Well it's that wonderful time of year again! That's right, back to school!
I've already been in classes for three weeks now and I can't tell you how much I'm loving it. This semester I'm taking classes that are preparing me to teach the core subjects, and it's really exciting. I'm also going to be spending some time in the classroom!!! So hopefully some of the things I share with you will be pertinent and interesting.
The first thing I want to share this school year is memories from my elementary years that could give you ideas for your future classroom.
One of the first memories (and many thereafter) I have is from second grade. My teacher was so awesome because he always did so many different hands-on activities that made everything more interesting. I remember doing a dinosaur unit, and we actually went into the sand box on the playground and dug for fossils (wooden dinosaur bones). Then we had to identify them based on what we knew about dinosaurs.
Another thing I remember from second grade is doing a space unit. Every year, my teacher would have his class make paper mache planets to hang in the hallway. His first year teaching he had the students make a little tiny planet for Mercury, then the next year made Venus, and so on. When it was my second grade year, it was time to make Jupiter. We were so excited because it was the big planet, plus we got to make the rings! We spent hours putting on paper mache, painting, and attaching the rings. We were so proud to finally display it in the hallway with the others.
The last thing I'll share for today is something that I did, you guessed it, in second grade. We were learning about metamorphosis and I remember my teacher telling me that this was everyone's favorite subject to learn about. Why? Because we got to raise our own butterflies! We each got our own caterpillar in a little container, and each day we would have to make observations about it. Soon it made it's little cocoon and my teacher moved it into a box where we could watch it hatch. A few weeks later, we started to see one by one the butterflies emerge. Each time one would come out, we would release it into our net that we had set up in the classroom. Then eventually they all were flying around in the classroom. I remember going into the net area and looking at all the beautiful butterflies and being so amazed that they were all once caterpillars.
These memories were all ones from over 10 years ago. I still remember them because my teacher was so wonderful. He had a passion for every subject he taught, and it showed. I can honestly say that he was one of my favorite teachers of all time. I only hope that I can be that teacher someday, and that someone will look back and say how much they loved being in my classroom.
Enjoy!
This link provides -as the picture suggests- a kid-friendly version of the common core standards. These standards are very controversial among teachers and future teachers alike. However, for most of us it's the new reality so we might as well get used to it. This site is great! It provides PDF versions of the common core standards for English/Language Arts, as well as Math, and Spanish. They're broken down by grade which makes it very easy to find what you're looking for. Then when you open the document, you can read the list just as easily as the students can.
The last thing I'll share for today is something that I did, you guessed it, in second grade. We were learning about metamorphosis and I remember my teacher telling me that this was everyone's favorite subject to learn about. Why? Because we got to raise our own butterflies! We each got our own caterpillar in a little container, and each day we would have to make observations about it. Soon it made it's little cocoon and my teacher moved it into a box where we could watch it hatch. A few weeks later, we started to see one by one the butterflies emerge. Each time one would come out, we would release it into our net that we had set up in the classroom. Then eventually they all were flying around in the classroom. I remember going into the net area and looking at all the beautiful butterflies and being so amazed that they were all once caterpillars.
This particular idea is an old straw dispenser turned into a pencil dispenser. It's a fun decoration for the classroom and something that can also be useful. I would even decorate it more with paint or stickers. It's better than a huge cup full of pencils that can get knocked over! Here's a picture ----->
You guessed it! Edible sand! I know this isn't educational, but after all, it's SUMMER! This yummy desert is made with vanilla pudding, vanilla wafers, and a few other ingredients.
The first is an idea that I remember my third grade teacher using. He turned an ordinary Jenga game, into a learning opportunity. What you had to do was, on your turn, someone took a Jenga block from the tower like normal. Except this time, if you successfully got the block out, then you would have to read the state then you had to say the capital. The capitals were on the opposite side of the block so you could check your answer.
My second post is a game that I learned at the summer camp I'm working at! This can be a fun outdoor game, or just a game in the classroom to get the kids up and moving. It's called riverbank. Have the kids stand on a line, tell them that to the left of the line is the river, and the right of the line is the bank. You then shout out words like: river, bank, hank, sliver, etc. When you say river, they hop with both feet over to the left (the river side) then if you say bank, they hop to the other side. You can repeat words, alternate them and even change the speed. If a student jumps to the wrong side, or if they mess up, they're out. We usually let the kids who get out be the judges, just so they're still engaged.