What I Made This Past Week...

Today I am linking up with Tara at 4th Grade Frolics to tell about what I made this past week.   She does a linky party every month for people to share about what they've made, whether it is for the home, classroom, or just for fun!  It's a great way to see what other bloggers have been up to.  

So this past week, this is what I created....

By BFF from high school broke her ankle about 2 weeks ago, and she had to have surgery to put a metal plate and some screws in there.  We live many states away, so I made a care package for her with some books and this homemade journal.  I plan on blogging about it, just haven't yet.   

 I used water color paper to make the flowers, then used some scrapbook paper to glue on the other side.  I cut it down to the size I wanted, and used my cutting tool to score the fold.  I then printed lined paper and cut it to size, scored it, and then my husband nailed 5 holes into the binding.  I then used a big needle and some bakers twine in orange to stitch the binding closed using a saddle stitch. This video was a huge help.  I then wrote in blue sharpie "You Are Loved" and "You are His".  I love how it turned out, and I hope she does too.

 I tutor a 2nd grader in art every Monday.  He is very talented in art, but unfortunatly the elementary school doesn't teach art.  Therefore, each Monday we work on some skills.  We started a new project on Ton Schulten based on this lesson by Paintbrush Rocket.  We are working with tempra paints, making tints and still covering simple shapes. It really is a great lesson for him.  We aren't done yet, and I am hoping we will finish this coming Monday.  This is my example I did before he came over.  It was so nice to just do an art project.  I've missed painting on a larger scale.

 

My daughter and I also painted outside using some watercolors I made about a week ago after finding an amazingly simple non-toxic recipe.  The recipe comes from the blog Happy Hooligans ... and it was a good thing it was non toxic, because Sweet Pea started drinking that water going "mmmmm"! Crazy girl.  We had a blast!  Her art work is now hanging on the wall in her playroom, and she loves to point at it.  

I also made an Easter sensory bin for her using all items from the Dollar Tree (I LOVE THAT PLACE!)  And I only spent $5 on it!  The bin has 2 green Easter basket filler bags , a stuffed rabbit, bunny shaped eggs, and carrot shaped eggs.  The flowers I already had and I just stuck them in the grass.  She loves to dig out the rabbit eggs and place them in a basket I already had.  This sensory bin will stay up through Easter, and I might add/take away some items to it in the next month and a half.

The last thing I created this week was an entry into my Sweet Pea's Legacy Journal.  This is Bible Art Journaling, but I just make sure that I am writing to her about what I want her to know. This artwork is based on 1 Corinthians 12 and 13, about gifts, the body, and love.  I wrote a blog post about it here.

I absolutely LOVE doing these entries.  I learn so much from studying the Word and reflecting on what it is that I truly want to write to her.  It takes me awhile to finally do an entry, but once I actually sit down to make it, it doesn't take too long. It's the preparation for the entry that takes a while, but it is so worth it.

So that was my week!  Whew!  It is normally not that filled, but I count my blessings in the fact that I get to be able to create and have fun with my girl.



Be sure to go check out Tara's Link Up to get some more creative ideas from others!
Happy Creating!

Linky Party: Music In the Classroom....Nay or YAY!!!!

YAY!!! I know yall know how much I like to search You Tube for school videos.... so I thought about making a little linky party for all those great finds all us teachers search high and low for.

Let me tell yall a little secret... I am not a fan of rap, hip-hop, or much of today's music.  I grew up on the alternative radio of the '90's (love it), but I now listen to Texas Country and Christian radio.  Obviously my taste in music clashes with what my kids like, but when it comes to learning, some of these rap songs couldn't be better I think.   Go to You Tube.... yes right now.... just open a new tab... type in Mr. Lee.  See all those different songs about Science?  My kids LOVE them.  In fact after I showed the one on the Rock Cycle a few weeks ago, tons of my kids went home and searched more songs of his.  Warm fuzzy feeling taking place:)

One of my students came in the following day and said, "Mr. Johnstone, can we please listen to the Phases of the Moon by Mr. Lee?  I love that one."  Wait.... you want me to play you a learning rap song??? Ummm YES!!

