100th Day of School Measurement Fun!

    Another of my very favorite activities is my "100 Feet" Project! It has had several names/themes over the years: "100 Smelly Feet" and "100 Gumshoe Feet" (coincided with my Mystery unit) projects. I've also worked with my second-graders and different grade levels (Kindergartener paired with a 2nd grader). One thing has remained the same - so much fun in math on 100th Day of School!

    This activity is an awesome "wham-bam" activity! The highlights are non-standard measurement and estimation, but there are also wonderful extensions! They include converting standard measurements (metric and customary) and writing a reflection about the activity. Your mathematicians could also upload their reflection on Seesaw to gain confidence publishing their work in a safe and meaningful way.

Shop my grade-specific resources on TeachersPayTeachers:

"100 Kindergarten Feet" Project

"100 1st Grade Feet" Project

"100 2nd Grade Feet" Project

"100 3rd Grade Feet" Project

🌟 Happy 100th Day of School! 🌟

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Create-A-City: Make Economics *FUN* for Kids (FREEBIES INCLUDED!)

     Create-A-City is TRULY one of my most favorite simulations to teach economics, civics, government, money, public-speaking, and more! Our economics unit centers around and is adapted for 2nd/3rd/4th grades from the Interact simulations Kid Town and Classroom City. It is a treasured tradition in my classroom. The students learn topics including goods and services, pros/cons to salary pay vs entrepreneurship, and civics. In our City Council Meetings (class discussions), students learn the topics and apply those topics in the simulation. In one of the City Council Meetings, the citizens individually decide whether they want to apply for a salary position or create their own business. Each year, the class names their city. Over the years, names have included Cometville (after our school mascot) as well as Wildcat Woods and Funville. We invite parents to come in and interview students applying for either business loans or salary positions. At the end of the unit, we invite parents and first grade to come shop in our city (tourist season). 

To engage our parents in the process, we invite them to come in to interview salary workers and entrepreneurs. It is absolutely precious!  We have about 6-8 parents come in dressed professionally and playing the role of a bank loan officer or Human Resources representative. The students bring either their business application information or their resumé. 

Below are pictures of a business being interviewed by a parent:

The kids were also encouraged to "look professional" because they would be interviewed for their business loans and salary positions. Needless to say, the kids always take this VERY seriously.  So precious!

We invited the 3rd graders (and former Wildcat City! citizens) to share their reflections with the 2nd graders with similar businesses. The new business owners had a series of interview questions to help prompt their advisor. It was absolutely precious and a great way to connect the grades. On the day of the simulation, we also invite the 1st grade students to shop. This is a great way to connect their year-to-come experience!

Below are a few pictures of our businesses and
salary workers on our presentation day:

The bankers, along with the bank manager (teacher), handled all the loan transactions, payroll, ATM-manning, and general banking for the citizens of our city. The ATM was created using a tri-fold board, dowel rods with applesauce caps hot-glued on for buttons, and some lettering. "Tourists" received city-specific money as well as ATM cards to use during their time in our city. They used scrapbook paper plastic containers to hold the denominations of money. 

This business owner created a movie! 

He popped popcorn to sell along with tickets to his showings.

One of our students was the police officer for our city! A few officers from our local police department came over and were interviewed by the student about their reasons for being an officer as well as other important parts of their job. They were wonderful with our student! They even gave him sticker-badges to give to the other students in his class as well as enough to hand out on the "tourist season" day.

These two lovely business owners created a business that sold collars, leashes, dog beds, treats, and other dog needs. Their business also provided dog training (for stuffed lovies)!

This young citizen created a business around his martial arts training. 

He offered lessons that cost $5 for five minutes.

These creative ladies designed tissue-paper flowers, clay flowers, and flower jewelry!

For the simulation, our businesses and salary jobs have included:

• Salary workers: bankers (2), fire marshal, doctor, police officers, librarians, teachers

• Businesses: origami designs, bakeries, gaming arcades, dance lessons, art shop, city museum, yoga studio, martial arts, Harry Potter experiences, tie-dye clothes, movie theater (student-made production), puppet shows, scientists selling tickets to see experiments, jewelry shop, pet supplies

Above are some examples of what we give the kids when they apply for
jobs or businesses, a business license, and interview questions
we give the parents.

Click HERE for one of the City Council Meeting lessons FREEBIE!

Click HERE to see Salary Worker Interview Questions FREEBIE!

Click HERE for the Business Loan Application FREEBIE!

Please feel free to email me or comment below with additional questions about this simulation!

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STEM Challenge: Build a Bird Nest

     In looking for a way to revamp my birds unit, I came across some STEM challenges that looked fun and engaging for my 2nd & 3rd grade scientists!  This year's curriculum (we're on a 2-year rotation) lends itself to A LOT of hands-on building.  I bought some moss and the kids could pick from other natural materials outside our classroom.  They could also use man-made items from in the classroom.  We studied different types of birds' nests by watching a YouTube video and looking at various pictures.  We also looked at wacky places birds nest in this YouTube video.  Then we were off to work!  The kids were partnered a 2nd with a 3rd grader.  After creating the nests and testing them (had to fit four "eggs" and a bird sitting on it), the kids walked around to see what each other built.  They also did some follow up documentation in writing and on Seesaw!

