travelteachlove

Holidays Around the World

November 30, 2018 No Comments

With the holiday season upon us there is a lot of excitement in the classroom. Students come in each day ready to tell me about their Elf that is hiding around their house, stories of baking cookies, shopping for presents and lots of other holiday traditions. At school I also have a tradition of exploring holidays around the world with students. Last year as a second grade teacher I went all out to cover the holidays. Since the seven continents are part of the social studies curriculum it was a perfect fit. I covered thirteen different countries over the course […]

Classroom Connection

Tech I’m Loving

November 16, 2018 No Comments

Podcasts, green screens, Google Classroom, and endless apps. The list seems to never end of new ways to incorporate technology into the classroom. Over the summer I poured over blogs, listened to educational podcasts, and scoured Instagram to catch up on the latest and greatest in technology to get inspired for the upcoming school year. Now that we have two and a half months under our belts, there are a few pieces of technology that I can’t imagine living without! 1.Remind- This is an oldie but a goodie! I have been using Remind for about 5 years now and I […]

Math, Science

Pumpkins, Pumpkins, and More Pumpkins!

November 2, 2018 No Comments

We survived the craziness that is Halloween this week! Yes, students were beyond excited. Yes, they wore fun emoji hand painted plates to celebrate emoji day. And yes, I knew I needed a well thought out game plan to get us through the day. What’s a teacher to do? Well, after talking with my third grade teammates I had a plan. Pumpkins. What could be more fun than some hands on learning with pumpkins? We could weigh them, measure them, float them, describe them, and best of all, cut them open and count the number of seeds. My teammates had […]

Classroom Connection

Feel Good Friday

October 19, 2018 No Comments

Yesterday we started the positive vibes in the room with a little activity during Morning Meeting. I saw this activity on Instagram (I wish I could remember which teacher did it!) and knew right away I wanted to try it out in my own classroom. Each student picked a number, kept it secrete and wrote a positive comment to the student in our room whose number correlated to that number. It was a quick, fun way to get students thinking about others. I reviewed the notes and tucked them into student mailboxes to read and take home that afternoon. Today […]

Classroom Connection

SeeSaw for the Win!

October 12, 2018 No Comments

Over the summer I listened to some podcasts about a new tool I could use in the classroom called SeeSaw. Now granted I had seen a thing or two about it before on Instagram, but I hadn’t taken the time to research it to find out more. Why did I wait so long??? SeeSaw is both a website and app that allows students to create an online portfolio of work that is shared with their family. It has been super easy to use and the company even runs free PD sessions online, so getting up and started was a breeze. […]

Classroom Connection

Ditch the Desks! Why I Love Full Flexible Seating

October 2, 2018 No Comments

I scan the room and I can’t help but smile. Student are sitting at our low table illustrating vocabulary words softly talking, another student is standing and swinging her foot on the bar connected to the raised desk, and tucked into the cozy round chairs (so popular in our library section we had to make a rotation chart for who gets to use them) are two students hard at work. Everyone is working. Everyone is focused. Everyone is comfortable where they are. Flexible seating has been evolving in my classroom since the day I was first hired. Starting with just […]

Classroom Connection

Summer Classroom Furniture Finds

July 28, 2018 No Comments

I know it is still July and I should be lounging around, thinking about anything but school, but this is when I get most excited about school. With the summer ahead of me I have time for new classroom projects, researching new ideas and scouring Pinterest and Instagram for inspiration for next year. First project of the summer was transforming three discarded book shelves from dingy, sad, hand printed shelves into a teal dream. A little wash and paint goes a long way. I can’t believe my luck that my mum came across these beauties for free at her school. […]

STEAM, Uncategorized

May Flowers STEM Fun

May 29, 2018 No Comments

With real Spring weather (some warm days!) finally upon us I decided it was time for a more bright and colorful activity for the STEM lab. The saying, April showers bring May flowers was inspiration for a Tulip STEM challenge for students. The lesson fused social studies, science and reading beautifully. We are studying the seven continents so we were able to explore a place in Europe (The Netherlands) famous for their tulips, while creating using the STEM process. This week in reading our anthology featured Gail Gibbons, From Seed to Plant, so the tie in was perfect. Gotta love […]

Science, STEAM, Travel

Earth Day STEM Challenge

April 25, 2018 No Comments

We may have been finishing up April Vacation on the actual Earth Day, but when we returned to school I took the opportunity to celebrate this important day with my students. Students watched a few short video clips about Earth Day, did quick writes and completed a mystery picture math page, but the big Earth Day project was a STEM lesson in the STEM Lab. With Antoni Gaudi as my inspiration, I tied in recycling old things to make something new in a way that connected to students. After learning a bit about Gaudi and his artwork, which recycled many […]

Classroom Connection, Math

100s Chart Addition with Badminton

April 24, 2018 No Comments

Birdies went flying yesterday as students practiced addition facts. After an inspiring visit to the Target Dollar Spot this weekend I had an idea to merge badminton with our 100s chart painted on our school’s playground to practice math. Students found out it wasn’t as easy as it looked to land a birdie on the 100s chart. Cheers rang out when students landed one in a square. Since it was an introductory lesson to teach students how to play an outdoor math game, we played as a whole class. Normally students would play as a team, working together to land […]