Valentine’s Party K.I.S.S. -Keep the Party Sweet & Simple!

For our Valentine’s party, one of the other teachers on my team begged us. “Please,” she said, “ALL THEY WANT is to open their Valentines and look through them. Can we keep this one simple?”

As someone who doesn’t have a room mom (like a lot of teachers- but somewhat unusual for my school) and generally plans a craft, snack, and game for each party myself, I agreed immediately.

Here’s what we did!

For years, my team has done this. Send home a letter with student names, and a white bag. Ask each child to decorate their bag as much or as little as they want, but make sure their name is on it.

As kids bring them in, hang the bags on the tray beneath the board. (Next year, I’ll do this in some kind of order, but this year we just randomly put them up with masking tape.)

After they’ve had about a week and a half to bring bags back, let kids start bringing in Valentines. The only rule is that they bring one for everyone. We also gave them the option of only filling out the “from” side to make them quicker to pass out : )

During the morning work time or when kids have finished work, they pass out their Valentines for the week or so until the party.

Flash forward to the Valentine’s Party- when the valentines are already passed out. I sent one group at a time to go get their bag, and one group at a time to get snacks (a couple of kinds of fruit sent in by parents- because they’d have plenty of sweets!).

Once everyone had both, we put on Charlie Brown’s Valentine’s Day on the 3M board and let them eat and open their Valentine’s bags.

We ended the party by playing a little GoNoodle (our first time, and the kids LOVED it!) and then playing the old school hand-clap game “Down By The Banks,” which a lot of my kids had never played. They did a great job, even when they got “out”- and they roared with laughter when they got ME out of the game!

This party was less work, less chaos… and my kids had a lot of fun anyway. I think they really enjoyed just hanging out together. There isn’t a lot of downtime or “just because” fun in 4th grade- especially when we’re departmentalized- and it was a good reminder to me to let that unstructured time happen once in awhile. I really do think it helps with classroom community- and lets you get more learning in later!

What about you- hyper-organized party planner, or keep-it-simple planner?

Memorial Day Memory

Both of my grandfathers, one of my uncles, one of my cousins, my brother-in-law, and other loved ones have all served in the military, so I really try to take some time to remember the true reason for this holiday.

For me, that means re-reading The Road Home, re-watching some Band of Brothers, and reminiscing about one of my most memorable days as a teacher.

 

You can read about it here.

Thank you to all who have served.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Mother’s Day Gifts- Last Minute and EASY!

Whew- exhausted! I’ve been sick since last week. I’m on antibiotics, but this sinus infection is just not done with me yet. I’m getting better, though!

Are you like me, and just now working on a last minute Mother’s Day gift with your class?

These flower pens are easy to make in a day, especially if you work with a small group at a time, and they’re pretty cheap.

What else have we been up to?

Well, long-term followers might remember that my class ran a lemonade stand for charity in May last year. You can read all about it here.

We’re preparing to run the second annual lemonade stand this Friday!

Today we analyzed some advertisements with a simple freebie from last year. (You can pick it up here- it’s great for author’s purpose in depth in the upper grades, and really engaging in those last couple weeks of school!)

Oh, and this week we’ve also had state testing, chicks hatching in our room, an author visit, and lots of time finishing up our books for Young Author’s week.

We’ve been so busy that one of my kids told me today, “Are we going to have our reading rounds in the afternoon? I actually kind of miss reading.” For some kids, that would be normal… but for this guy, it made my heart sing to think that he is finally loving reading!

Weeks like this are why I love teaching- SO much fantastic learning (state testing aside)- but they wear. me. out! I’ll be ready for the weekend for sure :)

Five for Birthday!

I’m a day late linking up to Five for Friday, but I have a good reason.

(You can link up here at Doodle Bugs Teaching!)

#1- It’s my birthday! :) I’m still young enough to be excited about it.

My kids all sang happy birthday to me spontaneously yesterday, and a couple of them even got or made me gifts and cards. So sweet! (Plus, in FOUR DAYS, I get to see Phantom of the Opera on Broadway for my birthday. SO thrilled!!!)

#2 The leprechaun visited yesterday morning, too! (Yes, it was a little late, but we had Spring Break in there.) I made my traps optional for kids this year, but we still had some amazing ones come in.

I wasn’t sure if 3rd graders would still believe that a leprechaun visited, but I gave myself a great alibi, which helped!

#3- We have been focusing on non-fiction informational text this past week, and my kids are devouring it.

Next week we start researching animals to write our own non-fiction books!

