This is NOT a teaching post.  BUT it is something that can help you if you have, say, a potluck at school for your holiday party.  This Thanksgiving I made a fantastic little crockpot dessert that was *demolished* by all in attendance.  It was SO easy, that I thought it would make the perfect Potluck dessert for school. What was it? Crockpot Chocolate Lava Cake Yes...you read that right.  Chocolate.Lava.Cake.  YUM!!!! It takes 3 ingredients (sort of) Chocolate cake mix Chocolate pudding Chocolate chips Here is what you do.  Prepare the cake mix as the box says (so you will need eggs and oil).  Pour that into the crockpot.  Then prepare the pudding as the package says (you will need milk).  Pour that on top of the cake batter.  Pour the entire bag of chocolate chips on top of all of that.  Turn the crockpot onto high and let it bake for 3 hours. That is it.  SO EASY! Top with cool whip and you have an amazingly awesome dessert that promises to be a hit! And, just...
It is that time of year again, when the students present their culminating project for the Native American unit that we have been entrenched in for the past few weeks.  I love when these projects come through my doors each year.  The learning they did becomes immediately obvious and it is just such a joy looking them over and learning about the tribes from the students!  I wanted to take some time to tell you about them AND show them off to you :) At the beginning of this unit, I pass out the entire report and presentation packet to my students.  They choose a tribe they would like to research (I make sure there are no overlaps, as they turn in a "decision form" to me early on) and I send them on their merry way.   During class, we are learning about the general culture groups.  At home, the kids get to be more specific.   They learn about the basic Pre-Columbian housing, crafts, clothing, geographical area, and customs of the tribe they are researching.  The kid...
As adults, when we read nonfiction, we are reading for a purpose.  I pick up an article about the 13 colonies because I need to learn what the major settlements were for my lesson.  Or I find an article about what coarcation of the aorta is so that I am better prepared when I visit the cardiologist for treatment discussions.  I don't just pick up a nonfiction article to read for the fun of it.  I always have a purpose. It is the same in class.  When the students read nonfiction, there is generally a purpose (notice I said generally...I *know* there are exceptions to this....just go with me for the purposes of the is blog post ;))  So when we started out our exploration of nonfiction text, I started the students with a very simple lesson on reading with a purpose. First, we discussed some general guidelines for reading nonfiction text. Then, I gave them a simple article about the circulatory or respiratory systems.  Since that is our science topic at the moment, I wanted the...
Nothing mindblowing today but I just wanted to share with you my end-of-the-day clean-up routine.  I know that sometimes this time of day can be completely chaotic, but I have tried my best to cut down on that and have us end with calm.  Here is what I do. I start about 25 minutes before the dismissal bell rings.  I begin by announcing that I am "looking for people who are ready to go home."  This is students' cue to sit down, clear off their desk space, and look at me.  Then, we have our 60-second clean up (I wrote in detail about that here ), our 15-second box clean and our 15-second furniture straighten. This is an old picture.  They also have POTW! Then, I ask the kids to take out their planner and we go over the homework.  I have the assignment written on the board, and used to just have them copy it down, but I have found that if I *also* say it aloud, the kids have a higher rate of writing it in their planner and not missing any homework assignments.   So I...
I know that for most of us, teaching writing is a struggle.  Yet, in this day of performance based testing, it is a MUST.  The kids no longer can just rely on filling in bubbles and hoping for the best. Now they have to actually *write* complete, coherent sentences and paragraphs.  They need to have topic sentences, details, and closing sentences.  They need to be able to write on any topic on demand. I looked over the released questions for the new nationwide state test (we are taking the SBAC) and saw that the kids will be given pictures to write stories about, graphic organizers to write stories about, and prompts to write stories about.  STORIES.  Not lists of things.  Not what what they see.  Actual stories .  Can you say DAUNTING??? Yeah...I am a little overwhelmed by it all too.  I mean, I had gotten so good at teaching the kids how to find evidence in the text, eliminate answers, and basically take a multiple choice test.  But now they are going to have to write the...
Our first science unit focuses on The Periodic Table of Elements and we have dived right into it these past two weeks.  I wanted to share with you a few things that we did, just in case you are doing that unit too! I wrote about what we did last year, and basically, the introduction was the same.  So to spare you having to read it twice, here is the link for those of you who would like to take a gander. After the same basic intro, I wanted them to actually look at the Periodic Table itself.   We discussed a few of the elements, and I told them about how the table was grouped.  Which lead me into giving them this foldable that I made with four different sections on it.  I found some great information about each grouping from this website and the students took notes as we discussed what was happening. Then, to get them to dive into the actual table and learn a few of the elements, I had them do some Periodic Table Spelling .  Basically, they searched around the table for elem...
Yesterday was quite the day for us all in Teacherland, wasn't it?  Halloween AND Friday (which I guess is better than Halloween and a Monday ;))  Anyway, I thought for my Currently with Farley , I would share some pictures of yesterday's festivities to inspire you for next year. We started the day with Dry Ice experiments.  I promise, we were all very safe with gloves and eye goggles. (the million warnings about not touching the dry ice also helped ;) ) The kids had SO SO SO much fun.  Seriously...they loved it.  All of the science connections we made, all of the investigations, all of the smoke!  It truly was a blast. At school we have a pumpkin contest.  Here is the pumpkin that my daughter and I entered.  It is our school mascot.  I think I love it :) A classroom parent came in to teach the students how to make this fun little spider craft.  It was CRAZY EASY.  Four pipe cleaners (cut in half) and a lollipop.  The kids twist the pipe cleaners...