Math - Second Grade - Measurement Online Games

Measurement Games

2.md.1:

Measure the Teddy Bears - http://www.apples4theteacher.com/measure.html

Measuring in Inches - http://henryanker.com/Math/Measurement/Measurement_Set_A.swf

Time to Move - http://www.pbs.org/parents/education/math/games/first-second-grade/time-to-move/

2.md.2:

Measure It - http://www.funbrain.com/measure/

2.md.3:

Inchy Picnic - http://www.fuelthebrain.com/games/inchy-picnic/

Length - http://www.aasd.k12.wi.us/staff/boldtkatherine/MathResources3-6/Math_Measurement.htm

How Tall - http://pbskids.org/curiousgeorge/games/how_tall/how_tall.html

Size Estimation - http://www.toonuniversity.com/quiz.asp?quizzes_key=1

Measurement - Length - http://eduplace.com/kids/hmm/practice/2/ep2_07.html

Writing and Reading: Biographies and Core Clicks

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Language Arts and Technology

1.  Reading – getting more information about your person

If you have enough information, still search for your person but find 3 new and interesting facts about them.

If you don’t have enough information, search for your person and fill out your worksheet from Reading

Go to:  www.biography.com  and search for your person

Or go to:

·      Tiger Woods

http://www.tigerwoods.com/about-tiger

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/647648/Tiger-Woods

Explore these websites:

            http://www.knowledgeadventure.com/games/mini-golf/

            http://pbskids.org/fetch/games/minigolf/index.html

            http://www.sikids.com/

·      Ellen Ochoa

            http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/hispanic/ochoa.htm

             

Explore these websites:

http://www.boeing.com/boeing/defense-space/space/spacestation/

                        http://www.kidsastronomy.com/

                        http://kids.usa.gov/science/space/index.shtml

·      Benjamin Franklin

Explore these websites:

            http://www.ushistory.org/franklin/fun/index.htm

            http://www.pbs.org/benfranklin/explore.html

            http://www.libertyskids.com/arch_who_bfranklin.html

·      Theodore Seuss Geisel

            http://www.catinthehat.org/history.htm

https://www.earlymoments.com/dr-seuss/The-Life-and-Times-of-Dr-Seuss/           

Explore these websites

                        http://www.seussville.com/

                        http://www.drseussart.com/bio/

2.  Ruby Bridges

Go to:  www.scholastic.com/coreclicks

Type in your username and password

Follow the directions of your teacher.

T Shirt Quilt

I know.  I'm slow.  I think I only get inspired when it's warm outside!!

I decided to help a friend out the other month and make a t-shirt quilt for her daughter's graduation.  Amazingly, she did half the battle, I'm just the seamstress.  Below is the process I used after looking up many other sites and blogs and how-to-s for t-shirt quilts.

Materials:

• Rotary cutter, mat, straight edge
• Cardboard for template
• Lifetime worth of t-shirts
• Sewing machine
• Thread
• Straight pins
• Fabric piece large enough to match the size of the quilt (or piece-meal)
• Roll of quilting batting (can buy at any fabric store; I bought a roll for king size)

1.  Pick your shirts.  You may need to be choosy or you're going to have an extra extra king-sized quilt!  This one happens to have 56 shirts.  I suggest you use a cardboard template of some kind (including a seam allowance!) - that keeps everything nice and tidy and straight.  Make sure you choose shirts with designs smaller than the template so nothing gets cut off.

2.  Cut your shirts.  While scissors are wonderful, rotary cutters are superb!!  Following the template, working on a mat, using a rotary cutter makes a smooth cut and is fast and easy.

3.  Iron on fusible webbing.  Doing this makes the shirts stretch a bit less while sewing.  Cut to fit after ironing.

Fusible webbing - your friend

4.  Pin squares together to make rows and sew.  This is where it starts to get easy!!  I think making the design may take some time, but if you're going for true quilt, just put it together any old way!!  I sewed each square of a row together, and did every row separately like that. 

Part of a row.  No, I didn't mess up my sewing - it's just not completely unfolded.  !!

5.  Iron seams of rows.  Take each row and iron the seams down.  You may need to trim off some excess fabric/fusing that sticks out. 

