Day 5

Today while we were out to lunch a young girl came up to us and told us we were good parents. It made our day! :) Especially because taking a toddler to a restaurant is quite possibly the hardest thing you will ever do. You typically wish for the days when your child would sleep in the car seat and you could actually talk to your spouse.

Also, I took Natalie to the park today with our neighbor and our dogs. The dogs would run very fast and she would crack up! It amazes me what she finds hilarious. 

Day 4

Lately Natalie has loved to share everything. Today she shared all her food with me and her baba. Two nights ago she shared her toothbrush. What is with her and licking me tonight? Yuck! She even shares germs too! Eew! I hope this sharing continues- maybe not the toothbrush & germs one though. 

Life with a toddler

This year Natalie is now a toddler. As moms know, toddlerhood equals a crazy run around life with many melt downs. It is exhausting! 

This year, I will attempt to write down one thing she did during the day, hopefully all will be positive, though I bet some will be a little silly.

One of my coworkers told me he did this with his kids, and he loves to look back at it. I hope to be able to look back and enjoy these posts.

(Previous posts)

January 1st

Tonight while reading Natalie's favorite book, comprehension began! I said stomp your feet (and she did) clap your hands (clap, clap!), everybody ready for a barnyard dance! Bow to the horse (she bows), bow to the cow (bows again), twirl with the pig if you know how (and she twists at her waist from side to side).

January 2nd 

While taking a bath, Natalie loves to press her face against the glass and make funny faces. Tonight I snuck around the glass and boo'ed her. She laughed so hysterically. We continued in this manner till the end of bath time. 

January 3rd

This morning I had to wake Natalie up to go to daycare. I turned on the light, watch her sleep for a second, then she pokes her head up, looks at me, smiles, throws her paci in the crib, and reaches her arms for me. It melts my heart. 

Homework without Tears

The first three years of teaching, I was told by parents that sometimes the homework made them cry because it was so tough. After having Natalie, I didn't want to make kids cry any more over homework. I wanted the learning process to be fun for the family. 

There are 3 parts to my homework. First, the students read 30 minutes every night. Second, they have 2-3 math problems to do, with lessons we have done that day, or previous days. I find that doing 2-3 problems rather than 10+, where the students who don't get it, give up and just give an answer -without trying. Only doing 2, may take some kids 30 minutes, but 2 is not so scary, and they don't give up.

The last part is the final 5. The final 5 came from a Quantum Learning, and my friend Lindsay Freestone. The idea behind it, is to spend the last 5 minutes in class reviewing what we learned that day. Then, the students take the final 5 to bed with them, and read it the last 5 minutes before going to bed. There is a part of our brain called the hippocampus, which awakens right after people fall asleep. The hippocampus takes what we learned from that day and puts it into long term memory. It takes the last thing we did first, so if the students studies the final 5 before bed they are more likely to remember what they did in class that day! (Cool right?)

We spend the last 5 minutes of the day summarizing what we did. When I first introduced the final 5, I did the whole thing for them, and they copied the final 5. After a week, they started to draw the picture. After a month, they did the vocabulary (based on the topic I wrote). After another month, they do the main points on their own, based on the objective written. Soon, I will have them write the objectives on their own, based on the topics, then eventually they do will do the whole things on their own. It takes time have them do it on their own. 

I have had the most success getting students to turn in homework. I also feel like my students are actually doing the work on their own, and learning more, than when I gave a lot of homework. It's pretty amazing. I also have had many parents tell me that they enjoy homework with their kids, and parents are giving them more work and extending at home- for fun! It is amazing.

Natalie's First Birthday-Minnie Mouse Themed

I have seen many ideas on Pinterest. Some feel very unrealistic to do for a full time working mom, and some are reasonable. I had a lot of fun creating the decor for my daughter's party.

My mom was awesome, and cooked most of the food. My husband cooked the delicious tri-tip and helped where ever needed. I was so thankful to have help! I would definitely recommend getting help!

I had seen many ideas with Minnie Mouse cupcakes, where stick mini-oreos as the ears, and come up with a bow out of fruit roll up, or something. I figured this would be easier because I didn't want to curl many bows. We used black frosting tubes for the Minnie Mouse shapes, and a red sparkly tube for the bow. It took about 45 minutes to do all the cupcakes. I am sure the bow and oreos probably takes the same amount of time, but I already had black frosting tubes, and no mini-oreos or fruit roll up! Just seemed easier!
The gift bags were also fun to make. We found minnie/mickey sippy cups for the younger kids, and minnie/mickey insulated cups for the older kids. I also got crayons and bubbles too. I purchased plain red bags, and labeled the bags with each kids' name that was coming. I added a plain mickey head to add to the decor!

My aunt is awesome. She was shopping at Costco and saw the giant Minnie, and got if for Natalie since she knew she was having a Minnie Mouse birthday party. We used it as gift table decor. My mom also joined in and got Natalie her first set of Minnie ears with her name, and Minnie Mouse shoes (that she would have worn, had they fit, but they turned into good decor).
For the food table we had a bit of fun! The bowl we got were plain black bowls, and we set them up as Mickey heads. The cookie jar you see in the top left corner was already given to me. The plates & napkins we got at Party City.

