Tunstall's Teaching Tidbits

Teaching with Heart and Creativity

Swimming With Sharks…and a little Claustrophobia!

Last night was the culmination of our ocean studies and boy did we throw a rockin’ bash!!!  We began with a program which magically lures those proud parents right into the school.  Then we surprised them with a PTA meeting.  Ha!  Next they watched their little ones perform poetry by Shel Silverstein and finally they all took a long walk down the hall to their ocean project museum!

Here’s a peek at some of the projects:

 

Now on to our museum!  This is what the parents walked in to see!

This year I used Susan’s Unit to help us write our reports.

Okay so that’s what it looked like before parents…Are you ready for this?  I thought I would die.  It was total claustrophobia!!!

Whew!!!  Every kid was accounted for!  AMAZING!  That has never happened before y’all.  Ever.  I mean every little heart was filled with love and pride.  Mine burst.  It was so wonderful.

Playing on the smartboard I had this smilebox.

Click to play this Smilebox slideshow
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This free photo slideshow made with Smilebox

 It filled the room with fun music and the kids crowded around to watch it over and over!  If you haven’t tried smilebox, it’s easy and free!  I send out a weekly smilebox to my families sharing a lot of what we have done that week.  It’s been a fun addition this year.  (sorry that sounded like an ad!  It really isn’t!  I just love smilebox!)

Along with our ocean studies, we did a massive ocean foldable book. 
It has two chambers and secret pockets!   I am way more proud of this
baby than I care to admit.  Do you have old worksheets circa 1982?  This
is a GREAT way to use them in a cool way!
This is the foldable book closed all up!

 
 I flipped it over and on the back is a world map.  
(This was the first piece we added right after learning the oceans of the world)

 When you open the first two doors you find more foldables inside!  Are you giddy? 

 Each one of those opens into some kind of cut up information that I have pillaged out of worksheets of old.

 This was one of our favorites! Lots of cutting…so fun.

 So that is the first set of doors…

 Now we open the second set of doors to find…

 Individual
ocean creature info on more foldables!  Are you squealing with
excitement?  Aren’t you glad you have all those old worksheets now? 
Totally validating…

 I
can’t share the worksheets since they are old, copyrighted, and well I
have no idea where they came from to be honest, but if you want to start
using foldables you should check out this sight HERE!

If you are looking to do an ocean unit, or you want something for a parent night celebration I have put my ocean unit together on TpT.  Just click Here to check it out! 

 

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    4. Great projects and it's always so exciting to get so much parent involvement. I love Smilebox too and did you know you can get a free premium teacher's account? Look for the link that says Teacher's Toolbox. Oh and I see they have an app now too.

      Reply

    6. Here's just another reason that I check your night every night! You are the best! Congratulations of creating the kind of night that the children (and parents) will remember forever…..
      sherry-matheson.blogspot.com

      Reply

    15. Reagan,
      I LOVED this post! Your room looks FANTASTIC, and the kids' projects are amazing! Don't you just love it when your room is so full of proud parents that there is standing room only? The Smilebox slideshow was so cute. I am definitely going to check it out! Thanks for the inspiration! Your students are so lucky to have you as their teacher.

      Kay
      A Little Tech

      Reply

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