ISM Spotlight – Santa’s Workshop: Winter Craft Rotation

This year I am the luckiest teacher in the world. I get to teach at the best school ever – International School of Morocco, with some of the best, most creative, teachers ever. Each time I walk into someone else’s classroom, I get inspired and we just seem to spiral great teaching ideas off of each other. It’s a wonderful place to teach, and since we are all collaborating, it’s a wonderful place for our kids to learn – a teacher’s dream, right? I have tried and tried to convince the other teachers to create blogs of their own to spotlight and share some of their amazing ideas, but everyone is super busy. Instead, they have each agreed to let me spotlight some of their ideas right here on Raki’s Rad Resources. So, each Friday night, I will be posting an ISM Spotlight.

To celebrate the last week before the Winter Holidays, we did a whole school winter craft rotation called Santa’s Workshop.  We already teach in multiage groups, but for today we further grouped the children into multiage “family groups” of nine students, with each group having children from age 3 to 11.  These groups allowed older students to work with younger students, building leadership skills.  It also gave each group a break from their normal classmates, as they are all ready for a break from each other.

Each teacher hosted a craft, and the family groups moved from one room to another creating winter crafts.  Here are the crafts we offered:

1.  Orange and Clove Pomanders: In Ms. Kadiri’s room, students listened to the story of the Christmas Orange and then made orange and clove pomanders by making small holes in an orange and adding cloves in a multitude of designs.

2.  Toilet Paper Tube Reindeer and Snowmen:  In Ms. Tolentino’s room, students used toilet paper tubes to make snowmen and reindeers.  Ms. Tolentino had all of the pieces pre-cut and the students assembled and added details to these adorable decorations.

3.  Gingerbread Baby Puppet Show Videos:  In Ms. Nassar’s room, students listened to the story of The Gingerbread Baby, and then created props and scenery to film a reenactment the story on the iPad, in person or with puppets.  The results were adorable and all students were able to participate, whether with creation materials, filming, or being the star.

4.  Winter Collages:  In Ms. Johnson’s room, students created collaborative collages using a combination of magazines and student created snowflakes.  Each groups’ collage turned out very different from the others and all are now hanging in the hallway, where students can share their collaborative pride in their achievement. 

5.  Snow Globe & Word Snowflake Cards: In my room, we listened to Walking in a Winter Wonderland, created Winter Wonderland cards.  Each card included: a word cloud in the shape of a snowflake that we created on Tagxedo with a student generated list of words about winter and a paper snow globe show the student’s image of what would be in their Winter Wonderland

6.  Pinecone Ornaments: In Mr. Raki and Madame Gaille’s room, students used paint and beads to create ornaments out of pinecones.  They placed their pinecones in yogurt cups to hold them steady while they were painting.

What winter crafts did you work on this year?

Reversible and Irreversible Candy

Last week before the Winter Holiday, trying to keep the kids focused.  We’re also supposed to be working on our heat unit, specifically introducing reversible and irreversible changes.  So, I decided to make candy!

 

We made two kinds of candy – sugar lollipops and chocolate lollipops.

 

The chocolate lollipops are quite simple – you break apart some dark chocolate, melt it in a pan and put it into molds.  If the chocolate gets too hard while you are filling the molds – apply more heat - hence the reversible part of chocolate lollipops.

The sugar lollipops are a little more difficult, but not much.  I found my recipe on a blog called Funkytime, and decided to use the corn syrup free recipe, which calls for sugar, water, cream of tartar, food coloring and flavor oils – we used strawberry.  After mixing the sugar, water and cream of tartar, you heat until 290 degrees Fahrenheit.  Then, add food coloring and flavor and POUR onto molds. 

 

 

I didn’t read that last direction well and we scooped our candy into the molds – only to have the candy get too hard to scoop, thereby wasting half of our candy.  However, we tried to heat what was left and found that it only got harder, proving the irreversibility of sugar lollipops. 

 

After making and setting our lollipops, we of course had to eat them, and then we filled in a Venn Diagram comparing and contrasting the two processes.

 

How are you fitting learning into the last days before Winter Break?

