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Kathy/5/IA - Welcome the the UpperGrade/Middle School Focus Chat!
Kathy/5/IA - So ... what should we disuss!
Terri - I'm new so, I'm open to anything!
Kathy/5/IA - New to the teaching profession, Terri?
Mountainette - How about some ideas for the last week of school to make it really interesting
Terri - Yes, I'll begin my first year in August. I'd love to discuss ideas for the last week of school.
Mountainette - Are you teaching now, Terri? As in subbing?
Kathy/5/IA - What grade will you be teaching - Terri? WELCOME TO THE PROFESSION!
Terri - No, I've been working in the business world putting my husband through school. I will be teaching 2nd grade in a private school. I'm very anxious to use my degree!!!
Kathy/5/IA - I think one thing I'd like to try sometime during the last week is a "Book Swap" where kids bring books from home. They get a ticket for each book they bring in and then can use that ticket to take a different book.
Kathy/5/IA - Right now we are finishing up a big Fairy Tale unit. The kids are writing their own adaptations of Cinderella. We are VERY busy!!
¤êrã§êr¤ - Kathy/5/IA..we would make a great team...i do paper making and end with making a book!
Kathy/5/IA - And....I have to grade them all over the 3-day Memorial day weekend. ICK!
Kathy/5/IA - Well come right on over, eraser!!! I do love this project. It has turned out well in the years past. We were just finished with it earlier. We got a late start due to other projects.
¤êrã§êr¤ - accordion books and "stoke books" are great for the little ones
Mountainette - I was thinking about having the kids "mine" for chocolate in chocolate chip cookies. Also thought about making paper. do you use a blender?
Kathy/5/IA - What are Stoke Books? Could you describe, please.
Kathy/5/IA - I've heard of the choc. chip mining project ... but haven't done it. What all is involved.
Terri - One of the things that I tried in my student teaching was having the children make a scrapbook of sorts with a description of what they like about each child in their class. They then had the other child sign their book on the part that was written about them. The students seemed to enjoy it, and they found themselves remembering some good times that they had together that year.
¤êrã§êr¤ - stroke books start with exploring the elements of line...kids cover a sheet of drawing paper, dipped in water, with things dipped in inks...going off the paper is cool!
Kathy/5/IA - We are doing Yo-Yo's in science right now! Kids are enjoying it!
Mountainette - You make so much money for every 2cm of choc yu get (in a straw) and you deduct for time taken and broken cookie crumbs
¤êrã§êr¤ - feathers, combs, branches, or bruches work well
Kathy/5/IA - All these projects sound neat!
Kathy/5/IA - Is the mining activity some where on the Net?
¤êrã§êr¤ - after the inks dry...ya have to fold the papers just right...i can e-mail stuff if ya like
Kathy/5/IA - What a special memory book idea, Terri!
Mountainette - I just found it today in an old teacher helper magazine - but I have seen it on teachers.net somewhere!
¤êrã§êr¤ - I have cool graphics for the folding parts
Mountainette - I am so poor at art projects for my 4th graders. I put off art - really need ideas badly for the whole year. That sounds like a project you could do at any time eraser
¤êrã§êr¤ - I am glad to help! I have a web page that has links to many art sites with help for classroom teachers
Kathy/5/IA - Could you post your web page? Sounds helpful!
Mountainette - What is your URL, eraser?
¤êrã§êr¤ - http://www.geocities.com/athens/oracle/1594 let it load and scroll to the teacher links...bookmark them for use
Kathy/5/IA - What other end of the year ideas do you all have up your sleeves?
¤êrã§êr¤ - there are 2 pages of links....I hope it is helpful
¤êrã§êr¤ - try the tissue paper thing...flowers, butterflies, pencil holders
KB - Can I assume the topic is art? :-)
KB - Would you like some ideas with sponges?
Mountainette - We are studying oceans - going to do a diorama - made the kids look up that word in the dictionary to see what they were going to do. Found a cute idea for a starfish. design your starfish and cover it with crumbled up shredded wheat
Mountainette - what can we do with sponges?
