This year's theme is SUPERHEROES! This could be one of my favorite years. I am very excited to meet my students and show them our room. Teaching is really the best job in the world! I hope your room is coming along and wish you all the best!
My class just finished up studying the solar system. What an awesome unit! The students really enjoyed this unit and the top 3 lessons were the moons phases made out of Oreos, the Adopt a Constellation Project, and the Make a Galaxy Activitity. Check out our pictures to see what we did. I love using shaving cream in the classroom. I have used it for
many activities but this week was a blast. I wanted to review order of operations and I wanted the students to have fun while doing it. SO.....why not use shaving cream? Shaving cream is messy but it has its advantages. First, it helps clean the desk and it makes your room smell wonderful! Just add a small pile of foam to a child's desk and watch thier eyes light up. After grading their final assessments on order of operations I would say this engaging activity was a SUCCESS! Other ideas for shaving cream: Multiplication and division Mixed numbers to improper fractions Addition and subtraction Spelling words Synonyms & antonyms Geometry (shapes, angles, lines) A Sneak Peak.....Construction Theme 2012 is complete. I got all my materials this year from Really Good Stuff and Trend Enterprises. I got the yellow helmets and orange construction cones from www.spraypaintstencils.com. I suggest this website, it is free and very easy to use.
Another year is approaching and I am excited to meet my new group of 6th graders. What other job gives you a "refresh" button in August? Well, the decorating is done so now it is on to lesson planning.....have a great year! Class Behavior Incentives on the SmartBoardI have had my SmartBoard for 3 years and I am even a certified trainer. I use the SmartBoard for everything. I have found the whole class incentives to be very effective. I give my class an opportunity to work towards a Friday Fun Day every week. They can earn up to 25 minutes each week. Friday Fun Day can consist of a recess, game day, a game of silent ball, a special treat from the teacher, a dance party, or a limbo contest. There are some weeks where the students might not get this reward but trust me after they miss one week they won’t want to miss another! Students love this and every Monday they are excited to see what the new challenge is. This is a great way to end a week and praise the class for wonderful behavior. I am attaching 19 behavior slides check them out and see how they work in your classroom! Remember, you will need the Smart Notebook Software to view the file.
Class Dojo and Lottery Tickets!Last year I was introduced to Class Dojo and my students and I loved it. It is an online behavior management system that allows you to track the students behavior by rewarding positive behavior and tracking negative choices. This website also allows you to send home a weekly email which shows the parents how their child did for the week and what choices they made. You can modify this site to fit your classroom and even use your Smartphone or mobile device to input the students behavior. This tool is wonderful and very easy to use! I want to use Class Dojo again this year so I came up with incentives based on how many points the students receive. Here is what I have so far:
So what does lottery tickets have to do with this????I was trying to think of simple and cheap rewards to use and I came across scratch off tickets on Pintrest. What did we do before Pintrest? I know that I am addicted and find myself on this site for hours! I found a great "how to" guide on A Teacher's Treasure blog and decided to go with it and make it work with Class Dojo. I started by going to Micheals and buying clear contact paper, gray metallic acrylic paint, dish liquid, card stock, and a foam paint brush. All of this was $18.00 and I have enough left over to make more. First, I made my coupons on Microsoft Word, cut them out, and glued them on cardstock. I bought pre-cut cardstock because I hate cutting! You can use construction paper and that will cut the overall cost. Next, I cut the contact paper to fit over the secret message. I will have enough contact paper to make 1000 of these, no joke! Then, I made the paint. The receipe called for 2 Tbs of paint and 1 Tbs of dish liquid. I found this to be too runny, so I used the whole bottle of paint and 1 Tbs of dish liquid. I bought a 2 oz. bottle of paint. I made 50 tickets but I had plenty of paint to make more. After the mixture is made just paint over the contact paper, covering the secret message. More than one coat will be needed to fully cover the message. This is what my tickets look like so far. Finally, after 3 coats and about 3 hours to dry.....I have 50 ready to go scratch off lottery tickets! (I think, this will be enough to last the whole year.) My students will love this incentive and it will go nicely with my Class Dojo behavior system!
I am starting my 8th year of teaching at Oakwood Grade School. I teach math and science and love finding interactive lessons that motivate my students. I am currently going back to school to receive my Master's in Administration. I have an adorable little boy who will turn 3 tomorrow! Where has the time gone? Starting a webpage and blog was on my summer bucket list. I hope to include many activities and lessons throughout the school year to help all educators. I truly believe, "By learning you will teach, by teaching you will learn.” ~Latin Proverb |
Nicole JohnsonI am starting my 12th year teaching 6th grade. I am a certified Smart Board Trainer and enjoy making engaging lessons for my students. The classroom is where I belong. I could not imagine doing anything else! Archives
July 2013
Categories |