Mural!

Working on our ecosystem mural!  

Teamwork? Yes please!

 Here is my class doing a group work exercise.... The Lego challenge from my Growing strong leaders pack ( but with a few alterations to really challenge them!)  God made us relational!  We need to live and work well with others! 

Last week was Springs (my church) Conference and it AMAZING! Leon Fontaine, Steve Kelly, Dave Martin and Sam Chand ROCKED!  Three nights and two days of some of the most spirit filled and view changing teaching you can get!  I am so thankful to my school and church for the amazing opportunity!

Here is snapshot of our learning:

This week we are back the swing of things and wrapping up our first term in school.  I am trying to stay on top of marking so I can get their reports done early again.  This was helped by one of my amazing students who brought me Tim's this morning.  Naturally he got bonus marks ;).



To celebrate the first "frost on my windshield day" I am offering  12 hour freebie in my store! It is one of my bestselling Friday Fun Series lessons - Playing with Polymers.  It was one of our all time favorite lessons to do.  I used it in Grade 1 but I have heard from other teachers who have used it in Grade 3 to 5 and even Grade 7.  I will be using it with my Grade 7s this springs when we get to the Mixtures and Solutions Unit.  You can download it for free in the next 12 hours here: Playing with Polymers FREEBIE!

Enjoy!

Having a plan!

Our class has been super busy, we are doing so many amazing things! In science we are working to wrap up ecosystems in the next few weeks.  As our "big project" we are working on a class mural and the kids are excited! This is a 16 foot long poster each class is completing that depicts Mount St. Helens before, during, and after its eruption.  We are chronicling the stages of succession, population formation, and interactions in the ecosystems as time goes on.  This is also a great way to underscore the idea of succession being a patterned return to life - Mount St. Helens will look very similar in the future to the way it did in the past. Here is the rubric for our mural so you can see what is going on - RUBRIC

In bible we have been learning about creating good habits and about taking small simple steps to create a future that pleases us and pleases God.  We learned that we need to be proactive and begin with the end in mind. We have developed well thought out mission statements for our lives.  In this picture you can see a group of students working on a puzzle together.  As an example of real life truth I gave two groups each one puzzle to finish and only one group got a copy of the final product to start with.  It was a simple but powerful demonstration of how having then end in mind can make you work more effectively and more purposefully.  I have really enjoyed this bible unit - you can see it here.  I am using three amazing books for teens - Success for Teens, Do Hard Things, and 7 Habits to a Highly Effective Teen.  They share some similar themes and ideas and work great together.  The unit is a work in progress, there is everything you need to teach it {questions, graphic organizers, role plays, exit slips, quizzes etc} but I am constantly updating the teaching guide and answer key as I go to make the final product better. 

BTW - my TPT store is having a 20% off sale this coming weekend - to celebrate the arrival of snow to Manitoba.  It may be a few flakes - but where there is there will be many!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I really feel like time just flies!  I am usually pretty good about updating my blog every few days – 3 or 4 at the most.  Now I am finding that I am popping on with great intentions, but then it’s time to fly off somewhere else and move onto the next activity.  Don’t get me wrong, I love being a busy Mom…but sometimes things fall through the cracks.  Like my personal blogging!

I have been enjoying the long weekend and Thanksgiving.  Today I took the day off of everything and spent it with the kids.  All too often they get put to the side while I focus on teaching, grading or coaching.  Am I too hard on myself?  Probably, but I only get one chance to raise these kiddos and I want to enjoy every minute of it! We went to church {wouldn’t miss it for the world}, went to get some special things for dinner {the oven decided not to work so my turkey is still in the fridge} and settled on ricotta stuffed cannelloni, spicy crispy wings, Caesar salad, stuffing, baked mini potatoes, brussel sprouts in butter, and pumpkin pie and ice cream {non-conventional but yummy!}, played volley ball, had a leaf fight, played charades, watched Courageous {laughed so hard at the Snake King scene}, and made thankful for you cards that we all read at supper. It was a GREAT day.  I am so lucky God blessed me with five wonderful kids and a great husband.  God is so good!

I also recently tweaked an old product that is one of my best sellers.  Fixed a few minor issues.  If you have read my blog since I started teaching you know this was HANDS DOWN my favorite grade one project.  They loved these Spider Lapbooks so much and took such pride in their learning because they all knew that it was “big kid” knowledge.  Not only do you get instructions, suggestions and printables, but you also get a list of resources {books, articles, videos, etc} to accompany and support your learning.  If you choose to use the lapbook on its own it can be a standalone project.  We did along with Charlotte’s Web and other spider and animal related learning.  It was a blast.   It went great with my freebie Spider Research Project.  I used TinyGrads Addition Worksheets with a farm theme too.

Anyways, off to get my kiddos to bed.  It is getting late and I have a TON of marking to do yet!

-Mrs. Hildebrand