Back To School Bash with The Primary Pack

Our hop is a 3…2…1… BACK TO SCHOOL BASH because each member of The Primary Pack will be giving you 3 teacher tips, 2 giveaways (one on each of our blogs and one BIG one on the Primary Pack), and 1 freebie!

To enter our BIG giveaway, you need to head over to THE PRIMARY PACK FIRST! As you "hop" through each of our blogs, you will collect a letter from each of us… 28 total. Those letters spell out a secret code that you need to enter our BIG giveaway! You will use the secret code to enter the rafflecoptor on The Primary Pack at the end of the hop.

 You need to collect the letters from us IN ORDER, so please make sure that you start from the beginning of our hop. Click on the button below to head over to THE PRIMARY PACK and start our BACK TO SCHOOL BASH!!

I don't know about you, but the thought of Back to School has fried my brain. I'm exhausted thinking about it. So here are a few tips to help you get off to a great start for the new year. 

If you have read any of my posts in the past you may have noticed that I am not the most organized teacher in the world. I'm that teacher that has a desk overflowing with stuff...I'd like to say that it is organized chaos. But to be honest, usually it is just chaos.

That is until this past year, when I made my Teacher's Tool Box! This helped with my organization so much, and it even matched my classroom theme! 

Surprisingly, for most of the year my desk looked like this! Not sure how I managed it, but I did!

If you like my toolbox, you can pick it up HERE.

Laminating poems, saves a ton of time each year. Instead of having to write out the poem over and over again. Just wipe off the white board marker. (HINT: If the wipe board marker doesn't come off easily, try a little bit of rubbing alcohol.)

Of course, than there is the problem of storing all of your poems and anchor charts. Tape a plastic hanger to the back of the laminated chart and hang on a hook, old pocket chart stands work great. (HINT: children's clothing stores will usually give away the hangers for free.)

Collect plastic fruit trays. They are an inexpensive way to organize almost anything! 

Do you use writing folders? Make sure you SNAG these free writing folders! FOUR different designs!

These folders are great for showing how each student is different. The folders have both boys and girls, glasses and no glasses. They are also black and white which, allows students an opportunity to colour and make there boy or girl look like them. 

Remember to enter our BIG giveaway, you need to head over to THE PRIMARY PACK first, that is if you haven't already started there! As you "hop" through each of our blogs, you will collect a letter from each of us… 28 total. Those letters spell out a secret code that you need to enter our BIG giveaway! You will use the secret code to enter the rafflecopter on The Primary Pack at the end of the hop. You need to collect the letters from us IN ORDER, so please make sure that you start from the beginning of our hop. Click on the button below to head over to THE PRIMARY PACK and start ourBACK TO SCHOOL BASH!! If you have already hopped along to me, you are fine to continue your journey!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Make sure you hop along to the blog of one of the newest members of the Primary Pack!  Check out Chad's  from the blog a Male Kingergraten Teacher, BTS Tips and don't forget to find his letter!

30 Minute Thursday! (Bacon Wrapped, Stuffed Chicken)

Yeah! It's our first Thirty Minute Thursdays! You are going to want to check out all of these great recipe ideas! Especially when you head back to school and you need quick easy meals! 

So here is my recipe!!!!! Who doesn't love BACON? FETA CHEESE? and CHICKEN????

I can't take credit for this recipe, my friend Nicole told me about it. My oldest daughter, Anna is 9 and she has decided that she is going to be a chef. She has made us some interesting items...lets say. Not sure how we are still alive. Nicole suggested this recipe because it's super easy! Easy enough for a nine year old to do, with help!

I have to admit this recipe is a little longer than 30 minutes. Prep will take about 10 minutes, and cook time about 35 minutes. But I'm telling you it's worth the wait!

You can use the cards above. But I thought I would also include instructions with pictures below. I apologize that some of the pictures are blurry. Not only did Anna help make this recipe but she took some of the pictures. They looked great on the phone. But, not so great close up.

1.Crumble Feta cheese.

2.Slice chicken breast so it lies fast.

3.Put a handful of Feta cheese on top of the

    chicken breast.

4.Roll up the chicken breast.

5.Start at one end and wrap the bacon around

    the chicken breast. You can hold the bacon in place

    with toothpicks

6. Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes. Broil for 5 minutes. I place the aluminum foil on the cookie tray for easy clean up.

7. Serve with your favourite salad. I made a salad with strawberries, blueberries, grapes and honey dijon dressing. It was super yummy! 

Enjoy!

Make sure you check out more great "30 for Thursday" recipes below.

An InLinkz Link-up

August Pick 3

 It's been a while since I've linked up with PAWSitively Teaching and Inspired Owl's Corner for their Pick 3 Link up.

Since I don't head back to school until September 8th. I don't have any actual pins to use with my new kiddos but I did find some great pins I know my new little friends will love/appreciate. 

Last summer my Aunt, joined as the cottage for a very rainy week at the cottage. She brought the best puzzle toy ever! Have you tried Find It? They are so much fun. Check them out on Amazon. They have all kinds of them. 

This summer, I plan to make my own for word work. I'm thinking that tennis ball containers would work perfectly! Check out this great pin to see how they made theirs. When I'm done I'll share mine. :)

 I made these a couple of years ago for my kiddos and they were a huge hit! I totally forgot about them until I saw this pin. My girls and I have been saving water bottle lids to make these. 

My last project for the summer is pretty cool. Glue sponges are all the rage. Everyone is talking about using them. But, I think this pin is even cooler! BINGO DAUBER GLUE SPONGES. I'm hoping that my local Michael's store will carry them. I did find them on Amazon, if I can't find them. Obviously they are more pricey, then your typical glue sponges, but I love how you can use them on bigger jobs.