6.  Sew rows together.  I had a whole assembly line going on - after I ironed seams of a row, I then lined it up (front sides facing each other - be careful!!  I spent a whole 45 minutes seam ripping last night, and my neck hurts now!), pinned two rows together, then sewed.  Then I ironed the next row of seams, pinned, and sewed to the blanket and so on.  This made for a fast easy process!

It's huge!!  It takes up about half of my basement...

7.  Sew back fabric.  For me, my quilt turned out to be a smidgen larger than queen size, which made it a bit hard to find fabric wide enough to fit. So I had to buy twice as much fabric, sew it together, then trim off excess in the end.

8.  Trim back fabric and batting to fit size of quilt.

9.  Pin all three pieces together (batting, then back fabric, then t-shirts picture side facing in) and sew all but a portion of the bottom.  Turn inside out (or outside in)  :)  and hand sew the remaining opening.

10.  In the end mine felt a little loose in the middle, so I decided to sew french knots through all three layers here and there (corners of t-shirts) for some added security.

And you are done (and so am I!!)

To me this wasn't that hard of a project.  I rather liked it.  It's really gotten me into sewing and quilting.  My next step is a quilted clutch.  Instructions and pics coming soon!!!

New Art

Here's some pics of my new paintings (er...artwork).  Most will be sold at the first annual Cow Flop at Manor View Elementary School in Ft. Meade this Sunday.

Enjoy!

Slow Cooker Chicken with Rosemary, Apples, and Onions

Made this today for my 87 year old grandma.  It made the house smell lovely on such a warm fall day!

I got the recipe from foodnetwork.com:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/robin-miller/slow-cooker-chicken-with-rosemary-apples-and-onions-recipe/index.html

I added more chicken (about 7 piece total) and it works fine with the recipe.  I did about 8 hours on low on the crock pot (borrowed from my mother of course, since a year ago mine boiled over while I was out of the house and burnt up).  It nicely served 6.2 of us (me, hubby, poppy, grammy, nana, and the munchkin).
yummy!

Ingredients

• 2 cups sliced onions
• 2 apples, peeled, cored and sliced
• 2 pounds cut up chicken pieces (with bone), with or without skin
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary leaves
• 1 cup reduced-sodium chicken broth
• 1/2 cup cream of celery soup
• 2 cups cooked rice (white or brown)

Directions

Arrange onion and apple slices in bottom of slow cooker. Place chicken pieces on top and season all over with salt and black pepper. Sprinkle rosemary over chicken.

In a medium bowl, whisk together chicken broth and soup. Pour mixture over chicken.

Cover and cook on LOW for 6 to 8 hours or on HIGH for 3 to 4 hours.
Serve chicken, sauce, apples, and onions over rice.

School's A-Waiting

Alright, I'm a terrible blogger.  The summer got away from me!!!  Too much part-ay-ing, or really vacationing!  Florida is the best.  Remind me when I'm rich to move to the gulf.  It is such an inspiration for painting.  (soon I'll post pics of my newest paintings of my summer)

Meanwhile, the countdown is ticking till the beginning of school!  How does 2.5 months just fly by?!  Crazy.  I've been teaching English for a few years now and decided for a change.  This year I'm on to new venues...music.  K3-4th grade to be exact.  While I love music, I've never taught it before.  But I had the lovely task of finding a curriculum and studying it over the past few weeks.  Kodaly wins!  The best part is he was Hungarian and so am I!  I'm hoping his blood is in mine and somewhere things will click and I'll magically get the hang of his ways...

Anywho, been thinking of how to do my music on a cart.  More to come on that one as I tackle it next week when I go back.

But....I would like to share a friends idea on classroom management.  For her when a class does well, they get to put a giant jellybean in a drawn jar on a bulletin board.  The class at the end of the year with the most beans wins a party.  I love positive incentives!!  My twist is I found a picture of a jar of jellybeans online, stretched it to make it fit a page, printed it, cut it out.  I'll color code each jar lid (for my crazy organization, each grade gets a different color) and put the class teacher's name on it, then next week I'll go and laminate it.  I'll then put them all on a metal ring, attach it to my cart, and when a class does well, I'll put a sticker on one of the jellybeans on their class jar.  I may even be so bold as to give extra stickers to extra special classes.

Here is the jellybean jar:  Click and save.

So that's my thought for the day.  Thought I'd share as ideas are beginning to fly again!!

