Donor's Choose Projects of 2013

I love Donor's Choose.  I know many of us use the site to help provide our classrooms with materials and activities we otherwise could not afford (or should not have to pay out of our own pockets).  Of course I love the site for myself, but I also love to go on and browse other teachers' pages.  Honestly, it really helps ME put things in perspective.  After all, I AM pretty lucky to work in a school with mid to high SES.  And sometimes, many times actually, it's nice to be reminded...because I'll be honest, it is quite easy to forget.

So, although I do work in a school with a higher socioeconomic status population, there are still items out there that I wish to have in my room to help my students succeed.  And for that, I'm thankful for Donor's Choose!  I have submitted a total of 3 projects, 2 of which have been filled.  (The one that didn't was actually my first project, which I submitted in late April, early May, not even realizing how that would impact the project getting funded or not.  Now, I know better to "plan" my projects and their timing!)

The latest project I had funded this year was "Fabulously Focal Math Fluency: Building Our Speed In Grade 2".  It centered around math fluency supplies to help my students build their foundational skills in other ways than just file folder games.  Don't get me wrong-- I'm SO not hating on file folder games...trust me, I have PLENTY, and my students use them daily.  It was nice, though, to have new, fun, and different centers for the students to use for math facts, because let's face it, they are SO important.  I think my favorite part of my submission hits home on this point:

"Grover Whitehurst, the Director of the Institute for Educational Sciences (IES), noted this research during the launch of the federal Math Summit in 2003: "Cognitive psychologists have discovered that humans have fixed limits on the attention and memory that can be used to solve problems. One way around these limits is to have certain components of a task become so routine and over-learned that they become automatic." These new math items will help all learners with this fluent retrieval!"

ANYWAYS...enough with the ramble...now it's time to share what all came with my funded project:

~Math Dash: A fun way to practice math facts, instead of simple flash cards.  Students pick a color, draw a "fact", and if correct, get to place their "fact" tile down on the sum or difference.  First color to get 4 numbers in a row on the board wins.  You can read the actual rules/directions here.  Review?  My class LOVED it!  And all it was was simple addition and subtraction problems...but having them in this new format was great! 

~Math Mat: A plastic, battery powered "mat" that spouts out questions about numbers, counting, addition, subtraction, and even missing addend.  Players listen to question, then press correct answer.  Features 3 games with 2 skill levels each, although we stayed pretty much on level 2.  The level 1 questions were a tad too easy for end of the year in 2nd grade.  Review?  Another GREAT tool my kiddos loved!  It was fun, colorful, talked, and they got to move.  I loved it because they had to listen to the question before answering, so it also taught them that even though it was fun, they couldn't be CRAZY or loud, because they would miss their question!

~Math Diction: A "Pictionary" type game, where students would draw a math vocabulary word or phrase.  Then, they would spin to see if they had to act it out, draw it out, give a hint, or read the definition for their partner to guess.  Review: Although the cards were separated into Grade 2, 3, and 4, some of the 2nd grade cards were not content we learned, and some of the 3 and 4 cards were!  Nevertheless, it was a good little review game where my students got to think about important vocab from throughout the year (that otherwise, we may not have had time to review!).

Thinking and drawing a math word/phrase during Math Diction!

Acting out a math vocab word/phrase during Math Diction!

Three other parts of our project not photographed were Mathological Liar, Block Building, and Place Value/Ordering/Missing Number cards. 

Matological Liar is an interesting little game that we played as a whole class.  It is a "card game" based on sets of math mysteries. Each round is a new "case".  Each "case" presents a setting and a problem.  There are 4 suspects per case, one or more who may be guilty. Out loud, I would read the "case", and then read each of the 4 cards containing each suspect's alibi.   If the math in a suspect's alibi is correct, then he is innocent.   Incorrect math indicates guilt.  Players decide if their suspect is innocent or guilty as a table!  (These are not the "exact" directions, because it is meant to be a small group game, but I loved doing it as a whole class!)  Then, on white boards, tables would tell me who the guilty person/people are and WHY.  This made them think about their math reasoning and work together.  There are over 50 "cases", and needless to say, we did NOT get to them all!  Review:  SO very awesome, and I'm so glad to have this fun game for future use. 

The Block Building and Place Value/Ordering/Missing Number cards were more individual activities, but our class loved them both, too. 

So, enough about me.  Tell me about you!  What all have you submitted in the past?   What all have you had funded?  (My first project was for a NOOK Tablet that my children loved to use and abuse...)

I'd love to hear about your experiences (and maybe even get some ideas...), so feel free to leave me a comment below!  :)

Part 2 (and a FREEBIE) of My Summer Gift For Students!

