Works of heART {Angle Measurement}

We wrapped up our basic angle measurement unit and I took down our winterish decor, so I needed something new to brighten up our daily commute through the hallway.  Those two things don't have anything to do with each other except that I decided to make a heart themed bulletin board using our angle measuring skills.

I searched for a little inspiration, and found these adorable hearts.  However, I had to make the art project fit into our curriculum so I simplified the art part and stepped up the math just a tad.  Gotta teach those standards, ya know?

I got busy and pre-cut squares of cardstock and went ahead and traced the heart on each paper ahead of time as a time saver (and because as anticipated, I had students that said things related to "I stink at making hearts!").

We made our lines together- my instructions being that we would make FIVE lines TOTAL.  Two lines that go completely across the page, and three lines that start at one line and go wherever you want it to go.

Then we got measuring.  I was actually really glad we did this activity because we were so used to measuring one lonely angle that when there were a bunch of angles some students had a hard time locating what to measure.  It was a good lesson in how angles are all over the place and aren't just two lonely rays connecting in the middle of nowhere.

Oil pastels were our medium of choice.  I chose them simply because they were so bright, not because they are so messy, which they are... but that just makes things more fun, right?  Students measured one angle at a time, then write down the measurement and the angle color in their notebooks.  We transferred those measurements to the back of our mounting paper when we were finished.

Students filled in any non-angle sections with random colors of their choice.  I loved this as a culminating activity!  Plus our hallway is pretty cheerful now.

The Michael's Valentine's Day sale got the best of me and I ended up with a package of Valentine's Day scrapbook cardstock, which I told my Cricut to cut into large hearts to add in between our artwork in the hallway display.  It was a weak moment for me, but I was happy with out it turned out.  

            

Follow RTL On 

Worry Stones | Science+Stress Free Students

Winter break is so close I can almost taste it.  I finally feel like I'm to the point this year where I can work ahead, so I've been prepping my January materials for a stress-free return.

This time of year can be anything but stress-free for teachers and students.  I'm trying to wrap up our units and possibly squeeze in a few final assessments, while my students are counting down the days to ripping open their presents.  It can be stressful.  For all of us.

During our matter unit this year, I decided to incorporate a little science/art/social-emotional lesson and create worry stones as a class.  I'm always on the look out for new approaches to use with my high anxiety kiddos, and so I thought we'd try this activity this year.  {Shout out to this post at Creative Elementary School Counselor for inspiring this concept for my classroom!}

Our science lessons are always guided by a "big question".  Our big question of the day was:

"Does the shape of a solid change it's mass?"

First we had to figure out if clay was a solid.  Because we had done so much work on classifying matter, this was a pretty short discussion.

We drew our table in our science journals, and included shapes such as "ball #1", "log", "pancake", and "ball #2".  Each group started with a ball of clay, which they weighed and recorded the initial weight ("ball #1").   After they had the weight recorded, they estimated the weight in grams of each clay shape.  Then they proceeded to make each shape and weigh it to see the exact weight.

Imagine their surprise when all the weights were the same!  Once our measurements were completed, we wrote a reflection journal entry answering our "big question".

The next day, I brought in colored clay for us to mold into little worry stones.  We reviewed what we know about the properties of a solid, and how clay fits those properties.  We made our stones {check out this post for instructions}, and I told students I was going to add heat to them by baking them at home.  We made predictions in our science journals about what would happen.  From what we knew, adding heat would melt a solid.

I baked our stones that evening and brought them in the next day, and we wrote our observations in out notebook.  Our observations led to a new discussion- why didn't the clay melt like an ice cube would melt?  I absolutely loved how these activities guided us to authentic conversations and questions about the states of matter.

Now my students and I have our worry stone at our desk every day.  Sometimes they float into our hand when we are talking or working on something.  I love how easy they are to keep in our desk and incorporate as one way to keep our hands busy and help relieve stress.  Plus, if anyone asks about it, my students make me proud and start teaching about solids.

Don't let the stress get to you these last few days before break!  Power through!

            

Follow RTL On 

Winter BB|Art Display

Woah.  This month is cruising right by me!  It's the best time of year because there is so much to do, so many great treats to eat, and people to visit.  December means holiday lights and I can't get enough of them. I want to put them everywhere!  I tried to figure out how I could use them without being Christmas-y, so I opted for white lights along the bottom as "snow".  Just doing my job to keep our hallway happy and festive year-round!

Snowflakes courtesy of my hoarding and shamelessly asking retail stores for their displays after they are finished with them... I also have them in red, and I use them every year because I love them!

