Happy Halloween!

I started my Halloween unit yesterday.  Halloween is not celebrated in Korea, and I wanted to show them what it is all about.  I found some great songs on YouTube, including this one:

We watched the first two stanzas of the song, and then we created some of our own.  We had a lot of fun with this song.  I had never heard it before.  It's a great way to talk about different animals and careers.  Some careers are easier than others.  For example, I couldn't think of one for "lawyer" or "teacher".  Can you think of some more?

Knock knock,
Trick or treat,
Who are you?
I'm a ghost.
I'm a little ghost.

Knock knock,
Trick or treat,
Who are you?
I'm a ghost.
I'm a little ghost.
"Boo-oo-oo"

Repeat with:
Cowboy - "Yee-haw"
Witch - "Hee hee hee"
Policeman - "Stop! You're under arrest."
Doctor - "Say ahhh."
Astronaut - "1, 2, 3...blast off!"
Tiger - "Grrrrr..."
Frog - "Ribbit ribbit"
Dog - "Ruff ruff"
Cat - "Meow meow"
Mouse - "Squeak squeak"
Singer - "La la la la la"
Pig - "Oink oink"


I have also introduced some new ABC activities with some of my classes.  Have you ever heard of Power Towers?  I found out about Power Towers last year from Pinterest and introduced to my classes with HUGE success.  HERE is the original link where I found it.  However, it originally came from Teacher Tipster.  If you have not heard about Teacher Tipster, you totally need to take a look.  He is fantastic.

We used Power Towers to practice multiplication facts.  My students would literally beg to play.  And when you get 5th graders to beg to play a game that practices math facts?  That means you have a winner!

To play Power Towers, you pull a cup out of the Pringles can, say the fact or the word, and then stack the cup making a tower.  The students get really creative with their towers.  I write my facts and words on the bottom of the cup and teach my students to keep the cups face down so they have to flip over the cup to read it.

If they don't know the fact or the word, I teach them to put the cup at the bottom of the stack.  You have to know it to stack it.  Also, if the stack falls down, then you have to start at the beginning.

Now in Korea, I don't have Pringles cans, so I don't use those.  I found small Dixie cups at Daiso, the Korean dollar store, and wrote letters of the alphabet on bottom.  The students turn over the cup, say the letter, and then stack it.  It's a great way to practice math facts, ABC's, phonics, etc.  You could even use Power Towers to practice vocabulary words although you might want to write the words on stickers and then put them on the cup instead of writing directly on the cups.

I was sick last week and ended up staying home for 2 days per the doctor's orders.  In Korea, you go to school NO matter what, whether you are vomiting, have a fever, or are dying.  To show you just how far they take this, here is a funny video to explain what I mean:

While I was home, I worked on my Math Stations pack.  Man, it was a lot of work, but I finally finished it....all 153 pages of it.  I used math stations in my classroom every single day back in Texas, and I would often re-use them for more practice.  My students struggled a lot with place value, multiplication, division, word problems, and problem solving, so I re-used those stations a lot.  There are 72 ready-to-go stations included, along with my station rotations and station groups.

Math Stations

Fruit loops

Who knew that middle school boys would do anything for Fruit Loops?

I had tried to think of something to motivate my students.  Stickers weren't working for most of them because they can't see the sticker well.  I had brought some Fruit Loops for a snack to keep at my desk...just for me.  I hadn't planned on giving any to my students.  However, on a whim, I went and got them and gave them a Fruit Loop for getting an answer right.  They loved it!  I was shocked.  Surprised.  Flabbergasted.  Excited.  I found something that they liked!

So on this activity, I found some phonics flashcards online, printed them, and cut them out.

Have you ever used this website?  They have some great stuff on it, from flash cards to reading comprehension worksheets.
http://havefunteaching.com/

I gave them a card with a word and its picture on it.  Each student had their own set of magnetic letters.  The first student who spelled the word correctly got 2 Fruit Loops, and the other student got 1 Fruit Loop when he spelled it correctly.

