Sunday, March 24, 2013

"The Noun Game" Linky Party

Well, I have to say that it has been really fun looking at others Blogs and trying to guess which of their 3 statements was a lie.  I'm not sure I can remember all of them that I went to but I am going to try and go back and see what some of them said.  So for some of you that are waiting to hear what my lie was, here it is.
#3
I am NOT a golfer but my family loves to play. I am the cart driver when they all decide to go play 9 holes. Maybe some day I will learn how to play but for right now I enjoy riding along and watching my family.

My daughter won Regionial her Senior year.

My son plays during the summer in a league.

 
Sooooo for my 2 true statements.
#1 ~ Yes, I was a swimmer for 11 years and 4 of those years was in College. I swam for New Mexico State University and yes, I almost made it to the Olympic Trails.  Here is a picture of me at one of our practices outside. I loved swimming outside because of the GREAT tans that you would get.
I am in the middle of the picture with the
black swim cap on and white swim suit.
#2 ~ Yes, I do ride a motorcylce and I LOVE it. Once the weather starts getting nicer and the snow stops falling (yes, we got snow yesterday here in Kansas), I will be riding to work.
 
 
So, there you have it.  A little sneek into my life.  I am now going to linky up with Flying Into First Grade again for her next linky.  Here it is:
The NOUN Game
This should be an easy one because you don't have to think of a lie. It is all great information about yourself.  Here is what you do:
 
 You simply just name your favorite person, place, thing and animal.  That's it.  Here are my favorite nouns.
Person:   My favorite people are my children. (I can't just pick one) I love to watch them particpate in whatever activity that they are in for that time of the year. It can be basketball, golf, track, the school play, band, forensics, etc..... They love to be active and I love that they are.
Place:  My favorite place to be is in my classroom. I just love how I feel when I am there. It is like a Home away from Home for me.  And when everyone has left for the day and I am still there working, it is a peaceful time for me as while.
Thing:  I guess for this one I would have to say my computer because I am always on my computer even if I am watching TV.  I love to visit Blogs and read about other teachers and the exciting things that they are doing in their classrooms.
Animal:  My favorite animal/pet are cats.  I love that they are cuddley but yet independent enough that I don't always have to play with them. 
So there you have it. A little more about myself. I hope that you will join along.  Leave a comment so that I can visit your blog and learn about you as well.
Until Next Time,
         Happy Blogging 
 

Friday, March 22, 2013

Brush and Floss

We are a little behind in getting our Dental Unit done for the month of February.  We had four days out of school because of a snow storm that hit our area so that caused some problems with lesson planning.  Anyway, full speed ahead and we arrived at our Dental Unit the first week of March (right before our Spring Break).  The students had a wonderful time learning about their teeth and how to take care of them. I had to make the lesson unit a lot shorter because of the days off but the students still enjoyed it.  Here are a few of the things that we did......

The students were given tiny marshmallows that represented their teeth. Then they glued (with white glue not gluesticks) their marshmallow teeth onto the diagram that was given to them. We had to let the teeth dry over night before beginning our lesson on flossing.  This way the teeth were hard and the glue was completely dry.


Here she is flossing away. The students really enjoyed this hands-on lesson about taking care of your gums. After we were finished with flossing, we talked about what would happen if we didn't brush our teeth. The students came up with some good perdictions of what they think would happen. So our next activity was this.....

The students each received a hard boiled egg which represented their tooth/teeth.  I gave each one of them a cup to put the egg into. We poured Coke into each of the cups and we let the egg/tooth sit in the Coke for the weekend. When we got back on Monday, the students couldn't believe how gross the inside of the cup looked. We talked about what would happen if we didn't brush our teeth for a long period of time and the students agreed, with all the junk that we eat, our teeth would probably look like our egg,
brown and ugly. 
Each of the students took their cup and removed their egg/tooth.  Now came the magic....................... I talked to the students about what we could do to make this egg/tooth healthy again AND of course they said, "Brush the egg/tooth.".  I gave each of the students a toothbrush with a small cup of water and some toothpaste. They began brushing their egg, and what do you know, their egg/tooth started to become white again.
They were so excited.  When the students got finished, we looked at our egg/tooth again and we talked about the appearance of it. Was the egg/tooth as white as it was before we started this activity? And of course the answer is "No". It is white but with a hint of discoloration to the egg/tooth.  This is when we really talked about the importance of keeping our teeth and gums clean.
 
