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Showing posts with label teaching. Show all posts
Showing posts with label teaching. Show all posts

Snowflake Bentley & Winter Craft

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Are you familiar with Wilson Bentley? If not, I urge you to google him right away!  He is the subject of one of my favorite books, Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin,  which to teach when i was always tucked into my teaching toolbox (which isn't an actual toolbox) when I was a second grade teacher. His story is interesting and his art is magical!



Without going into a lot of detail Wilson Bentley, The Snowflake Man, lived in the 1920s and was fascinated by snow.  He developed a way to actually photograph snowflakes in that split second before they melted. What he created was image after image of the most beautiful of nature's art!






His photographs are considered part of the public domain so using them in my classroom (or here!) didn't violate any copyrights.

I would read the Caldecott Award winning book to the class and then we would spend a week on related activities such as writing snow stories, researching biographies of people from that era or other inventors, reading snowy poetry, using cameras to capture "small" objects in different ways, and we would use magnifying glasses to study snowflakes we caught on frozen black construction paper!  The kids loved it!

Although I don't teach full time anymore, I still love looking at Snowflake Bentley's photographs and his story.   This year, I used some extra fine platinum glitter and a wood snowflake form to create my own snowflakes.  I love the sparkle they give our home!


I used a metallic craft paint to completely cover the snowflake and, while the paint was wet I sprinkled on the glitter. I think superfine glitter looks the best and most classy. Once one side was dry I repeated those steps on the other. A piece of twine made a hanging loop.

It is easy to incorporate a little snowflake into your winter decor and I urge you to share Wilson Bentley's story with your children!

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Teacher Gifts

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Tis the season for....teacher gifts. Sigh. What do we do? Should we collect $ and give a gift card?  Should we give her a candle? A mug? A bottle of Motrin and a bottle of wine? This year, give something special and unique!

Ellie's preschool hosts a large silent auction during the holiday season each year. Every class is asked to provide a gift to be auctioned off and the children should be involved in the creation of this gift. Last year we submitted this popcorn bowl using the kids' fingerprints. This year we went a different route and steered clear of the hand print/thumb print decorations.


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Teaching Jobs (getting personal)

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I don't know if you noticed that I've been a little absent this summer. It wasn't planned. I hadn't decided to take a break from blogging but somehow between running kids to and from the pool and planning vacations, I didn't have much time to publish much.  So thanks for sticking with me and reading this!  I don't mean to be a fair weather friend!  But that isn't what today's post is about.

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Chalkboard Backdrop

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We all love chalkboards, don't we? Chalkboards are everywhere now! Chalkboard labels, chalkboard clocks, chalkboard refrigerators, chalkboard tables, chalkboard chalkboards. Heck, some people even put chalk in the name of their blogs! For real.  And yes, we see tons of pictures set against giant chalkboards. Or what appear to be giant chalkboards. But looks can be deceiving my friends. I'm going to tell you how you can make a chalkboard backdrop for photos for less than $1.00. In fact, you can have two for $1.00. More in fact, you can have 4 for $1.00.



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Fingerprint Popcorn Bowl Class Gift

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Recently, I was given the task to come up with a super class gift or craft idea for Ellie's preschool. The school has a silent auction that is the main fundraiser and each class creates a gift that is then auctioned off. It had to be quick and easy because 3 year olds are making it and it needed to be cute enough that someone would bid on it. 

So here it is!  



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Teacher Appreciation/End of the Year Gift

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Who doesn't love cake?  No one. And teachers love to eat. Have you ever seen the inside of the faculty room?  Full of cake.  When I was growing up we would try to catch a glimpse inside as we walked by to learn  all their secrets. Know what?  All we ever saw were the teachers smoking and reading the paper. I can't even fathom going in here to smoke nowadays. Of course, now that we aren't smoking there is a lot more cake in the faculty room. 



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Teacher Appreciation: Jazzing Up A Ho-Hum Plant

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Let's cut to the chase, shall we?
"You're a pretty good teacher. Thanks.So tell me again the purpose of writing a spelling word 5x?"
"Holy mackerel!  You are seriously the most creative and effectivel teacher ever. Thank you so much for all you do for our sweet children. We can't thank you enough. You really deserve a day at the spa or an African violet."


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Pottery Barn Inspired Artwork

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I love creating things inspired by Pottery Barn! I was browsing the Pottery Barn Kids catalog and came across these way cool vintage inspired framed flashcards. Teaching is so important to me and I always find myself drawn to school inspired accessories and thought these would be perfect for me!  Plus I have a very mild vintage school theme going on in the powder room. I wanted to hang these outside the door as a little tongue-in-cheek ode to the bathroom.





