Stone Soup Celebration (and bacon?!)

I am sliding in juuuust under the wire to join in Jennifer’s Something Good linky!

Something Good at Home: Can you say 3-day weekend? I got to hang out with my mom, 2 family friends, my mother-in-law, her boyfriend, my cousins, a couple of coworkers, and 3 good friends- plus, of course, my husband. We spent some time watching improv comedy, playing with a puppy, watching The Muppets (a Valentine’s gift!), and visiting the Indianapolis Children’s Museum (which is just plain amazing).
Something Good at School: My students hosted a Stone Soup celebration last Friday to honor some people who we appreciate in our school. It was a great opportunity to write letters detailing the things we love about some of the people who make our school work.

My students each brought in one ingredient (okay, well, most of them did). We thankfully didn’t have too much overlap, and most parents washed and cut things first.

Of course, we added stones first. (Oh, and a crock pot liner. Seriously, these things are SO worth it.)

We added to the crock pots and let the soups cook for a few hours.

They turned out delicious, and when each person stopped in for soup, we paused to raise hands and share specific compliments or things we liked about that person. A couple of teachers nearly teared up. The kids also got to eat lunch in the room and try a little cup of soup. It was such a sweet way to end last week!
*Random side note: my husband does improv comedy, and recently acted in a (kind of ridiculous) local Internet commercial. He was paid in money and bacon, so I keep joking about him (literally) bringing home the bacon. If you have a minute, check it out.


By the way, the bacon was deee-lish. Hope you are having a great week!

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!

Engineering Challenge- and a Place Value Freebie!

Okay, we did this as part of our BFG Day, but this is an activity I love. It's perfect for a day right before a big school break, when your kids are crazy active anyway and you don't really have any specific content you have to cover but you still want to do something educational.

I gave my kids an engineering challenge. First, we talk about what an engineer does.

Then, the challenge: They are to make a chair that Mr. Potato Head can sit in. (My college program used a teddy bear, so any kind of little classroom mascot will work!) Their first goal is for their chair to hold him, so I let each person feel the size and weight of him in their hands.

If they create a chair that holds him, and so do other groups, the winning chair will be the one that holds him the highest off of the ground. (I measure to the very bottom of his feet.)

The trick is... they only get to use paper and tape.

My kids immediately start balking. "Not even SCISSORS?!"

Nope. Just paper, and tape. They're welcome to tear the paper, if they'd like, but each group gets only a stack of computer paper and a roll of tape.

Some groups made lots of plans.

Most groups started together on one central idea, but one group let each kid make their own design and then picked the best one to work on together towards the end. One group started out with something resembling a chair...

That ended up looking nothing like a chair.

Some groups got started immediately-

folding,

rolling,

taping...

And... whatever this is?

 

Some groups worked really well together.

And of course, some groups got to learn a lot of group work skills. (I let them work it out on their own as much as possible- very interesting to watch the dynamics!)

For my ESL kids, I heard so much authentic language practice- and they were having a blast.

For my autistic child, having to consider the ideas of others in the group and compromise was a challenge- but by the end, that child was working right alongside the group.

I loved how different they all turned out. Two looked so organized, like they had a clear plan.

Two looked... well, not.

But will they hold Mr. Potato Head?

They ALL did!

Yes, we measured to find the top winner, but really, all of my students had a great time and I could tell they were all pretty proud of the chairs they completed.

One group wasn't the highest, but tested how much weight theirs could hold. Check it out:

 A lot of fun, for sure.

Tweak it for your classroom!

• Look at pictures of famous architecture for ideas.
• Have each student or group draw out and label their plan beforehand.
• Give students a limit of how many sheets of paper to use.
• Give students a strict time limit.
• Award winners for different categories- Holds Most Weight, Tallest Chair, Most Comfortable Chair, etc.
• Change the challenge to fit a specific holiday! Maybe it's a chair for your Elf on the Shelf, or maybe it's a leprechaun chair. You could also use it as a way to recycle paper on the last day of school!
• Ask students to write about what they did and learned. You could even have them try a second time to see if they change their tactics.

One more thing before I go!

I meant to share this forever ago, but here is a Place Value Scoot game that I used to assess where my 3rd graders were with 2nd grade place value skills. It includes expanded form, standard form, word form, value questions, place questions, and goes up to the hundreds place.

