Happy Birthday Homework Pass

Okay...I am about to share one of my student's favorite products EVER! And the best part...it's FREE! For months, I had been thinking about what I wanted to give the student's in my class when it was their birthday. I thought about candy (nope...our school doesn't like us giving out sugar as rewards), what about a toy (lame...5th graders don't like very many toys, except for the expensive ones), then I thought what does a 5th grader want more than anything on their birthday...to have NO HOMEWORK! Hence, the Happy Birthday Homework Pass. I love it because I print them out before the school year starts and I have all the gifts ready for my students. It takes 5 minutes of prep and costs nothing! Plus, the students LOVE it! I have had many parents tell me how their child couldn't wait for their birthday so they could have their homework pass. I decided to create two versions, one black and white, and one colored. I hope you enjoy!

Click here to download your free Happy Birthday Homework Pass!

Dr. Seuss Day!

     I just love Dr. Seuss day! Mainly, because I have an excuse to wear jeans to school as part of my "costume"! 

    (teacher 1 and teacher 2)!!!

     We always do a whole 5th grade Dr. Seuss day where we rotate between each teacher to do activities. In my room this year I had to do the cliche' Oobleck! Although the students LOVE this lesson, and I mean LOVE! I had every student asking me at the end, how to make Oobleck at home to show their family! Success!
  
   So here is what I do. I start off by reading Bartholomew and the Oobleck by Dr. Seuss. Then I tell the students that they are going to get to touch this Oobleck. I have Oobleck already prepared with lots of butcher paper on the floor and tables, since it get's messy. I break my class into 2 groups. One group gets to go touch and explore the Oobleck, while the other gets to have fun at our Dr. Seuss Photo Booth! Then they switch! Luckily this year I had a parent volunteer come help so I had someone who could take pictures of my students. Although last year I just set up my computer to be on a timer and let the students self-run the photo booth. This is a great Science Integration because while they are touching the Oobleck we discuss whether this is a solid, or liquid and what types of properties this substance has. Super fun! I love seeing some students get into it and some others who will poke it with their finger, decide it is gross, and just watch everyone else play with goop.

     The next rotation was a STEM activity that involves making The Lorax Truffula trees! I shared this idea with my co-worker after finding it on Pinterest. Here is the link! Since we were short on time he gave the students colored marshmallows instead of food coloring them! Brilliant!

                                       

 The last rotation was a graphing activity! This worked out great because that the unit we just finished in math, so it was a great review. My co-worker read the story Green Eggs and Ham. Every time they heard a word that rhymed with ham on that page they would mark it on the graph. Then after the book was over, they added up all of the words on the page and found the average (they divided that number by how many pages were in the book). This was a great review for finding the average by using a graph!
   
    I love any excuse to integrate other subjects into fun activities! I am lucky I love my job and have great students and co-workers!