Sunday, 12 August 2012
Saturday, 11 August 2012
*Updated: I still don't understand the complex workings of Google Docs - and why the font changed when I uploaded it. Here is the same document lined up with Garamond font. I checked it and it worked. Sorry about that!
Hope you have a great weekend!
Friday, 10 August 2012
This pencil sharpener is so quiet - it does make a tiny amount of noise, but nothing compared to the annoying sound that my electric one makes. I could easily still teach a lesson and this be used at the same time. It has a crank handle, but it doesn't need to be drilled down to a table because of a special clamp. It was easy to put together and sturdy - all you have to do is just place the clamp into the little hole and it's done. I didn't even need to ask my husband to put it together, I could handle it myself.
Thursday, 9 August 2012
With all the budget cuts, I need help in providing my students with any "extra" copies. At this point in time I can cover the assessment copies myself, but all the extra review or fun activities would have to be pushed aside due to not having copy money. 4 years ago I began asking parents to help copy at Back to School Night, and they have responded graciously. The past 2 years over 10 families (each year) have been kind to copy a class set of paper at home each month for me. I only send home something every 2 to 4 weeks, I don't want to overuse their generosity. If you are in the same type of boat as I am, you might want to consider asking for help. Here is the document if you want to use it. I use the penny portfolios - one per family to send materials home. I have never had an issue that papers did not come back. If it goes a week without seeing the copies, I just send home an email just telling the parents that it's completely okay with me if it's not an okay time to copy, that I just need the masters back. Not a big deal at all.
Hope this helps!
Wednesday, 8 August 2012
Tuesday, 7 August 2012
It's the last day of vacation and we decided to take the boys to the zoo. It's been a while since our zoo membership expired, but we still had one family pass that included parking. It was a good "cheap" outing. I was determined to not think about school or my to do list at all... That is until my boys grabbed zoo maps and I saw how they have changed them since the last time we visited.
The maps that I remember in past visits were huge - nowadays our zoo has a smaller size (aka laminator packet size after a slight trim). There is so much we can do with a zoo map, and they are a free resource - so I grabbed a whole class set.
First thing I thought of using them for were for map practice - beginning of the year - North, South, East, West type of things. We could do it for a whole class lesson, then they can work with a partner to share and find.
Then I thought of Science - how the first 2 units are ALL about ecosystems and how the animals are grouped by the different ecosystems. This would work perfect as a resource for when we make our Ecosystem Dioramas.
Of course with Math, these maps would work for reviewing grids and ordered pairs. The top has letters, and the side of the map has numbers.
At the end of the year, these could also work when we make our Zoo Maps in Math - the students create their own zoo to review area and perimeter - the larger animals need more space than the smaller animals. The kids love the activity.
So, I guess I did think about school today - but I still had fun celebrating the end of summer with my little family. Hope these ideas help you as well. If you don't have a zoo near you, perhaps you could check online as many zoos have their maps in a printable format to download.
Hope you had a great day!
Here are 4 activities I think I will do
using my "soon to be laminated" stack of maps:
Then I thought of Science - how the first 2 units are ALL about ecosystems and how the animals are grouped by the different ecosystems. This would work perfect as a resource for when we make our Ecosystem Dioramas.
Of course with Math, these maps would work for reviewing grids and ordered pairs. The top has letters, and the side of the map has numbers.
At the end of the year, these could also work when we make our Zoo Maps in Math - the students create their own zoo to review area and perimeter - the larger animals need more space than the smaller animals. The kids love the activity.
So, I guess I did think about school today - but I still had fun celebrating the end of summer with my little family. Hope these ideas help you as well. If you don't have a zoo near you, perhaps you could check online as many zoos have their maps in a printable format to download.
Hope you had a great day!
Monday, 6 August 2012
Another Monday link up with Tara - I LOVE these link ups...
Last Monday before I meet my new batch of kiddos.
This week I made a bunch of stuff - but I'm going to show you my super easy bean bags that I put together without sewing anything and a bunch of different make ahead crockpot meals!
I had to make some bean bags because of my Multiplication Fact Toss floor game.
Target has super cute and LONG socks right now on clearance for 75 cents. I felt the need to tell the cashier that I would not be wearing these.. I picked up 2 pairs and they made 8 bean bags. You just need some regular dry beans to go inside (though if you use lentil beans they are even softer).
I put 4 handfuls of beans into the first toe...
then I cut it and made a tight knot. It's not going anywhere.
Then I used the rest of the sock and turned it inside out...
and made another tight knot on one side (I chose the thin side that I had cut).
Then I flipped it right side out and filled it again with 4 more handfuls.
Ta-Da 7 completed bean bags with 4 socks
(not 8 because I ran out of beans until the next day...)
Easy Peasy - Done in 7 minutes!
Another thing I made was a mess in my kitchen!
(Taken from a recent post on my family blog - www.thesummafamily.blogspot.com)
What do these pictures have in common? Other than a big mess in my kitchen... they are the ingredients for many different crockpot concoctions.
2 days ago I was thinking about how much I would love to have a freezer stocked with ready to go meals, but there wasn't room or money to buy a bunch of meat to create everything... then it occurred to me that I didn't need a lot of room or meat to make the seasonings of our favorite crock pot meals. I just needed a couple of containers.
So, I made 6 crockpot recipes that are our families favorites - all that we found either on Pinterest or on All Recipes.com... the links for them should be on the "Tales from the Kitchen" page (on the home blog). Now we can buy the meat as we go along, and just choose one of these containers to throw on top of the meat in the crockpot. I don't know if we even need to melt the liquids first - I wouldn't think so.
What I made yesterday was:
Parmesan Honey Pork (2 containers - it's a favorite)
Tangy Pork
Brown Sugar Garlic Chicken
Balsamic Chicken
Honey Sauced Chicken
Sweet Teriyaki Chicken
I love my crockpot, and I love how I don't really have to think about the food that is in the crockpot. With Back to School looming ahead of us, I know from previous experience that I will not want to really cook the first couple of weeks of school due to exhaustion. (It really does take a lot out of you the first weeks teaching all the management stuff, in addition to starting up the curriculum, and learning about your new kiddos.) This way I just have to worry about throwing a vegetable in the oven to roast, and cooking up some rice or pasta to go with it - and it's not like we will be eating these every day but a night or two a week, but they will help out a lot.
Happy Monday everyone!
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