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Project Failure, No Mess Toddler Activities

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Do you ever have a craft, sewing, or decorating project that doesn't turn out as you expected?  Before you answer, Let me tell your a fairy tale. Once upon a time, in a land far far away, there lived a happy group of home bloggers. These bloggers were so lucky because eveything in their land was perfect. These bloggers could bake bread (in a jar!), stitch up a few dresses for their daughters (don't throw away that old pool cover!  Upcycle it!), make 100 paper pinwheels, and still have time to take a few pictures of themselves in their cute thrifted outfits. Their husbands are hot and LOVE their blogger spouse's drive and ambition to blog. These husbands adore keeping the kids out of the garage while Mommy makes homemade chalk paint.  They really love when their bloggers decide to paint the living room again (and again).  And the children in this far away blog land keep their rooms neat. And I mean neat. Every book is in it's rain gutter, I mean shelf and  every piece of homemade clothing is hung on color coordinated hangers with little chalkboard labels.

And in this perfect place, every project comes out perfectly. Ok, so maybe these bloggers do thing like measure and use pins.  Maybe some of them don't.










EPIC FAIL

I do not live in that land. Apparently.

So I recently put some no mess toddler painting ideas into motion. Ellie had fun!  She was less interested in the paint-in-a-bag idea than she was in the painting-with-water idea. Hey, the best idea is the one that gives Mama 15 minutes to check Pinterest is what I say!

Put some paint in a large ziplock. Place it on top of white paper. Tape with painter's tape to secure. Push, mix, draw, etc. the paint inside the bag.

All kidding aside, I did this to help kids learn how to print their letters in the correct formation when I taught K.
I think it is great for that. Ellie kept trying to look underneath the ziplock bag for the paint and got
ticked when there wasn't any.

Painting with water. Honestly, if I need to give directions for this we need to talk.

"Interesting, Ma. This paint looks suspiciously similar to water."

"We're in a recession, Ellie. Keep painting."

So who wants a new tablecloth??  Anyone?  Bueller? Bueller?

Cheers!
Jenny

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Happy Monday!

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I hope you all had a nice weekend!  Ours was hot and humid (and I'm guessing yours was too). We had a brief but fierce thunderstorm on Saturday evening. Our neighbors were hanging out with us and we opened up the shades to watch the thunder and lightening show. Yesterday Molly fell and smacked her head on the floor. Jim ended up taking her to the ER. Turns out she's fine but she is nursing a little headache.

She went to a local church today for vacation bible school. The theme is the Gospels according to E.T. Yup, that's right, the movie.  I was a bit like "whuh?" but then the pastor said she would heavily edit the movie (thank goodness) and then reminded us all that it is the ultimate Good Samaritan story. Ahhhhh. Light bulb moment.  Anyway, I have only seen that movie one time and I will never see it again. I cried for a week straight when I saw it as a child!  I even got a little choked up when Molly and I were talking about it in the car on the way home. I can't even think about that little creature being lost so far from home. OMGosh. Moving on.

I am in the middle of some projects. Nothing big. Just crafty bizniz. You know me and crafts. eh. 

See you around the blog block!


Oh and here is a great blog for toddler activities. It's called Play Create Explore and she has a ton of art, sensory, and pretend play ideas. A lot of these we used in Kindergarten when I was teaching and I forget to do this stuff with my own kids!  This is a great reminder!

here are some images from her activities!

Play Create Explore
Baked Cotton Balls

Play Create Explore
Stuffed Animal Bathing Center

Play Create Explore
Homemade Puffy Paint

Cheers!
Jenny

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More NJ love and Vintage Freebie

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My first subbing position went as well as could be expected! It was weird to know no one and have to get used to a new everything. But the kids were as cute, silly, bored, entertaining, and funny as any other I've ever taught. The best part, though, was the actual school. It was amazing!! It was a newer building so it had central air (I've never taught in a school with air conditioning ever!) and space beyond space. When I taught basic skills I did it in a renovated closet or the hallway. This was different...she had her own classroom with updated technology, materials, and a huge desk! What a treat! And all the teachers I spoke with were delightful! The principal seemed genuinely glad to be there and was smiling every time I saw him. The parents were happy, the kids were happy, the staff was happy and it made me realize once again that NJ schools are bringing it!! I am so proud to be a NJ teacher and so proud to someday send my children to school here. And I am also so proud to live in communities that value their teachers and schools and support them in all ways. ROCK ON NJ PEEPS! (disclaimer: I am in no way implying that schools in other states are not rocking on. I just have experience only in NJ. Feel free to add your own ROCK ON for your state in the comments!)

Now back to what is truly important (HA HA HA I KID!) and look at what I scammed for free at a yard sale last weekend.




It isn't as old as I would have liked and it needs some cleaning up. Oh and it needs to have the lid put down and we can't figure out how. But who cares?  It was free!  And will look very cool hanging out in my living room or in our office.  I also grabbed some hideous plaques that will make incredible chalkboards or some type of art for the girls' playroom. I have to take a pic soon of those to show you the complete hideousness. It's really hard to describe.

