Field Trips

Spring is in the air, and spring always makes me want to take field trips.  Now, from a teachers’ perspective, field trips are the worst.  The absolute worst.  They involve so many stinking forms and permission slips.  You have to fill out a separate form for each person involved in any aspect of a school (teachers, parents, principals, district administration, transportation, food service, nurses, specials, any type of aide or resource teacher). 

Then there’s the money…the dreaded money.  How much does it cost to get in?  How much does it cost to drive there?  How do I divide the $20 per mile bus/gas fee by 120 students?  Will they round up to 5 if we go 4.7 miles?  What about chaperones?  Oh shoot, what if no parents will come help me?  Oh shoot, what if all the parents want to come help?  How do I decide which ones have to pay and which ones don’t?  What if I get robbed between collecting money from students and turning it in to the office (because that is a legitimate fear in The Hood)?  What if half my class can’t pay?  Can I afford that?  What if someone pays, then doesn’t show up that day and their parents demand the money back?  But then the financial secretary can’t refund the $4 because it was already deposited?  What if they just start yelling at me to give them their $4 back?

These are just the extra questions on top of the gajillion you already have to deal with because you are a teacher and nobody knows what the crap is going on in public education.

Anyways, my first year in The Hood, I somehow managed to get my kindergarten class to the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum.  

This is mostly a museum for adults, but they had a transportation grant (which eliminated all the $20 per mile x 7 miles to the museum divided by 120 students madness).  And I somehow got enough adults to go that we could have manageable-sized groups.  Plus God blessed me with 1-on-1 parental support for my kiddos who liked to run off.  I figured that things would mostly go okay, and I would be pretty available in case of emergency or overwhelmed parent.

I don’t know if you realize this, but museums with important and expensive pieces of art, like the Oklahoma Western Heritage Museum, have many alarms and such that sound just in case people try to steal the said important and expensive pieces of art.  Also, kindergartners like to touch things they are not supposed to touch, like important and expensive pieces of art.  And when these kindergartners are not monitored with an eagle-eye, they WILL touch what they are not supposed to regardless of how many times you said not to or the extreme consequences you threatened.  When they do this, it looks as though they are trying to steal the important and expensive pieces of art and ALL the alarms in the museum will sound.  And even if you saw it coming and slo-mo launched yourself at the kindergartner to stop them from touching the art and were only a half-second late, the alarms will STILL sound.  And they are very loud.

So I locked them in a jail cell...

They also tried to climb onto the horse, but they were too short.  Luckily this was in the "hands on" section of the museum.

I know all this because it happened to me.  Never again have I taken a large group of young children to a museum for adults.

The Day the Police Came to School on Superhero Day

Now I’d like to take a second to talk about the last Earth Day I experienced.  In The Hood.  From this post title, you might be tempted to think that we were celebrating the brave police officers of our city (which they totally are).  You may think we were doing the whole "Everyday Superhero" after school special-type thing.  But then you would be wrong.  We were not that thoughtful.

This particular day was a dress up day…Superhero Day.  (Here are my previous thoughts on dress-up days, so you can better understand my frame of mind at this time).  I think it was around Earth Day because I dressed up like Michael Recycle, from Ellie Bethel’s book.  Saving the environment and all.  So I look like this:

And I’m supervising recess.  Suddenly, I notice that the helicopters are circling.  In The Hood, this is never a good sign.  One helicopter, you’re okay.  Two helicopters, you might start getting concerned.  Three helicopters, something unsavory is going on and your school is about to go into lockdown.  This was a three helicopters situation.

Within seconds, the cops show up right outside the fence.  Now remember, I look like this:

And I have to discuss the situation with the police, looking like an absolute fool.  “Yes I know I’m wearing spandex and a cape. Yes, I’m in charge here.  Yes I know it doesn’t look that way.”  Completely embarrassing, just mortifying.  Then I had to run around on the playground in my cape to get all the kids to go inside really quickly because someone had held something up and was running around with a gun.  You just try to get kids to take you seriously looking like that.  Not happening.  Then somehow make them take a lockdown seriously, because they all look like fools too.  Just another day in the life. 

My advice?  If you are an adult, planning on dressing up for these ridiculous dress-up days, change into regular clothes before going out to supervise recess. You never know what may happen!

Jodie

Buzz!!!!

So I first learned this game when I was student teaching, and I was absolutely astounded that it wasn’t the first thing I learned about literacy instruction during college.  Actually, not that astounded, because it’s a pretty simple game and all my professors probably thought I was smart enough to come up with it on my own.  But I wasn’t.  I’m good at faking smart, but I struggle when it comes right down to it.

One of the first things I DID learn in college is that developmentally appropriate practice involves the whole child- cognitive, social, emotional, and physical.  Kids need to move around, they need frequent breaks, they need to engage their whole bodies in learning. 

Enter: Word Wall Buzz

So simple, just the easiest way to incorporate movement into word wall activities.  Here’s how it works:

Get flash cards of the word wall words your kiddos need to learn.  I usually start with about 5 with my kindergartners.  Then add in a card that says “buzz.”  Go through the words as flash cards, and when you get to the buzz card, the kids get to get up and buzz around the room like bees for a few seconds. 

Each week, add the cards for the new words.  Once you have about 15 cards, add another buzz card.  Also, the game goes so quickly, you can go through the words a few times each time you play! 

This is also a great “sponge” activity if you have a few extra minutes to spare in transitions. 

It’s pretty incredible how quickly my kids learn sight words.  This is the best method I’ve used so far.  Almost all my students (half-time kindergartners) have mastered all the kindergarten words and most of the 1^st grade words. 

If I have a few extra minutes, I’ll pull out words from our stack that fit together to make a sentence.  The kids will work together to put them in the right order. 

If you’d like to try it with your class, grab it here!

Jodie

Earth Day!

I love Earth Day.  I think it may be one of my favorite things to teach.  I love opening students’ eyes to the word around them, they so often have such a limited view.  Also, it comes at a really great time of year, when the flowers start to bloom and the weather warms up, it just makes me want to be outside all the time.  Classic April Behavior!  And it is only logical to teach Earth Day outside! 

I’m not ashamed to say that there have been times when I’m so fed up with my class that I have actually had them take their journals outside and just write down all the things they notice.  For way longer than is appropriate.  Also classic April Behavior. 

However crazy I may feel at the end of April with a roomful of kids who are crazier than I am, Earth Day always gives me a little pick-me-up.  Which is why I tend to turn Earth Day into about Earth Two Weeks.  There are so many great ideas out there, and my head is always full of Earth Day ideas (not classic April Behavior).  So this year, I put together some of the things I’ve done and share it with you all!  Check out my Earth Day Mini-Unit here.

The new thing I’ve added this year is the word problems.  My kindergartners have a really great grasp of number concepts (for being kindergartners!) and are ALWAYS just dying for a challenge.  Sometimes they think they know more than they actually do.  So I’ve been making word problems like a mad woman.  My kiddos feel more challenged and engaged, but they are still practicing those basic “solve the problem and prove to me you did it correctly” skills. 

I also have a group of kiddos who are working through 1^st and 2^nd grade skills (number sense-wise), so I wrote some problems on that higher level for them.  

I'm also interested to see how this group handles antonyms/opposites.  I did this with my 2nd graders all the time, but it's technically a kindergarten language skill (CCSS K.L.5b). Sooooo...I think they can do it.  I'll have to read the words to most of them, but they'll get the concept.  

Is it appropriate to start Earth Two Weeks on Monday?!  I really can’t wait!

Jodie