Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Calendar Time in the classroom



This year since I have my "own" classroom, I made a bulletin board for calendar time. I use this board with the first and second graders...anyways, here's the calendar time as of now. It's not full yet, but maybe less busy is good for the kids.
We put the weather card up each day of the week. Then on Monday we start over. We also have a book that we graph our weather in. The kids think it's a real treat to be chosen to put the date up or weather or mark off the days, etc...
We have a hundred days of school chart hanging up on the bulletin board, so each day, we color off one more box.
Whatever the day is that we mark off on the hundreds chart, we find the corresponding number card and number word card. This teaches them what a number looks like spelled out.
Today we used the calendar and counted from 1-31. This student got to be the helper with pointing to each number as we said it. The two girls had to follow along and count with him.
The second graders started singing the days of the week song, so they got to take turns pointing to the day as we sang it in the song. We had to sing it 4 times, so each second grader got a chance to be the helper!


And, then we sang the months of the year song, and the second graders got to take turns pointing to the months as we came to them in the song. The kids think it's fun to sing a song in math class and it's fun that they catch on so quickly to a new song.

Anyways, I wanted to document this bulletin board. Although it's my third year teaching, it's the first year that I've been in charge of the calendar time and math meeting board. It will be interesting to see how it changes in years to come....

Monday, August 29, 2011

Learning about Angles

Today to finish up math, I thought I'd do something fun-- a little acting out of angles and other math terms. I did this with my fifth grader and 3 sixth graders. They thought it was a special treat to end the class with photography and acting out! I found this idea in a teaching magazine, so brought it to class to show the kids-- of course they said that they'd be happy to do it and they thought it looked like fun.
Perpendicular angle


Right angle


Obtuse angle
Obtuse angle-- different angle that I took the picture


Acute angle


Parallel Lines
Right when I called out"parallel lines" they kids all said "train tracks...make a train track!" Guess I've used that example a lot while teaching about parallel lines!...

Intersecting Lines


I think I'll print the pictures out and hang them up in the math room somewheres...the kids want to make some kind of a book with them. Maybe I'll put the picture on the page and they have to identify it and put a good definition down....

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

First Day of School





We started the school year off today. This is my third year with teaching at the colony. It's nice because I know the students and all the parents now and it's getting to be more familiar with the routine. This year I'm teaching all the math (1st-8th grade) and team-teaching social studies/science and pre-school (held two days a week.) Anyways, we started the year off by having a "fun" day and doing projects and activities. Because this is not a public school that I teach in and these kids all live on a colony all year-'round, we have to do something besides the typical introduce yourself activities on the first day.

The first thing we did was talk about rules, having our play store, which teacher is teaching what, and handed out school supplies.

Then we did a student inventory sheet and a magnifying glass where they had to describe themselves without giving their name.

Recess followed and then we did a little "baking" with the kids.
We had three stations--one for each teacher and our aide. My station was decorating chocolate cupcakes and making them look like a monkey.



The finished product that we made at my station

Another station made mini-hamburgers--- made from vanilla wafers (bun), coconut that was colored green (lettuce) and a chocolate cookie (hamburger.)
Lunch followed the baking activity. We were invited for lunch so we got a special treat the first day!
This is me with two of the students-- they are siblings and when I got to school this morning, they met me at my jeep wanting to help me carry things in. They were also proud of their new school dresses--- they match. :)
After lunch we took a walk around the colony with the students. It was a hot day--- 95 degrees out, so our walk was shorter than usual.
Our group of students, along with the two teachers and our aide.
Standing with my co-worker, Kay. Together we teach the 20 kids in grades 1-8, along with 2 pre-schoolers.

After the walk we did an art project and ended with a little movie. Tomorrow we start into the textbooks.

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Time with my mom

My mom and I have spent some time together the last couple of days. One of the projects that we had was canning peaches. Last week we bought 7 crates of peaches at a local fruit sale. Now they are getting ripe, so it means canning business for us!

My mom and I by some of our finished product of peaches!
Today my mom came up to see me at our new house. We went shopping in Wahpeton and then came back to the house to work on some school things. I had her coloring for one of my school projects.
Thank God for godly mothers to train us up in the right direction in life!

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

The weekend

Well, school time is getting closer, so I have been starting to get projects lined up at home. Right now I'm working on a social studies unit about the explorers. The project is making a book and having a "pocket" for each explorer with activities about them in each pocket.My niece, Kayla has been helping me make a sample book. She's been working hard on it the last couple of weekends. We are almost half ways done!
I saw my other niece Larissa this last weekend down in Sioux Falls. She is 7 months old.
Eating out with my sister Stephanie, Larissa (in the car seat) and my mom.

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Love Notes for Me

So, Andrew left for the ship last week (8 days ago) and has been on the east coast in the dock until today when they left. Before he left the house, he left different notes around for me to find....different love notes to keep my up while he is gone. I opened up the fridge and found one note--- right on the Mt. Dew cans.
Then it was time to make supper, so I opened the silverware drawer and found another one. So, now I have the four notes in our bedroom so I can look at them multiple times throughout the day....God gave me a good gift when He brought my best friend (Andrew) into my life.

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

True Love

Well I am back on the ship and will be leaving dock tomorrow and it is very sad. But I am very happy that Rebecca and I love eachother so much and with our trust in God, we can get through anything. I am keeping my eye on the day that I fly into Fargo and Rebecca is waiting at the gate with arms wide open.

We have been very busy on the ship with repairs that can't be done while underway and just catching up on things that the other crew didn't do. It is a lot easier for me this time, but I have gotten a lot more responsibilities so I still stay very busy. At least the time flies by for me. I am thankful that I will be able to email and talk on the phone every day with Rebecca. I guess we are making sacrifices now, for a better future. Working on the ship, being gone, but establishing a farm income in the future.

Well, although I am sad to leave, I am very thankful for the great wedding we had this summer and all of the time we spent together, from visiting mackinaw island, to raking and baling together in the field. Thats all for now. Andrew