Creating Solar Ovens

Recently, my class transitioned from an Astronomy unit into our Heating and Cooling unit.  As a transition activity, my class created solar ovens.

 

 

I found the directions for creating our solar ovens at AL-Solar.org, and was able to print them off for free.  We added the directions to our Science notebooks.

 

Each student brought in a box with a lid – we had pizza boxes, pattisserie (bakery) boxes and even shoe boxes.  I provided the students with: aluminum foil, black construction paper, clear plastic wrap, scissors and tape.  As much as possible, I stayed back and let the kids read and follow the directions.  This involved not only reading comprehension, but also a bit of measuring.  When needed, I did some “Go back and re-read” comments, and once I sent in a friend for help.  However, all in all the students were able to build their solar ovens pretty independently.

 

  

       

Unfortunately, the day we made our solar ovens, it decided to rain.  :(  We had to wait until the next day to cook.

Luckily, the next day was a typical, Moroccan sunny day and we put out our solar ovens with a piece of sliced bread and a piece of sliced cheese. 

Unfortunately, the sun moved on us halfway through the day, but after moving our solar ovens to a more opportune location, we were able to toast our bread, although our cheese did not melt. 

   

At the end of the day, the kids reflected on the process in their science notebooks.

Have you ever created a solar oven?

Help ISM Students Raise Money for Schools in the Philippines

This year I am the luckiest teacher in the world. I get to teach at the best school ever – International School of Morocco, with some of the best, most creative, teachers ever. Each time I walk into someone else’s classroom, I get inspired and we just seem to spiral great teaching ideas off of each other. It’s a wonderful place to teach, and since we are all collaborating, it’s a wonderful place for our kids to learn – a teacher’s dream, right? I have tried and tried to convince the other teachers to create blogs of their own to spotlight and share some of their amazing ideas, but everyone is super busy. Instead, they have each agreed to let me spotlight some of their ideas right here on Raki’s Rad Resources. So, each Friday night, I will be posting an ISM Spotlight.

This week, ISM students put on a Winter Concert with the help of our Pedagogical Director, Meredith Achlim.  The students put on plays and sang songs about the holiday season.  The show was cute, well put together and brought our ISM family together to celebrate the season of kindness and giving.

In addition to the show, students, teachers and parents have been working this week to put together a way to raise money for two schools in the Philippines who were devastated by Typhoon Hainan.  The students created Christmas ornaments and collected donations from friends and family.  The Girl Scouts organized a bake sale.  The teachers organized selling hot chocolate.  At the Winter Concert, our school community came together to support buy our goods and donate money. In total, our school raised 6,000 Moroccan Dirhams ($ 731.52).  It was an amazing way to expose our students to the concepts of charity, working together, and problem solving.

All of the proceeds will be sent to two schools in the Philippines who were severely impacted by Typhoon Hainan.   However, our goal was $2,000, so while we are extremely proud of our students for their efforts, we still have a ways to go.  Now, we are turning now to our global school family and asking for help.  Here are two ways you can help: 

1.)  If you, or your students, would like to donate directly, we have set up a PayPal button for you to donate directly to these schools. 100% of donations will be sent directly to the schools.

2.)  For the next week (from Friday, December 13th to Friday, December 20th), I will be donating 100% of my TPT sales income to the cause.  So, if you (or your friends, colleagues etc.) purchase anything from my Teachers Pay Teachers store in the next week, you will be donating 85% of the cost to these schools.  (The other 15% goes to TPT for fees.)

Here’s some information about the schools we are helping:

The first school is President Roxas Central School in President Roxas, Capiz.  At this school, some classrooms were destroyed by a tree falling on the roof. The department of education is only covering the expense of the exterior infrastructure. Teachers, however, are to bear the expenses of the interior restoration of the classroom, as well as the school supplies for the students. The teacher we are trying to help is Maricel L. Draper, a Grade 3 teacher of 26 students. The estimated cost of the bare minimum of school supplies, i.e. pencils, pens, and notebooks to last until the end of the year (March 2014) is 5500 PHP = 1043MAD (Moroccan Dirhams) ($126).  The estimated cost of restoring the classroom interior, i.e. painting, dry wall is 14, 360 PHP = 2, 722 MAD ($329).

