A place to share thoughts, ideas, gadgets, and giggles from my classroom. 💜

New Year 2015 Currently!

I'm linking up with Farley for January's Currently!

Listening: I love love The Office! We only have Netflix/Amazon Prime/Hulu so I binge watch my favorite shows over and over. The Office never fails to make me laugh! Could you imagine a principal like Michael Scott!? What a crazy and fun school it would be!

Loving: My house sure is coming along! My wonderful husband ran wire today for the internet and cable. The contractor was working on making the bar under the stairs in the basement, and the drywall was recently delivered! I cannot wait until the rooms actually look like rooms! The drywall is going up next week! 
The insulation was finished yesterday! 
Thinking: I have used www.Planbook.com for my go to lesson planning for the past three years. I love love love it, but I think I need to go back to more paper and pencil. Maybe I will actually get my plans done this way. Planbook makes it too easy to slack on, and I do not need help slacking! Any advice!? 

Wanting: I am just so eager to get moved into the new house! I want to put my current house up for sale so bad, but then again, I do not want to be homeless! My new house is just too cute not to live in right now...but it would be a little cold with no heat!
I mean, JUST look at that front door!

Needing: I just want to enjoy my break!!!! But I really need to go to school and clean off my desk and clean up Christmas stuff. In the second semester of second grade, big changes happen for these kiddos in my room. We are going to start implementing Exit Tickets, blog on a regular basis, be more responsible for our own assignments, and read, read, read!!
Yes: I love love integrating technology in my classroom! We are going to start blogging regularly, like I already said. We are also going to start watching videos from Educreations for math, and start making Prezi presentations! I cannot wait to start this!

Maybe: Maybe I will get to move into my new house soon! I know it won't be until February at the earliest, but I keep thinking just maybe!

I Wish:.... I just want to move in!!! I can't imagine my impatience if I have a baby! I will not be able to stand it!!!

Be sure to head over and link up and check out the other Currentlys!





Christmas in Room 107

We celebrated Christmas all Friday long in our classroom! It was Polar Express/Pajama Day for second grade. The kids could bring their sleeping bags, slippers, stuffed animal, and wear their PJ's to school.
I had one boy who looked at this big ol' pile and said, " I wish that were cake." HA! I love my students! They never fail to make me laugh!
We made Christmas tree ornaments for our classroom tree and to take home. I put all my foam pieces on the floor and let them grab ten items to put on their ornament. 
They turned out really cute! I hope their parents like them!
Ignore the pencil marks on the desk...
Our tree had a lot going on by the time all the ornaments got on there, but it was the best tree I have had in the three years I have been teaching! I loved it!

I gave the kids their gift from me. To get their gift, we played a right left game, when I would say the word "right" in the story, they had to pass their gift to the right. When I would say " left", they would have to pass it to the left.  Then I let them play with them. 
Their gift was those scratch off pages that has a colorful background so when they scratch them off, you see all the different colors. They LOVED them! I even gained a few pictures for my desk:)
After lunch it was time to party with food and The Polar Express movie! While the kids were at recess, Cassandra and I made the huge pot of hot chocolate! 
We had our snacks before heading to the movie. Our parents were so generous this year with the snacks, drinks, and treat bags. No one went home hungry, and maybe some went home with a belly ache...

Then we loaded up the train to go watch the Polar Express in Cassondra's room.


IAG High Ability Conference

Whew! What a couple of days it has been! I have been spending the final week before break at the IAG (Indiana Association for the Gifted) Conference in Indianapolis.
Cassondra, one of our awesome 5th grade teachers(Shelby), and I went to several different sessions to learn more about teaching to gifted students. There were a few sessions that stood out that I wanted to share with you! 
Session 1, Mulit Media Projects with a Purpose, told us all about two sixth grade teachers who got a grant for studio recording equipment. Before they realized that their green screen could have been green construction paper and their recording device could have been an iPhone, both of which I have;). They had their students start with one main topic and a concept, like the Romans and their power, and guide their own learning ending with a movie about their topic. 
When I heard about this, I could only think of the story, Officer Buckle and Gloria. Students could create their own safety tip and act it out! They would love it, remember it, and it would create a meaningful learning experience about safety for the kids!

In Session 2, Shelagh Gallagher told us how standards and PBL were like peanut butter and jelly! She  gave us an example with relocating black footed ferrets and we had to create the questions remaining. It was so simple to come up with questions that we needed to find out about relocating the ferrets such as what type of environment they need or what food do they eat. This was the beginning of the project research. It does not have to be difficult! Students become the stakeholder and the teacher becomes the metacognative coach. Basically, students are the driver and we are the GPS. 
By beginning with the problem, we can then find out what we want the students to learn. From there, we can go to the good old standards and pick out the several that we will cover from our project. This is a great way to learn, and I would love to do more of this in my room. 
Session 3 that I want to share was about CSI in the Classroom. The presenter gave the example of having a chocolate party(which I am doing when we finish Charlie and the Chocolate Factory). When the students are out of the room, create a crime scene! Spill some hot cocoa mix, take a bite out of some chocolate bar, leave foot prints in the mix, leave finger prints everywhere! When the students come back, tell them something has happened. Make sure the "criminal" is someone available in the building. Students can use the evidence left, interviews, suspect lists, and fingerprint/shoe print comparison to discover who was the one who did it! 
I cannot wait to do this with my class. I believe we will be doing it for the Valentine's Day party. Hopefully I will have Charlie done by then. We will be using laffy taffy to compare teeth prints and she gave us a lesson in finger printing(I will save that for later). I cannot wait!!

Then there was lunch provided. When you sat down, dessert was served! 
Red velvet cake! YUM!
Then they brought a salad one day and this chicken stuff today. I was not touching that stuff! GROSS! So we walked to the Mall to eat at the food court. 
We took in sooo much information in the past couple of days. I think I need an extra day off to process it! ha! Hope you are having a great last week before break!









Pumpkin Spice Play Dough

A lot has been going on lately, I have missed being able to share! I am taking a "study break" from my master's finals to tell you about when we made pumpkin spice play dough...or we tried! Oh yes, another tale from Mrs. Rigsby's books of fun but fail!
We used Marshmallow Creme, which should have been my first sign, powdered sugar and pumpkin pie spice. Super easily accessible ingredients! 
I sorted the kids into groups and handed out the pans.We started with just the sugar. If you DO still want to try this, I would recommend starting with the marshmallow creme first. 
Then I walked around and added the marshmallow creme...and off they went!
They were supposed to be able to keep mixing and mixing until it became dough like. It never became dough like for us, but boy it was fun!
This poor guy had it all up his arm...The hair was still sticky after several washes!
They kept trying and trying to make the dough. I added even more creme and then I walked around to add the spice. If we are getting messy, we might as well smell good!
The kids were real troopers when it came to cleaning up. They took turns cleaning the floor and did a great job sharing the sink. Next year, I believe this is another experiment I will be skipping:)




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