This is what my students were greeted with when they got to the classroom on Thursday morning.

I couldn't find my warning tape in the Halloween tub, so I had to quickly make up my own.  The message on the door told students to wait until everyone in the class was there and to leave their backpacks and jackets in the hall.  I left an envelope with the first clue and off they went.

Luckily, I had an EA who was able to wander around the school with the students to keep them together. 

After 9 clues (our school is small), they found me hiding in a little storage room in the basement.  It was such a neat way to start the school day.  We ended up doing our read-aloud and journal in the music room.

Pic Collage

My latest find is an app called Pic Collage.  It has probably been around forever, but to me it's the newest and greatest little addition to my lessons.  The other day I had my students create a pic collage to show me their understanding of forces.  Here's an example:

What's your "go-to" app in the classroom?

The Sochi Winter Games Are Almost Here!

I love watching the Winter Olympics.  I love hearing the athletes' stories.  I love watching CBC's coverage of the games.  I love watching reruns of events.  I love seeing the Canadian flag get raised.  I love the excitement.  I love hearing O Canada play.

Here are a few of my favourite Olympic moments:

~ Sidney Crosby scoring the gold medal goal for Canada's men's hockey team

~ Jamie Sale & David Pelletier winning silver at Salt Lake & then later getting their well-deserved gold 

~ the loonie under centre ice at the Salt Lake games

~ Catriona Lemay Doan skating with the Saskatchewan flag after winning her speed skating event

~ Scott Moir & Tessa Virtue winning a gold medal in ice dance

What are your memories?

I've put together a few Olympic goodies on my TpT store.  Here's a sneak peak:

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Canadian-Athletes-Sochi-Winter-Games-1057399

I printed this poster set last week and got them laminated.  I plan to use them on my hall bulletin board with the research activity above.  Aren't the penguins adorable?

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Winter-Olympic-Poster-Set-Canadian-Version-1057413

Thanks to these wonderful artists for helping me out with these products:

Font courtesy of JF Keep It Simple designed by Jackie Golden @

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Jackie-Golden

Background graphics by Lovin’ Lit @

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Lovin-Lit

Penguin graphics courtesy of Poppydreamz Digital Art @ http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/PoppydreamzDigitialArt

I Did It!

I am quite certain no one is following my blog, but I'm kinda ok with that right now. I still have so much work to do to get the blog lookin' good. Tonight I figured out how to add my TpT badge. Did you notice it? Not only did I add the button, it actually works. Go ahead. Try it. I'm pretty proud of myself.

Yikes!

School doesn't start here for another 3 weeks, but I'm starting to panic.  I realized last night that I have A LOT of work to do.  I will be teaching Grade 6 in the fall, but I won't have to move classrooms, so that's a bonus.  TpT, WBT, and Pinterest are all wonderful resources, but I'm starting to feel a little overwhelmed by everything that is available to me.  I think I need a holiday.


Isn't this subway art adorable?

                  

                                          Back to School Free Subway Art Printable @ Sweet Coconut Lime

New Room, Technology Glitches, and Reader's Theatre

What a week!  The weather in southern Alberta has been gorgeous.  We've waited a long time for spring to arrive, but with the warm weather also comes squirmy kids and a hot classroom.  We did get a break on Wednesday when we relocated to the cooler basement to allow the painters to come in and do their thing.  The new paint colour makes the room bright and airy.  I won't be missing the Smurf blue that's for sure :)  I might go in on the weekend and put up a few posters ... maybe.

I love technology ... when it works!  I lost two Social Studies classes this week because we had computer glitches.  A couple months ago our school eliminated the computer lab and replaced it with laptops on a trolley.  So, if you want to use the computers, you just sign out the trolley, roll it down to your room, and away you go.  This worked really well for the first two months and then this week we had issues.  The students couldn't get onto the internet and that made my New France Webquest a huge disaster.  After two days of rescheduling, I was done with the idea of doing a webquest.  We went over the answers as a class and filled in the missing information.  The school days are running out and we're on a schedule.  We gotta move on!

This leads me to my last thing - Britain's Influence on Canada in the 1600 and 1700s!  Aren't you excited?  Probably not and I totally understand if you aren't.  Chances are the kids aren't either.  Well, that's what I figured when I planned my next section in Social Studies 5.  I decided to start with a Reader's Theatre script.  There are 5 speaking parts: Narrator, France, Britain, Acadians, and Cornwallis.  I tied a little art activity in and posted it on TpT.

You can check it out here:
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Britains-Influence-on-Canada-1600-1700s-Readers-Theatre-Activity

I wasn't planning to put it on TpT, but when I was searching Canadian History, I noticed there wasn't a lot there.  Maybe this will help someone out.

Have a fantastic weekend!

Top Priority Teaching

I Need To Get In The Habit!

I knew it had been awhile since I last posted, but I was SHOCKED to see how long it really was.  I have no excuses.  I need to get in the habit of posting.  I need to start with one night a week as my blog posting time.  If I start with one post a week and get really good at that, then I can move on and try two posts a week.  Be patient :)

Here's what my students have been up to:

Math 4 - We are finishing up multiplying 2 or 3-digit numbers by 1 digit.  Honestly, I was scared about teaching this.  I wanted to provide the kids with lots of strategies and I wanted them to be able to explain the math behind what they were doing, but I wanted to go slow enough so they didn't get overwhelmed and frustrated.  I found this great FREE resource and used it as my starting point.

http://bridges1.mathlearningcenter.org/resources/blog/201110/multi-digit-multiplication-strategy-posters

To help the kids stay organized I had them create a top tab foldable.  After we learned about each strategy, they did an example in their organizer.

The kids have done amazing with the strategies, but I'll find out for sure on Tuesday when they write their test.

Science 5 - We just started our section on clouds.  After introducing the topic with a RAN organizer activity and a short BrainPop video, we were ready to make our own cloud.  This was my first time making a Cloud in a Jar and my principal surprised me with an observation, so I had my fingers crossed that it would work.  Guess what?  It did work and the kids were engaged the whole time!  You gotta love that :)

Check out Laura Candler's website for a FREE PDF copy:

http://www.lauracandler.com/filecabinet/science/CloudinaJarDemo.pdf

I can't wait for my kids to make the cool cloud viewfinders next week.  I'll post pictures, but until then you can check out the website:

http://www.windows2universe.org/teacher_resources/cloud_viewer_web.pdf

Top Priority Teaching