Singing in the class

I don't know about you, but I always have a song stuck in my head. The exact song varies, but there's always one there. Right now, for example, the song stuck in my head is "Banjo" by Rascal Flatts. I heard it earlier today, and it just stuck with me. Last year, I was thinking of a way I could incorporate music into my classroom a little bit more. One problem area I wanted to tackle was literary elements. I think students really know what these things are, but when it comes to a standardized test, where they are asking for the exact definition, they get confused and unsure. I wanted to come up with a catchy song that would help them remember what each of the terms were.
My man Mozart wrote a lovely little number, "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik" that I based my literary elements song around. It definitely gets stuck in your head. I love when I heard the kids humming it to themselves while taking a test or trying to answer a question. Even sixth graders, who aren't thrilled about singing in front of there peers, will get into this song. I usually introduce it at the beginning of the year and come back to it when I see a need. I get requests, though, to sing it from time to time without any prodding which is fun.
The song includes brief definitions of things like characters, main idea, theme, etc. I tried to make it in a way that it was easy to sing and easy to understand.
The song is now available here at my TpT store. Teach it to your students, sing it with them often, and you can be sure to hear it all the time from your students!

New classroom rug

So if you know me, you know I love all things crochet. I saw a post on Pinterest about a t-shirt rug and thought, "Hey, I think I want one of those in my classroom." Below are the steps that I took to create my rug. I'm pretty happy with it and can't wait to find a spot for it.

First, I headed to one of my favorite places: AC Moore. Surprisingly enough, they were having a sale on tshirts. I went with the biggest ones that I could find - 3X. It helps because you don't have to connect the strips as often if the shirts are nice and big. Below are the shirts I got on my first trip. I ended up having to get a few more because these were not quite enough. You'll have to gauge it depending on what size rug you're looking to make.

(Please note Huten peeking in the top - he's a ham and loves to have his picture taken!) Gildan had a ton of color choices so you'll have no problem finding some that work for you!

The next step is to cut the tshirts into strips. Start at the bottom and make a slit about 1/2 inch long. Cut along the bottom seam. The seam area of the strip can be skinnier than the regular shirt area because it is twice as thick. Once you cut around the seam, start your way up into the main tshirt, making the strip about 1 inch wide. Just keep going when you reach the sleeves. You'll have to move the shirt a little bit here and there to keep the inch, but it shouldn't be too difficult. Stop cutting when you get to the end of the sleeves.

Once you have strips, form them into a ball. I connected the strips by tshirt, changing the colors when a shirt's strip was finished. You may want to change faster if you want more variety in the colors. To join, simply tie in a double knot. Make sure to pull tightly so that it won't slip. Don't skip turning the strips into a ball. They get too tangled if you leave them as a pile. The balls get really big, though, so you might have to make a few. This ball was one of three that I made to make my rug.

The next step is to crochet. Stat by crocheting  small chain and joining them with a slip stitch. I did a chain of 6 stitches. The first round, I crocheted 12 stitches into the circle I formed. I did a simple single crochet, only in the back part of the stitch. For the next round, I increased every other stitch for 18 stitches. The next row I did stitch, stitch, 2 stitches for a total of 24 stitches. You may find that you have to play with your increases depending on if your rug gets wavy or if it gets too much like a bowl. Once I got to the point where I was at 20 stitches and then an increase, I was doing that for a few rows before changing. It takes a lot of pulling and playing but eventually, you'll get the hang of it.

Here is my final product. It's a little floppy in places, but I think once I start using it and stepping on it, it'll flatten out.

I'm impressed with how thick and cushy it is. I love mine and hope you enjoy yours!

And The Hat says....

Having students work in partners that aren't just friends is always a challenge. I know some people who use partner menus or other ways of setting them up so that everyone has the chance to work with everyone else. My only problem with those is that they get filled out at the beginning of the year, or the beginning of the term and undoubtedly, (at least one) someone misplaces there's.

Another headache for me is deciding on order for presentations or sharing. I've used Popsicle sticks in the past, but with more than one group of kids, this gets time consuming as the sticks are constantly getting switched out when the next class comes in. The same comes when you have something cool to do and need to pick a person. You don't want to hear, "Pick me, pick me!" "I was first!" "No, I want it."

Add all of that to the fact that I'm trying to use less "stuff" and more technology in my classroom, I have stumbled upon......THE HAT!

I love this little program. It pulls names either singly or in pairs. It includes fun animation that shows the name or names that have been chosen. The kids love it, even my 6th graders who are too cool for anything! You can add names and then save them. That way, if you have multiple classes, you can pull them up easily when you switch classes.    The best part is, the Hat is a free download here!

Pulling singly:




Pulling pairs:

This is what the main list part looks like: