Notebooking, Teaching, and Technology

Typically the worst part of the school day for me is that period at the end of the day when the bus bell rings and you are waiting for the car riders and walker/bikers to be dismissed. I'm sure it only lasts less then ten minutes but it feels longer and I swear I age ten years in the process :) In an attempt to keep the class focused during those long minutes I started playing Steve Spangler on Ellen Videos that I downloaded (using the YouTube downloader written about here ). The kids love the humor and look forward to seeing what kind of science Steve uses to make Ellen laugh. The videos last anywhere from 7-10 minutes and are perfect end of the day fillers. I would highly recommend watching them before showing them in class to ensure the content is appropriate for your students.

This isn't an edible fossil like an earlier post but I thought this would easy to do in a classroom. Directions can be found on Art Projects for Kids blog . I have a willing third grade teacher so I hope to post pictures soon!

I've seen these cookie moon phases before ( click here for a description of the activity on Science Bob's Blog ) and wanted to share my "Moon Phase" cookie story. After seeing these online I thought it would be fun to do it in class as part of our Astronomy unit. I decided to make these at home. They turned out adorable. Then I decided to eat them (justifying that I would let my kids eat them in class :) It quickly became apparent that 8 Oreo cookies was way too many to eat (I definitely felt queasy). I went back to the online directions and found out that I was suppose to use "mini Oreo cookies" (which made much more sense). A note of caution, the mini Oreo cookies may not be as cost effective with large groups of children (when I taught middle school I had 80+ children). It is definitely cheaper to buy the generic chocolate sandwich cookies. I would just provide a snack or sandwich baggie so the kids could take the leftovers home.

This is definitively a pet peeve of mine! Really....how hard is it to put your name on a piece of paper particularly when the first thing I say is "Put your name on your paper and give me a thumbs up when it is done." You would be surprised at the number of papers I get back with no names. It was to the point that I would ask children to turn to their left or right and CHECK that the child next to them put their name on the paper :) I saw this NO NAME paper bin idea on this Flicker site and thought it was a GREAT idea. Passing it along in case anyone else suffers like me.

Sure they may be a little "cutesy" but I liked the height representation. Thank you to the teacher on the blog The Inspired Apple for posting. Trying to think of a way that I can incorporate pull tab clouds into the notebook to represent the cloud heights :)

Mmmm ....our third grade students study fossils as as part of their Earth materials unit. This Martha Stewart recipe for fossil cookies looks like it might be something that can be worked into the unit. I don't like the fact that you have to freeze the cookies first (making the project a two day event) and (unless you have a toaster oven in the classroom) you would have to make them at home. Some schools don't allow hot plates or toaster ovens. If you aren't sure...DON'T ASK (easier to get forgiveness then permission). I feel TOTALLY fine with bringing in a toaster oven for this one activity and then taking it back home. I would most likely want a parent to help "watch" the toaster oven but the darn things have to bake for 30 minutes. If any cooks out there have a better idea please let me know.

This was just a fun looking project. Children would scatter glow paint inside of mason jars and create their own stars in a jar. I would do this in conjunction with our astronomy unit - most likely as an end of unit activity.