Wisdom Wednesday- Varied Word Choices

This is an activity I did with a 3rd grade class. We needed to work on this standard:

EL.3.5.4 2006

Use varied word choices to make writing interesting. 

So this is a little activity that you can modify to suit your needs. 

Materials needed:

Emergent Reader Books

Paper

Pencil

Thesaurus (if choosing words is difficult)

What to do:

Most emergent reader books have very few words and repeat the same words. This is great when learning to read, but as readers (and writers) progress using the same words can be stifling. Read one of the books to the children. Ask them to pick out the words that are said multiple times. Give each child a book to "rewrite" with better word choices. The children can choose a different word for each word in the book, or focus on changing the words that are repeated. 

A Thesaurus can help this lesson, if children seem unable to think of synonyms on their own. Though if they use a thesaurus, make sure that the word they choose fits the sentence. You may need to demonstrate some examples of words that fit and words that do not fit, even if they are synonyms. This goes back to using words in context (another standard this group is struggling with). So by using the thesaurus with this activity you can reach multiple learning standards.

Have fun! The stories they create are fun to read and as a child completes one book, they can rewrite and illustrate it or move onto another book. 

Teach Preschool: Book Resource

Just in time for a winter break, Pinterest popped up with Teach Preschool. It's a collection of different activities that you can do that go along with a book. This is an archive of different blogs that have featured these activities, so you may find some wonderful blogs to follow after poking around :)

(via “Little Cloud” Activity)

I love these kinds of activities because they start to build a connection between the literature and the child's life. These are far from the only things you can do to extend the learning a book can provide, but I liked a lot of the ones I saw when looking through the archive. Even if the target age is Preschool, I saw many activities that would be fun for kids of all ages :)

Teachers Pay Teachers

Kind of jumping into the "Teacher" aspect of this blog. Though this could really help anyone with kids!

I'm used to creating my own lessons. I've had to do it all through school and even while student teaching I had to create a unit, including the pretest, progress monitoring, and post test. When I started my new job (that focuses on standards-based lessons), I thought it would be more of the same.

Only, it got to be really difficult to not only plan every single lesson on my own, but to create them as well. That was until I discovered Teachers Pay Teachers.

This site is so wonderful because not only can I search for lessons based on the standards I want to teach, so many of the lessons are FREE. Even if the lessons are not free, I know that I'm not only saving time by finding the lessons that have already worked for other classrooms- I'm also supporting my fellow educators while doing so.

I would love to add my own lessons to the site one day, but until then I will continue to use this site as a resource :)

*Disclaimer: This review is completely my own. I have no affiliation with Teachers Pay Teachers and was in no way compensated for this post.

Hangin' In there!

Student teaching has taken over my life! I'm out of the house from 7:30am until 3:30 pm and rarely sit down before dinner, and then have to start the prep for the next day. I'm kind of flipping out because my portfolio still isn't done and I have a lot of stuff to get together before I can finish it. It's really hard to balance being a mom of 3 and going to school full time while student teaching. I just hope I make it out with a bit of my sanity intact ;)

BUT on a happy note, we found out that our fish had babies! The kids were playing "dead fish math" (they constantly talk about how "we had 6 fish but then 2 died so now we have 4!") and my husband noticed a few extra ones swimming around in there!



Three of our six newbies!

So even in the midst of stress and life, sometimes you get a sweet surprise. I hope that you get one today too :) Though maybe not in the form of extra fish ;)

Cloud Dough

I have been enjoying my time in the classroom so much, but I feel like outside of school and keeping up with the kids and house that I don't have much time for anything else. I'm trying to make sure that I keep up with my hobbies and set aside time for me to do something I like, so here I am :)

Though being in the classroom is not bad at all. I love going to "work" every day and I have had so many fun projects these past few weeks. This one was found because of Pinterest.

I decided to try Cloud Dough in the sensory table at the school I'm student teaching at. They were having a "mittens" them and I thought the dough looked like snow (and we didn't have any real snow to use since it's unseasonably warm this year!). It was such a hit. It only took baby oil and flour- so it was also inexpensive!

 



The Pin for this along with the instructions can be found here.

Week 2- Done!

Ever have one of those weeks where you're afraid to think "what else can go wrong?" because you really, REALLY don't want to find out? That was my week last week.

