Simply Sponges!

In my Life Science for Elementary Teachers class, we had to do a skit on various invertebrates. And my group got Sponges! So, we did a game show called "Simple Sponges!" I went a teeny bit overboard at Dollar Tree, but we had a pretty awesome game show. We "rigged" it so that it was a 3-way tie, and for the Final Round we each threw a wet sponge at the chalk target on the board. The winner received a container of mini sponge cakes (made by my mom after I jokingly said it would be awesome to have sponge cake) that we shared with the class! Our Name cards are dish sponges, our microphones are sponge paint brushes stuck in a copper sponge, and we had several sponge puns and bad jokes.

Simply Sponges!

The Contestants.

The Host

Based on the color of my face, I just answered the reproduction question. . .

"Final Spongardy"

Special BONUS: Silly Songs Stuck (in my head)

Do you know the Wishy Washy Washerwoman song? It is a silly song I learned years and years (and years) ago at Girl Scout Camp. (I just did the math, it has been almost 20 years since I was a camper!!!)

Anyway, I had only part of the song stuck in my head, just the begining, "Waaaaaaaaay down in the valley, where nobody goes, there's a Wishy Washy Washerwoman washing her clothes. . . " I couldn't recall the rest! SO, I did what any former Scout would do, and I googled it!

Whereupon, I found this GEM performed by male teachers!! This is just totally awesome!

(Start around 1:26 if you want to skip the intro)

They did skip my favorite verse, "Waaaaaaaaay down in the valley, where nobody goes, there's a Wishy Washy Washerwoman picking her nose. She goes Pick-Flick, Pick-Flick, Pick-Flick, Pick-Flick, that's how the Washerwoman pi-cks her nose!" (I learned it that way - without forcing the "wishy-washy" part on the last line.)


The Other song stuck in my head lately is the Boots Song/My Boots/Whatever you want to call it!

I couldn't find anything that wasn't Dora the Explorer related when I searched for it, so I recorded it just for you!

Awesome Acrostics

As a pre-student teacher, I have had to teach many lessons to my class. One of the first lessons I taught, back in 2012, was on Acrostic Poems. I shared an alphabet book of acrostic poems (Animal Acrostics by Michael S. Maydak) and taught a mini lesson on how to write them. Here is the worksheet I created to make it easier to teach:

Here's the poem my class wrote:

Elegant
Avian (there was almost a tie for America)
Glorious
Legendary
Eyesight

July 17, 2012 - Schoolroom Stuff

My Sisters complain when I don't post pictures. . .

I had a great idea for my future classroom, that I do not want to forget!!!

I've been reading Ron Clark's books this summer. I just finished The Excellent 11, and I read The Essential 55 (finally) in early June. I am currently reading The End of Molasses Classes.
The Excellent 11 talked about how he has his students work on memorizing things because, in today's world, with calculators and the internet at our fingertips, students aren't learning how to memorize.
It makes sense, think about it, how many phone numbers do you currently know by heart?  (The only ones I can recite, aside from my own cell, are my old phone numbers from when I was a kid and my Best Friend's growing up, neither are attached to either of us!) He teaches his students The Star-Spangled Banner (and it's history and the expected deportment one should have during it), he teaches them all the presidents in order (which helps their understanding of history by giving them a basis to start from, for example: What big war happened during FDR's presidency? or Who was President when you were born?) and among other things. When his students have memorized something they have to recite it in front of the class without a mistake. There is usually a reward for doing so.

In the case of memorizing the presidents, he divides the class into groups and assigns a pre-recruited faculty member to each group (like the gym teacher, principal, another teacher, librarian, or school secretary). Of the first time he did this, Ron says, 

 "If every person on the team could say the presidents in order by the end of the month, that team would get a free pizza party. The pressure was on! Students were quizzing each other, stopping their faculty member in the hallway, supporting one another, calling one another on the phone, and putting forth much effort to learn the presidents. It was wonderful, fun, and exciting! As different students finally learned them all, they would recite them with pride, holding their heads high and smiling from ear to ear." 

