Just another reason I love magnetic tiles....

What was on today's agenda? Building a garden out of magnetic tiles. Yep. Well, actually, it started as a dance floor. Then, it became a garden. 

I use magnetic tiles at home with my kiddos because they are open-ended, foster outside the box thinking, and I am always pleasantly surprised by the creativity my kids exhibit when using them!

At school, we use magnetic tiles in a few different ways. One way is for our STEAM program. Many teachers use them for morning work bins each day. Additionally, our after school program sets them out as one of their stations. And, of course, they are a big hit at recess!

My love for magnetic tiles continues...

Challenge: Build the tallest structure!

Challenge: Build a structure you can go inside!

Challenge: Build an igloo!

Challenge: Build a fort for yourself!

But, actually, I did not give my kiddos any challenge at all! That's the beauty of toys that foster creativity and use of your imagination. Sometimes there isn't a challenge. Sometimes you dump some toys, items, crafty supplies, etc. out on the floor and see where it takes them!

A Balance Board

I am always on the hunt for toys that engage for hours. I want my kids using their imaginations and creating. I had seen so many parents rave about these wooden balance boards, but I never realized just how open-ended they could be. My kids are WAY more creative than I am!

My kiddos, who are 1 and 3, have made slides, boats, bridges, homes for their animals, caves, and so much more. You need to monitor the young ones - my one year old has bopped his head on it once or twice. Overall, I see growth in gross motor skills, determination, perseverance, collaborative play, and just sharing a toy! Not an easy feat for toddlers!

This is life cooped up in the house.

This is it, folks! Life cooped up in the house during a pandemic with two toddlers in the middle of winter weather advisories being served up left and right!

Just pulling out all the stops to entertain these kiddos! And yes, that bounce house take up our entire basement family room. But it's cool. I mean, come on, look at those faces! Pure joy!

The same thing happens in the classroom every winter season, pandemic or not. We are sharing close quarters, it's been a long year, and suddenly we throw indoor recess into the mix. Kids need fresh air, time to run and get their heart rates up! If you're teaching right now, I encourage you to get those kiddos outside every day, if you can, because I am confident that you do not have access to a bounce house. :)

THE NUGGET!

I'm telling you - the Nugget has been, HANDS DOWN, the best Christmas gift I have ever bought for my kids, who were 1 and 3 when we first got it.

It is purposeful play at its finest. Open-ended play - I am always surprised by how the kids use this Nugget! It can be a couch. It can be a fort. A book nook. A slide. A ship and the floor is water. A bridge, a bed, a foot rest, and so much more!

I originally wanted a Nugget for my classroom. I have seen so many teachers with Nuggets as a part of their classroom library and love it. Now that I am an instructional coach and interventionist, I don't have kids in my room as much, so there wasn't a need. But at home? Yes. BIG NEED!

So, if you are looking for an addition to your classroom library or something to entertain your own kiddos for hours on end, look no further! The Nugget is seriously where it's at!

Tech Thursday

I'm linking up with the Teaching Trio for Tech Thursday again! I'm liking this link up because I'm a younger teacher in my school, and everybody expects the youngins to be so techy. Sometimes I luck out and discover great websites or apps, but I get my best ideas from other bloggers sharing out what they are using in their classrooms!

GONOODLE!

I've loved GoNoodle for YEARS now, and it just keeps getting better! Basically, you sign up for free, and let your class choose a CHAMPION. This is a monster that grows as the kids complete more levels by watching videos. Some videos are silly, some are songs, some are academic, some are thinkers, etc. The kids LOVE them all! When you "max out" a champion, you choose a new champion and continue playing. You also get a reward certificate that kids can color.

As a fourth grade teacher, we used this at the end of the day as an incentive to pack up quick! Fourth graders love to dawdle. We know. So, they would pack up quick to play a GoNoodle or two before the end of day announcements came on.

Now, as a second grade teacher, my kiddos have their special the last half hour of the day and are dismissed right from the special. They don't come back to the room. So we use GoNoodle for indoor recess. It's a big hit! Instead of running around my cute room like monkeys, or fighting over our five computers, they are captivated by videos. For indoor recess we usually have five kids on computers, a group of kids at the guided reading table doing crafts (glitter glue symmetry has been a big hit this year), and the rest watching GoNoodle videos and dancing!

