Idioms and Inside Recess

     This week has been a loooooooong week.  It started raining Sunday evening, and here it is Wednesday, and it doesn't show any signs of stopping.  The munchkins and I are going a little stir crazy with all the forced togetherness and inside recess this week.

     I have a few games and activities in my classroom that I reserve for inside recess, but there are only so many times you can play Sorry, or Heads Up, Seven Up, or with Matchbox cars before you slowly go insane.  I don't think I've ever had so many disagreements about such petty things in my classroom than I've had this week.  If anyone has any suggestions for activities that are fairly quiet and easy to do, please leave a comment and let me know!

     In other news, I've finished the I Know Idioms Like the Back of My Hand class book that I've been working on, and uploaded it to Teachers Pay Teachers.  I love working with the munchkins on any kind of figurative language, and I think idioms are my favorite.  It always makes me laugh when they act out having ants in their pants or running around like a chicken with its head cut off.
     This class book was created so that each student can take one idiom, write the figurative meaning (the meaning behind the words), and illustrate the literal meaning (what the words actually say).  I ALWAYS get great results and really cute pictures from this activity, and the class book makes a GREAT classroom resource! Pin It Now!

A Not-So-Typical Day in the Life of Your Average Schoolteacher

     I left this morning to go to school at 6:30 a.m., as usual.  Wagner was left snoozing on the couch, as usual. 

There's a reason my couch is semi-permanently covered with an afghan.

    

     I got home around 5 p.m., as usual.  I went into my kitchen... not so usual.


     There was bird poo all over my stovetop. 


     That's right, bird poo.  On my stove. 

     In my kitchen. 

     Where I cook. 

     And eat.

     After investigating, I realized that a bird had climbed up into my exhaust vent (lifting the flaps outside the house and squeezing inside), and crawled all the way to the kitchen.  He/she/it was stuck between the fan and the screen. 

     I donned my goin' to war outfit (long sleeves, heavy duty winter gloves, sunglasses to protect my eyes...) and began the rescue mission (after going to find the camera to document this momentous occasion, naturally). 

     I took off the vent cover slowly.  Little birdie Foo Foo wasn't too happy about coming out of his little birdie hidey-hole.  Before I could grab him, he took off (and I'm not ashamed to admit that I screamed like a little girl when he flew towards my head) and flew around the kitchen before settling on my window sill.
    

Don't you just LOVE the view from the window over my sink?  Can you see the red barn with the tin roof in the bottom left?

     I finally caught him and let him go outside.  He screeched at me as he flew away, as if it were MY fault he got stuck in my exhaust vent. 

     I don't know how long he had been in there.  I had accidentally knocked the vent cover off a little while ago when I was pressure-washing the siding.  It was put back on within a few days.  Now I feel a little creeped out that he was in there, spying on me.  

    And now I have to go clean up the kitchen. 

     I think I'll order pizza for dinner tonight.



Pin It Now!

Yet Another Math Activity

   This week was a short week for us, with Fall Break giving us a four day weekend.  Yay!  In theory, fall break is a time for teachers and students to relax and recharge for the second half of the semester.  In reality, it's a super busy school week, filled with fitting 5 days worth of learning into 3 days of school, finalizing grading period grades, and meeting with parents during pre-report card conferences.  The days off are filled with all my fall yard work {trimming bushes and trees, weeding, mowing, raking leaves, etc.}, catching up on house cleaning and laundry, swapping out summer clothes for winter clothes, and cleaning my refrigerator {something I do fall and spring break--that's right, I'm a party animal!}.

     While I was waiting for some laundry to finish today, I started looking at our upcoming multiplication unit.  I decided to re-vamp the lapbook I made last year and make it cuter.  I didn't add any clip art or anything {I tend to make items that are clip art free as I find it distracting, and I have students who spend their time doodling on the pictures rather than focusing on the lesson}, but I used a cute fonts {hello helvetica and hello journaling from Hello Literacy, one of my favorite blogs!}.

Available at my TpT store.

    I use this lapbook as a way for my munchkins to keep track of their multiplication learning.  We use a folded piece of 12 x 18 construction paper to form the folder and glue the charts on to.  I 3-hole punch it and we put it in their math binder.  They record definitions, strategies, and examples in the lapbook, and they can take it out of their binder to use as a reference as they work or to take home and study.

     Do you use any special incentives or activities to help your students learn multiplication?  I've found that most third graders are excited to begin the multiplication unit because they see it as "big person" math, but once they realize that there is some brainwork involved, they lose interest.  I'd be really interested in hearing some ideas on how you keep your students enthusiastic about learning their facts and strategies.

     

Pin It Now!