Tea Light Classroom Delight... Among Other Things

Hello Friends who I haven't seen for a while. Life goes along at a pace that does not always leave room for blogging, I'm afraid. But I am still alive and well, and have an idea or five that I hope you'll find useful, so let's get crackin'. Thanks to Kasey at Five for Friday! What would we do without this linky??

1.  The winter months are dull and dreary here in Michigan where Old Man Winter rolls a gray blanket across the sky and leaves it in place from January through March. One little way I bring darkness into the classroom in playful ways is by adding little LED tea lights to the play areas. Great fun can be had for cheap as multipacks can be found at the dollar store. The kids like to use them in the dollhouse, small world, blocks and drama... anywhere really.

An added bonus is that it seems to bring a certain hush to the play as the kiddos make up imaginary scenarios using the "flames." A pack or two will last all season.

2.  And while on the topic of lights, don't forget Flashlight Fridays. My kids LOVE coming in to class on Fridays for DEAR time, which is how we start each day. They put away their things, grab a book, grab a partner, grab a flashlight and sit ANYwhere in the room they choose to read together. I found inexpensive yet hardy flashlights at Menards. I have done this for many years and it is a much loved weekly literacy activity.

Under the table with a book and a partner for Flashlight Fridays!

3.  We had early snow here in the southeast corner of Michigan. A full foot gave us a snow day in early December, while December snow days are rather rare. When we got back to school the kids so wanted to play in it, but the temps on many days that week were too cold to allow outside play. So I went out and filled buckets with snow to bring inside. One day, mitten handed, we simply played with it. Another day I added watercolors, and another day I packed it rather hard and brought out the watercolors again. Loose snow and packed snow provide very different painting experiences. Bringing snow in to play with and painting snow are hardly new ideas to teachers, but this year's kiddos still loved it as much as any kids have over the years.

4.  I have already made my ice berg discovery blocks to bring to school when we go back. You take a plastic bowl of water, drop in a plastic figure or two– dinosaurs work well, though any item will do– and let the water freeze solid. Then you put the chunk of ice on the sensory table with eyedroppers of water. As the kiddos drip water drop by drop, the ice slowly melts and the figure comes free. It is amazing how long the kidpeople will stay with this activity. And think of all that great fine muscle strengthening as they use the eyedroppers. Sorry I don't have photos for this one, but I'm sure you get the idea.

5.  I LOVE Donors Choose. I got two complete Osmo sets funded, and then I bought one of my own. With three iPads going at once, and working in pairs, six kids can participate at once. It makes for a fine center.

Language use is high as they work together, which is good for all young students, but my ELL kids especially.  The kiddos don't know it yet, but I've kept some of the games aside to pull out when we get back, and it makes my teacher heart sing knowing I've got highly engaging, new additions to our technology that are really going to help us spice up January.

Give Donors Choose a try if you haven't. It's a little bit of work to write up and complete, but the materials cost you nothing and sure are helpful to learning in the classroom. I've done three different projects over the years– rekenreks, wobble seats, and the Osmos. You can have new materials in your classroom within a month or two.

Bonus 6.  I share this one just for teachers who are looking for something new to read in the early dark evenings. I received lovely bookstore gift cards this Christmas. I love nothing more than a date night with the husband at a bookstore. We go our separate ways and meet in the cafe later, each with a stack of books to peruse and choose from. I do a lot of online shopping, but nothing beats a real brick and mortar store.

I have been keeping an eye to the end of year must-read lists and quite frankly, finding them quite depressing. There seems to be nothing happy or uplifting on any list I can find... perhaps an indication of where some of us are as 2016 comes to a close. But that doesn't mean I want my reading to be a downer, too.

I went to the Barnes and Noble site before we went shopping to sort of get in a book mood, and as I clicked around a "Chat" window came up that suggested I "talk" to someone for book suggestions. It wouldn't have occurred to me to ask for help in browsing, but it turned out to be quite helpful, actually, once we narrowed down the genres a bit.

Another helpful discovery was the "Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought" list at the bottom of each book's page. Of course, I've noticed this in the past, and in shopping on Amazon found it quite useful when shopping for things. It never occurred to me to go specifically to the page of a book I have already read and loved, just to read the list of similar books that appears at the bottom. I found all sorts of treasures, both current titles and oldies, and have a new stack of books at my bedside.