#4- Another reason yesterday was awesome?

About 3 quarters of my class got a chance to be on Sparkling or the top of Sparkling yesterday. It’s mostly because I really really needed them to bring something back as soon as possible, and offered to let them clip up twice if they brought it back the next day- and, amazingly, 19/20 remembered it! Still, though, a couple of my kids earned their way to Sparkling for the first time ever, and they were so excited. What a great way to keep kids on their toes on a Friday!

And #5? We got over 90 new (and wonderful) books from Scholastic this week for our classroom, thanks to an amazing opportunity I have next week. My class went crazy over the new books.

Next week, I will be giving Scholastic some feedback about their Book Clubs. I would LOVE to hear your thoughts and any suggestions you have for me to take to them! :) If you have a couple of minutes, can you pretty pretty please answer these for me?

- Do you use Scholastic Book Clubs? If not, why not?

- What is your general feeling about Book Clubs this year? Has it changed since last year?

- What feedback have students/ parents given you about the program?

- What do you think of the online ordering system?

- What, if anything, do you do to encourage participation?

- How do you tie technology to literacy in your classroom?

- Do you use Scholastic’s app Storia? If so, what are your thoughts?

- What do you use teacher rewards, bonus points, coupons, etc. for?

- Do you have any other praise, complaints, suggestions, questions, or comments for Scholastic Book Clubs?

I’m going to have a giveaway later this week, and commenting with your thoughts about Book Clubs will help you get more entries- plus, I will be taking your feedback straight to the source to help make Book Clubs work better for you!

Plus… it’s my birthday! Thanks in advance for helping me out! :)

Pumpkin Book Reports

Last year the blogging world introduced me to the idea of pumpkin book reports, and I loved it! If you haven’t considered it already, do.

Of course, there are lots of packets online to get you started, but I began with the free one at SimplyKinder.I loved the way her freebie introduced the project in a totally fall-centric, no-mention-of-Halloween way!

I did create a book report form that went a bit more in depth (requiring my students to give character traits and what evidence from the book led them to identify those traits), but I use this primarily as a home-school connection project to get the entire family involved with reading.

 
This is a great way to let kids be creative but also to encourage them to share books with their peers.

(Yes, this girl had a head-to-toe Halloween outfit, including some little spiders painted on her face. This little fashionista looked more put together than me every day last year.)
Some tips to suggest to parents:

• Pick a small pumpkin.
• Don’t carve for this project.
• Work on it a little at a time, instead of all on the last weekend.

And for you? If your parents are invited to your fall party, have the pumpkins ready to go back home that day.
I LOVED this project last year, and I had a few parents tell me how much they loved that I sent home family projects for them to work on together. I can’t wait to see the pumpkins I get this year!
P.S.- Let me know if you could use the amped-up character report form!

My Most Memorable Moment of the Year

Early this school year, I learned that one of my students' dads was in the Air Force and deployed overseas. As we approached Veterans' Day and learned about the holiday, I decided that we would write letters to her dad and some of the men and women in his unit.

I checked with her mom, who sent in a picture so that the girl could show the class and tell them about her dad. I also asked her if there was anything that they would appreciate us sending.

The class worked on letters, and brought in some of their Halloween candy to share. (I loved this- because, instead of their parents just giving, the kids were able to give something of their own, too.) I also asked parents if they wanted to donate nice toiletries, especially those like lotion and body wash.

I had amazingly generous families this year. We had three boxes' worth (two large flat rate boxes of toiletries and one medium flat rate box of candy and letters) to send.

We didn't hear back, but I didn't mind. I mean, I would guess that these people are a bit busy, and honestly, I didn't need to hear back to feel good about it.

With her dad deployed, it was sometimes really tough for this little girl to handle. My dad died when I was 11, and so watching this little girl cry over missing her dad broke my heart even a little extra. There was at least one time where she stayed in from a special and she and I cried together. To be able to let her tell us about how proud she was of her dad, and how she missed him but she knew he was a hero, and then for her to see us rally around her family like that... well, let's just say that that alone made it feel more than worthwhile to me.

So as the year went on, occasionally this little girl would give me updates about her dad coming home. He was going to be there for her birthday, and she was so excited. He was supposed to come home in March.

Well, in mid-February, I got an email from her mom. Dad was coming home early, but the girl didn't know, and Mom wondered if they could come in and surprise her at school. They asked me what time would be convenient.

Um, how about any time you want!

So, we came back from a special, and I told the kids there was a surprise waiting inside- but they had to promise to stay quiet until every person was in the classroom and got to see what the surprise was.

