OpEn HOuSe: The final episode :) Plus a FREEBIE

Here are my last (I promise) Open House photos...

Open House 2014Our Science Discovery Center, Jack's beans growing up to the castle in the clouds from our flowerpots, and baby quail in our little barn.

You can find our Flower Pot template by clicking HERE or on the photo above.

Our Garden Shop Center

Our chicks will hatch next week.

Our Farm Center

Hatching chicks count down.

Our progressive writing folders.Students choose a noun, a verb, and an direct object to help build a complete sentence.

 You can find our Instant Writing templates by clicking HERE or on the photo above or the one below.

A closer view of our cumulative writing folders.  Just pop these pages off of the wall at the end of the year, staple them together, and you have a year of writing!

Butterfly life cycle made with 4 types of pasta!

When I Grow Up, I Will Be...

You can find our "When I Grow Up" template by clicking HERE or on the photo above.

You can see our egg carton school buses at the top of this photo.

You can find the FREE School Bus template by clicking HERE or on the photo above.

We had a GREAT Open House!  

Now, I'm chillin' at a B&B in northern CA.  :)

See you all tomorrow!

Palma :)

Part 4 In A Four-Part Series (& a question I have been wondering about)

The Series Continues!

Thank you, to VGW for the title:  "Four-Part Series"  :)

First, here is the question:

Where are my followers from?  Please post the name of the state or country you are from in the comments.  Thank you!  :)

Here is another sneak peek of my classroom:

Our eggs are waiting for their big day.  

And Here Is Another Open House Post From Last Year:

The following post is from May 28, 2013:

I just returned from a wonderful long weekend in and around the Santa Cruz mountains.  What an amazing place!  My family and I went on a great hike where I collected things for my discovery center.

"What is your discovery center?" you ask.  It's a long counter where kids get to explore things.  There are no directions, requirements, or rules (except you must stay safe) and children are allowed to explore and "discover" all sorts of things.  I even have a child size lab coat that a colleague gave me!  :)

Our flower pots have lima beans growing in them.  

 You can find our flowerpot template to grow lima beans by clicking HERE or on the photo above.

Tiny sprouts we grew from seeds.

At the beginning of the year, I filled the discovery center with non-living scientific items to explore like magnets, tubs of water, and lots of things to explore.  Students discovered which things floated and which things didn't, which things were attracted to magnets and which things weren't.

They also had tools; lots of tools.  I set out magnifying glasses, rulers, balance scales, cups for pouring, cups for sorting, shaker jars for listening, colored glasses for looking, and lots of things for touching.

At this time of year, I have bird nests, wasp nests (empty), leaves, pine cones, rocks, plants, and ladybugs ready to hatch in our ladybug enclosure.
At the end of the day, we reflect and write about something we did in our class journal.  The students come up with the sentences (which get more complex as the year goes on) and I write them.  Find our Daily Journal HERE.

So, while I was vacationing with my family, I still had my "teacher eyes" looking for things to share with my class.  They loved the wasp nests I brought back, the lichens, and the leaves.  I had them smell the forest today as they sniffed at the tiny branches of redwood trees that I collected from the ground.  They were so excited to get these treasures, you would have thought I brought them back a new iPad for the class!    Do you have a discovery center too?  What's in your center?

Tomorrow, May 22, 2014, is my REAL Open House.

Palma :)

Open House, Part 3 AND Do You Know The Answer???

Today's Open House Sneak Peek:

Egg carton school buses and "When I Grow Up" writing.

Our Garden Shop where kids get to "buy" plants, flowers, and garden tools.
Check out the sentence building on the closet doors.
Click on the picture to see our "Instant Writing" pack.

Here are some more photos of Last Year's Open House Tour.

Career Writing:   I took photos of the kids dressed like what
they will look like when they go to work in the future.  

 "When I Grow Up" bulletin board.  Parents loved this!  Click on the photo or here for the template.

Life Cycle of a Butterfly in pasta.

Being Italian, I can teach almost anything with pasta!  :oD  Here is the life cycle of a butterfly represented in different types of pasta.

The eggs:  pastina (Found in major grocery stores or small Italian grocery stores.  If you can't find it, you can use orzo style pasta which is also small and looks like long, pointy rice.)
The caterpillar:  We painted curly pasta with green acrylic paint.
The chrysalis:  Small shell pasta painted brown with acrylic paint.
The butterfly:  Bow tie pasta painted orange with acrylic paint.  Add dots with White Out.
       

The front of the room:  I like to use a seasonal piece of fabric on the front table.  

Laptop & digital camera hooked up to a SMART board.

 CD player, calendar, shape apron, bucket of pointers and a magnetic board are all essential:

The front of our room; always a bit messy.

This is what I have on my magnetic board.  I post the sequence of directions for our table work with magnetic clips.  Red clip first, next green, then purple, and last blue.

Below each action card I place a sample of the work to be done in the order it is to be done.  

We call this "Our Order Of Operations!"

What should I do first?  This is our "Order of Operations!"

Here is a closer look at the keyboard center that
I blogged about yesterday.
"We are the music makers.  We are the dreamers of dreams."
Willie Wonka

Here is another view of the library center that I blogged
about yesterday.  I got this furniture free with my
Scholastic Book Club points.  

Our writing center includes the names of each students printed on a list with a photo of each child by his/her name.  The lists are kept in page protectors and are attached to a metal ring.
Students write seasonal post cards to individual students in the class:

Our Writing Center.

Do You Know The Answer?

