Pranks and Poetry!

I might have been the most annoying person on earth today.   I seriously could not stop laughing at how funny I thought I was.  I saw this idea on the brilliant Denise's blog! 
http://sunnydaysinsecondgrade.blogspot.com/.  I am so thankful for her sharing her idea!

Yesterday I posted about how bad my second graders were at April Fools Day jokes and pranks... and as their teacher I felt responsible to teach them how to perform a real April Fools Day prank,  even if after the fact.  So last night I put this together using the aforementioned teacher's idea!   I made this fake little newspaper - I used our city and school's real name - but took them off in case anyone else would like to use it.

   I made flyers for the kids and I took in a bag of carrots.   I passed out the flyers and they read them.  They were begging to go out and look for the Loof Lirpa.  I,  of course,  told them that we were absolutely going out and provided them each with a carrot.  We walked far away from the school building (fourth and fifth graders were busy testing) and kids all started chanting "loof, loof, wheeeeeee,  loof,  loof, ahhhhh" while waving around carrots.  I could barely contain myself - I was laughing so hard.   Then.... someone shouted that they spotted him!   Everyone crowded together around claiming to have seen a wing,  a beak,  a shadow!   Great imaginations at work.

 

It started to rain so we went inside and they could NOT stop talking about it.  It is national poetry month and our team has committed to write at least one poem a day with the kids - so I told them to write a cinquain poem about the Loof Lirpa.  They did a great job - I loved the pictures.  They were so into it - asking if we could go out again as soon as the rain stopped.  Then one of my favorite people came into the room and excitedly told the class that a Loof Lirpa was spotted running down the main road in town with a broken wing.   They were so excited and some of them explained that thought they noticed that when they saw the bird!  LOL!

They shared their poems

and I shared mine...

Loof Lirpa

Imaginary, Make-believe

Pranking, Joking, Tricking

I got you!

April Fool

 

 

They looked at me like I was nuts.   I had them write the name Loof Lirpa backwards and they saw it spelled out April Fool.   I then had them look at the name of the author of the article - Bett I. Gotcha.   Reactions were mixed - some cracked up and claimed they knew it the whole time!  Two kids explained that I was mistaken because the picture was too real.   One little one was mad at me for a while (she finally told me she forgave me and that it was the best prank ever).   Everyone agreed it was really fun and we wished such a fun bird really existed.   And I explained that April Fools jokes and pranks should be silly and fun for everyone involved,  not scary, sad or mean.  I am adding a copy of the little article I made as a freebie on TpT.   I am uploading it as a Powerpoint so that you can change it to reflect your town name and school if you would like!   http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Loof-Lirpa-April-Fools-Prank

 

Thank you so much to the Denise who shared her idea!   I am just sorry I can't find it again to credit her!

 



Nothing is worse...

Nothing is worse, or less funny....than a bunch of second graders attempting to pull off an April Fools joke.   One of my kids told me their dad was killed by a pit bull - April Fools!   One kid tried to trick my teamie and slap her in the face and one kid told me I had a rat on my head every time I turned around.  Hilarious.... right?   OMWord - happy that is over.

Tomorrow starts Texas Testapalooza!  As a second grade teacher,  I am not giving the test,  but testing week still stinks.   No specials, lunch in the classroom,  quiet, quiet, quiet.   Plus the stress in the school is palpable. My poor colleagues are stressed to the max.  My own kids are a mess.   I HATE it.   I wish Rick Perry would call me to ask me my opinion.  But I doubt that is going to happen any time soon. 

I am linking with the Amazing and Hilarious Farley to share the April Currently!   April! Summer is in sight...!  http://ohboy3rdgrade.blogspot.com/2013/03/currently-april.html

 

 

FIVE FOR FRIDAY!

I love this linky!

 Here are my five random things!

I made chocolate covered Peeps for my daughter's class party!   Pinterest Win!

 

My poor old dog Thor had only boys to deal with for his first 8 years of life!  Having Eden around isn't always easy on him!

 

Totally obsessed with this cute book right now!  Scroll down to see what my kids did with it!

