Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Football Sunday!

Football Sunday!: Have you all seen this sign? I totally need one for my house!


My oldest son's first word was football. Not mama, not dada, not even baba... football. I should have known what life had in store for me from that moment on.

Many of you know that I homeschooled my children for awhile but I have never shared the story of how it began or the frustrations that came with it. When my oldest was 2 I found him reading a book. Not the pictures.... the actual words. What sounds he hadn't figured out he made up.

I thought it was so amazing! He could read!! Little did I know the heartache this would cause. (To catch you up he has a form of Autism known as Asperger's Syndrome. He is very high functioning. He excels academically across the board but struggles socially).

Because he was so intent on learning, I taught him. It was sooo hard to keep up with his need for knowledge. One day when he was 4 he suddenly stopped learning. I was so happy but also concerned. He only wanted to know about football. I needed resources but couldn't find any. So I made everything myself... a huge massive collection of all things football. He loved it!

I have learned that sometimes to get students to move ahead we have to meet them where they are. My bff went into teaching before I did and has often pulled my football resources to get her reluctant students to write, learn vocabulary, or to do math.

So... Melonheadz and I have decided to create a complete line of football products! I am finishing them up now so they will be appearing in my store in the next few days BUT you can get a set early by leaving a comment below!


These are the original materials that I used all those years ago with new graphics to jazz it up! This packet includes 20 sentence stems/journal pages, 7 compare & contract activities, 2 goal pages, 4 pages of math, 6 pages of vocabulary, 1 geography activity, 3 class books/bulletin board projects, 1 research project, and 1 creative writing project. Over 60 pages of football fun!





My kids still love this packet. This is my baby's worksheet from today's game... he is working on adding more than 2 numbers together. Since adding is too simple for him he then groups each picture together and multiplies those and then adds. So the 2 field goals would be 2x3... it gets harder as the game goes on. =)





This is 17 weeks of greater than/less than score fun! Students record the score and then using > or < determine the winner. My son never understood Allie Alligator but he understood he wanted to be on the winning team and that the arrow always pointed toward the loser as their score was smaller.


And of course I had to do matching calendar numbers and a boggle board! We are working on getting a set out for every NFL team so if you are looking for a set, please let me know as I will put you on the top of the list.

What could be even better for football fans?? I will be selling exclusive Melonheadz Graphics for each of the teams as well. Again... I am a big tease as they are a work in progress but I couldn't wait to share with you!


I also wanted to share with you a post from Kinderzoo. I cannot imagine the grief she is going through at suddenly losing her husband, her best friend. I know that I would be devastated. She would hate it if she knew we were doing this but several of us would like to show our love and support during this difficult time.

If you have a moment - please visit her store and make a purchase. She has some amazing products. My favorites are her emergency Kinder plans. I could have so used them for that first week in school!!

An Education Bubble?

An Education Bubble?: I watched this debate the other day between entrepreneur Peter Thiel and Google CEO Eric Schmidt. It was moderately interesting, but the part that got me thinking was in the last few minutes (about the 33 minute mark) when they briefly touched on education. Peter Thiel suggested that, at least at the university level, we are in an education bubble. Eric Schmidt responded that while there may be issues, he thinks education is the answer.

Dinner and Debate with Eric Schmidt and Peter Thiel from Fortune Conferences and Fortune Conferences on FORA.tv

And that got me thinking. More and more I'm wondering if Education - with a capital 'E' - is not the answer. Perhaps we are seeing a bubble in education, not just at the university level, but in K-12 as well. Perhaps we'll look back at the last half of the twentieth century and this first decade or two of the twenty-first and view it as the industrial-education complex (with apologies to Eisenhower) era of education.

More and more I'm wondering if there's any possible way to take a system of Education and make it work the way I think it needs to; to truly meet the needs of our children. I'm really beginning to doubt there is.

So if Education (capital 'E") is not the answer, what is? Perhaps it's learning.

Now, to be fair, I have no idea how to "scale" such an idea, and specifically no idea how to make sure the least advantaged among us can take advantage of the learning landscape we currently are presented with (that's one thing a system - despite all its flaws - currently does better). But just as in other bubbles, where in the midst of the hype very few folks were aware they were in a bubble, perhaps the way forward to make our children's learning the focus will emerge from the rubble.

Perhaps.

Words and Writing Wednesday! Gingerbread Men

Words and Writing Wednesday! Gingerbread Men:
Yeah, I know...you're thinking, "Gingerbread mean???? This time of year?"!
But, I'm talking about different Gingerbread men....not Christmas Gingerbread men....
These two Gingerbread men:
I've been working on the story elements with my Firsties, and we used these two books to COMPARE and CONTRAST main characters.
I had never read the "Gingerbread Man Loose in the School" before, but it was SUPER cute, and "The Gingerbread Cowboy" fits PERFECTLY with our desert unit.
We used the "Main Character" description pages from my Story Elements Packet
BUT, I also created this little freebie for you guys!!

Puzzle Ideas

Common Core

APPS for Education

Source: appitic.com via Cindy on Pinterest