Chalkboard + Photo + Writing Project = BRILLIANT!

I saw these photos all over Pinterest last year and loved them!

BUT.... I wanted something different I just couldn't figure out what until I saw this idea!

I LOVE it! Wouldn't this make a great keepsake for parents. There is so much I could do with a big holdable chalkboard. Just think...

If I were President I would... 

If I was <insert name of character or 

famous person here>, I would... 

If I lived in <insert name of place here>, 

I would... 

If I was a <insert occupation here>, 

I would.... 

Can you imagine how cute this would look with a writing project? Oh! I can't wait to do this! I am going to make (or buy) a chalkboard so we can do this at the beginning of the year and then maybe one other time during the year. OR maybe quarterly for our "portfolio projects."

Have you done this? How would you use this in your classroom? 

2 Facts & an Opinion

Have you all heard of the game 2 Truths and a Lie? I saw a bunch of you planning it during a linky party recently and so wish I had time to join up but I have been swamped! Good thing this is my last class before student teaching so I will have time to play with all of you.

Anywho....

I was racking my brain for an idea on fact and opinion when I realized you all had the perfect answer for me! A game, A game! 2 Facts and an Opinion or 2 Opinions and a Fact. Whichever... they both work!

So that is what I did! The next day I grabbed the students reading textbook (we use StoryTown) and started reading random sentences from stories we previously read. Which of the 3 sentences I just read is an Opinion?

I did several samples and then I choose a "teacher" for each table group. The teacher then read the sentences to their group from any story they wanted and asked which one was not a fact or not an opinion depending upon the version that they choose.

We played 5 minute rounds and then I switched teachers. Total of 2 rounds (15 minutes is all we have between specials and lunch). This helped my students A LOT. They aced the fact/opinion unit.

No prep work. Nothing to print or laminate. Just grab any book and go!

The Incredible Edible Cell

My son came home the weekend before Winter Break with information on how to complete a project that was worth 40% of his grade. This was on a Friday and the project was due on a Monday. Now normally I would complain about not receiving advanced notice from my children about such a thing but the paper was dated on Friday.

The teacher gave NO NOTICE!

This is a pet peeve of mine. We live paycheck to paycheck... well we did when we were working. Now we have no income and a giant project due on Monday. The school is aware of our circumstances yet no help with this project was given. Sigh... 

To further irritate me, he was given a rubric with little to no information on what to do and was given the advice to google for help. So I googled. I found a lot of information on the Incredible Edible Cell Project. This site is particular good for information on cells.

We were also told no jello. 

Most edible cells are made out of jello. 

Alternatives I found were a cake and a pizza. Since he got extra credit for creativity, we came up with the idea of a cookie and a pie as well. We went with a pie.

How to make...

Using the site I gave you above we had a pretty good idea of how to put the pie together. We filled the pie crust with chocolate pudding. Then we used a melon-baller to make just the right size in the orange to insert the peanut butter cup. Then we stuck the nucleus (orange) into our pudding pie. We surrounded it with the other items and finally labeled it with toothpicks.

WALA... one edible cell!

The pictures make a backwards L in the order in which we added the items so you can kinda see step-by-step what we did. For the tooth-pick labels I cut strips out of index cards, folded the strips in half, and the stuck the toothpick in gluing the two sides together. 

What we used... 

Cell membrane = Graham Cracker Crust 

Nucleus = Inside of the Orange 

Nucleolus = Reese Mini PB Cup 

Nuclear Membrane = Orange Peel

Cytoplasm = Chocolate Pudding 

Smooth E.R. = Gummy Worms 

Rough E.R. = Sour Gummy Worms 

Golgi Bodies = Blue Laffy Taffy

Ribosomes = Candy Sprinkles

Mitochondrion = Twix

Vacuoles = Chocolate Chips

Lysosomes = Orange M&M’s

Centrosomes = Marshmallow 

Cost: about $50! 

And I already had some of the ingredients on hand (sprinkles, chocolate chips. marshmallows, and M&M's). I also bought as much as I could from Dollar Tree (Twix, Gummy Worms, & Sour Gummy Worms). Sigh...

Cute... fun... expensive project 

and yep... 

He got an A!

First Grade Common Core

OH MY!! Have you seen this? I have goose bumps and am beyond excited!

This is a workbook for the First Grade Common Core. They also have one for Kindergarten and it looks like there might be one coming for Second through Fifth Grades in the future as those grade levels have pages set up.

This book is A~MAZ~ING! I was looking at their free download and feel in love. As a brand new teacher this is just what I need! If you are switching to CCSS you need this too.

What's included?

This book has a TON of activities for your students all aligned with the common core. Some of the pages are even in color which means I can copy them onto cardstalk and print them as my classroom objectives. This book is going into my easy pile.

Cut and paste... check

Handwriting... check

Art projects... check

Writing prompts... check

PLUS... the worksheets are so simple I can use them as emergency sub plans. I know that no matter what my kids do that day they are still learning and are on task with the standards.

Oh this one with my core mapping book will make my life so easy!! Can you tell I am excited?