Just like everything else I share... it's free! :) Please take the time to leave a quick note of thanks (and follow me!) if you grab the Place Value Scoot freebie!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Lemonade Stand Re-cap!

To do a quick re-cap of what happened for us a few weeks ago...

 We spent our morning learning about capacity while we made ten gallons of lemonade (2 5-gallon jugs).

 

We learned about concentration and that we had to make sure the lemonade mix dissolved. We also taste-tested to see if we thought the concentration of our solution was too low, too high, or just right.

We made the final copy of our menu (we had made a rough draft the day before on chart paper, but they really liked the idea of using a chalkboard "like a real restaurant"). I wrote the small parts, but otherwise... all kid-done!

 We decided who would work what jobs, what shifts. As it turned out, most of the students really wished they had more time to work.

 We originally had made signs for the lemonade stand (after examining persuasive advertisements- freebie here!), but the principal asked that we only sell to adults, so we didn't put many of our signs up around the school. (It didn't seem fair to advertise it to the kids who couldn't have any!) So instead, we used our signs to go around the table.

 We were BUSY. We had a line before we could even get set-up. Next year, I think we'll be doing most of the set-up before lunchtime, just so that we don't have as much to do to get selling!

 My husband was amazing. We were in between the time he was in classes, and the time he left for his internship- and he spent the entire morning running around town to pick things up for us, and then helping mix up the lemonade and helping run the stand the rest of the day. Not sure how we would've done it without him- and the students all voted that he should get a free cookie for his troubles.

You can see how busy we were. We had our lemonade stand during a mile run-walk for the whole school that many parents attend. We are a big school (7-8 classes per grade level, K-3), so this meant a lot of customers!

 

We even had some special customers, like the principal, superintendent, and the MAYOR- thanks to my students writing friendly letters to invite them. They were disappointed that Barack Obama didn't make it, though. We sold just about all of our ten gallons of lemonade.

We had also written business letters to local places- and our local Subway donated 250 cookies and 200 cups, our local BP donated plenty of large bags of ice, and our local Walgreens donated all of the lemonade mix AND a volunteer while the lemonade stand was running. She's in this picture on the right, and really pitched in and got involved helping to watch over our cashiers.

All in all, with the help of parents, local businesses, and our two guest speakers (a local entrepreneur and a publicist who helped us write a news release), we ended the lemonade stand making almost $350 for Henryville Schools to rebuild after being hit by a tornado.

We were even featured in the newspaper with a color picture of 2 students, and 3 other students quoted. It's no wonder, though, with advertising like this...

 

 
Haha- just kidding. We didn't put this one up, but one of the girls in my class made it at home from a Diet Pepsi ad. Didn't you know, Sofia Vergara loves our lemonade?

It was a huge success. HUGE. Not only did we make a LOT of money, but the amount of academic learning packed into the project was amazing. Plus, I had the kids write about it and got to read things like, "I learned that just 'cause I'm small doesn't mean I can't do big things."

I am so proud of the kids for being so passionate and convincing me to give it a try. I am proud of myself, to be honest, for taking it on even though it's the end of the year, my first year teaching my own class, and my first year at this school.

Yes, it was a lot of work... but if you ever get a chance to dive into a big project like this, DO IT! So worth it!

Great News!

I posted this a couple of days ago, and then apparently un-posted it somehow. Sorry if you're reading this again! I did add an update at the end, though!

WOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

I posted a little while ago about the idea to do a lemonade stand.

I fully realize that as a new teacher at the end of the year, I have probably bitten off way more than I can chew, but I am so excited about it. The kids are crazy about the idea, my principal LOVES it, and there is so much learning packed into this project!

We are diving right in!

We brainstormed what we would need for the lemonade stand.

We brainstormed places that might help us by sending donations.

We wrote persuasive business letters, learned how to fold them into thirds, and addressed the envelopes.

I added a little note from me with more details.

The school sent them out, and

WE
JUST
GOT
A
DONATION.

I am so excited!!!

Updated: We now have THREE places donating to us, including one place that is donating time as well as product, and another place that is offering to donate some cookies, too!

I can't wait to post this weekend about one of the activities we did today. Terrific!

P.S.- Don't forget to join my linky party with your teacher invention! Also you would just plain make me happy!