Special Days - July

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Part-Part-Whole Bracelets

I did something similar to this last year. This year, when we made our bracelet, I made certain they used five beads of one color, and five beads of another color.

I showed them how to do part-part-whole addition problems using the bracelet, which they quickly learned. The next day, I introduced subtraction problems, which were harder, but after a couple of days they got the hang of it!

Old Purses Can Hold a Treasure Trove

If you're like me, you have at least one old purse with a shoulder strap in your closet you haven't donated to Goodwill yet. Let your child have it and let them "hunt" for "treasure", using the purse to hold their goodies. Even boys will take to an old brown or black leather bag.

T is for Teeth

A neat little letter T activity the class next door did.

The Fishing Pole Game

1. Go to the dollar store.
2. Buy enough of those fishing pole games for one center/station, and several sets of magnetic letters.


How to Play:

*Dump letters into a box or bin.
*Altogether, every child has to "fish" for letters.
*You set the rules. Such as, first child to spell a word with their letters wins! (note that all words must be CVC or at least 3 letters long - but you may start earlier in the year with 2-letter words such as at, me, my)
*Children can also practice "catching" the letters in their names
*To make it harder, have them draw a card with a word on it, and they must catch it

Note: To use this at the beginning of school, have them try to put the letters in alphabetical order. Ex: Someone has to catch the A, then someone has to catch the B. But they're all fishing at the same time!

Childhood is Not a Disease

Make It a Water Bottle Summer

Heard this bit of advice over the radio, and thought I'd share it.

This summer, before you and your family head out on that road trip, take the kids to the store and let them pick out their own water bottle. That way they'll know which one is theirs. Plus you're promoting the drinking of water over soda or other sugary drink.

One other thing: whenever possible, fill up with tap water from the sink or water fountain, rather than use commercially bottled water, because cities and towns infuse their water supply with fluoride,  which helps prevent tooth decay.

What Kid Wouldn't Want a Pair of These at the Beach?

It's the Little Things

It's the little things you cherish when you're a teacher. Like the time the children were doing their morning work. I had a few who had finished early, so they were supposed to be doing a puzzle or some other activity until it was time to go to the carpet. I just happened to glance up from my desk to see these two boys over by the classroom library, engrossed in a Dr. Seuss book. Now that they have learned to read, the students are hooked on books, and want to read everything I offer them that they can decipher. Seeing these two working so hard, and enjoying what they were working on, I couldn't help but grab my phone and take a memory.

Show What You Know!

Before this last school year began, I'd bought several of these from Target to use in small groups. I found a neat way to use them in game format, thanks to catching an old rerun of "The Newlywed Game".

We played "Show What You Know!"
Basically, I divided up the class into groups, and gave each group one of those laminated boards and a write on/wipe off pen. Then I gave the question - anything on any subject that we've been studying. Gave them a few seconds to huddle and come up with an answer. Then I called out, "Show what you know!" They would show their answer they'd written on the board. I'd give a point to each group with the correct answer.

Winning group got a reward.

I Loved His Shirt

It'll Be Here Before I Know It

Tomorrow my school is hosting a retirement party for me and one other retiring teacher. The last official day of this school year is Thursday, and Friday is a work day to break down the classroom for the summer.

It's been a wild 35 years, with lots of ups and downs, but I'm not quite ready to give it all up yet. I'll still be posting to this blog, so please keep it in your feeds a while longer.

See what my school district honored me with? Such lovely roses and a clock (although hubby asked me why I got a clock when I won't be needing to set the alarm anymore). Out of curiosity, I looked into the tradition of giving a clock to retirees, and I found out it symbolizes "Time Served". 

See? Even old teachers like me can learn something new.

Classroom Game - Alphabet Search

This last week of school is hectic, to say the least. So I came up with this easy game to get the whole class involved. 

I found some word searches on the internet, and put two to a page. I then gave a sheet to each child, and as a group they had to find how many times each letter of the alphabet was repeated. (They wrote the alphabet on the back of the paper, then wrote the number they found. They divided up the alphabet so that each child searched for a different letter, making the hunt quicker.) Afterwards, I had each table give out their answers, and awarded points to those who had the answer that matched mine. The group with the most points got to be "leaders" in line for the day.

Of course, it took a little while for me to come up with the answers, but we had a great time of it!