So, my plan is to have Monthly Mental Monday Mornings (or (M^2)^2 for short - which is also a nod toward my parents - both of their initials being M.M.)
Monthly Mental Monday Mornings will include: (one thing from each category)

Math -
Skills involved: Verbal, Social, Mental, Gross Motor, Fine Motor, Math, Public Speaking
Math Bee
Pop Quiz - teacher verbally gives a problem and the students write the answer on a balloon and hold it up for me to see, after a certain number of problems, students who got all the questions correct get to pop their balloons - by sitting on them!
Math Ball - I have a giant inflatable soccer ball with numbers written on it, the ball gets tossed from one player to another, when you catch the ball you have to add/subtract/multiply/divide the numbers under your thumbs. You can also purchase them.
Yahtzee
Rummikub
Phase 10 
SET

Spelling -
Skills involved: Verbal, Social, Mental, Gross Motor, Fine Motor, Spelling, Public Speaking
Traditional Spelling Bee
Pop Quiz - teacher verbally gives a word and the students write the correct spelling on a balloon and hold it up for me to see, after a certain number of words, students who got all the words correct get to pop their balloons - by sitting on them!
Anagrams
Scrabble
Boggle
Scattergories
Quiddler 

Recitations - Students will have all month to memorize specific works and then recite them in class
Skills involved: Verbal, Social, Mental, Confidence, Public Speaking
The Star-Spangled Banner
The Preamble to the Constitution
A Poem! (Each letter/character in "A Poem!" is a different link!)
A famous quote
an entire Dr. Suess book 

Spontaneous! - ("Surprise" activities)  
Skills involved: Creativity, Verbal, Life, Social, Mental, Gross Motor, Fine Motor, Public Speaking
Art project
Cooking Activity (which uses mental math!)
Storytelling (story starters, story cubes, etc.)
Charades
Random Show & Tell - students blindly pull an object out of a paper bag and have to immediately present as if it is a beloved Show & Tell object (examples: a spatula, a piece of fruit, an old shoe, a drinking straw, a baby sock, an old Happy Meal toy, a game piece, a baby doll, a random piece of packing material, a slide whistle, a fake spider, a tiara, a rubber chicken, etc.)
Quelf, Jr. 
Improv games
Pop Quizzes - games involving balloons and popping them. Two examples:

• Barnyard Scramble - a getting into groups game that takes a bit of prep for the teacher (or a parent volunteer) Decide how many groups you want and decide on a barnyard animal for each group, type/write the animal name on a slip of paper, fold the paper and place it inside the balloon then blow up the balloon and tie it. (The giant trash bags -ask the janitor for a roll - hold a lot of balloons nicely!) Tell the students the rules before you pass out the balloons or they won't pay attention: When I give the signal I want you to pop your balloon and collect the pieces and the slip of paper inside. Read what the paper says and start making the sound that the animal on the paper makes and try to find other people who are the same animal as you. You should have # in your group. When your group is full, sit down as a group and stop making your noise.  Pass out the balloons and give the signal! This game is great fun to observe! Skills involved: Gross Motor, Verbal, Listening, Group Dynamics

•  Hot Potato Show - Another game that involves stuffing balloons with a slip of paper, on these papers you want something different on each one, a tongue twister to be read, a silly action to perform, question to be answered (example: What is your favorite book? What is your least favorite chore? If you could go anywhere in the world where would you go?, etc.) In this game only one balloon is in play at any time and the whole group stands in a circle and passes the balloons just like the game Hot Potato (the teacher can play music, or have the students sing, or perhaps work on the current recitation to be memorized perhaps as a call & response w/ the teacher, etc.) When the teacher calls out Hot Potato Show the student with the balloon must sit on it to pop it and read the slip of paper aloud (and if applicable do/perform/answer what the paper says). If a student gets the balloon and other students have not had it yet, the balloon gets passed to the nearest student who hasn't had a turn.  Skills involved: Gross Motor, Verbal, Listening, Group Dynamics, Public Speaking

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

One game that will never be played in my classroom is Silent Ball.
I think Silent Ball was created by lazy teachers. There are many more valid and educational games for children to play! Even games where speaking is not allowed, or where gross motor skills are being practiced.
For those who do not know Silent Ball, here is how it was always played in my classrooms when I was a student:
Players silently sit on top of their desks and toss a foam/nerf ball around.
Players must sit properly in their seat if they

• make a noise
• drop the ball
• make a bad pass

Last player standing gets to throw the ball first in the next round.

