Almost Over

I have returned from G-camp. I was tested physically, mentally and emotionally. But I made some wonderful teacher friend in that two weeks. They became my family and without them, I would not have survived it.

Not only were they great friends, but fantastic teachers. The best part about being around other teachers is all the great ideas. I literally have pages of resources and ideas to look up and try out.

I was one of the newer teachers and it was refreshing to be around teachers who have 5, 10, 15+ years of experience and still love teaching. They are trying to improve for their students.

That's why we all started teaching, right? We want to impact the lives of children somehow. I am ready to get back to work, keep a positive attitude and work smart.

I am also better prepared to teach my students geology. In Texas, 5th graders cover sedimentary rock, fossil fuels and ecosystems. I collected samples of all types of rock, including some sedimentary rock with fossils in them! I am excited to share with my kiddos.

Me at White Sand Dunes in New Mexico

Revolve and Rotate

I have created some interactive notebook pages which you can use to complete this activity with your students.

Here is another idea from my science notebook. Inside our notebooks we put models of the earth revolving around the sun and rotating on its axis. Just like reflection and refraction, students can easily mix up rotate and revolve.

 

The students glued an earth to the edge of a strip of paper. They used a brad to connect the strip of paper, the sun, and the notebook page. Then we wrote the definition for revolve, orbit and the length of 1 revolution beside the model. 

 This next year, I would like to add the moon to this model.

For the bottom part, the students needed to see a visual of the day/night cycle. We turned the earth on its axis and glue it down. Then drew the line where day/night meet. 

 

This page is meant to model rotation. Each student received a view of the earth from the top. We attached a brad through the north pole and marked which way the earth spins. We added the definitions of rotate, axis and axial tilt. There is also a line showing where day/night meet.

I had this all set up before class so the students could see what we were aiming for. But I also did another as we went through it together.

This corresponds with Science TEKS 5.8C and it is partly a review from early grades.

Next year a I need to add a page that shows how the sun moves across the sky during the day. If anyone has a page in a science notebook they think could work, let me know.

Things to Do in My Classroom

I have slowly but surely been trying the ideas on Pinterest that I have found.I am hoping that I can be more organized and in turn teach the students to be more organized. Isn't it amazing how students adapt to the room? I have noticed that the teachers who are really organized can get students to be more organized themselves. But the same student can go into another teacher's room and be completely different.

They are impressionable

I need a poster like this for my room. It comes from Middle School Math Rules Our school sets aside 10 minutes for dismissal procedures at the end of the day, and the way the buses work it can sometime be 20 minutes. To me, that is 15 minutes a day wasted, about 1 hour a week, 4 hours a month...  you get the picture. Training students in a procedure like this would mean more teaching time.

I love the Science Notebooking blog. There are so many great ideas there. I love the idea of putting colored duct tape on the notebooks at the beginning of the year. This past year I used garage sale stickers on the bindings to separate each classes' notebook. This year, I will have 6 different sets of notebooks. Science and Social Studies notebooks for each class.

This is also from the Science Notebooking Blog. I love the idea of putting up wall posters for each unit studied. The walls in our hallways can be pretty bare and kids walk by them everyday. Sometimes they wait in line outside. Wouldn't it be great to have them looking at something while they are our there?

And this is just adorable.(Cannot find where it originally came from.) Our district tries to support students thinking about college and career choices early on. This past year we had a field trip to a college campus and spent some time exploring other universities around Texas.

I would like to take pictures at the beginning and end of the year and see how they changed. My goal is to see more science based careers, especially from the girls.

Science Picture Books

At Half Price Books last week I ventured into the children's non-fiction section. Oh my! There were lots of good books there. (Did you know they give a teacher's discount.)

I have seen lots of posts with picture books lately. These are some good books I have found.

Energy Island: How One Community Harnessed the Wind and Changed Their World by Allan Drummond

This is a true story about a town in Denmark that reduced their carbon emissions and become almost energy independent. This is a perfect story to read when we get to identifying alternative energy resources in 5th grade.

