I love the idea of coming up with a Summer Bucket List! Every year, I have grand plans of getting so much ready for the following school year, but I end up forgetting much of what I wanted to do by mid-July :-) This year, I have many school things I'd like to do, but I also have several things at home/with my kids that I'd like to do.

So, here it is...my Summer Bucket List:

1. Get everything ready to start the Daily 5 in my classroom next year. I am not sure if I will have time to do all 5 choices, but I hope to at least incorporate parts of the Daily 5. 

2. Organize! Organize! Organize! My classroom and my home both need help with this. I love the binder system suggested by Mrs. H at Once Upon a First Grade Adventure and I am happy that she offers some free printable labels for the binders! THANK YOU, Mrs. H! 

3. Summer Projects with my own children: My daughter and my son both LOVE doing fun, learning activities at home. I always say that I am going to work on different skills with them over the summer in fun, engaging ways. However, we end up getting so busy with trips, time in the pool, time with friends, etc. that I don't end up doing much. My daughter (who is in 2nd grade now) and I have plans to make a solar oven and to make cookies and s'mores in the oven! My son is a super-smart 4 year old who loves exploring and trying things out. I think I will try to some fun "sink or float" activities with him. I also hope to do some crafts (that they choose). 

4. READ! This one will not be hard for me! My Kindle always has a few good books on it. In addition to my light, quick reads like the newest Sookie Stackhouse book and others, I want to catch up on some books that my 4th graders might enjoy. I'd like to have my students do book talks throughout the year, and I want to have at least 3-4 new titles to share with them in my own book talks :-) 

5. SUMMER CLEANING! (aka Spring Cleaning) My poor house has been neglected this school year. Between my daughter's gymnastics schedule and the daily stuff...I have not done the heavy-duty spring cleaning that the house needs so much. I know that I have TONS of things that I can donate to charity or give away. I just need the time to really dig through boxes and closets and figure out what I can part with. Then all of the fun scrubbing and cleaning can come after that! 

I am excited for this summer! We have a nice trip to Pittsburgh (our hometown) planned. We will take the kids to a Pirates baseball game and play tourists for a few days, then spend time with our friends and family. It will be a great summer and I know I should be able to do a lot of things on my Summer Bucket List...if not all of them!!

Opened a TpT Store!

I have to admit, it is rather pathetic at the moment, but I finally took the time to start up a TpT store. I have one freebie on there, and I am attempting to add another item to sell. Sadly, I am having technical difficulties. I promise to work on it more as the school year ends and I have some time over the summer!

Colleen's TpT Store!

STEAM Week-Pt. 2

Our STEAM week activities were a huge success! We started our week with the landing of an MV-22 Osprey. The MV-22 is the Marine Corps' newest helicopter. The students not only got to watch this amazing machine land, they also had the chance to climb aboard and talk to the crew. The pilots and crew were awesome! They asked our students some really engaging, thought-provoking questions that showed our students how math, science, engineering, technology, and even the arts go into creating things such as the Osprey. Here is a brief video of the landing:

Since I was the "T" for the week (Technology), I wanted to introduce the students to a new program that they could use for school and for fun. Our school has a variety of software from Tech4Learning (www.tech4learning.com) including Pixie, WebBlender, and Frames. My students have had some experience with Pixie and WebBlender, but Frames was new to me and to the students. It enables students to create presentations with sounds, animation, video, narration, etc. We were very limited on time, but I asked the students to create some frames to finish this sentence: Technology is.... They LOVED the activity! Many of them stuck with "Technology is fun", "Technology is cool", etc. There were some that were so creative. One little girl made a slide "Technology is making memories" and she went on to explain how that is the only way she gets to see one of her siblings and other relatives. I have some fabulous examples to share (once I remember to put them on my flash drive to bring home). I will try to do that tomorrow :-) Until then, here is my basic example video I shared with the students at the very beginning of our technology activities.

The students really had a blast, and had a completely new outlook on how important Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math are in our everyday lives. Now I am challenging myself to really integrate and create some good units for next year that will keep that theme in my classroom.

STEAM Week

Our school system will be participating in a week of activities designed to expose our students to STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Math), and to make it a constant focus in our schools. My 4th grade team has decided to each pick one of the 5 areas and create activities to go along with that area. Our students will rotate to a new classroom each day for the week. While in our rooms, they will learn about careers, as well as having the opportunity to show off what they can do in that area. The teacher who is working on Science will be doing a wonderful integrated lesson about the distance of the planets from the Sun. Not only will students be learning some great scientific facts, they will be practicing Math skills, learning about scale, and even getting some exercise. I am doing the Technology piece, and I will be honest, I have way too many ideas. I have not narrowed it down to something that I feel will be perfect for our kids. I want something that will really pique the students' interest. I will have to report back when I narrow it down and see what my blog followers think. We are limited in what we have access to, and I want to introduce them to some tools they can use. Hopefully I get this figured out over spring break...it is all happening the week of April 23-27.

51 Followers!!!

Wow, I never thought I would get to 10 followers, let alone 50+! Thank you all for putting up with the fact that I am rarely posting fun or fresh ideas this year! I feel like I want to share original ideas, but to be completely honest with you, I am one of those teachers who borrows great ideas from other, more creative teachers.

We have our testing the week after next, so today was spent planning for some fun activities that will help the students review, without completing changing our instructional time (we are not allowed to "cease" regular instruction in order to review). Since I have been using Math Stations all year, that is the format I am going to use. I will even have time to continue with our "regularly scheduled" standards :) Heaven knows, we are nowhere near through the 4th grade curriculum in March. EEK!

I am excited, though, that after March 23, the stress of testing will be behind us and we can focus on having fun while learning. I took a brief course about using Gaggle (email, message boards, homework drop box, digital locker, etc) in the classroom, and my students are itching to get to use it on a regular basis. They were my guinea pigs. I set up message boards for them much like the ones in my some of my graduate school classes. THEY LOVED IT! The interactions and collaboration were better than anything they had ever done. They were polite and respectful, but willing to debate the topics.

Thanks again for visiting my little blog :)

Prime and Composite Numbers Smartboard activity

I adapted "Be a Prime Number Hunter" game from Education.com for the Smartboard, and my students really loved it. I think they just loved being able to use the Smartboard in a small group on their own, but it was a nice alternative to a traditional math station. Feel free to use the "game" if you are teaching prime and composite numbers. It was GREAT to hear the students debating about why certain numbers are or are not prime!


Prime Number Game

I Got the Liebster Award!

 

 

Thank you to Tales from a 4th Grade Teacher for recognizing my blog with this award!!! 

 

The goal of the award is to spotlight up-and-coming blogs with less than 200 followers. The rules are:

1. copy and paste the award on your blog
2. thank the giver and link back to them
3. reveal your top 5 picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog
4. hope that your followers will spread the love to other bloggers

Here are the 5 blogs that I chose to honor with this award as well:

Shepherd's Shining Stars 

A Time to Share and Create

The {Polka} Dotted Desk

The Teacher Organizer

Tales of This 4th Grade Teacher

Please check out these great teacher blogs for wonderful insights and ideas!!!