Merry Christmas

This holiday season is very different for me.  I am away from family and friends.  New friends are with their families either here or back in America.  I am truly blessed to be where I am this year, in Thailand with my hubby.  But the holidays are hard to be away.  For those of you enjoying family time, please treasure it.  It is such a blessing and easily taken for granted time.  I know that you all do, but just wanted to remind you of how special family time and this time of year are.  No matter where I am, it is still my favorite time of year, just now for different reasons!

I pray that you are happy and healthy and joyful this holiday season.  Merry Christmas!!

p.s. I love the snow effect because surprisingly I AM missing the snow!

Holiday spirit and craftivities

Its beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!!

I am officially on break and have been since Thursday!! We have two full weeks off, which is apparently more than some schools :))  Hubby and I are going to enjoy every minute of it.

The last week of school was crazy but I will post more on that later.  For now holiday activities.

I tried to be a little crafty this holiday season.  We dont have much decorations other than a tree, but I did try one thing.  I put tape on cardstock.  Painted over it.  Glitterized it a little :)  Only sad thing is I havent hung it up anywhere!

  

At school we were a little crafty too!! We made strings of lights with colored paper and string.  Here is mine: We wrote one letter per light to spell out our names.....

On the back we wrote adjectives about the person whose name was written on the lights.  

Here are half of the kids ones hanging up in the class.  It was really fun and educational :)

We also made button ornaments.  Mine is the one on the left.... I was going for a random look.  I was then showed up by a kid who made the one on the right... very festive!

Another teacher donated this tree to us, so we decorated it with our button wreaths.  Some girls made the snowflakes for me so I put them on the tree too!  

What kinds of crafts did you do this holiday season?  I hope you all are enjoying time off and finding time to relax a little.  May the holidays be just as good for you wherever you may find yourselves this year!

Silence for Sandy Hook Elementary

Even from the other side of the globe, our thoughts and prayers are with those in need this week and Christmas season.  

**Thank you to Michelle @ 3amteacher for designing the heart for this post and Farley at Oh Boy 4th Grade for sharing it with us.  

12-12-12

Today is 12-12-12!!!!!!!!!! It is so cool.  The kids had no idea.  I asked them what was special about today.  I got a few "Its your birthday!". Sadly it is not.  I got a "Its Christmas!" (Apparently Christmas is NOT a big deal here.....).  Finally, someone said its December 12th, but they did not get it.

I began to write it down and a few of them realized.  Its 12-12-12!!  We talked about how this does not happen at all.... but then I got, it happened last year with 11-11-11.  Then and the year before that with 10-10-10.  Then someone said, it happened the month I was born too 2-2-02.  I had a revelation.

This has happened EVERY year of my 4th graders little lives.  It was shocking to me that they were spoiled in this way!

So then we had a long discussion about how rare this is. And that it will not happen again for 100 years (or 99 if you consider 11-11-2111, I was corrected ;] )

Then we wrote in our journals about what we think the world will be like in 100 years.  I was surprised that most of them struggled to think creatively about this.  I then prodded them by making silly suggestions.  The one they liked the most was "maybe we wont be wearing any clothes **really, really, really long pause** because we will be wearing space suits".  They wore shocked I would say such a thing!

Finally, at the end of the day I passed out little candy bags.  Each small bag had 12 M&Ms, 12 Reece's Pieces, 12 Mentos.  But I did not tell them 'what' was in the bag, that was their homework. I said that it contained something to do with 12-12-12.  They had to tell me what.  Some kids had NOOOOO idea how to figure it out.  Some said they would look it up on the internet...oh boy...  Some got it right away.   We will see what responses we get tomorrow.

What did/are you doing for 12-12-12??

p.s. sorry I haven't blogged in awhile.  We had some days off because of Thai holidays which were wonderful.  I got some Christmas shopping done and needed some time away from the internets.  Cant wait to show you my Christmas crafts though!

Currently

I can NOT believe it is December already.  But in honor of it is the new Currently from Farley.

Keeping up with shows makes my heart happy after long days at work!  Bones and Revenge are my current favorites!

