Teaching in Stripes

Five for Friday- March 18th

Hey, hey, hey! Happy Friday!

I'm linking up again with Doodle Bug's Teaching to share 5 little snippets of my week.

After a mini freak-out over papers and messiness everywhere, stuff literally overflowing from students' cubbies, I whipped up a few reward coupons for neatness and organization. There were some very excited students when they found a coupon waiting for them on their cubbies on Tuesday morning. It also motivated some of my Messy Marvins to shape up their work spaces, because, man, they wanted a lollipop, too! #bribery

I'm knee deep into my weather unit in science, and this week's focus as been on the water cycle. We've done so many fun things- experiments, writing, songs. Our favorites were shaving cream rain clouds and water cycle bracelets. A full post will be coming on all things water cycle!

A few months ago, after being fed with the amount of plastic grocery bags we had lying around, I ordered a couple of reusable tote bags from Baggu. I love them! They're so bright and pretty. They fold right up and get stuffed into a small pouch. I can easily keep two bags in my purse. The large one that I have is great for our Costco runs. I'm definitely going to be ordering more.

Two Sundays ago, I had a Google Hangout with my TPT mini-tribe: Molly, Kelli, Becky, Caitlin, and Brynn. We worked together to get ourselves set with goals and visions. A year ago, I would have never imagined that what has been a hobby for a while would have turned into something so valuable to me. I've learned a tremendous amount over the past year, and I have learned so much from those girls! When I met them for lunch at a Panera last July, I would have never guessed that we'd be doing so much more in March. What a blessing my tribe has been to me! Wow!

(old picture, but same fabulous women!)

My little girl and I had a date last weekend to see my district's high school production of Cinderella. It was fantastic! A few girls from my first two classes of first graders were in the musical. It was so wonderful to see them perform. Such talented beauties all grown up!
Julia absolutely loved it! She was beyond excited and loved the prince and silly step-sister. It was a little long for a 3 year old, but she did a great job. We don't get many mama-Julia dates, so it was really special.

So, that was my week...how was yours? Good, bad, crazy busy? I'm super pumped for next week's 3 day week before Easter. We can do it, Teacher Friends!
Be sure to check out more Five for Friday posts over at Doodle Bug's Teaching blog. Thanks for stopping by!

Cause and Effect with Strega Nona

Featured, reading

I love Tomie dePaola stories, and Strega Nona has always been one of my favorites. What's not to love about never ending pasta!?!

This week, we've been working on cause-effect relationships, which can be pretty tricky for students. I love to use folktales and fables as anchor texts for teaching cause and effect, because there is always a moral or lesson to be learned as a result of a character's choices. This time I used Strega Nona.

I always introduce cause and effect by pushing a student on my rolling desk chair. Kids love anything to do with the rolly chair.
Ask- What happened to Student? She rolled across the room. Why? She rolled across the room, because Mrs. Maiorino pushed her.

Cause- The chair was pushed.

Effect- Student rolled across the room.

That led us to a few more real-world examples before diving into the story

Since many of my kids had already read or heard Strega Nona, I introduced my anchor chart and set the purpose for listening. What happens as a result of Big Anthony touching the pasta pot?

After reading, we discussed the purpose for listening in pairs at the carpet. Then, in their table groups, students were given a noodle that I made using yellow bulletin board paper. On the noodle, each group had to write one effect that came from Big Anthony disobeying Strega Nona. Each group shared out, and we added the noodles the pot.
Sidenote- I had a pretty vision of how this would look once the chart was complete. The noodles are a little limp in the pot. Oh well. #realclassrooms

The noodles read:

The pot overflowed with pasta.
The pot began to overflow, and the townspeople were panicking!
The town was covered in pasta.
Strega Nona and the townspeople get mad at Big Anthony.
The town is covered in pasta.
Big Anthony had to eat all of the pasta, because he touched the pot.

Lastly, students completed two cause-effect prompts in their literacy journals. You can grab a copy here.

They did a really great job. Cause and effect is hard, but these kiddos got it! I was super proud of them. They loved the story, and they especially loved the big noodles.
Thanks for stopping by!

Oh the Places You'll Go! Hot Air Balloon Craft

crafts, reading

When my team started planning for Dr. Seuss week, I wanted something a little different. You can only make so many paper hats, right?!? I love, love, love rainbow colors and thought something colorful would be so pretty to carry into spring. I suggested hot air balloons to pair with Oh the Places You'll Go, and it was a hit! They look beautiful in our hallway!

Get your materials ready:
-balloon tracer
-4 pieces of colored paper
-length of yarn, about 24 inches long
-paper cup or cupcake liner
-photo of student

Start by tracing a balloon pattern on four pieces of paper. You could do five or three, but four was perfect for my second graders. We used Astrobright paper, and it was so, so pretty! Astrobright > construction paper!

Fold each balloon shape in half. Line up the folds of two balloon shapes, and glue them together.

Meaning, you'll glue the right side of one balloon shape to the left side of another balloon.

Loop your yarn in half, leaving enough at the top to hang it from the ceiling (about 3-4 inches). The tails of the yarn will hang out the bottom of the balloon. I found it worked best to tape the yarn in place.

Glue another balloon on top. Tape down the other half of the yarn.

Add your last balloon. You should have a 3-D balloon now!

Now, it's time to add your basket. I used these adorable little ice cream cups that I found in the Dollar Spot at Target. My teammates used Dixie cups. I think black cups with white polka dots would be adorable, though! Punch two holes in the cups, opposite of one another. Tie the tails of the yarn through the holes.

Last of all, add pictures of your students. I had mine pose like they were actually in a hot air balloon. They came up with the cutest poses! We glued the pictures on card stock, and that helped them to stand up in the baskets. It worked really well to tape the kids inside of the baskets.

Hang your balloons! We hung the entire grade level's balloons in our hallway, and it is seriously so pretty! They look awesome all hanging together, especially when the breeze blows through.