Pilgrim Venn Diagram

I've just diagnosed myself with a serious problem. I am going through {what I have cleverly penned} as "Pattern Blogging."

Here, I'll describe the symptoms: On Monday, I'm super pumped at reading and writing blog posts. On Tuesday, I'm still an eager beaver and I will read and {most likely} write blog posts. By Wednesday, I'm not writing any blog posts, but I'll read some. And then by Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, I'm so exhausted or have too much work to do that I barely look at my computer for pleasure reading and/or writing.

I really need to break this pattern. But how? Is it due to the time change? Maybe. Or maybe the teaching profession has just gotten REALLY TEDIOUS AND PAPERWORK heavy??? Huh, huh, huh? Do you think that could be the reason??

So, how does this change? Dunno?? But I really wish "in the classroom" educators were making these mandates as opposed to businessmen or politicians who aren't in the classroom and don't have a clue as to what best practices are!!

It's stuff like this that can really bring a girl down! I've said this a bunch of times: My days are not ruined by the kids, it's the ADULTS!

Ugh, ANYWAY! We did a have fun activity today. {Shh, don't tell anyone.} I had seen a few Venn Diagrams on the inter-webs for 'Kids Then and Now' and I really wanted to do this with my class. Thank goodness, April from ChalkTalk shared her print-ables for this exact activity!!! Woohoo

I made a few adjustments so that the kiddos would complete their own venn with a buddy before we did the large one together. It worked out great!

First, I paired the kids up and gave them a baggie full of phrases and one Venn Diagram.

Using my document camera, I showed the teams how to display all of the phrases on their papers, so that we could have a good look at each one.  I walked around and made sure no one had the phrases in a pile, upside down, or on the floor.

* Also, we noticed that it is really hard to pick the tiny phrases up with our fingers (Thanks a lot, Ms. Monroe!) One of my students showed us that it was easier to move the pieces with the eraser end of our pencils. {Goodie, someone took their smart pills this morning.} If you wanted to redo this activity, you could make it on a larger piece of paper and then it would be easier to move the phrases. But it really wasn't too bad.

Next, I would slide over one phrase and tell them to find that phrase. I would ask them to decide, with their buddies, which part of the venn diagram that phrase should go in. I would give them some time, walk around the room, and spy listen to their conversations. A few teams just guessed, however, most teams used their words and put a lot of thought into their choices. Plus, I know they were thrilled with me allowing them to talk!

We would go through this same procedure for each and every word phrase until all of the phrases were gone.

Afterwards, I told them to look over their final diagrams and make any changes.

Then, I revealed the correct answers using my Power Point Answer Key slide. We discussed the reasons why each phrase went in that certain spot and I gave them some time to fix their team venns.

When they fixed their venn diagrams, I went around and used long strips of tape and taped down their phrases. Most teams wanted to keep their venn diagram, so I am going to make a copy for them to take home tomorrow. {Aw, I'm sooooo nice.}

One teams completed venn diagram

Now, we all met on the rug and completed the large venn together. Do you think they remembered where each phrase went? Oh, yeah! Learning at work, people!

Okay, so drawing large circles is really hard!

I have a copy of the sheets I used for y'all to download. Rather than lock-it in Adobe, I kept it in the Power Point format so that you could change the phrases, clipart, or font if you wanted to. 

However, if you'd rather just have the one I used, e-mail me, and I'll send it your way.

Pilgrims Now and Then Venn Diagram

THANKS to everyone who reads my blog and cares to comment. I really appreciate it!!!

Happy Monday!

Pilgrim Writing

Boy, am I glad to be home! I have one little guy who has been off his meds for the past 5 days and I am exhausted. I know there is a lot of debate as to whether or not meds are the end all be all, but this kid NEEDS his meds. Plus, since he is out of sorts, it sets off some of my other guys who are normally under control. It's so sad because he is such a sweetie and he can't help his impulsiveness.

Anywhoo, I saw this writing activity on Cara's blog last year after Thanksgiving, and I was sooooo bummed we didn't get to do it. Not gonna happen this year, I tell ya! I made sure to do it this week before time ran out and I am glad I did. They are sooooo cute!