I love that is December and things are becoming Christmasy!! I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!! It is so weird to be in a foreign land during this time but I am excited to experience new things.  I went to the market yesterday and found this teeny tiny watch shop turned Christmas with real stuff from AMERICA!! I was stoked. I got myself a 3ft tree, some real lights that do not burn up as soon as they are plugged in and some decorations................ Only problem is I have only put 1 strand of lights (which is clearly not enough) and 2 ornaments on.  It is need of some help!

Can you see the one ornament that is on it!?!?!

Shopping! Who doesnt love shopping during Christmas.  The sales here are nothing compared but still I want to shop!  Plus, I need new dress pants for school.  Not having a dryer means I cant shrink my pants.  MAJOR problem.  Plus I have been losing weight - yippeeeeeee! - but again means problems with the pants!  ugh.  I will figure something out eventually.  

RAK - I LOVE this.  Random acts of kindness are my favorite things.  This week I have been planning on writing some notes of encouragement to my friends and family. I would love to include some goodies.  

Props Farley for this section.  I can not wait to see what others are planning on doing!

This week I am planning on starting a contest with my class.  We have two doors to our room. The boys get and the girls get the other.  Their goal is to create the best Christmas tree they can out of paper and other available materials.  We will also be discussing shapes during this time so we can try to include as many of our shapes as possible!  Then, the school is going to vote for the best one.  In order to vote, each person has to list an adjective describing the tree.  The girls especially seemed very into this but I think the guys will come around to it.  It will also be good bonding for my class.... because they NEED some mega bonding time!

What fun Christmas/holiday ideas are you doing in your classroom?? What crafts are you doing?

Adjective activity

Short post tonight since we are still celebrating Loy Kratong with fireworks every night and parties all around!  It has been so fun to experience festivities in new countries.

Anyway, we have begun discussing adjectives.  I have a few students who had nooooo idea what adjectives were.  So rather than jumping right into workbook pages, we decided to do something fun.

I got out our handy purple football, similar to a talking stick!  The students then requested to go outside so I went with it.  We got in a circle to play our game.  I chose a noun that we were going to describe.  Then, I tossed the ball to a student who had to name an adjective describing my chosen noun.  It worked out quite well.  Some of the kids had some great adjectives.  We did this for a couple rounds and then we got hot.

So we decided to walk around the playground.  Students would call out a noun and their partner had to name three adjectives to describe it.  It was quite enjoyable to watch them be creative and outside of traditional learning!

I was very pleased with this very spontaneous activity.  But it worked well and the kids loved it.  That is really all that matters right.  Sometimes you just have to throw the plans out the window and go with what is working!

This is one of our "fireworks" from last night.  The base is a clay pot that makes this fountain of fire. It was so so so coool!!

Geography Introduction

As usual this is not an original idea but it worked so well for my class that I thought I should share.

We just started our unit on Thailand.  Side note: it is terrifying teaching about a country that the students know more about, through personal experience or life, than I do!!  Anyway, we started the unit by discussing the geographical features of Thailand.

I wanted the students to be able to explore this on their own without me lecturing about it.... Boring!!

So, I was given 4 sets of the same map of Thailand cut into pieces.  The pieces for the most part were countries or bodies of water.  Each piece was colored, with marker actually!  Each set of the map was put in envelopes so the puzzle was hidden.

I told the class that we were going to do a puzzle to help us learn about Thailand. They were intrigued.  Then I said that we were going to race to see who could do it fastest.  They were stoked.  Then I said they were going to do it without talking.  They were stunned and confused! BUT it totally worked.  It honestly took some of them a long time to figure it out. It was quite interesting.

This is the put together map

After everyone had completed the puzzle we looked at our blank map of Thailand in our notebooks.  We were able to use this map to help us learn about the neighboring countries and bodies of water.

We then went on to discuss the rivers and mountains in Thailand.  I do wish that our map would have had these things on it as well.  Instead I pulled up a political map and we figured it out that way.

Anyway, I had never thought about using a map as a puzzle to help students figure out neighbors and bodies of water and what not.  I thought it was a great idea.  Also, the coloring helped some students figure out what pieces went together easier.

Finally, I wanted to share this bulletin board I made.  It is completely for show but I think it turned out quite nice.  I kept putting things on and when I stepped back I surprised myself with how great it was! We have a bulletin board in the hallway that I was told needed changed this week in time for our visitors that are coming to school......tomorrow. So I had to throw some pictures up on the board.  At least we will be talking about these things so hopefully it is for some learning value too :)

TPT Purchases

TPT sales are a life saver.  I am so in love with my purchases this round. My classroom is in for some major changes for the good!!  Today, I am linking up with Erin from Tales from Room 112 and my home country, OHIO!!, to share our purchases from Cyber Monday Sale.