Most of last year's reading for pleasure was spent in the eight part Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon. Oh, how I mourned coming to the end of the last book! I'm sure I'm not the only fan that hopes for just. one. more. When I bought the series– a huge stack on the counter– a young woman passed by, took a look, and said, "Ah, lucky you! I wish I was reading them all again for the first time."

NEWS FLASH!  I just visited Diana Gabaldon's website and she. is. writing. number nine!!!!!! We can't hold our breath because we don't know when it will be out, but it WILL! AND this June a compilation of side-stories of the outlander characters is coming out- featuring Monsieur Raymond, Roger's parents, and even a young Ian and Jamie, among others. Can hardly wait for them!!! So Outlander Fans take heart– the adventures continue!!! And of course the Outlander series season three lies ahead this summer. Yippee!!! If you don't know this series I highly recommend you check it out!!!

So glad you stopped by. I would promise to blog again soon, but you know how it goes. I hope because I don't post super regularly thru the school year, when my blog pops up on your feed you stop by to see what's up. Thanks so much for stopping by!

Now it's time to click on back to read more teacher stuff. Thanks, Kasey!

Turkey Technology and Other Random Stuff

Oh Happy Week. I link-up with Doodle Bugs for Five for Friday.

1.  Have you seen this video. It pretty much sums up my week... yep.

2.  And then there is this.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not complaining. Our fall here in the south-east corner of Michigan has been absolutely delightful, lasting over two months, and oh-so-welcome after the record breaking high temps and humidity this summer. But there's no denying it now... winter is coming...

3.  Just look at these sandbox pics, from this very week, no less. So much science going on. 

Composting- leaves, dirt, leaves, dirt

An archeological dig- those dinos must have been around a watering hole

Pouring and packing

Spying with the periscope

4. Here's a project we did this week. It doesn't take long and might be something to try in your upcoming short week before Thanksgiving.

We went to the computer lab and drew turkeys with KidPix, using our hands as stencils. Yes, I let them put their hands on the screen- gasp! We really need practice with the mouse so tracing our hands was a good challenge. Then we printed only in black. When we brought them back to the room we talked about how the turkeys looked like they were floating in outer space. I added a horizon line to mine with a marker, colored the bottom green and the top blue- voila! The turkeys were on the earth. The kids got it right away. Who says you can't teach five year olds perspective. The kids added color, a few details, and the lyrics to a song we've been singing– art, technology, music, and literacy all wrapped up in one. 

A turkey getting a midnight snack

We could see in some photos we have of wild turkeys a bit of a blue-green sheen to their feathers. Some of us took artistic license with color.

5. I send this eCard from Blue Mountain to my families each year. I share it now with a wish that you have a fabulous, fun, family-filled Thanksgiving Day. Click to see it animated.

Click on back to Doodle Bugs! Thanks, Kasey!

Thanks for stopping by!

Hoods, Hacks, Hoots, a Sequel and More

Okay, so Happy Friday again! This is another post, the real post, for this Friday. You know with me it either NEVER rains, or it POURS when it comes to blog posts. Oh, to be one of those bloggers whose life never interferes with their posting schedule. Thanks to Kacey at Doodle Bugs for Five for Friday. Here's five.

1.  I have often said that I should have been born an octopus. Between needing to rein in hold little children and carry seventy two LOTS of things to school everyday, I could always use more arms. Here's me coming to school the other day.  Can you relate?

2.  The day I was schlepping all that stuff was my teaching assistant's last day. She was only there to help launch the school year.... waaawwwww! I wish it could be all year. The kids and I made her some special little momentoes– the kids made cards and I put together a piece of special artwork... I use the term artwork loosely. I wanted the kids to be featured. I share it to give you some ideas for your own goodbye gifts.

Yes, it took a while to cut out all those little heads, but I think it turned out pretty cute, and she loved it. It will hang in her home office. We miss you, Chris!

3.  Did you see my earlier post about my Paint Drying Rack Hack? You can see and read about how it works if you click the picture.

4.  Okay, now this is the REAL purpose of today's post– a new favorite book review! Amanda Noll and Howard McWilliam teamed up again to create Hey, That's MY Monster!

Hey, That's MY Monster is a companion to I Need My Monster and furthers the adventures of Ethan and his monster, Gabe. This time Ethan's little sister Emma joins in the fun.

What is going to happen when Gabe has to make somebody else go to bed? Everyone needs their own scary monster to help them go to sleep, but why does it have to be Gabe??