For those of you who read my previous post, I explained the first part of my summertime "gift" for my students.  Along with the beach ball and activity booklet, I add a few other goodies to their paper grocery bags.  What are they, you ask?

Well, the first is the part that actually contains the rest of the goodies...an adorable cardstock box.  My students were absolutely OBSESSED with my Silhouette this year, and every time I brought it in to use, they always loved to watch it, ask questions, see how it worked, and of course, got little cut-outs of their own.  So, what better than to make them their own little "secret box" to keep for ever and always?!  :)

Inside the box were 3 more small gifts...

 

 

1. A black & white picture with me-- Of course I LOVE to take pictures (not normally of myself, though!), and my students know it.  All year long I'm snapping pictures, so what a better way to end the year than with a picture of each student and myself?!  The reason I did black and white this year, you ask?  Partially because of my OCD, and partially because it fit my "theme" of the boxes, where everything was black/white and one color...

 

2. A "hippo forever" award-- Our school has a HUGE award assembly the last week of school, where students are recognized for "legit" awards, such as "AB Honor Roll All Year", "Perfect Attendance All Year", etc. etc.  What a more fun way to celebrate the end of the year than with a mini award reminding the students that even though they're leaving my class, they'll still always have a place in my heart (and theirs) as a hippo forever (our class "mascot", if you're confused!).  :)

 

3. A small, top open card, containing an end of year letter for my parents--

I know it's small and blurry, but you can
see it all by downloading the freebie file!

To coincide with reminding my students that they'll be hippos forever, I also place this extremely loving letter in each end of year gift for the parents of my students.  WARNING: It always makes me cry the first time I reread it each year.  I did not come up with the wording, but it's something I've used since my very first year teaching, and I believe it truly expresses the heartfelt feelings of a caring teacher at the end of each school year.

You can have a free, generic version of this letter as a PDF file by clicking here.  There are 2 pages-- one blue for boys (with the wording containing "he", "him", etc.) and one red for girls (with the wording contain "she", "her", etc.). 

I always "address" each of mine with the parents' names up top and sign my name and the year at the bottom, but you can choose to do it how you'd like!  :)

 

So, that's it!  There's the last of my "End Of Year" gifts for each of my students.  Like it?  Hate it?  Have something better?  I'd love to hear what you guys do for your own students at the end of each year!  Leave me a comment...I'll be waiting to read 'em!  :) 

   



Hope You Have a "BALL" Summer Gift For Students (& a GIVEAWAY)!

The end of the school year is hard.  I mean, on top of all the teacher stuff, like paperwork, folders, files, documentation, grades, and so on and so forth, you have the class stuff, too!  And, I'll be honest, most years it's kind of sad.  Even those tough years can get me a little blue in the end, too.  We spend 9 months in a room with 20+ kiddos, each and every day, and then, all of a sudden, they're not going to be ours anymore.  It's certainly a weird feeling that I do believe no other profession experiences. 

So, end of year activities are always fun.  We always complete a "Memory Book", do other fun Summer activities, travel to other 2nd grade rooms to sign yearbooks, and much more.  But, for the past two years, I've also been partaking in a few, special "End of Year" gifts which are both meaningful to me (and the kiddos, too!) and fun!

You can find this fun activity with more info on
what's included here on TpT!

The first fun "gift" is one the students get to participate in.  It is a neat beach ball "scoot" that ties in with my "Hope You Have a "BALL" Student Summer Gift".  Since I knew I'd be giving this little booklet out at the end of the year, what better way than to incorporate the students into it, and make/keep some memories in the process?!  Basically, each student gets one plastic, UNinflated beach ball.  I generally buy cheap ones, no more than $1.  (Last year, I got mine in the dollar section at Target, and this year, I got mine at the Dollar General-- both were $1 a piece.)

We unwrap our beach balls, and I give the students about 5-10 minutes and ONE section (generally the white one) to write the name LARGELY and doodle with sharpies.  I try to spread out the colors of sharpies, and they share at their tables.

After the students have had ample time to "doodle", we all choose one color sharpie, then play "scoot" with our signatures!  For those of you who are unfamiliar, basically we start out at our desks, then SCOOT to the next "stop" (desk), where we will sign out names, put our sharpies up in the air to signal we're ready to move, then SCOOT again!  This continues until we're all done signing and return back at our own desk.

 

After we finish signing, the balls get returned to me, I put them in a large paper bag (paper grocery bag is a great size), and store them away until I can add the rest of the "gift".  What's the rest, you ask?  Well, of course, it's the little booklet that you can find on TpT to accompany the beach ball, BUT, there's also a 2nd part to my gift each year...