I have been soaking up every post that Stephanie from Teaching in Room 6 has done about calendar math.  Here is the link to all of those posts.  I have been dying to try this with my students but did not know how to get it started or what to create for the worksheet.

Because of the sale I could finally get my hands on her Calendar Math for Upper Grades BUNDLE Pack!! I am so excited to use this in my classroom. I am very happy to get the bundle pack because it will help me know where my students should be and where they are headed!  I am stoked about this. I am also very very excited to have finally gotten 101+ Writing Prompts from Katie Jones Dirty Hands and Lesson Plans.  My kids will never be able to complain again for not having anything to write about!!

  

Finally I got the Math Enrichment Worksheets and Nonfiction Text Features Task Cards from the lovely Rachel Lynette atMinds in Bloom.  I just realized that I have purchased many of her things but am not following her blog.  Don't worry that has been corrected now!

Whew!! Can you tell I am excited about these things?!?! I wish my other Christmas shopping would be this easy and fun! 

On a side note, I had a fantastic weekend and got to experience this unforgettable festival!!!

The Stars Aligned!!

The stars truly aligned for me and my class today! It was BEAUTIFUL!!!!

I had checked out the book Just A Dream by Chris van Allsburg from the library a few weeks ago, but it wasn't until last night that I actually read it.  You can get your copy of the book at amazon.  The book was perfect for what we were doing!!

Initially I had thought it was related to persuasive writing, but I did not get that at all!  I did however think it was perfect for our pollution centers that we were doing AND for inference that we were studying in reading.  Did you hear that.... it aligned with TWO, 2, dos, song (Thai for 2), subjects!!!

I was inspired by this picture from Stephanie at My Life as a Third Grade Teacher.  It isbeautiful and she gave me/everyone the advice of pre-planning the Evidence parts so that is what I did.

It sounds like I did the rest a little different than she did though.  I found wonderful places for inference throughout the story Just a Dream.  I made my chart like she did and placed my evidence sheets in the book so I wouldn't forget where we needed to stop!  I read my piece of evidence and asked what I already knew about the topic.  Then I asked what my inference could be!  I wrote the last two sections as we discussed them.  And I had my helper student glue it on the paper for me.  I wish I would have had the students write the other two pieces of chart so they had more ownership of it.  But it turned out great!!

While I was reading this book, some of the students were able to catch that it was about pollution!! I did not mention it, the book does not actually mention it.  I was so so so proud of them for being able to make that connection.  After we were done with the book, we did discuss pollution and they all finally got it.  We also discussed how Walter changed the future by choosing to recycle, throw things away, and plant trees.  We talked about how we could change our own futures!!

It was beautiful. My class enjoyed it and I truly thought the stars aligned to make 2 subjects that we were focusing on appear in one book!  Hope your day is beautiful as well!

Units of Time Matching Game

This week we have started our math unit on time.  Our last chapter was quite boring in depth, so I wanted to make this new chapter more fun.  We were able to go to the computer lab one day and play time math games.  For the most part the kids enjoyed it, even though for a few it was 'boring' still.

Anyway, we have been talking about units of time such as minutes, seconds, hours, days, weeks, months, years, etc.  I wanted to do something other than look at the chart the entire lesson, so I made these flash cards to use in a matching game.  I placed the cards on the floor and had students come up one by one to choose to cards and see if they matched.  It honestly took a lot longer than I thought it would because they did not watch carefully enough to see what cards had been looked at.  BUT they loved it!  They later asked if it could join our May Do list to practice on their own.  OF COURSE!!!! I said.  Now it is a race to see who can get to it first.

Another fabulous use:  I had a student who was really struggling with these concepts.  She is ESL and struggles with this vocabulary.  I printed off an extra set for her to take home and practice.  I made sure to label them so she knew which ones matched so she could study properly.  She enjoyed it and her mother was very pleased.