So without further ado... here a few that were my students favorites this year....
BEGINNING OF SCHOOL YEAR....
Meet Mr. Lee (also has lots of science and math songs)

 MATH....
Meet Mr. Duey (great math songs)

 SCIENCE....
Meet They Might Be Giants (Science songs for all ages)

Do you have any songs that you love to play for your kids?  Link up and share! (this is my 2nd linky party... I hope it works right!)

Currently I am....

Joining a Linky Party.... and this one is awesome!  It is hosted by Farley at

She has a fabulous template that you can use too!  I had a little trouble getting it to work at first since it is a JPEG, but if you use your handy SNIPPING TOOL under the Microsoft icon (I am a PC), snip it, and open it in paint.  Then I just added some text boxes and wrote my info.  So here it is-- you might have to click on it so you can see it better. 

Hop on over to Oh Boy 4th Grade and link on up!!!

A Special Honor and My Top 10

I have been outta town this weekend and finally got on the internet tonight.  I was so surprised and honored to find out that.....

 

 Thanks soooooo much Jen at Rundle's Room and Pam at Vintage Teacher for nominating me :)  Yall really made my day!!!!

So in honor of getting this awesome award, I too am making my top 10 list.

In the beginning, one of the first blogs I followed was:

Sydney is sooo creative and has the kindest words.

 

Tara referred me to become a contributor on Create Share Inspire and has inspired some of my ideas

Jen has awesome ideas!!!

Another blog I love to grab ideas from is from
Pam at Vintage Teacher!!!

Mary has really helped me figure out stations in my math class.

Rebecca is one of my teaching buddies on Create Share Inspire but here is the link to her teaching blog.

Ashleigh has awesome ideas to share and pics that inspire me.


Denise started me on Linky Parties and has lots of great tips!





Last but not least... Light a Candle is truly inspirational.

Any blogger can give this award to those that make you smile!

1. Just write a blog post proudly displaying your Top 10. Make sure that they do not already have an award.  (I too broke this rule)...
 

2. Contact these bloggers by leaving them a comment with 2 links- a link to your blog's Top 10 post AND this post's link-http://bit.ly/rtHPbL  so they can grab the fantastic award button below.

If you have been nominated by a fellow blogger, please grab your award below and enjoy posting it proudly on your fantastic, award-winning blog!

1. Remember to thank and link back to the person who gave you this award. 

2. Award 10 favorite or recently discovered great teaching blogs and mention why you've chosen them! Make sure they do not already have an award. 

3. Contact these bloggers by leaving them a comment with a link to your blog's Top 10 post link AND don't forget to tell them about this fantastic award button in this TBA post link - http://bit.ly/rtHPbL - Have fun affirming one another! 

New Teacher Advice Linky Party

It has been a while since I linked up, but I found a new party about New Teacher Advice that I wanted to join at

For the past 2 years, I have run my classroom with the help of a timer.  I live and die by the timer and my students know it after the first week of school.

I bought it at Wal-Mart for about $5.00 and it been worth it!  It's also magnetic which is a double plus because I can keep it attached to my white board and not lose it.  One of my students asked me this week,"Mrs. Johnstone, why do you live and die by the timer?" My list of answers to her was something like this:

1. Studnets know exactly how long they have to do something.
2. I can talk forever and love to talk, so it keeps me from running my mouth.
3. It makes sure that when I am having the students talk about their learning for 2 minutes...it doesn't run to 5.
4. It keeps me able to teach Math AND Science... I would totally lose track of time and end up having to cut Science short.
5. It sets the time for recess and I don't have to worry about bringing my phone since I always forget to wear a watch.
6. It BEEPS!!!! Super signal that students' time is done and time to move on.

LOVE my timer.... if I lost it.... I would run to the store during conference to get another one.  I have used mine so much that the labels on the buttons has worn off. 

I still wish I had used one in my self contained 3rd grade class.  I could have found the time to do S.S more often if I had I think.

Mission Organization: Dice and Card Games

A week ago... was it a week ago... yes... well a week and a half ago... I went to CAMT - a math conference for Texas teachers.  I went to a workshop hosted by Box-Cars and One-Eyed Jacks.  They have FANT-A-BULOUS  ideas for games with dice and cards.

Since I am starting at a new school, I needed dice and cards for this new station I am going to implement.  So I went to the most logical place...DOLLAR TREE!!!  I puffy heart that place.

