 Good morning, everyone. Welcome back to another day in the life of a teacher vlog. So it is currently 6 24, and I am just getting done getting ready, and I'm getting ready to pack my lunch. I think I'm gonna take some leftovers. We had a barbecue yesterday. Mandy was here. Our friend Brittany and then our next-door neighbors came over as well. So we had a bunch of kids running around, and it was a super fun time. So I think I'm gonna pack my lunch. I don't think we have any hamburgers left over. We have some hot dogs left over. So I might pack a hot dog, and I have some tortillas at school. I could totally make a little hot dog wrap with some tortillas. I think that would be delicious. And then I have some cucumbers and bell peppers that I want to use to dip into my buffalo chicken dip. Anyway, this week we are, ooh, the fridge has good lighting. Have you guys ever noticed that? You vloggers? You vlogger out there? You ever set your camera in the fridge and talk to it? What am I doing? Okay, I'm going to take these hot dogs. And I also need to make Cass's lunch. So I'm gonna do that really quickly, and then I'm gonna see you guys at school. Hey you guys, welcome back to another teacher life vlog. So today is Monday, September. I don't even know. 20. Wow, I don't even know the date. Today is September 13th, and I just walked in the door. I'm getting ready to get set up for the day. So I wanted to share with you guys what I have going on this week in science and social studies. So we are sticking with geography, and we're gonna stay with geography for the next two weeks of school. So it'll be a three-week total unit. And I'm doing pretty heavy on social studies this quarter, because I really want to hone in on the geography portion of my unit. Next quarter I will be working on history. Native American, North America. Native American tribes. Wow, that was a lot to swallow. So I have a plan for these next couple weeks. Today and tomorrow my students are wrapping up their key features maps and notes that we've been working on. So we've been learning about all of the key features of North America. So like the Rocky Mountains, the Great Plains, the Appalachians, the Canadian Shield, all of those really important landforms and key features of North America. All right, you guys, I'm totally going to interrupt myself right now and talk to you guys about my new glasses because every time I vlog at least 10 people ask me where my glasses are from. So these new frames are by Zimp Optical. And if you guys have seen my Zimp videos before, you know, I love Zimp Optical. They are my all-time favorite online glasses shop by far the best one out of all that I've ever tried. So they have super high quality glasses, super trendy, super adorable. Basically, just like any other optical online place, you find the pair of glasses that you like. You input your prescription. You choose the type of lenses that you want. You can add bifocals, blue light blocking, which is what I always get. Progressives, all the different things that you would need for your eyes, you can do that. So then you place the order, they show up in a couple of weeks, and then you look fabulous. So these are the Browline Apollo Black Browline, I think is what they're called. I will link them down below. I don't memorize the names of them, but these are super cute, very feminine take on the classic like black and gold frame. And then another pair that I got. These are called Aphrodite Round Turquoise, I believe, and these are super cute. I actually wore these in my last vlog, and quite a few of you asked me in the comments which ones they were. So these are the Aphrodite Round Tortoise, and I absolutely love these. I love big frames. They make my face feel a little bit more feminine, especially with my bob haircut. My face just looks more round nowadays. So anyway, these are the second pair. I will link them down below as well. And then the third pair that I'm going to show you, they're not new, but these are your guys' favorite. And these are my Apricot Gray Hoodie Glasses, and they are Thaub Ulyss. They're so big, they make my face look small. They don't hurt my head because they're so massive and absolutely love them. So if you guys are interested in trying Zymph Optical, I do have a coupon code. I will put it down below. It is just TRS, and you can get 50% off of your frames and 20% off of your lenses, which really brings down the price. So if you guys are interested, they will all be linked down below. They're also eternally linked in my Instagram little web page that's in my bio. You could just click on it, and then you scroll down a ways, and all of them are linked down at the bottom, and the coupon code is listed at the bottom as well. So anyway, back to the vlog. So that next quarter, when we start studying the Native Americans, they have a better understanding of where these people lived. So I will try to link as many things as I possibly can in the description box below. Charlotte, when you edit this, please don't forget to put links down there. I always forget to put links down there, and then you guys get mad. And I'm so sorry. I just, when I'm editing, I'm kind of like in the zone. And once I'm done, I'm like, yes, I made it. I did