She was in the back of the line, and as we started to go inside, she strained to see the surprise like everyone else. When she first saw him, she was in disbelief. Her voice was soft and tentative.

"Daddy?"

Bless her heart, she was so in shock that she wasn't even cutting in line to get to him faster.

I urged her to go ahead, and she ran to him. He picked her up, and they hugged and kissed and cried, while the mom and brothers looked on and smiled.

Her tears were one thing, but seeing him sobbing at holding his little girl again... I was tearing up.

I was barely managing to hold it together, until they stopped for a moment, and the dad hands me a bag. He said that the guys in his unit had all pitched in. They so appreciated our little supply drive and letters that they got me a personalized, engraved glass apple paperweight.

I was just flabbergasted. I had never in a million years expected him to give me something. Seriously, you are an Airman who was just deployed and you are thanking me?

But- wow. How absolutely incredible.

The things we lead our students to do can mean so much.

I'm not sure that in the rest of my teaching career, I will ever have a day as powerful and amazing as this one. I will never forget the looks on their faces.

As we honor those military men and women who have given their lives, I think of all those who missed out on the chance to have a moment like this.

Someday, they'll get the opportunity.

Thank you, veterans.


(Linked up with My (Not So) Elementary Life's Most Memorable Moment linky party.)

Petal to the Metal!

Husband is in the middle of a monster road trip, somewhere in Arkansas, on his way to Texas for the summer. I have a field trip to go on tomorrow, and then report cards to do, class awards to decide, files to update, assessments to grade, gifts to make, and a class to corral for FIVE. More. Days.

Tonight, I should have been productive but I wasn't. At all. And it felt gooood. Life is moving FAST right about now, isn't it?

So, Wednesday of last week, I decided that a better Mother's Day idea for my class just wasn't coming to me, and I decided to go with an easy one- flower pens.

 

I'm sure most of you have made these before. If not, they are completely easy. I'm thinking of making some flower mechanical pencils for next year that ONLY get to be used at my guided reading table. (Hopefully, flowers would make it obvious where my pencils disappeared to!)

Basically, get some fake flowers. Pick out the best looking ones. I find that I do well at Dollar Tree, but I hear that these are easy to find at thrift stores, too.

I get 5-6 flowers for a dollar, usually. Start out by bending each flower away from the bunch.

Because these flowers do still have wires in the stems, I used a pair of scissors to cut the plastic.

Then, I just bent the wire back and forth a couple of times until it broke.

Keep doing this until you have eleventy-billion flowers. For me, I wanted my students to choose 2 flowers each, so I went a little crazy. They were so cute- some even knew their mom's favorite colors or flowers!

Now, find some pens. I snagged most of these from the "parent donations" bin in our supply room. Smoother pens are better, but any will do. My sample was made from an old hotel pen.

Check that the flower stem is not longer than the pen (and re-cut if it is). Then, start wrapping the floral tape around the pen a few times at the top. Floral tape is a little stickier on the outside of the roll, usually, but it's pretty hard to tell. It will stick either way, but not immediately. Starting the tape on the pen was the hardest part for my students!

Once you have it around the pen 5-6 times, stick the flower stem next to it and wrap tape around both, together, at least 4 times. Floral tape will stretch, so be sure you pull it tight.

From here, pull the tape and rotate the pen!

At the bottom of the pen, pull hard enough to tear the tape and then press it down. It will stick to itself. 

If you wrapped just a layer or two, your cap might fit. I had a kid or two in the class that were insistent that their moms would want the caps. (I don't know if that's inside their purses, or what...) 

My favorite thing about this project is that, when I first showed the kids, they gave me this look like, "Yeah right! I won't be able to make it look like THAT." And then, really, most of them did! They were so proud when they were done.

My worry the night before was how to make this look presentable. After Dollar Tree, my next stop was Hobby Lobby, where I found the floral tape for less than two dollars and the "vases" for 40% off.

They're can coozies! I just hot glued a cute piece of ribbon around each one. Ta-Da!

These make great easy gifts that the kids can really make. I know Mother's Day crafts are over and done, but a bouquet of flower pens could make a great end-of-the-year gift for the school secretary who essentially runs the school, that Title I teacher who works her tail off, or those room moms that deserve a little something extra.

The kids really enjoyed this, and I helped small groups through it as the rest worked on writing a short essay about what makes their mom so great.



I was pretty happy with how they turned out, and I like that it's a practical gift a mom (or grandma, or important female in their lives!) can really use.