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Education Station Newsletter
Vol. 4 #1 January 2005
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Happy New Year!!
Best Wishes for a happy and healthy 2005 from all your friends at
Education Station.
Welcome to the Education Station monthly newsletter! Here we take
a look at great teacher tips, useful teaching links to great sites and
helpful ideas and activities for celebrating holidays, seasons and special
days in your classroom. Our great specials section will help you save
money and we have also included articles that look at the latest practices
in education. We hope our newsletter will help inspire you to be the
best teacher you can be! This newsletter is produced by the Education
Station website, which is located:
http://www.educationstation.ca
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In This Issue
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1. Quote
2. Teacher Tips
Keeping Desks Clean Neat Treat
Cleaning Whiteboards Baby Wipes
3. Great Links
Parent Reading Tip Sheet
Games that Teach
4. Current Specials
5. Celebrate!
Winter
The 100th day of school
6. Article
Seven Practices of Great Teachers
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1. Quote
To stimulate life, leaving it then free to develop, to unfold, herein
lies the first task of the teacher.
- Maria Montessori
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2. Teacher Tips
Neat Treat
"Every afternoon at dismissal, I choose a name from a box and then
check that student's desk to see if it's neat and clean. If it is, that
student receives a 'Neat Treat' to take home. I put that name in my desk
and when all of the names have been chosen, I start over again. If the
chosen student's desk is not neat I put the name back into the box and
choose another. This incentive has resulted in very organized desks and
very little time wasted while a student hunts for materials."
From Barbara Wrachford, a first grade teacher, West Virginia
Wiping Boards
"When whiteboards need a good cleaning, simply use baby wipes over
the entire surface. The wipes will take off the marker that erasers leave
behind and they're less expensive than white board cleaner."
From Julie Thompson, a kindergarten teacher, Georgia
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3. Great Links
Parent Reading Tip Sheet
Here is a tip sheet that can be shared with parents of emergent readers
to help them guide their children’s reading progression at home.
http://www.pickens.k12.sc.us/hesteachers/laboonac/web%20pages/tips_for_parents_in_helping_your.htm
Games that Teach
Dr. Jean is an inspirational educator who incorporates music, movement
and fun into teaching concepts. This link is full of great games
that make learning alphabet, numbers, sight words, math concepts…meaningful
and fun!!! The generic ideas presented here can be modified up
or down to meet the learning needs of a variety of subjects, objectives
or grade levels.
http://drjean.org/html/monthly_act/act_2004/11_Nov_2004/11_2004a.html
Dr. Jean’s fun, learning CD’s are available at Education
Station.ca
http://www.educationstation.ca/drjean.php
Class Book
Here is a FREE, simple Winter Alphabet Book ready to print out and
bind for your cozy reading corner collection.
http://curry.edschool.virginia.edu/go/wil/A_Winter_Alphabet.pdf
Free Reproducible Emergent Mini-books
Check out Reading a-z for 30 free downloadable emergent readers.
http://www.readinga-z.com/newfiles/preview.html
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4. Current Specials
Buy 2 Get 1 Free Sale!!!!
Burst into January with our Buy 2 Get 1 Free Sale!!!!
Entire Store on Sale!!!!
December 27-January 9, 2005
In store only, offer not available on-line, in stock items only
13204 137 Ave
Edmonton, AB
780-475-4680
www.educationstation.ca
The following products are currently on sale at Education Station.ca. Check
back often as the sale products change every week. http://www.educationstation.ca/index.php
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5. Celebrate!
Celebrate Winter
Here are some excellent sites to keep your students busy with great
Winter Activities.
http://www.thevirtualvine.com/winter.html
http://www.thevirtualvine.com/snowman.html
http://teachers.teach-nology.com/themes/holidays/winter/
http://www.thevirtualvine.com/mittens.html
http://www.kinderkorner.com/pics22.html#snowballs
http://members.shaw.ca/henriksent/winter.htm
http://members.shaw.ca/henriksent/penguins.htm
100th Day of School Ideas
Celebrate the 100th day of school with 100’s of ideas listed
here. Have fun and enjoy!
Compiled by Diane Shaw at Education Station from the many creative
ideas offered by 100’s of great teachers on the internet.
Make a class book by filling in the following frame:
I wish I had 100___________
I wish I had 100__________
I wish I had 100____________
But I'd never want 100__________!!!
Hide 100 Hershey Kisses around the room and have the kids look for
them.
Place stickers on the bottom of each kiss labelled with a number from
1-100.
After a child has found a kiss they put it on a 100's chart. When
all the
kisses are found have the kids decide how they can split them up evenly
so
everyone gets the same amount.
