Join a Mailring at the
Teacher Mailring Center
http://www.teachers.net/mailrings/
Kathy/5/IA - Glad you could come to the Focus Chat!! Our topic is "Seasonal Writing or other Seasonal projects"
Kathy/5/IA - I have a S.T.A.R.S. program that is ongoing in my room. Striving To Achieve Reading Success. The Mission is a unified effort by parents and teachers to enrich our children's lives through literature and to encourage a lifelong love of reading.
Kim/KS/8th - Kathy, I like the verification sheet idea, but I don't think it would work well for me. Several of my students don't see their parents until they have a day off from work.
Kathy/5/IA - Same with my kids...they turn their sheet in once a week. Thursdays are my turn in day. I don't mind if the sheet is sign once.
Kim/KS/8th - Since, it is almost Halloween (my son's birthday), I have a few ideas to share.
Dream Weaver - Is it ok to ask a question? Oops I just did. What are your communities' attitudes towards Halloween?
Kathy/5/IA - Kim, have you been doing any neat holiday writing with your kids? OH that's right...you are home with the baby. :0)
Kim/KS/8th - Kathy, ooooh. I thought they turned in the sheet each day. That would work better.
Kathy/5/IA - We don't have much of a problem with Halloween here - but I we don't really play it up that much!
Dream Weaver - Our kids love Halloween but the District frowns on it.
Kathy/5/IA - Right now we are studying BATS, so that is where most of my Halloween focus has been.
linny - We have been doing pumpkins.
Kim/KS/8th - I had my students create a monster from some facial features I found in a book somewhere--eyes, ears, noses, mouths, etc.---they cut out the parts they wanted and colored them. Then they wrote a story about how mistreated their creature was because of his/her looks. It worked well as a lesson on judging people on how they look.
Kathy/5/IA - Neat kim!!
Kim/KS/8th - We have a wide variety of religions here---from Catholicism to Buddahism to German Mennonite. Sometimes the holidays are a touchy subject!!
midget3220 - I had my students create a creepy creature and then they switched with someone and that person had to draw it from their description. It was a lot of fun.
Kim/KS/8th - Another Halloween writing activity I have done is to have the students write their own epitaphs.
Kim/KS/8th - midget3220, I like that idea.
snowy - (As a sub) I am currently doing mummies with my students in social studies. They are writing anti-drug messages in hieroglypics in order to display for Red Ribbon Week
Kathy/5/IA - We did that same type of monster description writing last year. There is a project like that on the internet somewhere...you sign up with a nother class. We did it with our third graders.
Kim/KS/8th - Snowy--great idea!
midget3220 - We start our Red Ribbon Week next week. I am always looking for neat ideas to do with my 3rd graders.
snowy - Well Kathy, I just really don't know where to start. I think I need a creative way to let the kids know my rules and regulations other than the simple "let's go over the handout."
Kim/KS/8th - Snowy, the students probably know about the first teacher's reason for leaving. They may try to "run you off" as well. Be very firm in the beginning. However, I don't believe in the adage "don't smile until Christmas."
snowy - Kathy, that's cute! We are going to build a tomb in the lobby area of our school and display the best 2 mummies from each class. We are going to place a code so other students can decipher the message
Kim/KS/8th - Snowy, if you are looking for some icebreaker activities, I have some listed at my website. If you are interested, I'll give you the URL.
Kathy/5/IA - Snowy, you'll love Kim's site. She has tons of neat writing ideas!!!!!
Kim/KS/8th - Snowy, the URL is http://www.angelfire.com/ks/teachme/icebreakers.html This will take you right to the Icebreakers and Energizers page.
midget3220 - Our third grade team has done a Thanksgiving Harvest Festival for the past 7 years. The teachers dress up like pilgrims. We do a round robin with different activities and the kids bring the ingredients for the Indian Stew. We cook right there on the campus and then all other trimmings are brought by other students. It's a lot of fun and the kids really look forward to it.
Kathy/5/IA - Does anyone else have a holiday project, writing idea, etc.. to share?
Carol/7/CO - We are going to have our kids working on descriptive writing. We'll have them describe monsters and see if another student can recreate their drawing.
Alice - We are not hooked up either but I have some kids who have e-mail at home.... It could work...?
snowy - Oh, I am also going to have my kids make spider cookies. You give each student a chocolate cream filled cookie and they twist it apart. Students then untwist a Twizzler stick and cut it into thirds. They make eight candy legs and put them over the cream on the cookie. After they put the Twizzler legs on they place the top of the cookie back on and use candy for the eyes. Students then write a story about the spider. After they are through they can eat the cookie! It is a lot of fun.
Kathy/5/IA - I love the spider cookie idea. Has anyone done any treat idea with BATS?
Mountainette 4/WV - Thanks for the spider idea - sounds like a fun thing to do at our Oct. homework party next week
Kathleen - Kim, are there brown fruit rollups? you could cut wings out of a sheet of that, use cookies for the body?? [this for a bat treat]
snowy - Well, you could use a Hostess chocolate tube for the body, but the wings are the tough part.
Kathy/5/IA - Ok...I'm playing with those ideas! I'll look into the fruit roll up!
sue - We used to make jack-o lantern cookies. The children spread orange icing on a rice cake, added 2 candy corns for eyes, one for the nose and licorice for the mouth.
Kim/KS/8th - Earlier, I started telling you about an activity where the students write their own epitaphs for their tombstones. We took the students on a "tour" of the cemetery first. We pointed out interesting tombstones such as one with a modern art sculpture of an angel, one with a car engine encased in it, etc. Also, the Clutter family (the family from IN COLD BLOOD) is buried there. The students were much more interested than I thought they would be.
alice 6-8 IA - As for the fruit roll ups maybe they have special holloween colors. Maybe use grape (if dark enuf) or orange
snowy - Kim that sounds very cool! You didn't have any parents complain about it though?
Kim/KS/8th - Snowy, we had the students sign permission slips before the tour. As for the epitaphs, I had the students write postive things about themselves. They could use any design they wanted for the tombstone. This was about five years ago. There is no way I could have done it last year or this year because of some of my students. Oh, well.
Kathy/5/IA - I think the middle school kids at my old school did a similar cemetary study. They also study their family trees, etc...
alice 6-8 IA - Do you find Thanksgiving loses some of it's punch by middle school?
Kim/KS/8th - Snowy, that happens sometimes. Holidays are a touchy subject. I don't even put up my decorations anymore--unless they have to do with the four seasons--leaves, snowflakes, etc.
snowy - Alice, it seems to me that middle school students think about Halloween and then Christmas. The question they are processing is "when can I get some more stuff!" :)
Applelady - Reading about the tombstones made me think of a good activity centered on writing. Have the kids participate in an activity where they "bury" overused words in their writing pieces.
Kathy/5/IA - I'm going to start working on having my kids doing some "Random Acts of Kindness" to tie in with Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Applelady - Thanks snowy, you actually make the tombstones for the words, etc.
Kathy/5/IA - Excellent, Applelady !
Applelady - The Random Acts of Kindness could be put on the leaves in the garland around the bulletin board.
Kathy/5/IA - We also had kids "bury" their CAN'Ts one year. Might work something in like that for Red Ribbon Week.
snowy - Mountainette, I saw a door one time that was decorated as a jail cell. The background was white and it had black bars. One of the students drew the body of a person and for the head they put one of those reflector mirrors. Around the outside of the door, there were letters that said. Don't be a statistic. Just say no. It was easy and cute!
Kathy/5/IA - That's ok, Susan. We meet here every third Wednesday. Hope to see you next time. Our topic will be reading series/and reading ideas.
