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.

From my old blog: August 12, 2012 - ITMCTRAV:PE

IT TAKES MY CHILD TO RAZE A VILLAGE: PENNSIC EDITION WENT SPECTACULARLY!!!!

It Takes My Child to Serve the Crown 

Contained: Bryn Trim, The Queen's Collection by Aliyah's Aromatics, Seadhli's Royal Peg People, 

Cherry It Takes My Child to Raze a Village Oh My Lolli lollipops, a gift for each Royal child at Pennsic, and favors and whipcording made by the children throughout the day at 

 It Takes My Child to Raze a Village & It Takes My Child to Raze a Village: Pennsic Edition.

East Kingdom

AEthelemarc

Midrealm

 Making Beaded Favors for the Buckets

Whipcording

Mom and I demonstrated The Duckling Race

Duckling Race winners!

                     Making Paper

Smelly Science (The Travel Edition!)

The Parent-a-Pult

The Plague Game

 

My most favorite photo from the day!

Post from my old blog - Erikson's 8 Stages of Development.

In studying for my Human Development and Learning exam, I got stuck trying to memorize Erikson's 8 Stages of Development. So I googled "Mnemonic Device Erikson's 8 stages" and got this video. Mom found the guy's voice really annoying, but it has some really great mnemonic devices, that I personalized for myself, so here I go straight from Memory! (Thank you Google Images Search and Paint!)

1 is a Bun. A rust colored Bun. 

RUST is in TRUST 

Stage 1 is Trust vs. Mistrust

2 is a Shoe.

An AUTO shaped like a Shoe with a kid named SHANE on it

 Stage 2 is Autonomy vs. Shame

3 is a Tree.

This one is a bit of a stretch....

Shia Labouf in (In -Shia- tive) a Tree on a Quilt

Stage 3 is Initiative vs Guilt

4 is Dinosaur

The Dinosaur lives in fear of Dust Bunnies

Stage 4 is Industry vs Inferiority

Sk

5 is Skydive

Skydiver dents car and rolls in confusion 

Stage 5 is Identity vs. Role Confusion 

6 is Sticks

Two sticks are being intimate, and the other is in isolation

Stage 6 is Intimacy vs. Isolation

7 is Heaven.

There is a dead generator in heaven that is owned by a stag

Stage 7 is Generativity vs Stagnation

and

8 is Plate

On the Plate we have Grits and then we have This Pear

InteGRITy and dis pear

Stage 8 is Integrity vs Despair

And there we have it - 

Erik Erikson's 8 Stages of Development!

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.