Me In a Bag

One of the ways that we've been getting to know our peers is by our presentations called "Me In A Bag".  I actually learned about this one from one of my education classes in college.  We each had to bring a bag with three objects that help describe ourselves.  We were in an English literature class, so all of our items had to be a book, but it was up to us as to which books we could bring.  I took this project a little too seriously and had my mom mail me down some of my favourite childhood books, including one book that I had personally made.  There is something about sharing your belongings and claiming identity towards them.

For our class, we can bring in three different items.  I handed out a brief outline that the students could fill in as a brainstorming activity.  I've attached them with this post so you can take a look!

Here is a student's reflection on the "Me in a Bag" presentations (I've taken out names....)

We have doing projects on "Me in A Bag."  So far we've had girl 1 bring a rock from Rudy Creek.  We've had boy 1 bring a photo of his hockey team.  Girl 2 brought a picture of her dogs.  Boy 2 brought a hockey card of Alexander Ovechkin.

I'm looking forward to the other things the students will bring in.  I've given permission for some students to bring in pets, so we'll see how that goes!

Boggle their Minds

While trying to create some fun, interactive bulletin boards,  I came across this idea of putting a boggle board up.  All I needed to do was make a 5 by 5 grid, and add letters to each square.  One particular thing I love about it is that it will be so easy to change up.  Just change the letters in the squares!  In a basket below I keep boggle papers, where students can record words that they find in the chart.  Whenever they have finished an activity and are waiting for their classmates, they pull out their boggle sheet to see what they can find.  It's been a hit!  Some students are even working on it while they eat their lunch!  I hope the excitement will continue!

Student's Reflection

From the word's of student:

Today in class we did all sorts of things, We did Math, PE, Language Arts, and all sorts of things.  In math we did Revews. In P.E. We played gold rush.  At the end of the day we looked at our science experiment after we left it a night to sit.  it looked realy cool the oil was floatig on the water witch was blue from food couloring. 

The First Day Dive

Wow, what a wonderful day!  It all started with a beautiful half hour drive to school.  The fog laid over the fields with sun breaking it up into patches.  The mountains screamed God's glory and I couldn't help but think "this is the day that the Lord has made.  Let us rejoice and be glad in it."  And what a day to rejoice.
Our class is filled with 26 wonderful students!  There are a booming 19 students in grade five, and 7 in grade four, all of which are unique and willing to contribute to our atmosphere of learning!
We played a number of get to know you games, and completed a writing activity that gave me some idea about students' interests.  A lovely all-school chapel started out our afternoon in time of welcome and worship.  I got to play piano (!), something I'm happy to do in my spare time, let alone at my job!  The school gym echoes like nothing else, so when there are 100 students belting out "Great is Thy Faithfulness" its no wonder you have shivers down your spine.

The Dive of the Day today was by far our science experiment.  In the classroom, we have 2 lava lamps.  The students were enthralled by the blurbing (no, blurbing is not a word, but I thought it was realistic in describing what they looked like) bubbles throughout the day.  So when I told them the science experiment was going to be us making a lava lamp their attention was 100% focused.  I had numerous kids ask for the "procedure" so I thought I would post it here so parents could read it and choose whether or not they would be up for the "challenge."  It was a hit, with both girls and guys and grades!

Make Your Own Lava Lamp

Materials:
An empty bottle
Water
Vegetable Oil
Food Colouring
Alka Seltzer


1.  Fill 1/4 of the empty bottle with water.

2.  Fill the rest of the bottle with oil (before doing this, the students predicted what they thought would happen)

3.  Record what took place (stayed separate, talk about density)

4.  Add the food colouring (before doing this, predict what will happen)

5.  Break the Alka Seltzer into 4, and place the pieces in one after another.

The Alka Seltzer foams in the water and makes the water rise in bubbles to the top of the bottle.

Apparently, if the bottle is capped, you can let it sit for a couple of days and then add more alka seltzer later and it will still work.

Super cool experiment!  The kids loved it (can I say this enough?) and we tried numerous things afterwards.  (What would happen when we shook it, what happens if we put other liquids into it, what happens if we would freeze it...etc.)

We'll see if I can get some pictures and add them to this post soon!

Here's to a fabulous year of learning and exploring to come!

Sharing Books

After some thrift-store finds, I dug into my collection of literature.  I've been collecting books over the summer for the classroom and placing them in a big bin.  I've reached 100!  Yay!  The only thing is 20 of them are from the series "The Babysitter's Club".  Yes....back in the day I was an avid fan of the young pre-teen novels.  The drama of being a pre-teen girl. Even if they weren't that educational, it made me read! So I've thrown in my old books to my piles.  Today I spent my day taking inventory on my books, and labeling them with the title "Mrs. Gorter".  Wow, what authority that brings!  I crossed off old teacher's names and placed in my own thinking "yes, this is mine in MY own classroom!"

