The Lorax Bulletin Board

Words cannot express how much I love walking out my classroom door and seeing all of the truffula trees hanging from the ceiling!  This is what I see when I walk out the door!

This is the view looking toward my classroom .

Looking at the board straight on...

 

Here's the sign that's on the top left of the board...

 

 

I had intended to make more of the big truffula trees with the grey/yellow stems, but...1-I didn't love the way they turned out, 2-I made them and not the kids, and 3-the kids' Loraxes took up more of the board than I had originally visualized.  All that said....I love it!  It just shouts spring, which I think most of us can agree we all need right about now!

 

So, my students made all of the truffula trees (flowers) themselves and they came out looking amazing!  Then we incorporated Read Across America with science with the tiny Loraxes.  Students wrote something they thought the Lorax would tell us about conserving our natural resources on the Lorax's belly and they wrote something THEY could do to help conserve our natural resources. 

 

Clean Desk Reindeer

At Thanksgiving I posted about the Clean Desk Turkey....well, apparently the Clean Desk Reindeer was a LITTLE bit busier than the Turkey because he didn't leave notes this time, just treats at the end of the week!  This is definitely not the best picture ever, but you can mostly see 8 brown reindeer noses (Whoopers) and 1 red reindeer nose (Jelly Belly cheery thingy).  You could fill the bags with anything....M&Ms, Hershey kisses, stickers or mini erasers (if you aren't allowed to do food)....you get the idea!

 

FREEBIE ALERT: To download the bag toppers, click HERE! 
If you want step-by-step directions how to make the bags,

see my Thanksgiving post by clicking HERE!

What will my next treat bags be you ask? 

Why I do believe we'll be having a Clean Desk Snowman visit our classroom!  And of course, we'll have some other snowman treats, too!  Stay tuned!

 

HAPPY HOLIDAYS! 

Thanksgiving Time

It's Thanksgiving time...by far my favorite holiday of the year!  There's no gift exchanging, no stress....just quality time spent with those you love, being thankful for everything you have...and did I mention there might be some yummy food, too?! 

This year in my classroom I had some fun with the "Clean Desk Turkey".  For the most part my students keep their desks neat and tidy, but there's always a little room for improvement.  For about a week before Thanksgiving, every time my students went some place the Clean Desk Turkey stopped by and found a desk or two to leave a little note on.  It looked like this:

 

FREEBIE ALERT!!! 
To get a sheet of the Clean Desk Turkeys....
just click on the picture above!

I told them that the Clean Desk Turkey wanted me to be sure to tell them to leave the note on their desks.  They wanted to know why....I acted all mysterious and said I didn't know why.  Before I knew it desks were looking nice and neat.  Things were put away when they were done using them...it was great!  By the end of the week most everyone in the class had little notes on their desks.  We had school the Monday and Tuesday before break, and by the end of Tuesday everyone ended up having tidy desks and a note on their desk.  We have PE last thing in the day, so while they were gone, the Clean Desk Turkey visited and left them little treats.  They looked like this:

I use these treat bags frequently for different things...for my own children's teachers, for my own children's classmates, my students, my co-workers, my husband's employees...just about anyone!  I love them because you can vary the size of the bag, just by stapling them lower or higher!  Here's how to make them:

The first trick is to get bags that can close.  I actually get mine in the jewelry department at our local craft shop.  My favorite size are 3" X 4", but any size will work.  I think I pay about $3.50 for 100 bags.

 



Then I simply staple my bag topper on the opposite end of the zipper closure.  By doing this I can get them all ready to go ahead of time and then just fill them a day or two before I want to hand them out.

 
In the next two pictures you can see how by changing where I staple them I can make the filling area bigger or smaller....(in case it's hard to tell - the first one is smaller, the second one is almost twice as big...same exact size bag!).

 

 
Here are some of the other treat bags I did this year for Thanksgiving.  I also have them for Halloween and Christmas...and plan on making ones for other Holidays as they come up, too!

 

To purchase these treat bag toppers, please
visit my TeachersPayTeachers store!

 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

 

 

100th Day Celebrations

Here are some pictures from our 100th Day celebration. We did 100th Day Mosaics. First, we had a lesson on the history of Mosaics (and WOW! I have to say I sure did learn a lot while I was researching them and making my PowerPoint!) Then they did a picture and writing for "When I'm 100 Years Old" and "If I had $100". Some of them were PRICELESS! One student was going to keep her money in a safe with lasers and pig guards and if her brother tried to steal it melted stinky cheese would squirt all over him...and others were going to buy a lot of duct tape (hmmm....who would have thought kids would be making hairbands and bracelets out of duct tape?! MacGyver would definitely approve!) And yet another 100 year old student would be writing a book about their life. 

January 2013 Happenings

Here are a couple of the things we did in January in fifth grade:

First, after conducting an experiment about force, we used Excel to graph our results.  Students entered in the data, used a formula to find the average, and then graphed it.  Then of course the exciting part for them: PLAYING WITH ALL THE COLORS!  I reminded them that the important thing was that you could read their graph, which *most* of them kept in mind!  They have asked several times since when we were going to do another experiment that needed a graph!

 

And of course we had to do something for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day! 

I found a GREAT product on TpT from Howywood Kindergarten!

It was reasonably priced and very user friendly!  I highly recommend it!

 

 

First, I printed the 26 quotes (included in the product from Howywood Kindergarten) onto cardstock. 

Next, students picked a quote that was meaningful to them and thought about what the quote meant to them.  Then, they wrote about it in the thought bubble. Students took their quote and used watercolors to paint over the quote.  Finally, when they were finished they completed the Martin Luther King, Jr. craftivity.  The craftivity was ALSO in the product from Howywood Kindergarten!

 

Here are a couple of close up pictures:

 

 

We got A LOT of compliments on this display!  One teacher even took the time to email my class a letter telling them how much she, as well as her students, enjoyed their display.  This made their day!  It was absolutely WONDERFUL!