   

  

School 2 is in the mountains of Maayon, Capiz.  The teacher we are helping helping at this school has been serving the students in this mountain region for over 35 years. Her name is Merlinda Laurente and she is head teacher. She has seen this school grow over the years. It serves 169 students from Pre-School to Grade 6, averaging between 20 – 30 students per class with a total of 6 teachers including Ms. Laurente. The typhoon destroyed all but 2 school buildings. Immediately after the typhoon, families who lost thier homes lived in the school. Now that families have moved out, the teachers have opened the school back up.  However, classroom space is limited, so there are 2 shifts of teaching time: 6:30am-12pm & 1:00-6:30pm.  Most families, including the teachers have lost their homes. School supplies are needed and the estimated cost for the bare minimum to last until March 2014 is: 17,750 PHP = 3, 366 MAD ($406). If there is extra money after the school supplies have been purchased, materials to rebuild the homes/roofs of the teachers will be purchased.  This is an area in which people are still living on $1 or 8 MAD a day. At this time, there has been no relief that has reached the region.

   

            

Thank you for any donation you can make!

10 Ways to Use Your iPad’s Camera in the Classroom

With all of the amazing apps that can be downloaded onto iPads, I have found that we sometimes forget about the basic capabilities of our iPads, like the camera and video camera.  Adding a camera and a video camera to your classroom can be so powerful.  Kids can immortalize their creations and learning moments with this simple technology.  Here are some ways to use these powerful tools:

1.)  Allow students to take pictures or completed work.  This is especially powerful for creations (blocks, Lego,   patterns etc.) but also works for science experiments, building numbers with base ten blocks, drawings, writing etc.  Kids can also take pictures of the evolution of their work.  These pictures can later be shared with parents or included in an online portfolio.

2.)  Take a photograph of a whole group brainstorming or mini lesson.  These photographs can later be printed and added to Interactive notebooks, or left on the iPad to be brought up again later for reference.  Earlier this week, I did a simple verbs lesson with my students, but didn’t have time for them to finish their independent practice worksheet.  When I told the kids they would have to complete their practice later, I had a student ask me to take a picture of the board so she could reference it the next day.

3.) Let kids video their thinking.  Have students explain their for problem solving, scientific understanding, critical thinking abut reading etc. to the video camera.  Later you can review their thinking with them.

4.)  Have kids interview each other.  Students can learn about their classmates in the beginning of the year, or about the holidays or cultures of their students as the year goes on by interviewing one other student and then presenting all of the interviews to the class.  They could also interview each other about a project or science experiment they created.  Last year, my students created cars and then interviewed a partner about the steps they had taken.

5.)  Send kids on a photo scavenger hunt to find a given topic in your classroom or school.  Younger students can find all the items that begin with the letter of the week, items in groups of 5, or items of a given color.  Older students can take pictures of nouns and verbs, simple machines, or the states of matter.

6.)  Have kids create video summaries of stories they have read.  The summaries don’t have to be long or complex, but can include an acting out of the basics of a book they have read.  Students love to watch books come to life, so why not allow them to be the one who brings their story to life.

7.)  Have kids interview an adult.  Whether you are working on community helpers, or countries of the world.  I am sure that there is an adult at your school who could give your students more information about a topic that interests them.  Have them capture that information in a video interview.

8.)  Let kids document their field trips.  iPads are portable.  Take them with you to the zoo or factory and let kids  document their learning from their perspective – literally.  Since pictures are taken from a child’s height, you can see exactly what they saw through their pictures.

9.)  Document student’s physical growth.  Take each student’s pictures on the first day of each month.  At the end of the year, line up the pictures and have students watch how they have grown or changed, including haircuts, missing teeth etc.

10.)  Create a misbehavior log.  Am I the only one who has ever taken a picture of a misbehaving student to send to a parent?  I hope not!  Nowadays, we can add these pictures into Evernote, e-mail them directly to a parent or administrator, or simply keep a file that documents issues with those problem children.  (Works well for falls and scrapes too!)

 

How do you use your iPad’s camera in the classroom?