Here are my teacher models:

Boy

Girl

Here are some of my kid's finished products:

What I like about this activity is the students have to think about the differences between today and long ago before they write. I've had a few kids who were stuck and weren't sure what to write. Then, we had some really good discussions about pilgrim's lives and our own lives. They are thankful now!

Here are my tracers:

FYI: I had the boys use scrap yellow pieces for the buckle instead of making a tracer.

Pilgrim Tracers

Happy Tuesday!

Shout Out!

Last week, Tammy at Live, Love, Laugh Everyday in Kindergarten shared a great *Freebie* that went with the story book, The Great Turkey Race.

I knew my kiddos would love this activity because they LOVE this book! It is one that never leaves the listening station all year long. Actually, they like Steve Metzger's other books just as much, too.

We listened to the story a-g-a-i-n, of course, because we couldn't miss out on another opportunity to listen to this one! And then we discussed all of the other places our turkeys could go.

Here's a few of their finished products:

I'll have to add Lilleigh's tomorrow when she finishes it. It is too funny!

The kids really enjoyed this response activity.

Thanks, Tammy!

Y'all better go and check it out!

Click {HERE}

Currently {November}

It's a new month and it is time to link up with Farley from Oh' Boy 4th Grade.

The rules are simple:

Write down what you are currently -
listening
loving
thinking
wanting
needing
&
stalking

So, here's mine ...

Stalking Links:

1. Teach it With Class, is written by Randi and she is awesome! Plus, she has an affinity for Pigeon and anyone who loves Pigeon is pretty cool in my book.

