Ladies with Class Blog Hop ~ $40 TpT gift certificate up for grabs!

The collaborative blog Ladies With Class are hosting a meet and greet blog hop!  Come check out everybody and get some great freebies and a chance to win $40 for TpT!

 Thanks Mrs. Hug-a-Bug for the great job on our graphics!

I get excited about Spring because I am way into nature lessons with my kids.  I get to play around with frogs and butterflies, and hatch chicks and garden!

Hey, had you heard that gardening helps with depression because of the nutrients in the soil actually act as an anti-depressant?  Way cool!  My students are city kids, and not many have had a gardening opportunity- so they have a lot of fun with me this time of year.

I've been out looking for frog spawn lately, but haven't found any.  I don't want to order it from somewhere on-line, but I think I might be forced to.  Sheesh.  And I'm hoping that this year I'm able to do butterflies without a catastrophe like I had a couple of years ago.  I have already picked out the chicken eggs I'm going to attempt to hatch and have decided not to have them until a bit later in May so that I don't have a Memorial Day hatch date like last year.

This weekend I'm at a science retreat at a State Park in Virginia.  We're going to be doing all sorts of activities from Project Wet.  I can't wait to bring back what I've learned to my classroom and get my kids out to the pond preserve behind our school!

To celebrate Spring- I'm offering one of my first clip art packs as a freebie this weekend. (It's usually $4)  Click the pic to go to my store and get a set!  If you download and leave feedback- that would be awesome!

I've also decided to put all of my spring themed art and teacher resources on sale for 20% off, grab yourself a deal this weekend!

And last but not least, I'm giving away  winner's choice from my store to THREE lucky winners. Enter using the rafflecopter below.

But don't forget to hop ALL the way to Ladies with Class to try your luck at winning a $40 TpT gift certificate from all of us! Enjoy the hop and get yourself some great freebies!

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Next stop? 

lopezlandlearners.blogspot.com/2015/03/march-into-spring-win-40-tpt-gift-card.html

Read-Alouds and Digital Citizenship - Virginia is for Book Lovers Blog Hop

I'm always excited to join my VA blogger buds for a blog hop.  This time we're embracing our love of reading! Each of us will be sharing a book and resource that we LOVE to use in the classroom for this very special hop. Even more THRILLING, is that you'll find a book giveaway on each page of the hop, with a super huge giveaway at the end over at Mrs. O Knows.

Mom and Dad always read to my sister and I growing up; picture books, chapter books, fairy tales, comics in the paper, the Bible, everything.  Traci was two years older and started reading independently before me, so then she ended up modeling it for me as well.  Mom took us to the library a lot.  I know for years I always checked out Colleen Moore's Fairy Tale Dollhouse book.  Never even read it until I was 32, but I adored the pictures and made up my own thoughts and stories to go along with what I saw.

I grew up in Alaska.  and I know there were book stores, because I can remember always visiting "The Book Cache".  But I think I bought a great many books at the grocery store. They had books at in the checkout lanes as impulse sales. Get a pack of green Hubba Bubba and a book.  Good times. When we went to the store, often we were told before we even made it through the doors that we were not buying anything not on the list.  But get to the check out counter and ask for a book, and Mom and Dad never said no.  Traci and I ended up with countless Archie Digests and fantasy chapter books this way.

My first year teaching fourth grade, I started building up a class library.  I only filled one four shelf bookcase that year.  By my ninth year, I'd graduated to needing six book cases and I was up to 50 labeled baskets.  A bit out of control, perhaps, but I love it!

I like to vary my read-alouds between picture books and chapter books for variety.  Shocking that I'm a little ADD, I know. When I first started teaching second grade seven years ago, I was a bit worried about having to give up my chapter books.  But it turns out- chose the right one, and there's nothing to worry about!

The Shredderman Series by Wendelin Van Draanen turns out to be perfect for second graders for a couple of reasons.  One, there is the occasional cartoon picture.  And they come often enough to keep the kids antsy to see it.  Two, the main character is in fifth grade- so the maturity level is not too far out of their frame of perspective. Three, the issues of bullying, good kid standing up against tyranny, and wishing to be a superhero are all applicable to the seven/eight year old mind.  Plus, as an added bonus, as you read it aloud, you get to say "butt".  This thrills the second grader to no end.