I stocked up on cards and dice.  Each package was only $1.00.  The cards came 2 sets of cards for $1.00.

I am going to use the colored dice as negative numbers.  We cover positive and negative integers in 6th grade so it will be an easy way to add or even subtract numbers. Well, I bought at least 6 packages, and then I bought some weird, fun dice at the conference.  Then the next question that popped into my head was "How am I going to organize this??"



Enter inspiration from pinterest... By the way: Can anyone tell me how to make an account???  I REALLY want to pin stuff!!! Thanks!  :)

So I went to Wal-Mart on the hunt for one of these craft organizers... but I found something better... I think anyway.... I lure box for $4.00 in the fishing area. Here's a pic with the label on it.

The AWESOME thing about this box is that it had dividers you can insert where you want.  So after I organized all my dice it looked like this:

You can see a 30-sided die, some 9 sided ones 10-sided, one die has another inside of it (great for fractions) and on the second row from the top all the way to the right is a die with 3 dice inside of it (great for making mixed fractions or number sentences...order of operations...)

Last but not least, a label:

Now for cards...

I use to teach 4th grade math and we used Everyday Math. We had a ton of cards and I colored each side of the different decks with different permanent markers.  That way if one fell on the floor I could say "Who has the yellow deck?"  Instead of "Who is missing a 4?"  Made life pretty easy.

Well at my workshop, the instructor said that if his kids weren't playing games in 30 seconds, then they weren't really interested... he had to make it happen QUICK... so he suggested for teachers to organize all their cards into 2 boxes.  One box 0-5 (king becomes 0) and a 6-12 box (jack=11 queen=12).

This way when you are just beginning a concept, the kids can grab from the 0-5 box.  When you are ready to challenge them, have them get 6-12 or some from both.  He also suggested that the students just get a handful of cards, shuffle them by mixing them all together on the table, and just saying here's half and here's half and letting the partner choose which half he wants.  This takes like 20 seconds or less... no more ... one for me... one for you... takes forever.  So here are my 2 boxes which I labeled later.

This will drive me  a little crazy for awhile since I am PSYCHO about organization and balance... I was starting to freak out when I was getting all the cards mixed up... and started to panic when I drew in permanent marker on my cards.  :)  Still makes me cringe a little looking at the pics.... but I keep telling myself... Leslie--you are saving at least 5 minutes of teaching time... breathe.....

I'll keep yall posted on whether I really saved time or had a organizational breakdown... whichever comes first :)

Wanna learn about more dice games?? Head on over to Little Miss Kindergarten's Dice Linky Party!!

New {School} Year's Resolutions

There is a linky party going on... and Clutter-Free Classroom is hosting!

My school year resolutions:

1) Figure out and implement Math Stations for 6th graders.  I have done a lot of training on differentiated instruction and math centers for the middle school room.  Hopefully I can make this happen.

2) Use music in the classroom for transitions between stations and during class.  I'm going to set up my IPod dock and hook my phone up to it and down load simple songs to it.  I also hope to use some power teaching strategies too.

3) Leave the school before 5!!!  Living 30 minutes away means I can't spend all night up at the school house.... Lord knows I could though! :)

4) Use more technology... even though I only have one computer and no smart board, I want to try to use our computer lab at least twice a month for using Web 2.0 tools.  Hopefully the dual credit classes wont use the lab all the time. :)

5) Have more fun with the kids!!!

Notebooks & Journals in the Classroom LINKY PARTY!

For the past two years, I have used journals in my Science classroom.  Next year, I am planning on using them in math.  I wrote a short post on that here.

I LOVE JOURNALS!! It keeps everything nice and organized with all their vocabulary, lab experiments, and paragraphs about their thinking.

For the past two years though, we did not decorate our covers or anything, but this year, I am going to let my students decorate their math and science journal using copy paper and magazine cut outs.  I have already decorated mine and you can see them in in this post.

I just got back from a 3 day conference called CAMT (Conference for the Advancement of Mathematics in Texas) for teachers.  There were tons of workshops on journals, which all filled up FAST!! However, one class I went to- and have gone to before, was on Dinah Zike's Foldables.  If you have never seen or heard of her, you are missing out!!!