Reasons I don't like Silent ball:

• It can be very exclusive. Kids only tossing to their friends, clumsy kids getting "out" early.
• If you don't want to play you simply have to talk and be eliminated, this student usually continues to talk and progressively get louder.
• Only a few students are engaged at any one time.
• The teacher is often not engaged - when I was in fourth grade I can remember the teacher actually leaving the room repeatedly while we were playing Silent Ball, and she never paid attention to our game. in fifth grade my Math teacher would read a book with her feet up on her desk while we played.

Posts from my Old Blog

I had my Human Development and Learning Midterm today, I think I did really well! (I made a post regarding the Mnemonic Device I used to remember Erik Erikson's Stages of Development.)

On Tuesday, I had my geology midterm (today we are watching a video and doing a work sheet - kind of like high school!). Before the test, my teacher was giving us some information about an upcoming project, and she added some advice that has tucked itself into my brain, I've been ruminating on it all week! 
She said,

     "Parent/Teacher Conferences are great, because you get to meet the Tree that your Apple came from." 

Isn't that wonderful? What a great way to look at it.  My mom took this idea and ran with it, she suggested that I squirrel that quote away and wait until two weeks beforeParent/Teacher Conferences (PTC), then work with the kids on Family Trees and have the children make themselves the apple on their tree.  Then when the parents come to PTC, have them wear apple name tags and it would be my own private joke.  She said I'll need it because PTC are also one of the most frustrating parts of being a teacher!
Last night I had a dream about it and in my dream the parents were wearing tree-shaped nametags with a small apple that had their child's name on it! (which wouldn't be hard with a CRICUT thingy) 

Josh & his Mom are fictitious!

_____________________________________________________________________________

I haven't updated in awhile, because this semester is drawing to a close and I am up to my eyeballs in semester projects!

School Stuff

I spent a good part of the weekend working on my Lesson Plan Portfolio for Geology. I will probably post some of  them this summer (After I test them out on real children?) Here are the Graphics, Titles and Topics for your viewing pleasure:
 (Feel free to email me at midnightpeapod(at)gmail(dot)com if you really want to see the lesson plan, intended grade level, and corresponding Michigan GLCS.)

Magnificent M&M's Make Us Super Sleuths - The Scientific Method

Under Pressure - Weather Measurement

Fake Fossils - Fossils

Classroom Change-Up - Humans impact our environment.

Ice Cube Circus - Water as a liquid and solid.

The Moon is a Cookie - Phases of the Moon

 Thanks to Google and YouTube, while figuring out what I would do for this unit, I found this video. As a result, I have had this song stuck in my head for the last two days :

Mudslide - Erosion

Plant People - The Sun helps things grow.

Recycling Relay - The supply of natural resources is limited.

Soil Stroll - Identify Earth materials that occur in nature.

The Sun is a Cookie - Identify the Sun as a common object in the sky.

This lesson includes this video while the students are enjoying the product of their labor:

Time to Use Our Resources - Using Earth Materials

Tornado Training - Severe Weather Safety

The Water Cycle Arts - The Water Cycle

The Water Cycle Song tune is "She'll be Coming 'Round the Mountain." Included in this activity is making a bracelet, both came from Mrs. Bainbridge's Class blog.

Human Development Classroom set-up ideas

I am working on moving everything school-related, from my old blog to this one.


I had a cool assignment in Human Development. We had to design a classroom for "Gifted and Talented" students (Honestly, I just designed my dream classroom!!!)
Originally, I was going to do a Star Trek themed classroom --just for kicks!  I was also going to do it as a diorama, but I ended up using a poster-board and being less theme-y! (Although, I still want to figure out an interactive Klingon Math bulletin Board!)

Here are some of my ideas:

Classroom Furniture Choices

My classroom will also have an attached Cloakroom, Bathroom & Storage room that is only accessible through the Teacher's Office. 

Sinks will be mounted on the wall outside the bathroom. 

Most Centers will have Interactive Bulletin Boards.

(See ELA/Reading for an example.)