 

We had a LOT of hail this week!

 

My ridiculously funny trivia team in action!~  I love these ladies!

I am so happy to have today off!  And thrilled to be joining in on this cute sale!   I put my 5 favorites on sale for 20% off!   Go find them!

 

 

 

 

This + That = Awesome! Cutest book ever!!!!!

Have you seen this book??   OMGoodness!   I am in love with it.   So many different ways to make connections with this book!

This Plus That by Amy Krouse Rosenthal

 

 

It is a fabulous little book of cute real world connections - that can be used anywhere in your curriculum.  It has great connections like city+bustling=city,  and yellow +blue = green...

 



 

My kids LOVED it!   I loved that when I read once upon a time+happily ever after= pretend,  all of their hands shot up to tell me that they thought she should have written = fairy tales (we just finished a fairy tales unit).   I love all the directions you can go with this ...

evaporation+condensation+precipitation=the water cycle

roots+stem+leaves+flower= plant

nonfiction+famous person=biography

folktale+magic=fairy tale

farm houses+open spaces=rural area

addition + subtraction + multiplication + division = math

 

I could go on forever!   Since today was the first time we read it,   I let my kids take it in any direction they wanted.   Here are some of their cute ideas!

 

 

I am thinking it would be a great culminating activity with almost any unit.   I love it and highly recommend it for almost any grade level!

 

Happy Easter!

 





 

And other duties as assigned....

Teacher contracts are a little vague...  because there is no way to include all of the things that we really do within a day, and the general public has no idea how weird our job can get.   Today was full of "other duties".   I am not going to go into what happened,  but I will just say that teaching sometimes is really gross.   Kids are sweet and funny and sometimes really disgusting.   As I was having a very strange conversation with a student today,  one of my very favorite teachers overheard me.   She just looked at me and smiled and said, "and other duties - as assigned".   Some days are just like that. 

At least it's spring IN our room!

I can't believe how cold it is... in March.... in Texas.   Still feels like winter for sure,  but we brought some sunshine into our classroom today.

We had so much fun today with flowers and plants!  It was a really great day.   We are working on learning the parts, functions and needs of plants.   I have been behind in getting around to some of the things I wanted to do so today we had a Plant-a-palooza!  Last night I made a stop at Wal-Mart (even though I HATE it) for a few necessities -  white daisies (Wal-Mart was out of carnations),  cheapo flats of Marigolds, and smelly markers (well... the smelly markers were just a bonus).   This morning, I grabbed the celery out of the fridge,  because we were never going to eat it and headed out to work.  

We started the day in our science journals creating experiment pages.  The kids were all scolding me,  because this was a total flip flop to our day - we always do ELA first.   I explained that we needed the whole day to watch what happened and they seemed to forgive me.   The first  experiment was colored flowers.    We filled three cups with water and added LOTS of red, yellow and blue food coloring.   The kids drew what they saw,  made predictions,  wrote down the time and the procedure.  I took pictures to print and add to their journals as well.   We made observations every few hours,  and the kids were thrilled to see how the flowers were soaking up the color.  The blue color definitely spread the fastest!

 

 

Our second experiment was the celery in food coloring.   We talked about the celery being the stem of the plant,  which developed into a discussion of which parts of which plants we eat.  A few kids shared their disdain for celery.  They set up their journals and made predictions about what would happen to the celery as well.   We tossed a bunch of celery into some very blue water and drew our first observations.  Some of the kids had seen this done before,  but most hadn't.  Again they made observations throughout the day - and were kind of frustrated that they were not seeing any change.  They were super excited at the end of the day when we broke some apart and saw how the blue had traveled up through the stem in strands.

 

 

Then we took a break and went to work on our Freckle Juice study.   They are LOVING it!  Here are a few pics of their cute folders!

