School's Out for the Summer!!! What Now?

Well it never fails when the end of May/early June rolls around everyone wants to know what I'm doing with my summer.  They are pretty sure the answer is going to be absolutely nothing.  Last summer I did quite a bit of that because I spent two years working 60-80 hours a week and might as well have slept in my classroom. This year, things aren't quite as laidback.  In June, I will be teaching summer school, going back to grad school, and doing a professional development course online (the setup sounds an awful lot like a college course).  In July, I have a 5k with my family (my first) and two conferences to go to.  I also have a list of projects that I want to get done. Definitely a busy summer.

Last summer, I let the summer get away from me and didn't get half as much done as I wanted to.  We were also starting two new series and you never know how it is going to go until you get started so I felt like I was in limbo and didn't know what to do.  Not this summer.  I have a project list a mile long and I am determined to get as much done as I can.  So how do you stay motivated? How can I make sure my summer doesn't slip away and suddenly it's August and I'm back in my room with all my wishes still sitting on that list?

I started that this week.  I actually want to try during July to make sure I keep a regular schedule.  I live alone so there are no kids to keep me moving. It's easy for me to just laze around and say I'll do it later.  My goal is to work from 8-3 with a leisurely lunch break.  If something comes up, then I don't have to stick to it (I went to yoga class this morning), but just laying around on the couch isn't going to be an excuse.  This is taking some will power because right after lunch I really want to call it quits and take a nap. Remind me again why nap/mandatory rest time isn't required throughout school...

I am the queen of work while I'm watching tv or lying in bed.  While I usually opt for that on weeknights during the year because I still get to pretend I'm relaxing (pretend being the operative word there), during the summer I have cleared off my desk and made an actual work space that I'm going to use.  It makes it less likely for me to "accidentally" shut the computer and watch another episode of Gilmore Girls.

I'm bad about going and going and going until I'm burnt out.  I want to make sure the time that I do take off I really enjoy.  For example, I spent Memorial Day weekend with my family.  I thought about bringing a laptop.  I thought about all the things I could start working on from their house. I opted not to.  I decided that was my time and I was allowed to enjoy it.  GASP!!! Time where teachers don't work.  Time where we don't think about our class.  What is that? I already know there are certain times that I won't stick to my work schedule because I have other things that are MORE IMPORTANT than my classroom.  It's ok to have fun. It's the summer and I don't want to spend next year burnt out and tired because I didn't take care of myself this summer.

Do you have ways that you stay motivated to accomplish some of that to-do list during the summer?

Out of this World Summer School

This will be my third year doing summer school and this year they don't have a specific theme. That means I get free reign. Oh you know how happy that makes me. We are also rotating. We have three third grade rooms and I will have all those shining faces in my room at some point during the day. Teaching the same thing 3 times? I can do this.

I decided to go with space as my personal unit. I wanted my kids to get excited early so I started with door decorations. I'm definitely thinking my next room theme might need to be aliens/outer space. 

Yes I do know it's crooked and could use some help but I was opting for fast and easy because it will only be there for a few weeks.  

Spelling City: My Hero

So I like using Spelling City because my kids enjoy the games. What makes me even happier is I don't have to reinvent the wheel. They've already got my spelling lists for me! 

Once you get to the webpage, click on the search tab at the top. That will bring you to this page: 

On the left side you see the yellow/orange (not sure how to classify that really) and that has popular series lists. 

I clicked on Reading Wonders to get to my series. 

The blue box has all the lists and even includes, approaching and beyond level. Once you find the set you want (I use the 3rd grade on-level) just click and it will bring up all the stories. 

Click games and you are ready to roll. I'll also link the games page to my website. I don't have to enter anything. I don't have to think about questions. It's done for me! I love saving my time and effort. 

Reading Fair Finished Pieces

We presented our reading fair boards and here are some of the finished products. 

Reading Fair

This week we have been working on a culminating project and it just happens to be our reading fair boards. 

My mom (who is also a teacher) found tri-fold boards at the Dollar Tree near her and she has done this reading fair for a couple years. She typically sends home the boards with the students with information on what has to be included on the board. She works in a school district that doesn't always have the best parental involvement and has high poverty, but she says she only has one or two students a year that don't bring the board back. 

This year I decided to try it, but I didn't want to send the boards home. I have a group that I was pretty sure wouldn't participate. I didn't want to set my kids up for failure so I bought the boards ($1 per kid so not too shabby) and decided this last full week of school would be a great time to start working. 

Each student picked a book that they read and loved. Then we spent a couple days on the computer typing out the information we needed to go under the headings: Title, Author, Setting, Problem, Solution, Characters, Summary. My mom also included tone and purpose, but I wanted to keep it super simple for my first year. Once they each typed out all their information under the headings, they changed fonts to fit their personality and book. Then we printed them, cut out headings and typed information and put them on a piece of construction paper so they would stand out on our board. 

Next came the fun part: decorating! I did get the kids slightly started on this part. I let each child pick (choices were red, green, black, blue, and yellow) what they wanted their board to be covered in. Then I covered the boards while they were in specials. 

First I laid the trifold face down and taped down the paper to the bottom and top aides of the board. 

Next, I flipped it to the paper side up and practiced folding it so I could smooth out the front and taped the sides. 

Then you are ready to decorate! I'm sure there is a "better" way to do it but it worked just fine and had minimal impact on me or my kids. 

Here are a couple shots in progress. 

They put the typed information on the sides and then illustrated the middle of the board. 