My students beg me for this book every year.  And they even check it out from the library, and beg me to continue reading the rest of the series.  Interest engagement alone makes this book worth it.

However, in the past few years, society norms have changed enough to make this book interesting for kids and teachers in a new way.  Published in 2004, anti-bully campaigns in schools were already in full force- but cyber bullying was not quite getting the attention yet that it does today.  For this reason, I like to read Shredderman to my second graders with the lens of thinking about the choices Nolan makes to end the physical and emotional bullying at school through his website.  It's a great way to talk about digital citizenship, and whether or not Nolan should have made other choices when working against Bubba.  It's also a great book to read with kids to talk about the choices the adults make in regards to the bullying both at school and over the web.

I read this book in the first month of school prior to introducing my kids to their digital portfolios and while I also teach them about writing appropriate response comments in our other website uses.  It allows for discussion on building a classroom community, establishing group norms, and also discussing citizenship in both the digital world and the real one.

My simple freebie includes a Digital Citizenship poster, and a book discussion form to talk about Nolan's choices.  This will be a forever freebie offered at my store.  Click the picture to go get your download!

Fill out the Rafflecopter below for your chance to win your own Paperback copy of Shredderman: Secret Identity by Wendelin Van Draanen.  I'm willing to mail it anywhere, so no worries if you're overseas! :)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Make sure you hop through all nineteen of us, and don't forget the Amazing Mega-Giveaway at the end of the hop at Rachel's Mrs. O Knows page.  There you can try to win ALL NINETEEN of the books in one go.  Each one of us will individually mail you our book.  Just imagine getting nineteen different packages at your door, each box with an amazing read-aloud for your kids!

Click below to keep on hopping to Jen at An Adventure in Literacy!

The Meek Moose Checks Out Tsu - Be Inspired Teaching Strategies Blog Hop and Giveaway

Right now- at this very moment, my children are upstairs watching Full House on NickatNite.  I confess to not watching this show as a kid, myself.  And, perhaps, had I, maybe I would have thought it was the bee's knees.  But not anymore. It's over-the-top sappiness chills this Walking-Dead-Binge-Watcher's heart to the core.  Blah.

Even more chilling- there's a new social media venue out there.

I know.  Like we needed another one.  However!  I've decided to try the puppy out.  It's like FB, but without the ads.

If you have not heard about it yet, Tsu is different than others because it lets you create your own network within the Tsu community.  I like it because as a page for The Meek Moose on Tsu, I can "be friends" with other teacher's pages and not just a follower.  I feel like it has the potential to have a more direct exchange with other teachers, whereas my FB page is sort of limited.  I plan on keeping both.  It's just another place for me to post inappropriate e-cards and pictures of Beaker from the Muppets.

Tsu requires an invite to join- and you're welcome to join through my page, or any of the other pages in this hop. Just use this link: https://www.tsu.co/themeekmoose to sign up. Free, fast, easy peasy.

I'm wondering if my school system has already blocked it? I'm not allowed on Pinterest, or FB from work. And that's probably very smart on their part.

So far, the only bit I've found hard is finding teacher buddies simply. But, the site does use a hashtag system, and if you look up #teacherfriends you can find all sorts of folks.

But let's talk about math, shall we?

I have been taking a class on Monday nights for teaching number sense in the primary grades.  And enjoying it thoroughly, I might add!  It's helped me expand my thinking on what sorts of activities my kids should really be practicing, and what can help them bridge the gaps int heir understandings.  Also, it helps me see what actually might be happening.

Here's a quick and easy game to play to help your kids learn some mathematical lingo and also develop that concept of number.  All you need is ten connecting cubes per player.

Awesome, the folks throwing the cubes around in the background, yeah?  I'm so awesome at classroom management it hurts.

I'm using a lazy susan I picked up from a thrift shop as my spinner- and all I did was tape a paper plate I marked with Scentos to it.  We've rigged up a stapler with a pipe cleaner to be our arrow.

We created the sentence stems and have them posted on a dry erase board near our work table.  If anyone gets stuck they can refer to them to complete the game.

The game is ADORED by my kids.  They love it that the winner is ultimately by chance.  But that doesn't mean that they won't be sore when Lady Luck doesn't go their way...

