Ahoy mateys! Yo ho ho, it is talk like a Pirate Day!

Yo ho ho mateys! After a few days of standardized testing and assessing our cognitive abilities, I decided to offer my young shipmates a chance to play around like pirates today. Of course, my blogging friend Bethany deserves lots of credit for the inspiration, instead of talking in passing, I embraced the day and made some activities for my little mates. Thank you Bethany for the reminder to seize the day and have fun like a pirate!
Check out Bethany's blog for her awesome events today and links to the other shenanigans around the shipyard.

This morning the pirates aboard my ship were sent on a mission to find a pirate partner. Then they received the "message in a bottle" in which they had to do some decoding. The fun Hello font by Jennifer Jones required some serious map work since some of the characters are very similar.  Always Love Me a chance to encourage common sense thinking! Love me more a chance to ask, "Does that makey sense?"

The secret message let them know that today was "Talk Like a Pirate" day and they should study their spelling words in their best indoor pirate voice.
I was really impressed with the teamwork to unveil the message and the quiet pirate practice. Too bad me was out of gold, they certainly needed some booty rewards!

To continue on our mission to find some pirate fun,  the kids got some time to spend with a few pirate mates while practice with their decimals.
They played a quick pirate math game on a quest to be first to unbury the treasure.

Using a treasure map as a game board, they took turns saying decimal numbers in their best pirate voices and wrote decimals in expanded form. They also compared some decimals and shivered me timbers finding equivalents. All were spared from walking the plank, and had fun speaking pirate math.
Want to join in the pirate fun? No booty necessary, download the game for free from my TPT treasure box, don't forget to shiver me timbers by leaving some pirate love!

After a week riding the rough seas, this was a fun way to learn. It was great seeing the kids, almost too cool for school, working together and having some yo ho ho fun!

Don't worry, there is still plenty of pirate booty to be found! Try it tomorrow with some of the great ideas linked up at Bethany's pirate party!
Thanks to "My Cute Graphics" for the cute pirate pictures and Jennifer Jones "Hello Fonts" for the fun characters and pirate font! Love the circle from Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah Designs.  Thank you to Bethany for the cute Pirate Party picture.

What sort of treasure did you explore today?

Stress and Trying to Stay Afloat

The school year is full swing and I can feel it! It is always hard to keep up with the swing of everything after a summer of doing things at my own pace. A summer of being caught up and taking care of the smaller things is definitely over. Now I feel like I am running behind on everything. Laundry is piling up again and I have to prioritize everything, unfortunately that means some things get left undone or half-done. This week was particularly challenging.
A 2 week long on-call for jury duty is an evil joke to play on a teacher. I am sure no one can really give up 2 weeks of their life so easily, but writing sub plans for 2 weeks is not fun in any aspect. Luckily I only had to report on 1 of the days, and had to call in on the rest. The day I missed turned out to be the right day to miss too, because some major classroom drama unfolded. My wonderful administration swooped in to remedy the situation so that I returned to a better scenario.
I am still on call this week, but have my fingers crossed that I won't have to report since we start standardized testing this week, 3 days of the CogAT. (Fun!)
My body let me know it was not so thrilled with the amped up activities and decided to put me on alert. The signals were received loud and clear and I have been slowing down to recover. I spent Saturday in bed, sleeping to recover from some of the physical exhaustion. I know my brain needed the rest and although I am behind on some house chores, it was just one of the things I had to do so I can keep going.
One of the ways I am keeping up with my lesson plans is using planbook.com  I can work on them from home and school. I really love that I can attach documents to my plans and they have the standards available to attach to my plans. This past week I printed off my plans for the sub, a definite time saver! If you are looking for a new lesson plan book check it out.
I know I cannot do everything, so I must prioritize and take care of the bigger things and most important things. I want to keep going with the blog, but it is unfortunately on the lower end of the priority list.
Case in point is that I cannot finish this post without being interrupted by my own kids. Usually I can sneak in a little time to myself, but this morning that is not going to happen.So to prevent upset feelings and a rise in anxiety in the house I have to cut this short. My youngest is trying to be patient with me but his hunger and desire for pancakes is not going away while I type.
So until the next time, take care!

Science Interactive Notebooks

I made it my goal to use interactive notebooks this year. It requires some up-front planning and organization (all good things), and I am extremely happy with how things are going.
So far I have learned that, I have to train the kids to glue with less glue. And unfortunately they need to cut our faster. Because they are slower working, I am saving set up time and spending more time on content by pre-typing many of the essential notes and when possible they glue in pages in advance of the lesson.
The students then spend the majority of time adding key details and underline/circle/highlight key details that they feel they need to pay closest attention to. Instead of waiting for them to copy, or hoping they write down notes, I am able to discuss concepts in more depth in the short 35 minute period we have for science. As we move past key concepts, I think the notebooks will also give us time for labs. Deep down I hope they will become more proficient at searching for information when looking up answers.
We have interactive textbooks so I use their workbooks to practice close-reading techniques. I am hoping that the interactive notebooks, the labs, and the close reading of text will results in more retention of concepts and greater knowledge. I know I have won 1 girl over, because she said, "Wow, I like science this year!"
On my end I am planning and creating like a mad scientist! I want the content in their notebooks to be valuable so I am researching and creating notebook materials that will add to their learning. I know that I won't have to put in this much time next year, instead I will be able to tweak my notebooks. In the long run, all this work is worth it!
This weekend I finished up my animal and plant cells packet. It includes cell diagrams, graphic organizers, compare/contrast charts, and a quiz.

Usually I have my students draw (copy) a picture of a cell, but some never finish or they take forever to finish. Instead, I will give them a pre-made picture, they can color it, but adding the picture to their notes will not eat up my teaching time, instead it will be a more productive lesson. I bought the clip art from Poppydreamz Digital Art and added the labels. They will receive a sheet with the lines and the terms will be at the bottom for them to attach to the cell.

Before we leave for my in-laws today I am trying to get my plant classification unit completed, but I am not sure that will happen. During the hour-drive hour I am going to try to draw out the charts and visuals I want to add. I am not an artist, so it might be a complete disaster, but I am willing to try.
Here is a picture of one page form the unit that I have already completed.

Non vascular plants with flaps of plant divisions.
Students will select pictures to add to their notebooks. 

I plan to have the kids look for images when we go to the lab and show them how to copy an image and print them for their notebooks.

I have a motto in my room, "If they take the time to print it, take the time to read it." The same goes for their notebooks, if we take the time to add it, take the time to read it/review/use it. I am hooked on these notebooks and am working hard to make them for my students so we maximize our learning time.
What have you done with interactive notebooks that you find useful? What is your favorite notebook activity? Want more ideas? Check out the great Back to school Interactive notebook links at 4mulaFun

Back to School Interactive Notebook Linky Party