It's Shark Week Ya'll

As Sydney posted yesterday...she and I have both been convicted of { trying to } make everyday count.  Especially these last days when I have been tempted to find a Magic School Bus or Bill Nye video.  STEM has been engaging all year...so why not end the year with a BANG!!!

It's Shark Week Ya'll

I follow Momma with a Teaching Mission on Instagram { ya'll should follow her too } and I saw she had a Nonfiction Shark Unit on her TPT.    It is a fabulous unit and I used parts of it to fit what I needed for my stations.  

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Nonfiction-Shark-Unit-1572674

I have wanted to try an unlock activity like Cooties and Cuties shows on her Instagram.  We have done BreakOut boxes but I love the idea of moving { down the wall } along the challenge. 

Target had the cutest shark stuff which made my wall and prizes so cute. 

 The Wall 

All 86 kiddos made fish as their "game
pieces". I colored coded them based
on their class color.   When they
completed task 1, they moved to the shark
to show they were working on task 2.. 

Completing task 2 moved them to
"Surf's Up"  This was a gel window
cling that I left the plastic on and taped
it up.  The stuffed shark was after they
completed task 3 and were working on 4.

The beach ball was for Task 5.  When
they complete the STEM task, they could
move their fish into the bag showing they had
survived Shark Week. 

The Details on the Tasks:

Task 1   Vocabulary 

I posted the vocabulary cards from Momma on a Teaching Missions's unit.  I created a matching sheet to go along with the vocabulary .  Students had to match the words correctly to move forward. 

Task 2    Shark Labeling 

Students had to use Seesaw on their iPad to take a picture of the shark labeling page.  They used the diagrams posted to correctly label their shark.  Once the photo was uploaded, they had to ask me to approve their work before moving forward. 

                                                 

Task 3--Venn Diagram comparing

This task of reading and completing the Venn Diagram comparison was directly from the unit I purchased. {simple, easy, and straight forward}

Task 4--Digital Poster 

Target Dollar Spot had these great informational books.  Students used PicKids on the iPads to make their digital poster using the book to find a picture and facts about a shark of their choosing.  Once these were uploaded to Seesaw they had to ask for approval before moving on. 

 

Task 5--STEM challenge to build a shark cage 

Of course, I had to include a design challenge.  I love how Hope King makes her students research to find the information they need.  To make this a little easier on my 3rd graders, I created a Google Slide doc with information and pictures of shark cages.  Students had to scan a QR code to obtain the information.  Using only the materials provided, they had to build cage that would support the weight of 50 pennies.
{several students built boxes and I had to remind them that boxes are not cages}

 The kiddos had a blast.  This was so worth the work. 

It was a successful Shark Week, ya'll.  ---Hope 

P.S. 

Not all kids/groups successfully created a shark cage that would support the weight of the pennies.  After 2 days of working only on the cages, I stopped the working.  Students received a prize shark from the fish tank, but they did not get to move their fish to "I survived Shark Week" . { tough love lesson } 

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Breakout box challenge

Growing up, I was literally obsessed with Mission Impossible! I had the nintendo game, watched the movies, and was pretty sure I wanted to be Ethan Hunt when I grew up. I know, such a nerd but I loved it! 

Today, my childhood dreams came true in room #415 with theme music and all. 

With only 6 full days of school left, I have been inspired and challenged not to count down until the last day, but to count up to what I can do in the precious time I have left. 

Y'all know I was blown away with Hope King at RCA. When I visited her room was transformed into a spy lab and I was totally inspired! So I decided I would "borrow" her idea and put my own spin on it! 

I found the super cute and fun breakout game on TPT in Class with An Alligator's store. Link Below ↓ . 

{https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Unlock-the-Box-a-break-out-game-The-Case-of-the-Principal-Investigation-3075458 }

The activities were easy to prep and a great way to review skills that we had learned this year in second grade. 

Breakout Details:

Students had to sequence time cards, read a passage, and complete a 3 digit addition activity to get the codes that unlocked the locks on the breakout box. I divided them into two groups as they entered the classroom using neon yard sale stickers numbered 1 or 2. As I gave them out I told each child they now were officially on a mission, also the neon stickers glowed under the black lights which made the effect extra cool. 

Room Details:

I literally used the black lights from my donors choose project, white yarn, neon printer paper, and highlighters for the passages they read. Easy as a wink! 

Here are some pictures from our breakout session! Students displayed teamwork, were engaged, and so excited! Proud teacher moment!! 

Once they accomplished their mission, they celebrated with ice cream and then begged to have the lights off for the rest of the day so they could maneuver around the "laser beams". 

The "thank you for making our day fun", excitement, and hugs made this all worth it! 

You can find several breakout activities for any grade/age level at www.breakoutedu.com as well as more breakout games like this one from Class with an Alligator at www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Class-With-An-Alligator

I think I'll call it a night,  I am past #teachertired today!!! 6 more {full} days to make it count! 

Syd

p.s. I mentioned in my previous post that it is not always victory flags on the mountains and that stuff happens. Prime example, right in the middle of students cracking the codes, a lock jammed. So even double agent teachers need a hero! Thank goodness Hope came to my rescue!

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Hi, my name is Sydney and yes I still {try} to blog... A reflection on the '16-'17 school year

So I am sure many of you have wondered if I had given up blogging. Truth be told, I almost began to wonder myself! I had so many post ideas from happenings in room #415, then I got so caught up in teaching that I literally could not find the time to just sit and post! Thank goodness Hope keeps us alive {BTW, isn't what she is doing in STEM AMAZING?}!

So I decided I would wrap up the 2016-2017 school year with a self reflection/challenge post and share a few things that pushed me outside of my safe zone as a teacher this year. 

