Four Names

It's spring break here so I'm just doing this one post for this week (but I think it's a really great idea for all teachers and maybe coming back from spring break would be the perfect time to implement it)!... and if your spring break has come and gone a while ago I also think any time would be the perfect time to implement it.

The post was originally from the Momastery Blog and it was actually written years ago but because I only just discovered it I'm going to go ahead and assume others haven't seen anything about it either.  I also really believe that the ideas in the post are still very much relevant today. 

I think you should just click on that link and read the full story but because you might not or you might just want a quick version of it here's my summary.

A teacher asks her students every Friday to write on a piece of paper the names of 4 others in the class that they would like to sit with the following week.

Then the teacher reviews what others has written and is able to see who's name is never written down, who's name is always written down, who's name was written down a ton last week but not at all this week... she's seeing who is lonely, falling through the cracks, and potentially being bullied.

It could be powerful.

It could change lives.

And all it takes is getting them write down 4 names and reviewing it.

This Week At School

Despite not feeling the greatest all weekend I managed to pull it together enough to work every single day leading up to spring break!

In one of my classes this week I hadn't been in since September (it was actually the class I subbed in for my first day of work this school year). It was nice to go back and see them but it was especially nice because I only had 8 grade 4 students (and after lunch we lost 2 of them and only had 6)! It was a nice relaxing day. I even taught them how to play my favourite game to play while substitute teaching - Snake 

At one of the schools I was at this week one of the teachers apparently brings her dog to work every single day... which is a lot less of a distraction than one might think (I guess the students are used to having the dog come to class with her). Anyways, she came into my class for one period and when she read a book to the class on the carpet the dog (which was a border collie) was sitting watching her read the book and looked just like one of the students... eager to see what the book was all about. while it sat and looked at the book.

The kids in this grade 3 class had what they called "science hats"

Science Hats!

I asked them what they were supposed to be and they kept telling me science hats so I'm not at all sure what that green stuff is supposed to represent... my guess was grass but they thought this was preposterous.

We did an Easter tanagram activity in math class that I thought was great and had them super engaged

Easter Tangrams

They coloured, cut, and remade the egg. Then they tried making those other shapes at the top of the page. Just remind them to be careful when cutting because the cuts have to be fairly presice for it to work well. The activity is from Mathsticks (and when searching for this tangram activity I actually found a bunch of other egg/Easter related activities so you might want to search it out!)

I ended the week going to swim and gym one last time with the one rural school I frequent that goes to this. It was the students last time there so we stopped at McDonalds on the way for a treat or in their case, lunch (my husband, who attended the school many moons ago, says they even did this when he was attending the school so I guess they've kept the tradition going). 

It was an easy end to the week as I was in the same class for 2 days and the list on the board was pretty simply: reading, math, and a science test were the harder things to do that we managed to get almost completed by the end of the morning of the first day.

And with that it's Spring Break!  

I'll be taking a break from the blog next week (although there is one post for next week ready to go so watch for that) and will be back to the blog (and school) after Easter.

Have a safe and happy Easter (and spring break if you happen to be on it)!

Spring is Here!

Spring is here so let's celebrate the beautiful weather as we search to find the spelling words.

Hop on over to Education.com for more printables and learning resources just like this!

Psst... after today there's just 1 more workday until spring break!

Multiplication and Division in Grade 1?

A couple of weeks ago I posted this picture:

Math - groups of

saying that it had something to do with math...

Well, the students had actually done all the colouring and lines and numbers on this page prior to me being in this class (which was either a grade 1 or 2 class... sorry... I really don't recall which right now!) so I'm not 100% sure on how their teacher told them to group the circles but I imagine she asked students to find similarities in the pictures (you can see that this student coloured #4 and 12 the same colours at least).

The day I was with them they were discussing what they had discovered.  

Someone said they noticed that 3, 9 and 15 both had circles in triangles

Another said that groups of 2's showed up in 2, 4, 6, and 10

Someone else noticed that groups of 4 (or circles in a square shape) showed up in 4, 8, 12, 16, and 20

Then the other teacher in the room asked them about numbers 1, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, and 19

One student noticed that they were easy to spot because the circles all formed a larger circle. 

No one was really seeing that no other numbers go into those numbers (and I mean, honestly, why would they?  They are in grades 1 or 2 and haven't learned about multiplication or division)

So the teacher had 4 of them stand up and form a square like the picture for 4.

She asked them to then put themselves into groups of 2 which they could easily do and everyone had a partner.

Then she asked them to put themselves into groups of 3... someone was left out.

Next she had 6 of them stand up and asked them to make groups of 2 and 3... which we should know worked fine.  Then she asked for 4's and it didn't work.

Finally, she had 7 of them stand up and form a circle like the picture.  She asked for groups of 2 and someone was left out.  She asked for groups of 3 and someone was left out.  

And then we ran out of time.

But those students were thinking.

They were beginning to notice that 2 doesn't go into everything (or 3 or 4)

They were beginning to think of things in groups

They were wondering why they weren't able to form smaller groups out of 7

They were beginning to learn about multiplication and division in grade 1 (or 2)!

