Bucket Fillers

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Throughout the semester we have been involved in a project called bucket fillers. This was inspired by a book by that same title. This book teaches the readers about treating people with respect and kindness. For the project that we did in my class each person in the class had a cup (the bucket in this case) with our names on them. Throughout the year we all were to fill everyone’s cups with positive messages. It is nice for all of us to read the wonderful things that people have written about us.

For children this kind of project can boost their self-esteem and self-worth. It will also create a sense on belonging and community within the classroom. 

Plays

To use or not to use? That is the question. But really it’s not a questions. The obvious answer is USE them!! When students put themselves into a role they are making connections with that role. This is a way to get them invested in the subject that they doing a play about.

You don’t just have to act out plays that have already been written, there are many different ways to incorporate acting into your classroom. You can have the students choose a book to write a script with.

They would go through the book to decide which parts are important and should be in the play. They could discuss what the actors should be doing during certain parts of the play as well. For example, should they be happy, sad, angry, sitting, standing, yelling, whispering, laughing, jumping, etc.

Another option would be for the teacher to show the students a significant picture and either have the students act it out what they think is happening in the picture or even what they think would happen right before or after the picture was taken. This is something we did in my class today. We all helped to reenact the picture of Washington crossing the Delaware. We all represented one person and then our professor asked us what our character was doing and what we think our character was feeling. Even just sitting in the same position as the people really made us think about who these people really were. 

Classroom Playlists

Creating a classroom playlist can be an important aspect in creating different atmospheres in your room. Music can set the tone in your room. It can make it energized, calm, fun, and really anything else you need for your class.

Here are some of the songs I would use in my classroom:

Calming-

A Whole New World (Disney)

You’ve got a Friend in Me (Disney)

Winnie the Pooh (instrumental)

Colors of the Wind (instrumental)

Once Upon a Dream (instrumental)

I See the Light (instrumental)

Energizing-

What does the fox say (Kidz Bop)

Roar (Kidz Bop)

Shake it off (Kidz Bop)

Happy (Kidz Bop)

Everybody wants to be a Cat (Disney)

Hakuna Mata (Disney)

I just can’t wait to be King (Disney)

Bare Necessities (Disney)

Fight Song (Rachel Platten)

For teaching-

Multiplication song

Rhyming song

Continents and Oceans

Planets song

Seasons song

Paper Clips

In our class we watched a very powerful and educational movie called “Paper Clips.” When I heard the name of the movie I honestly wasn’t sure what the movie would be about. The manufacturing of paper clips? No matter what went through my head it was not correct. This movie is about one school’s experience with learning about the Holocaust.

When they were learning about the Holocaust this class was having a difficult time understanding the ramifications of the war. They could not even wrap their minds around how many people were effected. The teacher then decided to do something to help them. She wanted to help her class collect paper clips in order to see the amount of people there truly were. From there it escalated. Watch the movie to see what happens next! 

One of my favorite quotes from the movie is “You’ve embarked on a journey that begins in the brain, but ends in the heart.” I think this is something that all teachers should strive to live by. I believe that it is our job to teach our students, but we should also be sure to make meaningful connections to what they are learning. 

Democratic Classroom Plan

Creating a community in your classroom is a strategy that can help ensure that all of your students feel safe and included when they are in the classroom. Creating a Democratic Classroom Plan is one way to start to plan out ways to create a community in the classroom.

There are many different categories that are in a Democratic Classroom Plan. One of the sections is creating a classroom motto. The one that my group chose for our example was, “We promise to have the courage to make mistakes, and the wisdom to correct them.” We thought that this would be something that would be beneficial for the students in any class to see and even say every day. Many people, adults included, have a hard time when they feel as though they have made any kind of mistake. So, our group thought that teaching students that everyone makes mistakes was going to be a goal in our classroom. This was probably one of my favorite parts of our plan. Another favorite of ours was under the classroom expectations. We decided that in our class we would like the students to be involved in coming up with the expectations. So, we wanted to create a class constitution. It would be written by the students and signed by them as well. 

The other sections of a democratic plan include:

Class motto

Class expectations

Top five best ideas

Class rules

Procedures

Consequences

Seating chart

Class map

M is for Michiana

After reading “B is for Brooklyn” our professor was inspired to do something similar using our community. We called our project M is for Michiana. For this project each one of us in the class got to pick a letter of the alphabet and use that letter to find something of importance in our community that starts with that letter.

For example if someone got the letter E they could research the art, culture, history, people, nature, geography, and events of Elkhart.

Because our class has so many people in it, we ran out of letters. So, some of us got a specific place to research. I receive IUSB, because it is important to the whole class given that it is the school that we are all going to.