Baby Girl lost her cubes!

I created a quick freebie for everybody- a little game board with the sentence frames so you could play a version of it if you don't have lazy susan's readily available.  I'm also going to use this small board to send home with my kids so they can pay at home.

To go along with the blog hop, our merry bad of Tsu teachers are having a giveaway. Try your luck with the Rafflecopter below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

An InLinkz Link-up

How to Ruin Perfectly Good Notebooks ~ A Meek Moose Mis-Adventure with Mod Podge

It's another mostly disastrous Monday Made It- just to be upfront about it.  Read on to enjoy the train wreck and laugh at me.  Or skip to the end and hear about a whole lotta giveaways going down this week!

Our story must begin here- with Mod Podge.  I know for sure, that back in the 80's- I thought this was really difficult stuff to use. I know I got that impression from my mother.  I don't remember exactly what was happening, but there was some sort of conversation about "decoupage".  And this in my mind was something extremely difficult to do. And I'm not promising to have changed my mind on that- but I am willing to amend my thought that perhaps my Mother's qualm at the time was over the expense of Mod Podge, and not actually the use of it. Then we fast forward just slightly to the latter 90's where I saw Tori Spelling using it on some sort of craft show.  To frame this out completely- I was a bit busy wearing a lot of black and combat boots at the time, and therefore Tori Spelling using anything sort of became like, so, totally uncool. {Insert derisive lip curl here}.  So why the eff was I watching a craft show anyway?  Because I'm a total dork, that's why.  You think I carried off that look?  Gimme a break. Anyhow. This stuff here. Yarp.

It was once upon a time, circa 2012 that I first read a teacher blog to know they existed.  And began to use Pinterest.  Don't be gasping- refer to the above paragraph where I said "Because I'm a total dork, that's why."  Anyway- I was caught up like Jeff  Bridges in the original Tron movie into a whole new world.  A world of polka dots and sugar shocked owls and Mod Podge.  Everything down to a person's shorts was being mod podged.  So, obviously, after two years of creeping on the crafting, I figured, "How hard could that be?" (FYI- it's in quotes because I say things out loud to myself. #itsnotweird #totallynormal)

So here we are- today.  I've got eight big 3 inch binder like notebooks that all have different ugly fronts, and some adorable scrapbook paper. Clearly, they are perfect for each other.

Obviously, all I need to do is mod podge this.  I look wicked cool with my dollar store sponge brush. I'm digging the smell of the mod podge.  Painting is fun! And then this happens: 

I'd be cool with this if I were still 12 and hanging out in the upstairs bathroom trying to make android skin out of caladryl lotion and Elmer's glue.  In fact, in that light- you suck Elmer! (sorry, dude) Mod podge would have so made that android skin! Dang.  But I am not making android skin. (today)- Today I am trying to cover these notebooks so I can make student assessment record keeper things that I supposedly need now to keep track of paper work that philistines don't want to see on the computer.

I want the paper to lay flat and look pretty.  like it does when it's inside the scrapbook package.  But there's bubbling and tearing and holy Baby Moses I'm gluing myself to my bed I think. 

Super bad words, a lot!!!  And the paper started flat and then add mod podge and it's wrinkly.  I do not want wrinkly notebooks.  I want flat paper notebooks.  I don't want notebooks that look like my 3 year old did them.  Although I'm going to tell people he did.

There. I made six eight, dang it.  Why can't I count?  I suppose I'll find some way to cover up the flaws.  But I KNOW they are there! Bah!

Be sure to link up with Tara with your SUCCESSFUL Monday Made It, and tell her she should probably ban me. I suck this much.

I'm great with chickens though.  I'm not a total loss. Just sayin'.  I just won't be mod podeging them anything anytime soon.

As promised- FOUR different giveaways you need to go check out.  Not only because they are super duper all on their own- but also because each of them will be offering a Meek Moose pack at some point during the week! Click the pictures to go straight to the winnin'.

First up:  Kristy at 2 Peas and a Dog

Carla at Comprehension Connections

Rachel at Mrs.O Knows

 and last but never least:

Sarah at Beyond the Gradebook

Good luck one and all, and careful with that Mod Podge, kittens!

p.s. I just realized I've been calling it the wrong name my entire life. Mod not Modge. Dear God I am hopeless. Anyway, I edited it all up so you won't know until you get to the end that I'm even more of a train wreck than you first thought.  And I even spelled the title wrong.  I am awesome at 12:42 am I tell you.

