It Makes Me Want to Scream When..

• Names aren't on the tops of student's papers.
• Student's come without pencils or just broken pencils for first hour class (they are suppose to get things ready to for the day in home room.)
• Grades aren't posted in a timely manner for my graduate courses. 

 But, enough about what makes me want to scream.......

This was our latest writing prompt in Written Communications class this week. Using Edvard Munch's painting as inspiration, we wrote about things that make us scream. They could be serious, such as a fear, or something silly, such as my teaching partner's topic of the last Diet Coke disappearing from the fridge. 

The kids enjoyed the topic. There were many stories about annoying siblings, scary movies, and having to come to school. We also added another fun element to this project: putting ourselves into Edvard's famous painting using the "Amazing Booth" app.

I just happened upon this app when it was on the "Apps Gone Free" application. (If you have any sort of Mac device that uses apps. Download this one.) I think Amazing now costs a dollar or two. Similar to photobooth, it has a few fun alterations including adding yourself to famous painting such as the Mona Lisa.

Here are a few of our photos that were included with our written work for display during parent-teacher conferences earlier this week!

What makes you want to scream?

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Geome-tree (i.e. Geometry)

I have a fond appreciation for corny jokes and play-on-words. Just ask my husband. In graduate school, his project dealt with corn. I would give him an ear-full of corny jokes, until he would get fed up and tell me to can it.

But... enough of that!

I saw a Christmas tree on Tales of Frogs and Cupcakes and since we aren't quite to that wonderful time of the year (although Walmart would beg to differ I'm sure) I put a slightly different spin on things in my classroom, but with the same basic idea.

So here she is, in all of her fall glory... our Geome-tree!

Students created leaves that show cased their knowledge. Some leaves have definitions and drawings of various geometric terms. Other leaves are cut out into the shape of various 2D shapes.

Happy Fall!

Mrs. Whitehair

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Geometry Unit and Symmetry Activity

I really wish that I would have taken more pictures throughout our geometry unit. There are so many creative ideas out there to help solidify these concepts for kids.

A few of the activities we did included:

• building various 2D and 3D shapes using marshmallows and toothpicks
• modeling various types of lines using pretzels (for the lines), M&Ms (for points and to create line segments), and candy corn (to show how the lines go on endlessly)
• creating foldables to remember different types of angles using the idea from Fabulous Fourth Grade!  
• we also talked about transformations, using gross motor actions, and creating an interactive foldable.
• and my students' favorite activity:  the symmetry activity!

This center was pretty simple. Having 4th and 5th graders, it took just a few minutes of reviewing for the students to remember what symmetry is and for them to get the hang of creating a symmetric pattern. Students used their rulers to create the line of symmetry. 

We also added to a new interactive bulletin board, I will have to post pictures of that soon!

Hope your having a wonderful fall,

Mrs. Whitehair

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