Have a super weekend! 
Cheers!
Jenny

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Substitute Teaching

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I didn't have anything to write about until I just got a call for my first substitute teaching assignment. Can we chat a bit about it?  I need to process all this. So I got this call to sub tomorrow. I almost said no, I will admit. I was taken off guard with having to make a snap decision which I guess is the nature of being a sub.  And I almost said no because I'm scared. Yes, I'll admit it. I won't even be snarky about it as a cover. I really am nervous and scared.

I went back to school to be a teacher when I was in my late 20s. I worked 3 jobs to get myself through school while living on my own and it was tough. But because it wasn't easy I am so proud of it. I did it because I knew it was what I wanted.  Who wouldn't want to be in an elementary school every day?  Next to Disney World, elementary schools are pretty much the only place you can see magic and happiness being created every day. 

I found a school in a district I loved to teach in and became close to most of the staff there.  It was a comfortable, supportive school with top notch teachers and I learned so much. After having Molly I returned to the district but moved between different schools to keep part-time hours. It wasn't easy to always transition but I felt ok about it since I knew most of these teachers through the district.

To make my long-winded story a bit shorter, I'm scared to do it all over again. I'm nervous to introduce myself to people again, feel lonely again, wonder if I'll be ok. I know I'm a good teacher...it's in my bones. But it's the other stuff I worry about.  Will people be exasperated if I ask a million questions?  Will I have anyone to eat with?  Should I eat in my room? Will there be lesson plans there?   EEK!

The night before the first day of my very first teaching year, I was talking to my older sister about my nerves. And her response was "Remember, stupider people than you have done this!"  We both burst out laughing at what she had said but I knew what she meant.  I have to remember this tomorrow when I'm introducing myself to new kids, new teachers, new everything.   I can do this! But if it doesn't go well, be prepared for one heckuva blog post.

And since I can't write a blog post without a picture, here are my girls in Disney World from February. Ellie was so wee and Molly is still a princess.







Cheers!
Jenny

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The Kissing Hand

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I spent some time teaching Kindergarten and I absolutely adored it. As a teacher, you can be so creative and do fun things in the name of learning. To teach my children how to get to the various places in the school we went went on a pirate treasure hunt with a map and hats (Just try doing that with 8th graders..nope, not gonna happen!). We did jumping jacks while reciting the vowels to get the ants out of the pants, and we made trees out of paper bags. Glorious fun for me! But there is another side to the whole K equation and that would be those little hearts beating a million miles a minute inside those nervous little sweethearts dressed in their bright white new sneakers and holding their new Hello Kitty backpacks. Those little ones that we think are so grown up because they are entering "big kid school" but in essence are still so very much babies.

It is my tradition to read the book,The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn , to my students on the first day of school. If you aren't familiar with the book, it is a sweet story about Chester, a nervous raccoon starting off on his first day of school. His mother kisses his hand and reminds him to use that kiss when he needs her, misses her, needs reassurance. So he clutches the kiss in his hand and, well, you should go to the library and read it to your wee one. Then kiss his or her hand and fold that hand up and remind him or her that you are never far away.




After we read the book we'd make hand prints and glue pretty red hearts in the middle and send it home as a keepsake for the first day of school. But the real magic happened after.

In preparation for the school year,  I picked up a raccoon Webkinz at a garage sale and named him Chester.  I wanted him to be a part of the class for the year as a reassuring friend to the children. But kids are so sophisticated now and I was nervous on that first day to bring him out.  Would they snicker? Would they understand?  But as we were lining up to leave for the day I pretended I heard something in my bookcase. I felt like a kook looking for this stuffed raccoon and I could see some of the kids were confused but I kept up the charade.  I brought him out and let him whisper in my ear. "Oh Chester!  I'm sorry you missed it all!" I gushed and then explained to the children that raccoons are nocturnal so Chester had slept the whole day we were in school. I  asked the children to tell Chester about all the fun they'd had in K that day, all the things they learned, all the new friends they met. I was met with 15 blank stares. "UH-OH!" I thought, "They think I'm a nut with a Webkinz. They are going to go home and tell their parents that their teacher is off her rocker!" The next thing I knew, though,  I was being mauled by 15 five year olds yelling "CHESTER! WE READ BOOKS! WE ATE GRAHAM CRACKERS! WE MADE SCIENCE JOURNALS!" and on and on. They loved Chester and he became a permanent fixture in our class. They talked to him about the good and the bad, the happy and sad, the excitements and the disappointments.  He became a real friend.

The second half of the year they wanted to bring Chester home on the weekends to meet their families and so I made it part of our Social Studies curriculum and we used his adventures to learn about our community. Those kids who I thought would be too sophisticated to chat with a stuffed animal would tell us all about his adventures at the diner, going down the slide at the park, visiting a museum, or going to the beach. He was thoroughly washed after each adventure...no worries!



I know I'm long winded on this post but I feel like in this crazy world where children are expected to do more and be more we must remember that sometimes they just need a Chester to talk to and to laugh with, to be children and to feel reassured. And a kiss in their hands from their mommies doesn't hurt either.

Good luck and best wishes to everyone for a happy, safe, and lovely school year!

Cheers!
Jenny

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