How to Make a Glogster

Since we have finished up our series on podcast we figured we would talk a little more about one of our topics from the series, Glogster. Like we talked about, this is a great alternative to the usual poster board. This week I thought I would share a video I made in school that explains how to make a Glogster and shows some of the key features.

Hope you enjoy and learn something new! :)

~Steph

 

Homework Debate

 

So here goes...we'd love to hear your opinion on the topic of homework. That's what we've decided to to discuss this week. Let's look at both sides...

All of these points are arguments we've heard, but not necessarily do we agree with them all. 

Giving Homework

-Students need to practice what they've learned at school.

-Meaningful practice will make a stronger student. 

-Spelling/vocabulary practice has to be done at home.

-Unfinished classwork needs to be completed at home. 

-Projects and papers cannot always be completed during class. 

-Middle & High school students will always have homework so they need to learn the habit in elementary school. 

No Homework

-If they can't do it at school what's the point in sending it home.

-Most parents don't help complete homework, don't know how, or won't because they're too busy.

-Teachers shouldn't be given the right to dictate how a family/student spends their evening at home.

-How do you know if the student did the work instead of someone else at home?

-They spend 7-8 hours at school; kids should be able to have play/free/family time at home. 

~Steph

Place Value

Happy Monday friends! As you know, I work with struggling students. My second and third graders struggle with place value. What's so funny, I don't feel like struggle with the "place" part as much as they do the "value" part. There can tell me where the digit goes in the number, but struggle to understand that a 2 in the tens place has a value of 20. We've worked on reviewing it for the last two weeks with different activities. I decided they needed a bit more practice with the different forms of numbers and place value (standard form, written form, expanded form, and base 10). I searched and searched for what I wanted. I decided to make some task cards to use with them. I paired them up and had them work together to do the task card practice, but each student had a recording sheet to complete. Their partner was more so there to help if they were completely stuck. This way I could move around the room to help, but they could ask their partner too. They did a great job, and I feel like it really helped to put it all together.

Here's the packet you can check it out in our TpT store (click image below):

It has 4 task cards; each of the cards has one form of the number. The students have to complete the recording sheet by filling in the corresponding card number and all four forms of the given number.

Hope everyone has a wonderful week! We're back to state testing tomorrow...two more to go!

~Steph

Spelling and Vocabulary Test

It's finally Friday! It felt like it was never going to get here this week! And we had crazy weather all day to top it off! As you head off into your weekend here's you Friend or Foe topic to ponder over...

Depending on what grade you teach, your students are expected to learn sight words, spelling words, vocabulary words, etc. Is this done in class, at home, or a mixture for you? I guess part of that could depend on your take on homework, but that's another topic for discussion on a different day! (Hint, hint come back Tuesday for that!)

When it comes to your spelling or vocabulary practice, do your students use them in classwork and practice them during class? Or are they expected to take the list home and practice them. Do you test at the end of the week? How do the parents respond to your methods?

I remember when I was in school, we were given 10-20 words that we were to memorize for the week. Then we came in on Friday and took the test. This year our son started spelling words, but the grade level team decided not to do lists and spelling tests this year. I'm still not sure how I feel about it though. For the majority of the year we didn't even know what words they were working on for the week and he never practiced them at home. I mean I can't say that I mind not having to get him ready for a test every Friday. Now they send home the list of words with the homework for the week and the students have to complete two given activities with the words. There's still no weekly tests that we know of.

So tell us, how do you do it? In class practice and/or at home? Weekly tests or not? If you don't test weekly, how do you monitor whether a student has mastered the given words for the week? We'd love to hear your experiences!

I hope everyone enjoys their weekend! We're headed to Atlanta tomorrow for a dance convention. Our little man keeps us busy!

~Steph

Planets

Hey everyone! This week has been so crazy I am so glad it is Friday...that being said here is the post that should have been up yesterday. Sorry it is late!
This week we are focusing on Science and I wanted to share another fun activity that I've done in this subject.
I love teaching Science! It is so much fun to watch students as they explore so many abstract concepts. In science we study planets and the solar system. How do you teach students about something that they can't actually see or experience? One activity that I have done with students really helped students understand how far apart the planets are for each other. In this activity we used register tape and some planet pictures to place the planets in order. We also used a chart with the measurements of the planets and their distance from the sun. Students had to convert the distances on the chart to millimeters and such so that they would fit onto their register paper. My students could observe what planets were closer together and which ones had lots of space between them. It also helped my students remember the name of the planets. I think this activity really helps give the students a visual for Planets.
What types of lessons do you have for covering planets?

~Manda

Podcast pt. 6: Skype & Google Earth

Hey everyone! Sorry we're a day late again; state testing is so draining! This is our final "episode" to our Podcast blog "series". This week we are talking about Skype and Google Earth.

What Steph has to say:
So my last topic for our Podcast series is Skype. I really like the idea of using Skype in the classroom to connect students with others outside our class. You could take pen pals to the next level with Skype by having your students "meet" and talk to their pal on Skype. Collaborative projects with other students/classes/schools would be a great opportunity as well. I also like the idea of using it to interview people. For instance, maybe you've done a huge author study and love the idea of being able to have your students meet the author. Well let's face it, authors travel and work all over the place...so see if the author would be willing to set up a Skype meeting with the class! Like I also said, this could be a great tool to communicate with families outside of school. Have a student who can't come to school, but the family wants to help the student stay caught up on work. If you were to use Skype, you could talk with the student and help them if they needed instruction in order to complete it at home. These are just some of the ways I can think of to use Skype in the classroom. Have you ever used Skype in your class? What other ways can it be used?


What Manda has to say:

My last topic for our Podcast series is Google Earth. I have loved using Google Earth in the classroom. I have used it several times to take my students on a virtual field trip. When teaching a pre-k class about their city, I tagged several important places in our town. We then "visited" and discussed the different things in our town. I also used it to show them the difference in their town, state, and country. I have also used it to show students places that we are discussing in history. I like being able to give the students a visual of things that we would never be able to show them otherwise. It is so cool to be able to let students "visit" so many places we would never be able to actually take them to. Have you used Google Earth in class? If so What have you done with it? 

FYI: On our Facebook page, we are about 7 likes from doing our 3 giveaways! If you haven't 'liked' our page yet be sure to and feel free to share with friends and colleagues!

~Steph & Manda

Field Trips!

Do you still get to take your students on field trips? I know so many schools and districts have stopped approving field trips for one reason or another; so we're curious who still gets to take them.

At SCE, most grade levels are taking one this year. Kindergarten took an all day one, first grade took a short one and is getting ready to go on an all day one this week, third grade will be going on an all day one at the end of the month, and fifth grade will be headed on their "senior" trip to Washington DC at the beginning of May! The district requires that teachers write up a form for approval and submit evidence of how it ties to the curriculum and how it will be tied back into the instruction upon return to school. For instance, first grade will be going to the Atlanta Zoo this week. This will be part of the conclusion to their unit on animals. What better way to finish off this unit?

What's the most educational field trip you've taken a group on?

~Steph