Repurposing Garage Sale Items for Your Classroom!


AFTER!
We hit a garage sale early this morning & found a cup? bowl? mug? Well, we'll just say something red & also a little turtle at an estate sale. They were so dirty, but the darlin' teen said, "Mom, it can be a pencil holder for your new classroom." So we got them both for a quarter. It always helps to say, "This is for my classroom, how much do you want for it?" {grin, grin, grin!} I wish I had taken the before picture with all the garden dirt, but I had cleaned it up before I thought about OH' BOY 4TH GRADE's blog's upcoming contest about repurposing! So the teen and I took a few quick pictures & the two nasty garden items became a new pen/pencil cup for school! Cute, cute, cute!

BEFORE! {But I wish I had taken the picture with the items still dirty!}
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Summer School Student Made Calendar!

Classroom Wall Calendar ~ Before

June Side ~ Before

July Side ~ Before

For Summer School I decided to try a "student made" wall calendar! They went nuts, they were so well behaved and couldn't wait for their turn to fill out the cards! As soon as the calendar was done, they quit asking me how many days did they have to go to Summer Reading Camp! It really gave them some ownership of the new classroom! I loved it!
  • The top row is Mon. Tues. Wed. & Thurs. since we have no school on Friday.
  • The second row is 20, 21, 22 & 23.
  • Then the third row will be a picture each day of the weather. The helper of the day will draw the picture for morning work and then describe the weather with descriptive words.
  • The cards under Boy & Girl is for an attendance contest. If every boy comes to school, they will get one point. Same for the girls. Each Thursday the winners, the boys or the girls, will get $5 extra dollars for the treasure box ~ I am hoping everyone is a tie! Attendance is so important during Summer School, any little bribe will help! :) 
Stay tuned for the after photos!

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Mr. Sketch Scented Markers!


Little Miss Kindergarten had a Linky Party about Our Favorite Things ~ here is my LIST! But I can't believe I forgot Mr. Sketch Scented Markers!!! I have to order them every year & every year I have to open that first box and sniff every single one! I love them! I adore them! I can't get enough of them! I know, it is sad, but they say that if you admit you have problems, it is half the battle! Heehee!
Then every year it is the same thing after I open them, I sniff them, I usually squeal & then hand them to my daughter who is now 16, but every year she doesn't fail me, she does the same thing ~ then we discuss our favorite scent {mine is the pink melon by the way!} Then the final part of this tradition is while my wonderful hubby is moving classroom furniture or putting up bulletin board paper, he always mumbles something like, "We weren't allowed to smell markers growing up...."  School couldn't start in our family without this tradition! :) What's your favorite back to school supply?

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Funny Sign At My Son's Junior High School!

So this is the sign that was up at my son's 7th grade school this year! It made the rounds of the teachers' email accounts faster than lightning. I laughed so hard when I saw it, but like most funny things that weren't suppose to be funny, it was fixed quickly! Well, it is back in the national news this time! It is part of an online article "The 9 Funniest Signs of the Month" and the punchline now for me that makes it even funnier is that it was sent in by my 10th grader's English teacher!
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A Few of My Favorite Things...

Little Miss Kindergarten


♫Rain drops on roses and whiskers on kittens, 
Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens.♫
♫Brown paper packages tied up with strings,

These are a few of my favorite things!♫

SCRATCH THAT! Love the song, but it is about the complete opposite of what I like! Little Miss Kindergarten is having a linky party & now that it is summer, I'm linking up!

I love ~ my God! Without him all things would not be possible!
I love ~ my family! Don't let anyone fool ya', the teenage years are great!
I love ~ my dogs! They are loyal & true and warm & fuzzy! They bring more joy to our family then I could ever have imagined!
I love ~ Florida! The sun, the water, even the heat! We spent 4 great years in Texas, but I'm so happy that now that my hubby has retired from the Navy we're settled in Fleming Island!
I love ~ our boat & boating!
I love ~ my Sony eReader! I love to read, read, read, ebooks, paperbacks, hardback books....everything!
I love ~ Diet Coke with lime!
I love ~ teaching! More so now that it is summer! :)
I love ~ summer ☼
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Multiplication / Calculator Dice Game!


Fern Smith's Classroom Ideas Quick and Easy to Prep Dice Game for Multiplication or Addition!
A Quick and Easy To Prep Dice Game 

You will love this game! 
I made it up because my plan lesson ended sooner than I thought & the natives were getting restless, they loved it SOOOOO much that we turned it into a tournament the next day! The best part about the game is that it is completely LUCK, so your lowest student can be the grand prize winner and your smartest of the smart might end up in last place

Fern Smith's Classroom Ideas Quick and Easy to Prep Dice Game for Multiplication or Addition!