I hope you enjoyed reading about this lesson. It was a lot of fun with the students. They love doing hands-on activities especially if they can get their hands dirty.
 
Until Next Time,
         Happy Blogging



Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Rock Star Party


Happy Spring Everyone
*********************************************************************************

Well, the third quarter has come and gone.  I can't believe how fast the time is going this year.  I have such a great group of second graders.  It is getting to the point during the year when I realize that I only have 42 days left with these wonderful youngsters and I will have to give them away to their new third grade teachers. But no more worrying about that. Our Third Quarterly Behavior Party was a smashing good time.

 
In order for the students to participate, they had to make sure that they turned in 80% of their homework for the quarter, that they had no office referrals to see the principal and their behavior in class and at specials was acceptable.  These were the activities that the students participated in:
 
First Station:  Dress like a Rock Star
Four students at a time got to come up to the table and decide how they would like to dress for their Rock Star Picture.  While these students were deciding this, the other students were working on puzzles around the classroom. Here are a few of our fabulous rock stars......


Second Station: Rock Star Picture Frames
The students then went to another classroom and began designing their Rock Star Picture Frames.  They turned out so cute especially when we put the Rock Star Pictures in them during the afternoon movie. It was a great activity and the students got to take them home that afternoon.  Here is what one of the frames looked like....
 
 
 
Third Station:  Rock Star Dance 
The students then went to their last station and that was the Rock Star Dance room. We had two strobe lights going in the room along with rope lights.  We did have one sparkle thing (I don't know really what it is called) hanging from  the ceiling.  The students had such a great time of dancing around and just being a kid.  I loved watching them enjoy themselves.
 
                    
 
In the afternoon, the students had the privilege of watching the Disney Movie "CAMP ROCK".  They enjoyed popcorn and juice boxes while watching the movie as a grade level.
 
What a great way to end the third quarter and start off Spring Break.  Can't wait to see my students next week and hear all about their great adventures.
 
Until Next Time,
         Happy Blogging
 

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Let's Get Acquainted Linky Party

I was visiting Mrs. Madden at Teaching Maddeness and saw this linky party. 

What a great idea!!
 
So I decided to go ahead and get back into the blogging world by linking up with this party.
 
 
Here are the directions:
Think of 3 things about yourself or your life.  You should make 2 of them truths and 1 of them a lie.  You can list them on your post in any order.  Do NOT give the answer yet in your post.  People will try to guess your lie in your comments of your post.  So remember to be very creative so that it is hard for people to get it right.  At the end of the week you can share the answer in your comments from the post or include it in a post you make at the end of the week.
 
So here are my 3 things about myself.
 
1.  I was a swimmer for 11 years of my life.  Four of those years were in College.  I was very close to making the Olympics trials during my college years in the Breaststroke but I was off the qualifing time by 4 tenths of a second.
 
2.  I love to be outside and when I get a chance to ride my motorcycle, I am out there.  It is such a great feeling to be riding. It is one of the things that I enjoy doing that makes me forget about the stress of life.  My thinking is "If you can't ride a horse, the next best thing is riding a motorcycle."
 
3.  Even though I am a teacher, I love to play golf with my family.  My husband is a greens keeper at the golf course that we have in our town and my daughter and son love to play also.  During the summer, I usually work on Sunday afternoons in the clubhouse.  Golfing is a sport that we all enjoy participating in.
 
Well, there you go.  I know that I haven't been out in the blogging world for a little while so hopefully someone will get it right or at least give a good guess.
I will leave a comment on my post this coming Sunday if you would like to know the two truths.
 
 
Until Next Time,
         Happy Blogging