This activity, or something like it, could be good for students to learn about their communities. It may also help to get the students actually involved with their communities.  

Music Video

In my arts class we had the opportunity to create a music video that we would be able to connect to another subject; we could choose pretty much anything from math, science, language arts, or social studies. The tough part for my group was deciding on what kind of video to make; we just could not decide which subject we should choose there were just too many choices!

We finally decided on the topic of dance. Michelle, my partner, has been in ballet for a really long time so she has a connection to it. My connection is mainly the fact that I like to watch people dance, I don’t really have enough coordination to dance as gracefully as other people. J

Doing something like this in a classroom could be fun. No matter their tastes in music almost everyone has a connection to music. So, teaching through music or learning through music can be extremely beneficial.

You could either have students create their own music videos about a specific topic or you could create a video that you would use to teach the students about a specific topic. Either way using this musical aspect in a lesson gives the students at least a small connection to it. 

Art Show

After all of our class was finished with our four art projects we had an art show to showcase each item that we created. We made labels for each project that had the titles of each on them; I put the type of project that each was on mine as well (i.e. salt dough, fabric, culinary, etc.). We all got to go around the room and leave positive comments about each other’s’ projects and read about what they made.

Afterwards we also got to choose our favorite piece that we made to share in more depth with the class. I chose to share my multimedia project. I chose that one because I was pleasantly surprised with how my drawing turned out. I had never had a drawing turn out as well as that one had in my opinion. This pieces also had the most meaning to me, because I made it in honor of my great grandma when she was sick and she ended up passing away before we did this art show. It felt very important to me. It is actually still in my room right now. 

Book Units

Recently in class we discussed creating units based on books. This is something that I have touched on in other classes, but never in as much depth as we did in this class. You can get so much more out of books than just simply language arts. As a class we discussed multiple different books and the numerous different subjects and activities that we could cover based on the content of the book.

One of the books that we discussed was “The Mighty Miss. Malone” by Christopher Paul Curtis. Some of the activities that we discussed were:

-making a birthday card or gift that may have been given to Deza

-discussing the great depression and its effects on people

-creating a budget plan (for present day as well as during the depression)

-comparing and contrasting Indiana and Michigan

-and SO much more! For more ideas click here.

You can create a unit or even a mini unit with any book really and you can do it for any grade! The possibilities are endless. So, get reading people J

Culinary Arts

For one of my art projects this semester I signed up for culinary arts. I decided to make baked cinnamon apple slices. For the recipe for the apples that I made click here.  I decided on this for two reasons. First, I know that one person in my class is a vegetarian, so I wanted to make sure I made something that she could enjoy with us. Second, I also knew that a lot of my classmates were dieting at the time and again I wanted everyone to be able to enjoy what I made.

They turned out very good and I even liked them better warmed up! I have made them a few times since then for my family.

This project got me thinking of the different ways that culinary arts could be used in a classroom. Two things came to my mind. First was the nutritional aspect that comes with food. Some kids don’t have the access to healthy foods that others do, so bringing in these nutritious and healthy foods will broaden their horizons when it comes to food. The second thing that came to my mind was learning more about different cultures. Food is a major aspect in every culture, so seeing and eating it gives a greater insight into those cultures. 

Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore

For class we got to go on a field trip to the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. For this trip a lot of us carpooled to get there, so it was an adventure before we even got there! We had fun on our ride to the national lakeshore. I’m not going to lie, we were a little apprehensive at first because of the weather. Then we got lost on the way there, but we finally made it!

The first thing that we did was watch a few videos about the history of the lakeshore. We went on a few quick hikes. We were lucky enough to have a tour guide in the form of our professor’s husband. He was nice enough to share his ideas of how to truly integrate nature into a classroom, given that he teaches in an elementary school.

On one of the hikes that we went on we ended up at the Bailey Chellberg Calumet Cemetery. It was not exactly what I had expected when we saw the sign for it. I guess in my mind I just assumed that this cemetery would be the same as the ones that I’ve seen so far in my life. However, that is not what happened. This cemetery was actually more like a tomb; it was a very large and beautiful building. We even saw a bunny and a frog hanging near the building. It was probably my favorite part of the trip.

A very important thing that I learned on this trip was the fact that all fourth graders can get passes to see all of the national parks for free! The program is called ‘Every Kid in a Park.’ I feel that not many teachers know this, so how would they tell their students if they don’t know! So spread the word! Tell all of those fourth grade teachers and families with fourth graders. For more information on ‘Every Kid in a Park’ click here.