Valentines Day

Valentines day is coming up soon! And if you're like me, this is the time when you get really crafty with your gifts! Regular store bought valentines are great, but they are so generic, and really have no thought put into them. There are some great little crafts out there that are easy to make out of things you probably already have around your house, or out of things that you can get for free! What is better than that!?

   

The first craft is so easy to make, and any teacher knows they have TONS of extra broken crayons laying around the house or classroom. Simply remove the wrapping from the crayons and chop them up into small 1/2 inch peices and place into a rubber heart shapped cookie pan. Cook the crayons at 230 degrees for 15 minutes then let cool. Voila! you have made a cute, more personal valentine for everyone in your class!

 

These cute owl valentines are a great craft idea to do with your class around valentines day. Students are always excited to take valentines a valentine home to thier parents. Print out the pattern onto colored paper for the students to cut out and let them make thier own owl. Encourage them to add something to make thier owl unique.

For younger students, make di-cuts in the shapes they'll need and have them glue them together. Another way to add a little fun to the owl valentines is to use google eyes instead of crate paper.

 

 I know I've posted these before, but I just think they are a great gift for your students. All you need are free paint swatches (available at most stores) ribbon, and a cute hole punch. There you go! Three cute activities and crafts for Valentines Day!

This Book is So.....

If you've ever been in a classroom where the teacher assigned a book to the class, you know the reaction that the student's have. It doesn't matter if the book is an amazing work of literature, the students are never excited about assigned readings. Another problem you may run into, is a student has already read the book you are wanting to present. Use this to your advantage!!!

Create a board in your classroom where students can post books they have read and want to suggest to other students. On the sticky note, have them write the title, author and why they liked the book. Explain to them that the sticky note should not give away the end of the book, or any important parts, but should make the reader want to find out what happens in the story.
Another discussion you should have with your class before putting up this board, is the difference between fiction and non fiction books. The fiction side of your board will always have more books on it, but encourage students to read biographies about important people they are interested about, those count as non fiction too!
When a student is struggling to find a new book, encourage them to go look at the board, read some sticky notes and find a book that sounds interesting to them. At the beginning of the year, the students will need reminders to look at the board, but by the end of the year, students will be searching on their own through the sea of notes to find a book they haven't read yet.

Storytelling Bags

 

When you introduce storytelling to students, they may have a hard time with it at frist. Students may not know what story to tell, or how they want to tell it. By making pre-made story bags, students may use the props to help them tell the story with more creativity and less stress.

All you need to make a story bag, is some kind of background to set the story, some characters on long stir sticks (can get for free at Starbucks), and a small plate holder to hold up the background.

Encourage students to exaggerate once they are comfortable telling their story. Another idea would be to switch up the characters in the story, or change the background and encourage students to come up with a new story.

Make Your Own Rock Candy

I remember making these when I was in elementary school, and it was a great science experiement that we got to eat at the end! What is better than that?

What You Will Need:

• A wooden skewer (chopsticks work too)
• A clothespin
• 1 cup of water
• 2-3 cups of sugar
• a tall narrow glass or jar

How You Make It:

• Clip the wooden skewer into the clothespin so that it hands down inside the glass and is about 1 inch from the bottom of the glass.
• Remove the skewer and clothespin and put them aside for now.
• (With the help of an adult) Pour the water into a pan and bring it to boil.
• Pour about 1/4 cup of sugar into the boiling water, stirring until it dissolves.
• Keep adding more and more sugar, each time stirring it until it dissolves, until no more will dissolve. This will take time and patience and it will take longer for the sugar to dissolve each time.Be sure you don't give up too soon. Once no more sugar will dissolve, remove it from heat and allow it to cool for at least 20 minutes. 
•  Have your adult carefully pour the sugar solution into the jar almost to the top. Then submerge the skewer back into the glass making sure that it is hanging straight down the middle without touching the sides.\
• Allow the jar to fully cool and put it someplace it will not be disturbed.
• Now just wait. The sugar crystals will go over the next 3-7 days.

Why It Works:

When you mixed the water and sugar you made a super saturated solution. This means that the water could only hold the sugar if both were very hot. As the water cools the sugar "comes out" of the solution back into sugar crystals on your skewer. The skewer (and sometimes the glass itself) act as a "seed" that the sugar crystals start to grow on. With some luck and patience you will have a tasty scientific treat! Enjoy! 

Extras To Do In Your Class:

Because this experiment will take a few days, in their science journals, have students record their rock candies progress. You should encourage students to write a descriptive paragraph about what they see in the jar, and to draw a picture to accompany their description.

Reading Nooks

Reading nooks are great in the classroom. Student's should be able to read anywhere, but having a special place to read, whether it be in their home or in the classroom, it should be a special place where only reading takes place.

Reading Lagoon:

One way to make a special reading nook. All you need is a plastic pool, some fun pillows, maybe a throw blanket and an umbrella. It makes a fun, tropical themed reading space in the classroom that students would be excited to go to during Daily 5 or any other reading time. 

Reading Igloo:

At the beginning of the year, send home a letter to parents asking them to rinse and save their old milk cartons. When it starts getting cold, have the parents start to drop off their milk cartons so you as a class can start building your milk carton igloo. Once your igloo is built, toss in some pillows, a lamp, and a blanket to make it cozy. 