Make a special 100th day necklace. String 100 fruit loops, sorted
by colour into groups of 10.
Make a 100th day hat by stamping 100 times on a cut out 100. Then
glue on a headband strip.
Read Alexander, Who Used to be Rich Last Sunday. Use a small
change purse with 100 pennies in it. As you read, have the kids
come up and count the pennies and take them out of the change purse.
Do a home project of putting 100 objects on a piece of poster board.
For a language chart you could try to come up with 100 food names,
animal
names, book titles, things to do outside, etc. This is a great thinking
activity, you could complete it as a shared writing activity if you
wish.
After reading The Wolves Chicken Stew, you might want to make 100
pancakes
and also have 100 cookies and doughnuts to see if your class can eat
it all.
Then the class could draw something else the Wolf could give the chicks.
Using the frame The Wolf could make the chicks 100 __________, then
you can
make it into a class book.
After reading 100 Angry Ants make a class book of 100 animals. 100
old owls,
kicking kangaroos, zippy zebras, running rhinos, caring cats, etc.,
Have the class draw what they think they will look like in 100 years.
Older
children can write what they think the world will be like in 100 years.
Make 100 construction paper feet and see how far you will get from
your
classroom door.
Have each child bring in 100 of an object (some things could be cereal,
marshmallows, nuts, M &M's, stickers, twist ties, noodles, etc.)
Make a big
class chart of your 100 objects, after you do some counting activities
with
them!
Have each child write something nice someone did for them on a heart.
When
you get 100 acts of kindness have a special party. Keep the display
up for
the 100th day with the title. 100 Acts of Kindness in room ______.
What can we do in 100 seconds?
Show the children three jars (One of the jars should have 100 things
in it,
the other two should not.). Have the children estimate which jar has
100,
and then count out the objects in each jar as a group. Discuss their
predictions
and the results.
Do 100 exercises (10 of each type of exercise suggested by the children
in
your class. I.E. jumping jacks, toe touches....).
Count to 100 by 1's, 5's and 10's.
Make the highest structure you can with 100 blocks, or with 100 straws
and
scotch tape.
Fill bags with various amounts of one item. As a group have the kids
decide
which bag they think has 100 inside. Record the guesses and count.
For older
children you can have the group decide which bags put together will
be 100.
(for example 40 marshmallows and 60 fruit loops)
Do "What would you buy with $100.00?” Give each child a green
piece of paper designed to look like a $100 dollar bill. Then have each
of the students use a catalogue and
a calculator. They cut the items out that they would buy, entered
the price
in and then glue the items that they purchased on their bill.
Literature
The 100th Day of School by Angela Shelf Medearis
The Wolf's Chicken Stew by Keiko Kasza
Miss Bindergarten Celebrates the 100th Day of Kindergarten - by J.
Slate
12 Ways to Get to 11 by Eve Merriam
One Hundred Is A Family by Pam Munoz Ryan
One Hundred Hungry Ants by Eleanor Pinczes
I'll Teach My dog 100 Words by Michael Frith
I Can Count to 100...Can You? by Katherine Howard
One Hundred Monkeys by Daniel Cutler
Annos's Counting House by Mitsumasa Ann
From 1 to 100 by Teri Sloat
Put together 100 piece puzzles.
Be quiet 100 seconds. (A real teacher favourite!)
See how long it takes to bounce a ball 100 times.
It's a Hundred Days of School - (Sung to the tune of It's a
Small World)
Oh we started school such a long time ago
And there's much we've learned and a lot we know.
We can read, write, and spell
We do math very well
It's a hundred days of school.
It's a hundred days of school,
It's a hundred days of school,
It's a hundred days of school,
It's one hundred days of school.
Yes, we've studied hard and we've made new friends
And there's much to do 'til the school year ends.
But for now .....Hip Hooray, we've reached our
Hundreth Day.
It's a hundred days of school.
It's a hundred days of school,
It's a hundred days of school,
It's a hundred days of school,
It's one hundred days of school.
100 Days Song (to "We've Been Working on the Railroad")
We've been working in our classroom, for 100 days.
We've been working in our classroom, here in the first grade.
Rising early in the morning, bring our books and pencils too.
Every day we come to first grade, we learn something new.
100 days are here, come on give a cheer
100 days are here, Hurray! Hurray!
100 days have come, come on join the fun,
100 days are here, Hurray!
Make 100 shaped glasses.
Blow up 100 balloons, see how long it takes to pop them. Have a stomp
party.
Bake a cake and place 100 candles on top. Sing "Happy 100 Day
to Us".
Have your students imagine what life will be like in a hundred years.