It brought me such joy that hopefully it will you as well.  I am very new to selling/offering things on TPT so please let me know if something is wrong with it!  Get your freebie here

Class discussion and Pixar movie

Today my class had a discussion about diversity and tolerance.  Our school focuses on virtues as a way of solving problems and focusing on positive behavior.  After struggling with how isolated some of my kids are and how many cliques are in my class, I knew that we needed to address this issue head on.  I brought it up with our school counselor and she gave me this wonderful video to share with the class.  It is an award winning Pixar short video called "For the Birds".  It is only 3 minutes long but full of laughter and GREAT teaching points!

I don't want to ruin it for you but in case you don't have 3 minutes here is the gist.  The little birds are happy all bundled together but a bigger/different bird comes along and wants to join the group.  The little birds make fun of him and try to get rid of him.  The end is somewhat ambiguous but I like to think that the little birds end up needing the big bird at the end and they all get along!

Anyway this led to wonderful discussions about how we are all different and even though someone in our class might be different than us that does not mean we should not include them or work with them or play with them.  We should be tolerant of everyone regardless of differences.  I was so proud of my kids for making connections from this movie and our class.  They seemed to take it to heart and realize that things need to change!!

Just thought I would share this video.  Even if you do not need to use it for issues in your class, it will definitely provide some laughs! Enjoy

Thankful blogging linky party

Today I am linking up with Stephanie from Teaching in Room 6 for a linky party about my favorite thing.... being thankful.  What a great opportunity to share with others what you are thankful for.  Thanks you Stephanie for hosting this.  Make sure to check out her great blog as well.

1.  First of all I am very very thankful for this blogging community.  Although I am a newbie in every sense of the word (whether blogging or teaching), I have felt welcomed and encouraged in starting this new journey.  I am so blessed to learn from such amazing teachers and women.  I already feel a better teacher for being able to learn from the best!

2.  This might be cheating, but I am super thankful for TPT and Pinterest and all the goodies I have gotten from them.  My files are full because of these wonderful sites.  

3.  This year because of blogging I have begun using anchor charts.  I have been quite encouraged by everyone that uses them successfully.  Not only that but I have been able to see them and copy/recreate my own because of the awesomeness shared!  Here is my focus wall the first week we started using anchor charts.  The class made the Math chart and we wrote the writing chart together!

4.  Finally, I am thankful for the countless ideas and resources gained by being part of this community.  It is truly a pleasure to learn from everyone else's successes!

Check out what everyone else is thankful for and then make your own list.  Don't forget to link up here!

Persuasion in commercials

This week we are looking at persuasion in multiple forms, specifically reading and writing.  But today we looked at it in the media as well.  I somewhat wish we would have done this a few weeks ago to look at the elections, but thankfully we did not have to deal with that here!

Anyway, I youtubed a bunch of commercials for us to look at as a class.  We talked about how commercials often try to get us to buy something, or believe something, or help someone, or all kinds of things.   We discussed that some commercials even try to show you how you will feel if you buy that one item.

I honestly had no idea how this would go because I am unfamiliar with television here and what prior knowledge my students have in relation to media.  But we went for it.  We looked at 10 commercials and filled out this worksheet, mostly on their own.

I was quite surprised with how it went.  Although our initial discussion was a struggle, when they saw the commercials and had to answer the questions it came easily to them.  It provided a great conversation for the power of the media and how careful we need to be with it.  BUT we also discussed how some commercials are wonderful because they get our parents to buy us stuff ;) Oh the joys of 4th grade!

Harvest Party fun

Today was our school "Harvest Party"  basically a mix of a Halloween party and a Thanksgiving party.  It was quite a day filled with craziness, excitement, and fun.  It started with costumes but sadly I forgot to get pictures of the costumes :(  We were supposed to dress up as something we are thankful for.  We had princesses, and bears, and skateboarders, and pirates.  I myself was a cook/chef because I am thankful for others who can cook!!  But again sadly no pictures.  I might have to beg some parents for pictures.  That is allowed right!?!

We began by doing a scavenger hunt where they found things they were thankful for.  For some this was the first time doing a scavenger hunt.  Most got the hang of it fairly quickly.  I had clues like "Lunch is when I get my nutrients for the day.  I am thankful I can eat at the ______"  They would run to the cafeteria and find their next clue.  It took them all over school, well the outside part at least.  Most of the kids were running and having a great time.  I tried to put them in groups and that was a bad idea.  Some of the groups did not work well together and left their slower group members.  So next time I won't do that.... I think.