another video. So anyways, something that I'm kind of leading up to, hopefully by the end of this week, we'll be able to create our salt dough maps. So that's going to be basically just like a 2D model of the maps that they made. So we'll get to paint the rivers blue, the mountains, brown, the plains, yellow. You get the idea. I want them to make really cool physical maps, 2D physical maps with their salt dough. And then like finishing up this week and into next week. We have a weird couple of weeks. That's why I kind of picked this week to be kind of like a project based couple of weeks. I have plenty of science grades that I can add into that, and which is why I'm not going to keep going with science because I'm getting ready to start rocks and fossils. And that's a really big, long unit. So I wanted to save that for next quarter when we come back and not take a break because we do have fall break this week. We have benchmarks next week. We have parent teacher conferences. So we have three half days. So I just didn't want to introduce a new scientific topic when we're not going to have a full week. So anyway, I decided to go ahead and start a National Park project. So I found this really cool PBL on Teachers Pay Teachers by Shelly Reeves. I'm going to try my best to show you with my weird tripod. So it looks like this. It's by Shelly Reeves. I will try really hard to link this down below. Try to remember. But if I don't look it up on TPT, it's by Shelly Reeves. And basically what they do is first they learn about all the different national parks in North America. Well, technically America, but they are in North America. And they do a little bit of information exploring those. So what I did was I actually found a bunch of national park books on getepic.com for them to explore. I went and found a couple of different websites that explain the national parks. And I linked all of those in my Google Classroom so that the kids could spend some time kind of researching. And then once they do all of that, they actually pick one. So they they try to research four of them and then they narrow it down to one national park. And then they have to create a plan. So like sites to see at the park, snacks to pack, getting the car ready, what to pack in there, what games are going to play. States are going to travel through. This is an important one because I have to use mapping skills, places to stay. So they're going to have to research hotels or campgrounds in the area and then what they're going to pack for their trip. And then of course things for the car. And then there's a math component here. So there's actually a bunch of math questions that I'm going to give to my math teacher to go through with them. So I've actually shared this with him. And then there's a place for them to choose pictures of them in the parks. And I also thought it would be kind of cool because I know on Google Meet, you can make your background different. So I thought it would be really cool to get these guys on Google Meet and have them change their background to their national park and take a selfie and actually put it here in their little phone. So that's something we'll do. And then pictures of the national park. A postcard so they get to write about their favorite thing that they saw in the park. You know, they're actually not going there, but and then some messages and there's all these little tasks in here like you want to tell your friend about the park you're visiting, write down a texting conversation that you have between your friends. So they just add speech bubbles and Instagram post. So again, they can either draw for this or they can take a picture of them in the park somewhere. Here's another Instagram one campfire songs playlist. So just a list of their favorite songs that they'd want to sing by the campfire. Their favorite spot in the park. And then their favorite location, which was the most beautiful must see spots things to do. Word search. And then they actually make a final project. So they have to map their route to the park from where we live. And then there's a whole rubric that goes with it. There's a brochure that they make again, another brochure. And then there's actually a writing assignment that Mandy is going to do with them next week. So all of the work that they do this week and next week for me will lead up to their writing assignment that they're going to do in ELA. So this is kind of like a thrown together PBL and then something super, super amazing. I got a message from one of the associates at the National Parks Foundation and they are sending us. Well, they didn't, they aren't sending. They already sent. I just have to find where I stuck them. The entire fourth grade gets a National Park pass for the year for them and their family. So it's going to be a really fun unit. Hopefully I'll be able to get them their passes before they leave for fall breaks. So hopefully this project will take them this week and then finally end next week with them getting their National Park pass. And I think it's going to be really fun. So I also have, they know how to use Google Maps. So they're able to go and explore their National Park through Google Maps. And then we also have 360 cities, which is a near