Teachers are Heroes Sale!

Teachers Pay Teachers sellers are having a Teachers are Heroes sale

{with the promo code HEROES} 

I have been working to add additional pages to some of my old products in time for this big event!

Make sure to come by the store and check out my 45 products to wish-list them before the sale.

Check out my most wish-listed items...

1. Gifted and Talented Independent Study

2. Gifted and Talented Sneaker Economics and Design

3. Gifted and Talented Class Logo Design

4. Gummy Bear Osmosis Lab

5. Snow: Winter's Favorite Mineral

And also make sure to check out the list of sellers below who have their stores on a

28% off SALE on Wednesday 2/25!

An InLinkz Link-up

Thanks to Study All Knight for the linky and Glitter Meets Glue for the graphic!

My New Favorite App 2: Docs Teach

My newest favorite app is Docs Teach. It is an app that allows you to view collections of primary documents. They have many preset activities....but you can also create your own on the website to be used on the iPad!

Just a note on primary documents...According to the PARCCOnline site, primary documents are fair game to be used on the PARCC mid-year exam.  Students may have to use primary documents to write a narrative piece explaining the event or an informative how to.

Below is a picture showing samples of the app in use.

The students choose the assigned content and viewed the documents. They then discussed key text features of the primary documents.  We asked them to record a few notes on each document and spend about 2-3 minutes discussing.

They then complete an activity. For our class, this happened on the second day of the lesson. The students reviewed their notes and the documents and completed the activity. The one pictured here is for the students to weigh the evidence by placing the documents on a scale according to least or most supportive of immigration. After finishing their activity, the app prompts the student to reflect and submit a reflection to the teacher.  Each student typed a short reflection and emailed their answers to us to review. 

Valentine's Day in the Middle Grades

I have loved seeing all the sweet activities elementary teachers are doing in their classrooms on Valentine's Day.  Some people may hate the "Hallmark Holiday", but I think it is a great opportunity to make all students feel appreciated and "loved".

Valentine's Day exchanges look a little different in middle school than in many of the elementary classrooms.  In our school, a number of 8th grade students sell candygrams at lunch.  Students are allowed to purchase Fun Dips at lunch for people and the students running the sales organize the sale and distribution of the candy to students in homeroom.  The students are very sweet about it.

I have also found that math is a great opportunity to incorporate making of Valentine's Day cards.  The students can apply concepts like symmetry, fibonacci, graphing, parallel lines, coordinate graphing, coloring in pictures with math problems, fractions, and equations to the making of the cards. 

How cute is this problem above? My co-teacher friends had the students solve this problem and then use it to decorate a Valentine's Day card.  Their homework over the weekend was to take a picture of them giving the card to someone and posting it to their private Edmodo page.

Here are a few of my favorites:



What other activities do you love in the middle grades classrooms? What other subjects to you find easy application of the holiday into lessons? What Valentine's Day activities are your favorite?

Kid Chef Social Event

It's that time of year....

for our Iron Kid Chef social event!

This social event is a fun opportunity to add fun into a task that requires creativity and problem solving. The students will be given a surprise bag of food ingredients to build a "meal" and present it to a panel of judges. All groups win an award. 

I developed this activity for my grades 3-5 gifted and talented students. One important component of our GT program is allowing students the opportunity to socialize and work with like-minded peers and this activity does just that. I hype up this event starting a month before. I run the event in February because I find it is a fun mid-winter activity. The students will amaze you with their creations. Last year one group made the Eiffel tower out of twizzlers and graham crackers and another student groups' fort collapsed at the end and they gave a dynamic presentation about how a dragon has destroyed their village. 

This Product Includes
*1 page teacher guide
*1 page letter to parents
*6 group signs
*1 page group direction page
*2 page judge worksheet
*6 group awards

The Preparation: I send home the above letter to the parents. In the past, I have grocery shopped for this myself but found that it helps the cost to ask for donations. The ingredients are a secret for the students except for a “mystery ingredient reveal” that I share the week of the event. The mystery ingredient I share is usually something like icing or fluff that the students will use to “glue” their construction (“meal”) together.

Above: Dig in! The kids start the competition.

The Competition:When the students enter the room, I label the classroom and separate the ingredients into grocery bags for the students groups. Labels for the tables and bags (not pictured) add to the excitement for the event.  The students then have one hour to construct their masterpiece and five minutes to prepare a brief presentation for the judges.

Above are pictures of a group who creatively designed a butterfly on a skateboard.  This picture is mid-project but the project was very colorful (thanks to food coloring!) when it was finished. They won the "Most Creative" category. 

Above are pictures of a group whose castle collapsed in the last five minutes before presenting. They quickly problem-solved and gave a compelling speech about how a feared dragon has attacked their castle.  They won "Best Presentation".

Above are pictures of a group who won "Best Overall" by intricately building famous world structures with their food supplies.  They also could have won "Best Engineering" because they really problem solved the materials by stuffing the insides of the twizzlers with toothpicks to make them sturdier.

The Judging: 

I usually invite the parents for this section of the event, inviting parents and “guest judges” (principals, other teachers, etc.) to view the presentations and interact with the students. The judges then deliberate and award prizes to the students.  The judges are given a two page judging sheet that adds to making the event seem more "official" for the students.

Above is a blurry picture of three judges (2 parents and 1 administrator) who volunteered to judge the competition.  This portion was very interactive and the judges had a lot of fun analyzing the "meals" like they were Iron Chef judges.  We also had a crowd of parents there to watch.

Overall the kids have an awesome time with this project.  I love to use this event in January/February because it feels like the mid-winter slump after Christmas is over and Spring Break isn't for a few months.  

I would love to find more social event activities.

Any ideas out there? What do your schools do? 

Currently....February