Spring Break and a Staple Gun

One of the joys of working at a year round school is. . . well. . . the schedule!  We are in session for 9 weeks, with 3 week breaks in between!  This happens to be week 1 of my 3 week spring break!!!  A magical thing happens to my brain while on break.  I am no longer spending my creative energy on my class, so I have to find some way to channel all of my creativity!!!

I went to an estate sale a while back and bought a stepstool for $2.  I saw it.  I loved it.  It was hideous and I had to have it!  My then boyfriend (now husband) shook his head in shame as I loaded it into my car.  But I could see past the smelly, mothballed exterior.  I saw the potential for greatness.

Isn't it a beauty!?

I started by taking out all of the little nails that were holding the fabric on.  The padding underneath was fine, so rather than replace it, I decide to just cover over it.  If you decide to recover something like this footstool, it is a good idea to keep the original fabric to use as a template for your new fabric.  It's way easier than trying to eyeball it. 

I painted the legs white with gray tips to match the awesome pink and gray fabric I picked out.  I have way more fabric than projects, because I can never decide on which pattern to get!  I end up with one project and 3 different fabrics.  So I just store them away and wait for another project to come along.

Once the legs had dried and I had cut out my new fabric, I broke out the big guns.

I had never used a staple gun!!  If you haven't either, trust me. . . it's addictive.  I want to upholster everything!!  I flipped my stool upside down on the fabric and started stapling my way around it. The biggest trick here is to pull tight as you go, so it doesn't have any wrinkles in the fabric when you flip it right side up.

After a few staples and lots of love, this is the final product!

See. . . there's nothing a little paint, fabric, and a whole lotta love can't fix!

Dr. Seuss Week - The Butter Battle Book

Read Across America week is one of my absolute favorite weeks of the year.  Each year we take a few of Dr. Seuss' books and do different literature (and science integrated) activities with them.  I teach third grade, so I really try to use the books that my kids might not already know.  I also try to do activities with them that are fun, but also allow me to maintain my instructional time.  As a teacher with an EOG at the end of the year, time is precious!!

We began our first big Dr. Seuss activity by reading The Butter Battle Book.  I did it as a read aloud to allow my struggling readers the same opportunity for comprehension as my higher readers.

After reading the book, we did a little hands on activity to go with our book.  We made BUTTER!!!  For third graders this is a huge deal!  They still think that milk comes from cartons and eggs come from Walmart.  The whole understanding that butter can be made in front of their very eyes is absolutely astounding to them. 

To make butter in your class, you need the following items: 

Okay. . . so the main ingredient is heavy whipping cream.  Any container will work.  I chose this one because it has a screw on lid (less mess) and because it was cheap ($3 at Ingles).  The bread is optional, but seriously. ..  so yummy with butter :)

I put the whipping cream in the container, screwed the lid on tight, and set the kids to work. 

Shake Shake Shake!!!

If you can see in the picture, I set this up as one of my reading rotations, so students just visited it on their own.  When it was open, they could go over.  They had a timer set to 2 minutes.  They pushed start, shook the jar until time was up, and turned off the timer.  It worked great, and with a class full of kids was much more efficient than having them all sit and pass it around.  After the butter is all shook up, it will start to pull away from the sides of the jar.  

The butter will not look like your typical stick butter.  This is the real deal.  It is much softer and creamier (and yummier).  The liquidy part is actually buttermilk.  I pour it off first and let my kids taste it too.  Once they have tasted their buttermilk, we put butter on bread and chow down!  We discussed whether they were like the Yooks or the Zooks in the Dr. Seuss book and ate our bread with the butter side up or the butter side down.  Some of my anti-conflict babies decided to solve the problem and fold their bread before they ate it. 

This was a great way to bring in some real world examples to their Dr. Seuss story.  It also met my science standard for states of matter.  They could witness the change as it happened.  

Is there something special you do in your class to celebrate Dr. Seuss?  

The Binder Battle

I have been working with my third grade team lately on coming up with a way to organize all the things we have been buying/finding/creating to go along with our Common Core Standards.  We have all created file folders to hold everything, and up until recently it had been working splendidly, but as time goes by, my collection has grown.  I'm finding myself cramming papers into corners, building stacks, and never actually re-filing anything where it should go!  It's driving my crazy!!!

So. . . in the spirit of cleanliness and sanity, I am changing my file folder system out for something a little more organized (at least for me).  My teammates are still using their file folders, and it's going great for them . . . just not so much for me.

Welcome to the abyss that was my paper pile.  Not pretty.

I started by purchasing binders from Walmart.  No fancy binders needed. I just grabbed the plain ole (cheap) white ones :)  I WILL give you a heads up by saying that it was a HUGE lifesaver for me to buy binders with the little holes cut out on the spine.  They were the cheaper option and helped when I slid in spine labels.

Then I went online and found the cutest editable binder covers by BlogHoppin'.  If you plan on making binders yourself, this was a SUPER easy template and made my life so much easier!!!

I made a binder for each of my CCSS standards.  Some people would be fine doing it by strand (just using a bigger binder), but I seriously would end up with yet another mess.  Besides, this way, I can pull the binder for whichever standard I'm working on and it's all set!!

I also made a label for the spines of the binders, just to make it super simple when I go to pull a standard, I can see it without having to fish around. 

Aren't they CUUTE!!

Inside each binder I've put card stock and tabbies I bought at Walmart (way cheaper than buying dividers).  As you know teachers, cutting corners for the sake of price is a must!  On my tabs I've put things that I MUST have organized.  My worksheets and things like that are staying in my file folders in my cabinet, but the binder is where I'll keep my Interactive Notebooks, Exit Slips, Assessments, and things like that.  If I ever want to add something, all I have to add is card stock! Simple as that!

I was really proud of the fact that my tabs match the cover of my notebook!!

I added the final touch by printing off my unpacking.  If you haven't been using your unpacking documents, they are VITAL to teaching and understanding your curriculum.  I printed myself a fresh copy and cut it all to pieces.  These went in the back sleeve of the binder, just as a quick reference for me, whenever I need it.

The final result is a MUCH neater, color coded (I chose to do each strand a different color), ORGANIZED way to keep my math materials all together!

Happy Organizing!!!