Summer School

it doesn't seem i've taken a single day 'off' this summer from school.  Between preparing for tutoring, tutoring, planning for next year with Tiffany, attending meetings, creating materials, brainstorming, and losing sleep, it doesn't seem to end!  I guess so long as I keep doing stuff like this over the summer I am still in the correct line of work?????!!!!!

The discovery of Pinterest is really feeding my creative appetite.  It's both a blessing and a curse.  My brain is going 100 miles an hour and my production of products cannot keep up with my thoughts!  And with only a few more weeks before i return to work, i'm really worried i am going to be as much of a mess when i return as i was when i left :-P

I wanted to share a few things i have developed so far....

Classroom Scavenger Hunt

With everything else we are trying to cram in to the first couple of days, i figured a classroom scavenger hunt might save some time and spare us all the bore of me taking 15 minutes to explain where to find certain things in the classroom.  Here's a snapshot of the document i plan to use. 

Students will match the item with the location, identified by a number displayed in the classroom.

Classroom Signals

I had intentions of using signals last year but it was an epic fail.  Could be again this year, but I am going to try again.  I feel like I am more organized with posters this year.  I also incorporated at least one 3-5 minute break in each of my classes last year, so my hope is that kids will need to signal a need to me far less often than if I did not provide a break.  Again, this could be an epic fail, but I'm going to try it.  I am asking each student to bring water to class each day so that signaling 'water' will not be an option.  At this point, I only have 4 signals, but I'm sure another one will come to mind.


Restroom Passes

One of the most brilliant things I've seen on Pinterest in the 'education' section is the use of hand sanitizer as restroom passes!  I just so happened to have 3 spare bottles of the stuff the day I saw the idea, so I made girls and boys restroom passes as well as a nurse's pass.  Certainly not my best penmanship, but considering where these suckers are headed, I don't think I really care!


Jobs

I am not 100% convinced that I am going to be successful at incorporating jobs into the classroom, but I am going to try.  I enjoyed putting the "jennie spin" on the job titles tonight at least.  Maybe that will encourage me to follow through!  I have created 4 jobs per group as I envision 4 students per group (although I have not seen class lists, so I'm going on a big assumption here).  There is a 5th job that will rotate through the entire class.   I'll start with that one.  I can't wait any long to show the picture, so here goes...

You know you're jealous that you didn't think of this yourself!  (just kidding)  When Tiffany and I got together a couple of weeks ago, we were talking about the jobs that we thought we'd need.  A time keeper was the first one we thought of, especially because we are determined to 'end' class 10-15 minutes early so that the kids can reflect on the days lesson, clean up, and so that none of us feel like we are in a panic.  As we were talking about it, we thought about Flava Flav and YES, I WILL BE GOING TO THE DOLLAR STORE AND PURCHASING A WALL CLOCK AND ATTACHING IT TO A CHAIN and YES, the daily FLAVA FLAV student will WEAR THE CLOCK THROUGHOUT THE CLASS PERIOD!  I can't wait.  Will it be a distraction--of course.  Is it fun--definitely.  Do I love my job because I can do stupid stuff like this and get away with it--you doggone right!  The job of FLAVA FLAV is to get our attention when it's time to stop and do the EOB (end of the block) checklist.  Oh my goodness--can't wait to see their little faces on this one!  Better yet, can't wait to see administration stroll by and see a mini Flava Flav in my room!

I plan to hang the Flava Flav chain on the wall near the door with a class roster for each block and we will just go alphabetically.  Any student who doesn't want to be Flava Flav can pass, but why you would want to pass up that opportunity is beyond me!

Below are the other group jobs--I tried to put a description on each one.  These are letter size posters I will hang in the classroom.

Well, I have more things up my sleeve, but will have to post those another night!

totally worth it!

okay...slicing my finger off (exaggerating, of course) was TOTALLY WORTH IT!

our kiddos had a blast today.  it was SO CUTE seeing boys dancing across the field searching for a certain question number.  boys and girls alike showed us their mad hula hooping and hippity hop balling skills.