My challenge this year is that I don't have bulletin boards...I have bulletin board walls.  I've said it before, and I'll say it again, these walls are amazing and also really tricky.  This year I'm sticking to student art work for the hallway rather than displaying other student work (writing, math activities, etc.).  Our boards (walls?) are behind the computer tables and they are just difficult enough to get to that I don't want to change them constantly.  If I stick to student art work, it stays looking lovely for a longer period of time and I can change them more seasonally.  I keep the work in my room on constant rotation, so I don't feel bad about it.

Our Art docents came in and had the kids do a neat painting activity based on Klimpt's 'Tree of Life' artwork.  It was gold paint on black paper, and then they put sequins on it to glam it up.

Individually, I kind of thought "eh", but all together I really love them.  Don't get me wrong, I think they each did a wonderful job on their artwork.  I just like them better together.

Frosty greets us at the door every morning, and he's the perfect addition to our winter tree and lights display.  

I figure I can leave this up until at least February...right?

            

Follow RTL On 

BeFunky: Photo Editing

This is not a fancy post about photoshop or any other software I would have to pay a fortune for...because I don't know the first thing about those.  This is photo editing for amateurs who like free things.

I do love photography.  It helps that everyone in today's world can appear pretty decent because of digital photography and things like Instagram that allow us to filter and manipulate our photos however we would like, not to mention all the pins on Pinterest regarding photography hints and tips.  I can fake it with the best of them.

For photo editing, I can use the simple filtering and editing on my camera or through iPhoto, but when I want to put together a collage, add fonts, or do any other editing, I've been using BeFunky.

My favorite feature of BeFunky is that I don't need to sign in to use it.  This is thebomb.com because that means my pictures aren't linked to my email account.  Typically that's not a huge deal for me, but when it comes to pictures of students, I try really hard not to personally put them anywhere on the internet.  One year I used one of those slideshow sites to make a slideshow of my classroom (no students), and then when I looked up my email address on one of those creepy stalker websites, it had those pictures on it!  I don't want my students' pictures to be out there when people search for me or anyone else.  This site doesn't require sign in, so you don't have to be as concerned.

Plus it's free, easy, and mostly just fun.  There are collage options for social media sites, as well as individual picture editing, or just playing around with images.  Go play!

Here's what I worked on today...
As I put together my slideshow for the end of the year, I was trying to decide on a cover for our DVD.  I had the perfect picture:

I made it for our auction this year and I have been trying to figure out a way to use it in something for the class all year.  However, I'm a colored ink snob.  I like things in color.  I'll use it if I need to.  But it costs me an arm and a leg over the course of a year, so I avoid it when possible.  I was pretty sure printing 20 of these suckers was going to dry up the ink supply rather quickly.  

I went to BeFunky and I ended up with this, which I'm really digging, because my sleeves are different colors so they do their own color filtering.  It took me forever to settle on one good one since there were so many options available.  

I did add font at the bottom for the final picture.  Now they are printed and ready for me to slice up and put in sleeves.  Productive little Sunday!

What photo editing site, program, or app do you like to use?  Why?

            

Follow RTL On 

Finally Friday #7 {STEAM Education}

A little late getting this up, but hey, it's still Friday, so it's all good.  I also got a little carried away when I started listing all the websites I've been scouring... So here's your FF#7!!  Fridays are busy but if you read this, you'll have something to talk about at happy hour.

It's about to get STEAMy...

I have read a lot this week about {STEAM Education}, so I decided to devote this week's Finally Friday to various articles (along with things I've pinned and an appy infographic) I've come across about it.  They are all similar in that they are describing how it's a growing educational framework.  I wouldn't say this is necessarily a new initiative, but there has been a bit of buzz around it in the past month.  Here we go...full STEAM ahead!

First...what is {STEAM Education}?

Science/Technology/Engineering/Arts/Mathematics

{Full Steam Ahead: Schools add arts to STEM curricula}

The Christian Science Monitor

{Schools Shift from STEM to STEAM}

EdTech Magazine

If you're feeling Appy:

{10 Innovative STEAM Education Apps}

eSchool News

(also check out below for 60 STEAM Ed Apps)

This site from Education Closet's STEAM Portal is awesome...check it out!

{STEM to STEAM} from Rhode Island's University of Design is pushing this initiative. 

{Gaining STEAM: Teaching Science Through Art}

US News

Here are the incredible things I've been pinning:

{School is Cool}

A collection of general school ideas.

{Be Resourceful}

Links for tools, ideas, tricks, information and resources to help you teach.

{All My Boards}
In case you want it all and you want it delivered.  Here it is.

or check out my new {STEM/STEAM Board} that I started this week.

A weekly infographic to get you thinking.

We Are Teachers:

            

Follow RTL On