The Magic School Bus at the Waterworks by Joanna Cole

Can you go wrong with Magic School Bus. In 5th grade, students have already learned the water cycle, so the basics of this but we add to it. This book goes a little deeper than water just circulating through clouds and the ocean while reviewing those concepts.

This is Your Life Cycle by Heather Lynn Miller

 This is a fun way to introduce metamorphosis. It might even be fun to act out this "game show."
 

I have read pictures books to my students as a class before. But I don't have a lot of experience with it. Does anyone have a great way they use picture books in the classroom?

To Make Before School Starts

...Or Stuff I Saw on Pinterest and Really Want.

I have seen these buttons several place, but most recently on Life is Better Messy Anyways. It is a fun way to have students brag/celebrate how hard they worked. And since I am sure few students in my classes talk about school to their parents, it would be a good way to start a conversation at home. 

I am not sure where these exact flip charts came from, but the idea circulated around my campus this past year. I never got around to making them, but I would love to cut down on the Miss, Miss, Miss when someone needs help. 

This is hilarious to me. I would love to have a large bathroom pass that says this. I'll need to figure it out!

I've seen this everywhere to, and unfortunately I can't find where this exact one belongs. (If it is yours let me know and I'll link it.) I think it started about as a tackle box from Lowe's and now it is a wonderful organization toll. Which I need desperately. The inside of my desk is almost as bad as the outside. (But not as bad.)

Campaign Buttons

I have the wonderful opportunity to be part of the Teaching American History grant. Throughout the school year, we (me and about 40 other teachers) read history books and attend lectures by professors from around the United States. At the end of the school year, we take a history trip. This summer we went to California. Two of our stops were the Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan Presidential Libraries.

There I had an idea for my class this year. I am excited that I get to teach American history in a presidential election year. (Even if I myself am not excited about either candidate.)

Each library had a collection of campaign buttons, bumper stickers and signs. I think it would be fun to have my students pick a candidate and create a campaign button to show their support.

I am going to have to think about how much I want to bring the election into a 5th grade classroom. (It can't be too much since I do have a strict schedule I have to stick to.) But I would like to end it with all the 5th graders "voting" on election day. I remember doing that in 5th grade for the Clinton/Dole election.

Once I have an actual lesson plan, I'll share it here.

G-Camp Update

I have only been at g-camp for 5 days, but it feels so much longer. Each day is jammed with geology sites and activities which starts at 6:30am. Things most people might take one full day to do, we are doing several per day.

Currently, we are touring Colorado. The mountains are beautiful. There is nothing like them in East Texas. And now, I kind of know more about them. Before it was just a mountain. But now it can be a mountain surrounded by rock glaciers, with a few dikes or hogbacks and alluvial fans at the bottom.

Learning this stuff myself does remind me of how some things must seem to students in our classes. I came into this knowing very little about geology. And it has taken me 5 days to catch on to some things. Sometimes I feel like the professors are speaking gibberish.

But I am working hard, doing my homework, and reading the night before.

These are some things I have seen so far.

These are the Great Sand Dunes of Colorado. To me, they kind of seem like they shouldn't be there. And this picture does not do it justice. The highest dune is around 731 feet. People seem like tiny dots compared to them.

The Black Canyon of the Gunnison in Colorado. The Empire State Building would only come up to about half of the cliff. This was the first real canyon I have seen. It was absolutely gorgeous.

Lake San Cristobal in Colorado. This lake is in a caldera. Which is a landform. Who knew there were so many different types of landforms. A caldera is a crater that occurs after the magma comes out a volcano. The magma leaves a void and then the crust collapses in and a caldera is left. This specific caldera is actually miles in length and width.

The Continental Divide. Something I learned about forever ago and now I have finally seen. 

There are still 12 days left in this and I don't think the "good" stuff has started yet. Although, I consider this good stuff.