Shelving Re-do: the beginning

So I am a part of this wonderful thing called Freecycle through Yahoo Groups.  It.is.awesome.

If you have something you don't want, post it, people come and pick it up for free.  And the reverse!!  You see things people don't want and you can go pick it up.  Again I say, for FREE!

Ok, truth be told:  I"m posting this while watching Lost.  So hard!  But I really want to share what I've started.

A lovely lady decided to give away two wooden cubes and a shelf.  I had never gone and picked anything up from Freecycle, only gotten rid of my "junk".  So I decided to try it out.  I got it!

Well, tonight I had some extra time and took out my new findings.  As I took them out of their lovely boxes, I found a sticker on each one.  What did I use to take them off (fingernails did.not.work.)  I went in my hubby's wallet and took out one of his cards.  One we don't regularly use 'cause the store's too far away (a whopping 3 miles).

So, the card did the trick but there was still a sticky residue.  Usually if something is plastic, I use my handy-dandy Goo Gone, which works wonders, then I wash it with soapy water.  But this was wood, so I just sprayed some (a small squirt!) on a paper towel and it wiped right off.  I then got a damp paper towel to wipe off the oily-ness left.  Worked like a charm.

It was nice out, so I went out and sanded these babies.  With "mahogany stain" dust all over me, I was super glad I was outside.

So that was the 1/2 hour I had free today - beginning the re-do of these freebies.  

What have we learned today - Freecycle is AWESOME!  What is someone's junk is another's treasure - is so true.  AND Goo Gone's orange-y goodness does wonders to sticky messes.

Tomorrow - the painting process!  Always prime, then paint.  I'm without the squirt for a night, so I should get some things accomplished.

How To: Make your own canvas frame

Alright, so I recently decided I wanted to make my own canvas frames because they tend to cost an arm and a leg in stores!  Then of course right after I made them Michaels decides to have a wonderful sale where you spend like 7 bucks for 7 11"x14" frames.  Ah well.

Anywho, if you want an oversized frame or an odd shape, then making it yourself is still probably cheaper.  I might have spent around $10 to make 2 24"x24" frames - 2 pieces of 2x4s (about 6' in length), canvas drop cloth - both found in the local home improvement store.

First I got some 2x4s (2"x4" wood, about 6 feet in length at any home improvement store) and cut them with my handy-dandy compound miter saw.  Yes, that is a big name for such a wonderful tool!  And, don't be scared, the tool is slightly large, but it does so much for you!  I cut each piece at 24" and made each end angle at 45 degrees. 

Then I put together the pieces by glueing them together with wood glue and then using my mighty staple gun (I like my electric one, it's powerful!). 

After putting together all 4 pieces, I cut the canvas slightly larger than the frame so that I could wrap the frame around.  I stapeled once on each of the four sides, then filled in, leaving the corners last.  I'm a staple nut, so there is no such thing as too many staples!  Corners are tricky, but I'm not picky. (stop that rhyming and I mean it!  anybody got a peanut?)  So I just carefully gather each corner, pull up, and staple.  You could be neat and fold and staple, kind of like a present, but sometimes I'm just too impatient.

And, voila!  Your own canvas to paint and enjoy.  I'm in the process of framing out mine with some trim, from the home improvment store, which I nailed into place on top of the frame, filled in holes and gaps in corners, let dry, then I'm going to paint it a nice black.

Oooo....paints...if I'm painting big, I like to peruse the mistints in the paint section of Lowes.  Cheap.  fo-sho.

Here are some paintings I did forever ago on the canvas that you can buy already attached to board.  I bought them as close to 8x10 as I could so that I could wedge them into a frame (they are a tad thick).  Although, for some I had painted on painting paper (say that five times fast!).  And you don't have to paint anything fancy!  Sometimes I like to let the squirt go wild and frame it - especially for presents to grandparents.

Happy painting!

A Demain, A Demain

Sorry, I'm a French teacher now and just graded some papers.  I've got it on the brain!

Till tomorrow, till tomorrow.

"Don't put off for tomorrow what can be done today."  I love to procrastinate, don't we all?!

I'll leave the laundry till tomorrow.  I'll clean house next Tuesday.  While I know there is a season for everything, there is also a season of resting and working.