This Moment in Time - The Meek Moose Reflects on the Sands in the Hour Glass

August DID NOT sneak up on me.  I am one of those procrastinators that watch the clock so as to better berate myself for not accomplishing what should have been accomplished.  Yeah.  I know. I'll add that to the #grouptherapy items list.

Also, since I did my first currently in June, I've been looking forward to the first of the month. July was a bit of a bomb since I was in the hospital having kidney stones blasted- so here I hope to redeem myself.

Listening : 1) "Happy" is currently on ye olde iPhone.  And I know a lot of people are #over this song, but it's fun.  I shall continue to shake my booty.

2) I added air stones to my two Betta tanks to try to help keep a sludge forming on the surface- and it's working- but this noise is not pleasant.  I would not put it in an "ambient sound" category AT ALL.

3) The 3yrold is upstairs yelling about his "evil schemes".  He's been watching WAY TOO MUCH of Phineas and Ferb.  Albeit- Dr. Doofenschmirtz is hilarious.  I just wasn't thinking he would become my son's hero.

Loving:  That's right, Flamingo Fabulous!  I plugged it! Now- listen up kittens- Iced Green Tea + Lemonade = a Zen Palmer.  Flamingo named it, so she must take part in its take over of the beverage industry. Anyone confused- an Arnold Palmer is named after a golf guy I think, Iced Tea and Lemonade.  I was at Panera and they had green tea, so I mixed those.  It's awesome!!! And #TeaNewsNow favorited my tweet, so it's a real thing now.

Thinking: As a champion procrastinator- I have manged to not keep up with anything.  I'm four days behind on my 100 Days Project of water coloring birds.  I have on-line courses I need to get caught up on/finish.  Luckily, they aren't for a grade, or I'd be in real trouble.  And I haven't done a quarter of what I wanted to do before school started.  Which is directly linked to not being all that excited about going back...sad.

Wanting:  Ok.  So I want a third chicken.  And a cuter chicken coop.  For no rational reason whatsoever.  Just plain chicken vanity on that one. #chickenobsessed  yesterday, Ruby got out of the hutch and would not let me catch her.  Biotch.  I eventually trapped her using a branch.  Sheesh.

Needing: Prayers.  I don't like to talk about it much, and I'll refrain from saying much now- but I'm involved in getting full legal custody of my littlest.  It's a constant source of stress.  

1st Day schedule: I get back to my room on the 18th.  Geeze louise, I hope I churn it out quickly this year. Teacher Days start on the 25th, and they will, undoubtedly, be jam-packed full of meetings.  Everyone loves getting their mindset on kids by attending meetings... And then the first day with kids is the 2nd of September.  And I get to be in court on the 3rd.  *Can't wait* to write the sub pans for that.

Check out all the other Currentlys- and link your own - on Farley's Blog:

Big heavy sigh. And then spine up!  I wrote a blog post. Yay me!  I did a Currently.  Yay me!  I'm doing ok about getting ready for the BTS TpT sale on Monday~ small clap of almost approval for me!  And there's still time to participate in the rafflecopter giveaway- so try your luck kittens!

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S.T.E.A.M Mini-Conference - The Meek Moose Gets an Education(and a giveaway!)

Yesterday I went to a S.T.E.A.M Mini-conference hosted by the Virginia Association of Science Teachers. Over the course of the day, I listened to a panel discussion on the importance of S.T.E.A.M and attended three break-out sessions. And what is STEAM anyway?  To put it plainly, take STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) and add in the ARTS. So how is that not going to be a thousand times more engaging right off the bat?  I find this appealing personally because I love the arts, and I was really digging on the STEM idea- so now I've got both. The opening panel discussion featured Rick Davis, the Executive Director of the Hylton Performing Arts Center; Kathi Levin from the National Art Education Association; and Dr. Matthew Cronin from George Mason University. Dr. Cronin's research is about collaboration and how it helps produce creative ideas- his book comes out next year. Admittedly, at the beginning of the panel discussion I thought I'd be bored.  I can remember these sorts of things from college when we were forced to attend five a year to keep our honors student scholarships.  And out of four years of attending, I only remember the guy from National Geographic who made a mummy out of a body donated to science.  I suppose that really says a lot about me... oh well.  However- I ended up pleasantly surprised by this panel- and came away with some nuggets of inspiration/revelation.

