How to Dye Pasta 101

Hi there,

We are knee deep in learning about Pilgrims and Native Americans.  How about you?  As a culmination to our study of customs and traditions, we are going to have our annual "Thanksgiving Feast" out in our pod the day before we get out for Thanksgiving break.  One of the things we will do before hand is make our costumes, and the kiddos will get to choose whether they want to dress up as Pilgrims or Native Americans.  They will all get to make the infamous dyed pasta pattern necklaces that we have been making in my class FOREVER!  How many of you still make them?  If you are new or fairly new to teaching, do you even know what I'm talking about?  I bet you probably remember making them as a child yourself!  Since I'm sort of an old pro at this, I thought I'd take a few moments to give you a lesson on how to dye your pasta--just in case you've never done it before.  So, here goes:

First, be sure you buy any kind of pasta that has a hole in it, or would be suitable for stringing.  Well, maybe not tortellini stuffed with cheese, that might not be a great choice.  This year, I had to go to 3 stores before I finally found the "wheel" shaped pasta.  I finally found it at Kroger, and it was the DeCecco brand.  Don't they know that we kindergarten teachers need this stuff?  One year I found the cutest flower shaped pasta, but not this year.  No such luck.  

Next, you need the following items:

• Rit Dye (I found mine at Jo-Ann)  You can also use regular food coloring if you prefer, but I find that the Rit dye has deeper colors and is more similar to the true colors of Native American times (at least that's what I tell the children!)
• Alcohol
• Large Zip-Lock Bags
• A large piece of plastic to spread your pasta out to dry.  If it's nice outside, you can lay it out on butcher paper.  I also laid mine out on parchment paper so it wouldn't stick.  
• Parchment paper (optional)

Once you have everything you need, it's really so simple to do.  Just lay out your plastic or butcher paper.  Too bad I didn't do this last week when we had record 90 degree temperatures here in Texas!  Today it's raining and 46 degrees--yuck.  So, I had to lay my plastic out in my garage.  Take a large Ziplock bag and put enough alcohol in it just to cover the bottom of the bag.

Now, add just a little bit of the dye.  I don't measure it, but I'd say it's about 2-3 tablespoons.  As you can see, it doesn't take much alcohol or dye at all!

Now it's time to add your pasta.  You can add several different kinds if you want.  I usually fill my bag about half full so that I can have room in the bag to mix it up really well.  Start mixing, and mix it up well by shaking it around and moving it around in the bag for a couple of minutes.  Be sure the baggie is sealed up really well!

When you are done, spread it out on your paper to dry, and repeat with as many other colors as you would like.  It's so easy!  Once it's dry, put it in a clean, new Ziplock bag for storage.  Boom!  Done!

TPT Back to School Sale!

Just letting everyone know that TPT is throwing a huge back to school sale, starting at 11 pm tonight, and I'm including all of my things in that sale!  Hop on over there and take a peek!  Thanks all! 

Another successful Splash Conference and Study Buddies!

Well, another year of Frog Street Splash has come to a close.  It was a lot off hard work, ,but it sure was fun!  I want to say a huge thank you to all who came to my sessions.  I appreciate you coming so much, and I hope you were able to take away a few new ideas to use in your classroom this coming year.  As I shared with you in my session, one of my new faves this past year was the addition of these cute little "study buddies."  I needed something to help the kiddos keep their eyes on their own papers during writer's workshop and during benchmark testing, etc.  So, I found these presentation boards at the Dollar Tree, cut them in half on our school's paper cutter, and then added some cute Duck Tape/duct tape around the edges and VIOLA! There you have it--cute little "study buddies" that only cost a few dollars.  Now, when I introduced these, I didn't say, "OK you guys, you have been copying each other and that needs to stop!"  I just put them over to the side of our writing table, and one day I told them that I had these great study buddies that would help them be better writers because it would help them stay more focused on their work and give them more privacy.  Well, believe it or not, everybody wanted one!  I didn't even make that many!  So, we had to figure out a way to take turns with them, share them, and space them out in the room.  During writer's workshop, I encourage my kiddos to go wherever they would like to write.  Some prefer the table, some like the floor, some like to sit at the writing center, etc.  All this to say, the study buddies really did help during writer's workshop, and they turned out to be one of my favorite classroom additions this year!

Rekenreks--New and Improved!

Well, another school year is off and running, and once again, I had the best of intentions of doing better at blogging.  Oh well...And so it goes.  Time escapes me once again.  I find myself wondering once again, what has kept me so busy? I'm not sure I will ever be able to answer that question.  

Anyhoo--I wanted to share my latest discovery about rekenreks.  I think I shared a while ago that I had made some and they were working out just fine.  However, by chance, I discovered a better way to make them.  It all started when I received my materials from Frog Street Press for the make and take session I did this summer in San Antonio (which, by the way, was a complete sell out!)  In making the rekenreks for my session, I discovered that they turned out even better than before, so I wanted to share that with you.

