Solids, Liquids, and VEGGIES?!

We did it! We managed to drink our veggies!!! And we managed to talk about turning a solid into a liquid as well as write about it!!! I SCORED!

This past week our delivery of "Harvest of the Month" was broccoli. Sounds gross, I'm not a fan of raw broccoli, but I played it off pretty well. They brought a cutting board, a knife, and a two heads of fresh broccoli! I told the kids that the next day we would be turning some solids into liquids and drinking our veggies. They were skeptical, but some donated some fresh fruit and veggies for the occasion.

The next day I brought my juicer, Dixie cups, some red and green apples, a bag of carrots, some celery, green beans, beets, and oranges. We juiced all of the above to much joy and amazement at the ever-changing color of the juice. Even my most skeptical students buckled down and drank a swig of the bright red juice. Most were okay with it. I didn't put very much broccoli or green beans in it, but I could taste them.

Since there were quite a few apples and oranges left over, I told them I'd make them some apple and orange juice. I threw in a few carrots, while somehow managing to convince my most disappointed customer that he wouldn't even be able to taste them. He finally agreed and slurped down his cup!

I felt like the most accomplished teacher EVER! The kids ate the raw broccoli, then wrote about it. They drank their juice, then wrote about it. (It lent itself perfectly to learn about adjectives and our senses.)

And got fresh veggies in their systems!? I'm one happy teacher. They wanted to know when the next round of juicing it. I may have to schedule another one when we visit the farmer's market in a few months.

Harvest of the Month

My school is participating in the "Harvest of the Month". Basically, the district sends us a fruit or vegetable that is in season each month. We also receive information about the farm that sent it to us. Today was the first month. We received enough mandarin oranges for each student to have one. We ate them at snack.

I told the kids when they peeled it, to feel it, smell it, and then slowly taste it...because we'd be writing about it. What I didn't tell them, was how we would be writing about it.

When the students got back in, they each got their iPad. I had them open up the "Drawing Pad" app. They each then drew the mandarin orange they had eaten, along with a slice of it. I had them include the white part too! After that, we described the orange by the way it looked, felt, smelled, and tasted. I had them write that on their iPad too. They LOVED it!!!

Stationary...a lost art?

I sure hope writing never becomes a lost art. And I don't mean writing as in, I'm going type this and then publish it for the world to see. No, I simply mean getting a piece of paper, a pen, and sitting down to write.

As a kid (growing up in the 80's), I can remember traveling to new places and making instant friends. My mom would always encourage my new friends and me to exchange addresses and become pen pals. To go a step further, she would even allow me to pick out special stationary to send to said friend. I could've stocked a VW Beetle with my Lisa Frank collection!

Side note: In high school I even worked at a stationary store to feed my craving for beautiful and cute paper.

So to this day, I am always on the lookout for cute paper for my students to publish their stories on. I think this one will be perfect for their unit on insects.

Teachers Pay Teachers

So I've stumbled across this great site called Teachers Pay Teachers. It's pretty brilliant. Teachers sign up and can sell items they have created or buy items from other teachers. The money goes into your PayPal account, and that's it!

I don't know how many hours I've spent over the years creating things that I thought, "Wow, I wish I could sell that!" Well, now I can!

My problem tonight though is that all my files are on my work computer...BOOO!!! I need to utilize Dropbox more. So, in a pinch, I decided to sort of recreate something I made last year for my fifth graders, but change it for first graders. It's a Powerpoint used as either a writing center or as a whole class writing prompt. I call it "Pick a Prompt". The kids liked it because they felt like they were in charge of their learning. I liked it because it was 5 days' worth of writing wrapped up in one nice little PowerPoint!

I'm hoping to make more items that I can not only use for my classroom, but be able to offer them to other teachers. My goal is to make a little extra cash to help out my struggling family. Wish me luck!