2. Pinterest, not a blog, but it is my go-to site right now. Seriously, the ideas are endless! I've pinned a lot and I've also made quite a few things I've pinned. Which makes me so proud of myself because I am finally entering the "crafty" world. Also, I've found a TON of Christmas ideas and I CAN'T wait to start marking some of those!!!!

~~~~~~~~~~~------------~~~~~~~~~~~-----------------~~~~~~~~~~~~-------------~~~~~~~~~~

So, I went to work in my classroom today. Fast forward five hours later and I am still bringing home work with me. What is up with that?

My Little Trip

Oh boy, y'all! What an amazing 24 hours I just had! It all started with this letter I got in the mail a little over a week ago:

Woohoo, I won something!

This is kind of a long story, but I'll give you the shortened version. I entered a contest to win a free sleep-over trip to Busch Gardens through the Florida D.o.E and I didn't win. Sad :( Then, a couple of weeks later I received an e-mail that I HAD won. Oh Yeah!

Fast forward to yesterday and there I am on my way to Tampa with my sister {Kindergarten teacher, who also won the pass - thanks to moi!}

*A little background information about what I won. It is a Busch Gardens educational program for teachers and is held after the park closes at 6 pm and lasts until about 10 am.

When we arrived, we signed in, got our camp t-shirt, enjoyed a lovely dinner and socialized. On a Friday, after a long week of Halloween madness, this was a much needed break. Plus, teachers are the nicest people ever! We were sharing, laughing, commiserating, eating, and drinking from the second we arrived. Never a dull moment...

Check-in

They offered us beer and wine. SO NICE!!

Kelly Seay, from the Florida DoE, she made this night happen!

So, here's a little view of our adventure!

We met some cool new animal friends:

Carlos the 2 toed sloth

I was right next to her - SO AMAZING!

Rescued Owl

Cutie pie Serval

Our sleep mates: the tigers

We learned about some cool lessons for the classroom:

Adaptations

Echo location

Create an animal

Then, we spent the night at the Tiger Lodge. FYI - Tigers in captivity don't need to conserve a lot of energy, which means that they pace A LOT!

We were all jammed packed together in the Tiger Lounge.

If you are a light sleeper (like me) you won't get a lot of shut-eye here. I think I got about 4 hours of sleep last night. I woke up around 4:30am and I just couldn't get back to sleep!

SAFARI - First thing in the A.M.

We went out on safari in these trucks. Very rocky!!

I learned that zebras are jerks. Now I can tell my kiddos to stop being a zebra!

Ostrich and Rhinos

And then there were the GIRAFFES!!!!!

WARNING:

The following pictures are extreme close-ups because giraffes were that close to us!

The giraffe is a two year-old boy named Captain. He was so sweet and very hungry! I bet the smile on my face was huge. I was feeding and petting him for what seemed like forever. This was the best ever!

After the safari, we had a yummy breakfast, listened to our sponsors, and ended the event with a few words from our State Educational Commissioner. Wow, I didn't expect all of this! Thanks Kelly Seay and Busch Gardens!!

Gerard Robinson and two big teacher nerds!

The lesson of this blog post: Check your state DoE's website for giveaways, don't forget to enter, and it doesn't hurt to ask for something!

Changing gears, I'm a proud auntie.

Here's a picture of my cutie-pie niece, Molly, and her trainer's horse Bindi tebowing. Yep, that's a verb folks!

Molly and Bindi

Check it out {here}

Happy Saturday!

Save Tom the Turkey

It is time to save those turkeys!

One of my favorite projects I assign is something I have nothing to do with at all!

I'm sure you've seen this project before. And I've been doing it for so long I can't even remember where I got the idea from!

First, I like to introduce this homework assignment by reading my FAVORITE Thanksgiving Book, 'Twas The Night Before Thanksgiving by Dav Pilkey.

It is such a good book! I love the illustrations, too.

Next, I'll show them a few examples of my disguised Turkey's from years' past:

Then, I'll send the turkeys home and wait for our new friends to arrive.

Easy!

Tom Turkey Homework

Miss Me Much?

Happy November!

Life is moving super fast and I feel like Abby when I want to "STOP THE WORLD!" 

However, I want the world to stop for a couple reasons:

1. To have the time to complete everything on my long list of things to do.

2. Because I am exhausted! I need a break, man. My hair is falling out in chunks and I can only think this is happening because my body is slowly falling to pieces! I'm waiting for my eyeball to pop out or maybe my brain will leak out of my ear while I sleep.

During my hiatus from Blogsville, I swear I've been teaching... really. We've spent the past two weeks working on our Farm unit and boy am I glad we did. My kids knew NOTHING about farms and farm animals. I was either cracking up or shaking my head at the lack of knowledge. We culminated our unit with our first field trip to a local farm.

There are a TON of great resources out there for teaching about farms. I ended up with too many activities and had to file some away for next year! You can go to TPT and pick up Deanna Jump's Farm unit and Michelle Oake's Farm unit.  Or hop on over to Welcome to Room 36's Blog and grab some of her fabulous ideas and creations.

Before we started our unit, I used Abby's fabulous Mystery Box lesson to grab their attention, introduce inferences, and learn a little new vocabulary.

Best $4 you'll spend on TPT!

They L-O-V-E-D this activity! I left the Mystery Box out in front of the room for everyone to see first thing in the morning. We didn't actually do the activity until the afternoon, so they were driving me nuts asking about it. Needless to say, the anticipation was pretty high by the afternoon.

First, the kids felt the box to get an idea of the weight of the object.

Then, I split them into teams and gave them their next assignment.

I would give each team four clues that they would need to record on their sheet. I wrote the clues easy enough for them to read on their own or they could sound it out. *If they really tried!

After all of the clues had been written on their sheets, we read them aloud. Then, the teams were to make a prediction based on their inferences as to what was inside the box.

After the teams made their predictions, we met on the rug to do the big reveal!

I had a few teams make the correct prediction and the other predictions were pretty interesting...

The tension was thick in the room as I opened the box!

It was a horse!

{I couldn't find my cow stuffed animal, so this was the next best thing.}

The teams were so excited and shocked.

Last, the teams worked together and completed a response sheet.

Their answers were so sweet! One little guy (let's just say, he doesn't usually put forth much effort) wrote four sentences to describe how he felt. Yee-Haw!

They were so thrilled to do this activity they CLAPPED at the end.

Really?? Too Stinkin Cute!