However, it is great for reinforcing multiplication and calculator skills for everyone. It can also be revised to be addition instead, so it is really a great K - 4th game!
Directions:
Pair students up, or let them pick partners.
Everyone gets 3 dice each and their own calculator.
Students roll all three dice at the same time.
Each child multiplies their 3 digits to get a final answer.
THEN...they must check each other's work with their calculator. {This gives them another problem to work & it helps to stop any 'cheating' problems!}
The winner is the student with the highest answer.
Record your tallies on a sheet of paper.
Play until one student gets 10 points. This also helps with the mental math of "three to go and I win" or "I only need 1 point to tie" etc.
Then congratulate your winner, "Great Job!"
Say something nice to the loser, "Good Game!"
Move around the room and watch another game until someone is done, then play a new partner!

Then, like real life, we figure out some better ways to control the dice. One child said, "After you roll the dice, put them in the cover of the calculator!"

Fern Smith's Classroom Ideas Quick and Easy to Prep Dice Game for Multiplication or Addition!
Then another child figured out we could roll the dice INSIDE the calculator cover & they would never hit the floor! I just love it when I'm learning new things from their creativity! :)
Fern Smith's Classroom Ideas Quick and Easy to Prep Dice Game for Multiplication or Addition!

This game made for some great discussion at the end of class. How rolling a 1 stinks because anything times 1 "says their name" and stays the same. How the greatest answer is 216 because 6*6*6= 216. They thought of lots of interesting things & I wish I had taken a picture of the anchor chart with their stickie notes! 

Anyway, the next day we played it like a basketball tournament. Winners continued to play each other and losers moved on to play each other...it was a lot of fun! True to what I had hoped, the lowest student in the class was the WINNER! The loser? I had said that the smartest of the smart could be the loser because it is completely a game of LUCK! Number 12, the bottom of the heap was ME! I lost the entire game & not because I wasn't trying! 

The kids loved the game even more! :)
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We're All Going to Fourth Grade!

Can I get a wooooohooooooo?!?!? My co-teacher & I did it! Our entire class is ♫ Movin' On Up ♫ Movin' Up ♫ To the Top...Well no, just to 4th grade, but what an accomplishment! Their first year of the FCAT is behind them! All year our motto has been "Fourth Grade Bound!" and they did it. Today is the last day in our district and everyone headed home and will be heading to 4th! What a great year! :)
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My Dad is Celebrating His 80th Birthday Today!

My Dad On The Boat!
Wow! Today is my Dad's 80th birthday and we're all very excited. His favorite meal is Corned Beef and Cabbage & it is cranking in the crock pot for dinner tonight as I type! We have ice cream and one cupcake with candles since he would rather have ice cream then cake. The end of the school year is crazy with both teens having exams, in addition to working, the hubby is taking 'mid-term exams' with his summer session and I am helping my co-teacher wrap up the year, move her to a 4th grade portable while I get my portable ready for 3rd grade Summer Reading Camp! My 16 y/o even gets done with school at noon today & will be busy packing and moving stuff in my portable. But tonight, tonight we will all stop to come together and celebrate my Dad's 80th BIRTHDAY!
My Dad came to America from Scotland for a better life. As a kid during World War II he watched movies of a glamorous, far away country where the sun always shined, there was no rain, no one was hungry & everyone seemed to have a job. He came first to Canada & got as south as Ft. Lauderdale, Florida where I was born 3 years later!
My Dad lives with us, he is a cancer survivor & battles Parkinson's Disease everyday. He use to run marathons, now he's happy taking laps inside Publix in a motorized wheelchair while we shop. He is always happy no matter what, as long as he has the Internet, cable on his 72' TV, a Florida Lotto ticket and ice cream for dessert! A family joke we have is when I come home I ask, "What's shaking Dad?" He says, "Not much, just my hands!" It is a sad disease, but the humor helps!
I reflect back now and realize I probably became a teacher because of my parents. My Dad had very little education because of the War, but he would read Shakespear for FUN! Seriously! He was so excited when I finally got to McBeth and Romeo & Juliet in high school. I know he was bummed when I took the Cliff Note way out because I hated them so much! Still, without them having the benefit of an American education, our house was all about reading, math, learning, etc. My dad read to me every night, then when I was too "cool" to be read to, he read his book in my doorway at night while I read Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, everything we checked out weekly from the library, I devoured nightly. I wouldn't be that way without my Dad reading to me and taking me to the library. Our home was full of books, I just thought every kid lived like this....little did I know how lucky I was! We ate out a lot because my parents didn't have the luxury of that as children in the War. As we waited for our meals, my Dad taught me Tic-Tac-Toe, Dots, Block Lettering, problem solving games, anything to kill the time and make me smarter. He use to draw Snoopy everywhere for me, placemats, napkins, the hard sand of the Florida beaches, even for my classroom when I first started teaching!! I loved Snoopy!
I know my children are smart, the curse of a Teacher's Child, but I also hope my children have enjoyed their childhood as much as I enjoyed mine. I hope my students enjoy what I've taught them as much as I've enjoyed what my Dad has taught me!