My favorite videos are Pop Se Ko, and anything with Mr. Cat Man!

If you haven't tried GoNoodle yet, I highly recommend it! :)

A Champion Certificate.

They have color pictures and ones that kids can color.

A transformed champion gaining points with each video played.

My class loving "Happy" by Pharell.

What are they all staring at?

My class has a special recess on Fridays. You earn it by doing your work throughout the week and being respectful. AKA being a good student and a good person. We do fun science experiments, like making ice cream in a bag or mixing corn starch and water (BEST.EVER.), or going to the playground. And then one of my stubborn kiddos who has been having a rough year got really into a book about rocks and minerals. So, I went online and ordered a rocks and minerals kit, along with geodes. And that was Fun Friday. It was awesome. We smashed the geodes with hammers and ooooh-ed and ahhhh-ed at the crystals inside. The kiddos marveled at the rock collection I spread on the back table. It was fun. And then it was over.

One week later, we celebrated Fun Friday again. And I had a fun afternoon planned, BUT my kiddos requested the rock collection. They wanted to sort the rocks and classify them with the chart that it came with. They wanted to look up more information about the rocks on the computers. One kid brought in a notebook and took notes!

Another week goes by and once again, I have kiddos asking to sort the rocks. We even went out to the playground one day and I saw kids sprawled out in the rocks searching. It was pretty adorable. And the easiest indoor Fun Fridays I had planned in my 6 years of teaching!

Anyway, if you're looking for an engaging and semi-education recess idea...scrounging up some rocks might just hit the spot for your kiddos, too!

Making Five Minute Ice Cream in a Bag

Eveery Friday, my class celebrates FUN FRIDAY! Basically, kids who did all of their classwork and homework receive a half hour and fun activities. This week, I planned five minute ice cream in a bag!

So, I spent some time putting cream and vanilla extract in little plastic baggies, and put those into bigger plastic baggies. Next, the kids and I went outside in the freezing cold and put snow into the big plastic bag. We spent 2 minutes outside and froze our buns off.

After that, we went inside and SHOOK OUR BAGS!!! Five minutes of shaking a plastic bag of snow is seriously a blast. The kiddos were grinning from ear to ear. And then I look over to see the one kid who was taking it too far, slapping her baggies on a small table. Let's think this through. Plastic bag + sharp corners of a table = exploded bag and ice cream goo everywhere. And that's exactly what happened.

Except it exploded on the girl doing the slapping, two unfortunate boys standing nearby, and my entire listening center.

I wasn't mad. I just said, "It was an accident. Clean it up and then join our Fun Friday."

Of course the tears came. Crying. Sobbing while cleaning up ice cream from the crevices of the listening center. Upset that her ice cream was ruined.

Oh, by the way, it turned out to be more like ice cream soup. Still fun!

Option Number 3: Cry in a pile of coats.

This week, I made a few students cry. Pretty typical for fourth grade. They tend to be quite sensitive at this age, but also bounce back quickly. So, a few kiddos crying in one week doesn't have a tremendous impact on me anymore. Five minutes later they're giving me hand drawn pictures and telling me about their favorite video game.

So, one of my little girlies was out sick one day this week. The next day, she returned. About 15 minutes into the school day, she asks to go to the nurse to get her temperature checked. (Sidenote: her guardian sent in a note saying that she was FINE.)

"No, you can go to the nurse in one hour, if you are still feeling sick. Work on your math center folder."

I walk away. I look back to see this lady with a tissue against her ear, coughing into the air rudely and loudly, and a whole table of girls just staring at her. Their math work open and untouched in front of them. Obviously this sick show is way more interesting.

"Fine. If you're going to put on a show, go to the nurse. But you better hope you have a temperature for causing this scene in our classroom. Your choice. Stay in class and do your work quietly, or go to the nurse and go home."

I walk away. I turn just in time to see her sitting in a pile of coats, sobbing. (Yes, fourth graders struggle to hang coats and SOMETIMES there is a pile of coats on our floor.)

Planned ignoring. Planned ignoring. Planned ignoring.

Five minutes later, she is working on her math center folder at the back table.

...I knew she wasn't sick.