Sun, Moon and Stars Unit: NO PREP

Science is one of my favorite subjects to teach! Without fail, every year, my students get so excited about Science; not sure if it's the subject matter or the fact that it is less pressure than Math and ELA.  Either way, this unit always makes my students want to learn more! They will read all of the space related books we have in our library, share any information they learned with excitement and

even research more at home! This just makes my heart smile! 

This 100+ page NO-PREP unit is FILLED with all of the information needed to teach students about parts of the solar system.  As the teacher, you are given lesson plans for 15 DAYS!  You can use the presentation to teach information regarding the sun, moon and stars with matching cloze-style notes.  Included are three quizzes and one unit test. Your students are going to love the activities and the ease of taking notes.  These notes can be used as study guides too!

This unit includes:

~Lesson Plans – 15 days of written plans!  Objectives, procedures, and materials needed are provided for each day.

~Presentation – All of the information needed to teach students this unit.  I teach the presentation and review it the next day.  Words in red font are the answers to the notes provided. NOTE: Not editable.

~Notes: Cloze-style notes for students to highlight important information that goes along with the presentation.  “Answers” to cloze-style notes also provided.

~Activities- Moon Calendar with moon phase pictures, Cardinal Direction Posters, Posters of the Moon Phases, Cut and paste activity, (2) different observation recording sheets, chalk drawings, and planet coloring pages.

~Review game- “Jeepardy” game to review information for the unit test.  Editable for your use!!

~Assessments – (3) Quizzes for the Sun, Moon and Stars.  (2) Modified Quizzes for the Sun and the Moon, (1) unit test.

Check it out here: 

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/NO-PREP-Sun-Moon-and-Stars-Unit-and-Planet-Facts-too-2067119

Here is my direct link to my Teachers Pay Teachers store:   https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Motivational-Ms-Mac

Weightlifting Grips: Which one should you use when?

As someone who lifts weights, it is almost instinctive to hold a barbell or dumbbell a certain way depending on your exercise.  For example, when you want to do a deadlift, most people grab the barbell with palms facing down or away from you (overhand grip); considered the classic grip.  During this grip, you tend to be working the muscles in your forearm, your shoulders and your back muscles.

The underhand grip is mostly used when working the biceps, since that area will have to work the most to lift the weight.  Your palms are facing up/towards you in this type of grip.

These two grips are the most common.  Often times, I would see people holding a barbell with a mixed grip, one hand with an overhand grip and the other with an underhand grip.  I would mainly see Crossfitters with this grip.  That made me think; was I doing something wrong?!  So I looked into it.

The mixed grip is used for a deadlift.  When typically using an overhand grip, as the weight gets heavier, the barbell would be known to slip from a weightlifters hands.  Some use a weightlifting strap, which is wrapped around your wrist and around the barbell to help it from slipping away from you, prior to targeting the muscles/areas that you want to work.  But, they should not always be used.  Using straps is a whole other debate in and of itself.   To avoid the slipping and using straps, a lot of weightlifters use the mixed grip.  Again, this is to help the bar from slipping away from you.  Basically, if it starts to slip, it slips into the other hand.  This grips allows for you to lift heavier weights.  It is important to add that every time you perform a deadlift, you should NOT to use the mixed grip.  Use only when it is necessary.  Another type of grip that is known to help the bar from slipping from your hands is called the hook grip.  Typically with an overhand grip, you wrap your fingers around the bar and place your thumb over your fingers.  In a hook grip, it is actually the opposite.  The thumbs grip the bar first and the first couple of fingers lay over the thumb.

I hope this information helped you.  Different grips work different areas of your body.  The mixed and hook grip with help you lift heavier weights without having the bar slip away from you as easily. If after using this grip, and you can't perform the exercise for the area that you want to target then something is wrong.  It could be your posture or simply that the weights are too heavy for you.

No Elf on the Shelf??

These days, it's not surprising that as teachers we can't celebrate just one hoilday this winter.  

