Thursday, September 5, 2013

diary of a teacher

ha! I wish I had enough stamina to keep a diary... this is as good as it gets!

We are reading Diary of a Spider this week and my 2nd graders LOVE it! Every time we read (even at the 6th time!) they are laughing out loud. I wish every story we read could be this engaging!

We have worked on a couple skills this week, but one of the main skills was Cause and Effect. So after compiling a l-o-n-g class list of causes and effects within the story we made some adorable spiders.






This was our first craftivity of the year and I thought it turned out awesome! Of course, I am a horrible judge of time for a craftivity.... It ALWAYS takes longer than it should! But, at least they really really know cause and effect now {I hope!}

Here is how we did it:

Each child needs: 8 skinny strips of black construction paper
1 colored background paper
half a piece of black construction paper (for body)

1. Kids filled out the cause/effect labels
2. We bent our legs into zigzags
3. We made our bodies. 
4. We glued the labels on one side of the legs, then glued the legs to the back of the spider. 
5. We glued the whole thing to the colored construction paper. 
6. We added details to our spiders (which had to include some googly eyes- at their request). A few opted out of the googly eyes. 
7. Most of us put a dab of glue on the bottom of the labels and glued them to the construction paper so our spiders look 3D. 

We had lots of fun and the kids were impressed with their work!

Speaking of being impressed... I was bored with our usual dinner options so I put together a little something tonight that was delish!! 


It was sooo easy and I will for sure be making it again next week...

White Bean Chicken Cornbread Yumminess!

2-3 Chicken breasts
1 can of white beans
1/2 can of crushed tomatoes
1 box of jiffy
a pinch of basil
a pinch of onion powder
a pinch of garlic salt

I put everything in a casserole dish (except the jiffy) and baked @ 400 for 30 minutes. I made the jiffy mix and baked it at the same time for 20 minutes. 

If you make this, please let me know if you liked it. 

Being the not so great cook I am, this is probably not a unique recipe but I couldn't find anything quick and easy on pinterest with white beans and chicken so this seemed to fit the bill. 

So happy tomorrow is Friday! 


16 comments:

  1. Can you please post a new link for the printables for the spider activity??? the link isn't working anymore.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I was also wondering if you could post the link for the spider activity? The link to dropbox isn't working.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Not sure what happened on the dropbox, but it should be fixed now! Enjoy!

    ReplyDelete
  4. The link isn't working still... Do you still have this available?

    ReplyDelete
  5. I am not able to get the link to work. Could you e-mail it possibly? saallison@usd506.org

    Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi can you email me the link to the labels? Thank you so much. My students will love this!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Do you have an alternate link for the printable? They are not working. Thank you so much. What a wonderful activity!!!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Can you send me the labels to my email jperry0912@hotmail.com...I would love to do this craft this week

    ReplyDelete
  9. I have done this before and the kids LOVED it!! Would you possibly email me the labels? I can't find my copy in my file. Thank you so much!!

    jennifercruggeri@yahoo.com

    ReplyDelete
  10. Perfect timing that I saw this, but I would love a copy of the labels too. Could you send them to me at colleen.puttin@bps101.net

    Thanks so much!

    ReplyDelete
  11. hello. please i tried to open the link to print the cause and effect labels but it did not open.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I wish I could use your template! The link won't work

    ReplyDelete
  13. Hi! I love your creativity and the activity. Unfortunately, I am unable to go to the link. Do you have it on teacherpayteachers?

    ReplyDelete
  14. Hi! Loved your post. Thank you so much for sharing with your fellow book-loving community! I also had troubles with the dropbox link. Is it possible to send or post another one? My email is mribbens@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  15. Would love the labels . I’m definitely going to do this craft with my class “ as soon as I can copy your info !!!!” Amazing creativity!! Please email link to sarshkn56@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  16. Hi there! I also would love the cause and effect labels and the drop box link isn't active. Do you think you could email the labels to me? bunkerr@orting.wednet.edu Please and thank you!

    ReplyDelete