The Charming Classroom: Class Projects 2014-2015

June 9, 2015

Hiking at Lovcen National Park

This hike was pretty brutal, but everyone enjoyed it in the end. Most of the hike was uphill, there were tons of mosquitos, and it poured down on us at the end. The views were stunning though and my students were positively giddy frolicking through the field at the end of the trail.

We stopped in the town of Njeguši which is famous for its prosciutto and cheese.

You can see the Njeguši Mausoleum on the mountain peak.

The field was full of dandelion puffs and as the students ran through clouds of seeds flew up behind them. It was really cool!

June 8, 2015

Rollerblading Field Trip

All of my students own rollerblades and participate in a rollerblading after school activity. I thought it would be fun to go on a field trip rollerblading around the city. We stopped twice for pizza and ice cream and had a blast!

April 22, 2015

Earth Day Activities

Each teacher was in charge of a different Earth Day activity center for the students to rotate to. I found a cool idea online for moss graffiti and decided this would be a fun time to try it out.

First, I had my class harvest the last remnants of our garden. Another teacher wanted to plant strawberries, so I figured our garden would be a good place.

We picked some huge carrots and parsnips.

I took my students down the street to harvest some moss so that we could make the moss paint mixture for our graffiti.

That's Benna our school dog by the way.

March 17, 2015

Hiking and Spelunking Field Trip

My husband and I found a old fortress on top of a mountain and heard about a cave at the foot of the mountain. We took our boys there for a hike and decided it would be an excellent field trip for our students.

The entrance to the cave.

It's really hard to get pictures inside of a pitch black cave. The stalactites and stalagmites were incredible and the cave just seemed to go on forever. We went up and down stairs and through small tunnels that would open into huge rooms. There were bats and a river inside. We eventually had to stop when our shoes were getting stuck in the mud.

Here is a picture of the mountain from the bottom. You can see a few small caves on the side and the fortress is on the very top. The cave we went in is hidden at the base.

March 10, 2015

Graffiti Lesson

A local artist came to school to teach the students about the art of graffiti. We learned that it's much harder than it looks.

February 12, 2015

Snow Day

We took a train into the mountains and spent the day skiing.

We loved the train ride! Not only did we have some amazing views, but the train had cabins like the Hogwarts Express and the seats even folded out into beds. The girls turned their cabin into a giant slumber party.

A bridge we crossed. That was a thrill!

Lots of snow and sun!

I always somehow become the example of what not to do. Earlier on this exact lift, I dropped my ski pole right over a black diamond run (I swore it was attached to my wrist). One of my brave students went with me to retrieve it by sliding down the steep slope using our skis as a sled. I'm the one in the pink pants firming clutching my ski poles.

After the lifts closed we had some time before our train. The students decided to go tramping and exploring. The snow was so deep they kept sinking.

January 30, 2015

Shark Tank

Shark Tank is an American reality competition television series that has aspiring entrepreneurs-contestants make business presentations to a panel of "shark" investors.

For our persuasive writing unit, I challenged my students to invent a new product and then present their product to a panel of "sharks" to persuade them to invest in their product. The assignment included researching famous inventors and their inventions, creating business plans, researching patent information, and creating a presentation to pitch to the sharks. At the end, I invited some business savvy people to be our sharks and the students presented their projects before them and members of our school. It was all a huge success! The sharks, my students, and even the students watching had a blast.

Our Sharks

S.O.S. Cones

This group came up with a modification to the classic waffle cone. Their invention was an extra piece of cone attached to the original cone with chocolate that would catch any ice cream drippings. Their invention would keep your hands clean and your ice cream in the cone so that you wouldn't lose a drop.

Ultimate Tag

This group invented a new accessory to enhance the game of tag. Their product was a vest with velcro strips on the back that kids could rip off instead of trying to touch someone to tag them. The idea was to eliminate the fights that break out when kids can't agree if they have been tagged or not. The neat thing was that the strips also were worth different points so it added a bunch of new ways to play the game.

December 15, 2014

'Tis the Season for Giving

Our school collected new toys to donate to an orphanage here and a local school for students with disabilities. We had a big winter performance and then everyone stayed after to help wrap up all of the gifts.

My students have visited the other school in the past to play games and things. They've made some good friends there and it was nice to see all of the kids again. This year we played some modified versions of "Minute to Win It" Christmas games. Then we let the students choose a present.

November 27-December 1, 2014

Vienna/Bratislava Field Trip

It took us forever to find the entrance to the Bratislava school. Who would have guess that you'd have to go to the back of the building and down an alley?

My students participated in a huge math olympiad in Bratislava. We did pretty well, but mostly had fun meeting people from other international schools.

View from our hostel. That bright light to the right is a castle.

We celebrated afterwards by going ice skating!

It was easy to keep track of my students because they were all still wearing their yellow shirts from the olympiad.

We visited the the Tiergarten Schonbrunn Zoo.

Then we visited the Schonbrunn Christmas market.

Hofburg Palace

The sugar display outside of Demel. They all picked out a slice of cake to try and it was amazing.

We visited all of the main Christmas markets in Vienna and ate a ton. We tried spaetzle, schnee balls, hot cider, gelato, spiced nuts, and even found a stand that sold cronuts!

The lights around town were gorgeous.

So many treats, so little time.

The biggest and best Christmas market was outside the Vienna Rathhaus.

November 25, 2014

Cell Foldable Projects

I found the ideas for these visuals from a helpful teacher blog that I have linked here. The templates and directions can be found on the blog.

November 14, 2014

Scavenger Hunt Field Trip and Talent Show Performance

Today we visited the newly opened Natural History Museum here in town. Afterwards the students split into two teams (Middle vs. High School) and had to follow clues that lead them around town where they had to take a certain picture or record themselves doing a specific action. (Ex. Gangnam Style dance-off by the horse statue, act like there is an earthquake while crossing the bridge...)

Later that night my class performed the dance from the music video "A Million Ways" by OK GO for our School Talent Show.

November 5, 2014

Garden Update:

We are continuing to harvest our radishes periodically and the peas have just started to appear!

October 31, 2014

Halloween/Zombie Apocalypse/Trunk-or-Treat

Our family went with a superhero theme this year. We were Dark Phoenix, Optimus Prime, Iron Man, and Green Lantern.

We had a Zombie Apocalypse Drill as a surprise for the older students. The younger students were sent on a field trip to get them out of the school (too scary). The rest of the students had to try to make their way through the school without getting infected.

I went with a superhero theme for our car as well. My students helped me paint all of the hero emblems.

October 17th, 2014

Garden Update: Our radishes are rotund, the peas are plentiful, and broccoli is budding!

The students ended up eating the radishes with peanut butter. I was happy to see them eating the radishes, so I decided not to question their choice of topping.

September 24th, 2014

Adventure Park:

Our days of pleasant weather are quickly coming to a close, so my students and I came up with the idea to plan the ultimate field trip. After school we went out to see the movie"Guardians of the Galaxy" in 3D, then spent the night at the school playing Humans vs. Zombies, and the next day we went climbing at the Adventure Park. Mission accomplished!