Here are some of the words that we used.

I am constantly looking for new activities to use with my middle school students.  Although they are on a Kindergarten/1st grade level, they like to feel like they are in middle school.  Do you have any ideas?  I'd LOVE to hear them!

Where have I been?

The big question is...."Where have I been?"  Why haven't I posted in several months?

Well, I have a good reason.  A really good reason.  I resigned from my teaching job in Texas to follow a dream I've had for the past 10 years.  I am teaching English in Daejeon, Korea.  I have wanted to teach overseas for a long time, and I just decided to do it.  I am absolutely loving it, and I don't regret it at all.

I actually started another blog that details my whole experience, and I share my pictures, stories, and experiences on it. I'd love for you to check it out! elephanthat.blogspot.com 

I am teaching at Daejeon Public School for the Blind.  I have taught for 15 years, but I have never taught blind students.  This is a new experience for me.  My students are either completely blind or have low vision.  Most of my students have intellectual disabilities as well, so I am learning to embrace Pre-K and Kinder activities, songs, books, and chants.

I hope to create some fun activities for them in the classroom.  We've been singing a lot of songs, which they love.  I bought some musical instruments from the store here in Daejeon, and it is so much fun to watch them.  I also bought some magnetic letters and a magnetic board to practice learning the alphabet and beginning phonics.  I have never taught kindergarten, so this is totally new to me.  I have worked in day care for years and Backyard Bible Clubs and Vacation Bible School, so at least I have worked with younger kiddos.  I have been searching and searching the internet for songs, videos, picture books, poems, chants, rhymes....basically anything that can help me.

Here are some great videos that I found to practice the alphabet and the alphabet sounds.  I have the students move their chairs right up to the screen so they can see the letters and hear the sounds.

On this first video, we play it through once so we can listen and sing.  Then I play it again, stopping at each letter and have the students find the magnetic letter that it goes to and repeat the chant for that letter.  They are getting really good at the letters and the sounds.  Sometimes, students in Korea have difficulty sounding out certain letters, and this video is helping.

Since I'm in Korea, I do not have "home court advantage".  I can't run right out to Wal-Mart and pick up supplies.  I can't go to Half Price Books to build up my classroom library and buy books.  So you know what I did?  I went on YouTube and found picture books being read aloud.  I never knew they did this!  Did you?  Well, when I found it, it just made my day.  I now have playlists on my YouTube channel: picture books, Dr Seuss, phonics, nursery rhymes, ABCs, music videos, etc.  I am a happy girl in Korea!

Here are a couple of my favorites so far.  I just discovered this a couple of days ago, so I haven't had a chance to show all the books:

Here are a couple of awesome phonics videos that I found for sight words.  I will be adding these in to my plans this next week.  What's awesome is that this particular YouTube channel has tons of videos for sight words.  http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1jhiDqp-jIYR07Ini8Jamw  Score!

Last but not least are my nursery rhymes.  I have two girls in my high school class that I just adore.  They both have low vision and intellectual disabilities, but they are always happy to come to class and see me.  They often walk in and immediately ask if we can sing and dance.  My co-teacher had originally planned for me to work with them only one day a week, but the girls loved my singing so much that I now get the privilege of working with them three days a week.  I quickly discovered that they already knew several songs, so I used that and then expanded on it.  They LOVE to do the motions to any song and use the musical instruments.  I found this channel on YouTube where the colors are vivid, and the characters are super cute.  The channel is called Little Baby Bum.
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKAqou7V9FAWXpZd9xtOg3Q
Here are our favorite nursery rhymes:

And their absolute favorite....which gets the "Saturday Night Fever" moves from one of the girls...

I am learning so much teaching and living in Korea.  If you have ever thought about it, do it!  If you have any questions about teaching in Korea, I'd be more than happy to answer them!