A Bright Idea for Mother's Day

Mother's Day is just around the corner and if you are looking for a BRIGHT IDEA......I have one for you.  

In my Kindergarten classroom I always want to do so many things, but these bath salts have been a favorite year after year.

They are easy and fool proof.  

You just need:

Epsom salts
coarse sea salts
baking soda
scent
color
a container

The measurements don't have to be exact (which is great when kinder kids do their own measuring).  There are many, many recipes on the internet, but mine goes like this:
3 parts Epson salts
1 part sea salt
1/3 part baking soda
few drops of scent (essential oils)
few drops of color
*mix together until scent and color are evenly distributed.

In real life. for each student it looks like this:
measure into a quart baggie:
1 cup Epson salt
1/3 cup sea salt
2 Tablespoons of baking soda
few drops of scent (I use the liquid candle oils, essential oils are expensive)
few drops of color

*mix together, then pour into glass jar (just because it is so pretty)

Add a card or a note, and you are set.  Send home any extras in the baggie (or layer the extras like a sand painting, and give to someone special at your school).

If you want to try something a little different try this:

I gave those to some special friends one year.

If you like this idea consider following me on facebook, TpT, or Pinterest.

 For more bright ideas from other bloggers, please browse through the link-up below and choose a topic/grade level that interests you. Thanks for visiting!

An InLinkz Link-up

Five For Friday.....Spring Break

Spring Break, Easter, Parent/Teacher conferences have all come and gone.  Time to take a deep breath and look back at what I have been up to.

Linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching is a great way to do that.  Thank you Kacey for giving me the chance to share.

First up is Spring Break.  I had a wonderful time visiting with six of my grandkids and learning how to make these sugar eggs.  I wrote about my first attempt here, and we had so much fun I did it again with another set of grandkids.

Easter was a quiet day.  I am LDS, so I spent much of the weekend enjoying conference.

The rest of the weekend was dying eggs, having fun listening to the grandkids tell me about the Easter Bunny, and having a wonderful meal my son cooked for us (didn't get any good pictures of the smoked ham...but it was yummy).

Then spring Break was over too soon and it was back to school.  Parent Teacher conferences were this week.  They always make me nervous.  I like to have my students show off some of what they have been doing, so I created this self-reflection page last fall and I gave it to them this week.  I really want to get them thinking about their learning.

You can grab this from my facebook fan freebie section here.

Finally, as I was working on lesson plans this week, I realized that all week long we have palindromes.  Yes our digital dates all week are the same forwards and backwards.

Have a GREAT week!!

HUGE edit alert!  Next week doesn't work....because it is no longer 2014.  How did I not figure that out sooner.  Next Month...MAY is the fun one!   Here is the revised picture.  Have you ever had one of those days???

A little bit of Easter fun!

Easter is coming, but before we left on spring break, we made these fun baskets.

I found them on Pinterest and the pin led me to FAB DIY:

They were super easy to make and every time those cotton balls and googly eyes went on they took on a personality all their own.

They really were easy!  We filled them with grass and of course...Peeps!

Then I had tons of fun making these!! 

True confessions....I did not make these in my Kinder classroom, I did not make these in my Second Grade classroom, I made these with my grandchildren ages 3, 7, and 8.  Plus one for the baby.  My good friend makes these in 4th grade and asked that I NOT  make them with my students, but she gave me her recipe and let me borrow her molds if I promised to let them stay as a 4th grade project.  They were super easy....much easier than I expected.  They can be messy if you are trying them with a classroom of younger students.  Be prepared for sugar spills. 

I thought I would need more water or glue or spray in the molds, or something more than 2 cups of sugar and 2 teaspoons of water.  But no....it all worked perfectly.  Add the water and the food coloring (go darker, because the color will fade as it dries), mix together with the tips of your fingers (not your whole hand like my one grandson).  Press into the mold, coming to the top and leaving a large dent in the center.  Let dry 24 hours, wiggle free.

Carve a hole in the end or the side (I did this over the sink for easy clean-up).  Add creatures and grass (green coconut might be better, but we didn't have any).  "Glue" together with frosting.  Use decorating tips for fancy frosting designs and other small add-ons for decorations.   Ta-Da!!

From my house to yours...Happy Easter!

Book Study:Worksheets Don't Grow Dendrites....Chapter 3 Field Trips!!

I have been so excited to get my copy of this book in the mail!

When it came I sat down and started looking through it right away. When I got to chapter three I just got so excited.  I kept saying, Yup, that's me!  and Ohhh, I need to remember that.  Lots of yellow highlighting and notes in the margins so I would remember.