Probably, like many of you, I work in a district that includes a variety of backgrounds. That being said, we can't just focus on one holiday, but we would have to focus on many!  In my classroom, my co-teacher and I try to incorporate different kinds of these holidays to be politically correct.  Everything now is labeled "holiday."  My school has a Holiday Show, Holiday Parties, Holiday Concerts, etc.... 

For our holiday party, we incorporate different holidays through stations.  We have Pin the Nose on Rudolph, the Dreidel Game, and an informational text Kwanzaa coloring book.  

Those of you that are elementary teachers know how crazy December can be.  The best way to describe it, is that it's like a month of full moons.  Often times, we need ideas to allow us teachers to survive through it all!

During this time of year, Elf on the Shelf for Christmas has been very popular, as well as Mensch on a Bench for Hanukkah with parents.  To play off of those successes on the home front, why not incorporate something similar into our classroom?!  Enter, Snowman is the PLAN!

Another one of my co-workers also loved the idea, so she went out on a search to find us a wintery character that we could use in our classrooms.  What she found were cute little snowmen; perfect for our winter holiday theme.  This worked so well in the classroom in terms of keeping the students on track with our daily routine.  Our third graders love it so much, that in past years they write letters to our snowman, have made him a home, have made him accessories; just to name a few!   

I have created a (colored/B&W) letter for the students that is generic, that students can read or have read to them.  The gist is that Old Man Winter has sent this snowman down to be on the lookout for good and some not so good behavior.  Our snowman will report back to the Arctic on a daily basis and the weather depends on on how well they behave.  Just like the other figures; if you touch him, he will melt and lose his magic.  Students must also name their Snowman to be unique to our classroom.  I'm rooting for Lee from Room 23.   I also created a goodbye letter to present to the students prior to the holiday break to let them know that the snowman must go back.  The best part is that the product if FREE!

Check it out here:

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Snowman-on-the-Shelf-2257157

Some of our hiding spots have been between the books.  One of my favorites is the snowman that  created an array for the students to solve.  Multiplication is a huge math topic for our third graders, so I definitely wanted to incorporate that.  We also wonder how many inches it will snow this winter (based on our behavior)?!  My co-teacher and I try to relate his activities to things we are doing in the classroom currently, or even earlier in the school year as a review.  

There is also a generic letter having the snowman saying goodbye to the class!  This is the perfect way to get your students stay behaved during all of the holiday madness!  I hope this can give you a bit of sanity to get through the month.

TpT Credits...A Must Read Reminder for Teachers!

Ummm...do you teachers know that when you purchase items from Teachers Pay Teachers site that you EARN credit???  Yup, earn credits.  These credits can be used towards your future purchases.  Twenty credits count as one dollar and can be used as if it were a coupon/coupon code. For every dollar you spend, you earn a credit.  For example, if you were to purchase my task cards for introducing multiplication and division for $3; then you would earn 3 credits.

If you didn't know this, you MUST do it NOW!  (Don't forget that #CYBERMONDAY deals are going on now and tomorrow!!)  All you have to do is go to your My Purchases tab under My TpT drop down, when you are logged in on TpT.  Under the title of each purchase, is a yellow star for you to provide feedback.  Click on that link, rate the product and leave a comment!  That's it.  You just earned credits to be used towards future purchases!

Leaving feedback not only earns you credits which equates to dollars, but you are also helping out the teacher seller.  The more feedback a seller receives, the better it looks for a buyer.  Believe it or not, sellers only get 10% of their buyers leaving feedback.  When you see the number of ratings of a product (Ex: 7 ratings), that is the number of feedback the seller received, not how many people actually bought the product.  So your feedback really does help!   It even helps if you provide feedback on free products that you downloaded.  Teacher sellers thank you!

Study skill strategy.

I always try to make review fun and easy. Not only that, but something that the students can do independently! I've done this activity for sometime, and for all subject areas. It's so easy to do too!