I might add a 4th part to my Open House trilogy, but then it won't be a trilogy!

What would it be then?

Leave your answer in the comments. :)

See you tomorrow!

Palma :)

Open House Part 2, the sequel...

Getting Ready For Open House:

Here are 2 more sneak peeks of this year's Open House prep: 

We planted grass seeds in eggshells.  

 We also planted a variety of beans.  This year we added the straw with the castle in a cloud to go with our Jack and the Beanstalk unit.

Click the image to see the flowerpot template.
The set includes 2 templates & complete directions.

Here Is Last Year's Open House Part II:

Here is our Rainbow Writing Wall.   We collect the students' writing all year long.  As they complete a writing assignment, we double hole punch the page (top middle) and attach the page to the file folder fasteners.  You can see a close up of the fasteners in the photo below.  

The metal fasteners are the same type that
are used in medical files.  

The 12" X 13" construction paper is mounted with a
12" X 11" piece of black construction paper.  I
laminate it and add the fastener .  Names are below
the writing and can be changed each year.  

At the end of the year, we remove all of the pages from the fasteners and send them home in a folder with a cover page that says,  "If you give a child a pencil... "

We have a variety of writing templates in our Monthly Writing packet.

It doesn't include the template in the photo, but it has writing prompts about things that sink & float, apples, and whether you would like to have a beard link Lincoln or a wig like Washington; just to name a few.  

Our listening center and keyboard.  The keyboard has a
headset so the player doesn't disturb the class.   

Our puppet stage in front of our Rainbow
 Writing Boards and our Angry Verbs where the birds
 are all doing something that made them angry.  

Come back again to see more pictures from my classroom tour!  

Tomorrow, I'll post the final part of this Open House Trilogy :)

See you all tomorrow.

Palma  :)

Open House "Throw back" Week

Here Is A Sneak Peek...

This year's theme was The Farm :)
Our chicks should hatch soon.

This is one corner of my classroom this year for Open House.

But were you following my blog last year?  I ran a 3-part trilogy of my Open House last year.

Remember This?

Click the image to see Part 1 from last year's Open House.

CLICK HERE  to view last year's Open House pix.  This was part 1 of a trilogy.

Come back tomorrow for part 2, the sequel.  :)

Check out all of my goodies on my TPT store by CLICKING HERE.

See you all tomorrow.

Palma :)

Open House, A Give-Away, AND The BIG QUESTION...

What Do You Want To Be When You Grow UP?

I ask my students that every year and then, I take their photograph dressed up as if they are working at that profession!  It makes the best bulletin board for Open House!

She wants to be a farmer.

A police officer.

A dentist

An ice cream truck driver!

Getting Started:

I present a unit on Community Helpers.  We learn about the different jobs around our community AND our school.  I used images I found on the Internet to talk about each job and what they do.  You might even want to have parents come in a talk about their jobs too.  I also taught them the song from Sesame Street called "Who Are The People In Your Neighborhood?" You can find the book on Amazon:

Click the image.

The 1st Bulletin Board:

At the beginning of the year, I take my students on a tour of the school and they get to meet the principal, assistant principal, office workers, health clerk (or nurse), librarian, cafeteria workers, and the custodians.  

We also meet the special teachers in our specialty classes like in the computer lab, music room, science lab, and the playground where we meet the safety specialists and the P.E. teachers.  

I take photographs of all of these people and create a little bulletin board in my classroom.  It helps the parents to get to know everyone who works with their child too.

The 2nd Bulletin Board:

This is the one that includes the photograph of the child dressed up like what they want to be when they grow up and their writing.   

Writing Part:

My students told me what they wanted to be when they grow up and one thing they will do if they had that job.  I wrote it for them on lined paper and all they had to do was copy it onto the writing template and color the frame.  

I gave them their photographs and they glued them onto the top section of the page.  This makes the cutes bulletin board and a great addition to their memory books too.  

Yes, that's a REAL FISH in the bowl!

Here Is A Tip:

This year, I Googled a background setting for many of my students so they looked like they were actually on stage, in a dentist office or a hair salon.  I just displayed the Googled image onto my SMART board and took the photograph of the child in front of the screen.

A rock star

   

A hair dresser

An eye doctor

Here Are A Few More...

A software engineer

A veterinarian

A pilot

Resources:

I already had a lot of "dress up" outfits in my home center, but you can create outfits with just a few props.  A man's white shirt can double as a lab coat for a doctor, dentist, veterinarian, or a scientist.  A dark blue shirt can be a police officer.  Props like stuffed animals and a doctor kit enhance the veterinarian's outfit and a tricycle can be the perfect prop for a motorcycle racer if he/she can bring a helmet to school.  I gave a pilot a police shirt, a globe, and a plastic airplane.  The globe covered the police badge.  Get creative and seek the help of your parents.  

Here is where you can find the writing templates too.  You can find it by clicking on the image below.  

Click the image.

This is an opinion piece and you get 2 templates.  Use the simple one for Pre-K or T.K. and they can just copy the name of their future job or you can write it in for them.  The 2nd template gives them a place to write about why they want that job or what they will do when they have that job.  

So, when is your Open House?  Ours is in 12 more days.  Leave a comment about an Open House idea you do with your class.

And... check out our Facebook where over 2000 teachers are following us!  We are almost seeing 20-20 "likes", so I am giving away our 5 Senses Pack to the 2020th "like".  It could be YOU!  

Click the image.

If you made it all the way down here...

Happy Mother's Day to you!!!

I'll see you all tomorrow.

Palma :)