 

**Want to win a free copy of my "Hope You Have a "BALL" Summer Gift"?  See if you can GUESS what else goes into the paper bags for my end of year gifts.  I'll give you a clue...there are 3 other parts!  The first 3 people to correctly guess one part (that hasn't already been guessed!) will WIN a FREE copy of my TpT file!!!  Woo-Hoo!  So, whatcha waiting for?  Start guessing!!! :)  I'll be back soon to post "part 2" of what goes in the bag!

Eric Wight Author Visit!

Last year, our elementary school paired with a few other schools around town to bring Kevin O'Malley to our campus to chat, perform, inspire, and just be a little silly with our students!  :)  THIS year, we were blessed to have another author visit from the chapter book author and illustrator, Eric Wight.  For those of you unfamiliar, he is the creator of the "Frankie Pickle" series. 

School Library Journal describes his first book: "Franklin Lorenzo Piccolini is a fourth grader with a big imagination and an alter ego named Frankie Pickle, an amalgam of pop-culture icons from Indiana Jones to Batman. His messy room spawns an adventure that ends when the filth is too much even for him. Wight matches a silly story to black-and-white cartoon graphics in a chapter-book format. Readers who have graduated from Dav Pilkey's Captain Underpants and Ricky Ricotta series (both Scholastic) will be charmed by this longer story." –Lisa Egly Lehmuller, St. Patrick's Catholic School, Charlotte, NC

Well, not only does the main character in Eric Wight's chapter book series have a huge imagination filled with creativity, but the author himself most certainly does, too!  In our hour long, grade level presentation, Mr. Wight not only told the students about himself and his life, but he also truly inspired the students to write themselves by sharing his experiences and his writing styles and techniques!  He made it seem SO very fun and effortless, that we all left with a new story frame/outline to help us create our own, new story, but also with a new outlook on writing for most of my kiddos! 

The new story idea, you ask?  Well, it's none other than "Frankie the Hilarious Hippo"! 

Just like Kevin O'Malley, Eric Wight used the students' ideas to come up with this new, outrageous story line/knock-off of Frankie.  Our class was so proud to help focus the new character around none other than a hippo (our class "mascot")!  Who knows, after all his fun and kooky stories, maybe Frankie as a hippo could be next?!  I mean, it's not too far off from some of his other tales...

Anyways, of course, after hour of fun inspiration, we just HAD to pose with our newest favorite author!

So, 2 visits in 2 years...LOVE it!  How about you?  Do you have author visits?  If so, who have you seen in person?  I'd love to hear about it!  :)

What Your Social Media Habits Say About Your Teaching Style - | Diigo

Last Summer, during one of my many technology workshops and learning opportunities, I signed up for Diigo Education Updates.  About once a day, I'm sent an email with some online articles on different topics about education.  Almost all are in someway related to technology, and I will admit, there are some days where I don't click to read any...but then there are other days when I read all of the new links to posts they've sent! 

Well, yesterday, I was sent quite a few interesting ones that I'll be sharing with you all over the next week or so.  And, here's the first. 

It's called, "What Your Social Media Habits Say About Your Teaching Style - | Diigo".  Click on over to read the full article.  It's super interesting, and I'd love to hear where you fall and how accurate it was for you!  Although I'm not a 100% "Power User", I do seem to fit in that category the most, and the synopsis of my corresponding teaching style fit pretty accurately!  :)

Like the article and want to sign up for the Diigo in Education group?  It's free, public, and optional:

Teaching Arrays with Sticky Notes

Okay, I'll come right out and say it-- teaching multiplication in 2nd grade is hard. 

A few of my students still have yet to master their addition and subtraction facts, but then, many of my students are at the point where they're itching to learn multiplication and division!  Some kiddos already have started memorizing their "times tables" with the help of siblings or parents, so I have to ask myself, do I really want them just learning those rote multiplication facts without a conceptual understanding of why multiplication is what it is (and what it means)?!  Aye aye aye!  You can see what I mean!

So, with only 3 weeks left in our school year, our curriculum begins to introduce multiplication.  By no means do my second graders have to master multiplication nor division by the end of year, but I guess I do believe that now, a small, well planned out introduction is necessary and can be done...as long as it is done slowly and "deeply" for all students!

Along with teaching "groups of" and "skip counting" as methods to begin multiplication, our curriculum also calls for us to teach arrays.  For those of you unfamiliar, an array is basically an arrangement of a group of objects or numbers, lined in equal rows or columns, neatly...so students can see "___ rows of ___" or "___ columns of ___". 

After introducing my kiddos to the vocabulary, we made a few changes to the definition to make it work for our activity!

We crossed out "numbers" and under the word object, wrote "sticky notes", so our new definition to use for the day was "an arrangement of a set of sticky notes in rows".  Perfect! 