There are skylights (instead of windows) to provide sunlight, save energy, and reduce distractions that windows cause.

Math Center

The Math Center will also have Legos and an Abacus.  

The class will have a Monthly Math Bee.

Science Center

This is a small sampling of what the Science Center will contain.

Many different plants will live here. 

The Science Center is located near the sinks & the door to outside.

Creativity/ Think Outside the Box Zone

 The Rock Star of the Week will have a rotating schedule so that EVERY student is featured on the board.  

This is Student Lastname. S/He is # years old.  

Her/His favorite Center is _____.  

In Student's spare time, s/he loves to ______.

 Musical Instruments will live here, but there will be a portion of everyday dedicated to Music, it will not be open during Academic Center time.  Both Boomwackers and Handbells will have choirs with set practice times, in addition to vocal choirs and a maybe even a rhythm band.

 

English Language Arts/Reading Center

 ELA/Reading Center will feature Self-driven learning.

Manilla Mysteries are Poetry, Letter, & Creative Writing packets.  

There will be a Gazebo in this area. 

There will be a Monthly Spelling Bee.

Students find and bring in real-life examples of poor grammar and funny misspellings

Student Book Recommendations

Gazebo – with “grass” & lawn chairs - Reading Corner

Social Studies Center

Connecting the Present and Past example:

Students are studying the American Civil War.

Students read about Clara Barton.

The Teacher invites a Red Cross Certified Instructor,

 who will teach Basic First Aid.

The students (as a group) will design 

a Community Service Project (or Fundraiser)

that benefits the Red Cross. 

 I forgot to mention (in my project) the following:

• Computers are left out of this plan on purpose.  Since this classroom is my dream, I assume it will exist in my dream school, therefore, there will be a high-tech computer lab.  I believe that it is important for students to learn how to appropriately use technology, however, it is equally important that they know how to learn and live without a screen in front of them.
• The ELA/Reading Center Manilla Mysteries will include handwriting practice and learning cursive.
• Life Skills will be taught across all disciplines. Examples: Sewing in Social Studies (Students will learn how to sew a button, and hand stitch in a few steps ending with making a stuffed toy), the Science of Laundry, Following a Recipe in ELA/Reading, Doubling a recipe in Math, Manners and Etiquette in Social Studies
• The class will have a Chore Chart, Every student will have a chore that is their responsibility every day. The Chores will rotate every week.  Chores will include (but not be limited to the following:

• Spray and wipe down desks and tables.
• Sweep/Vacuum classroom.
• Feed/Water Rat.
• Clean Rat Cage.
• Clean Bathroom.
• Plant Caretaker.;
• Line Leader -Not only the head of the line, but also choose how we move down the hall: hopping, heel-to-toe, baby steps, tiptoe, in pairs, etc.

Classroom Management Musings

Some thoughts I've had lately for my classroom, that build on my Family Homes idea. I really want my classroom to be a safe and welcoming place for my students, and to develop a strong sense of community.
Each student will be part of a Family, and each Family will have their House and mailbox (as in my earlier post), the Families will do some projects and activities together, but there will be other types of groups in my classroom as well.  Students will be sorted into Math and Reading Groups based on their level (skill and speed) that fit with the Neighborhood/Community Theme.

Math Groups: Lemonade Stand, Bake Sale,  Rummage Sale (if I need more than three: Apothecary - as in soap or lotions, or Car Wash) Each Math group will have worksheets or assignments that help them calculate what they would need to operate those types of fundraisers (and perhaps really do them)

Reading Groups: I haven't quite decided, but I'm leaning towards types of trees - Oak, Maple, Pine, Willow, etc.  I would prefer to have pre-decided names for these groups because I feel that spending an entire class period picking a group name is a waste of time and at least one person in the group will resent or hate the group name for the whole year, you can also end up with some ridiculous names. I distinctly remember my first grade reading group naming process. (Yes I am weird and have a freaky memory for really dumb stuff). One of the boys suggested that we be The Runny Noses, one kid said The Tigers and a girl said The Punky Brewsters. Thinking that I was clever AND that it would never get picked, I suggested Punky Noses. We voted and there were three kids who adamantly wanted to be The Tigers and the rest of our group (about 6 kids) picked Punky Noses. The teacher put the Tigers into their own group  and we stayed Punky Noses for the rest of the year. 

