Memories: Pi Days of the Past

In my school we are no longer allowed to have food.  So one of my favorite activities from the past is now someonthing I am not allowed to do.  :0(  

Take a walk with me down memory lane for my delicious, edible, and enjoyable Pi Day. 
Pi Day Revisited


-Damien 
The Reading Buddies

Valentine's Day Fourth and Second Grade

Hi all-  It's Damien!  Kelly and I will be joint blogging this post to share about our Valentine's activities.  Some background information before we begin. In order to battle childhood obesity and to "save the instructional integrity of the day" our Valentine's (non)celebrations had to be low key.  It's sad when we forget that we are working with children, but I'll get off my soapbox for now because this is a FUN post about what we were able to do.  


FOURTH GRADE:

I started my Valentine boxes on Wednesday.  I was inspired by something I saw on Pinterest and was going to have my class turn their Cheerios boxes into Hedwig, the snow-white owl from the Harry Potter series.  Perfect for my classroom theme, perfect since we just began The Sorcerer's Stone, and perfect because they wouldn't take forever.  Our first task was feathers!  We covered our boxes with white copy paper and used strips of tissue paper cut and folded to build our feathers.  Take a look!

So, day 1 was happily complete including some music from my Disney Pandora playlist and then it SNOWED....AGAIN!  On Thursday we had our 5th snowday of the school year and although I enjoyed sleeping in, all I kept thinking was "Doesn't Al Roker know I have Valentine Boxes to finish?". (I blame all bad wether on Al Roker).  

And then...Friday was  a delayed opening.  Again all the joys of sleeping in but we had some boxes to finish so cards could be distributed.  As soon as the kiddos arrived, we got to work. Although I had originally envisioned wings and fethers all around, I was rather pleased with the final result. 

After cards were distributed we celebrated friendship with some chocolate fondue.  We were only allowed to dip healthy items (apples, bananas, strawberries) but I was able to sneak in some graham crakers and pretzels.  It was a nice way to spend a delayed opening. Now I'm going to turn it over to Kelly for a Second Grade Valentine's Day. 

Take a peek at a February ELA activity I did with my fifth graders last year that had them analyzing the characters in their novels. Literature Love Letters

See ya later Buddies, 
Damien 

SECOND GRADE: We were also supposed to keep it low key in 2nd grade.  So I saved our extra recess time we earned and incorporated it into celebration time.  I always do centers for my parties, I mean celebrations!  So we had four centers: delivering Valentine's (with no candy attached), eating yummy cupcakes, unscramble the Valentine words, and candy shop vowels.  Yes, I did sneak in some learning but this class loves to learn.  Here are some pictures:

  Love the ipod boxes.

                                            Unscramble the Valentine words

                                                                              

                                        Yummy cupcakes

                                   Long vowel learning!!

If my kiddos finished early at any of the centers they grabbed a clipboard which had a valentine word search.  15 minute rotations work perfect!  Another successful low key celebration.

Reading Buddies and Valentine's were both on Friday!  So we gathered our classes together and Damien read Roses are Red Violets are Pink Your Feet Really Stink by Deanna DeGroat.  The story has a perfect message and cute poems. Then our kids wrote their own poems about friendship.  Great Reading Buddy lesson.

What did you do on Valentine's Day?

Kelly

The End of Summer School

Well friends-

Summer School is OVER!  

Although I enjoy teaching, Summer School is tough even for the best of us.  I had 9 fifth grade remedial students and 13 fourth grade remedial students for two 1 hour Reading Classes.  It was hard to get them to "buy into what I was selling" and even harder to get them to show up each day.  That being said, we tried our best to work on our summer reading, sharpen our literacy skills, and enjoy reading.  

Below I have some pictures from my First Grade Enrichment Class on Math Games.  God I love those first graders, makes me think some time in the younger grades may be in my future-just not the near future.

Here we are in one center playing Hungry Fish. A great (and FREE) app.

Students were at the choice game station

Here we used a SMART Board file a first grade friend shared with me.

This week I am in NYC at Columbia University for the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project.  I can't wait to share all I am learning with you. So, check back soon for posts about that.  

For instant buddy gratification check out our Instagram-
username: TheReadingBuddies

B-Bye Buddies, 
Damien 

Owl Themed Differentiated Novel Cards

Hello Buddies-


I have been super busy lately working on a few products that I am EXCITED to use in my classroom and to share with you.


The first is a revamp of something I used in my classroom FOREVER!  They are differentiated questions that can be used with ANY novel.  Until recently they were written on index cards in my own handwriting, now thanks to all the inspiration I have received from all my blogging buddies they have been redesigned. 


Take a peek:

The cards focus on MANY important literacy skills

Different colored owls differentiate the questions

These are PERFECT for my Harry Potter themed classroom and would be perfect for any OWL themed classroom! They also fit in with the magical colors I will be using in my classroom theme this year. 


Stop by our TPT Store to get your hands on some OWLS!

Happy Friday!
-Damien 

Pi Day Revisited

Hi all I am typing this post from my deck as it is a beautiful March day in Jersey.  I wanted to keep everyone posted on how my Pi Day activities went. 


First we created our Pi Day review plates to remind us of the vocabulary, the formula for circumference, and the meaning of the terms.  This activity took about a 1/2 hour to complete, though the most creative (and slowest working) kids took a little longer.

Here a student is using the Vocabulary section of their
Math Binder to review the terms

A Pi (pie) plate in progress

Finished Pi plates

A closer view

A quick and easy display

In the afternoon we participated in Edible Pi Day Centers (available on TPT Here).  The activities were center-based and had the students measuring the diameter of various desserts and using that information to find the diameter and circumference.  Rule number one, do NOT spend so much time planning that you leave buying the actual pies until the night before. Cut to me in three different grocery stores at 11:00 the night before Pi Day-I've learned from that mistake. 


With Oreos, Peanut Butter Cups, Round Cakes and Pies in hand we started our centers.  Each center had center cards restating the directions for the students (included in the TPT packet). 

Here two of my darlings are reading the directions before starting
at the pie station (YEAH for reading directions!)

This is an image of one of the center cards
for the Apple Pie center. 

The activity guide in progress.

Here are some pictures of us working...

and eating our way through the centers.

Oreo diameter-YUM!

Have you ever measured the diameter of a Peanut Butter Cup?
I usually just eat them

Overall this was a GREAT way to celebrate Pi Day and to have some activities that were super engaging, educational, and of course YUMMY!

How did you celebrate Pi Day? I'd love to hear from you!


-Damien of The Reading Buddies