Rick Davis reminded me about a YouTube interview where George Lucas talks about how Language Arts should really be Communication- and all aspects of art techniques should be incorporated in teaching children how to express themselves.  Mr. Davis was talking about how in theater, they have to think about changing typical staging to engage the brain in a new and exciting way- for example, seeing the action at front stage center is "boring".  But when you place things on a diagonal, or in a new pattern- the brain becomes enraptured with the action. So that really got me thinking about lesson planning and delivery in general.  How do I deliver my lessons?  Am I always in the same space in the same lighting, in the same movement pattern?  Am I putting my students to sleep just by being the way I am used to being- regardless on content? Kathy Levin brought up a great point about "integrated lessons".  We say integrated- but are they really?  Aren't we still compartmentalizing our teaching to a great degree?  Yes, we did an art project in math class- but did we do it in every area with all subjects and collaborate with other teachers to bring the content to a powerful conclusion?   If I am working on my Weather Unit, and I teaching weather all day long?  Were all of my language arts (soon to be "Communication" ala George Lucas) lessons about weather of some sort?  Did I do math within those reading and writing moments?  Did the art, or music, or other endeavor utilize all facets of instruction?  Did I go meet with the encore teachers to get their help so that in Art, they were making something related to weather; or in music they were singing weather songs; or in PE they played some sort of weather like game?  No- I don't do that sort of integration.  So I'm thinking, shouldn't I? Dr. Cronin had an amazing amount to share, and at a certain point I had to give up taking notes because I was missing half of what he was saying.  He said some powerful things about creativity and how collaboration in fact produces a more creative work.  He used the example of bands - we love the band when they are together, and we might even like the music of an artist when he/she decides to begin a solo career- but often we refer to the band when we talk about the impression they made on us as an individual, rather than the solo artist. He gave The Police and Sting as an example.  Both produce(d) great music, but we more often refer to the impact of the band more so than the influence of just the artist by himself.   And I would agree.  I can name all of the songs by The Police, but I'm struggling to come up with a Sting title, even though I owned many of his solo albums at one time and enjoyed them.  I mean, come on, eveybody- you know that when I said The Police you were all:

And no worries- I linked the picture to the video so you could get your groove on.

And since it just needs to be done- let's not forget - Don't Stand So Close to Me. What? You wanted "Hot for Teacher"? I have standards...sheesh.  So then the breakout sessions came.  And I had a hard time deciding...

I lucked out in a way that all of these were repeated in the second session, so I only had to give up one of them.  Still though- I need a doppleganger.  Or, it would have been nice if I had other teacher pals with me, as other teams just split up and were able to share with each other after.  But I was flying solo- so be it. I decided to go to Number Links first.  It seemed the most grade level appropriate for me. Plus- "sensory relevance" caught my eye, since I'm into that sort of thing.  And I walked in to a jam-packed room to see this:

Picture links to her website

I get a bit nervous around costumed people.  Which is awkward at the best of times.  And also weird since my sister is a costume designer.  So I felt realllllllllly anxious when I sat down for this.  Petrified that I was going to be called on for audience participation to juggle coconuts or something. Yes, I realize I'm completely irrational- this is the magic of me.  Ironically, her presentation was on how to eliminate the anxiety in math class that prevents learning by making lessons fun, relevant, and linked to sensory. I got over my minor disturbance once she started showing slides of how she teaches numbers to kids.  It really got me thinking about how I do Number of the Day.  Traditionally, we just cover all the different ways to make a number in mathematical representations, whether it be by number or picture- but this added a whole new element. Animals for example for each number.  A Narwhal for the number one.  Insects for six, arachnids for eight, etc.  She also used pictures of architecture to bring in numbers and shapes- the pyramids for the number three, the Pentagon for number 5.  There was also some links to cultural folklore, as the number four was revered by Native American groups in the 4 seasons, or the Nine Dragons of China.  She regularly tweets out pictures she encounters about numbers, so she's worth following if you have a Twitter Account. I found this to be a powerful way to ingrain numbers in the brain, and a way to also integrate it more all lessons- I just need to be able to remember to make it a habit to stop and note when we cross number patterns when we are reading or investigating though out the day.