Next year I want to make sure I have plenty of extra odds and ends so they can decorate with Pom-poms, feathers, tissue paper, etc. that way it's really 3-D. They had a blast for the most part. Monday we are going to present our boards. I'll post some finished products then!

Pack It Up

Every year I try to find more ways to pack things so I can quickly and easily unpack. Also, I have exactly one shelf across my back wall that I can stack things in and on. Everything else has to be put away and empty. 

This year my new trick is my manipulative buckets. Each student has a set of manipulatives that is all their own. I had a student teacher working in my room so we were able to check that every bucket had the right supplies and replace what was needed. She also went through and numbered everything (you should definitely do that before you put them out but I live and learn the hard way).

That was right before testing. This is the first week after testing and today the student's morning work was to take everything in their manipulative bucket and bag it up. The only things that wouldn't fit were their rulers and place value charts so I had them leave those out. 

I took those gallon ziploc bags and put them in a large box. Now my manipulative buckets are ready for next year with minimal effort!!

Sub Plans for Anyone

Subs can either be your best friend or your worst nightmare.  This year, my subs definitely run the gamut from "amazing and could teach my class all year" to "I never ever want to miss another day" kind of subs.  I've also been the sub in classrooms where you have almost no information about how the teacher runs the room or what kids should be doing, so I am constantly working to make my sub plans super easy to handle for my subs. 

This year, after coming back to a disaster of a classroom and a sub who sent tests home with students and kept quick multiplication pages, I was mortified. One of the girls on the hall suggested I put post-its on each worksheet that would give the sub Cliffs Notes version of what needed to be done with the work.  The only thing was I am plan to be out for two days and I was writing the same things over and over.  It felt like a waste of time.  I liked the idea, but there had to be a better way to do this.  So I came up with these cards.

I am hoping that once I cut these apart and clip them to each set of work, it will make it super easy for my subs.  I am also printing them off on colored paper so it jumps out at the sub.  These won't replace my sub plans, but they will make a cheat sheet for my subs.

End of the Year Scrapbook

I had this fabulous idea at the beginning of the year that I would show everything I had done for our scrapbooks as the year progressed. I think I even got through Christmas with at least some ideas. For me, that's not bad. I didn't really keep it up though. I will give a look inside though.

January: My student's did a New Year's Resolution page. Next year I want to do a photo booth so I have a picture. January is also when we wrote our superhero narrative. The kids also got to pick a superhero on FaceinHole and we made superhero pictures to go with their story. 

February: My kids are "Wanted" for some lovely crimes. They get to come up with their Valentine themed crime. We also write a Valentine letter to include in the scrapbook. 

March: This year my student's drew a leprechaun trap and wrote a story about trapping a leprechaun. We also studied adjectives and they wrote ten adjectives describing themselves around their picture. To top it off we did a unit on animals and researched an animal and created a PowerPoint. The PowerPoint slides were included in the scrapbook.

April: April is one of my favorites just because we have a little fun. First, we took pictures with photo booth props and turned ourselves into rabbits. Then they wrote a story about their teacher's secret life. We also wrote letters to the principal to tell them what we would do if we had our job. 

  

End of the year: I try to have the scrapbooks done by testing because after testing things tend to move fast. This helps me get them put together. I try to include a poem from me and a few added pages like pictures from recess or from fun things we did in class.

Throughout the year I try to laminate and keep them in order and I have files for each student. Once I have most of the pages I hole punch them. Right after Spring Break I send home a note asking for a binder with a cover that I can insert a cover page in. It doesn't take long at all to put them together if you've done the work ahead of time. 

Moving Matter

 Today's matter lesson was on physical changes. Going from a gas to liquid to solid and back. Well in about two paragraphs they throw particles, freeze, condense, melt, evaporate, all at my poor little children who are just now learning solid, liquid, and gas. I'm sitting there as we read and discuss and I'm slightly confused. My kids are confused. We need some concrete here. Not the concrete to bang your head against either. 

Step 1: Particles.  We talked about how particles make up everything and they are so tiny we can't see them. 

Step 2: Moving Particles. I had my students show how particles move in different states with their hands. 

First we showed how solids have particles that don't move a lot because our hands are clasped tightly and when they are squeezing together they really don't get to move. Liquid particles slide past each other and gas particles are just crazy messes that go everywhere. They really like gas particles because they got to fling their hands around like crazy people. 

Step 3: Changing States of Matter. My kids needed to know what it meant that things were melting. How does that change things? Everyone stood behind their chair and I turned the lights off. We didn't have energy. We were a solid and our particles didn't move much so we stood still. I turned on one light switch (we have 2 total) and that was us adding energy. As we add energy those particles start to move and that solid changes state. My kids started walking around the room slowly. We talked about the state that moves slowly (liquid). We talked about how our physical change was like ice (solid) becoming water (liquid) and we call that melting. I know that's a lot of info but our science book tried to do four changes in two paragraphs. Talk about a lot. 

So once we were good with those states and melting. I flipped the second light switch. Now we were adding even more energy and if we have even more energy what happens...that is exactly how I worded that. Can you imagine what happened? Yep. Furiously moving bodies everywhere. We became their favorite thing ever. Gas. They knew they were a gas. They've got that down. Now we talked about liquids changing to gas and how that is evaporation. 

Step 4: Do everything backwards. I thought that was enough for my kids today so next week we will review and then jump into going backwards from gas to liquid to solid and talk about condensing and freezing. We will run around like crazy gas particles, condense into liquid, and freeze into a solid. I'm hoping that makes things make a little more sense to my kids and they get out some energy at the same time.