Wow.

I would be interested if anyone has ever come across this lesson anywhere because I would definitely love to see what else happens throughout it!

This Week At School

This week at school I...

- Did 2 half days at 2 different schools on the same day. Which was fine by me because the schools were close enough together that it didn't use too much of my lunch hour travelling (and as a nice bonus I get paid at a slightly higher rate as an incentive to take half days)

- Found this in one of the classrooms 

It's to get kids thinking about small ideas and large ideas (although, in my opinion, a watermelon does not fit in with the current season)

- Listened to the book "Enemy Pie" on Storyline on Pi Day.

- Took home some apple pie from the colony the day after pie day.

- Made some airplanes out of a straw and some paper (a few of the boys and I in this particular class had been working on them on a previous day and didn't get them done so we finally finished them).

- Went back to the school where I was reading the book "A Long Walk to Water" by Linda Sue Park and finished it during their silent reading time.

- Spotted these in one of the classrooms and they reminded me of these snowflakes I did with some grade 4 and 5 students

Tie Dye Snowflakes

It even looks like they wrote something to go with their snowflakes as well!

- Went to another day at swim and gym! Shouldn't be too much longer until the instructors at swim and gym start thinking I'm their actual teacher and not the substitute!

Only 5 more working days until spring break!... unfortunately it seems as if I may have caught one of the colds going around one of the schools I frequent... and I somehow ended up booking myself up for every single day next week!

I'm Grateful For...

One of my students was telling me what he was grateful for after watching a couple of videos about gratitude a couple of weeks ago...

"I'm grateful for toilet golf.  Seriously, it's the best thing you can do while pooping."

Good to know... good to know.

Go Jets Go!

If you aren't from around here (which judging by my blog stats most of you aren't) you wouldn't know this but... once we had an NHL team and not enough people cared about them so we lost them to Phoenix for a bit.  Then a few years ago they came back and it was almost like they never even left.... almost.

Anyways, back when I was in elementary school we all would go crazy for these Jets bookmarks our teachers would hand out.  Each bookmark had a different player on it and if you happened to end up with the bookmark that had Teemu Selanne you were one lucky duck.  As I recall, I had such a bookmark and I treasured that thing like nothing else.  What made Teemu so popular?  I really can't recall but his birthday was the same day as mine so that made him extra special to me.

Why am I telling you all of this?

Well, last week I told you about how one of the school's I was at for I Love to Read month was doing Stop Drop and Read... well it just so happens that they also were handing out Jets bookmarks!  And who was on these bookmarks?  Well none other than the players themselves... one player per bookmark and yes, this kids were going crazy for them.

Winnipeg Jets Bookmark

I managed to snap a picture of Byfuglien's though.

It's really too bad I no longer have any of those old Jets bookmarks... I'm pretty sure they had stats and stuff on them too (but I could be making that up) they were however, definitely orange for some reason.

Anywho,

Go Jets Go!

This Week At School

Well it happened folks... our first major snowfall of the season happened!... and here we were beginning to think that maybe we might just get by without one.  This meant that Monday morning if the division you subbed in wasn't closed you were getting some phone calls.

Luckily for me 2 of the divisions I work for were closed... unfortunately that's only half of the divisions I work for which meant 2 of them (the 2 I work for inside the city) were open (but the 2 that were inside the city both didn't have buses operating).  Anyways, I already had a half day booked in advance for one of the city divisions and thankfully it was for the afternoon because I don't think I would have made it on time otherwise.  My phone did apparently ring in the morning but I was too busy helping my husband shovel off the driveway and part of the road so he could get a running start before his tires would hit the rest of the snow.

Anywho, Tuesday also ended up being a snow day in the division I was supposed to work in which was fine by me since something had come up that needed to get done that afternoon.  But then it was business as usual for the remainder of the week.

At one of the schools I was at this week someone in the community had passed away the previous night.  The person had been sick for a while and was old and was not a part of the school but being that some of the schools I go to are part of a very small community the death would have impacted a lot of the students.  Needless to say there was a lot of talk about death, what happens, why they turn white, etc. that day.

I saw these little guys on top of a teachers white board this week....

I should have asked what the story behind them was but I didn't get to it that day.

2 more weeks until spring break folks (that means 10 more potential working days and I've already got jobs booked on 6 of those days)... the count down is on!

Playgrounds... City vs Rural

I was taking a class of students from one of the rural schools I frequent into the big bad city for an afternoon of rock climbing and swimming.  On the way to our destination we passed a school that just so happened to be having recess.  The EA that was on the bus with me pointed out the schools playground to the students... some of their responses:

"What a lame playground"

"What, no hills to play on!?!"

"What a bunch of losers"

The thing is... I can't seem to recall this rural school having much of a playground at all.  The size of the school yard is also probably smaller at the rural school (but they also have a total of about 20 students at this school and the city school likely had at least 200).  But, being that it's winter and all they want to do is sled the entire recess the rural school definitely has the advantage with an abundance of snow hills.. whereas the city school had none.