Kathy/5/IA - I'll have to remember that for my ocean unit next year!
KB - I got those oval yellow 8" ones at "Lowes" for a penny apiece. I had the kids twirl pipecleaners around their fingers for ft. & arms. Made those triangle hats for the top. Added ft. & arms.Then with a paper clip suppended a string below. Kids in groups had to look up adj. that discribed them and add wd. cards to the string.
Mountainette - Make a sea urchin with those little nut cups and fill with play dough, and sticking toothpicks in the dough
KB - Adjectives had to be at least 7 letters long. They had such a riot going through the dictionary.
Mountainette - penny apiece??? WOW
KB - I got l50 of them. Anyone want to clean. I couldn't resist. :-)
Mountainette - What were some of the adjectives that they came up with, KB?
jen - Can anyone give the name of a good literature publisher for textbook adoption ?
Kathy/5/IA - I LOVE good bargins!!! Isn't it terrible how much we all spend for our classrooms!
Kathy/5/IA - What are you using right now, Jen?
Mountainette - jen - I love Open Court!
KB - oh...nocturnal.....political...monotonous...they were really funny
Kathy/5/IA - Our Textbook adoption committee was looking at Harcourt Brace and Rigby this year - but due to MAJOR budget problems in the district it is on hold. I, myself, love using trade books - with literature circles.
KB - I also got rectangular sponges. Cut each into two circles. Then cut construction paper into lettuce circles, hamb. circles, ketchup, etc. and put math facts on them. Hold them together with an appitizer toothpick.. That was fun, too. Great school fair project
Mountainette - My kids had fun today writing sentences with the words in ABC order. Bad bees buzzing on some zebras.
jen - I' ve been using STAR and AR ..now I need to incorporate CORE KNOWLEDGE with it plus a new textbook..Has anyone used Heath for 6,7, or 8?
Mountainette - We have Harcourt Brace now and I really don't like it at all. We use the old Silver Burdette to supplement. Our primary had Open Court and you can tell a difference since they changed to Harcourt Brace. Negative
Kathy/5/IA - No, I haven't used that - we have Silver Burdette right now.
Kathy/5/IA - I really didn't like the looks of HCB either.
Kathy/5/IA - But then, since I like trade books....I didn't really like any of the basals.
Mountainette - There is no skill based worksheets with Harcourt Brace
Mountainette - Oh, dear - look at my language - there is
Kathy/5/IA - We are fine tuning our Standards and Benchmarks - that should help!
jen - I've never heard of Open Court Mountainette..we have to match it up with oour state test as well...anyone use Mcgraw-Hill?
Kathy/5/IA - I was wondering about that statement - Mountainette...thanks for reclarifying!
Mountainette - Here in WV, we are SAT 9 focused! Everything is geared toward that darn test!
Mountainette - Open Court is a phonics based program . It is marvelous
Kathy/5/IA - We have a district levels test - that our St/Benchmarks a line to.
jen - I want more skils in reading not writing as our language takes care of that primarily..any suggestions for KY?
Kathy/5/IA - I've been trying to incorporate the Month by Month Phonics - Cunningham.
Mountainette - When our county adopts language arts textbooks again, I feel sure that we will go back to Open Court.
Mountainette - How does that work in 5th grade, Kathy?
Kathy/5/IA - What type of skills are you referring to, Jen?
Kathy/5/IA - I like it - there is a book for Upper Grades.
Kathy/5/IA - Lots of good word strategies!
jen - Just basic reading skills for middle school..inferences predicting outcomes, prefixes suffixes
Mountainette - I might order the book this summer and read thru it. You can get it at Amazon, can't you?
Kathy/5/IA - I'm reading a good book right now called Mosaic of Thought.
Mountainette - The old Silver Burdette has great worksheets on skills like that, jen.
Kathy/5/IA - I'm not sure - The Apple and Acorn place has most of the 4-block stuff. I've had very good luck with them.
Mountainette - OK, I'll try there.
Kathy/5/IA - I like the Making Big Words, too!
jen - M..that was our last series 6 years ago!!!