General Seating Arrangements
4 desks pushed together to form a table. Each seat numbered 1-4. Each Table given a letter. Each student assigned to a specific seat (probably with a name tag taped down - if I have fifth graders their names will be in Cursive!) Classroom supplies will be organized into bins/cups/stacks corresponding to each Table. Each seat number will have specific jobs for certain things. So, for example, if we are going to do something that uses crayons, scissors and paper, it will be the person in seat 1 at each table to get their Table's container of crayons, container of  scissors, and enough sheets of paper for everyone at their table, Seat 2 people will have to make sure there isn't anything left on the floor, Seat three will organize and put things back in their container and Seat 4 will put the containers back where they belong.

Super Screen Stories *Updated March 3, 2014

This list is from my "old" blog, although I've added a few things and will update as I watch. It is one of my summer goals to watch most of the "I don't remember" and "I've been told to see" movies.

Super Awesome Teacher Movies: A List by SJ

Title                                     Lead Actor(s)                                        What Made the Teacher Super
The First Grader                Naomie Harris + Oliver Litondo                 Broke Rules to Get Results
School of Life                     Ryan Reynolds + David Paymer                       Passionate about Life
The Bells of St. Mary's     Ingrid Bergman + Bing Crosby                            Cared for Students
Renaissance Man              Danny DeVito                                                      Believed in Students
Kindergarten Cop            Arnold Schwartzenegger                               Developmental Instincts
That's What I Am            Ed Harris                                                              "That's What I Am"
School of Rock                  Jack Black                                                         Learned from Students
The Ron Clark Story~     Matthew Perry                                           Innovative Teaching Methods
Dead Poets Society           Robin Williams                                             Love Poetry, Seize the Day
Dangerous Minds~           Michelle Pffiefer                                             Connected with Students
To Sir, With Love             Sidney Portier                                                    Made Students THINK
Arranged                           Zoe Lister Jones & Francis Benhamou            Find common ground
Stand and Deliver~           Edward James Olmos                           Teaches Calculus to "Special Ed"
Sister Act 2                        Whoopi Goldberg                                        Teaches Respect through Work
Krippendorf's Tribe          Richard Dreyfuss                                           Creative College Prof. :o)
Freedom Writers*~           Hilary Swank                               Motivates Students to Share their stories
Take the Lead~                  Antonio Banderas                         Teaches Respect through Dancing
The Karate Kid                 Pat Morita + Ralph Macchio                   Teaches Self Confidence
In & Out                             Kevin Kline                                                                 Acceptance
X-Men                                 Patrick Stewart, Hugh Jackman                                Super Powers!
The Trouble with Angels ~ Hayley Mills, Rosalind Russell                 Patience in the face of Hijinks
Where Angels Go, Trouble Follows!   Rosalind Russell + Stella Stevens       Plucky Spirits
Summer School                 Mark Harmon, Kirstie Alley          Teaches More Than Remedial English
Blackboard Jungle           Glenn Ford, Sidney Portier      The Original inspirational inner city teacher

Teacher Movies I've Seen, but don't really remember if they were good

Mr. Holland's Opus
Mona Lisa Smile
The Man Without a Face
To Be and To Have (Documentary)

Teacher Movies I've been told I have to see

The Marva Collins Story~
Lean on Me~
A Beautiful Mind~
Music of the Heart
October Sky
Children of a Lesser God
Teachers
The Principal
The Emperor's Club
Akeelah and the Bee
Up the Down Staircase
Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Goodbye, Mr. Chips
The Great Debaters
Chalk
 
~Based on a True Story

*The movie is great and the book is well written, however, it bugs me that this teacher has only ever taught one class of students.  It's wonderful that she did something amazing once, but it bugs me because other really awesome teachers do much the same thing over and over and over again and don't get all the accolades that she does.
 

Teacher Movies I Didn't Really Like!

Half Nelson - turned it off after Mom and I fell asleep after being bored with the drug-addiction-driven plot.
Bad Teacher - It was a kind of a female version of 'School of Rock' minus really good music.