If I Were You and You Were Me....

We did this activity with mothers in mind for May, but I think it's great for Father's Day as well. It's a really cute little story-the father is tucking her in and says "if I were you, I'd go to sleep". Then they trade thoughts about how their days would go if they were in each other's places. Another way to bring in perspective. It's available on Tumblebooks too.

This is what my kiddos came up with for trading places with mom:

They would both get their ears pierced.

I will hug you and you will miss me.

You would ask for 20 games and I would tell you no.

I will carry you and give you bottles and take you to school.

You will go to 1st Grade and I will cook for her.

I would get you a lollipop.

I will tell you to take care of the babies and I will clean the house.

I will have coffee every day and I will give you piggy back rides. (Love the illustration)

Pyramid Substitutes

Our school year is quickly approaching the final days. We have about 3 weeks left. This is the time I break out the more "fun" themes! I actually polled my kids to see what they wanted our last few weekly themes to be. We have a staff member from Egypt, so that was something they wanted to learn more about. They were surprised to learn their culture had more to offer than just mummies!

For a pep rally during testing our class participated in making a Harlem Shake-type video clip. Since then they have been enamored with it and beg to watch it over and over again. I was pleasantly surprised to find a similar clip from a class in Egypt doing the Harlem Shake just they like to do--hmmm, not too different after all!

Anyway, one of the activities we did after learning about the Great Pyramids was to come up with another material the Pyramids could have been constructed from. There are no rocks, no stones...what could you use. I knew I was in for it when several students asked if they could write a funny answer. I hesitantly answered yes, so that explains some of the options. :)

My favorite answer! :)

New Uses for Everyday Things

I love this activity for critical thinking! You take any object and ask the kids to come up with another use for that object. I demonstrate with a pencil (and yes, you will get tons of answers that have to do with writing or drawing). What I'm really looking for are answers that don't have to do with the typical uses-I can put my hair up with it, I can open a soda can with it, if I had 2 I could use them for chopsticks.

Then I ask the kids to do their own. I like to start with paper clips because they are small and easy for the kids to manipulate. One year I did this activity and a student came up with my favorite answer ever: a hanger for ant clothes!

Here's some ideas my kiddos came up with:

to sharpen a pencil

as a hairbrush

A ladder for little people :)

Year-End Projects

We do projects all year in our class as a way to apply what we have learned. A little more time-consuming and and a little bit messier, but I think a good way to give my students an opportunity to apply their learning in different ways.

A colleague told me about this idea-they did the activity at her son's school. The objective is to find something on the school campus that inspires you and take a photo of it. My friend's son took a picture of a door--how deep is that! Then they take their picture and paint the image, make a collage of it and write about why it inspires them. Usually at this point in the year, they have developed more of an independence so they don't have to ask how to use the paintbrushes or where the paper is. They glue everything on a poster board and voila--an inspiration project.

Flowers inspire me to help the earth and pick up trash.

Miss Trayers inspires me because she is the best teacher. :)

It inspires me because it makes me to be smart and to learn.

The birds inspire me because they are cute. It makes me want to be a scientist.

Our music teacher.

The art teacher inspires me because she wants me to be creative and she teaches me art.

Chrysalis inspires me because it helps me to be a better scientist.

Some of the students did other students who inspire them, but I couldn't post them because it was impossible to remove the names. What do you think? I was proud of them.

They Know Me So Well!

In honor of Teacher Appreciation Week and because I thought we were due for a fun writing activity-- I gave my kiddos a survey to see how well they knew me. I asked them what I liked, didn't like, ate, did on the weekends, and what I always say. I loved reading all the answers. Apparently I am very fond of good listeners-that was a common answer. And I always say "good job". But my favorite one was this:

I like questions and do not like drama! Couldn't have summed myself up better. Here are a few of the other answers.

Like pictures, eat vegetables. The blog she refers to here is their Kidblog page (although on the weekends, I do spend a lot of time on blogs! :).

likes students, does not like getting mad, eats pizza, says thank you and hangs out on the weekends.

Likes paintings, does not like taking out the trash (we have breakfast in the classroom here and I really do hate that part-they always serve cereal too-milk everywhere, every day! ). Eats pizza, drinks tea, always says "you can take a buddy" and plays with Ruby on the weekends.

Likes Ruby, does not like noise. Always says-don't make a mess. On the weekends, she is away from kids.

I'm not sure what the first 2 answers mean.

Like to go to Hawaii, eats salad, says "you're welcome".

Likes good listeners, does not like messes. Eats cold peppers (I will eat chopped up bell peppers and they always ask me if they are hot peppers and when I say no, I guess that means they are cold ones!).

I am getting better about reading books on the weekends. The funny part to me is I don't eat eggs-so I don't know where egg salad comes from and all they've ever seen me drink is iced tea!