Stimulating Science Simulations

Today students partnered up to work on communication and engineering design skills during a challenge that required one student to give verbal directions to the other in order to replicate a model made from K'Nex.  The partners really rose to this challenge and by the end they were asking each other questions for clarification and being very specific in their directions which resulted in successful rebuilds. We also finished the timeline that was started yesterday and played some more Smartboard games. The morning goes by so quickly!

Today was the first day of summer camp for my students.  This year I am offering 3 weeks for students who were in my homeroom.  I limited it to that group because I am looping up to 5th grade with them and want to offer extra support as we prepare to tackle another year. Each day will be a little different from the others, but there will always be a bit of every subject woven throughout the morning.  For instance, today we began with a team work engineering challenge.  The 5 students who attended camp today worked together to try to build a house of cards.  They found this to be a bit trickier than they had expected.  After many attempts, they were able to figure out a few ways that would work for awhile but none of the housed stayed standing for long.  We'll try this again and see if they get better with practice. Our 2nd challenge today was a red solo cup challenge.  I found this idea on Pinterest and was really pleased with they way that th...

When we return from the winter break I give every student a die cut footprint. This is a tradition that began with my 4th grade classes about ten years ago. I ask each student to set a goal and write a statement that explains very specifically how they will achieve that goal.  These are written on the feet and turned into a great hallway display with the title "Put Your Best Foot Forward in (new year) 2013". As I encourage my students to put their best foot forward, I thought I would model the practice here.

This is not something I will come even close to doing justice to, but... a friend shared this website with me. Can I just say -WOW! If you are working with/teaching according to the "Common Core" and you don't know about this website, you absolutely must stop what you are doing and go there NOW! What is this amazing website? Learnzillion You seriously just have to see it for yourselves. There is a feature that allows you to set up your students in a class and assign specific lessons along with quiz features. I am hooked!

Hi there! Last month I decided to join in the fun with Farley  . The way it works is really simple. Participants respond to the prompts and link up. Everyone follows the rule of 3 by visiting and commenting on the 2 links before their own and the 1 link after. It's a great way to build your professional learning network while getting to know each other better. Plus, it offers a quick and easy reflective tool.  I'm thinking there might be some ways to adapt this for my classroom.Until then... here it is I am... The Nutcracker Suite is the epitome of Christmas events in my book. Some teachers got tired of taking their 4th graders to see that ballet, but not me.  It is one thing I really miss now that I am not a self-contained 4th grade teacher any more.  I get my fix by listening and visualizing. Every year we have this big debate about where the tree should go and then I have to decide where my village should be displayed. I'm loving that both ...