Thanks for checking out my plans for August. Make sure you check out what other bloggers have planned!

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An InLinkz Link-up

Programming with Firsties: A Review

Have you tried programming with your students? 

I have to admit, that until I attended a workshop put on by my school district in May this year, I had never really considered using programming in my grade 1 class. The workshop really intrigued me, so when I was approached by Canadian Classrooms to review one of their programmable floor robots in my Canadian classroom... I was so excited. :)

I was loaned the Bee-Bot Rechargeable, child friendly, programmable floor robot to use in my classroom for the month of June. 

The Design:

Appearance
First, this little robot is so cute. The looks of the robot are engaging to young students. The big eyes flash when it is in operation. 

The Bee-Bot is very easy to use. On the top of the Bee-Bot are the controls. The options are forwards, backwards, right turn, left turn, and GO. The X clears the memory and the II gives a 1 second pause. 

Battery Life
The battery life on the robot is very good. The battery lasted for about 6 hours of student use. The Bee-Bot will go into sleep mode when not used for 2 minutes. This is a great feature when being used by young children, as we all know how well most of them remember to turn off their toys.

To charge, the Bee-Bot is plugged into a USB port. The instructions say that it takes 12 hours to fully charge, but I just left it over night so it was ready to use the next day. 

Sound
The sound is one of my favourite things about this product. The sound has it's own switch, so it can be turned off when you don't want to use it. However, even when the sound is on, the beeps it makes aren't too loud. 

Usability
My students needed very little direct instruction on how to use the Bee-Bot. 

What I really like about this Bee-Bot is that the robot remembers the program that the students have already entered so that they can add on to their program and they didn't have to their program over each time. It will remember up to 40 steps!

How we used the Bee-Bot
If you have read my blog or my posts on the Primary Pack, you may know that I have been experimenting with open ended problem solving in math and developing problem solving skills in my students. Well, the Bee-Bot is perfect for this! 

The students played a variety of games with the Bee-Bot. Here are a few of their favourites

Catch the Ghost
We used a little ghost eraser, but any small item could be used. The Bee-Bot was placed on the carpet or floor and the ghost eraser was placed in a different spot. Students then problem solved and designed a program that would get the Bee-Bot from the starting line to the eraser. This activity encouraged the students to problem solve as well as collaborate with each other. They would try their program and refine it as needed.

Obstacle Course
This activity was similar to Catch the Ghost except students placed obstacles  that the Bee-Bot had to go around.

Mazes
Once the students got more experience programming the Bee Bot, they started creating their own ideas. A group of students decided that they wanted to design a maze for the Bee-Bot to go through. The students experimented with a variety of materials to make their mazes. They decided that old wrapping paper worked really well. The wrapping paper they used had square grids on the back. The students realized that the Bee-Bot was about 3 squares wide and moved approximately 5 squares, so they designed a three square wide course. 

Do you see where the math fun came in? Once they realized that the Bee-Bot moved 5 squares they challenged themselves to figure out how many squares their maze was altogether and how many times the Bee-Bot would have to move forward! Yeah! Integration! Measurement and Number Sense!!! Bam!

Mapping
Although, I didn't get an opportunity to do this with my students, I think using the Bee-Bot to teach mapping would be great, especially with older grades. It would encourage students to use mapping language (North, South, East, West instead of Forward, Backwards, Left and Right). 

What did my students think of the Bee-Bot

"I like that the we have to think when using Bee-Bot. We try and if it doesn't work we try again." ~ N


"He challenges us to try another way." ~M

"I liked that I could make my own little pattern and I could control where he went. He's like my own pet!" ~C

"He remembered what I wanted him to do and he did it!" ~D

Overall
Although programming is not in the grade 1 curriculum in Ontario, the Bee-Bot is engaging, it encourages students to problem solve, collaborate, communicate their thinking, explore and create.  

It is easily integrated into other subject areas, such as math (i.e. If Bee-Bot moves forward 5 squares a turn. How far would Bee-Bot move if it moved forward 5 times?), mapping and language (i.e. write directions for the Bee-Bot). 

Next time, my principal asks for items for our wish list the Bee-Bot is going to be on it. I think the Bee-Bot can be easily adapted to be used with so many different grades all the way from Kindergarten to Grade 6, maybe even grade 8. 

I am thrilled to have had the opportunity to experiment with programming in my classroom. I need to get a Bee-Bot of my own!!! If you are interested in giving programming a try, I would highly suggest that you try out the Bee-Bot from Canadian Classrooms!

Thanks for stopping by! 

Teachers Make the World Colourful Giveaway!

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week! I'm so excited to be teaming up with the girls from The Primary Pack to bring you this fabulous Giveaway! We really want you to know how much we appreciate you and how amazing we think you are. Teachers are the most dedicated, hard-working people around, and we want to celebrate you! So we are each giving away a gift card to one of our favorite places to shop. But we didn't stop there! We are also giving away one big GRAND PRIZE on The Primary Pack blog!

Here on my blog, I am giving away one $15 gift card to Amazon!

Enter below in the Rafflecopter to win! The giveaway will run through Sunday, May 10th.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

And now, for the GRAND PRIZE!

Over at The Primary Pack, we are giving way a 250.00 gift card to Tieks! That's right, Tieks! The most COLORFUL, comfortable, Italian leather shoes around! We know how much money you have undoubtedly put into your classroom this year for resources and supplies--so this giveaway is all about a splurge just for you! For 250.00, you can even get a fancy pair! To enter, click HERE or click on the image below!

And don't forget to visit each of our blogs for chances to win even more great prizes!

An InLinkz Link-up