Over the next few posts, I am going to be sharing pictures and short explanations about what are some of our favorite things to do during the holidays in 5th grade! During the season, my goal as an educator is to help provide fun yet purposeful activities for the kiddos to do! And, the season may be over but these are great to save for next year! Everyone is an artist in their own way. And, kiddos LOVE to draw. A couple of years ago I stumbled across the YouTube account called Art Hub for Kids. The account is run by a father who draws with his kids and shares the step by step videos that they make of their drawings. Since then, I try to bring in directed drawings opportunities as much as possible. This year, we made reindeers using ARTventurous' directed drawing steps. I LOVE how they turned out! For this specific activity, we drew the reindeer with our pencils then traced over with black and brown markers. Then the kiddos completed their artwork with water ...
Archives for 2016
Grinch Day in 5th Grade!
I LOVE the holiday season in the classroom. It is hands down one of my favorite times of the year. There is so much excitement and joy to be found by watching and experiencing the holiday cheer through the eyes of children. Over the next few posts, I am going to be sharing pictures and short explanations about what are some of our favorite things to do during the holidays in 5th grade! During the season, my goal as an educator is to help provide fun yet purposeful activities for the kiddos to do! And, the season may be over but these are great to save for next year! I love Grinch day, and 5th graders love Grinch Day, too! Every year I try to do different things in the classroom so I switch things up a lot! This year we dressed up in green, read the story, watched the old animated film, and did a Readers' Theater which the students LOVED. They did such a great job with it. I am constantly so impressed with how much students embrace amazing opportunities to showcase ...
Classroom Teachers vs. School Teachers
Over the last few months, I have had the extreme pleasure of working with some amazing educators in our district. We are beginning a new PLC journey in our schools so we have been collaborating on the best way to transition to truly effective PLCs. During one of the sessions that we had, I brought up the difference between a classroom teacher and a school teacher and what these teaching differences can mean to a PLC, our schools, district, and most importantly--our students. I had first run across the comparison when reading The Innovator's Mindset by George Couros (You need this book if you have not read it yet--like Amazon it ASAP!). Looking at the differences between classroom teachers and school teachers is meant to help teachers realize the power of collaboration. The teaching community should be just that...a community! Just think of how much stronger the learning experiences that we strive to create for our kiddos could be if we would be more mindful ...