Then Science Fair came,

 

and this is the first chance I've had to sit down and put my thoughts on paper.  I want to tell you about Science Fair, but that will have to wait for another day (that is however, a short little field trip for the kids to go see all the projects) 

My first thought as I read this chapter was how lucky we are to have an outdoor education area at our school.  The quote from the book that says that just a change of scenery can do a world of good for activating the brain and engaging the child in learning, really struck home for me.  We have this wonderful area that doesn't get used enough.  I love going out there from time to time, but I could use it so much more.

Butterfly Time

Looking under rocks.

Let me tell you a story about what happened today.  We have been participating in The Groundhog Project, where we were trying to decide if the groundhog was a good weather forecaster.  We have been keeping track of our data and posting it online with schools from across United States and Canada.  Today was the last day and we were supposed to vote if our Groundhog was correct.  Our groundhog was, we had an early spring.  So I asked my students how they knew and suggested we go out back to check if we could see signs of spring.  We talked about what we might look for, and then got ready to go.  One student suggested we take whiteboards and paper to take notes (we often use our whiteboards as "desks" when we are sitting on the floor).  Brilliant!!  Of course, what a great idea!  Everybody wanted a whiteboard and some paper, so out we went.  We looked around, observed closely, took notes, shared our findings with our partners, I showed some things I observed (differences in leaf buds), and we gathered on our platform, where we have these table/benches, to share altogether.  Even as we walked back to the classroom we were finding more signs.

When we got back to the classroom, someone asked what are we going to do with our notes.  Well of course, we need to do something....

I suggested we write an essay, a paragraph telling about what we saw.  A few quick reviews about starting with your topic and a good introductory sentence, then following with your details and my students were off to write.  Amazingly not five minutes and they were done....35 minutes and I had to make them stop to go to lunch.  I did have to keep reminding them that we were inside and writing, because they did want to continue their discussions.  I have some wonderful pieces of writing from them!  Authentic writing that they were excited about.

I have used that outdoor education area before.  I can't take my students to a butterfly house at a zoo, so we build one out back, with a pop-up screen porch.

I wrote  about it here.  My students go outside and into the tent to get up close and personal with the butterflies.

Every community has places unique to that community where students can go and get some authentic learning.  In second grade this year we are learning about money.  Our principal has connections with a local bank.  We are going to tour the bank and learn even more about our money, where it goes and why it is important to be able to count our money so we can save and spend wisely.

 No money for buses??....we have walked to our library before, taken a tour, and gotten an application for a library card.

We have a hill close by loaded with fossils.  It is a second grade tradition to go with local geologists and hunt for fossils.

We have a NOAA weather station in town, and fourth grade went on a field trip there just last week....we are having them come to us.  Bringing experts in is a great way to take a field trip without ever having to leave the building.  Our local Fish and Wildlife guys come and do presentations for the classrooms upon request (so does the BLM and Forest Service).  Dentists, Police Officers, and Fireman also like coming to school.  The Lion's Club recently did a presentation for the second grade about the flag and every student was giving a little flag.  That is another benefit to having someone come to you....they often bring giveaways.  Kids love free stuff.

My take away from this chapter....if your students' brains are seeming slow and sleepy, wake them up with a little change of scenery!

For more GREAT ideas about field trips and take-aways from this chapter head over to Mrs. Wills' Kindergarten.  She is hosting this chapter and this linky.  Such awesome ideas!!  You won't want to miss them!

Five for Friday.....Reading Week 2015

What a busy week we had celebrating reading and all things Dr. Suess.  I want to link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching and Kacey to share some of our fun.

I started the week setting the stage and transforming my room into a Truffula forest, (maybe not a complete forest....but close) and pulling out all my Dr. Seuss books so they are easy to find.  My husband never leaves a Dr. Seuss book on a thrift store shelf, so I have quite a collection.  Kohls always has those cute stuffed animals and taller books, so I try to get books and animals there too.  My kiddos LOVE the animals.

We worked on a book project this week.  Each student was to read and respond to five Dr. Seuss books.  We have a hat die cut in our workroom and I used that to make the pages.  We also practiced rhyming and writing descriptions. 

We of course had dress up days.....on hat day, I opted for being Daisy Head Mayzie.  Friday (dress as your favorite character) one of my students was Daisy Head Mayzie.  Look how cute she is!

Thursday was Read in Your Pajamas Day.  I think that is my favorite day. 
Everyone sits in the hallway, or in a classroom and reads.  They find a stuffed buddy, a friend, a sibling and read....they read or are read to for a whole hour.  It is wonderful!

Friday was Green Eggs and Ham.  Our local Kiwanis and High School Key Club served up breakfast for us.  It is also Dress as Your Favorite Character Day, so I came as the Cat in the Hat and my students were Thing 1 through 23 (actually 17, some were sick and some came in their own costumes)

Hope you had a GREAT week too!