Teacher's pay Teachers is having a SUPER SALE tomorrow, February 3rd!  ALL of my products will be 20% off + TpT is taking an additional 10% off = a discount of 28% off!!  Just enter the promo code "SUPER" at checkout.

I am now up to almost 40 products, here are a few I haven't shown you:

Digital Paper:
for only $0.72/set!



this one is a FREEBIE:


Mazes:

Math Mazes:


Science Maze:

 

Winning Grant Proposals:
for just $2.52 each

Science is by no means my area of expertise, but I am helping to tutor students in the subject. I think being a novice in a subject works as an advantage sometimes, because it is easier to see it from a fresh perspective. This week we worked on plate tectonics.

Like always, I found a videos to start with. (Our district has an account with brainpop.com, so I showed that one first. If your district doesn't have an account, they need to get one, or you need to write a grant! They have bunches of videos, mostly aimed at the secondary level and are quick and a little funny.) The other video didn't have much of a lesson with it, but the kids were entertained:


The art teacher at my school was nice enough to lend some supplies to me execute my idea. I borrowed clay and we built boundaries. I love my kinesthetic learners!
They had so much fun with the clay!
...and each one had their own way to illustrate their understanding.
~Mrs. Scott

My husband and I bought this game some time around my first year of teaching 8th grade math: As soon as we started playing I realized some of the games had objectives that I had been teaching in class!

Perspectives:
Ordering Numbers:
I had the bright idea to unplug my Wii and take it to school! I think it was the most engaged my class of 35 students had been all year! Since then, I make a point to have "Wii day" a couple of times a year and the kids could not be more excited!

I have looked on Amazon and found a couple of other educational Wii games, but haven't bought any yet. Maybe future grant?

ThinkSMART appears to have games best for high school: Science Papa lets you explore chemistry, biology, physics, and paleontology through science experiments.
Reader Rabbit has a couple of games for early elementary grades (I think I saw Pre-K through 3rd grade).
My Word Coach looks like it would be great for GT and high school classes, but may be a fun warm-up for a typical middle school classes too.

Jump Start advertises being great for ages 5-9.As if you haven't seen this show! Upper elementary classes would love this:
We recently bought an XBox Kinect for our son and may have to start checking out games for that too! If you know any other games, please share!

~Mrs. Scott

My 8th graders love this game for a warm-up! It basically works like the game Guess Who, or 20 Questions.

I print copies of the above image and put them in sheet protectors with a dry erase marker for each student. Students take turn asking yes/no questions to try to figure out which number I chose while marking out numbers that it can't be. The first student who correctly guesses my number wins a prize.

This is great for teaching number sense and vocabulary for my tutoring groups. Some example questions the students could ask are:
- Is it even/odd?
- Is it prime/composite?
- Is it a multiple of ...?
- Is it a factor of...?
- Is it less/greater than...?

I am going to make a decimal and fraction version of this as well, and maybe even try the periodic table.
~Mrs. Scott

Below is part of a grant applications I submitted to my school district. Winners are announced in November.

Image being a 12 year old student and walking into class to discover this was part of your lesson for the day:

How could you not be excited to participate in learning taught with an inflatable obstacle course?? Imagine your delight when a few weeks later a different subject meets outside to incorporate this in their class for another spin on learning!

The National Center for Disease Control and Prevention has found:
•Students who participate in physical activity show an increase in ability to pay attention, and improve up to a grade level in reading comprehension following exercise.

•MRIs show those who exercise experience increased brain activity in the prefrontal cortex -- an area associated with complex thinking, decision making and correct social behavior.


The greatest benefit is that the obstacle course can be used by all of our students in multiple disciplines! Below are some objectives that can be taught using the inflatable obstacle course by subject:

Math-
•Central Tendency: Calculating mean, median, mode, and range
•Graphing data, choosing the best graph, interpreting graphs
•Calculating unit rate and proportions
•Course Conversion: minutes/seconds/hours, feet/inches/yards/meters
•Measurement: measuring course distance, volume of obstacle, surface area, angle of slopes

Science-
•Cause/effect relationships
•Friction
•Calculating: speed, force

ELA-
•Descriptive writing activities based on experience within the course

Health-
•Body systems being used during exercise
•Calculating heart rate
•Demonstrating the fun in exercise

Physical Education-
•Goal setting
•Detecting and correcting errors
•Assess physiological effects of exercise during and after physical activity
•Describing and selecting physical activities that provide for enjoyment and challenge

The obstacle course can also be used during incentive activities (rewards for hard work, low discipline referrals) and field day, saving our school the cost of renting the items from local vendors.

(Inflatable is from Sam's Club for $2,633)

~Mrs. Scott

I don't know about y'all, but the junior high I teach at is full kids that know the words to every rap song written. They LOVE when we play music in class, and the songs stick b/c you can hear them humming the tunes during tests. My 'neighbor' found a couple of youtube videos she told our hallway about on Friday. I already warned her I would be stealing them for the blog! I found a few others while browsing that are fabulous! I love technology!! (And creative teachers who share their goods on the internet!)

Teach Me How to Study:


Getting Triggy Wit It:


Teach Me How to Factor:


All I Do is Learn:


Scientific Method Rap:


Rock Cycle Rap: (LOVE this one!)


Layers of the Earth Rap:


Phases of the Moon Rap:


Layers of the Atomsphere Rap:


Genetics Rap:


Chemistry Rap:


~Mrs. Scott

My students have had a blast playing the card game War in class this week!

Remember War, the game where each player flips over a card and the person with the highest card gets them both? We put a spin on it for math, putting fractions on the cards to be compared (picture and numerical versions). Later next week we are going to use decimals, and then mix the stacks to compare both.

I have also thought about making other decks in the future for...

Math comparing:
Rational numbers
Squares/square roots
Scientific notationArea/perimeter/volume

Language Arts comparing:
Number of syllables
Number of nouns/adjectives/verbs in a sentence or paragraph

Science comparing:
Number of protons/neutrons/electrons
Age of trees based on tree ringsTemperature by reading thermometers
Calculated speed/force/energy

I would love to hear your suggestions as well!
~Mrs. Scott

I was in a fabulous Social Studies classroom this week and the teacher showed a youtube video by songs of higher learning. I looked them up on found they have a couple of catchy songs to help remember concepts.

Social Studies:
Continents and Oceans:


44 Presidents:


Science:
Skeletal System:


Phases of the Moon:


Comets and Asteroids:


The Earth:


Math:
Dividing Fractions:


~Mrs. Scott

Every year I exceed the tax credit the government gives back for classroom expenses along with the majority of my colleagues. Our wishlists are never-ending because amazing teaching ideas are created every day. Unfortunately, it may come as a surprise, but our salaries don't necessarily accommodate our creativity.

This is the reason I heart grants! Districts give money to purchase materials that will benefit our students and it is fabulous!

Never written a grant before? Have no idea what to write a grant for? Here are a couple of ideas! (Click the underlined title for the companies website)


Lonestar Learning:
I was planning to write a grant for these last year, but as luck would have it our school had some extra funds and was able to purchase it! The website has quite a few products, but my favorite are the Picture Vocabulary Cards. They take vocabulary words and turn them into images that demonstrates the meaning of the word. They are totally adorable and make an amazing word wall for kids to learn! Sets are around $30 each and are available for Language Arts, Math, and Science. (Hopefully Social Studies someday!) Here are a few examples: