Lucky Leprechauns

My example -- not nearly as awesome as the students' work!

For St. Patrick's Day, I wanted to have a project with a good message that could stay up through the middle of April. We are having the 100th anniversary of St. Mary School on April 14, and I wanted to have the third and fourth graders do something that could stay up on the walls for guests to see.  Because we hosted forensics last night, I thought they would be very cute to have up for visiting students to see. I found some ideas on Pinterest and combined them to come up with these gems! The pot of gold came from a wonderful blogger: The Teacher Wife. She has it available on her Teachers Pay Teachers store. I found a picture of these leprechauns made out of paper plates on Pinterest, but I don't know the source of the picture because the pin no longer goes to the website source of the picture! I asked the students to think about who is worth more than gold and wrote this prompt on the board: "______________________ is worth more than gold."  The students had to write acceptable responses before they could draw their pictures. I showed them an example I had made using my nephews (aren't they A-D-O-R-A-B-L-E?) The written part is shown above.Because my students are better drawers than I am, I just decided to use a picture for the example. They understood. I absolutely love how they turned out! Most of the students wanted to write about their whole families. Here are some highlights.

This student wins my award for favorite beard. I love how the curlies go all the way up the face. He was very proud of his side burns!

I really get a kick out of this one! He wrote about his mom and dad. Apparently his dad is a bull rider, and that is the uniform he wears to practice!

Banana-Rainbow Chip Cookies

Round two of cookies for my forensics volunteers found me on Pinterest searching through the large number of desserts I have pinned, but haven't yet made. There I cam across Banana-Rainbow Chip Cookies and thought they would be a ton of fun! I found this recipe on Betty Crocker which gave credit to Adam and Joanne Gallagher from Inspired Taste for this wonderful recipe. You need fewer ingredients than the lemonade cookies! I love using cake mixes to make cookies. It just makes things so much easier. For these cookies, you need confetti cake mix, instant banana pudding mix, vegetable oil, two eggs, and white chocolate chips. You mix all the ingredients together, then drop them by tablespoons onto parchment lined baking sheets. Next, bake them for 10 minutes at 350 degrees. The result is very soft and yummy! Thank you Betty Crocker!!   I can't wait for my volunteers to try them on Tuesday! 

Soft Lemonade Cookies

For as long as I can remember, Grandma Bohman has made these cookies that are called fruit slices. She makes three different varieties: orange, lime, and lemon. I am fairly ashamed to admit I never tried these wonderful slices of heaven until I was in my twenties and willing to try new things because lemon, lime, and orange just never seemed like the flavors a cookie should have. As a matter of fact, the only thing that changed my mind was Girl Scout Camp.

I worked at Camp Evelyn Girl Scout Camp for two of the most amazing summers of my life. One of the best things about the food there was the occasional dessert of Girl Scout Cookies! Imagine my disgust when the only option one night was of the lemon variety. Not wanting to be one of THOSE staff members who told my campers to try things they aren't comfortable with but won't do the same themselves, I decided to suck it up. The joke was on me, the cookies, as many of you probably know, are FABULOUS! This gave me the courage to finally taste the cookies my grandma makes, and I found myself to be the butt of yet another knee slapper. Which brings me to the point of this rant - I came to grips with my aversion to citrus fruit flavored dessert and now fully embrace the flavor they can bring. 

Don't they look scrumptious??

 When I was looking for cookie recipes to bring into school for the volunteers who will help me pull off the middle school forensics competition on Tuesday, I found the recipe for Soft Lemonade Cookies in the 1997 Taste of Home Annual Recipes Cookbook. You can also find the recipe at the taste of home website - http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/Soft-Lemonade-Cookies.

It is amazing what you can do with 6 ingredients! All you need is softened butter, sugar, eggs, flour, baking soda, and, frozen lemonade concentrate, thawed. First, cream 1 cup of butter and 1 cup sugar until they are evenly blended. Then add two eggs. In a separate bowl, combine the flour and baking soda. Once the eggs are blended in, slowly alternate between adding the flour mixture and 1/3 cup of lemonade concentrate. (I cannot lie, I added at least two tablespoons more of concentrate to the dough because I wanted them to be really lemon-y. After it is mixed well, drop rounded teaspoonfuls onto parchment lined cookie sheets and bake for 8 minutes at 400 degrees.

Once they are out of the oven, they need to cool for a bit before you add the last step. By a bit, I literally mean a minute. After about a minute, I swiftly pulled the parchment paper off the baking sheets onto my cupboard. Then I used my silicone pastry brush to brush the cookies with the remaining lemonade concentrate. Lastly, I sprinkled the cookies with some more sugar. I can't wait to try them once they have cooled some more! I hope they will like them on Tuesday!

Celebrating Dr. Seuss

Celebrating Dr. Seuss! 

Last week was an important week at school. Dr. Seuss's birthday is one of my favorite days! Teaching middle schoolers doesn't leave a lot of room for me to go all out, but I do try to incorporate something special into my day. I was really inspired this year by our Kindergarten teacher, who really took off with a week packed full of amazing activities.

 Wednesday was hat day. Students and staff could pay one dollar and be able to wear a hat to school. To the left you can see the hat brought by one of the fourth grade students. I made sure I put him in the back of the room that day! The money raised went to a charity called Caps 4 Kids.


Most years I use  a Dr. Seuss book in my lesson for Read Across America, however, this year, I wanted to try something new. During my language arts classes in the afternoon, I had each student get out a book to read. For the first part of class, they read their books.

Toward the middle of the reading time, I stopped and gave Dr. Seuss trivia giving students the chance to win one of these cute little guys!
I can't for the life of me find the blog where I originally found them, but I was so inspired when I found them, I went out to get the materials right away. You need creme filled chocolate sandwich cookies, white chocolate chips or almond bark, marshmallows, and red candy melts (such as those made by Wilton).

I melted the white chocolate and dipped the cookies the melted chocolate. As those were cooling, I melted the red candy melts. After you dip one end of a marshmallow in the melted candy, you should place the dipped end on top of a dipped cookie. I had to let the marshmallows cool for a little while, so it would be easier to dip the top of the marshmallow.

Technically, the Dr. Seuss hat has five stripes, so to be more accurate, I should have dipped the bottom of the cookie in the red candy as well. I did not, however, have enough of the candy melts for this to happen. I did experiment with a few of them, as you can see, but most of the hats had all white bottoms.

After the Dr. Seuss trivia time, I had them read their books for a bit longer. With ten minutes left of class, they got out their journals and wrote about what they had read. They have to write a journal entry every day, so they automatically had something to write about with this activity.

This activity worked best with the fifth and sixth graders. The seventh and eighth graders weren't as impressed with the trivia, or having to read for "that long without stopping."

Later in the afternoon, the entire school met in the cafeteria for hot chocolate and candy canes. Since the cafeteria is right next to the kindergarten room, I grabbed a Dr. Seuss book from her basket to read as they drank. I didn't really look at which book I had grabbed until I got back into the cafeteria: I had grabbed Oh Say, Can You Say? What a tongue twister!

Sweet Potato Fries

I love French fries! I hate greasy French fries with as big a passion. This recipe incorporates my love for French fries while avoiding my hate for greasiness! These fries are baked in the oven instead of deep fried. You will need the following ingredients: sweet potato, seasoning salt, and olive oil. You will use the following materials: baking sheet, knife, cutting board, and a zip lock bag. Doesn't this sound simple?

The hardest part is making the sweet potato into fries. First, cut the top and bottom off of the sweet potato. You can either use a peeler to peel the potato or use the knife to cut off the peel. When it comes to the fries, I usually choose to use the knife, but I'm not really sure why. After peeling the potato, I cut the potato in half with the knife. Then I can cut the potato into fries. I put the fries into the ziplock bag and pour about 1 tsp of olive oil over them. Then I sprinkle about 1/4 tsp seasoning salt on the them. Close the bag and toss to coat.

Finally, I pour the fries onto a sprayed cookie sheet and place in a preheated oven. I bake them at 400 degrees. After 10 minutes, I use a spatula to turn the fries. I toss the fries again after another 10 minutes. If they are not crispy on the edges, continue to bake until they are finished. I usually check them every 5 minutes after the initial 20. However, it can take up to 45 minutes for the fries to be the texture I like. 

This is the simplest recipe I have found for sweet potato fries. I LOVE these fries by themselves, but I can be a condiment buff, so I have begun exploring different dips. One that I have tried was a BBQ Honey sauce which I found while exploring Pinterest. I found it at Saving and Giving. It uses 1 c bbq sauce and 1 Tbsp each of brown sugar and honey. YUM!!!!!

