Little Scientists Save Summer

ATTENTION PARENTS AND TEACHERS:

Are your kids barely into their summer vacation and already whining, "I'm boooored"??

I came across the blog The Kitchen Pantry Scientist towards the end of the school year and just knew I had to get some of these science experiments in during the last days of school.

She's a fellow Minnesotan, and has been featured many times on our local news sharing fun science experiments.  She's an actual scientist (bacteriology), and explains the science behind all of the experiments.  Best of all, all of her experiments can be done with ordinary things found in your pantry!

First we did one called Magic Potion, using cabbage juice, vinegar, and baking soda.  I wish you could have seen their eyes light up when the chemical reactions occurred.  :)

Also from The Kitchen Pantry Scientist, we did Fizzy Balloons.  Super cool!

We did an experiment called Elephant Toothpaste (not from The Kitchen Pantry Scientist), which produced a chemical reaction (foaming) and a thermal reaction (warmth).  

Look, some of my former students stopped by for the fun, too!

Yes… They should have been wearing goggles….  :/

It was fun to play with the foam after the reaction… it was SO soft!

I even repeated the experiment with my niece!  Check out that little scientist!  :)

Our last actual unit in science for the year was exploring light and shadows.  We made shadow puppets using construction paper and popsicle sticks and explored how drawings and cut holes affect the shadows.  My students LOVED when I closed all of the blinds and turned off the lights in the room… it was VERY dark!  I gave pairs of students a flashlight and told them to take their shadow puppet, find a blank wall and make some shadows!  It kept them occupied for almost our whole science period!

So next time your kids say they're bored this summer, grab some simple materials and let them explore SCIENCE!  It might just SAVE the summer!

Reflecting on Another Year

Well, Year 2 is in the books.

I remember starting this year thinking it would be my best yet, and in many ways, it was.  The team I worked with became a strong group of colleagues and friends.  We worked so well together, and always supported each other.  My students were challenging, and the last weeks of school brought many frustrating tears.  But in the end, I loved each and every one of them and deep down, I could tell they loved me, too.  

It's funny how the course of one school year can bring about so many changes.  A colleague of mine shared the goal of being in a public school, and we had our eye on the same district.  In February, I attended a job fair, and by spring I had four interviews and two job offers.  So, I am pleased to tell you that next year, I will be making a jump from teaching 3rd grade up to 6th grade.

The last day of school was a bittersweet one.  My students had seen me packing up all of my things, wondering why I have to move everything.  It wasn't until the last day of school that I announced to my students that I was leaving.  As I was telling them, I started crying, which triggered many emotions from my students, including many tears.  Lots of hugs were shared and some students didn't want to let go.

 I will truly miss these gals!

It was a very weird feeling to turn off my lights and lock my door for the last time.  I will miss my first classroom, and my first school!

 As I embark on this new journey of 6th grade, I am both excited and scared.  But I know that everything I experienced in the last two years have prepared me for this moment.  So bring it on!  :)

A Special Note to Moms and Teachers

As teachers, we wear lots of hats.  We are nurses, counselors, secretaries, cheerleaders, and detectives.  Most of all, we are mothers.  Nurturing and caring; always looking out for the best interest of our students.

"Mom?  I mean…. Miss Woodward!" my students sometimes blurt, completely embarrassed.  

I laugh to myself, and wonder how I can possibly be thought of as a mom.  I'm a twenty-something teacher, not a mom.

This note was left on my desk on Friday afternoon.

I cried.  And smiled.  

Even when I feel as though I can't go on another day, I realize that I am making a difference.

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers, and teachers, out there.

TpT LOVES Teachers!

It's Teacher Appreciation week!  Have you thanked a teacher today?  :)

To celebrate teachers, Teachers Pay Teachers is hosting a sale tomorrow and Wednesday.  Lucky for you, everything in my TpT store is 20% off until Thursday!  That gives you an extra day to add to your wishlist and SHOP!  :)

Here are a few of my favorite products!

(Just click the picture to take you to my store!)

I can't wait to purchase a few things off my wishlist myself!

Happy Teacher Appreciation week, everyone!

Ta Da!

Do you SEE this?  Do you see my new blog design!?  I am so in LOVE with it!  

My little blog turns ONE in May, so I thought I would spruce things up and give it a fresh new look.  What do you think??

I worked with Melissa from Designs by Petite Kisses.  I found her here on Etsy.  She was so easy to work with, and really took the time to understand my style and how I wanted my blog to look.  I made a lot of changes along the way, and she was very flexible!  I am SO happy with how it turned out!!  :)

Finally… A Listening Center!

I know that I'm a little late to the game… okay, maybe a LOT late to the game (it's almost May- yikes!), but I finally got a listening center up and running!  I am SO pumped!

I LOVE shopping at Goodwill for children's books.  Look what I scored this week!

13 books, with audio cassette tapes!  TWO BUCKS FOR EACH SET!

Remember those cassette tapes?  I had to explain to my students how these were like CDs from when I was a little kid.  "Back in the olden days, we didn't have iPods…. and we had to have tape players…."

It was a difficult concept for them to grasp.

So, I found a boom-box with a tape deck, and got this listening center rolling!  They LOVE it!  (I wish I had gotten myself in-gear sooner in the year.)

Of course, I had to do lots of demonstrating of how to put the tape in and how to rewind it.  We did lots of practicing of how to operate the tape player, and how to sit elbow, elbow, knee, knee (EEKK), so everyone can see the book.  So far, it's working great!  Eventually, I would love to have my listening center be digital, like Mrs. Stanford's Class's Listening Center.  I love how she has it all organized with the iPods and headphones at a table.

But for now, these old-school tape cassettes will do the trick!  :)

What does your listening center look like?  How many books do you have in your listening center?

Tried it Tuesday- Triple Play!

It has been such a busy week!  Tuesday came and went, so today I'm linking up with Fourth Grade Flipper for Tried it Tuesday!

Last summer, I visited a teacher store in Nebraska and found this neat card game.  It's called Triple Play, and my kids love it!  I have a few sets:  Homophones, Synonyms, Antonyms, and Math Vocabulary (not pictured).

The games offer three ways to play: Go Fish, Memory, and Match Maker.  I divided each set into 2 piles, because each set has 25 pairs.  Try playing memory with that!  The cards spread across the whole table!  So I divided them up to make matching more manageable.  Now kids can just grab a bundle and get to work.  My guided reading groups especially like using them as a warm-up activity.

I love that the cards have clear pictures and sentences.  Perfect for my ELL kiddos!

A match from the Synonyms set.

A match from the Homophones set.

Like I said before, I found these at a little teacher store in Nebraska.  I did look online and the ONLY place I could find them was on Amazon.  I actually found many other Triple Play games that I had not seen before!  Click the links below to check out the games.  :)

Antonyms           Homophones          Synonyms

Letter Recognition          Ending Sounds          Letter Sounds

Things We See          Primary Math- Subtraction          Primary Math- Vocabulary

What did you try this week?  I'd love to hear about it!

Until next time,

- Miss Woodward