First, all you need are strips of paper, index cards, or anything you can write on and cut up. If I am creating the review. I write a question on one side of the index card or strip of paper and the answer on the other side. After doing that, I cut zig zags, wavy lines,  a combo of both and so on separating the question and answer! I do this for all of the cards, but vary my cut for each. This way it creates a puzzle piece and the two fit together! If students are doubts this with me, I shuffle up cards and place questions on one side and answers of the other. Students read the questions first and try to find the answer! If it doesn't fit together like a puzzle piece , then the answer is incorrect and students will try again!

I particularly like this as a center activity. Students are able to check their answers and answer questions they struggle with. If you want to go the extra mile, you can even use the same color marker for the question and answers that match that will help students that struggle even more. 

Not only is it great for review, it's a great way for students to make and practice their fact families, study new vocabulary, and easy enough for them to create in their own at home!

My students loved it! They even wanted to create their own questions for their book review. I know it may not be anything new, but simple ideas work too! I am now on a mission to create templates of these puzzle strips for my TpT store...... Stay tuned! 

Sweet Potato & Quinoa Patties

Just made a new recipe on my last Sunday Meal Prep day, and I'm completely obsessed so I have to share. I love when I find receipes that I enjoy since I'm such a picky eater.  It's also super easy to make too! 

Ingredients you need:

~2 sweet potatoes

~1 medium onion

~thyme (fresh or dried)

~2 cups of COOKED quinoa

~3 teaspoons of garlic

~ salt (I use PinkHimalayan)

~ ground pepper

~coconut oil (couple of spoonfuls)

~EVOO

Procedure:

1. Cook quinoa.  (I usually make this ahead of time, especially if using in other recipes... It freezes well!) Boil water and place 1 cup of quinoa... Quinoa will double in size once done. I've made the mistake before of boiling two cups and getting 4 cups of cooked quinoa. 

2. Rinse 2 sweet potatoes and dry off with a paper towel. Use a fork to punch holes throughout the potato (very important!!!) place in the microwave and cook on baked potato setting (usually about 8 minutes for 2)

3. Dice medium onion and sauté with a little bit of EVOO over medium heat. Add a pinch of salt to help the onions sweat. Cook until the onions become translucent; then add the garlic (only for a bit so it doesn't burn) and a big (palm size) helping of thyme. I only had dry thyme at home so I put a palm size full of thyme and rubbed my hands together to bring out its flavor. Mix ingredients together and take off heat.

 

4. In a large mixing bowl, place cooked quinoa, the onion mixture and cooked sweet potato without the skin. 

5. Wait until sweet potato has cooled and mix together. Add salt and pepper for flavor. 

6. Form mixture into balls and flatten into small patties. 

7. In the same sauté pan as you cooked the onions, add a spoonful of coconut oil to melt in the pan over medium heat. Cook patties on each side till they brown. They may not completely stay together... But no worries they still taste great. 

Voila! Simple, easy and healthy too!

Sorry I didn't take pictures of the finished product... Smelled too good that I had to eat, and totally forgot about the leftovers! I will definitely add them once I make this awesome recipe again! 

Math Treats: Blog Hop

I am so excited to partner up with Doc Running from Everything Education and other wonderful math teachers to share some Math Treats.  From the looks of it; I may be one of the only elementary level teachers that is participating in this blog hop.  Although this may be true, my experience as a sixth grade math teacher knows that a few of my "treats" are acceptable and have been used successfully in most if not all grade levels.

"Treat" #1: Task cards

All of my students love task cards.  I have utilized task cards in a variety of ways.  Most often, I use task cards as a scavenger hunt in my classroom.  Depending on their level; I hide my task cards very well; or in more conspicuous places.  Depending on the skill I am targeting, I either have students work individually or with a partner.  The latter tends to happen the most in my classroom. can be heterogenous or homogeneously grouped.  Not only are the students up and out of their seats, but they are having fun and completing/practicing math problems along the way.  The scavenger hunt idea is used mainly as a review of the skill or topic most recently addressed.  

