Ancient Greece Project

Even teachers get projects right?  Well we have especially been getting A LOT of projects this year with my own kiddos.  I wanted to share with you real quick fun one we just did on  Ancient Greece.  We decided to make a pot just like a Greek artisan.  I can not take credit  for this idea but here is where you can see where the idea came from.  Another teacher named Mrs. Porter did this with her whole 6th grade class.  I can not even imagine doing this with a whole group.  AHHHH!  But I could see the potential as a small group or even create one as a whole class. 

What we did first was take two Styrofoam bowls and blew up a balloon.  We attached each end of the balloon to the bowls with tape to take the shape of vase.  Sorry about the picture the lighting was terrible.  :) 

 

 

Then we made a combination of flour, water, and a tablespoon of salt and covered it from top to bottom. 

 

And finally after two coats of paper mache' we let it dry and then spray painted it.  Oh special note....as it was drying we had to prop it to keep it stable .  This was important. 

 

And here is how it turned out after drying and painting two coats of spray paint and then we placed black silhouette images on it to make it look authentic.

 

Have a wonderful and restful Thanksgiving.   

 

 

Julie    

 

Read more »

The Teaching Bug

Group Work Classroom Management

When I taught 3rd grade I would try and incorporate group work activities into my lessons.  Well you know how it goes sometimes when you let 27 students get into groups....it can go two ways.  In a perfect classroom everyone is staying on task and they are getting their work done.  And then you wake up and see that some of them are talking about the latest toy or game they got or making some crazy noise to make the group laugh.  You know this right?  So I thought of a way  to help redirect and focus my groups without me constantly having to use my teacher voice to interrupt the class. 
  So here is what I did.  I took 3 solo cups available at any store in the colors of red, yellow, and green. 

Each table had this color combination set on their table.  As they worked and stayed on task the group would remain on green, once they got a little off task the cup was switched to yellow, and then if they continued to stay off task the cup was turned to red and then they were directed to work with me to finish up their work .

If you are looking for a packet with a great group work activity in it check out my 3 states of matter packet where students take on the different roles of the story and come together and discuss.  Click on the picture below to check it out. 

Have a great week. 

Julie

Read more »

The Teaching Bug