Calm Down Kit

Today’s “getting ready for a super-stellar school year” project was a Calm Down Kit I saw on Pinterest. The original source was the Social Work Practices at the UT Elementary School Blog (http://blogs.utexas.edu/utes_socialwork/2010/12/). I have some students in my classroom who could definitely benefit from this creation.

The idea behind the Calm Down Kit is that a student who gets worked up during class will be able to sit in a special spot with the items in the kit to help them cope with their emotions.

In my kit I choose to put the following things: a pack of tissue, crayons, scrap paper, play-doh, counting sticks, accent gems, pens, a stress ball, and a Sudoku puzzle book. I’m also planning on adding a pocket-sized Chicken Soup for the Soul as well as a rosary, which I can hopefully borrow from school.

I’m sure this kit is more of a work-in-progress. I’ll probably be thinking of more things to add to it during the school year!

Readers' Theater

Readers' Theater Resources

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE using readers' theater in my classroom. My students really get into it because the characters really come alive for them. The elements of the story really become clear.
 This year I was able to turn the week before Christmas (when absolutely nothing can usually pull the students away from the visions of sugar plums) into a romp into the world of fluency and expression. I chose a reader’s theater play for each class. One class did a version of “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” by Dr. Seuss that I adapted into readers’ theater format, and the other three classes had plays based on “The Night Before Christmas” by Clement C. Moore. On the last day before Christmas break, we have a tradition of caroling for local senior citizens. When we got back from caroling, this year the students performed their plays for the whole school. One of my favorite parts of the performances was watching one of my students exclaim, “Boo hoo to the Whos!” Students in my classes were still quoting his amazing expression at the end of the year. 
My seventh and eighth graders do readers’ theater on a regular basis. I subscribe to Scope magazine through Scholastic. One of the best parts of this magazine is the readers’ theater play in each issue. My students and I look forward to each volume!

While I was searching for readers’ theater scripts for Christmas, I found a lot of different resources to utilize. I would like to put them in one place! 

Readers’ Theatre Digest	This site contains many wonderful articles on incorporating readers’ theater in the classroom.
Aaron Shepard	Aaron Shepard is an author who created Readers’ Theatre scripts for many wonderful folk tales, fables, and stories. The best part: the scripts are free!
Timeless Teacher Stuff	This site has scripts and other resources I found helpful in implementing readers’ theater in my classroom.
Readers Theater All Year	This site has some free scripts. It also includes a description of readers theater as well as other useful resources. The “All you can Eat” option is available for under $5/month. The scripts are also separated according to holiday/occasion so it is easy to find what you are looking for!
Grandview Library	There a lot of scripts aimed toward students in grades K-3 at this site. Older students can have a lot of fun preparing these scripts to perform for younger students. Choices range from beloved fairy tales to more modern children’s stories.
Teaching Heart	This site has various scripts compiled from different resources. There is also good information on creating your own scripts and evaluating readers’ theater.
Super Teacher	Although this site gives full access to paying subscribers (about $20/year), it also has some free goodies!
Giggle Poetry	This is one of my favorite sites in the world! It has a lot of poems for students to read, and there is a whole section called “Poetry Theater” divides the poems into parts.
The Best Class	This is the website of Mr. Young. He is a former literacy specialist. He has a lot of scripts and each script shows the number of parts in the menu!
Library Point	This is the site of the Central Rappahannock Regional Library. There is an article about reader’s theater in the teacher’s section which includes some free scripts.
Teachers.net	This page is a wonderful site for teachers. At the lesson plan page, search ‘readers theater,’ and you will find a plethora of scripts.
Playbooks	This site has a lot of scripts available for purchase.
Reading Online	This site is run by the International Reading Association (IRA). There are very good resources here!
Sherlock’s Wiki	A ton of great scripts!
Reading Lady	This is the blog of the Reading Lady. Not only does she have a lot of wonderful scripts, but she also has great resources for comprehension, author studies, poetry, six trait, and assessment.
PBS Kids	This site has a lot of play scripts. The format is a little difficult to read, but these plays have production notes in them.
Whootie Owl	This site has a lot of good scripts, and you can also submit your own scripts! Then there is a spot to submit performance video.