Recent Activites

Hey friends!

I will soon be starting my second placement in a sixth grade classroom! I have observed once a week and I must say that am nervous to teach such energetic kids. I am up for a challenge so we shall see what happens. I am confident I will learn a lot about myself and how I want to teach, though.

Here are some of recent activities or cool things done in methods class!

Money puzzle! Doesn't it look cool? Would be a great "about me" first day of school activity. However, I think it would work well with any subject. 

I also learned how to color pasta/rice. I'm sure learning that will save me a lot of money someday! I don't mean that sarcastically either. People pay a lot of money for stuff you can make easily at home. All it costs is time :)

Great science experiment about blood. I will definitely use this in my classroom someday.

Cookies from Chickfila. These have nothing to do with anything. But they are my obsession. And they have gotten me through many assignments. SO. GOOD.

And....drum roll please...FLAIR PENS. My birthday present to myself. These are amazing. They have brilliant colors and do not bleed through the page.

I am pleased to say that I have learned a vast variety techniques and activities that have prepared me to be an engaging teacher. I believe that I have learned more this semester than any other time in my college career! 

More later,

Maria 

Kid Kit!

For those of you playing along at home, a kid kit is an activity box that students can use when they finish their work early and need something to do. The activities are intended for individuals and focus on a specific theme. We were instructed to pick a container that was small, easy to store, and stack because we would most likely have more than one kid kit available. I choose a clean pizza box. Yes, a pizza box. Mostly because a) they're free and b) they're free. I asked Papa Johns if I could have one, and offered to pay for it, and they graciously gave me two, free of charge. 

For my first kid kit, I wanted to pick a theme that was fun, but also something I had personal interest in. I LOVE Disney so my theme was decided quite quickly. My family lives in California and happens to frequent Disneyland pretty often, so I asked them to send me a map of the park and they graciously agreed.

Here's the front of my box:

 Don't let that beautiful red paper fool you. It's the devil of paper. It took serious coaking, sweet talking, rubber cement, and glue to keep on that freaking box.

 I also managed to make a gigantic mess. It's fine. I cleaned it up eventually...

The inside of the box empty and then packed with all my activities. 

Top left: Matching cards (princess and the frog...one of my favorite Disney movies btw), Fact and opinion cards on Disneyworld
Bottom left: Tinkerbell and Pirates of the Caribbean crossword puzzles, and a budgeting activity. The student has a $500 budget and must buy 2 adult tickets, 2 children tickets, food, drinks, snacks, and souvenirs. I printed out all the various restaurants from the Disney website and made up how much each place cost per plate. My family also sent me their tickets so I laminated those, the parking pass, and also put in 2 stickers. **Note** the back of the tickets which say my family's names on them and also the parking ticket turned black when I laminated them. I guess the heat mixed with the material in the paper caused a reaction which made the paper change colors.

Left side (strong side): Find the multiples of 3,5,7,11 and match them to the correct number, and a timeline activity using a park map and the entertainment (shows, etc) students plan out how they would spend a day at Disneyland and use the laminated pooh bear paper to write it out.

 Top left: Ride cards and the students uses them as inspiration to create their own ride, Captain Jack's guide to being a pirate...use it and then write your own guide. 

Bottom left: compare and contrast the temperatures of the Disney parks around the world, order the dates found in the mickey trivia in sequential order and then write the facts down after.

Here's a closer look of the pirate guide. It was free from: here
All the fonts I used were actual Disney fonts as well, which made me feel good about myself. Especially because they were free. The only things that cost me money was the paper (bought in a large pack for $6 at Hobby Lobby), the lamination (honestly, that was about $15), and the letters ($5 from Hobby Lobby). 

Here's where I got my fonts from: here and here.

I wish I was at Disneyland.

Maria

Melted Crayon Art

So I have finally decided to jump on the bandwagon and make my own "melted crayon art". I'm sure there's a more hip term for it, but as usual I don't know it. If you're one of the few who has not made this craft yet, you really should. It's SO easy! And I think it looks really cool too.

First start with some crayons.

I picked all the vibrant colors out of these 2 boxes of crayons. I didn't count how many I ended up using, but I think it was about 60-64. Of course you'll also need a 11x17 canvas. I got mine from my room mate for Christmas. 

Arrange your crayons the way you want. Then hot glue them to the top of your canvas.

For the next part, I moved into the garage. 

I used a heat gun to melt the crayons. My dad is melting them in this picture because he doesn't know how to use my phone to take the picture. I promise I did all the work though.

Word of Advice: Do NOT move the heat gun/ blow dryer back and forth in a "shaking" motion. This will cause the colors to mix. Unless of course, you want that to happen.

 

Andddd....we're done! Super easy. Painless. My other word of advice is don't move the canvas for a few hours. It cools very quickly but the "drips" are still fragile so make sure its completely dry before you move it.

I haven't completely decided how I'll use this in my future classroom. I am torn between putting my name or just "welcome". 

I hope this inspires you to make some melted crayon art if you haven't already!

Maria