The adrenaline from the first week of Student Teaching had worn off so I started the week exhausted. I also had 2 sick kiddos (at different times), grocery shopping, a van that will not start, and a husband that worked all but 2 days of the week. It makes you feel like you're swimming upstream, and the current just got stronger.

This weekend I tried to prepare better for the week. I've prepped meals (precooked chicken, ground beef, and made pizza dough) so that I can easily dump stuff into the crock pot or heat for meals. Nothing fancy is on the menu, but at least it'll be food, right?

I am also going to pick out my outfits for the week (and for the kids this week) so that we have no surprises or scrambles to get ready in the morning. I've developed a routine of showering and getting my hair ready at night so that I don't have to fit it in my morning routine (since even with my best intentions, plans fall apart as quickly as they are made).

I do love this though. I'm tired, busy, and stressed but I love working in the classroom.

First Week- Complete!

My life has been a whirlwind lately! You may notice that I will post a few blog entries, then have some lag between new ones. This is because I have started my journey in student teaching! I've learned that balancing being out of the house all day + 3 children is no easy feat, but I also can see how being organized and keeping a routine can make even the most hectic days have some semblance of order.

I love working in the classroom. Any doubts I may have had about what to do with my life go away the minute I start working with the children. I already love my class (see? MY class, and I've been there a week!) and am so excited to be working with them.

I'm less excited about creating a portfolio and keeping up with the assignments in other courses, but I expected that. It is worth it to be in the classroom though, I am thrilled that I can finally put everything I have been studying into practice.

One step closer!

I received a welcome letter from my school today. I am officially in the Student Teacher program for 2012! I am so excited to finish school and see the light at the end of the tunnel. I was here last year but then found out I was due the month I was slated to begin student teaching, so I put it on hold for a year. I don't regret doing that at all, but I am still looking forward to teaching and being done with school (at least for now). I am really proud of what I have accomplished while being a mom to 3 kiddos.

This means that it is now crunch time. I have to complete my portfolio before April 13, 2012. I want to get a good start on it before starting in with student teaching because doing that with 3 kids will be difficult enough.

What does that mean for you? I plan to include many more activities and lessons in my blog. I will be going over the lessons I have completed in classrooms to include them in my portfolio and want to share them with you as well. Most of these lessons are easily made with things around the house, since being a student and a mother makes the budget small. It's amazing how much you can do with so little though!

It also means that I will be looking into even more organizational methods. I follow routines to get by each day, and know that this will be even more true when I have so much more going on. I plan to share those routines as well and look forward to hearing more about what works for you! I may find new things to incorporate into my own routine.

Even more frugal tips. My workload is going to go up, but our income isn't so now more than ever we will need to stick to a budget and find ways to enjoy life on one income. Even though it can be difficult, I love times like this because it forces my creativity.

Thank you for joining me on this adventure!

Wax Resist Paintings - Ocean Theme

To say my kids love to paint is an understatement. I think they’d paint all day, every day. So I knew this project would be a big hit with them. It can go along with an Ocean theme, but isn’t limited to that. I just like to use themes because they are really fun to plan.

Wax Resist Paintings

You’ll need:

Crayons (this is a great use of old ones since you need to color firmly)

White Paper (something sturdy is best, so construction paper or card stock)

Blue watercolor paint (I used blue food coloring in water)

Paint brushes (bigger sponge brushes would have been better)

Something to entertain the baby (okay that’s just me ;) )

First, you color an ocean scene. You can use this time to talk about the fish in the ocean, coral reefs, and more. My daughter also drew a submarine, so the picture isn’t limited to fish. Sunken ships, scuba divers, and even Mermaids would be a fun addition. Make sure to color really firmly on the paper. The more wax from the crayons on the paper, the better the picture will pop after painting. 

Then, you cover the entire painting with a coat of blue watercolor. The crayon will resist the paint, so even though your ocean is completely blue, your picture will show through. If there are places that are not fully colored, the paint will seep into them. 

I like this type of painting because it is less messy than most- or so I thought. I would really try to use watercolors if you have them, because at the very end of painting my son bumped his container over and made a mess. Thankfully it came right out, but I had a moment of panic. 

I remembered that we had an Ocean scenes puzzle book so while I cleaned up the mess, the kids put together the different puzzles in the book. 

