Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Read Across America Preparation Part 2

Hello Everyone! Read Across America is around the corner I can't believe it. We will be hosting our Read Across America Day this week! This year I have used many of the things I have used in the past, with a few exceptions or fixes.

Looking back at my previous Read Across America Preparation post I realized that I never posted the invitation and reminder letter that I carted for this celebration. You can find the file by clicking the files name.


For Read Across America Day I used:

Guest Reader Invitation
I had uploaded this invitation. Most of the text are as a picture format to ensure that everyone gets the finalized file. If you download the Dr. Seuss fonts you can simply insert the information needed on the space provided and have your own invitation. For this file I used a Dr. Seuss font that you can find Here.







Guest Reader Reminder
This may look a bit different from my first post since I could not find my original anywhere. So I recreated it with a different background. Just like the Guest Invitation it is a picture with text boxes where you can insert the information. For this file I used the font A Little Pot. You can find the font  Here.




Oobleck
I am excited for this activity. In the past years I have done Oobleck with my students (green food color, water, and corn starch). I had my students play with the Oobleck and talk about it but never did much with it. This year I am excited to use the worksheet I just created. Student will still experiment with the Oobleck but also incorporate some of the skills that we have been working on during our Literacy block. This is also another FREE item to you can get on my TPT store.



Teacher 1 Teacher 2
My teammates and I want to dress up as Thing 1, Thing 2, Thing 3, and Thing 4 for our Read Across America Day. The problem was that I could not find a logo that said Teacher instead of Thing. So I created one for us. This product has Teacher 1, Teacher 2, all the way to Teacher 8. The logo is done correctly and inverse so that you can use it on which ever paper you have to iron on to your shirt. Oh yeah, IT IS FREE!


I like to try out my products first, but in this case I did not have the opportunity to try the shirt imprint and the Oobleck worksheet. I ended up posting these anyways for those who are looking for these products. If you do use it please let me know how it works out for you, I would love to see pictures.

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

5 Food Groups-Nutrition

Earlier in the school year our class did a nutrition unit where students learned about the 5 food groups and the good and sometimes foods to eat.

This was a fun and interesting unit to work with my students. When working on the food groups it was amazing to hear all the misconception that students had.


One of the biggest WOW misconceptions that I heard students ask me was is Orange Juice part of the Dairy group. I had to think really hard about why students had this misconception and came up with a conclusion.


According to the new Food Group Chart from Myplate.gov dairy is in a circular cup. My students thought that anything that is drinkable was a dairy product such as orange juice and water. As a result many had difficulty understanding that dairy can also be a solid like cheese.

As part of this unit I asked students, super market, and teachers to donate different grocery weekly ads for a real life application of the food groups. With those ads we did three different activities.

1. Food Group Flip Book:

Students looked through the ads to find healthy foods that fit into the different food groups. They placed what they found in this flip book I created.

Students enjoyed looking through the ads discussing with their teammates what could be placed in each food groups. I loved this activity and I am looking forward doing this activity again next year.


       You can find your FREE copy 

here
It was amazing to see how many students did not have experience with the ads. They did not know how to read them nor how to find specific categories. It is for sure the art of reading ads has been lost.



2. My Plate Poster:
I traced a poster size of the My Plate diagram and had students work in a group to put examples of healthy food that are part of each food group. This activity is similar to the flip book but instead of having a reference book it is in the plate diagram and students are exclusively working as a group. I did this acidity to give the students' ample opportunity to understand the food groups and talk though the misconceptions many had developed.

3. Sometimes Food:
The easiest activity of all, using the grocery weekly ad students looked for foods that fit the sometimes foods. Students enjoyed this activity and I had some unique and unexpected answers as shown in the picture for this activity.


When I was doing this unit I searched and searched the Internet for good ideas. Through my search I was amazed the resources that the US Government has provided for teachers and parents. Myplate.gov has excellent resources for teachers both hard copies and digital.

There are songs that students just loved and begged for me to play over and over again.

You can find lesson plans and the activities that go with them for free at various grade levels. They are made to fit the needs of each grade level.

My teammates' favorite resource was all the supplies you can order for FREE! You can get posters, worksheets, lessons, books, and so on. ALL HERE for FREE. They even ship it for free.  A huge thumbs up for USDA!

Saturday, February 15, 2014

iPad Apps


As students have used iPads in the classroom and have gone home asking their parents to play with the same apps. Parents have asked me for a list of apps that I would recommend.

Here is a list of Apps that I have used in my classroom so far. Just click HERE to go to my Symbaloo Recommendation page.

If you would like to see any thing else I have recommend to my parents, here is my classroom website page: www.grijalvaasuprep.weebly.com/links.html

Awards


During the summer I was fortunate enough to have been one of the recipients of ING Unsung Heroes Award. I was one of two Arizona winners and the only one from Phoenix, AZ in 2013. I felt proud and honored to be able to accomplish my Green Power Project.
Also during this summer I was a recipient of Scholastic's Clifford Be Big Project
Thanks to funds from these awards and from Donors Choose. I have been able to integrate iPads into my classroom as we get closer and closer to accomplish year 1 of Green Power. The iPads in my classroom has made an impact in my student's learning and my teaching. 

This past week I have created a video to enter in PBS Learning Media Digital Innovators Contest. I hope I get the opportunity to become part of this wonderful community and enhance my digital teaching strategies.

This video quickly summarizes the impact that iPads has had in my classroom and my students excitement to engage in their learning. 



Ms. Yard- Measurement Story

Last Year: In all of my years of teacher I never had a difficult time with students learning unit conversations for length, but I am glad this class did. As I went over the concept over and over again I realized that my students had difficulty remembering the numbers that will help them convert the measurement. They knew how to do convert the measurement but didn't know the essential facts. 

On the spot I created Ms. Yard, which I created as a spin on Dan
Gutman's Weird School Series books that my class and I love. After I told my class Ms. Yard's story they all remembered the simple facts and were easily able to convert the units.

This year I was excited to teach this concept once more using Ms. Yard's story. Just like last year this was a great success and my student's loved it! The story changed a little bit but it still had the same outcome. Students knew the measurements and their equivalents. 

Here is a ScreenChomp lesson recording of Ms. Yard's story. 


I hope your students and you enjoy this story.