We got a large amount of snow this week... enough that school was cancelled on Monday in many rural divisions and buses were cancelled in the division I was working that day (see, I told you we weren't out of the woods yet) so it looks like everyone gets a bit more time to play in the snow!

For the record.. I grew up going to school in the city and have wonderful memories of our playground.  We had an awesome play structure that would never pass safety standards nowadays that we would climb all over.  My husband went to a school outside of the city and also has fond memories of building forts and making snow tunnels.

Substitute Teaching Blog Spotlight

You have no idea how hard it is to find a substitute teaching blog that still looks like the author is posting (I know, I know... I've disappeared many times before but when the last post is from another of years ago... it's not exactly up to date). My guess it's because substitute teaching is usually a stepping stone to something a little more permanent and once you get that something more permanent you suddenly don't have enough time to post things anymore (or at least that's what often happened to me).

But, I've found a few; the first one being The Sub Service blog. This is actually a substitute teacher service (if you didn't get that from the title of the blog) and it sounds like they get you connected to job possibilities. It seems to be based in Pennsylvania so this Canadian isn't using the blog for it's substitute teaching service BUT, you shouldn't dismiss the blog if you aren't looking to get connected somewhere. There is actually a wealth of information on it! The blog hasn't been updated since May but do things like building relationships with students, what to do when there is no plan, and classroom management really change all that much year to year? Take it from this substitute teacher, it's worth a look (and a read)!

This Week At School

This week at school I...

- Showed my students some videos about The Gratitude Jar and Kid Presidents 25 Reasons to be Thankful... they LOVED Kid President so that led us to watch a few more of his videos... one student even asked if he was actually president.  We watched the videos so that they could make a list of things that they were grateful for.

-  Talked about gratitude AGAIN at another school I went to this week in a different division.  We taught the students how to make a gratitude journal without any staples or tape.  Here is a video of what we did \(although I would argue that we did it an even simpler way without a ruler but the idea is the same).

-  Took my students cross country skiing (oh the wonderful things you can do and the abundant amount of outdoor space you have when you go to a rural school).

-  Brought my skates to school to go skating but unfortunately the rink had begun to melt and alas... our hour long of skating this one afternoon was cancelled.

-  Attended a Pow Wow

-  Listened and observed a math lesson involving this....

Can't figure it out... neither could I for a while but stay tuned to another post about it soon!

-  Took a class to swim and gym again... this time we did rock climbing!

-  Got to chapter 14 in "A Long Walk to Water" by Linda Sue Park (a book that I found in this one classroom that I read during silent reading time).

 And... In the interest of sharing that no one is perfect (not even myself at substitute teaching... I know... hard to believe... right?) let me tell you about my Monday... I almost sent the kids out for recess an entire 30 minutes early, I got the times TOTALLY wrong for switching groups, and I failed to notice that the teacher had left me a bunch of photocopied papers for students to write on.  D'oh!  Can I blame it all on forgetting to wear my watch that day?  It really thew me off!

The Winter Olympics

Well the 2018 Winter Olympics have come and gone and I'm getting this post up just a pinch too late.

Confession:  I'll often spy good ideas to write about or do in my classroom one day but I save them an entire year when that holiday or season comes around again.  Since the Olympics aren't coming around again for another 4 years I decided it was 100% okay to write this now.

Anyways I spied this in one of the classrooms I visited this last month

2018 Olympic Games Medal Count Poster

and it reminded me of one that I had done with my students when I taught grade 4 

2014 Olympic Games Medal Count Bulletin Board

I had my grade 4 students pick a few countries that they wanted to follow during the Olympics (we picked Canada, USA, Germany, Russia, and China) and on our hallway bulletin board we kept track of how many medals they got pictograph style (I think we might have even had 1 picture (of a medal) = 2 actual medals won.  I can't remember if we kept track of how many gold, silver, and bronze medals each country got... I feel like we may have kept track of those in a notebook but on the bulletin board we just kept track of the total medals won.  

On the other side of the bulletin board they each wrote some predictions about what country they thought would do best, how many medals that country would get and how many of the medals would be gold, silver, and bronze.

After the Olympics were over and we knew the totals of those 5 countries medals I taught them about graphing.  They already knew about pictographs because of the giant one we were adding to every day in the hall so I figured we would do some bar graphs.  So off to the computer lab we went and I taught them how to make a graph in Excel and we all printed one off (these graphs had the medals broken down into gold, silver, and bronze).

But we weren't done then.  After this I had them come up with some questions that they could answer by looking at their graphs.  It could be something simple like "how many gold medals did Canada get? or something more challenging like "how many gold medals did all 5 countries get?".  I left it up to them decide on the questions... 

Here are some of the results..

The white paper on the bottom with their questions on it was folded in half so that when you flipped it up you saw their answers and thinking.

I'm still pretty proud of that bulletin board and what we all did with the Olympics that year. 

What did you do in your classroom to celebrate the Olympics?