Boggle Warm-Up

I found this idea on pinterest and knew my kiddos would love it! Surprisingly, most of them had never played boggle before, but they have all caught on quick. For those of you who have never played, it is basically a word search with more liberal rules.

I usually set the timer for 5 minutes, and let the kids list as many words as they can find using dry erase markers on their desk (did you know they could do that?? they love the novelty of writing on their desks; and the markers wipe away easily!). I usually give a prize for the most words and longest word found. My students beg to do this!

Even better, cost: a little over $1 (magnetic letters $1 at Dollar Tree & painters tape)

~Mrs. Scott

Math Warm-Up: Guess Who

My 8th graders love this game for a warm-up! It basically works like the game Guess Who, or 20 Questions.

I print copies of the above image and put them in sheet protectors with a dry erase marker for each student. Students take turn asking yes/no questions to try to figure out which number I chose while marking out numbers that it can't be. The first student who correctly guesses my number wins a prize.

This is great for teaching number sense and vocabulary for my tutoring groups. Some example questions the students could ask are:
- Is it even/odd?
- Is it prime/composite?
- Is it a multiple of ...?
- Is it a factor of...?
- Is it less/greater than...?

I am going to make a decimal and fraction version of this as well, and maybe even try the periodic table.
~Mrs. Scott

No Obstacle in Learning Grant

Below is part of a grant applications I submitted to my school district. Winners are announced in November.

Image being a 12 year old student and walking into class to discover this was part of your lesson for the day:

How could you not be excited to participate in learning taught with an inflatable obstacle course?? Imagine your delight when a few weeks later a different subject meets outside to incorporate this in their class for another spin on learning!

The National Center for Disease Control and Prevention has found:
•Students who participate in physical activity show an increase in ability to pay attention, and improve up to a grade level in reading comprehension following exercise.

•MRIs show those who exercise experience increased brain activity in the prefrontal cortex -- an area associated with complex thinking, decision making and correct social behavior.


The greatest benefit is that the obstacle course can be used by all of our students in multiple disciplines! Below are some objectives that can be taught using the inflatable obstacle course by subject:

Math-
•Central Tendency: Calculating mean, median, mode, and range
•Graphing data, choosing the best graph, interpreting graphs
•Calculating unit rate and proportions
•Course Conversion: minutes/seconds/hours, feet/inches/yards/meters
•Measurement: measuring course distance, volume of obstacle, surface area, angle of slopes

Science-
•Cause/effect relationships
•Friction
•Calculating: speed, force

ELA-
•Descriptive writing activities based on experience within the course

Health-
•Body systems being used during exercise
•Calculating heart rate
•Demonstrating the fun in exercise

Physical Education-
•Goal setting
•Detecting and correcting errors
•Assess physiological effects of exercise during and after physical activity
•Describing and selecting physical activities that provide for enjoyment and challenge

The obstacle course can also be used during incentive activities (rewards for hard work, low discipline referrals) and field day, saving our school the cost of renting the items from local vendors.

(Inflatable is from Sam's Club for $2,633)

~Mrs. Scott

Teaching with Rap Music

I don't know about y'all, but the junior high I teach at is full kids that know the words to every rap song written. They LOVE when we play music in class, and the songs stick b/c you can hear them humming the tunes during tests. My 'neighbor' found a couple of youtube videos she told our hallway about on Friday. I already warned her I would be stealing them for the blog! I found a few others while browsing that are fabulous! I love technology!! (And creative teachers who share their goods on the internet!)

Teach Me How to Study:


Getting Triggy Wit It:


Teach Me How to Factor:


All I Do is Learn:


Scientific Method Rap:


Rock Cycle Rap: (LOVE this one!)


Layers of the Earth Rap:


Phases of the Moon Rap:


Layers of the Atomsphere Rap:


Genetics Rap:


Chemistry Rap:


~Mrs. Scott

Classroom Printables

My classroom needs a few more posters, so I found some phrases that I liked online to replicate. I made these this morning using picnik and just sent them to Walgreens to be printed in 8x10's for less than $3 each!

If you would like to steal just click the image for a larger version, then right-click and choose "save picture as."

~Mrs. Scott

WAR!!!

My students have had a blast playing the card game War in class this week!

Remember War, the game where each player flips over a card and the person with the highest card gets them both? We put a spin on it for math, putting fractions on the cards to be compared (picture and numerical versions). Later next week we are going to use decimals, and then mix the stacks to compare both.

I have also thought about making other decks in the future for...

Math comparing:
Rational numbers
Squares/square roots
Scientific notationArea/perimeter/volume

Language Arts comparing:
Number of syllables
Number of nouns/adjectives/verbs in a sentence or paragraph

Science comparing:
Number of protons/neutrons/electrons
Age of trees based on tree ringsTemperature by reading thermometers
Calculated speed/force/energy

I would love to hear your suggestions as well!
~Mrs. Scott

Picnik

I am slightly obsessed with picnik. If you have never used the website before it is amazing! And a lot of the features are free! Basically, it is a photo editing site, but you can also use their goodies to turn pictures into cards and collages. Their image templates and cute text makes activities like printing class rules/posters and sprucing up your school webpage super easy.

I just recently found a new use: awards and Student Council acceptance cards. We printed 75 of these from Walgreens for $7.50 and it took all of 5 minutes to create and export:

~Mrs. Scott