Learning & Teaching

Fifth graders are too old to dress up for Halloween at school. Gone is the annual Halloween parade/parent parking nightmare. In lieu of the scary masks adorning children’s faces, Ms. McP’s homeroom created quite a ghoulish collection of shrunken heads by decorating some fruits and vegetables. After reading the book How Are You Peeling by [...]

The students are quite excited about learning to weave in art class. They’ve promised to teach me, but we’re so busy there’s never any time! It involves using twine taped to plastic straws and yarn woven back and forth. I knew a fourth grade teacher who taught her students to knit as a fine motor/relaxation [...]

Another hands-on, thinking/learning activity took place in science last week. Objective: Design a parachute that falls slowly by selecting the best material to slow the descent of the attached, jumper pig to the ground. Miniature, plastic pigs harnessed to paper parachutes plummet from the second floor landing. Their drops are timed, the goal being to [...]

Yesterday I finally spilled the beans to the students about the blogging project. I told them, “I can hardly stand it. . .I’ve been keeping a secret from you!” I had half an hour with each class to introduce the concept of Web 2.0 and talk about how advancements in technology are impacting their education. [...]

As promised, ta-da, the glorious water cycle. According to Bill Nye, the science guy, the water we drink could once have been dinosaur spit. Thanks to the water cycle, the earth’s water has been recycling and cleansing itself for billions of years. This precious substance changes state from liquid to gas to sometimes solid and [...]

Change of plans. This blog has morphed into my own personal, grown-up space to reflect on and muddle through my thoughts about teaching and learning. Once I started writing, it was like a tidal wave/avalanche/volcanic eruption of ideas spewing forth from my rattled mind. I didn’t want to subject the children (or their parents) to [...]

While reading a Time For Kids article on the presidential election a student asked me, “Who are you voting for?” Ah, a favorite topic of mine. I believe it’s so important for teachers to get kids excited about their civic duties. Two years ago, my student teaching unit focused on the rights and responsibilities of [...]

Still me, Mrs. S. Today I wanted to write about the Water Cycle, but Ms. McP erased her phenomenal diagram from the white board before I could photograph it. She promised to reproduce her masterpiece again, so we will revisit the water cycle at a later date, freeing me to address the equally important matter [...]

Me again, Mrs. S. The students aren’t quite on board yet, but I didn’t want to lose the positive momentum building on our classroom blog. And besides, yesterday was a memorable day — We got a new student in Room 246! Imagine being the new kid, eight weeks into the school year? So many new [...]

A student gushed to me last Friday. “Ms. McP is the best teacher ever!” What elicited such enthusiasm from a fifth grader, you ask? Well, this particular comment was in reference to the annual Egg Drop Competition conducted by Ms. McP, science teacher extraordinaire. Every October, perhaps to save our goey little uncooked friends from [...]