Great Local Field Trip

Took my students to Publix of all places for a field trip last week. To my surprise it was an excellent real-life field trip for the kids and they loved it! They broke the field trip up into 2 parts. Part 1 a tour and part 2 a shopping experience.
The tour began in the bakery where the students learned how bread/cookies were made and baked. Then onto the produce department where we learned about freshness and watched them core and peel a pineapple with an amazing machine. Next was dairy where we went behind the milk and eggs to see how they were shelved. The meat department was aso fun where they learned about tenderizing/cutting and were asked trivia questions. Winners received Slim Jim's.
Part 2 the shopping experience consisted of 3 groups; cashiers, baggers, and shoppers. The shoppers were given a budget (from donations we collected) to purchase nonperishable food items for needy people for Thanksgiving. The cashiers and baggers were sent in to a room to watch a video and learn how to cashier/bag. Then when shoppers were ready the students rang them out and bagged all the groceries before we sent them off to the church organization.

Space Field Trip

Google Earth now has an option to turn any location into a night sky view. No matter where you are in the world you can now look up at the night sky and see the many constellations and planetary movements. It makes a great interactive lesson with your class.

Madonna in the Classroom

Madonna's childrens books are great in the classroom. I was having many conflicts in the classroom with bullying and respect. After reading Madonna's books to the class the students and I began a discussion about bullying and repsect and many of the conflicts have been resolved.

Saving Time and Trees!

I have created a web-site for my classroom for both student and parents to access. This web-site is a major means of communication for the parents and students to reach me. Also I will send all notices/bulletins through the email/web-site. Talk about saving trees over a long period of time!!! My goal is to get the other teachers on my team and at school to do the same over time.

Computers, Computers, Computers

I take my students to the computer lab twice a week at my school. I have the students go on SuccessMaker which is a program designed to help each student with individualizes math/reading skills through a tutorial program. The computer programs help enhance the classroom instruction on a more individualized level where I can not always work one on one with my students.