Kathy/5/IA - Classrooms that Work is a great read also! (by Cunningham)
Mountainette - It was ours too, jen! I still use a lot of it
jen - They are good worksheets! Me too!
Kathy/5/IA - The Mosaic of Thought book really breaks down the reading process. :0)
Mountainette - I've seen some games in catalogs that focus on different skill areas like main idea, inferences, drawing conclusions, ect
Marie - does anyone have any easy ideas for an easy chemistry class lesson for chemical and physical changes
Kathy/5/IA - I do one with baking soda and vingar in a pop bottle - that blows up a balloon.
Mountainette - Make flubber, Marie. or how about testing the acidity of different liquids
Kathy/5/IA - Or oobleck (cornstarch /water food /color)
Marie - what is your recipe for flubber
Marie - I have the oobleck book
Mountainette - Kathy what is that Dr. Seuss book that they read and make that - oh you got it - its oobleck, not flubber
kenney - However, I do use oobleck with my kids and they love it!
Mountainette - We made oobleck this first day of school!
Marie - I had forgotten about the oobleck book Thanks for the remi
Kathy/5/IA - I think my friend has a Flubber activity on her web page. Excellent site - TONS OF IDEAS!!! http://www.knownet.net/users/Ackley/
Kathy/5/IA - Bartholomew and the Oobleck - great book!
Kathy/5/IA - I get my best ideas from lower elem. teacher. All teachers can adapt to their grade level!! :0)
Mountainette - I agree Kathy! I often look at the primary gradeboard here
Marie - I am getting tired of cleaning my room after each lab, but the kids love lab days
Marie - I saved the intro to chem till the end of the year
Mountainette - Hands on activities are so great! We may do something with earthworms in the next 12 days
Kathy/5/IA - I did a neat activity with a bunch of liquids with different "weights" - Each was a different color - they stack up!
Kathy/5/IA - What about Ice Cream in a bag??
Mountainette - I'd just like to do science and social studies and health and forget the rest
Marie - I am earth/space/intro chem so life science is out
Mountainette - Where is that activity Kathy?
Marie - I have debated about doing the ice cream tomorrow or water density with fresh and salt
Mountainette - I did the owl pellets one year. Talk about fun!
Kathy/5/IA - Someone sent it to me. Use things like colored water, syrup, dish soap, etc......
Marie - We did the liquid activity early in the year to reinforce the concept of density The kids loved it
Marie - What a mess to clean up. It is almost as bad as the oil spill activity
Kathy/5/IA - We did the ice cream in Sept. (on my bday) Brought in brownies and syrup to have with our ice cream.
Marie - The kids love the ice cream thing and I hate the working with the rock salt thing and begging the cafeteria for ice.
Mountainett - We did water density with fresh water and salt water and food coloring. Made 4 different cups 1 blue 1 teas salt, 1 yellow 2 teas salt and 1 red 3 teas salt and 1 fresh water clear. Picked up the waters in a straw
Marie - Still I usually go back to doing it because it is fun and they do remember the lessonKathy/5/IA - We used plain salt. Had to buy the ice myself. No ice machine at school.Lesson Plans Containing: Ice Cream
Making ice cream in 15 minutes (all, Science)
Easy Ice Cream Labs. k-12 (all, )
Making Ice Cream! (Elementary, Games)
Marie - I am lucky in having the ice machine
Marie - I also have lots of rock salt
Marie - The salt water is fun because of the food coloring.
Kathy/5/IA - What do you mean by picking up the water in a straw - Mountain?
Mountainett - Where did you find the oil spill activity. I remember seeing one in an old magazine somewhere. Also the ice cream in baggies
Mountainett - dip the straw in one cup, hold finger over tthe top, then go to another cup and pick up more. We used clear straws and the waters layered
Mountainett - dip in about 2 cm worth
Marie - The oil spill was an activity sent to me years ago by the state department as a state assessment activity
Marie - I need to leave and get my materials ready for tomorrow. Thanks for including me. I have enjoyed it
Kathy/5/IA - Thanks for all your ideas!