CRAZY EGGS/CLOTHESPINS/TISSUE PAPER was a lot of work to put together but all worth it in the end!

i want to post pics from today so bad, but i want to protect the kids.  i couldn't seem to get any pictures where every one's face was turned the opposite direction.

so, if you have several hours on your hands and want to see your kiddos bust some crazy moves while reviewing for a test, get to preparing...

here's how to make it happen (click on each picture to get a better view--sorry i don't know how to attach a pdf to the blog--need to figure that out)

 here is a portion of the "Runner Schedule" handout:

review game

i'm so excited i can't even make sense, so i will not try to fully explain tonight, but i cannot wait until the only class i get to see tomorrow.  we are playing "Crazy Eggs"--which actually translates to "Crazy Eggs/Crazy Clothespins/Crazy Tissue Paper" because i ran out of plastic eggs, which i was hiding review questions in, then i started using clothespins and i just ran out of those, so next i will ball up the question and then wrap a piece of tissue paper around it so they have to unwrap it.  i'm sure i'm making NO SENSE. 

i will post pictures and a full explanation by the weekend!

wearing my exercise skirt and lacing up the ole tennies tomorrow.  watch out kiddos....Mrs. Critzer has totally lost her mind :-)

new blog

since i've done such a great job (insert sarcasm) keeping up with this blog, i decided to start keeping a school-related blog too. check it out if you are interested:

I've got a foldable for that!

personalized paper lanterns

i could not be more excited about this project. i mentioned it the other day...it was featured on Dollar Store Crafts, HOWEVER...i have put my twist on it.

i think i mentioned that i have the kids decorate a paper lantern at the beginning of each school year to be hung from the ceiling for the year. 1--it decorates the room for the ENTIRE year and i don't have to really worry about anything else! 2--it allows the kids a way to express themselves so that i can get to know them and a way for them to display their uniqueness.

so, i saw the tutorial the other day and wanted to try it to see how it could work for my classroom. This is going to be FABULOUS! it's cheap (i probably already have all of the materials i will need), it'll be a fairly quick project, it's gender-neutral, completely unique to each kid!

Materials: 12 x 12 scrapbook paper (8 x 8 if you want them smaller)--use patterned paper so that when the lantern is done it will be decorated on the outside AND inside!
tape or stapler
scissors
scraps of ribbon
markers or colored pencils
old magazines for students to cut out images
glue sticks

Process: Have students decorate the WHITE side of the scrapbook paper however they want. (I am going to require mine to put their name somewhere on it and then i will suggest that they include things they like, sports they play, etc). When dry, hotdog fold (long ways) the paper. At the fold cut parallel strips toward the open end leaving a 1/2"space at the top. Roll the paper and bring the ends together with the fold in the middle...you should see the shape coming together. Overlap the two ends and tape or staple together. Tape or staple a scrap of ribbon at the top. Voila!

paper lanterns

at the beginning of each school year, i have the kids decorate paper lanterns to express themselves and they hang from the ceiling until the end of the year. typically i order the lanterns from oriental trading, but thanks to Dollar Store Crafts, i think i have a new idea...and cheaper!


http://thesaltypineapple.blogspot.com/2010/06/heather-mann-dollar-store-crafts.html

I think I will give the kids a sheet of white paper to decorate in a way that expresses themselves and then a decorative piece of paper to put in the inside for some extra color.

REALLY excited about this...can't wait to give it a try!

more math geeks transfers

i've just gotten started...this might be my new obsession for awhile. now that we are in our geometry and measurement units, i'll have plenty of great transfers to make!

box and whisker plot:

1st of my transformations...the slide:

i'm such a math geek!

we've started our unit on angles.

last night i thought of this for a t-shirt transfer!

i also have come up with some for other math concepts and skills that we cover. can't wait to share once i finish them!

tiffany--you know you want me to make you one of these!

trash to treasure

Every month at school we have "activity period." when we were in school it was called "club day." students sign up for the activity they want to participate in and then we meet 1-2 times per month.

For years, i did arts and crafts with janet, which was a blast...probably more for me than her because she seemed to always get stuck with figuring out what we were going to do!

I decided about a month or so ago that i wanted to turn my activity period "green."

our first activity period is next week and i'm really looking forward to it. we're going to tie dye and then decide on future projects.

there are some fantastic ideas out there. if you ever wonder what to do with old CD cases or bubble wrap or t-shirts that don't fit, there is a craft for it!

here is a list of some things i'd like to offer as projects:

-pen holder out of CD cases
-shopping bags out of t-shirts
-jewelry out of metal washers
-surreal collage pictures out of magazines and catalogs
-dog toys out of old t-shirts

and on and on.

i can't wait to send you pictures of what we come up with! until then i am going to keep searching for ideas!

school creativity

most people know this has not been my rock-star year at school, but there are a few things that are appropriate for this blog.

i mentioned loving color earlier and this was my way of introducing it into my classroom. i bought tons of paper lanterns from Michaels (and yes, we rode the ding while we were there :-) ) before school started...they were $1 a piece i believe. when fishing through the Oriental Trading catalog i saw some decorate your own paper lanterns and thought this would be a great way for each of my kids to express him/herself and have it displayed in the classroom. they did a great job. these have been hanging since the 1st week of school and i just love seeing them when i walk into my room. they seem to distract me from the 800 piles of papers and mess that need to be cleaned up!