THANKSGIVING BREAK!!!

Good Evening!

I hope you all have had a fabulous Thanksgiving Break spent with family and friends! Mine has been busy, busy, busy and of course, I have captured it all via photos, so here goes! I will do a numbered list of everything that was accomplished over the break.

1. Teaching

I got to go to school with my mom last Friday and I was able to teach a few lessons on bullying (great activity that relates to this, let me know if you want a copy!) and of course a few read alouds including one on Thanksgiving! Afterwards, I found a great idea on Pinterest for making pilgrim hats, so we made some together!

Ta daaa!! They looked great in the end and of course the kids loved them because it was food!!

 We went to GoodWill and found 8 books for $5...what a steal!!

2. Baking!!

I love baking, and I have been able to do quite a bit of it at school, but there is just something about being home and being able to bake that is just great :) (It also helps that my family nags me to make stuff all the time, and I can't say no to that!!)

  Of course I made some CC cookies 

And some oreo balls...the most addicting things EVERRRRR!

 DELICIOUS!!

3. Topeka with the Beams

I spent a few days in Topeka visiting Cam's family and had so much fun! Jill (Cam's mom) was already all decked out for Christmas which made me so happy and excited! On Tuesday night, I helped her set up the tree in the basement! We did the dirty work while the lazy boys watched the KSU bball game :)

  The final product of the tree we set up in the basement :)

Gary (Cam's step dad) fixed us up a bunch of holiday drinks to try!! Mine was a peppermint thing that was QUITE peppermint-y, but we all still had fun trying the different drinks and talking :)

 Of course we held puppies, because Cam and I can't NOT hold puppies when we get the chance. We fell in love with this little doxen :)

 Doesn't this dog just look like he belongs with us?!?!?!

Thanksgiving day with Cam's sister, Carmen (far left) and his niece, Mickayla :)

 Cam's older sister, Jamie and I

Not the best picture, but it's the only one we got on Thanksgiving!

4. Time with the Boyers

Cam also came to KC for a few days and got to hang out with my family! Up first, Black Friday (well, Thursday night, SHOPPING!!!)

  We made dad wear the hat so we could keep track of him in the crazy Wal Mart crowds!!

 All our purchases!! $1.96 movies and my mom got a set of 30 rubbermaid holders for $6!!!

Mayor's Tree Lighting!!

Aww, cute parents

 The chocolate dipped pretzel Cam bought me :)

Miseltoe headband? Yes please

Plaza lights!!

 5. Time with Cameron

It was also great to just get to spend some time with Cam where school wasn't totally interrupting our social life!! Here are just some random silly pictures we took together throughout the break :)

It was a great break and a great way to kick off the OFFICIAL, holiday season!!! Have a great rest of your break, what's left of it!!

Until then,

Brittany

Sailing Through 6th Grade: Week 3

Good Evening!!

I am officially on Thanksgiving Break, meaning I am sitting at home, laying in my bed, sipping hot cider (thank you Kayla Thompson :) and blogging...yes, life is rough :) I had an incredibleeeeee week in 6th grade this week and I can't wait to share it all with you. Up first, as always, teacher outfits.

 Tuesday

 Wednesday

Thursday (I got this dress at The Loft outlet for $12...can't beat that!!)

On Tuesday we worked with the kids on making inferences. We started off with this great site of "Inferences Riddles." There would be 10 clues and we would give them one by one to the kids and they would have to guess what the object was based on the clues. The site with these riddles can be found here. Then we read some articles from Time For Kids magazine and the kids had to pick out a few facts and then make two inferences from the article. It was a simple lesson, but it got the point across and the kids enjoyed it :)

On Wednesday and Thursday we continued on with our Economics unit. Wednesday we were observed by our KSU supervisor and it went really well! She had some great feedback for us and said we were naturals and that she loved our "teacher voices." SCORE! On Wednesday we focused on the importance of income, and we did this through some exerts from Lunch Money by Andrew Clements (the same author as Frindle) and a YouTube video called Alex's Lemonade Stand. If you have never seen this video, please go watch it right now. It about a 4 year old who is diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, and she wants to help raise money for cancer research and treatment so she starts a lemonade stand. It is such a touching story and it can be used in your classroom for so many purposes. Our kids were the most engaged I have ever seen them during this clip and they had so many questions after it was done, so I highly recommend it!

Anyway, the kids used a Venn Diagram to compare and contrast Greg, the character from Lunch Money to "Alex" from Alex's Lemonade Stand. This helped them see how income is important and what you can do with your income. We then split them into groups of 4 and they were instructed to create a business or product. The requirements for the project were:

1. Appealing name

2. Slogan

3. Advertisement

4. Sample product

We gave the kids free reign to make whatever they wanted (within reason and 6th grade appropriate!) and we were absolutely ASTONISHED at the things the kids came up with. We only gave them about 40 minutes total to meet all the requirements, so many students willingly went home to finish making their products. Here were the products we saw during the Business Share Fair today:

Duct Tape business! They made tons of sample duct tape items including...

 Hair bows...

 Purses...

 

...and wallets! Each kid in the group was in charge of making a duct tape item at home for homework. So creative!!!

