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COLLEGE AWARENESS DOOR

My school district's mission is to prepare students for college, career, and community leadership.  This week we are focusing on College and Career Readiness to support that mission.  One of the activities my school started this week was a College Awareness Classroom Door Contest.  Every year teachers decorate their door about a particular college.  But this year is different.  This year, it was turned into a contest, with a rubric and prizes!  My students and I were excited about it!  They could win a pizza party, popsicle party, or extra recess.  I could win a long lunch, no morning duty for a week, or a jeans pass.  Doors had to be completed today, and the judging will occur on Monday.

While I have attended several colleges, I chose my first one.  Maybe I thought it would be easier to work with, or maybe I was just feeling a little homesick.  Next year is a big High School Reunion year for me, a trip back home has been on my mind recently!  :)

San Diego State University

I found this beautiful beach paper at Mardel.  I was disappointed that it wasn't long enough for the entire door, but I used the school colors of black and red to fill it.  We have to keep the window clear, hence the cut out.

I found some bling to add to the top while looking through Homecoming Decor.

My next-door-neighbor gave me a box of Luau decorations, and this plastic sun was a perfect addition to my door.  So cute!

 This is the completed door.

This is my secret weapon!  I hung it up on the last day of decorating.  I recorded part of the SDSU Fight Song on a motion sensor sound recorder!  The students loved this!

I also sprayed beach scented air freshener on a piece of felt.  My students loved this too! 

Information about San Diego's location and Extra Curricular Activities offered at SDSU.  The rubric said to mention degree programs as well, but 188 was too many for my students to write.

I added this part (not on the rubric).  Famous Alumni!  I've taught my students about Ellen Ochoa in the past, but didn't realize she had attended SDSU as well until this door project.  And of course we had to have Tony Gwynn, my favorite baseball player of all time.  (Granted, I don't know many, but growing up in San Diego, everyone knew of and loved Tony Gwynn!)  After he retired from the Padres, he went back to SDSU as the head Baseball Coach.

Keeping with the mission of this project, every student had a part in putting this college door together.   I look forward to walking through the school on Monday and seeing everyone else's college doors.  It opens up the world to these elementary students, who might not learn about college otherwise.  

HANDS-ON FUN

This week we had a great deal of fun in Math and Science!  Lots of hands-on activities!  My district purchased brand new Math manipulatives this year, so my students will have a great year using them!  We just started our unit on Place Value, and the students enjoyed "playing" with the new Base Ten Blocks.  One student set out a certain number of blocks, and their partner counted them.  Working with three digit numbers was easy for them but they had a lot of fun refreshing their memories from Second Grade before we move on to adding more digits.

In science, we also had a fun week of hands-on investigations!  First up was my personal favorite that I like to call "Buried Treasure".  I buried some treasure (well, ok, maybe not real treasure, but things like paperclips, magnets, rubber bands, erasers, etc...)  The students used magnets to find all of the magnetic items, and then used their hands to find the rest of the buried treasure.  They sorted all of the treasure by Magnetic or Non-Magnetic, and recorded their data.  They really enjoyed this!

We also worked on measuring mass this week in Science.  Our new Math manipulative set came with plenty of these really nice balances.  The students had to make predictions before actually measuring the items.  It was interesting to listen in on their conversations, and hear their excitement when their predictions were close to the actual mass!  

For more hands-on Math, check out my Guest Blog over at Math Teacher Tales! 

M&M SCIENCE

Now that we have covered all the safety rules in Science, it was time for a Descriptive Investigation. We're not using the term "experiment" anymore.  "Investigation" it is! 

A Descriptive Investigation involves "collecting qualitative and/or quantitative data to draw conclusions about a natural or man-made system. A descriptive investigation includes a question, but no hypothesis. Observations are recorded, but no comparisons are made and no variables are manipulated.” (TEA, Science Curriculum, August 2010)

So, what better way to do our first Descriptive Investigation on Obervation than with M&M's!  The students were so excited about seeing the M&M's on my desk, and I had to be very clear that they would get to eat some, AFTER our investigation.

The students observed the M&M's using as many of their Five Senses as they could.  They even got to taste ONE during this part.

The students recorded their observations.

What would happen if we placed an M&M in water?  Let's find out!

This generated some interesting conversations about if the M&M was melting,  was the water was taking the color off the candy coated shell, etc...

The students enjoyed this very much!  So we decided to ask the question, what would happen if you added three more M&M's to the water?

And there you go!  A fun Descriptive Investigation!  And the students enjoyed eating more M&M's when they were finished!

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