Mother's Day Projects

We had such a great time creating Mother's Day gifts in my classroom today.

Mrs. Lee-Garcia (the amazing teacher across the hall) was generous enough to share the wonderful "Shrinky Dinks" necklace idea with me.  "Shrinky Dinks" is a shrinkable plastic that can be shaped for various craft projects.  

This stuff is incredible. I first cut the "Shrinky Dink" plastic into about 3 inch diameter circles. My students decorated the circles with messages for their mothers.

Before

Then I placed these creations in the oven (preheated to 325) for about a minute. They shrunk to the size of about a quarter. Tomorrow we will tie a ribbon through the "Shrinky Dink" to create a Mother's Day necklace.

After

We also made stone picture magnets. Thank you Pinterest for this cute idea! 

100% Club

For the past three years, I have had the 100% Club as a part of my classroom. Though I cannot take credit for its creation (Creator: Mrs. Jennifer Barrett), I am delighted to share this free and motivating tool that I have had the pleasure of using in my classroom. The 100% Club is made up of students who score a 100 on an assignment, or for those students who show 100% effort on their independent work. Each time a student earns a 100 or 100% effort on their independent work, they receive a blank 100 to decorate (see below). Before handing the 100 to my students, I write their name along with the assignment name on the 100. The students use their creativity to decorate their 100. I then hang their 100s around the classroom. By the end of the year, my room is covered with student decorated 100s. This is just a simple, free way to congratulate and recognize my hardworking students. It also adds a bit of color to the room.

Here are a couple of photos of the 100s in my classroom.

Grab a copy of the blank 100 to use in your classroom here.

Hope you enjoy, 

Outdoor Reading Day

Summer is right around the corner, and my students can feel it. They all want to be outside instead of in the classroom...so today my students enjoyed a day outdoors with their book. I invited students to bring a towel, sunglasses, sunscreen, and a hat in order to spend some quality reading time outside as a special treat. They loved it!

We stayed outside after reading to have a book discussion in groups by passing around a beach ball covered in questions:

• What connection did you make to your reading today?
• What do you think will happen next in the story? Why?
• What was your favorite part of today's reading?
• What type of reader would enjoy this book and why?
• What character from your book would you like to be? Why?
• What is the conflict in your story?
• What is your story's theme?

We also spent time outside to do some spelling work with a paintbrush and water (no paint). My students painted their spelling words with water on the concrete sidewalks outside. No mess, free, and easy.

My students are begging me for another reading day outdoors. This was the perfect way to end the week.