Fire Prevention Week 10/5-10/11

Below are some great activities for Fire Safety/Prevention Week from Scholastic and Sparky the Dog...

Free Worksheets/Lessons from Scholastic

• There are a variety of activities/worksheets that your students can do from Scholastic
• Pre-K to K Lessons
• Grades 1-2 Lessons
• Grades 3-5 Lessons

Activites: The activities below are found on the website (just click on activities to access them)

• Escape Plan Grid
• Bookmarks
• Origami Dog
• Sparky's Home Safety Checklist
• Sort it Out
• How to Draw a Fire Dog

Coloring Pages:

• Thank you's to Firefighters
• Stop, Drop, and Roll
• Stop, Drop, and Roll (in Spanish)
• Remember the Steps

Other:

• All About Firetrucks
• All About Sparky
• Sparky's Website
• Games and What Not's from Scholastic

Free Activities from Creative Press

Here are several activities that you can use within the classroom. All open up in PDF form. Each are from the Creative Teaching Press website underneath their teacher resources.

Social Studies:

• Three Branches of Government
• The Presidential Election

Language Arts:

• Adjectives and Adverbs
• Contraction Fold-A-Book
• Grammar Minutes
• More Grammar Minutes
• Cooties ABC Order
• Bookmarks
• How Many Letters In Name
• Consonant Blends and Digraphs Word Wallet
• Basic Word Families --- I have, Who Has
• Long Vowel Patterns: ei, eigh, ey
• BINGO
• Word Addition
• Juggling Vowels

Math:

• Leapfrog Game
• How Many Letters in Name
• Money Count
• Algebra
• Count to 100
• Time to Half Hour
• I Have, Who Has Number Game
• Minute Game 1
• Minute Game 2
• Multiplication and Division
• Cootie Catchers -- Even and Odd, LCM, Rounding, Mean, Median, and Mode
• Number Riddles
• Number Bingo
• Word Worth

Science:

• I Have, Who Has Weather
• Cootie Catcher -- Living and Nonliving, Body Systems, Food Chains
• Gravity Experiment
• Seeing Color Experiment
• Evaporation Experiment
• The Water Cycle
• Bird Watching

Classroom Management:

• Rules Rap

Other Activities (Can be adapted to each course of study):

• Content Cubes

Reader's Theatre

Reader's Theater: Slurping Beauty

Here is a free Reader's Theater for you guys called Slurping Beauty. It's really cute and hilarious. I laughed from the beginning to the end and the kids seem to really enjoy it. Just click on the link above to access the PDF.

Here's a little clip via YouTube.

Activities for September 11

I know many of us remember 9/11/01 for some we were sitting at our desks in school, for others they were out and about, and for some they were at work. Each of us watching the horrors that unfolded right before our eyes. I know for myself I was sitting in my high school math class right at the start of my sophomore year watching everything unfold on the TV and hoping for my uncle who was at the Pentagon. It was hard then and still hard today, especially for teachers and new teachers who having to incorporate this into their curriculum.

Now 10 years later and with 9/11 just around the corner here are some activities to incorporate with classroom lessons and discussions. These are just a few, please keep in mind all are not suitable for younger elementary students --- use your discretion and use them as valuable resources.

Websites:

• 9/11 Memorial
• Pentagon Memorial
• Flight 93 by the National Park Service
• Smithsonian
• FEMA --- the picture above illustrated by a 5th grade student to talk about their hopes and feelings regarding 9/11 --- very inspiring
• Teacher Vision --- September 11th

Baby Pool Ball Pit

I decided to change over my previous blog to this blog. You can still find me over at twodaisiesandanelephant.blogspot.com. However, most of my blog posts from there will be transferred over to this one. So, at times you may see the "twodaisiesandanelephant" logo going across many of the photos. No worries, it is me. I promise.

A few weeks ago, I grabbed a baby pool on clearance at my local Walmart. I couldn't beat the price and I since I needed to take a part the pack and play for our vacation. The balls needed a place to go. 

This also gave Baby E a little more freedom while playing with them. She hated being confined. Plus, she has the opportunities to throw her balls and roll out whenever she feels like it.

A cheap and easy play toy that barely cost $5.00. 

Now, all I have to do is teach our puppies that they can't sneak into her room and steal them whenever they want. They are obsessed! 

Harry's Big Adventure by Terminex

Picture taken from Terminex Website

Terminex has a fun on-line education center for students and teachers to explore the world of insects. Students follow Harry the Chinese Praying Mantis as he introduces them to fun and interesting facts about a variety of insects. Below is a list of some of the items in Harry's World.

1. Educators Guide (PDF)
2. Lesson Plans (Grades K-8)
3. Games and more
4. Watch and Hear Bugs

You can also schedule a visit from a Terminex pro to come visit your classroom and present some information regarding insects. This is for grades K-6 only.

A Lifesaver For Us and Our Sick Baby --- The Graco Nasal Aspirator

~*~ 

Let me just start off with the fact that I am not endorsed of affiliated with this company in any way, shape, or form. I'm just a real mama sharing what's worked for us and our baby girl.

~*~

So, after we found out that we had mold in our blue hospital nasal aspirator (and yes, we cleaned them constantly); I ended up freaking out and literally crying about it. It was the whole new mama thing and hoping that my baby girl was still okay. Anyways, I looked on-line for some other options and found the Graco Bebesounds Nasal Aspirator. We chose this aspirator not only because it was electric and would give us a better suction, but it was easy to clean and it had a musical option to soothe baby. Now, we did have to buy the extra replacement tips to the longer tip. However, it was a reasonable price; under $2.00, then I got it for about nothing with some babies r us coupons I had from my purchases. 

In the end, this has been the biggest life saver for us! Right in the middle of a nasty winter storm our baby started to get worse. She sounded horribly, coughing, sneezing, congested, a low grade fever, and a runny nose light a faucet. She had already had a rough night and so that we could be at ease and know she was at ease we packed up our stuff and headed out at the height of the storm. We drove down to our pediatrician to find out they were closed so we headed out to the pediatric ER. After hours of sitting there, we found out that she had an upper respiratory infection. We told to just monitor her and suck out the snot. 

As you can see below this thing has seriously worked! This has just been the past couple times today during her diaper changes so far. A LOT OF SNOT!

Now, I usually wash them out with warm soapy water after every 2-3 diaper changes and then a full clean in the dishwasher every 2 days when we wash her bottles. 

Here are a few places that you can buy them:

Walgreens ~ $19.97 (they don't sell the replacement tips)

WalMart ~ $19.87 (I haven't seen the replacement tips there)

Target ~ $19.89 (they don't sell the replacement tips)

Amazon ~ $19.87 (the replacement tips vary from $9.39-$17.00)

CVS ~ $19.99 (the replacement tips are $2.99)

Babies R Us ~ $29.99 (the replacement tips are $1.99)

The only thing I would say that I am disappointed in is the fact that it does say that it includes 2 tips (it only includes one) and has a carrying case (which there was none in the package). Otherwise despite those two downfalls it's been an absolutely amazing product and has seriously helped us with the baby E's snot faucet. She sounds so much better after each suction :).