After going through about a box, I found a book entitled "Spirit in the Rainforest" by Eric Wilson, a famous Canadian author.  Maybe some of you have heard of it, the "Tom and Liz Austen Mystery books" that take place all over Canada!  Anyway, I opened the front flap and it was signed by Eric Wilson.  I just found this randomly at a thrift store and was already planning on doing an Author Study on him!  Now I have his signature!  

 Next I came to my old babysitter club books which I talked about earlier.    I opened to the first page to find each book labeled "Shena C" followed with my old phone number.  I cared so much about these books I labeled them with a phone number in case they ever got lost!  Some of them I even included my home address!  Other books I went through were given to me from my grandparents - "Dear Shena, Happy Reading with Love from Opa and Oma."  These were the ones I couldn't cross off.  I had to leave them.  I almost treated them like treasure, not wanting to share them.  How could I let others take these off the shelves for Home Reading when they might get destroyed and ripped?  But think about...what good will they do on my shelf?  Like I have the time to read through every book again!  Its time I share my treasure with others.  My students. 

 How often is our faith a treasure that we don't share with others?  We would rather keep it to ourselves because we don't feel comfortable with sharing our story with someone else.  Sometimes its not our story we are afraid to share, but it could be the best book in the World: The Bible.  Let's take our physical books and our spiritual stories off the shelves and share them with others.  And most importantly, in everything, let's share The Word.  

Thrift Store Jackpot

The other day I randomly decided to stop by a thrift store before picking up my husband from work.  Little did I know that I would hit the jackpot!!! It turned out a retired teacher had dropped off a bunch of her old books....perfect for grade 4 and 5!  And with multiple copies!!! I was thrilled!

I spent an hour in the store carefully picking out all of the books I wanted for my new collection.  I came home with five different books, each having multiple copies.  I want to use them for literature circles!

Literature circles are a fabulous tool when it comes to differentiating reading instruction (reading at multiple skill levels)  There are five different groups to choose from, each with its own book.  The students get to choose which book they would like to read so that they are interested in the material, and it is reading level they are comfortable with.  The group then organizes a time schedule for when each chapter should be read.  This way every group can finish their book at the same time.

For each literature circle class time, each student in the group plays a role.  These roles help the students talk about their book and make greater realizations.  Roles can be: Discussion Director, Worthy Writer, Word Wizard, Connector Captain, Summarizer, Illustrator, Investigator, and Presenter.   (these can be shortened and rearranged easily)  For each role there is a worksheet that needs to be filled out on the chapter they just read together.  Groups will meet with the teacher called "LC Conferences" at least once a week to check up on comprehension, assignments, and enjoyment :)

Well....I'm super excited to try it out!!!  I think I'll be stopping in at more thrift stores to see what else I can find!

Taking the Dive

A couple of weeks ago I signed a contract to teach grade 4/5 for the 2011-2012 school year!  I'm super excited about the full-time employment with this Christian School.  Now that my other jobs have come to a close, I can put my full efforts into preparing for the upcoming year.

I have decided to make a full-year theme for my class: Take the Dive.   It works well as a slogan not only for  rhyming with five, but also for the unlimited ways I can use this theme!  I keep writing down new ideas in my notebook about all of the things I can incorporate.  Stay tuned for pictures of all of the different ideas coming into play!  (I have to make them yet....)  I want the slogan to represent taking a challenge in learning.  The deeper you dive, the more you can explore and discover.

I am taking the dive by beginning this blog.  Blogging is in someways like an open journal for all to see.  It's a risk by sharing ideas, new thoughts, and creative outtakes on the life in education.  There is so many areas to explore and discuss, especially in the first year of teaching.  It can be scary, just like the thought of plunging into a deep ocean.  But once you are in, soaked with your surroundings, you swim deeper to find new thoughts and theories.  I don't want my first year to be the common "keep your head a float" saying.  I want to be diving deeper into new discoveries, just like I'm going to challenge my students.   

On this note, my diving technique will be as follows:
-try blogging about new experiences and challenges as a first year teacher
-discuss educational issues with fellow colleagues ( I hear there might be a teacher strike for the public schools in the fall...)
-have students present their work (with permission of course!)
-share new ideas and projects (great ways to use technology)
-share stories about the wonderful discoveries we have made

Well, I've taken up the challenge....now we will see what happens!  Hope you'll enjoy it too!