When Life Hands You Lemons, Redesign Your Classroom!

Although I was exhausted last Friday night, my husband lured me out of the house by offering to take me out for Crocked Onion Soup and a McGuire's Irish Red. It is my favorite meal on a rare, chilly night in Florida. My plan of waking up early to go work at school for a few hours the next morning was shattered by a text from my 7th grade daughter. She had heard on Snapchat that the school was on fire!

Specifically, my daughter had heard that the Art Room was on fire. Unfortunately, my classroom is two doors down from the Art Room. I was hopeful that it was all a 7th grade prank. Turns out the 7th graders knew what they were talking about. The kiln started smoking and set off a sprinkler. It was only one sprinkler, but he was very diligent and managed to soak the floor in both third grade classrooms. We were lucky so little was damaged. However I wasn't allowed back in my room until Monday morning, so a company could dry everything out. No time for prepping, no time to put every desk back in place, and no time to put everything back where it belonged before my students walked in Monday morning.

Fortunately, the administration arranged for subs to take care of our students all of Monday morning, so we could focus on our classrooms. It was a little overwhelming at first, but my co-teacher and I strive to be glass half-full type of people. With our wonderful custodian eager to help us out all morning, we realized we had the perfect opportunity to redesign our classroom spaces. Using a recent article from edSurge sent to us by our lower school head as our inspiration, items from the students' desks were placed in baskets, most of our desks were carted off to storage, and we searched the store rooms for surplus furniture.  The author of the article, Kayla Delzer, explains how she transformed her second grade classroom to be "more like a Starbucks" with flexible seating for the students. It is a wonderful article that addressed all of our concerns.

Ditch the Desks! http://rowdykids.blogspot.com/

I now have eighteen students and five desks. The rest of the students sit on small rugs, at low, medium or high tables, or on a small bench. We drew names on Monday to decide who would pick their work area first for the week. However the students have organically moved around and swapped seats as needed. I do have five extra work areas, so the students have room to spread out and make alternative choices. This is totally off subject, but I have to take a second to brag on my incredible whiteboard wall in the above picture. The wall is painted with special whiteboard paint. The projector is an Epson BrightLink Interactive Projector. It turns any surface into an interactive whiteboard. If you school is looking to purchase interactive whiteboards, the Epson BrightLink is cheaper and my students would tell you it is "way cooler."

When it came time to actually teach on Monday afternoon, kids were spread out all over the place. It was a little chaotic. This was fine for independent or group learning, but I still occasionally need to have a little whole group instruction. The strange thing was that the kids were more engaged than ever during whole group instruction!

Ditch the Desks! http://rowdykids.blogspot.com/

My co-teacher and I were afraid our classrooms were too small for this type of arrangement. When I look at pictures of other teachers' classrooms on blogs it always seems like their rooms are gigantic!  We realized after we ditched most of the desks that we had plenty of extra room. It is amazing how much room those thirteen extra desks took up. Each student has a basket filled with all of their individual books and supplies. I was thrilled to find the baskets at Dollar Tree for $1 each. I was wondering aloud where we would store these baskets and one of my students spoke up.  He explained that if we put the baskets under or beside their work area during class, and put the baskets on top of their work area at the end of the day, we didn't really need separate places to store the baskets on shelves. It made perfect sense! At the end of the day the students stack their chairs and place their basket on an open table or desk. We clean up our room in record time and it is tidier than ever.

Ditch the Desks! http://rowdykids.blogspot.com/

We have only been in our redesigned classroom for three and a half days, but so far I am very pleased. The rowdy kids are loving it and seem to understand that it requires a little more self-control and responsibility on their part. It is so nice to have the extra open space, although I have had to ban the children from jumping from colored tile to colored tile and yelling, "Parkour!" Even I have limits on the amount of rowdiness I can endure.

FREE Minecraft Simple Machines STEAM Activity!

http://rowdykids.blogspot.com/

My Minecraft Natural Resources Activity has been my most popular product on TPT. Since we are wrapping up our study of simple machines, I created a Minecraft Simple Machines product. You can buy the full version for $3.

The rowdy kids in 3 enjoyed this activity so much that I decided to offer a sample as a free product. The free product only includes the compound machine portion. The full product also includes a scavenger hunt in Minecraft to find all six types of simple machines. If you download the free sample with your students, please leave a comment and let me know how it goes. I can't wait to hear! Hope you enjoy the FREEBIE!

MakerSpace Inspiration

All of my students eagerly dive into any assignment that includes creating an object from our MakerSpace closet. When they have a clear objective, it is easy to decide on a path. I've noticed some students are a little overwhelmed when the closet is opened up during free time. They want to create something wonderful. They just aren't quite sure where to begin.

One afternoon I spent about thirty minutes researching interesting crafts for kids and creating a padlet full of ideas for my students. I tried to pick things my third graders would be able to create on their own with just a little help from me. My students know that I will try to help them find any supply they need, if they just ask. I usually wait until mid-year to share the this with students to see what they will come up with completely on their own. I thought other students might enjoy my MakerSpace padlet, too.

By the way, I adore padlet.com.  If you aren't already using it in your classroom, you should check it out. It is a great way to share several age-appropriate, on topic links with your students quickly. The best part is the padlet will still be in your account next year when you teach the same topic again!
Happy Making!

Created with Padlet

Minecraft Natural Resources Activity

My students love Minecraft. During Rainy Day Recess, a group of students will sit together in a corner and collaborate as they build together in creative mode. My first year as a third grade teacher one of my students had absolutely no interest in science, and little interest in any other subject. He was an intelligent kid with little motivation. One day his exasperated mother exclaimed, "All the kid cares about is Minecraft!"



I spent that evening getting a lesson in all things Minecraft from my son and daughter. Our class happened to be studying Natural Resources. The next morning, I asked my student to design a Minecraft Natural Resources Museum for extra credit. He worked on it that night and brought his laptop in the next morning. I hooked his laptop up to the projector and he showed the whole class his museum. This was in the early days of Minecraft, and the students were blown away. I was, too. Not only had he built a museum and categorized the resources, he had built a solar powered flying boat to show how he could use an alternative energy source.  His entire attitude about school changed, as did the students' perception of him.  I think it was the first time that I realized that a little extra effort and time to reach a specific child, could really make a difference. Third grade can truly be a turning point in a child's education.  So many children turn a corner during that year, and learn to enjoy learning. I'm constantly striving to find new ways to help facilitate that shift.


The next year, I developed a project around the concept and my entire class worked on it together at school. If you would like to try the same in your own classroom, check out my Minecraft Natural Resources Activity, or find a ten year old to teach you about Minecraft and develop your own activity.

Oh and if you are still wondering if Minecraft and other building games are a worthwhile activity for your students, I would like to introduce you to one of my 3rd graders this year.  He was asked to design a column to print on the school's 3D printer in Technology.  We had been studying Ancient Greece, and the Technology teacher had developed a project to supplement our lesson on Greek architecture.  He proudly told me his was super cool, because he learned how to make modifications in Roblox and did the same thing in the 3D software.  That is so incredibly awesome that I don't even really understand what he is talking about, but he does!  He is using technology that would have been taught only to adults specializing in that field just twenty years ago.