 Bathtub Nook:

I had a professor in college who told us that every elementary classroom she's ever had, she had a claw foot bathtub that her student's could read in. I love this idea, filling it with pillows, cushons, blankets, and other warm fuzzy things. 

For all of these reading nooks, it might be a good idea to have a classroom schedule for who gets to use these nooks and when. This will keep to many kids from trying to use the nooks at the same time and damaging them. 

 

 

Paint Swatch Activities

 

Paint swatches are amazing! And they're free!!! There are so many great ways you can use paint swatches in your classroom!

 Easy way for making groups:

 Depending on the sizes of groups you want, have three or four of the same color swatches in the mix, and have student's choose a color.  Student's with the same colors make up a group! 

K-W-L Chart:

It's easy to make a K-W-L charts, but the with the cost of paper going up, and the restrictions in schools on printing getting tighter, finding little ways to cut corners and find a better way  to do things is essential! Paint swatches with three sections are great for K-W-L charts! Even swatches with four sections can work for K-W-L charts, on the bottom section, add a "still want to find out?" section for students to use if they still have questions after the lesson so you know what to cover next time!

Bookmarks:

Paint swatches also make great bookmarks! I've been using random paint swatches as bookmakrs for years, but I never thought of adding a bit of ribbon to the top and adding some cute hole punches to spice them up a bit! These make a great gift for your students for Valentines Day, Christmas, Halloween, almost any holiday!

 

Homemade Slime

Great science project for the younger grades!

 All you need is:
1 cup of clear glue
1 cup of liquid starch
Food coloring

Poor the clear glue into a bowl, then add the liquid starch on top of the glue. For each of the colors you want, make a seperate bowl of glue and starch. In the seperatae bowls, have the student's add the color they choose to the mixture. Have the studetnt's then use a spook to mix the glue, starch, and food coloring up until the food coloring is blended and the mixture starts to gel. Once the mixture gels, students are free to use thier hands. The longer you play with the slime, the less sticky it becomes. When the students are done, put into zip lock bags so they can take home!

All About Miss. Zornes

On the first day of school, students are stressed and scared. They don't know you yet, but they know they'll be spending almost every day with you for the next nine months! So why not set their minds at ease a bit, and tell them a little about you!

 

I love the idea of having an autobiography of yourself in the classroom to read to your students on the first day of school, and something they can look through on their own later too! On the inside, have a table of contents to show the students what you included in your autobiography. Some things to include in your book; Happy Birthday (pictures of you as a baby), My family, Childhood, Kindergarten, 1st grade, 2nd grade, 3rd grade, 4th and 5th grade, Jr. high, high school, college, pets, favorite books, and fun facts.

 

 

 

 

I love this page because student's love to look for books that they have also read, and also gives them ideas of what books you like and maybe ones that they'll like too. Students are always interested to know what books you like as a teacher so they can read them too!

 

 

Student's also love when they have things in common with their teachers, it can help them form a better, lasting bond with the teacher, and give them things to talk about.

 

 

 I think this is a great intro into your classroom, a way for your students to get to know you, and if you use this as a project, for you to get to know your students. They're easy to make, and a great way to know your student's in the first week of school!

All you need to do this project is:

• Half pieces of poster board
• Colored paper
• Stickers
• Pictures of you in different grades
• Di-cut letters and shapes

Fun things to include in your autobiography:

• Report cards
• Award certificates
• Work that you may have done in earlyer grades
• Pictures of family and friends
• Pictures of pets
• Places you've traveled
• Pictures of past classes
• Favorite books
• Other favorite things

 

 

Caught Ya Being Good!

I've seen this used in a few classrooms, and by using an incentive system instead of a punishment system, there seemed to be fewer problems in the classroom. When any of the teachers saw a student doing something good and right in the classroom, such as picking up their garbage without being asked, stacking someone elses chair, helping a friend in need, their name would go in the 'caught you being good' jar. At the end of the week (or how ever often you want) one, or two names are drawn and those students get to pick a prize out of the treasure chest.
In the classroom I was in, when student's were caught being good, they received a "Caughtcha". One of the teachers would fill out the caughtcha with the student's name, class and teacher, and what they did that earned them a caughtcha. At the end of the day, the caughtcha's were delivered to the principal and put into a jar. Every Friday, the principle would draw anywhere between five and ten names of students who were caught being good, and those student's got to go to the Principles Office and pick a prize from his special chest.
Now, sometimes, there does need to be a punishment system in place for those certain times when students are out of line, but with a good incentive system in place, students are more inclined to be on task and helpful in wanting of a prize.

The Tattle Monster

Working in a kindergarten class has given me a chance to get the full experience of tattling! It seemed that every time I turned around, I had someone else pulling on my sleeve wanting to tell me what Hayden had done or what Gabby had said. There wasn't a day that went by that we didn't have to ask the question "Is it hurting you? Is it hurting someone else?" At first, the student's didn't respond well to this question, but eventually, they started to get the criteria for coming to me or the other teacher with their problems. I think having a visual in the classroom that they could go to with their problems would have helped them when they really felt like they needed to tell about something that happened in class. I love this for any class that has a problem with young children who feel the need to inform the teacher of every problem going on in the classroom. I know I will definitely be hanging one of these in my classroom!
http://gigglesgalore.net/tattle-monster/