Then, we got going with some hands-on practice, because after all, that's the best way to learn anything!  On the board, I would write a statement, such as "10 rows of 2".  The students then would write the same on their dry erase boards.  Finally, as a table, they would make these arrays with sticky notes, and on their dry erase boards, under the "10 rows of 2", they would decide upon the corresponding multiplication sentence and write it!

At the very end of our class practice, I gave each table a different multiplication sentence, such as "8 x 3" or "5 x 4", and together, they had to figure out the array, arrange it, and write both the array statement with "rows of" and multiplication sentence:

Finally, we stuck our posters on the wall, to use as reference material for the rest of the year, and added an entry to our math spiral, to use as a reference, too:

So, there you have it...a quick, easy, and fun yet conceptual array lesson to help introduce students to multiplication!  This was the first year to use stickies (considering the idea popped into my head at 3:56 in the middle of the night...isn't that always when the best ideas come, in the middle of sleep?), but I couldn't of asked for a better way to teach my kiddos.  They loved it, I loved it, and they learned...what more could a girl ask for?! 

I'd love to hear how you all introduce and teach multiplication and division concepts...I'm always looking for new teaching strategies, especially this late in the year, when my brain is fried and ready for summer!  :)

Fun Box of Yum! Healthy Surprise Delivery

Recently, I stumbled upon Healthy Surprise-- a subscription program which delivers a box a month of healthy, natural, vegan, gluten free, and soy free goodies.  I chose the "Starter Box", which includes about 16-20 servings of yummy goodness. 

Everything can be kept at room temperature (which I LOVE, since I just took my whole box with me to school).  Inside, there were tons of new snacks that I've never had before, so I thought I'd share a little "review" with you!  :)

I ordered my box on Sunday, and it was delivered on Wednesday.  How's that for speedy delivery?!  The box was oh-so cute and branded, and you can see inside was stuffed with munchies.  Let me separate them and give you a little "run down"...

Cocomojoe Cranberry Bar:  This was the first thing I ate.  YUM.  Yes, it was a little high in calories, but it was a scrumptious compilation of coconut, cranberries, and more.  I actually ate this as an after school snack one afternoon, and it filled me up!

Thunderbird Energetica Lemon Rain Bar: Gluten free and very heavy for its little package.  Quinoa based, it's not your typical granola bar.  Very dense, not my favorite flavor, but all in all, it kept me satisfied!

Just Fruit Bar: All that's in it is fruit purees and juices.  It was like "fruit leather" but much more moist and yummy.  Love it a lot and would definitely eat again!

Alter Eco Dark Chocolate and Almond Bar: Of course, super delicious.  Not like a normal super sweet Hershey's bar, much more bitter, but just letting a square melt in your mouth was enough!  I broke this into pieces, and it lasted me three separate times, even though the package says 2 servings!

Rawma Bar: TBD.  Yet to be tried!

Kale Krunch: Dried kale snack with a "kick"...it has a coating on the outside.  Mine was "Southwest Ranch" flavored.  Tried a piece, but it was way too spicy for me...I'm a weenie when it comes to "hot".  Donated the rest to the teacher's lounge, and it was gone within the day.

Hail Merry Macaroons: OMG.  These are gluten free, dehydrated coconut macaroons.  DELICIOUS.  Very crumbly, so at first I was a bit leery, but after eating one, I was in love.  I actually got on line and ordered more from the manufacturer!

Plentils:  These are lentil chips.  A good substitution for potato chips, much healthier and gluten free.  A good snack when you need something crunchy and salty.

Peter Rabbit Fruit Snack:  This particular one was a banana and apple "puree" type snack.  Kind of like baby food...I felt kind of silly eating it, since it's in a squeeze type bottle.  But, it is just banana and apple...yummy and healthy.  (I do have to admit, I ate this after school in the confines of my room, though, because I thought I'd look really funny eating it as a snack in front of my kiddos!!)

Freeze Dried Pineapple Crunchies: TBD.  They're actually my "next up" in snack rotation.  I'll let you know on Monday!

Happy Hemp Seeds:  TBD.  It's a healthy size pack of hemp seeds.  Not quite sure what to do with them yet.  Never had hemp seeds before.  Maybe I might mix them in yogurt or another snack...  :)


So, there you have it-- my mini, informal "review" of my first Healthy Surprise box.  Nope, I wasn't paid for any "promo" or given anything for free, just signed up and enjoyed it for what it was.  It's perfect for teachers like us, so I thought I'd share the program to anyone who's interested!  It's a month by month subscription that you can cancel at anytime.  For now, I think I'll leave mine and see what shows up next month-- after all, the items inside constantly change, which is what makes it a "surprise"!  Interested to sign up or learn more?  Here's a little more info, and of course, you can always click on over to Healthy Surprise!