I DID manage to take some pictures later in the day though.  This website was the inspiration for my day.  I did the craft shown here.  The website has a great tutorial for how to make it.

Our class used orange and yellow paper.  Plus we made our own stems rather than using pipe cleaners.  I think next time I will use the pipe cleaners.  It just adds a little touch of cuteness right?! I had the class write 10 things that they were thankful for, one for each paper.  Here is how they turned out!!

This is a close up of the one that I made to show the class.  

Here are some more of them.  

Aren't they adorable!!  I was very very pleased with the whole thing.  The kids enjoyed them too.  

 Then we made some toilet paper roll people or monsters.  I basically said you may use anything in the classroom and they went nuts.  They were so creative.  These were the only ones I was able to capture pictures of but the kids were having a blast with these.  We had all sorts of creatures :)

Last period was our actual 'party'.  We had lots of parents and lots of food.  We ate until we were happy and then played a game... probably should have played the game first though.  The class was separated into groups of 3 and they had to wrap one of their teammates in a roll of toilet paper.  The goal was to see who could do it the fastest, but some were very slow.  After they were wrapped, we had a race to see which mummy could move the fastest.  It was a simple game and the kids enjoyed it also.

All in all it was a great day.  We had lots of fun and the kids left with smiles on their faces and stories to tell.  I left one happy but EXHAUSTED teacher :)  

I hope you had a good Friday too.  

Newbie Questions: Writing

Do you ever feel this way??  That is me.  I have been trying to stay positive for a long time but the past couple days have gotten the best of me.  I have realized I need some help!!

Ya'll know that I am a new teacher, so often changes in units or topics scare me as it is something new I have to figure out.  Well, writing is one of those areas that I am struggling with.  The past couple weeks we have been doing expository/how-to writing.  I quite enjoy it and have gotten my class to take ownership over it as well.  It has been a fun and major growing time.  We have discussed voice and organization and word choice.  Their writing has already progressed so much since the beginning of the year.

Generally our writing time is focused on a particular type or piece of writing and the whole class stays on the same page.  I haven't been able to figure out how to do a writers workshop yet... maybe next year.  We are able to do mini lessons that discuss the six traits and different genres of writing.  For the most part I do not mind how things are moving with writing.

BUT  the next topic in writing is persuasive writing.  I am terrified for this.  I don't know where to start or what to do.  I try to stay on the same pace with my co-teacher lady and she wants 5 to 6 weeks to work on persuasive writing.  That seems like a LOT to me.  I have no idea how to fill 5 weeks with one type of writing.  For our How-tos it is taking us 2 weeks.  What on earth am I supposed to do for 5 weeks?????

Please help!!!  How do you teach writing?  How do you teach persuasive writing?? What can I do to fill the next 5 weeks?  I am at a total loss and any advice is more than welcome!  Thanks in advance for being there and helping out when needed :)

November Currently

November is here!!!! I love November.  I am linking up with Farley and her November Currently!  She is so fun and creative.  I can not believe I didn't recognize Lexi from her picture the other day.  Anyway, here we go:

I finally joined the bandwagon and have been watching How I Met Your Mother.  I am very pleased :)  It makes my nights so much better!!  

Even though I am in Thailand the weather is starting to get cooler and it is wonderful.  

My puppy Chico is adorable.  Even though he bites everything when he is calm he is irresisitable!! 

Planning...ugh.  Sometimes it just comes to me.  Today it is like pulling teeth!

I think I have set a record.  I have been here for 3 months WITHOUT a cell phone.  My students can not believe I don't have one.  I havent bought one here because I want to use my Droid from home but I havent gotten around to that yet.  Hopefully soon though.  

Music.  I want to play music in my class often.  I just dont have much. Sadly pandora doesnt work in Thailand.  BUT I have found Grooveshark to be wonderful if not better.  I love the Electronica station and that is what I play most often while the kids are working.  

That is all for now.  Check out the amazing currentlys and remember the rule of 3!

Tree of Thanks

Oh man I am on a roll with this blogging thing this week!  I hope to have an awesome post for you tomorrow too or the next day!