Examples of natural materials used:

• moss
• leaves
• grass
• twigs
• flowers

Examples of man-made materials used:

• leis with the flowers pulled off
• paper or plastic plate
• glue
• pencils
• tape
• construction paper
• cups
• styrofoam balls

 HERE is the link to the Seesaw entry created by one of the students pictured below.
       

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Dissecting Seeds Project

     My students are learning about plants, so the other day I gave each student ordinary Lima & kidney beans from the grocery store to dissect.  I have to admit, the kids and I were pretty surprised to see so many embryos (beginnings of plants) in the seeds.  TIP:  In order to soften the beans quickly, I put them in a cup of hot water.  While the kids were working, they took a picture of what they had dissected.  Using the tools in Seesaw, the kids were able to label the parts, and I was then able to assess their understanding of the parts.

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Passion Projects: Kids Explore What They Love!

"Passion Projects," "Genius Hour," "20% Time," "Passion Project Hour"...  I've been doing these types of projects with my students longer than it has been a buzz word!  Early on in my teaching (fourteen years ago), I knew it was important for the kids to express themselves through whatever it was they were passionate about or highly interested in.  I dubbed them "Special Projects" and they were done in the morning when everyone was coming to school.  The projects were more informal than today's projects, but the essence was the same -- to give each student an avenue where they could bring their personal interests to life and teach their class about it too.

When my co-teacher and I decided to work this project into our schedule (we let go of a subject, Junior Great Books, that wasn't engaging for our kids), we began by watching A.J. Juliani's course.  We also enlisted the help of our Director of Teaching & Learning, who did these types of projects with his students when he was a classroom teacher.  It has been invaluable to have the three of us working with them!  We three planned together and picked out the ways we felt it could be engaging and workable for our 2nd and 3rd graders.  While it hasn't always been smooth sailing with this age group compared to older students, the rewards have been beautiful!  I have cherished the time I'm spending with them doing projects that normally wouldn't fall into our usual school day.  From sewing, to playing a mini-golf course, to watching them code video games (they are light years ahead of my understanding!).  There are so many projects, and in heart-warming ways each one reflects the student completing it.

If you are debating doing Passion Projects with this age level, I highly recommend enlisting the help of another teacher and/or parent.  I'm sure there are all-star teachers out there who do it alone and I would love to be one!  But sometimes one needed a needle threaded, another a box cut, and another dripped paint and all needed to be attended to pretty quickly.  It was just a more peaceful process knowing that I had two other teachers in the class with me.  I am also happy to help you further if you'd like to know more about our process with this age group.

Some of the other projects include making stuffed animals, drawing sketches, creating a new song, and making a catchphrase.  The students always reflected on their work from the day into Seesaw, and so that all three teachers could give constructive comments on their work.  Administration was also able to view the progress through Seesaw!  Parents also very much enjoyed seeing their child's progress and commenting as well.

More photos to come when they present their projects to our school next week!

Click HERE for link to lightbulb border from Creative Teaching Press.

The clipart is from Krista Wallden - Creative Clips.

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Seesaw: My Classroom Game Changer!

     Parent/Classroom communication had been somewhat of a struggle in our classroom over the years...  We sent weekly (paper) newsletters and posted them on our school's internal website, sent emails, sent work home often, you name it.  Still there were families who felt they needed more.  Then last year, my soon-to-be co-teacher was shown something by our head of school.  SEESAW!  She showed it to me and I knew right away this would be the total game changer for our classroom.  My then co-teacher and I implemented it immediately!  The response was POSITIVELY overwhelming!  We started out with the free Seesaw, but quickly purchased Seesaw for Schools for Grades 2-5.  Our Middle School and "Specials" (PE, Music, World Languages, Art, Drama) classes now use it and we're working on getting K-1 on board too.  Our school happens to be 1:1 iPads, but Seesaw is meant for schools with all types of technology access!

     Seesaw is a student-driven digital portfolio that allows the students to directly communicate/document their learning to their families and teachers in an absolutely safe space.   Parents now get to see what their child is doing in real-time presented by their child!  Even grandparents and other family members can sign up if they have the child's code!  It has been so sweet to see the grandparents living out of state commenting on their grandchild's work :)

Click HERE to see an example of one of my student's math work!  

This was a math lesson about metric and nonstandard measurement.

Click HERE to see an example of one of my student's reflections 

about her Passion Project progress.

Click HERE to see an example of a video created by two of my students
to explain equivalent fractions. 

Click HERE to see a video one of my students made about multiplication.

     Teacher benefits?...  A TON!!  We were able to lose the weekly newsletters that were consuming A LOT of our time on Fridays (sometimes weekends if we didn't get to it on Friday)!  We are able to assess them in more authentic ways in addition to standards-based.  We are able to give meaningful feedback on their work.  We could easily use a safe Seesaw blog connected to our class, but I haven't done that yet.  We can comment on other teacher's classes if we are co-teachers on their accounts.  With Seesaw for Schools, our head of school and all admin with access can see what the kids are doing without leaving their office and can comment on the kids work!  We can see which parents view the work.  The kids can constructively comment on each other's work (if you turn that feature on).  These are just a few of the amazing things that Seesaw has helped us improve in our class!  This blog post does not do full justice to all the incredible features Seesaw has to offer!!

Scan this code to get a free month of Seesaw Plus!

Click HERE for more information about features and pricing!

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