Have them draw a picture of what they will look like and write about
what life will be like. Invent something that people will be using in
a hundred years.
Wear a vest or sweatshirt that has 100 buttons sewn on it.
At the 100th minute of school on the 100th day, have the children
in your school go out in the hall to do 100 exercises. The P.E. teacher
can go on the intercom system and lead the children in exercises. Do
10 of ten different exercises (jumping jacks. trunk twists, toe touches,
etc) and end with 10 cheers.
Have a 100 Day Breakfast. Give the children one sausage link (the
number one) and two halves of a mini bagel (The zeros).
Collect 100 returnable bottles and then use the money for your classroom.
Have your students write "100 Reasons We Like School."
Have your students lick a lollipop 100 times.
With 10 days to go put a sign in the hallway announcing "Be ready
only ____ more days!" and change the number with 9, 8, 7, etc.
Make a 100 link chain (10 EACH OF 10 COLORS)
Walk 100 steps from your room and mark the spot
Give the students 100 math problems or 100 words to read (when you
list the words make these the last 7 words-you have just read one hundred
words!)
Bring in 100 pennies, nickels and dimes. Count the money to help practice
counting by 1's, 5's, and 10's.
Collect 100 e-mails from around the world and put them on display
on a large bulletin board. You can also put up a huge wall world map
and put a smiling face or pin where each e-mail came from.
Paint a gumball machine. Then have the children do 10 dots of 10 different
colours to make 100.
Have your students spell out their names using exactly 100 punched
out stars, dots… and glue them to 12 x 18 construction paper.
Decorate your room with a paper chain make up of 100 links that the
kids make with different colors of construction paper and tape.
Read the book The Wolf's Chicken Stew, and then make and try to eat
100 pancakes! Make small pancakes, so they are easy to make and eat.
Do some estimating. Put three bottles out with unpopped popcorn kernels.
All you need for this is baby jars. Have the kids guess which jar has
a hundred seeds. They will be surprised (as you will) at how few seeds
make a hundred!
Have your students’ pair up and count 100 objects from our math
centre. (unifix cubes, pattern blocks, shells, caps, etc.) Have them
make 10 piles of 10. Then place the 100 objects in a plastic bag. Then
use the balance scale and estimate if 100 pattern blocks will weigh more/less
than 100 cubes…
Using a blank 100's chart have the children write their names over
and over again, one letter in each square, moving left to right and continuing
on to the next line without leaving any empty spaces. Completely fill
in the 100's chart. Then have them colour it using their letters for
a key. Example: For the name Jane--all j's on the chart might be colored
red; a's, blue; n's, green; and e's, yellow. It's fun to see the different
colored patterns that result (some students names create stripes, others
create diagonals, and with names longer than 10 letters the results can
really be unusual.) The coloured charts make a great display on the wall!
Save 100 cereal boxes to build a "Hundreds House" in your classroom.
Make a connect-a-dot puzzle using 100 dots.
Collect 100 items for your local Food Bank or Humane Society. Count,
sort, and graph the items.
Have all the children in the class trace their hand. Write the numbers
1-100 on each finger and make a display of 100 fingers.
Make a design using 100 pattern blocks
Cut out pictures that names a person, place or thing and glue it in
the appropriate poster board (I got this ides from this website) Writing
Centre: Draw what you would like when 100 and write what you think you
may accomplished. Listening Centre: Listen to the story Henry Hooper
and the 100 Hiccups, a tape (no book) from Scholastic. In this way I
can do a lot of the activities that I wouldn't be able to do on just
the one day. Of course, on the 100th Day of School, we do nothing but
100 stuff. (Yolanda, 2nd grade, New York, NY)
Use the computer program Kid Pix Studio and use the stamp tool. Have
your students stamp 10 sets of 10 stamps.
Have students grab a bunch of legos with both hands and estimate how
many they think they have. Then have them really count their legos. Only
keep 100 legos. Sort and graph the colored legos. Using the 100 legos,
each student sees what they can build out of 100 legos. Share their models.
Give each child 100 M&M's (of different colors). They count how
many they have of each colour and make a graph.
The number 100 is the perfect number for glasses. Trace the number
one hundred and cut out the middle of the zeros that become the "lenses" of
the glasses. Then, decorate the rims and staple onto an oaktag band so
they can wear them all day!
Sing this song, sung to the tune, Three Blind Mice.
One hundred days, one hundred days,
We've been in school one hundred days,
We sat and learn the Golden Rule
Oh, isn't fun to be in school one hundred days.
Make a picture with 100 fingerprints. Keep baby wipes on hand for
when they're finished!