Let's rewind to Summer 2016.

I was invited along to present for my school district's end of year professional development, as well as another school district's end of the year professional development, and had also been accepted to co-present with Hope at UTC (Upstate Technology Conference), which might I add is an amazing conference and I highly recommend it! I'll miss it this year due to family vacation.
 I had not  really presented to peers and colleagues since college and now I had three conferences to present at. Talk about really swallowing fear!  Presenting can be highly nerve racking, but honestly through each session that summer I began to become more confident and began to realize my passion. My passion to make learning as hands on and engaging as possible in order to provide students with opportunities and experiences that they {hopefully} won't forget. 

Fast forward to fall 2016. Hope and I had been accepted to share about the Purple Cow PLC that we (really she) hosts at our school each month at the South Carolina Technology Conference (SCEDTech). Once again, completely out of my comfort zone. I am the type that would rather work right behind the scene and never be heard, God has a sense of humor is all I can figure. 

Insert 2016-2017 school year. I may have shared this in a post {ages ago}, but I looped from first grade to second grade this year. An amazing experience that I would not trade for the world. BUT, when you have the same group of students for two years, you're old tricks can become a little dusty. I mean, each year when you get new students they are so engaged by all that you have to offer. Well, not that these precious students were not still engaged in my classroom, but I knew deep down I had to change. I had to change for them  and keep that excitement for learning growing. Also, none of my wonderful, pre-made activities that I had used for the past 4 years were going to work because #newgradelevel #samestudents {yes, I admit I used to use the same things each year for each unit and they are still beautifully organized and stored in my file cabinet because if a good thing works hang on to it and use it again 😜}. 

In November I had the phenomenal opportunity to visit the Ron Clark Academy (RCA) in Atlanta, GA. I was blown away! I left so inspired and loaded with new ideas for engagement and instruction. However, those ideas would require me to once again step out of my comfort zone, I'm may start calling my comfort zone my comfort box because I literally find myself crawling back in there and taping the lid shut. Maybe I just have different comfort boxes for each area of my life, who knows. 

So, I came back from Ron Clark inspired and motivated to started this new journey as a new and improved teacher who was going to tackle engagement and excitement with a smile! The kids loved it and I honestly can say that they blew me away with their learning and growth as well! I won't pretend that all of my days were on the mountain top waving the victory flag, because there were many days that I was in the trench with the white flag of surrender flying too. What I learned though, was in order to grow, change has to take place.  Change has to begin with y-o-u. 

Reflecting on a school year could literally be a published book, i'll try to make the rest short at sweet. 

After visiting RCA, I began following Hope King @www.elementaryshenanigans.com very closely. Her ideas were amazing and her passion are contagious! She and Deanna Jump present the Get Your Teach on Conference, which I was dying to go to. The idea had been bounced around between Hope and I about how much we would love to go, but tickets to the nearest event had been sold out months before we started looking into it. Then comes a Sunday night in January. An Instagram post about seats being available for GYTO Nashville is posted. A few texts and bribed husbands later, two tickets were bought and a hotel was booked. 

That weekend in Nashville forever changed my as a teacher. I was challenged, inspired, and rejuvenated. If you have an opportunity to go, GO! 

So this year was a year of many firsts for me. I tried so many new things and yes, sometimes they failed and I went down in a blaze of glory. But, I learned and grew and so did my students. 

My challenge is, how will you grow and change as a teacher? Don't settle for mediocrity, strive for metamorphosis! Your students deserve it, you deserve it. Accept the challenges, {yes, sometimes they make you cry and question your sanity} push forward, and be the educator you always dreamed you'd be. 💟 

P.S. Only 14 days until summer break! 

Syd    

      

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STEM + Shoes = Best Day Ever

This post has been a long time coming....National Board Renewal, Baseball Mom, and state testing have kept me pretty busy.

The long awaited details of the Shoe Fashion Show are finally here :)

The idea for the shoes came from our Project Lead the Way Launch Module on Animal Adaptations. (PES is a PLTW Launch School....amazing curriculum that I LOVE). The module began with a study of habitats and biomes.  We then moved into animal adaptations.   The final problem was to design a shoe for a traveler that would be visiting a habitat.

Students were placed in groups of 3 and had to chose 1 habitat.  For some it was an easy decision, others played Rock, Paper, Scissors, and in one case I had to step in an draw their habitat out of a hat. The next step was to decide on 3 specific adaptations: Camouflage, Protection, and Locomotion. They had to use their knowledge of their habitat in making their choices.  Finally they were ready to create.

And the results Blew Me Away.

Rainforest 

Grasslands

Desert, Rainforest, Arctic, Arctic
Desert, Desert, Desert, Arctic 

Arctic
Polar Bear and Bird 

Rainforest Tiger
Arctic Polar Bear 

Rainforest 

Then came the best part.....

After visiting the Ron Clark Academy and our road trip to Nashville for Get Your Teach On, I fell in love with room transformations.  I knew that there would be no better way to present the shoes than with a Shoe Fashion Show.

I used an empty classroom and rolled out the red carpet.  (truth be told it was red paper but no one cared).  I borrowed lights and a disco ball from fellow teachers.  I invited parents and all of the K5-2nd grade classes. I had a fashion show music playlist.  The stage was set. I kept the room a secret until each class entered so they could experience the WOW moment.

The kids did such an AMAZING job presenting their work and showing off their shoes.  My rule was everyone talks and everyone walks.  This made everyone feel like included.

 STEM (plus) SHOES (equals) the BEST DAY EVER!!!

--Hope

Yes..I was tired. But it was SO WORTH IT!!!

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