Even in classrooms I like to use small groups and this project would be perfect for one. If the teacher was using an Ocean theme, it would be easy to set up different stations to visit (like the puzzles) and be able to monitor the class rather than have a large group of students painting at once. This also allows each child to work at their own pace, so that those who are finished quickly are not bored and those who want to take their time are not rushed. 

New Domain + Update

I feel like I'm already moving up in the blogging world. I decided to buy a domain for this blog, so now I am the owner of http://www.frugalteachermama.com! That's so exciting! I hope that this helps me build a better blog. I have already made a few changes, so if you usually view this on an RSS feed you may want to check it out and see what has changed. I am still hard at work, I want to make this a blog that you want to read. Thank you for being here from the start, I really appreciate that you are here.

Speaking of working on the blog, I had plans to do many things last night, but I ended up caring for a sick baby. It is really unsettling to have a sick infant. I hate it when any of my kids are sick, but even more when they can't communicate what is going on. He seems to be on the mend today and I have a lot of catching up to do, around the house and here.  It's amazing how much work one house can be, especially when you're unable to do the usual upkeep. I am working on my own cleaning routine and will be posting about it soon.

I'm used to being busy and having a lot to keep track of, but even so this has been a pretty rough week. It was already a long week for my husband, he works a swing shift and will work 4 days of one week then 3 the next (12 hour shifts). He ended up taking an extra shift on one of his days off this week and worked 18 hours yesterday. On his one day off we had to take my baby to see a Neurologist for a follow up and he had to get to bed early in order to be up for the 18 hours shift Friday. I am used to being home with the kids, but this was one of the more difficult times.

The visit with the Neurologist went well though. If you don't already know, there seems to be a Genetic disorder that my side of the family has. It causes a seizure disorder and right now we do not know exactly which gene it is, so we don't know that it is affecting someone until they start to have seizures. It is considered benign because the seizures are "outgrown" by age 2. My daughter had seizures as an infant, was put on medication to stop them, then weaned off when she was a year old. She is 7 now and hasn't had a seizure since she was 4 months old. My youngest son is 6 months and had his first seizure at 4 months. He ended up having around 8 seizures, 6 in one day, and is on medication to stop them. I am so thankful that there is medication that can help stop them from happening, it is a really scary thing to watch your child have a seizure. I also worry about that medication because it is known to cause developmental delays (most often with prolonged use).

So, for now, he is monitored by a Neurologist and his Pediatrician is closely monitoring his development so that we can watch for any delays. He is a happy baby and seems to be developing right on track. I just wanted to add a little background to that because I know I would be curious if someone mentioned seeing a specialist without any other information :) I have to say that what my daughter went through as an infant really shaped my educational philosophy. I feel like I am better prepared to help my youngest thrive because of what I learned through that experience. I will go more into detail about that later though.

Enjoy the updates to the blog and spread the word :) If you have a facebook, you can like me there too :)

The Factor Tree

When you start to try different products at home to give reviews and spread the word about them, it can be either feast or famine! There can be a lot of wait time to get something to try, then you're trying multiple products at once and trying to keep up with telling others about it and reporting back to the companies.

This is one of my busiest times! Not only have I been able to review Tom's of Maine Wicked Fresh toothpaste, and a Just Dance 2 Houseparty, but now I get to have my kids try out The Factor Tree.



When I heard about The Factor Tree, I was excited to try it out! I am both a student learning to become a teacher, and a mother of young children who are in school. Anything that could help them learn math is an asset! They also love to use the computer so I thought this would be a wonderful opportunity for them to learn and for me to be able to track their progress.

Overall, I was disappointed. Though I have clicked around the website, I have not seen anything that would help entice children in. The set up seems to be in test format where students are able to take "real" tests and "practice" tests and the scores are given emailed to parents. Though I do think that the way the scores are tracked could be helpful, since they are listed based on the concepts being tested, I do not think this format will help my children learn.

It is not interesting to them. Though they get to be on the computer, just typing in what time is displayed or filling in the blanks of math problems is boring and by question 20 they are more than "over" the whole experience.

I think the concept is wonderful and think that with some improvements it could be something that would be wonderful for both parents and educators to use when working with children, but as it is I do not think it is something I will continue to use past the free trial.

Would you like to try it and see how you feel? Use "BZZAGENT" for a 2-week trial at thefactortree.com and let me know what you think!