Have the kids fill in 100 dots on a ladybug, 100 cotton balls on
a sheep, 100 gumballs on a gumball machine, 100 Swedish fish on a
fishbowl, and 100 legs on a centipede.
We sing the following song to the tune of "I've Been Working on the
Railroad" :
We've been working in our classroom. For 100 days!
We've been working in our classroom. Here in (fill in grade) grade!
Rising early in the morning. Bring our books and pencils, too!
Every day at (school name).We learn something new!
100 day is here, 100 day is here. Come on and give a cheer!
100 day is here, 100 day is here. Come on and give a cheer! Hooray!
(ASL)
Here is another song
Hi, ho, hi, ho,
100 days ago
We came to school
And we're so cool.
Hi, ho, hi, ho, hi, ho.
Read, "Ms. Bindergarten Celebrates the 100th Day of
Kindergarten"
100 Piece Trail Mix (snack)
Assign children (or have parents choose) one of ten ingredients to
make
trail mix. Put items in bowls so that children count to make a 100
trail mix. Give each child a brown paper bag (or small bowl) and they
count 10 from each item, ending
up with 100 pieces in their trail mix. Some possible items are:
Unsalted nuts, peanuts, cashews, or almonds (watch for allergies)
Sunflower seeds
Dried cranberries
Dried cherries
Dried apricots
Raisins
Mini chocolate chips (both white and brown)
Mini pretzels
Multi grain Cheerios
Whole wheat Chex cereal
M & M's
Make the 100th day punch from Ms. Bindergarten's book. The book
shows her buying the ingredients, and later shows the ingredients
listed at a centre in her classroom.
10 cans of either ginger ale, sprite, or any clear soda like that.
(count to 100 by tens as you empty them in the bowl.)
100 cherries
100 ice cubes
Mix all ingredients together...Simple, fun, tasty
More Great Ideas……
http://www.siec.k12.in.us/~west/proj/100th/act.htm
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Agora/6218/hundreddays.html
http://www.yesitteach.org/hundred.htm
http://members.aol.com/Aesopnet/100th.html
http://www.globalclassroom.org/100days.html
http://members.aol.com/a100thday/ideas.html
http://www.miamisci.org/ph/jbean100.html
http://members.aol.com/sskufca/100.htm
http://atozteacherstuff.com/themes/100days.shtml
http://www.proteacher.com/020068.shtml
6. Article
Seven Practices of Great Teachers
1. A great teacher gets to know each child individually.
A great teacher doesn't bark orders and talk to children in the "to
whom it may concern" style; she/he gets to know each child as a
unique individual, spending time cultivating one-on-one relationships
with each child. Great teachers know children deserve to be treated with
individual respect, even if they are in a group setting. It is only as
individuals that they can be fully appreciated and understood
2. A great teacher shares a joyful spirit .
A great teacher knows it is not enough to be "present". Children require
us to share our presence emotionally as well as physically. By sharing
joy with children, and carrying a positive attitude, great teachers give
children hope, encouragement, and a sense of the world being a good place.
3. A great teacher loves to learn as well as teach.
A great teacher is as open to learning as she/he is excited about
teaching. Great teachers know that learning and teaching are lifelong
processes that go hand in hand. They encourage their students to view
learning as fun, and view teaching as a natural outcome of wanting to
share enthusiasm for learning.
4. A great teacher knows how to get back to basics.
A great teacher knows children learn best from down-to-earth experiences.
Great teachers are less concerned with technology than with nature. They
know the value of a walk in the park over a video game. They understand
that the best things for children are not always the newest, flashiest
or most "advanced". Great teachers understand that children learn from
life itself, not just educational toys and man-made experiences.
5. A great teacher learns from his/her students.
Great teachers influence and are influenced by their students. Not
only do great teachers learn about their students, they learn from their
students, too. By listening to students, asking them questions, and getting
their opinions, great teachers encourage a dialogue that is meaningful
and educational for all.
6. A great teacher looks at the big picture.
Great teachers know how to put learning into context. They help
their students understand how each new piece of information fits in with
the rest. They seldom teach isolated facts and skills. Instead,
they try to help children see how ideas are related to each other, and
how they connect to the child's life.
7. Great teachers inspire and motivate others.
Great teachers share their passion for teaching, and in doing so,
inspire those around them, including students, parents and other teachers.
Great teachers are gifted in finding the good in each person, uncovering
the talents in every child, and fueling the fire of greatness that exists
in us all.
from http://www.pickens.k12.sc.us/hesteachers/laboonac/web%20pages/seven_practices_of_great_teacher.htm
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** If you find the Education Station newsletter to be a useful tool
for your
classroom experiences, please forward it to a friend or two. Thanks!
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