The Marshmallow Challenege, Cells, and a Baby

Oh me - oh my. Have I been a slacker or what!? These last few months have F.L.O.W.N. by. Whisked away by Father Time. I cannot believe it's the middle of September and I also cannot believe that I haven't posted anything since July. What a loser.  But in my defense. I am pregnant. Ha! Seriously! I'm almost 12 weeks and feeling every ounce of misery that poor pregnant women often go through when they are in the early stages of pregnancy. This is my first pregnancy, so I'm probably just being a whiner more than the experienced preggie would. I sleep all the time, I eat junk like crackers and cheese and frozen yogurt and bread because I cannot even be in the same room as anything else. Smells make me sick. Any smells. Sweet smells, garlic smells, onion smells, basically any food smells - and the WORST. People's breath. I can smell you a mile away if you've had anything remotely close to Italian food and it's AWFUL. So I stay at home all the time and I when I talk to people I can't look at them or be in close "conversation" distance from them, so people probably think I'm just a jerk. But the good news is that my energy is coming back and I am counting down the days until my second trimester starts. Maybe I will be able to eat my beloved Mexican food again. Oh, Chimichanga smothered in queso - how I've missed you!!!

Anyway, so I just wanted to throw that out there and I also wanted to share my first few weeks as a teacher. It's been soooo daggone hard on me. I feel like a terrible teacher because my heart just has not been in it because of how sick I've been. I mean I waited SO LONG to step into my very own classroom and now that's it's here - I can't enjoy it and embrace it like I had envisioned. I am so thankful that I started my plans back in June because having them done has been my saving grace. But it has been really fun and we have done so many cool things in my room already! The first thing we did as a class was the Marshmallow Challenge. I won't bore you with the details of it because you can just click here to read all about it. But I WILL put up some cool pics from our very own Marshmallow Challenge. Have a peek!

They loved it and I highly encourage you to check out the link above and DO THIS in your classroom! They learn the importance of listening to each other's ideas, working together, and most importantly, the importance of PLANNING!! It's really neat to see these awesome, super-tall structures develop and then when they wait until the last minute to put that marshmallow on top..the whole structure collapses. They scramble to get it right - and to make sure it's TALL - when in reality if they stopped and thought about it...they would realize that EVERY group is going through the same thing. All they would have to do to win is create a structure only tall enough so that when the marshmallow is placed on top...it doesn't fall down. We loved it and I'm so glad we did this the first week!!

These next few weeks, we're learning about the parts of a cell and comparing plant and animal cells. I love teaching this stuff!! It's as much fun for me as it is for the kiddos. I found the most hilarious RAP on TeacherTube and they went berserk for it!!! I will definitely be hearing the kids recite this rap for the next few weeks. Check it out here. It's worth a listen!

I am in the process of creating a "Pin the Organelle on the Cell" game in addition to an "I Have, Who Has" game - cell edition. I have used the I Have, Who Has game format for so many things. It's a great go-to game, especially for reviewing. It's also a great way to quickly asses who "gets it" and who needs a little help. Once I have the I Have Who Has Game, I'll post it up along with pics of my Pin the Organelle on the Cell game.

DiscoveryEducation.com has been my best friend this year. There are TONS of great resources on that site. Below is the interactive cell that I found on there. Go check out that site if you haven't already "discovered" it. Ha! See what I did there?

Last thing I want to share is this pre-made cell version of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire". It's fantastic!!! I found it here. But look how cool it is!! I am so glad this person offered this for free. I would have at least made five bucks a pop off that thing! I can't imagine how much time it took. Nevertheless, I am thankful for freebies.

Okay, that's all for now. I think I've worn off my welcome-back. Now that you know my legitimate excuse, I hope you can understand my lack of posts. I will try to come back next week for more, but I'm not making any promises. It'll be up to my fetus...

Until next time!! Toodaloo! 

First Week of School

Ok teachers! It's officially getting down to the wire. It's time to start planning those back to school activities! I love these types of activities, personally, and I am thrilled to be already planning them.

I posted earlier about my Daily Discovery that I will be using everyday as a tool to get my students to come in and get focused. The Daily Discovery tasks will be anything from trivia questions to logic to common sense to just plain silliness. However, during the first week of school, these tasks will be focused on procedures, getting to know each other, and general back-to-school stuff. I just wanted to share these ice-breaker type activities in case some of you out there are struggling to find something awesome and engaging to do during the first few days back.


