Sunflowers & Skates Mother's Day Party

 

Hey guys, one (?) more post for today! For this past Mother's Day, after much brainstorming and struggling to come up with a theme, I decided to combine my mother's favorite flower (sunflowers) with a favorite hobby of hers (ice skating, which I wanted to be part of the gift). I call the theme "Sunflowers & Skates", as the title says. 

On the poster I painted, I wrote "Happy Mother's Day to the coolest mom!" I used Dollar Tree sunflowers in the balloon arch. The dishes, vines, large vase of flowers, and such were things I had on hand. I got the mini teacher notebooks and cookies were from Walmart. The sunflower seeds and balloon came from Dollar Tree. I designed labels on Canva for the sunflower seeds that read "I couldn't have been raised by a better mother! Thank you for rooting for me and helping me grow!" (But I accidentally printed them too big and the sunflowers on them got cut off). The felt was from Walmart. To make the banner, I printed ice skate and sunflower graphics from Canva, cut them out, and hot glued them to felt triangles on yarn. 

Thank you for visiting! 

-Lauryn 

Camp Classroom Set Up & Poetry Reading/Analysis

 Hello, happy Memorial Day again! I have yet another post to share today, this one about a classroom transformation and poetry lesson. 

The Goals:

-Learn and poetry elements. 

-Practice the ACCESS speaking domain/speaking and reading skills.

-Explore various poetry genres.

-Appreciate the beauty of poetry!

The set up included:

-The campfire itself, made of orange pumpkin Dollar Tree lights, and a light I owned from Walmart that moves at various speeds and allows you to select colors (creating a red, rotating, ambient light effect), construction paper flames (taped to the light), and sticks that I had turned into torches for drama props a long time back using recycled bottles and tissue paper.

-My ceiling light covers (magnetic) from Amazon. 

-A blanket to sit on.

-Plants that were already in my classroom. 

-A Youtube campfire background with sound effects. 

-Marshmallows and skewers.

The last thing is a variety of poems printed out to read/analyze. 

The Lesson:

To start off the lesson, I read a famous poem (such as "Nothing Gold Can Stay" by Robert Frost). Then we all read it together. Prior to sitting around the campfire, students had around 10 minutes to choose a favorite poem or choose one of many I printed to read aloud, giving them time to choose and practice reading them. We went around the campfire, each reading a selected poem. Next, students took their poems to their seats and I used a document camera to walk everyone through how to label their poetry, and the definitions of each poetry element (though many of them had the definitions from a prior assignment called "Poetry Toolboxes" I would like to share in the future). They labeled stanzas, line breaks, metaphors, similes, alliteration, repetition, onomatopoeia, hyperboles, rhythm, etc. The first times I did this lesson I made a lot of mistakes and did not have a clear order of reading/annotating, and all of my students hand wrote their poems to label them. If I could redo it, I would have more extra copies printed to directly label and maybe have everyone choose a poem in advance so they were all printed and ready. They did a beautiful job writing and labeling, though, and some students went the extra mile to beautifully illustrate their poetry as well. Another mistake I made was having everyone read the first poem together from the screen. Individual copies of the poem would probably have been much easier to follow along with, although it would be more paper. 

Despite my mistakes experimenting with this, my students did a phenomenal job and I am proud of their labeled poems, as well as of their reading performances and engagement during the lesson. 

I hope you enjoyed, thank you for stopping by!

-Lauryn

"Fiddler on the Roof" Cast Favors Idea

 Happy Memorial Day! 

I am so thankful to live in a free country and for everyone who sacrificed for our freedom. 

Today's post is really quick, but I would like to share a cast gift my brother and I gave to our Fiddler on the Roof cast members. The violin keychains were bought in bulk on Amazon. I got the golden ribbons at a thrift store a long time ago (two huge spools for around $1) and finally had a use for them. Lastly, I made the tags on Canva, which I planned to add below but I can not find the file anywhere. They read "Thank you for being a key part of this cast. You are instrumental to this show! Break a leg today!" I hope somebody finds this cast gift idea helpful.  

I wish everyone a great rest of their Memorial Day weekend!

-Lauryn

Meteorologist Birthday Party

 Hello everyone, happy Good Friday! 

Today I am sharing photos from my grandfather's meteorologist-themed birthday party. It was basically the same thematically as this weather party from years back, but I would like to think this one was greatly improved or at least more stylish. 

Here are a few key details:

-The rain cloud was made with metallic silver balloons at Walmart along with translucent/iridescent gift straw stuff I came across near the balloons (it was $0.98 though). 

-The blue balloons also came from Walmart. I draped dancing ribbons I had on hand over the board, so that is what the white cloth is. 

-The clouds and words are all made from a bag of cotton (also from Walmart). 

-The donuts and cinnamon buns came from Dollar General. The pottery and dishes I had on hand (handmade years back). 

-I painted the poster with regular acrylic paints and hot-glued the words on. 

-For the party favors, I bought packs of three notebooks for $1 at Walmart, designed different weather and weather forecast templates on Canva to print and cut out, then glued them on as the notebook covers. I added mini flashlights that were bought in bulk on Amazon. 

I hope you enjoyed!

Here is a verse to close with today in honor of Good Friday if you want a powerful word to reflect on: "But He was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed." (Isaiah 53:5, NLT). A powerful lyrics quote that seems relevant goes something like this: Even though you may be in a storm, that does not mean the storm is in you. (Mark 4.) 

Thank you for visiting!

-Lauryn