But the more I live, the more I find a little rest and a little work one day = a happy day the next.  The more I put off and rest now, the more I have to do later.

Do a little each day, maybe even multitask *gasp* and you'll be amazed at how much more free time you ahve with no dishes, laundry, cleaning...piling up.

Meanwhile, I still have a pile of sheets in my bedroom waiting to be washed...I'm not perfect.  :)

How do you cope with the laundry list of things to do?

Keeping Sanity with Music

Classical music.  That's all I have to say.  Can I be done?

Well, I suppose I shall explain.  Hang "recent studies show..." - I don't always believe them until I actually see proof.

I've always liked classical music myself but when I had the squirt I discovered Baby Einstein and I've never had a child come and visit and not drift off to sleep or play with music in the background and not be peaceful.

And now, whether it's the radio or a CD, classical music fills the void of silence and calms all.  My favorite part is no words to annoy me.  :) 

Classical music has stood the test of time and still does in my household!

What kind of music works with you and your kids?

Decor Transformation

I recently transformed my living room from green couches, yellow sponge-painted walls, and grape/purple decor to chocolate couches, light tan walls, and poppy-red, burgundy decor.

Now...what to do with the leftover stuff clogging up my house?!? 

*cream flowers - keep, it still matches - recycle!
*old couches - give to a friend
*leftover flowers - give to sister in-law's church and their wedding ministry
*vase & column - give to inlaws they were the ones that picked them out for my wedding decor anyways.  :)
*art pictures - put in kitchen newly remodeled kitchen.  It matches the light green walls perfectly!

Now that leaves one lonely flower-holder-thingy.  I used it in the dining room to hold some grapes/flowers fo interesting decor, but now what?

I thought about keeping it in the living room and trying my hand at an indoor herb garden on the wall by our one and only window.  But I think I'll leave gardening to the outdoors.

So that still leaves me with an empty hangy-thingy.   Then it hit me - spice rack.

I have a pretty small house and an even smaller kitchen with no real pantry.  Which is sad - no Sam's, Costco's, or BJ's for me - no room for storage!  (although, we plan on building our own storage cabinet for the kitchen.  I'll post when we climb that mountain)

So, 2 cabinets of my 10 or so cabinets (counting doors, by the way) are devoted to food items - my "pantry".  The hubby hates it cause he has to bend over backwards to reach items.  I say not being able to reach things helps cut down the snacking which helps the waist line.  :)  The top shelf of the top cabinet of the "pantry" area is devoted to spices.  Can't.reach.them.  And, it's mainly leftovers of what doesn't fit in the spinning thing on the counter (which we won't go into how little space I have on the counter!

When it hit me to convert my flower thingy to a spice rack, all was well with the world - the hubby was fine with it, it matched our current decor in the kitchen, my mother even liked it, then the kicker - it held all I mean all my spices, including food coloring and sprinkles. 

Joy.  Rapture.

And the base of each shelf was flat so I didn't have to put anything down to create a flat base. 

It looks pretty, its functional, and now I have a bit more room to spread out my "pantry".

What do you do with your old "stuff"?

Make the Best of Everything

The other day, we were stuck in traffic on our way to Grandma's.  I mean total stop.and.go. for a solid 2.5 hours.

So what do we do?  Roll down the windows, crank up "Ocean Favorites" (welcoming the warm air), sing at the top of our lungs, and dance.  Well, dance the best we can stuck in seats and seat belts.

Then we slowly passed a "herd" of horses.  "How many can you count?  What color are they?  What letters do you see on signs?"

Every moment can be a teachable moment and all can stay happy - even in traffic on our way to Grandma's.

How do you use the "moment"?

Easy Gifting

Ok, so I'm a sucker for not spending much on gifts. Call me cheap, but I try to limit myself so I don't overspend and then feel bad on not spending too much on the next person. Now the squirt is 3 and has friends. Lots of them. AND they have parties like every other weekend!

Use the clearance aisle!!  In every store I find my way to the clearance section.  Whether it's for a simple gift to the squirt or her friends or even decor for the house - the clearance aisle ahs it all!

Elmer's sparkle 3D glue - $2 for a pack of 8 colors

    (ok, picture more glue and in a bag)

Nice small throw rug in front of the front door - $2.50

Cream placemats - 75 cents!!

all.at.walmart

I'm also fond of JoAnn Fabric's clearance aisle - beads, scrapbook findings...

Target = clothes. period.  Need I say more?

How do you gift for less?

Traveling

Some quick thoughts on traveling to make things "easier". Although, the worst always seems to happen no matter how prepared you are...

*pack the night before
*pack a small snack/lunch box for kids (even if you stop along the way, it's nice to have just in case)    
*raid a local library for books, CDs, books on CD to have an occupied trip
*have a bag of small toys within easy reach of the squirt so you don't have to do calestnics to reach for them!
*relax - if you're relaxed, squirts will be too
*have normal napping "materials" handy for little squirts so they may feel more comfortable to nap

While some of these may seem obvious, sometimes they go overlooked and the trip falls downhill by the time you're 2 miles down the road.  And then, you can always plan and then the squirts decide to have their own minds and not work with you.

Happy traveling as we enter the warm seasons!!

What are your quick tips for traveling?

Imagination in 5 Minutes

Ok there’s a lesson in everything we do. Toy Story 2 = in 5 minutes or less Andy can create a whole new world to play in (and rip Woody apart). How much do we use imagination in our classrooms? Have we let go to fun and a whole new world to keeping up with the curriculum? When I started teaching English I had to “teach” my students about imagination. It’s amazing what is lost by the time they hit 6th grade. Keep IMAGINATION alive!

Classroom Makeover 2010

I’ve been snowed in my house for over a week. Yes, the 2 big blizzards hit me. Am I the only teacher who is ECSTATIC that there is no school?! Anywho, I’ve been thinking and I’d like to give my classroom a makeover. Once we get plowed out I will take pics of my room and show you the work in progress. I will prove it’s not hard and inexpensive! (what teacher has money to blow?!)

The Teacher's Creed

It’s amazing. I’ve seen and heard in more places that when you become a teacher, you shouldn’t become the students’ friend. Maybe it’s me. Maybe it’s my style. But the first thing I do is get to know a student and become their friend. Once I am their friend, the world opens before me. I’m able to take them to the next level of learning. I’m able to connect what I’m teaching to their lives. It’s up to you how you connect to your students, but I have learned the more students know about me, and I know about them, the more they are willing to take in what I’m teaching. And isn’t that the goal of a teacher? I’m ready to connect so they’re “ready to learn to get some knowledge” (Finding Nemo, which I’ve seen one too many times with my 3yr old).

About Me

Well, after my first post I realized for you to connect with me, you may need to know a little about me. I’ve been a teacher for the past 5.5 out of 6.5 years. I was a long term sub for 6 months for 5th grade; then 1 year for 5th grade; then 1 year as a Children’s Pastor (that’s when I had my one and only little girl); then 4 years as a 6th-8th English teacher. Before that I got married to a wonderful man who is very supportive of my teacher-y ways. Before that I got my Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Elementary Education.

Whew! That’s me in a nutshell. Well…I also love playing the piano, painting, crafting, scrapbooking…and playing with my daughter.

Why blog? I’ve always wanted to put my thoughts down. When I’m off school and just watching my daughter my mind reels with endless possibilities of ways to help others, help myself, and just keep busy. By the way – I think everyone has a little ADD in them. I get this way frequently. I blame my mother. So, this blog is a teacher blog – out to help my fellow teachers with advice, ideas, funny stories…the list goes on and on.

I recently came across the best site EVER. It was a blog of someone who quit their job because they were going to have a child and wanted to stay home. They then switched careers almost completely even after a Master’s with their previous job. She started blogging and just passing on ideas about decorating. Now her blog has turned into almost an EMPIRE. Ok, so I’m exaggerating just a tad. But seriously, she’s doing what she loves while taking care of her next of kin. To me that is awesome and in these days, unbelievable.

While my goal is not to completely be the same as her. I do have extra time on my hand during days off from school and especially summers. And, I find more teachers that don’t always use the resources that they have at hand. So my goal is to help. I’m no expert; I will never claim to be one.

And the hardest thing is to write to teachers without being perfect in grammar, punctuation…IT’S SO HARD!! So goal #2 is to be real.

Alright, that’s enough for now. On to bigger and better things! Toy Story 2 is calling as well as the pile of clothes waiting to be folded in my living room.