 

 

 

Over our planning and lunch break I set up the room for our next project.   I covered the tables with paper and brought out the googles (mostly because they like them and they look cute and feel like scientists when they wear them) and magnifying glasses.   I gave each kiddo a marigold with all the dirt and roots attached.   They were so excited when they came in!   They were given the task of removing as much soil as possible from the roots.   I gave them old paintbrushes to help with the task.  There was dirt EVERYWHERE - but it was so worth it.  They made some awesome observations.   The roots were almost as long as the stem.  The roots had little hairs on them.   The soil had little white things in it.   The very bottoms of the stem were purple.   They were shouting out so many things at once.   I heard kids explaining things to each other and asking each other questions.   It was a geeky science teacher's dream!   I loved every minute.  

 

 

 

 

 

When they had cleared off their roots,  and put the soil into some of our empty flower pots,  I gave them the task of drawing and labeling a diagram of their flower.   While they did this,  I took pictures of their plants and printed them out.   Then they attached the picture to the opposite side of their paper and labeled the picture as well.  We talked about the difference between a diagram and a photo as well.    I think they turned out great.   Tomorrow we will go further into the function of each.

We have  a few plants left,  so tomorrow the kids will work in groups and create experiments to prove or disprove that plants need sunlight, soil, heat, light, water, etc.   Should be interesting!

 

Hope you had a fabulous day!!!!





A pencil sharpener that doesn't make me cuss in my head....

So our traveling trivia team - Teachers In Tiaras - the TIT's totally kicked butt in the competition!   We also won the best costume category and I won two door prizes!  Score!   I won a foot massager thing and a set of stinky perfume.    We had a very funny and fun time.   My sides are literally sore from laughing so hard.

So now I am home with a husband and son who are not feeling well,  and two little ones who are wrecking the house. And... plans need to be written.   Luckily it is only four days worth.     My team is starting a chapter book study of Judy Blume books.   We don't have enough copies to all do the same book at the same time so some of us will be working on Amy Lemons - The One in the Middle is a Green Kangaroo unit http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/The-One-in-the-Middle-is-the-Green-Kangaroo and some of us will start with my Freckle Juice unit. http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Freckle-Juice-A-Novel-Study  Then we will switch.   I am excited about it.   Also super excited about a long weekend.   Summer is within sight peeps! 

One thing I have been meaning to blog about but haven't yet is my new pencil sharpeners.   I should start by saying,   I do not understand why we can pretty much rule the world with our cell phones,  but no one has come up with a better plan than the PENCIL.   I hate them.   The constant breaking,  the dulling,  the dollar store pencils that don't sharpen, the decorative pencils that peel and clog the gears, the pencils that sharpen sideways and break the first time you put them to paper.... I could write a book about how much I hate pencils.   But what I have hated more than pencils is freaking pencil sharpeners.   They cost half of your budget money,  and sound like helicopter taking off in the back of the room.   Then some little person thinks it is fun to try to stick their pencil in eraser side first and it is time to buy a new one.    I had made a no pencil sharpening rule in my room.    I sharpened them all myself and left them in a can.   It was a pain. 

Then I bought these.  http://www.classroomfriendlysupplies.com/

To say that they have changed my life is not really an understatement.   They are old fashioned,  heavy duty pencil sharpeners.   They are really easy to use...  like I have lifted the no sharpening rule and actually let the kids sharpen them.   And here is the super important part.... they are SUPER QUIET.   For real.   Like,  I don't even notice a kid is sharpening a pencil, QUIET.   Like, no walls shake when I am sharpening pencils, QUIET.   Like,  I have stopped the constant flow of cussing in my head when a pencil is being sharpened, QUIET.   Seriously, quiet.  And they sharpen ALL pencils - even the dollar store ones!   They were created by a teacher,  so made by someone really knows.   Just like the best curriculum comes from TpT and other real teacher sites,  the best pencil sharpener comes from teacher.   I love these things.   I bought a set of 3 - gave one to my bestie and kept two in my room which saved me some money and I got them for $17.99 each with free shipping!   Worth every cent.   My only issue with them is that the clamp that is supposed to hold them down doesn't seem to stay clamped,  but they are easy enough to use just holding them still.   I totally recommend these babies.   Pencil sharpener sanity!

Have a fabulous week!