When I constructed the first ones, I put the pipe cleaners directly into the foam board, which meant that the pipe cleaners were taped down on the back, and they showed.  This time, I started with a cute name plate (there are so many to choose from!), and THEN I mounted them onto the foam board with hot glue.  The last step was taping the edges with duct tape.  I went with a name plate that would match my Rock Star themed room this time.  Also, I decided to make them all exactly the same.  I don't know about you, but if you have several to choose from, the kids will always want to be selective about which one they choose!  So now, I don't give them a choice, because they all look just alike, and time is saved when passing them out!  

Another tip I wanted to share this time is putting the little happy face sticker in the top left-hand corner.  Sometimes the kids want to tell you the way they made their number by starting on the right and moving toward the left.  I guess this would be OK, but I really want them to proceed from left to right, just like we do when we read.  So, this way, having the little smiley face helps them to remember where to start.  

Here are a few pictures to help give you an idea of how I constructed them this time:

It is my goal in the near future to make a little video that shows you how I use my rekenreks during our "Math Talks."  So, stay tuned--but don't hold your breath! 

Shake and Share Math Station--differentiated!

Two posts in the same week--I'm even surprising myself!  Just wanted to get another thing posted before my presentation at Frog Street Summer Splash next weekend.  Where in the world has the summer gone??!!

Anyhoo, I LOVE the Shake N Share game that I first found when perusing through the awesome math games created by Shari Sloane.  She does have some really great ones, by the way.  I love using the small water bottles and the tiny dice for mine.  The kids love this game so much, so I wanted to find a way to differentiate so they can play it more often in math stations.  Sometimes I use it as a "have to" station, and sometimes I use it as a "get to" that they may do once they have completed the other station in their tub. (I have now moved to true "partner games during my math workshop block, so only two students are at a station at a time.  Each tub has two activities--the "get to" and the "have to".)

I have several recording sheets so that you can differentiate when using this station.  First is just number recognition.  There are also recording sheets for 2-digit addition, 3-digit addition, and subtraction.  Just be sure that when the students subtract that they always write the bigger number first.

Here are a few pics of a few of the bottles that I will be giving away as DOOR PRIZES at Splash--I especially like the little "test tube" ones.  They are actually from Frog Street's catalog, but they are also available from Steve Spangler.

If you would like the little recording sheets I created, just click here:


https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7-XmG7SkkblUEZKeWVyMW01b0E/edit?usp=sharing

Hope to see you in San Antonio next weekend! 

FROG STREET SPLASH!

It's hard to believe that Summer is half over already. It always seems to fly by for me.  I am gearing up for a fabulous and fun weekend in San Antonio for the Frog Street Press Annual Summer Splash conference (July 17-19), and I'd love for you to join me.  I will be doing a couple of Make and Take Sessions on Thursday afternoon, and then presenting a session on workstations on Friday.  Thursday afternoon we will be making some of the cutest Rekenreks you've ever seen, along with some other super cute games and such featuring some Frog Street Press western packets.  Friday will be a jam-packed session filled with ideas, tips, and tricks for managing math stations and reader's workshop. It's not too late to plan to come!  Hope to see you there!

Crayons!

So, this post will be fairly short and sweet.  I just wanted to share an idea that I saw on Pinterest and show you that I have tried it, and it does, in fact, work!  You may have seen the pin that someone shared a while ago where she used plastic soap boxes for individual crayon cases for each student.  I have always just dumped all of our crayons into each supply box for all to share.  This can sometimes get tricky if all the students need to use the same color at the same time, so I thought I would give the soap boxes a try.  Well--I am into my second half of the year using them, and they are working like a charm! The original post was right--a box of 24 Crayola crayons fits perfectly in the soap cases (I got mine at Wal-Mart for .97 cents each.)  The kids love them, and they seem to make life easier, along with allowing the students to keep up with their own crayons.  Now, there are times when I find crayons lying on the floor or on the table, and of course no one wants to claim them.  When that happens, they are picked up and put into a large crayon box on my teacher table.  If someone is missing a particular color, he/she just goes to the big crayon box and finds the necessary color and puts it in his/her own box.  How easy is that?  Here are a couple of pics to help explain: 

Also, I give each student a fresh box of crayons at the beginning of the year, and then again in January.  When they get the new box in January, I explain that I KNOW that they are now more responsible, so I know that they can do a better job than they did before keeping up with their crayons.  So far, so good!

Can I just close with one question?  Why is it that the BROWN and RED crayons are always the ones that seem to disappear into thin air?  If anyone knows the answer to that question, please let me know!