Back to School Science with OOBLECK! :) {Freebie!}

Have you ever experimented with oobleck in your classroom? If you haven’t you’re missing out. It is SO fun and the kids absolutely love it. Yes it can get a little messy but honestly it’s not THAT bad. I’ve seen much messier activities than oobleck.

Today I was giving my favorite back to school science unit a MASSIVE face lift and I decided it would be fun to make some oobleck with my little nieces who were visiting. They are in fourth and seventh grade, so I really thought they’d be like, “Really aunt Dixie? Oobleck?” but they were like “Wow! This is crazy, it’s a solid and a liquid?!” Haha! They were really intrigued. In fact, my husband came home from work and was playing with it too…it’s definitely a crowd pleaser.

Oobleck is very easy to make, it’s just corn starch and green colored water. Ta da! That’s it! J Oobleck is a great back to school activity to get your kids thinking about the scientific process.

In my favorite back to school unit, “What is science?” I created some writing pages for a cross curricular activity with the book Bartholomew and the Oobleck. My kids loved working with oobleck and I bet yours will too! This activity is great for K-2. Kinder is of course rough at the beginning of the year… but honestly it’s already kind of wild in a beginning of the year kinder classroom, why not let them just get crazy with science? It’s fun and engaging…and aren’t the best lessons the messy ones any ways?

You can view my back to school science unit here. I'm including a little freebie from the packet that you can grab here. Just in case you want to make some oobleck and have your kiddos write about it! :)

What do y’all usually do for science during the back to school season??

Easy Peasy Back to School Math Station

Hey Friends!! I am working hard on some requests I've gotten for TEKS cards. I feel like I know every single TEK for K-5 like the back of my hand...funny! (For those non-Texans out there, the TEKS are our standards. For some reason, we decided to be one of the very few states that did not adopt common core.) 

While I was working on these, I took a break to brainstorm some back to school math stations. I remember thinking when I moved to second, "What do I put out at the VERY beginning of the year...second graders are more independent than firsties and kinders but what SHOULD they already know?" 

So I learned quickly that mastering the basic math facts and ten frame knowledge is a big deal at the beginning of second. Many of them need that review from first. I'm in the process of making a unit with back to school math stations just for little "seconds" and I came up with this diddy. 

Most second graders will find this easy peasy. It's a simple survey that they can use to ask their new friends questions. The bottom portion has some pretty basic questions for the kids to answer about their data. I included a question about the "difference" between two categories. The word "difference" always stumped my kids! Not only will this serve as an introduction/review of data analysis but it will double as a little ice breaker activity. 

I made two: colors and subjects. I'll include more in my upcoming math stations packet. Here's a freebie that you can put in your math stations at the beginning of the year, use as an ice breaker or store and take it out during your data unit later in the year. Pick it up here.

Back to School Survey Freebie

Hola! I'm about to head over to the pediatrician for Jackson's well visit, but wanted to post this little freebie for ya. This is a simple little diddy that you can use for those first days back, when you want to learn more about your kids but also want to keep them busy at their seats while you're doing lunch count, attendance, helping kids get unpacked, etc, etc! 

The front side is a simple version of just favorites, could be used in 1-3 grade. The second page is more fill in the blank style questions. I would use the second page in 2-4th, might be tough for first graders at the beginning of the year. Pick it up here and keep it in your files for that back to school crazy time! :)

Happy Thursday Y'all!

Back to Work!

Today was my first day back in the classroom. This is always an exciting, yet overwhelming, time! When I packed up my room in May, I was rushing to get finished and started just packing things away in my closet and cabinets. I totally regret doing that! Today I spent solely just cleaning out my closet/cabinets and organizing them. I also need to think of downsizing because next year we have to completely empty our rooms so they can take our carpets out. Yikes! So I'll really need to utilize every inch of space in my closet/cabinet.

Here are some pictures before I started cleaning. Everything is a mess! I have so much to do but I have the rest of the week to work on it. So far, I'm feeling good about the cabinets. Baby steps! (The fact that I'm 7 and a half months pregnant will only make this process slower...but tomorrow the hubby is helping me!)

Like I said earlier, today I solely worked on my closet and cabinet. Here is my closet as I was working (I forgot a before picture). It looks crazy!

Here is my closet when I was finished...

 

Here are my blue cabinets before I cleaned them out...

And after...

All in all a good day. Back to work tomorrow! :)

Back to School Birthday Graph

The first week of school my class always makes a birthday graph. I LOVE DJ Inkers fonts and clip art so I created a template for our graph. I'm not sure if I want to do black/white or color and I'm not sure what size I'm going to do...so I created several versions I can pick and choose from later.

I know many of you do birthday graphs so this may help you get some of your back to school planning done. :) Enjoy!

Back to School Icebreaker

Like many other inspired teachers, I've been putting a lot of thought into how I want to start out the next school year. After spending 3 years in kindergarten, I was really starting to think, "Hey, I got this!" And then when I least expected it, I was asked to move to 2nd. I was a little apprehensive at first, just because I could never imagine myself as anything but a kindergarten teacher, but it turned out really well. I absolutely love 2nd grade!

I'm excited that this year I'll get to go in knowing where I'm headed. That always makes things so much easier. I just finished creating an icebreaker activity for my kids to do in July. (Remember, I teach year round?) Take a look and enjoy!

Student Information Sheet: I'll give this out during our "Meet the Teacher Night." As I create more back to school sheets I'll upload them.

Here is the first thing I created for my classroom. On the first day of school, I'll have my students create a page for their memory books. Every month I keep a writing sample and at the end of the year I compile them all into a keepsake memory book for them to take home. On one side of the page, the kids will record their answers and the other side will have a "July" heading and their picture. (I teach year round, so we start in July).