Sadly in Thailand Halloween is not celebrated, so little happened at school.  Some teachers did a few small things but nothing crazy.  We are having our official party next week called Harvest Party where kids dress up as things they are thankful for.... I will let you know how it goes next week.  This is the first year they are doing this so it will be interesting.

Anyway, since we are now in November (my favorite time of year!) we are beginning to focus on things we are thankful for.  I had an idea of making a tree that will grow as the month progresses.  So we started it today!  The kids seem excited about it so hopefully it will help us stay thinking positively.

I wanted the kids to have to think about thankfulness all month so each week they have to add at least 1 leaf to our tree.  They may add more than one but have to add one a week.  Each leaf needs to contain something they are thankful for.  I also wanted them to make their own leaves rather than having the sample ready for them so that they took a little more ownership.  Here is our tree from week 1.  Hopefully I can update you as the month progresses.  And of course I took some photos of the lovely things they are thankful for!

View of our tree.  We made sure to put it on the outside of our door so everyone could share in our thanksgiving!

Love the reason why she is thankful.

Awwwww! Aren't they cute :)

Of course we have to be thankful for food!

And finally a little something to make you smile.  We got a new puppy.  His name is Chico.  He does not really have a blue eyes.  He is a shih-tzu/poodle mix and just got cleaned at the groomers.  

Hope you all enjoyed your Halloween.  Can you believe it is November already!?!

Ecosystems Activity

As a new teacher, every new unit is overwhelming and I have no idea where to start.  But for the ecosystems unit, I had a plan and felt prepared!!  Things had been going well all week.  Then my co-teacher came to me this morning saying she was doing the activity I was planning to do Friday, today!  Ah.  I had no idea what was happening but I decided to jump right in and do it today too.  It turned out quite spectacular.

Unfortunately I can not take credit for creating this activity but it was definitely a fun one.  We have been talking about how living and nonliving things are in ecosystems and that ecosystems can be very different or very much the same.  During recess my teaching partner and I went outside to string off ecosystems.  We found 4 areas that would hopefully contain different things.  Before we went outside we divided our notebook into 4 sections and labeled them ABCD, one for each ecosystem.  The students had to write down their observations and label if it was living or nonliving.  We had 4 groups of students and they had 7 minutes at each station.  I would walk around and visit each station during those 7 minutes.  (Yes, it was very very very hot!) At the last group, I would tell them to run to their next station and tell the group to rotate.  I would head over to the last group to get notified and tell them to rotate.  It worked quite well.  Here are some pictures of our ecosystems and kiddos working hard!

 This is an area behind the bathrooms that is very buggy.  And they just planted new papaya trees so they were drawing in some interesting bugs as well.

  

This was our tree area by the playground. It had a nest and moss growing in the tree and a bunch of sand and rocks.   

This was our lively area.  Lots of plants were included here and attracted many bugs: butterflies, dragonflies, ants, beetles, and much more!

The other area was the dry area.  It was mostly sand and rocks.  It had a tree that was losing its life.  The area was quite large but had little in it and made for a good talking point.  However, I somehow ended up there as time was running out and the photo-op was definitely gone!

I had to take and share this picture.  The lively area was far away from any sort of table or hard surface.  When I arrived to this group, this is what I saw.  PROBLEM SOLVING and TEAMWORK!! I was so so thrilled.  These kids are great!

 

This activity is definitely something I will do again.  I might try to make it so the ecosystems are not spread out over campus so much that way I do not kill myself keeping an eye on the kids!  It was a lot of fun for both me and the kids and made learning about ecosystems that much more real for them!

Motivational Monday Linky

I know, I know, you were all so worried about me.  I have not blogged in FOREVER!! I am so sorry.  Truly.  First year teaching, new country, report cards, parent teacher conferences, the shi-bang finally caught up to me.  I was sinking fast!  But I managed and we are now on Quarter 2 ready to take it by the horns!  ha.  I sound motivated.  Remind me of this in a couple weeks!

Anyway, I thought my first week back should be light hearted.  I am linking up with Kimberly from The Learning Tree and her Motivational Monday linky because Monday's require a little boost.

So, I have been pinterest stalking a lot recently and found this little gem.  I died laughing. Hopefully you do as well.  Cheating is a very serious thing!

Check out Kimberly's linky party and link up yourself here.  I promise I will be much more loyal to blogging!