Great illustrations accompany this monster tale, from cover to cover... I mean LOOK at this fresh crop of end paper monsters... monster drawing lesson, anyone?

And look at the adorable little sister...

There's just the right amount of shiver to hook five year olds right in. We read it fifty seven many times, with "Again!" following every reading. I am always interested when books strike just the right note with the Littles and this one does. Going to bed in the dark, with monsters or without, is a fear that is pretty much universal, and this story helped the kiddos deal with that fear in a lighthearted way.

You can read two posts on the first book, I Need My Monster here and here. The posts contain a freebie to use with the kids and a link to a neat video.

Some classrooms do monsters only at Halloween, but in my classroom, monsters are regular characters in our daily drama. Our favorite monster puppet Ten-Ten Twenty helps us do math (click to read previous post) The rest of the monster gang provide good sports when we need to act things out– little monsters CAN be naughty, you know, SORT OF like five year olds.

I highly recommend both I Need My Monster and the new Hey, That's MY Monster. I thank Flashlight Press for sending me the review copy. I can honestly say it is adored by my monster loving kidpeople AND their monster loving teacher, too!!  You can check out both books at your favorite bookstore and Amazon. You can see a complete list of Flashlight Books by clicking below. They are a consistently high quality publisher and every teacher should know about them.

5.  Last but not least, it's time for

So my kindergarten colleague and I were sitting on the teacher bench at recess when one of her kiddos came up and gave her a truly beautiful, red maple leaf. She thanked her little person and said,

"We've been learning about all sorts of leaves in our classroom, haven't we? Can you tell me what kind of leaf this one is?"

Her kiddo was thoughtful for a moment then said, "Dead."

A quick, gleeful glance exchanged between us two adults said it all, "The kids are the best part of this job!"

Click on back to Doodle Bugs for more teacher news.

And if you hoped over from Small Victories, take a leap on back to continue reading this week's favorite posts!

Hope you got a grin or two this time. Have a TERRIFIC fall weekend! Oh, and do check out my new wink below... that husband of mine...

 

Paint Drying Rack Hack!

Happy Friday! Here's five details for a Paint Drying Rack Hack! Thanks to Kacey at Doodle Bugs Teaching's Five for Friday for giving me opportunity to share!

My kidpeople LOVE painting and we do paintings of all sorts. There is one little glitch to painting joy, though– where to dry all those works of art? Drying racks are big and expensive. Even foldable clothes drying racks take up a lotta space and get in the way. So, look what I did...

That is an undershelf hanging basket, the kind that just slides on to a shelf and is sold in shelving or storage departments... pretty much like this one. And it's only about eight bucks on Amazon.

Click it to see it. 

In the photo it is is full of wet paintings hung with clothes pins from the basket grid. I can put my arm into the basket area to easily pin the artwork on.

   

Tip! I learned the hard way to number the clothespins so it is easier to find the two pins that will hold one piece of paper– Number One pin on the left aligns with Number One pin on right, Two with Two, etc. Without the numbers, I wasn't clipping corresponding clothespins and was losing hanging capacity with skipped pins.




I keep my "drying rack" hanging from the cabinet above my sink. This is particularly handy because any paint drips go right into the sink.... paint drips? Did I say paint drips? Naw, there aren't ever any paint drips... If we use bigger paper, I attach the clothespins on the short side of the paper, as opposed to the long top side shown in the photo. This particular basket has enough grid wires to allow for eight paintings to hang at once. If the paper is not completely soggy too big, another painting can lay down in the basket itself. That is usually about as many paintings as we can produce in a day.

Idea! On this particular day my kiddos were doing science art and I only gave them primary colors of red, blue, and yellow on their pallets. Their assignment was to mix the paints to make the secondary colors of purple, green, and orange... SOME got it, though we had quite a few mucky browns, too... practice will make them color experts..

  

The cabinet door has to stay open slightly to allow for the basket brackets to slide onto the shelf– as you see it is barely noticeable.

When empty the rack is pretty unobtrusive, so I leave it out all the time. With space at a premium in my new classroom, necessity really WAS the mother of invention for this hack! I give it a double thumbs up! Whoot! Maybe it will work in your classroom, too!

Click on back to Five for Friday for more tips!

So glad you stopped by! Sorry I've been awol for a while– change of classroom and new program really beat my bum this season! See you next week, I hope!

p.s.  Whatcha' think of the new winking Kath? Hee.