 

This group created Cookie Monster Bracelet Kit (don't worry, they informed us that 10% of their proceeds will go to the Cookie Monster :)

 

Some of their sample product...everyone in the class got a handmade paper bracelet :)

 

This group targeted older people with "Dencher Cream." Their slogan was by far the best with a little jingle they created. LOVED IT!!

 This was my personal favorite group...they created Uniqza (unique+pizza=uniquza!). The kids actually went home and used their own money to buy the ingredients, then made the cookie all by themselves. My heart about melted when I heard this! They were actually learning something from us!!!

 They had a pretty cool advertisement as well :)

 The final group created a cleaning robot!!

I loved this..CROC (the name of their product) stood for Cleaning Robot On Command....so stinkin' clever!!

The kids had an absolute BLAST with this lesson. They loved being creative, working in groups, and getting to share their ideas with the class. After everyone shared their product we related it back to supply and demand and how that will affect income. Keeping these things in mind, the kids voted on which business they thought would be the most successful financially and how supply and demand related to their decision. In the end, it was a close call, but Uniquza won in the end!!

 Everyone got a certificate for participating and then we got to eat homemade cookie cake!!

This week was so much fun for multiple reasons, the biggest being the fact that our kids were engaged, and saw that learning could be fun. I adored watching them work on this project and my partner and I felt really accomplished in the end :) I can't believe we only have 3 days left with these kids...time flies!!

I hope you all have a fabulous Thanksgiving Break!

Until then,

Brittany 

Sailing Through 6th Grade: Week 2

Good Evening Bloggers,

Yes I am aware it is 10:30 on a Friday night, and I should be out having fun, but alas, I have a teaching licensure test tomorrow morning at 7:30 AM so I will be hitting the sack early tonight :) But of course, I needed to update the world with the happenings in the 6th grade this week because I know you are all DYING to know about the engaging lessons we taught. Well, it is for people like you that I write for. So here goes!

First off, teacher outfits for the week.

Tuesday

 

Wednesday

 

Thursday (This was the only day I wore a black bottom, to prove that YES, I do own something besides black pants!! Hint hint, Danielle Fuller :)

The topics of teaching this week were propaganda, bias/stereotyping, and number line math mini lessons. Yes, some good topics :)

On Tuesday we taught about propaganda. This was a new term to most of the kids, so we had to work hard to help them grasp the concept (I'm not going to lie, I too needed to to a little research as well to freshen up on the definition :) We began with a non-fiction EyeWitness book about Media and Communication (it wasn't the most engaging start to a lesson, but we needed to do a non-fiction book to meet one of our literacy requirements, so this was the lesson to do it!) We showed the kids how communication and advertising have changed over the years, and then showed them a few video clips to introduce the term "propaganda" into their vocabulary. We first watched Britney Spears' "Pepsi" commercial which they all LOVED. The YouTube clip we used can be found here. Then we showed them the "Messy Marvin" clip, introducing the no mess Hershey's syrup bottle, the link can be found here. They took some notes over the audience and message the advertisement was trying to give off. After getting a grasp on the term propaganda, the kids created their own advertisement posters to "sell us" a product. We got some creative ones including a Picture Frame business with "the clearest pictures in town" and also a fish business with the words "healthiest fish you'll ever eat." They grasped the concept and had fun with it at the same time...success!!

On Wednesday we began talking about Bias/Stereotyping which I was a little nervous to talk about if you want to know the truth. They are at that age where they are beginning to change and they are more aware of the social issues and stereotypes that exist. Although I was nervous, the lesson ended up being one of our best yet! We used a big sticky to form a class definition of "Stereotyping" and then we used some real life stereotypes to get the kids starting to think about it.

 

These were the stereotypes the kids came up with for celebrities, kids, and football players. I love the word "graceful" to describe kids..haha

After using some real life examples, we told the kids stereotyping was seen everywhere, even in Disney movies! (Of course, they started cheering at this point, knowing we were going to show them some Disney movie clips..it doesn't get much better than that!) We used the following clips to show a specific stereotype:

Disney Women 

Lady and the Tramp 

The Jungle Book 

Aladdin 

As we watched the clips, the kids had a table they were filling out with things they observed and stereotypes that were seen.

After watching some clips and getting a better grasp on what stereotyping really was, we did the unthinkable...a Socratic circle! Only one kid in the class had heard of it before, so we had to scaffold a lot for them to understand how it was done, but it ended up being hugely successful!!

These aren't my kiddos, but it is an example of how a Socratic circle would look.

A Socratic circle is a method for students to discuss a topic to better understand a concept, or to form opinions about a selected topic. This is a great tactic to use starting in 4th grade (probably) and can go up through high school. To see an actual Socratic circle functioning in a 4th grade classroom, click here.

On Thursday we did some math mini lessons with the kids and of course, incorporated competition which they LOVE! I am warming up to these kids more and more, and although I have not had a change of heart enough to want to be a full time 6th grade teacher, these kids have started to change my mind about the negative "stereotype" of their age level :)

Stay tuned, this week we are teaching a bunch of our Economics unit, ending in our Business Share Fair with the kids!!

Until then,

Brittany