The Goldilocks Lab

The three types of Kool-Aid that students got to drink to demonstrate the levels of Saturation! 

Science can either be terribly boring or very exciting. Especially topics including but not limited to...Elements, particles, phases of matter, solutions, solvents, solutes, and saturation. Now let’s take latter, Solutions and Saturations. To make this concept both interesting, relevant, and memorable, I developed the...wait for it, wait for it…

THE GOLDILOCKS LAB!

This lab is working with students to identify the solute and solvent of a solution. The Goldilocks portion comes in when I made three types of Kool-Aid, Purple with very little flavoring (but it looked exactly like regular Kool-Aid), Red Kool Aid (that was made according to the flavor ratio on the package), and Yellow Kool-Aid (made normally but then I added a few extra cups of sugar). This was to give students a chance to ‘taste’ the difference between: Undersaturated, Saturated, and Over-saturated. I made a lab sheet that students were required to fill out with a group of three people. When they had completed their portion of the lab and showed it to me, each member of the group chose one of the three flavors of Kool-Aid. After tasting it, they discussed with their group what ratio of saturation their Kool-Aid was. Was their Kool-Aid, too sweet, just right sweet, or not sweet enough?! 

The kids LOVED this lab! The were all focused, (especially because they had Kool-Aid as goal), working well together, and securely grasping the concept of Solutions and Saturations! I love this lab and am excited to do it next year! 

The Wheel of Wonder

                 

The Wheel of Wonder

If I could teach my kids one thing, just one thing all year that they would actually listen to and do, it would be to listen to the attention signal when I ask! Just that one thing! But alas, things are not always that easy. So when observing an awesome math teacher at my school, I noticed she had an incentive program to encourage the kiddos to stay on task and listen. I took her idea and did a slight twist. I had been meaning to build a “wheel of fortune” wheel similar to my mentor teachers. Luckily, at a quick, heartbreaking stop at the Hostess store that is no longer living, I was able to secure their Wheel of Wonder!!! What a lucky break for a busy teacher/daughter/aunt/roommate/sister! 

I cleaned up the wheel, made some new options for the wheel, added some new screws and flapper, and away it went to the classroom! I placed 3 sad faces, $3 Kolt Cash, $1 Kolt Cash, $5 Kolt Cash, and a JollyRancher, which I placed velcro on, to the different triangles. 

I explained to students that I will write the word WHEEL on the whiteboard. Each time that they are off task, not following the attention signal, or I must remind them of the expectations, I wipe a letter away. They cannot earn letters back, and if they have at least the ‘W’ left by the end of class, one person from each group gets to spin the wheel for a prize! Everybody in that group gets what their teammate spun. It has been helping keep students accountable for their behavior, in both positive and negative consequences. 

It is also important to keep things different in the classroom and mix it up. So on one day, I made it “Double Day” where whatever they spun on, their group got double! And to make it even better, I took off the sad faces and replaced it with red licorice. This got kids excited and were working hard, which makes a teacher smile :) 

Spirit Week...Middle School Style!

Spirit Week

So it is very important during Spirit Week that you go above and beyond what the kids could do. So this year I did my best to be one of those ‘awesome teachers’ who dresses up and makes the week fun for the kids! 

Monday was Pajama Day

Which I donned my amazing Sock Monkey pajamas (note to other teachers, it is great to wear jeans under your pajamas if you can because then after-school you are able to transform back into a normal citizen :) 

Tuesday was Twin Day

Even though I despise twin day (because then people feel left out for not having a twin and such) I participated :) All of us 6th grade teachers wore a black t-shirt and jeans with tennis shoes. Super chill but cool :)

Wednesday was Kolt Pride Day

I wore my amazing skinny ‘gold’ jeans from H&M with my Kolt Pride shirt and a black sweater...We are after all Black and Gold (Plus I was one of the most stylin’ dressed up teachers :) 

Thursday was Sports Day

Sports Day is always super easy, wear my Cougars shirt (get ridiculed all day) with a pair of jeans and your good to go!

Friday was Superhero Day

I have been waiting for Superhero Day all week! My AMAZING SISTER made me a superhero cape...I know, she’s AMAZING! To complete the ensemble, I wore my awesome Nike shoes, yoga pants, and Wonder Woman Shirt. This was the best day!!! I got to fly around in my cape all day :) 

We then also had another Spirit Week...similar days except for one of the best....Mustache Monday! My kids in leadership (who select the days) told me that they picked it for me!!!