Save Fred!

Today was the second day of school and I decided that a little team building was in order.  I found this activity on the Internet several years ago but this was my first attempt at.  I found this blog post over at Growing a STEM classroom and it triggered my memory about this great activity. 

Fred is a gummy worm and his boat (the clear plastic cup) has capsized.  His life preserver (a gummy lifesaver) is still on his boat and he can't swim.  The students must use paper clips only to save Fred by getting his life preserver and putting it on him.  

I allowed my students to work with a partner for about 15 minutes to see if anyone could save Fred.  Several people dropped him-oh no he drowned!  Students were allowed to try again if they let Fred drown.  

Our wonderful Math/Science coach was also a partner for one of my students.  Here they are trying to get the life preserver from in the boat.  

After about 15 minutes I allowed the students to work in groups of four to see if that would be more successful.  This did help several groups.  

Fred has been rescued!

The students really enjoyed this activity and everyone was engaged.  They recorded their steps on a sheet of paper and wrote a description of how they saved Fred or what happened when he drowned.  

Here is a link to a free power point presentation that will allow you to explain this activity to your students.  Thanks to Karre Nevarez at Teacher Pay Teachers for this great product.  

We had a great time with this activity and not only does it teach problem solving it is also a great team building activity.  

Monday Made It!

Today was the first official teacher workday.  Although I had a meeting all day long I am still so excited to link up for my first ever Monday Made It.  I actually have two projects and can't wait to share them with you.  

This first one is actually a modified version of a blog post I read about over at Mrs. D's Corner.  It was actually her Monday Made it post dated July 28th. Click on her blog post above to see the original one.   I was super excited to try it but since I don't have a color printer I needed to modify it for myself.  I recreated her template and used colored card stock for the yellow one and a piece of chevron ( my classroom theme is chevron and school colors are orange and black) scrap book paper for the orange one.  Here is how mine turned out.  I am sending the yellow one to my best friend Nancy for her classroom.  

My second project comes from a post I found at More Time 2 Teach.   I found this blog post way back in December of last year and saved it so that I could create my own during the summer.  This is a Twitter board that students can use post it notes to respond to questions or discussions.  I use lots of exit tickets so I thought this would be a great place for students to place their post it note exit ticket at the end of a lesson.  I plan on using mine in a variety of different ways and think that the students will enjoy tweeting their answers.  

A big thank you to my wonderful hubby who made the straight lines for me.  I am  not good at making straight lines!  In each square there is a picture of a bird with a number-I use a number system for everything and then can reuse the board each year since student names are not in the squares.  The little bird clip art in the middle of each square came from Teachers Pay Teachers and was created by The Class of Joy.  Click on The Class of Joy to download your free copy. 

Hope you enjoy both of these Monday Made It projects.  

Organization

I was not born an organized person.  In fact when I began working at the age of 40 I realized that I probably suffer from adult ADHD (never officially diagnosed) as I recall all the projects I would begin during a day at home with my kids yet never manage to finish any of them.  I used to make lists but couldn't find them when I was ready to start working on something.

Therefore when I began my teaching career I had to work hard at becoming organized.  I believe that I have grown tremendously in this area and since moving to a new school last year I have attempted to keep only those items that I will truly use at school.  Hence, the reason the garage now looks like a disaster area.

Imagine my happiness when I found this great post over at Mrs. D's Corner.  She created a forever FREEBIE on her Teachers Pay Teachers page to go along with her Monday Made it craft.  I used her idea to create my own version since I don't have a color printer and am currently obsessed with chevron.  So I created my own template to use that I could put on the colored cardstock that I had, I also got a piece of orange chevron scrapbook paper given to me by a friend and used it to create my own plan, copy, prep and grade clipboard.  I followed Mrs. D's directions as I created my own. This was my first attempt at Mod Podge and I think it turned it pretty darn good.

Here is my final two clipboards.  I am going to send the yellow one to my best friend Nancy.  She doesn't read the Internet too much so I hope when it arrives it is a surprise!

 I am so excited to use this product.  A big shout out to Stephanie at Mrs. D's Corner for allowing me to post about my own version.

Summer is over!

Summer Schedule

At the end of the school year I posted my summer schedule.  It worked well and I have logged lots of miles on my Fitbit this summer.  I was able to keep to my schedule for the most part, with the exception of when I went to visit my beautiful granddaughters.  

Summer is almost over and I can't believe it.  I go back to work tomorrow to set up my room.  I have two days and then mandatory teacher workdays begin.  I am moving to a new classroom this year-literally next door to the one that I was in last year, but seems to have more space.  I am excited to get in there and get my things put together.  

Weekend plans

                         

Before the weekend is over I plan to see the new movie The Giver with hubby.  I am so excited to see this movie as the book is my favorite of all times.  I hope that the movie is close to the book I am always disappointed when the movie doesn't follow the book.  

Currently                   

Linking up with  Oh Boy 4th Grade for this month's August Currently!  I have not linked up every month but I love the idea and hope to do more of them this school year.  Check out Farley's blog if you want to link up with your Currently.