You ask what is coding?  Coding helps us to make apps, games, websites, video games, software...... which is the future of jobs of many of our students.

 So next week I was selected to teach coding to my 4th and 5th graders which is going to be taped for a State of the School video.  There is an awesome website code.org which has tons of really cool step by step tutorials that even kindergarteners can use. 

On my Google Classroom that I have set up for each of my classes, I linked a few of the tutorials such as Frozen for the girls, Angry Birds for the boys, Flappy Code where the students can design a game using the Angry Birds game.  I even found a website (Made With Code) where they can program the Christmas lights on outside trees of the White House which will be aired on YouTube.  Cool right?

After going over the basic vocabulary and previewing the websites with the entire class I will let them loose to explore and have fun. 

For some of my students who have a little more computer knowledge I added the Kahn Academy tutorial which is a step by step tutorial that is a bit more challenging. 

They even have non-computer lessons which teaches the students to use a "code" that another student follows to recreate a pattern on a 4 x 4 graph or cups that represent the "code" that move a student robot to do certain things.  The kids are going to love it! 

 Is your school doing the Hour of Code?  Are you doing an Hour of Code in your classrooms?  If so, how are you presenting it to your students?  Please leave a comment or two I love to hear from everybody! 

Going, Going, Gone? Book Clubs & Science Stations

Going, going, gone....where has this weekend gone?  I cannot believe Monday is almost here!  I am looking forward to Thanksgiving break, only a week and two days!  Yahooo! 

I have had a hard time coming up with something to blog about lately and then I had an idea or maybe I am avoiding doing school stuff.  Nah me? Never:)  My book clubs that I do during my 40 minutes of reading.  This month we have been reading mysteries (last month was realistic fiction).

 I gave my kids a choice of 4 different books....Westing Game, Library Card,  Bunnicula  and Mixed up Files of Mrs. Basil Frankweiler.  The top three were Westing Game (high group),  Library Card (middle group),  and Bunnicula (needs support group).  We have been working on a literature circle packet from French Frenzy TpT store. It is a great buy which includes the different literature circle roles worksheets, a tic-tac-toe board for the final project, rubric and self-evaluation form.  I really love it and the kids have too!

I also have downloaded Bunnicula and Westing Game to the Audible ipad app.  For some strange reason I could not find an audio book for Library Card so I recorded myself reading the book on the ipad ( I hate listening to a recording of myself but what we do for our students.)  and the kids then listen to the book on the ipad or my phone. Each day they listen to a chapter or two then complete a page in the reading portfolio.  The next day they share their role with their group.  The kids have really enjoyed these books. 

We are going to take a short break from book clubs between Thanksgiving and Christmas and do more of a guided reading with  The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.   On the AR Book Finder site they list the book level as a 5.1 which is a little high for some of my middle and needs support readers but I think if I add some extra support they should be okay.  Just think of the fun activities we can do.... LOOOOOVE!

Then in my fourth grade science class we have been working with states of matter and chemical and physical changes. So tomorrow we are going to do science stations.

Station 1 - Chemical & Physical Change Sort - The kids are given cards with different changes that they sort into the two categories and then record them on the lab sheet.  I don't have the link for the cards anymore and have made copies of the master I downloaded years ago:(

Station 2 - Read a states of matter article with their group and then answer comprehension questions about the article which I found on Readworks.org

Station 3 - In this station the kids watch a balloon inflated by baking soda and vinegar and explain if it is a chemical or physical change and why.

Station 4 - I posted on my Google Classrooms two online states of matter games from BBC for kids site - the Changing States and Irreversible or Reversible.

Here is my lab sheet I will have the kids use to go through the stations. 

 

 

What are you doing fun this week?  Please leave a comment or two. I LOVE comments.  Have a great week everybody! Thanksgiving is almost here!

Pen Boycot, Pencils & Only the BEST!

Well, this first quarter is almost done (Oct. 30th to be exact) and I am at last blogging.  I hate being a newbie, I feel at times I am just treading water trying to learn all the in's and out's of a new school.  At least I am still teaching 4th and 5th grade which makes things a bit easier. 

I wanted to blog about the quality of student work.  I really think what a student turns in should be done with pride but WHOA Nelly...... what I was getting from my 4th  and 5th graders was the furthest from quality.  UGH!!!!  I am not sure if it was they were still on summer break mode, testing the new teacher or that it was really quality work was never expected from them.  Or was it something else? 

Hmmmm I had a long talk with both classes explained to them that being a student is their job and their work was a reflection of them as a student.  My job is being a teacher and I cannot turn in lesson plans scribbled out, misspelled, missing parts, crumbled up and written on the wrong side of the paper. So they could not either! 

I also made a bulletin board with examples of neat work where I display one paper I thought was the neatest that week from each class.  Finally I BANNED pens!  Some of the others teachers on my team let the kids write in pen so I felt I needed to do the same.  I tried really I did but the junk I was getting was unacceptable by my standards. WOW!!! What a difference!  Now not everyone is perfect but the improvement I have seen across the board. Very impressive this week.

Here are some of the best this week.

In this assignment my 4th graders and I were taking about setting in our book club books and using textual evidence to support. They had to write a page number of where they found the evidence and then draw and color a picture of the setting.

Now I have another issue...kids coming without pencils or sharpening pencils for the first 10 minutes of class.  I solved that I have a bunch of pencils, pre-sharpened and they have to give me something for a new pencil.  When they give me the pencil back I give them back what they gave me.  Seems to have helped. Gosh I feel like I am constantly putting out fires.  LOL

I hope everyone has an amazing week!  I am looking forward to a week full of pencils and prideful work!

Birthday, Bills, & Fairies? Of Course it is Farley's Linky Party!

Ok I absolutely love this girl and she does not even know me.  No I am not a weirdo stalker.....weird maybe but not a stalker.  LOL  It is time to link up with Farley @ Oh Boy It Is 3rd Grade blog and her awesome currently linky party.  Here we go!

 

September first is one of my favorite days of the year.  It is my son's birthday who is 15 today.  The day I became a mom which is my favorite job!!!

- Listening to my youngest is trying to wrap his new baseball cleats with no box is hilarious!  I am gong to have to intervene here shortly. LOL

- Loving 3 day weekends & who doesn't? 

-Thinking I need to pay some bills.  It is on my To Do list today & it is always dreaded. 

-Wanting to get my new school paycheck.  I changed job this year in hopes that we can get out of the financial hole we are in.  We will see in about 2 weeks.

-Needing a house cleaning fairy.  I am sure there is no need to explain here.

3 Trips - I wanted to put Italy for all three because my husband and I desperately want to go visit some day.  Some of his family still lives there.  I even got a crazy idea at one point to sell everything and move there!  Thankfully my hubby is the voice of reason.  After Italy I would love to travel out west on a roadtrip.  Those super cute vintage campers that Farley use on this month's currently & her To Do List at TpTstore got me addicted. 

We found this at a vintage store in Akron, Ohio

I have never been any further then Texas.  The third trip I would loved to take with my hubby is Alaska.  It looks so beautiful. 

Well come with me while I check out the other bloggers' Currently. 

Happy Labor Day<