Friendship Recipe

At the end of February we were studying functional texts, including advertisements, flyers, directions, and recipes. When we were focusing on recipes, we read the book Enemy Pie by Derek Munson! This book is so good and I think students can really relate to the characters in the story. It is also a great book to use to talk about making predictions. 

There are TONS of great Enemy Pie activities and resources available on the web! Anything from sequencing, problem and solution, to a grammar hunt. In my TpT store, I have a character trait packet that helps students recognize 'higher level' character traits (more than just happy, mad, sad...you know you are tired of those words!). Students recognize character traits by the characters thoughts, actions, and words. Then students write their own stories with characters that show their traits!

                                                

With my class, we spent time creating 'Friendship Recipes.' Students used their knowledge of fractions, measurement, and sequencing to write a recipe. (This was great because we are also in the middle of our measurement unit in math!)

Students brainstormed and wrote their draft recipe in their writing notebooks, then edited and transferred their work on to their final draft. Students used a template that I created on PowerPoint in the outline of a recipe to write the final. Students use markers, colored pencils, and crayons to decorate their recipes. We took this and glued it on to a piece of construction paper. Students then colored a template of a head, arms, and legs to look like themselves. They attached the pieces to the construction paper and then TA-DA! We had a super cute, friendship recipe!

                      

We hung them out in the hall on our clips. I got the string at the Dollar Tree - it is for hanging laundry and ordered the wooden clothes pins from Amazon. This is an awesome way to display items in the hallway - 1) because students can put things up and take them down themselves, 2) you can use it every year, just take down the string, keep the pins attached, 3) you can add and remove pins as needed.

                    

I love how these turned out! Let me know what you think! 

Love & Sparkles,

Miss Jones in Third

How to Move to a New Classroom in the Middle of the Year

In my last post I shared my first room...and I mentioned how I had to move out right before spring break! My school was going through a renovation when I started working there and my pod was a part of Phase 2! For us, that meant we were the second pod to move out and we did it over spring break. This was a very exciting time, but I definitely put in a lot of long hours packing up all of our stuff and making sure it was ready for my new classroom. Ah...my new classroom - a door! a bathroom! a sink! a door! (Yes, a door was super exciting). 

I wanted to share some tips I learned from moving that will make it easier for anyone else who has to move classrooms in the middle of the year. We weren't able to move any of our stuff ourselves, so we just had to walk in on Monday hoping everything we had was there. Here are 5 things I learned from my big move.

1. LABEL EVERYTHING!!!

Anything that you want to keep, put your name on it! I used a Microsoft Word document and made a 'label' in large print with my last name and new room number on it. I taped it to every box, every piece of furniture, even on my globe and teacher chair. This way, in case anything goes to the wrong place, the person who finds it will know where it belongs. Also be sure to label what is in the box - I did this with a big Sharpie marker. Don't use tiny labels, use something people can see as soon as they look at it.     

                                   

2. FIND OUT WHAT YOU CAN BRING & IF YOU WILL BE GETTING ANYTHING NEW

When we moved, the administration told us that most of the old furniture would not be coming with us. We got new student desks, student chairs, and teacher desks. Only certain approved pieces of furniture were allowed to come with us. Talk to your admin so you know what you need to clean out and what you can keep in it's place.

3. USE SMALL TRASH BAGS TO STORE STUDENT DESK CONTENTS

My students all had their own desk with their own supplies in it. I gave each student a small white bathroom trash bag. I had them put all of their stuff in it, then I used the Sharpie marker again to label each bag with the students name. I put these into 2 large boxes. Don't let the students take all their supplies home with them...who knows if you will see it again.

4. USE A SPECIAL LABEL ON THE BOXES YOU WILL NEED ON DAY #1

On my boxes, I used big, flat, foam hearts that were left over from Valentine's Day to label the boxes that I would need ASAP the day we got back from spring break. I also put them on the boxes of the students desk supplies. When I got back from spring break, I really walked in to a room of stacked boxes. Having those essentials (Expo markers, erasers, pencils, pens, post its) were essential (heh) for the first morning! I also got there early to put out students supplies on their new desks.

                                     

5. ASK FOR HELP & ENJOY THE RIDE

Moving classrooms is a BIG task! Ask custodians for more boxes if you need more, ask someone to make sure you are putting the boxes together correctly (this happened to me...I'd never moved before anywhere), ask someone for help lifting heavy boxes (ever tried to lift boxes of classroom library books SO HEAVY!). If possible, find a friend who is available to come in with you on the first day you're back. They can be putting stuff up or away for you as you teach.

All ready to go!

Don't stress - it will all get done! Re-organizing and getting everything put away in my new room took me at least a week, if not more! For things like the classroom library, you can even get the kids to help you unpack. 

While this is a super exciting/just a little stressful time for you - this is also a super exciting time for the kids! Look how fancy and clean your new space is! Don't forget to just enjoy your first day in your new classroom together!!!

Love & Sparkles,

Miss Jones