FIRST DAY:
In addition to the Word Scramble that I mentioned in my earlier post {listed below}, I also plan to have a "Snowball Fight". What?! A snowball fight in August? Yep! Students will write down three things about themselves on a piece of paper that they think is interesting. Then, they'll wad them up and once everyone is ready, we'll throw them around the room in snowball-fight fashion! After a few minutes (or seconds...) students will pick up the "snowball" that's closest to them and introduce that person to the class. Of course, Mrs. Brown will participate in ALL get-to-know-you activities of the week!

DAY TWO:

Since the first day will be devoted to introducing procedures, the second day will be the day that we make sure everyone understands what's expected of them in my science lab. Hence, the "Around the Room" questionnaire. Day two will also be the first day of real instruction. We don't mess around at BWF Elementary!

DAY THREE:
By today, we're hopefully on a roll and we understand the way our little science world works. Now it's time to get to know our new friends! The snowball fight provided a mini-intro for each student, but now we want to know lots more about each other. And we'll do that with a Human Scavenger Hunt! This isn't a new concept, but I really like it and think it is appropriate for fifth graders.

DAY FOUR:
Okay, today will be the first "real" Daily Discovery question. But I threw in a little something about myself to make it a little more fun. This task involves putting dogs in order by weight, according to the clues. But the dogs just so happen to be characters from Mrs. Brown's real life! Layla is my dog, Foxie, Sammie and Roscoe are my momma's dogs, and Otter is my little sister's dog. Of course, I will introduce this fun fact after the students have completed the task.

 

DAY FIVE: 

Week wrap-up! By this time, I will be thanking my lucky stars that I survived the week! But I also want to give students the opportunity to reflect on everything that has just been thrown at them. What are the excited about? Nervous about? Want to learn more about? This is the perfect opportunity to implement a "Dear Me" letter. Each student will write a little to himself/herself that will outline any or all of these things, plus anything else they want their future self to know about. I will collect and save these letters and at the end of the school year, I will pass them back out. It will be important for students to have tangible evidence of how much they will have changed by the end of the year! And even though I teach science, I still strive to incorporate all subjects, especially writing. And yes, Mrs. Brown will definitely be writing a letter to herself, too!

I hope these have given you some ideas that you can use during the first few days of school! I would love to hear any new ideas as well! It's never too late to go back and change my plans or incorporate another activity!!

"Wildlife-Ologists" at the Birmingham Zoo!

I am ecstatic to say that I f.i.n.a.l.l.y have something to concentrate on other than the 1-800-GOLDBERG commercials that I've been forced to endure for the last month. I have been so bored without having school or work to deal with! My husband even took notice on the fact that I can now recite all of those pesky lawyer jingles that daytime television is flooded with. I honestly don't know how people don't work. What do those people do all the time?! {I TOTALLY understanding being a stay-at-home mom. THAT'S a totally different thing than what I'm referring to.} Anyway...I am teaching summer camp at the zoo and had my training today where I also picked up my curricula for the 3 camps that I'm teaching. Let me just say that this is the most laid back curricula I've ever seen. It's just going to be FUN. For all involved. I think I'm honestly more excited than the kids. True story.

My camps are only a week long each, so I don't have much time with the kiddos to build rapport or community. But my community-loving self is sure gonna try. To help develop an immediate sense of community and friendship, I thought it would be fun to break the ice with a little human treasure hunt! I'm sure most teachers have seen these, but I whipped this one up with a treasure-hunt/Birmingham Zoo theme so that I could add the parrot to the map! {The Birmingham Zoo is graced with a huge parrot display right when you walk in. It's AWESOME. Those parrots are so pretty!!} Anyway, here's a peek:

I wanted to share to show that you could take this super simple "beginning of the year" activity and make it work for anything you might be doing this summer. I will definitely be using these for all three of the camps I'm teaching. I think it will be the perfect, quick "Hi-ya!" activity to use for camp.

The other ice breaker activity that I love and will use to introduce names {before the treasure hunt activity} will be a ball toss where I will start with a little Nerf ball {or whatever the kids are calling them these days} and say my name and maybe something about me.

I still don't have many followers on this blog yet {super bummed - so I finally get 60+ followers on my old blog and then I leave it! Dummy me.}  but anyone out there that's reading, leave me what you do to break the ice on the first day. They might be helpful for me during my camps!