pod thing. It wasn't working for their computers though. So I'm hoping that they fixed it. If not, Google Earth is just fine. And also YouTube is a great resource. So I'll be able to send them a few, like I'm thinking about making a playlist of all the videos for the National Parks. So once they decide which one they're going to do, I might go through and make them a playlist of like videos about the National Parks that they can go see what it looks like. But I'm really excited. So hopefully this will be fun for them. Today though, I'm doing my first first grade science buddies activity with my friend Patrick. He is a first grade teacher. He's amazing. And we are doing our first science buddies project with his class. So my third period, my homeroom kids are going to be their official fourth grade science buddies. And so maybe once a month, we're going to get together and do some sort of like science project that is all like first grade level, but the fourth graders get to go and assist in the project. So today we're going to be doing the five senses. And so Patrick and I have put together five stations, which we're going to have to all probably be working through my lunch today because I have almost everything ready, but him and I have to kind of get together to do a couple things. So basically what they're going to do is use their five senses to explore some stuff. So we have four bags here. There are different things in them. They have to put their hands in without looking and then they have to write an observation or prediction what they think is in the bag. And then same thing with this one. They have to just shake the cups and try to infer or guess what is in them. And then of course, so the fourth grader would write down what they think it is. And then on this one, we're going to soak the cotton balls in different flavored extracts. They have to smell them. We have a couple of different things for them to taste. So we got saltine crackers, Hershey's Kisses, cocoa powder, and lemons. So they'll put a bunch of stuff on plates that each have an individual fork or spoon so that they can taste all of the items and tell whether it's sweet, salty, sour, or bitter. And then they have four wrapped objects wrapped in wrapping paper that they're going to be looking at to see what they think is wrapped in each one. So there are five different stations, one for each sense. And the fourth graders are going to kind of just help them go through each station, make their observations or predictions. And then the next time we meet, we will talk about the five senses, how we use them to explore our world, make observations. It's a generation genius lesson. So if you guys haven't checked Generation Genius out yet, you definitely, definitely need to do so. I use them to springboard almost all of my science lessons. At some point, I use their lesson, whether it's in the beginning or in the end or if it's the video or just the stations or the exit ticket. Either way, Generation Genius is one of my all-time favorite resources. So yeah, so I'm going to get to work. It is now 7.04. I do have duty in about 40 minutes. So I'm going to get hot to trot on my work so that I can be ready for station's eyes. So it is now 3.45 and I am pooped. Our science buddies was so much fun. And I'm really excited to do it again. The fourth graders had a blast leading the first graders through making observations using their five senses. Super fun. You can kind of see what's left over here. So tonight I have quite the task for myself. And that is making 80 helpings of salt dough so that I can create salt dough maps with my students tomorrow. We're going to be creating salt dough maps using these little cardboard cutouts. And then I have to go pick up a few pizza boxes from Borrow's Pizza tonight. To donate them so that I can use those for the remainder of the salt dough map. So I'm actually going to go home tonight and make one on here to be able to show the kids what it should look like. And then I have to make, like I said, 80 helpings of salt dough. I am going to separate all of them into ziplock bags just so that they're already pre-portioned and ready to go. So once I create my own map and see how much is actually needed to cover that whole thing and do a good job. Then I will portion out all of the other salt dough and I'm thinking I'm going to have cash help me because he would probably love it. And maybe the little girl next door. So anyway, today's vlog is done and I am exhausted. So I'm going to sign off, but before I go, don't forget to check the link and all of the description box below for all of the information about my Zimp optical glasses. You can also check my Instagram website all the time. It's right in my bio anytime you need. Tini, are you sad that I'm leaving? You want me to go home? No? Night, baby. You look sad. Do you want smooches? I have to go pick up cash, but I have time to give you smooches. This is not the cutest, baby. Hi, sleepy. I love you. I love you, mama. I love you, baby. I love you. Okay, you girls have a fun night. I'll see you tomorrow. And I will see you guys in the next vlog. Don't forget to follow me on Instagram and subscribe to the channel. And I will see you all in the next video. Bye.