I found that task cards were great for reluctant learners and for completing during after school activities to keep the students engaged.  During guided math; I also use task cards as a center activity.  This activity is done independently, so it is primarily a review of previously taught topics or a skill that needs continued practice throughout the school year.  I do this so that I know that students can work independently and quietly while I am working with a small group of students. Additionally, task cards have been used in my class for earlier finishers.

"Treat" #2: Choice boards    

For every topic or unit of study that is being completed; the students are given a choice board.  This choice board allows the students to pick activities they would like to complete when they are not meeting with me during our guided math time.  It is a great way to differentiate activities to meet the needs of all of your students.  The choice board is posted in the classroom but a copy is also given to each student to keep and reference back to if needed.  The board if actually a 3 box by 3 box grid, like a bingo board with the center box being a "free space".  This allows for eight different activities for the students to complete.  Each choice board is given by topic; so it may seem like coming up with eight different activities is a lot of work, but it's all relative because it is not changed weekly but rather every two or three weeks. 

There are certain assignments that I want students to complete throughout the topic, I label them MUST DO's.  Meaning that the students must do two (at maximum) of the activities listed on the board before the end of the topic assessment.  All of the other activities (six of them) are available for them to complete.  Depending on the activity, students may be given bonus points on that topic test if they complete the activity, or even given a homework pass.  I have used a choice board in both my sixth and third grade math classes and have had very little trouble having the students "buy in" to the idea.  They love having the option of the work they want to do.  Let me stress though, that the activities provided are not "busy work" but rather, meaningful activities. 

"Treat" #3: Grudgeball:

I have posted about this in the past; but it's so great that it is worth mentioning again.  I actually found the idea of Pinterest.  It's a game that I thought would be great to motivate my students.  With the Common Core Standards in place; the pacing of our Math curriculum has become insane. There is so much to cover within a given time period. This often makes it difficult for mastery of this skills because we are often have to go on to the next skill or topic. Being that this has been this way for a while, my awesome co-teacher and I decided that we needed to switch some things up and add some more fun to math.  Our students needed to be motivated in order for them to want to learn and enjoy math. Enter Grudgeball.



As the students were comparing answers, one of us divided the board into four groups and labeled. Each groups had five rows of four X's, for a total of 20 X's under each group. We also set up a "basket" and shooting lines. (Think of a two and three pointer in basketball.) we used an empty trash can and walked 10 feet away from the basket and placed a piece of tape on the floor for the first shoot line and a second piece of tape about another foot or two from the first taped line. 

At the start of the game, we explained the rules and stressed that we will go in group order to answer the questions. The group will answer their question, and the other groups need to agree or disagree. If they agree students one student in the group gets to shoot a ball (we like one that can't bounce and is fairly small; about the size of a baseball or softball). That student can decide if they want to shoot for two extra points or three extra points (based on taped lines on the floor). If a student misses the basket, but answers the question correctly they can erase two (2) X's from any group/team they want. They can split their points into different groups. If they get the basket from the first taped line on the floor, they can erase four  X's and if they get a basket from the second taped line, they can erase five X's. If the group gets the question wrong, they do not get to erase any X;s and we move onto the next group. The students are very competitive and it becomes a fun battle as to who will erase from which of the teams. Often times, they majority of the teams go against one, or teams align with one another. Once a team no longer has X's, they have to start adding X's back, following the same point value rules. This continues on until the end of the review questions.   Again, the team with the most X's wins.

The students absolutely LOVED this game.  I mean, really LOVED.  I hadn't seen my students so excited about math.  I think the competitive nature of the game gets the students hooked; and promotes students collaborating. This was a Pinterest tried and true success! I hope you can find a way to incorporate it into your classroom too!


These are just a few of the "treats" that I have used in my classroom with success.  They have not only been a treat for me, but for my students as well.  

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