I am blessed because someone read to me!
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My Wonderful Treasure Box!


My behavior plan works at any school. I simply take the school plan and add money to the concept. My school now has a "Flip Your Card" system. So if a student stays on Green all day, they earn $5, next is $4, etc. The amount is recorded by the students each day in their agenda and signed by their parent nightly. If missing homework starts to be a problem, then they lose money ~ just like the real World, do your work, earn a paycheck!
Every other Friday we shop the TREASURE BOX!! My husband made me this Pirate Style Treasure Box & I love it!!! The kids love it!!! But years ago before I meet him, I just used a brown box with the words Treasure Box on it, they loved the stuff in there just the same. I also have Rubbermaid bins to hold the overflow! I continually keep it open & stacked up so it looks SO EXCITING!

Each nine weeks I also use a different method of "shopping" the Treasure Box.
First nine weeks ~ I am the store keeper, manager & banker. I set everything out during my planning on the U-shaped table. I call them back 2-3 shoppers at a time, record their withdrawal in their agendas & figure out their balance. The entire time I am talking to them about their money, spending vs. saving, subtraction of 2 to 3 digit problems, etc. It is one on one of Real World Math & Social Studies.
Second nine weeks ~ I have two different store clerks set out the merchandise. I continue to be manager & banker...however, I also pass out calculators and they have to keep their OWN running totals, just like a checkbook.
Third nine weeks ~ I have two store clerks and I now use two of my highest math students to be the manager & banker. I am now the "Mayor" where I just watch and supervise the little town!
Fourth nine weeks ~ Now shopping days run completely without me! Two store clerks, one manager, one banker and one mayor! Everyone has a job and after a few weeks, everyone has had a couple of turns. I am free to smile & watch it unfold, grade a few papers, pull a few students back with me to work on small group things....nice!

I have also found that they are very good at being the Police...they will rat a peer out in a second if someone tries to steal from THEIR Treasure Box! Nothing has ever been stolen from my Treasure Box. I keep it up high during the school day & when we open up the store, they really are so excited about earning and spending that they are great little shoppers.

If all this sounds like a lot of work, it is NOT! My classes are always well behaved.....6th grade, 4th grade, 1st grade ~ it has always worked. What you need to do is find out what they like, what they will work for and fill the Treasure Box with those items.

If this sounds like a lot of in class time, it is NOT! We don't go to recess every other Friday so that we can do this, in the beginning it takes a little longer, so I also use it as an ongoing, real life Social Studies lesson during Social Studies time that day if needed. My students love this program so much, they never complain about those two days in an entire month that we don't go outside!

If this sounds like a lot of expense, it is NOT! It is much cheaper than always passing out stickers, candy, pencils, just little rewards that cost a lot over the school year. This puts all your expense into one area. I also send home a letter each nine weeks asking parents for donations, even gently used Matchbox cars, etc. Rich school, poor school, my Treasure Box always stays full! PFA will even hear about it and bring in donated items and things that they think my boys and girls will like. I get many seasonal items when the store is letting them go for 75% off after the different holidays. I also use my couponing it get really great deals!!! I also ask Realtors, Lawyers, Pharmaceutical Sales People ~ they will donate pens, key chains, magnets, etc. All you have to do is ask your grown-up, non-teaching friends and you will be amazed at what turns up! Decorative pillows, books, plastic cups, necklaces, Madi Gras beads, etc!!!

Last, my favorite thing ever, ever, ever ~~~ is when they are shopping and they buy things for their little brothers, little sisters, their Moms....I've come to tears many times when they have behaved all week to buy their little sister a baby doll or their little brother a toy truck. It will show you a completely different side of your students! :)
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