Monday Made It

Monday Made It #1...I made it through the first day of school! Yup, today was the day! I spent the day with 24 newly minted 5th graders! We had a blast, and each year the first day gets easier, but man, the exhaustion of day one must be mandatory!

Ok...on to the real "made its"...

Last week my super duper little sis treated me to a night of Party with Paint, and we did a version of "Starry Night". It was a lot of fun and I love how this piece came out! If you are in Arizona, I highly recommend Party with Paint, I've been previously, and will be going again soon!

Speaking of awesome little sisters, mine also gave me a set of Nubar Nail Polish. It's non-toxic, vegan, all that good stuff. It was perfect timing because I had recently received some Jamberry samplers from the awesome Tamara of Pretty Nail Wraps. I'm trying out my first Jamberry and they were super easy to apply, but I don't think I did it right because the tips are already starting to peel. Any tips from Jamberry experts?

Made It number 3 is school related! The amazing Diane from Fifth in the Middle was kind enough to give me some great ideas and tips for using brag tags in the classroom. I know she has posted about them before, but it finally clicked that I needed to try these out. I bought her template and have started to build my stash of brag tags. I'm excited to introduce them tomorrow to my new 5th graders!

Each kiddo will start with one that has their name on it. I love the chalkboard background and the KG Melonheadz font! 

Each kid will hang them on a hook next to their writing display folders. I found some push pin hooks that are PREFECT for this!

The computer did not seem to want to print all of the ones I had made. I was able to get my birthday and "tidy table" ones printed, laminated and cut. 

I've also got some Class Dojo ones to print! 

Everything is going to store neatly in this craft organizer that was only $2.99 (plus an additional % off with a coupon!). I also now have a lifetime supply of ball chains (100 for $22!).

Do you use brag tags in your classroom? Throw your ideas, tips, products, etc. at me! And thanks again to Diane for your help with getting me started :D

BB Part 6 - Fibonacci and the Golden Spiral

Woohoo, I'm more than halfway through my Blog Backlog: Playing Catch Up series! Make sure to check out all the BB posts!

During our last few days of school I wanted more of an "enrichment" lesson with my intervention math class. I've always been fascinated with Da Vinci and Fibonacci numbers, so I figured this would be a fun and meaningful math activity.

I have a copy of the book Math Wizardry for Kids that I picked up at a second hand bookstore ages ago. There are a couple of chapters on Da Vinci, including a biographical background and some activities.

I started by reading about Da Vinci to the class, then we figured out the Fibonacci sequence using calculators (0+1, 1+1, 1+2, 2+3, 3+5, 5+8, etc.). Next we took a mini field trip out to the playground to collect some samples from nature. We brought back twigs, leaves, pinecones, seed pods, and more. Then we looked at our samples to see if we could locate the numbers in our sequence. The seedpods had places for 8 seeds, the twigs had sections of 3, and the pine needles always came in sets of 2.

The following day we discussed the Golden Spiral and we created our own using the Fibonacci sequence we had discovered the previous day. For the most part it was easy, we just had to make sure we were all turning our papers the same way.

To create the Gold Spiral we started with a piece of graph paper (ours had very small squares, less than 1 cm). We found the approximate center of the paper and outlined a 1x1 square as our starting place. Next to this we colored in a 1x1 square. Beginning to move in a spiral we then made squares to the dimensions from the sequence, 2x2, 3x3, 5x5, 8x8, 13x13, until we had no more room. I think we were able to make it to 21x21. For each square we changed colors trying not to have any same colors touching. Finally, we used a dark colored pencil to create the spiral shape.

Not only did this simple activity help them better appreciate numbers and how math is related to nature, we ended up with some pretty cool looking art!

Art Masterpiece - Pointillism

Art Masterpiece is the program that our school district uses for art instruction in the elementary schools. There are pre-planned lessons, one a month, that parent volunteers come in a teach. In each lesson the students learn about an artist, a style of art, and a specific piece of art by that artist. Last Friday was our first Art Masterpiece lesson of the year, and I just so happened to be out that day. I was a bit bummed because I love watching my students create, but I came back to some lovely artwork!

They learned about Pointillism and studied Georges Seurat and his Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. The did their own Pointillism paintings using a cotton swab and they all came out so beautiful.

When I picked them up they were very wrinkled papers, so I had a parent volunteer mount them on some dark colored card stock. The Art Materpiece coordinators also provided us with a nice little description of the lesson which we also mounted under their work. My class came in the classroom this morning and oohed and aahed over their stunning pieces of art!

Tear Self-Portraits

When I taught 6th grade my teaching partner and I would have the students do a great activity during the first week of school. We would print each of their photos in black and white onto a full sheet of paper and then cut them in half down the middle. The students would paste half of their face onto a blank sheet of paper and then use their pencil to draw the missing half. This was a great activity because they were working on symmetry and it was a great display that we would leave up the whole year. Parents and visitors would always do double takes because they didn't realize at first glance that half of it was a drawing. Unfortunately I don't have photos to share of this activity.

Moving to 5th I didn't want to step on my previous partner's toes because she will have some of those kiddos next year. Besides I had seen what 5th grade does and I was excited to give it a try. They would have the students do tear self-portraits using only construction paper. It was an extremely challenging project because students have to go slowly and make small tears. In the end they came out pretty impressive, especially because most of them you can look at and totally see that kid.