Then Natalie had a "visit" from Minnie Mouse. She signed the table (meaning I took her signature off the internet and used that to write happy birthday to her! :)

Now, I did get this 1 idea off of Pinterest. We had a photo shoot with my daughter the week before, and used those photos to create the one. I took a poster board and drew out a one, then I realized I could just placed the pictures in a one. I just had to cut down a few photos with my photo cutter I already had. I used double sided to get the pictures to stick. I loved the 1 so much that it is now hung up in my daughters room.

This was another thing I saw on Pinterest. I got the balloons from Party City. They cut the string really long, so I had to figure out how to put these balloons onto the pictures. I decided to tape the pictures to scrap booking paper, then I hole punched (I had a Mickey hole punch, so stinkin' cool) the paper. I strung the string through the two holes and tied them to themselves to get the balloons to the same height. Then the pictures started kind of floating oddly. So, I had to tape the bottom of the scrapbook paper to the table, and the balloons just kept the pictures up.

There were some simple decor ideas. A first birthday is fun! We kept it simple. We had good food, fun decor, cake, and opened presents. Then we just let the kids play in the backyard, and we were able to hang out and chat as parents. It was a fun, fun birthday!

Native American Project

The new school year has begun. This year I am teaching a 4/5 combo. As we all know combination classes are tough. I have been planning all summer to make this class the best possible.

I am integrating a lot of social studies and science into reading to fit both curriculums in. However, those will come later in the year. Thankfully, common core makes it easier to integrate subjects.

In 4th grade students in California focuses on California events, in 5th grade students in California focus on US history. Instead of looking at US history as separate events, we are looking at events on a timeline.

We started with the Native Americans. The students were assigned into groups of ~3-4 students (10 tribes in total from all over the US). They had four things to research: What they ate, what shelter they used, what they did for fun, and what environment they lived in.

Each person had a job: Researcher, writer, illustrator, and assistant (if they had 4 people in their group). The researcher looked up information on the computer, or the social studies books. The writer wrote the information in the sentence frames provided (The __(tribe)____ ate _____, etc.). The illustrator, draws pictures to represent the captions. The assistant helps where ever needed.

Once the posters were completed, I reviewed what the presentations should look like. Each student would present one part of the poster. Then I put them with one other group to practice their presentations. The students then rotated twice to practice at least 3 times. The next day they did their presentations for the whole class. The audience took quick notes on each Native American group, so they were paying attention too, they had to fill in 1-2 words about what they ate, did for fun, their shelters, and environment. It was a good activity. After the students were finished with the Native American presentations, we created our timeline, and added the Native American's flourished in 12,000BC. Next we will move to the different explorers!

4-Day Basketball Unit

At the end of the year, it was fun to do lots of PE. My students loved it, and so did I!
A typical PE lesson would consist of 3 days of skill work, and 1 day of games.

On the skill days, we would typically play different games, that focused on skills the students needed to learn in order to be better at the game we were playing.

Our basketball unit:
Day 1: 30-45 mins
1) I had the students do a short lap around the track we have at our school to warm up (this gave me time to get the basketballs out and ready to use).
2) Then we did a short stretch.
3) Then we played a dribbling game.
    *To play the dribbling game: About 5-8 kids have balls. They are dribbling in a court. The other students are trying to steal the ball away from the students. When they do, they are now the dribbler. It's a pretty simple game, but gets the students' heart rates up like crazy! And they practice dribbling!
4) After the dribbling game, I line the students up and we practice two types of passing, the bounce pass first, and the chest pass second. I emphasize to the students in the bounce pass to pass with their thumbs down, and to aim about half way between yourself and the person. For the chest pass, I have the student catching the ball put their hands at their chests, so the tosser has something to aim for. And I emphasize passing through the finger tips.
5) We then played monkey in the middle, but by using different passes.

Day 2: 30-45 mins.
1) Repeat steps 1-4
2) After the dribbling day we practiced shooting. Before we even get to the baskets, I show them how to shoot the ball properly. We first practice using one hand, flick the wrist, and use the fingers to point where you want the ball to go (follow through). Once they master that, I show them how to balance the ball with their other hand, and we continue to practice small shots (without the basket still). Then we progress to getting the ball higher and higher. Once they seem to master that, I assign them a hoop to shoot at, and they practice on their own.

Day 3: 30-45 mins.
1) Repeat steps 1-4 on day 1, and step 2 on day 2, but before you assign them baskets, show them how to shoot free-throws, and what that means (if they are fouled during the game). Then let them practice free-throws as well as other shots.
**You could also teach them lay-ups if you have advanced basketball players. I went around to hoops individually and taught them if they were ready.

Day 4: 30-45 mins. (including explaining the game inside)
GAME DAY
1) Explain how the game (Basketball) works before you go outside. It is a lot easier to explain the rules BEFORE you go outside, and have to yell.
2) I also like to make two different games, competitive and non-competitive. I have found that some kids like to be rough, and others just don't. Also, the competitive students will only pass to each other, and the non-competitive kids just stop and don't get the work out they really need. For some reason, this worked, and the kids seemed fine with it. Plus, some kids like other sports more than others, and will surprise you by jumping into the competitive group when they are confident. Also, DO THIS BEFORE YOU GO OUTSIDE Too!
3) Walk outside, Repeat steps 1-2 from day 1, then let them start their game!

It was a fun unit!