 A couple of years ago, one of my bestest buds found me a giant box of Legos at a yard sale for $5.  I had grand ideas at the time of having wonderful Lego lessons.  They sat under a table for a year.  Last year they made it out as a permanent indoor recess tool, and came out maybe twice for a lesson. *sigh* But it doesn't mean I still don't think I should use the Legos more regularly.  So that's why I decided to go to the LEGO League session on the second round. Now, this is a HUGE DEAL.  And of course, I had no idea about any of it.  I think, at it's core, its a robotics club.  But they have some great real-world problems that they submit to kids to find a solution for- and therefore it's worth looking a tthe archives at the past challenges just to get some inspiration for the classroom. The first activity we did was to partner up, choose twenty random LEGO pieces and make something together that we thought meant teamwork.  My partner and I made this:

We sort of forgot about the representing teamwork bit when we got excited about created a "hydro-electric powered chair".  So when the presentations rolled around we made up this thing about when you work as a team you have to care about others and create ways to help everyone be successful in a task. See- a B.A. in Creative Writing has not gone to waste.  I know how to BS almost anything. The rest of the session was about running an after school club.  They totally frightened me from wanting to do it. I think I will stick to my idea of having an after school gardening club instead. However- the idea is not without its merits- I just don't like the idea of having to choose kids and tell other kids they can't participate because there isn't room on the team. #pickedlastingym syndrome haunts me to this day. I am thinking of looking into investing in this LEGO kit that the ladies suggested for a Junior LEGO League:

picture links to site

This is a WeDo kit meant for lower elementary.  What makes it cool is a software program that you buy to go with it that teaches kids to code using the drag and drop method.  I am taking a coding class on the 19th of August to investigate that Hour of Code deal going on right now.  The kids use the drag and drop software to program their robot, download the instructions into the "brain" and then watch the robot follow their instructions.  This is waaaaaay cool in my opinion.  yes, you can do drag and drop coding in other programs on the computer and tablet- but this makes an actual toy move, which I think would make my seven yearolds go nuts for coding. If I do this in my classroom as an experiment of sorts- then I can still use the resources on the Lego League site to plan lessons.

This is the challenge group for grades 1 - 3, click to link

My last session was EcoScience + Art with Dr. Changwoo Ahn from George Mason University.

picture links to his site

Dr. Ahn has created a wetlands project on the Fairfax GMU campus, and will be beginning a design project in the fall semester where art students and ecological science students team together to build a floating wetland for the campus pond. This is a collaboration across disciplines that hasn't yet been done on the campus. I was excited since I took that Wetlands bootcamp earlier this summer and understood what he was talking about.  He had a great sense of humor and was a pleasure to listen to.  He even invites classrooms to come visit his wetland in the Spring so that his students can deliver their presentations to an audience.  I believe he does some work at schools as well to help them develop wetlands. I had loved wetlands bootcamp, but lost some of my oomph for wanting to start one at my school.  Listening to Dr. Ahn rekindled my interest a bit. All in all- I feel like I had a great experience at my first S.T.E.A.M event, and am looking forward to learning more and connecting with more teachers interested in the same topics.  I have a lot to think about when I start framing lessons for this year. And this year is zooming up on me.  I go back on the 18th to get my room ready, teacher days start the 25th, and then the kids walk in on the 2nd of September.  Yikes!  I thought I'd have more time. What has also zoomed up on me is the TpT Back-to-School Sale - this Monday and Tuesday August 4th and 5th!   I'm having a Giveaway for a TpT $5 Gift Certificate for anywhere on the site and a $10 TpT Certificate for my store, so you can load up your cart!  The Sister and I are designing away this weekend like the Eleves and the Shoemaker to create some new packs for everybody. I'm linking up my Sale with JD's Rockin' Readers and Looney's Literacy Blog who are hosting a linky for other folks giving away gift certificates before the big sale.  Be sure to head there too and check out the other sale giveaways! a Rafflecopter giveaway