Terrific Tuesday Tip:  Getting your Students' Attention
We've all struggled with it.  I'll be the first to confess.  I sometimes have a difficult time to reign in the rowdy students after a fun activity.  Yet, this year I decided to spend a little change and bought this:

it has 7 fun sound effects as well as a volume control.  All  I have to do is just turn it upside down, and watch as my students stop, look around for me, and best yet...stop talking!  Works wonders!  Their favorite this year is the army trumpet - they stand up and give me attention.  It gives me the moment to give directions, then I sigh off with , "Get to work, Soldiers!" in my best sergeant major voice.  Hey - for $20 it was well worth it! 

As I said yesterday, I spent some time in three other teachers' classrooms and I would like to share what I saw in one of them.  See had the lights off, heads down, and no drinks.  I was amazed. Now, I have tried several ways to read aloud after lunch  -  it calms my kiddos down so they can get to work, but over the years, things get lost - like my ability to say no to the question, "Can we draw while you read?" Well, today I said NO.  I had the lights off, their heads on their desks, and I only read for about 7 minutes.  

What.

A.

Difference.

This afternoon we got more done in a hour's timespan than we have in a while.  I think I'll try it again tomorrow and see if the streak continues.  So, thank you Ms. Lee for showing me that doing nothing but listening is the just right thing to do.  

Now, I would feel remiss if I didn't put a picture of the Bean on here (seeing as this blog is named after him after all) so here he is along with that troublemaker, Edison.  Enjoy.   

Bean and the elusive Edison

Stay tuned tomorrow for World Wide Web Wednesday where I'll share some of my favorite websites!

Shauna'mar

Monday Made-It!

So today I had the distinct pleasure of doing some "reflective practices" which means in layman's terms, I got the day off to go watch other people teach.  I had a great time seeing how other teachers start a vocabulary lesson, a sight word lesson, and a writing lesson.  Great stuff.  There are some fab-u-lous teachers out there that have a great rapport with their students.  So, I want to thank those teachers that let me peek into their world today. More to come on what I saw in a later post.  Can't have all the good stuff at once, it'll spoil your appetite!

On the lighter side of things - the weather here has been fantastic!  We tried out the pool this weekend and can I say it was just a slice of wonderful?  I can't wait for summer and putting Bean in the water for the first time.  I personally think he is going to LOVE it!  I mean, he's already got his sunglasses, his sun hat, and can I say, can he look ANY CUTER?

Alejandro and Bean just chillin'.  What a bunch of cuties!

MONDAY MADE-IT!

I would like to try my hand at the weekly hints that I've seen on other blog sites, so here goes for a Made-It Monday tip.

FRY'S SIGHT WORD FRIES!!!

Directions:

Start out with jumbo craft sticks.  These I found at Walmart for about $5 in the craft section. 

 Paint them yellow.  (My art teacher at school was kind enough to make this a class paint project, so actually the kids' painted them!  I just gave her the sticks!)

Write a sight word on each one of them.

 My local McDonald's gave a few unused fry containers - all I had to do was ask!

Play the game!  Have students sit in a circle.  All the fries are in the middle aka "the fryer".  A student picks a fry, reads the word and if they read it correctly, they put it in their "fry" container.  If, they don't, it goes back in the fryer until it's "done."  The student at the end of the game (set amount of time) with the most "fries" wins!


Have fun with YOUR Monday Made-It and good luck!  Leave me a comment on how your class uses these! I would love to hear from you!
Stay tuned for a  Terrific Tuesday Tip on getting student's attention.  See you soon!

The Start of Something New

Saturday, April 27, 2013

All things have a beginning, well everything except a circle.  But that would be another post about shapes.  So we’ll leave that subject for later.

Welcome!  I’m new to this wide, wonderful world of blogging…so forgive me if I make a few mistakes.  I promise...I'm a fast learner!

My school year is quickly coming to an end, which means yet another beginning.  Next year I’ll find myself at new school, but this time closer to home – like a total round trip commute of about 5 minutes! No, I’m not kidding.  I have spent the last 6 years at a school that is 30 minutes away from the house, which means a commute of about an hour a day.  I’m ready for a change!  Now that I have Bean (my 5 month old cutie-pie of a son) I’m jonesin’ to be closer to home.  Can anyone blame me? 

Well, this blog has been in construction in my mind for about year and I finally wanted to start and build it.  So consider this my groundbreaking move.  I want this blog to be a place where one can share ideas or pick up a new one. We teachers all love to share and collaborate, and I am no exception!

So I’m going to start out with a fun activity for writing.  As the year winds down and testing comes to a close, I like to do this with my students.  Now I teach 2^nd grade, but really – this is so fun that any grade could do this, even high-schoolers!  What is this fabulous activity you talk about, pray tell? Are you ready for it?  Are you sure?  Mr. Potato Head Monsters!  Oh my!  Here’s the jist:  I partner up my students into teams of 2.  I give them a blank potato head body and tell them the rules.  They have to fill every hole with a part.  They have to creative.  They can’t be “normal.”  I give them about 10 minutes to create a creature.  Then, together they must write a story with their creature as the main character.  They have to use details.  They have to use descriptive language.  They have to have at least 1GOOD paragraph.  Then they must draw their creature as best as they can.  If there is time that day, they get up in front of the class and share their creature and their story.  Sometimes we save the share part for the next day.  The kids really love this – they finally get to play with my toys and show off their creations!  Download the stationary here and enjoy! Here is a pic of just three of the creatures my kids made.  
Super cute, right?  The stories were equally impressive.

Now, I know this post is kinda on the 'long' side, but as well as starting this blog thing, I have taken the plunge and started a store on TeachersPayTeachers as well.  I guess if you're going to go swimming, you might as well jump in the deep first. Let's see where this ride will take me!

Happy Weekend!
Shauna