Through the Years

This page features some of my favorite lessons, memorable moments, and important events that have contributed to my professional growth and made me the educator I am today.

In 14 years I’ve made a lot of memories, and a third of them are stored on floppy disks.  I’ve begun sifting through them and reformatting, but this is quite a job.  You can’t imagine the fun I’m having though, walking down memory lane!

So here is some recent flashbacks of the past several years.

One of my most favorite books to begin with every year as a read aloud is “The World According to Humphrey.” The saga of this classroom critter continues to captivate and inspire every class I’ve ever had.  It would take pages and pages to truly tell you the impact this has had on my students and my teaching.  Rather than ramble on I’m going to highlight some of the ways Humphrey has become an entity in my classroom.

One particular year the class I had got so excited when the children in Mrs. Brisbanes class built a community called Humphreyville.  Without any prompting from me a student brought in a home-made shadow box of a house.  All of a sudden it was a contagious project that all the children wanted to be a part of.  One-by-one more places in the community trickled into our classroom.  By the time the dust had settled we had a school, zoo, church, pet store, a police station, an apartment highrise, and even a Sunrail station!  It was truly amazing to me that it began with a book, an inspired student, and an enthusiastic teacher to build an imaginary community without even being given as an assignment. 

 

 

And then one day without notice a new “student” showed up in our class.

 

Gemma the Gerbil soon became a respected and loved classmate over the past couple of years, and still resides with me through each new class.

And just like Humphrey, Gemma the Gerbil goes homes each week with a different student.  She has a Travel Journal that goes home with her and the children have a few suggestions from Gemma herself to make their time together extra special.  She likes a bedtime story of course and an illustration of it in her travel journal.  I ask that the parents text or email me a picture of them doing something fun together (the sillier the better) to share with the class when they return.

The students love Gemma so much they take turns reading to her during the school day.  Don’t be startled when you come in and find her wheeling around in her ball.  The children pay her no mind because that’s just who she is!

“You can learn a lot about life by observing another species,” squeaks Humphrey.

 

 

I call these guys my Super Six!  One year I had 12 students that were pulled out on Monday to work with the Gifted Teacher.  I used this time with my Super Six to make them feel even more special with unique projects and curriculum that I was able to do with such a small group.  And of course we ended every Monday with a scoop of ice cream, chocolate syrup, and lots of laughs!

The States

To start our study of the states I played this youtube video for the students.  Throughout the course of the unit they must have had me play it over 50 times.   It is quite catchy.

 

Here are some examples of the amazing projects my students created for their research on the States.  This is a board game through Ohio with Parade Floats as the game pieces. Too Cool! 

And here is a board game made from a pizza box that takes players through New Jersey learning facts about the State.

She decided to build a parade float for the state of Montana!

He made a Travel brochure and we had a PowerPoint presentation on Hawaii!

Habitats (My Favorite)

The students each studied a different species of penguin which added to the fun when we went to Sea World for our Field Trip. They were all looking for “their” penguin.

We then made an Arctic Mural and each student researched and reported on an animal from this habitat.

We studied the different bodies of water and the endangered Florida Manatee right before we went to Blue Springs. We created a mural when we returned.

I use poster presentations to teach my students not only how to read non-fiction but how to create their own reports using access features such as diagrams, captions, cartoons, etc.  These are all about the desert.

These were on different ocean animals we would be seeing at Sea World.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here we read “The Great Kapok Tree” in honor of Earth Day.  The children created “dialogue” for the animals to convince the man to not cut down the tree.  We continued our study of the rainforest and the children wanted to create their own undiscovered plant species.  Did you know there are plants that can sing horribly to scare off creatures that might want to eat them?

To culminate our unit on habitats and animal adaptations the students were so excited to put all this new learning to use.   As we moved into our study of poetry I read the book Scranimals.  The students used a spinner with different animals written on them.  Once they had created their own Scranimal they had to decide what this new species was.  They then wrote their own poems that included its special habitat, special features, and adaptations. 

Push and Pull

 

During our study of Force and Motion, we built rockets and then measured the distance using trundle wheels. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pocket Day:  We practice estimating, charting, and graphing once of week on the number of pockets we have in the class.

 

 Our Annual Poetry Café Party themed weather and space. 

The families are invited to our “Poetry Café” where students have practiced writing and performing their poems.  The room is decorated with the planets hanging and the lights dimmed.

 

 

The children create their own constellations and stories to go with it.  They use their drawn constellation to punch holes into black paper that I later hang up covering the entire window.  The students are overjoyed to see there constellations sparkle.  They then perform their poems under the stars while their families sit back and enjoy with some hot cocoa.  It’s my favorite event and most memorable because one year I was able to have both of my grandmothers and my mother attend the café!