Here is a video I found on using foldables in the student's composition books. Even though this video is on Entrepreneurship, you can see a variety of foldables and get good ideas of how to incorporate them in your class.

One other idea, before we get to the PARTAAAA.... this can make your composition book become really large.  However, I saw this great idea... using a single hole puncher, punch one whole in the back top right corner of the composition book.  Then attach an extra large rubber band so it can be looped to hold the front and back cover together.

I would love to see how you use journals in your classroom.  Although mine are mainly math and science related, any and all posts about using notebooks/journals are welcome here :)

Bucket Filling 101

I am still new to bucket filling.  It is something that I learned through proteacher last summer.  If you are not a member to the wonderful site, filled with teachers, for teachers, and tons of ideas about teaching... then you need to go now!  Just click on the link, but would you please finish reading about bucket filling??

Bucket Filling is a new take on the age old principle "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" or "Treat others how you want to be treated."

Bucket filling is a way of classroom management and it works!!!  Especially if you start off from the get go with it.  This past year, on the first day of school, I read this book to my students in our library area:

It's about this boy who has this imaginary bucket over his head - we all do- and our daily interactions determine whether we fill a person's bucket (you want to do this) or dip from a person's bucket (don't do this).

After reading the book, my class and I made a T-chart with one side being ways to be a bucket filler and the other was ways to be a bucket dipper.  We then brainstormed actions, sounds, and words that we associated with both being a filler and a dipper.  At the bottom of the chart I wrote, "We promise to be bucket fillers!" and each of us, including me, signed our chart.  I then hung it on our door in the hall.

I wish I had made little cards, like many teachers have, but I saw 80 kids a day and didn't know where or how to organize 80 kid's buckets.  But I did read it to all my students, and I posted this banner I made on vistaprint above my door to remind the kids and myself about being a filler:

If you like the image you can get it here at this website.

I am teaching 6th grade this year, and I still plan on doing the same thing as I did with my 4th graders with them.  I will only have 40 kids this year and see each class for half the day.  I think I am going to have a bucket per table and fill it with little pom-pom balls when they are on task, or working well together, or if just one person does something great, I'll still add pom-poms to that bucket.  I want to do cards, where the kids fill out who filled their bucket and how.  I was  thinking of having them turned into me and I would draw one from the stack and give a free ice cream or lunch in my room for the student who wrote it and who they wrote it to.  Then I was thinking of passing all the cards to the people they are written for.

Sixth grade is the beginning of an emotional whirlwind and the thing I am most concerned about is embarrassing someone.  I think if I do bucket filling the way listed above, I am rewarding those who are the fillers and the students who recognize it, and I am preventing embarrassing the student who it is written about.  If they want to share it, they can.

I am open to any suggestions you may have on how to make this work in the intermediate classroom.  :)
And if you would like to learn more about bucket filling head over to First Grade Brain's Linky Party on bucket fillng.

So the big question you need to ask yourself everyday and with each human contact you make is "Am I filling this person' s bucket?"

Blog Mixer Linky Party.... my Fab Four

So Yearn to Learn is having a BLOG MIXER LINKY party!  I just love Linky Parties... you learn sooo much from so many different people.  Below are the directions...

In your link up find the following:

1.  A blogger who is a "New Kid on the Blog"
(Let's say someone who has blogged 2 months or less and has less than 200 followers)

2.  Post a blogger in your same grade level

3.  Post a blogger in a different grade level

4.  It's all about the button. Find a cute blog button and post it.







So here are my Fabulous Four:

1.  New Kid on the Block goes tooooooo:

 I know I know... that's me... and I normally NEVER vote for myself in anything, but I just started blogging this past weekend.  AND I LOVE IT!!!
  
2.  A Blogger in My Grade Level (6th) goes toooooo:  

She has some great ideas!! I have barely scraped off the top of what her blog has to offer and look forward to learning more.

 3. Blogger in a Different Grade Level goes toooooo:  

She is the first blog I started following, and even though she teaches Kinder (I'm 6th) her life story seemed to remind me of myself.  I am so happy she is sharing her story and it has inspired me to blog mine.... now I just need to do it:)

4. Blogger with an Adorable Button goes toooooooo:

Anything Science I love... and I have never seen a button like hers.  Great Job AMY!