Five for Friday

Happy Five for Friday!

1

Former Student - Yesterday I got the most amazing email followed up by a phone call from a former student.  This student was in my first ever class 10 years ago. He was a rough kid.  His mom told me she was thinking of sending him to military school.  He also came close to getting expelled for starting a gang in the area.  Since I had him, he has completely turned his life around.  He is a youth mentor, motivational speaker, and an author.  He has two books on Amazon!  He is only 20 years old (I am not that old!).  He wants to set up a time to come and visit me, because he wants me to know how much I have impacted his life.  I am so proud of the man he has become!  I can't wait to see him!

                                                                                       

2

It's hard to follow up with my number 1, but here goes nothing.  Earlier this month, I read an article that suggested having a secret word.  Each week, we have a secret word.  When I am giving directions, students are not allowed to move until I say the secret word.  I use a word that I wouldn't normally use in regular conversation.  Since we did the blubber experiment (see below), our secret word this week was blubber.  To make sure the students are really paying attention, I will say other words at the end of my directions.  Using a secret word seems to have improved the listening skills of my students.

3

Blubber Experiment - I wanted to my students to see how penguins stay warm in winter, so we did the blubber experiment.  To do the experiment, put Crisco into a gallon size Ziploc bag.  Put another gallon size Ziploc bag into first one.  Place the bags into the water.  Students can put one hand into the bag and one hand into the ice water.

The difference in temperatures are astonishing.  I enjoyed this experiment.

4

MYOB - In our room, we have a phrase - MYOB - Mind Your Own Business.  This phrase has to be repeated for one particular student.  We keep a reminder note on his desk.  He tore it off at the end of the day and tried to eat the note.  I had to rectify the situation for Monday.  I hope he remembers to MYOB Monday.  I also can't wait to see the reaction on his face.  He is a student that I can definitely joke around with.

5

Table - I have to show off the table my dad made me.  It's made up of a lot of my favorite books/authors.  I love it!  My dad is so talented!

Fun Friday - Winter Part 2

I didn't have a Fun Friday this week.  In fact, this week, we only had 2 days of school with the kids. The rest of the time, we had an all day institute and a Mid-Winter Break.  I did everything that I planned for the previous Friday and never got around to doing.  This time 15 students got to participate!  This has become a goal for them.

Fun Friday - Winter Part 2 Activities:
1.  Made snow ice cream.  For full directions, click here.   This was also a great mini lesson in measurement.

2.  Played in shaving cream.  I had seen a pin that mixing shaving cream with baking soda would make it more flaky (snow-like).  This became a mini experiment if it would work.  FYI - it doesn't. However, my students still wanted to mix them together.  They had such a good time playing.  You would not know that I have third grade students.  They were as happy as preschoolers with the activity.

Please not that I tried to be good and put down paper to make clean-up easier.  This did not work out well.  There was a lovely hole within 2 minutes of the students getting into playing.

3.  We had an indoor snowball fight.  The students balled up an addition timed test.  We threw them around for a couple of minutes.  Then we each took a paper and had a contest to see who could answer the questions the fastest.

As has become our custom, my students that participated kept saying that it was the best day ever.  It doesn't take much to make them happy!

Snow Ice Cream

Snow Day - Day 4 - I did not mind this one as much because the snow was so bad that I was actually worried about the commute today.

The blizzard of 2015 reminded me of last year's snowstorms.  I found a recipe on Pinterest to make ice cream from snow.  This made me want to make some again to try it.  I remember liking it last year but needed to test it again.  It's still good.

How to Make:

Combine 4 cups of snow, 1 cup of milk, 1/4 cup of sugar, and 1 tsp. vanilla.  Once you have a smooth consistency, eat it right away.  It will melt quickly.

I am thinking about having a snow theme part 2 for this Friday's Fun Friday.  We can make snow along with everything else I forgot to do last week.

Winter Fun Friday

I am so glad this week is over.  It was a nightmare!  First of all, we had our district testing begin. This threw off our schedule but that was okay.  I can deal with it,  The part I couldn't deal with was the evacuation from the building on Thursday due to a water main break.  Four hours stuck in a gym with a school of students in our sister school was torture.  We still had tutoring after school in that building for an hour and a half.  I thought the day would never end!

With that in mind, I was able to have 11 students join Fun Friday.  I was actually surprised at how many were able to attend.  This week our theme was winter.  I meant to start out the festivities with a snowball fight found here but totally forgot with all the excitement of the week (since I was going to make something that I did not have to pay for).  Instead we made the Help, I'm Trapped in a Snow Globe craft/writing activity found here.  My students have discovered a love of glitter.  This is all it takes to make them happy.  I even wanted to make "snow" with baking soda and shaving cream but forgot the shaving cream at home.  I can't get over how unorganized I was.  Those that finished their snow globes project played some games I got of off Donors Choose.  They were super happy!

Speaking of Donors Choose, I got my project funded!  Between that and my best friend getting us New Kids on the Block tickets (proud of the fact that I still go to their concert!), there were some great things that happened this week,

Snowman Vocabulary

I must admit that I stole this idea from a teacher of a boy that I tutor - he had to create a snowman for homework.  That said, here is a fun winter activity.

I love the  mustache on this snowman!

How To:

1.  Build a snowman out of construction paper.  I gave my students a lot of creativity in this.  Some chose to draw a snowman while some cut out the snowman.  

2.  Students write the word on the hat, the definition in the middle, and use the word in a sentence on the bottom of the snowman.

3.  Add fun accessories to personalize the snowman.
4.  Have students present their snowman to the class.  This allows the students to learn the vocabulary of all of the snowmen.

We made these on our "Fun Friday."  This, along with the Marshmallow Towers, was a huge hit.  The behavior was already improving today because all of the students want to be able to participate this week.