Sunday, February 19, 2012

Positive Pinterest

My classroom dynamics this year is not a good one.  We have been having a lot of bullying, selective friendships, and just peers being really mean to each other and misbehaving.  So I did something I haven't done in awhile and I took down my writing wall.  We don't have a lot of a space in my classroom and that was the largest most visible bulletin board we had.  I am going to dedicate this new board into creating a more positive peer climate in my classroom.  All weekend long I have been searching for "good ideas" to help me with this.  Here's are some pins I've really liked...



I really like the message behind the classroom promise.  I am going to type it up like a constitution and make all of them sign it.




I think it's also important that I will make a promise to the class as well.  This will be my promise to them to create an all around good climate.



Really like the idea of this one, but it may be too much to implant right now.  We are going to be earning positive peer points (I'll explain more about that one), our school is earning PRIDE awards, they are still collecting Hoorays for good behavior and we are tracking those to earn a party.  I think this one might be an over kill if I add it.  I would like to keep it in the back burner though and maybe start with it at the beginning of the year.



Love this one, but I may change the wording so it goes with our positive peer theme.





This is the one poster I really need.  My group has a TON of tattlers, the worst part is that the tattlers are the ones who are also misbehaving.  It's so silly and it takes up too much of my time.  I am also going to have a tattle box so I won't have to hear it throughout the day.

I don't want the board to be too "cluttery" but I love all of these ideas.  I will post the final product tomorrow and I'll let you know how it goes. 

Saturday, February 18, 2012

A Perfect World

For MLK Jr's birthday we had a little talk about how Dr. Martin Luther King had envisioned a world where everyone was treated equally.  Then I asked them to think about what kind of perfect world they see.  Yes, this was kind of a thrown together project created in my morning shower, that's where I get my best ideas, but I really liked the outcome. 

I sketched out the eye in the morning and they just had to color it in with the world that they see.

Here's the template they started off with

I see a world where people do not smoke.

I see a world without bullying (yes, this is a 4th graders art)

I see a world where every animal has a home.

I see a world where there is no world hunger.

This one couldn't decide her stance and she sees a world where people recycle and there are no stray animals.

Project Koi Fish

For Chinese New Year I really wanted to do a new project.  I found this Koi Fish art project from Blue Moon Palette.  I loved the idea of it and I wanted to also take it up a level.  We started with the basic sketch after watching a you tube video on how to draw the basic shape of the fish.  Then they added the seaweed and lily pads. Some of them also added waterlilies to their painting.






The next day we used liquid watercolor for the water and added salt to add that water effect and texture.  The only colors we used were blue, turquoise, and purple.  Students really had a hard time with the liquid watercolors.  Combining the water and the paint was hard for them.  Some of them also don't make wise decisions on what size brush tips they need.



We let the water dry and then students filled in the rest of the painting with watercolor using just palette paints.


Since students are not allowed to use Sharpies, I did the final outlining for their projects.  Of course, I forgot to take a picture of the final project and the bulletin board display.  That will have to be on a different post, probably a month later knowing me.

Catching Up

Ok, this blogging thing is a lot harder then I thought it would be.  Here's why:

1) Taking photos without kids in it when there's always kids around.
2) There just isn't enough time in the day.
3) I have been living on my iPhone and not on my laptop, which makes blogging way more difficult.

Enough with the excuses.  Here's what we are up to in the classroom...

Blues in the School


This is the second year in a row we've had this group come into our school.  They have several Blues musicians come into the grades 2-5 classrooms and they have mini lessons for each group.  I have to say that this year I was a little disappointed with lessons.  Almost all the lessons were exactly the same as last year's lessons.  For our older kids, this was way too repetitious.  It was also less interactive compared to last year, most of the time the kids spent sitting and listening to someone talk.  It would have been nice to have them move around, listen to the music, and play instruments if possible.  Even with those complaints I have to say I do appreciate what this group does.

Chinese New Year

Being Chinese American I always love to celebrate Chinese New Year in my classroom. It's a chance for students to understand the cultural differences and to respect those differences.  It always pains me to hear a student say something like, "that's a Chinese cut".  I'm always like, "Really, did the Chinese invent that cut?  Why would you say that?".  Of course they never have an answer.  During this time of the year, I get to show them what it really means to be Chinese.  They always enjoy this time of year.

The Friday before Chinese New Year we did our craft stations.  Students rotated to 5 different stations.  At one station they made a bamboo watercolor painting with me, at another station they tried to solve a variety of tangrams, at another station they made panda masks out of paper plates, at another station they learned Chinese phrases from a CD while coloring in picture, and the final station was coloring a sheet that would later be turned into a three dimensional lantern.  Of course I couldn't do this without an army of volunteers.  I had 6 of them so they could help man the stations.  This year the stations felt very crowded and it also felt like we were climbing over each other.  Not as smooth as I would have liked.




On Monday, Chinese New Year, we had a special guest speaker talk to us about her travels to China.  Our special guest was a great grandmother of one of my students.  She did a fabulous job.  We also made won tons in class.  I had a small group help me cook the filling, which was made possible because my principal watched my math class for me.  Then we had the whole class learn how to fold won tons.  Then we cooked it up and I had also purchased Chow mein and potstickers, which a parent dropped off.  To add to our meal we had made rice and torn up some oranges.  Of course, a Chinese meal isn't complete without a fortune cookie and some lucky candy. Overall it's a spendy meal, but it's so worth it.  I added up the cost of the meal and it came out to only around $2.50 per child, which doesn't sound bad but times that by 28 students and it wipes out my non-existent classroom budget.

They also had to learn how to use chopsticks.


 Valentine's Day at Skateworld

Yes, that's how I feel about Valentine's Day!  Just kidding.  It actually was a smooth day for us.  We went to SkateWorld from 9-11:30, ate lunch in the classroom, recess, 30 min. of reading groups (the only academic thing most of us did that day), then it was the Valentine's exchange with pancakes (I know it's an odd combination but it works), and then we did a Valentine's Bingo.

It's funny how students will not remember to get you something for Teacher's Appreciation Day or the last day of school, but I always get showered with gifts for Valentine's Day.  My husband also did good showering me with gifts that day :). 



Now you are all caught up!