National Baseball Hall of Fame

I visited the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown this weekend. It was a perfect way to get ready for the postseason (Let's Go Yankees!) and to collect some pictures for our upcoming Journey's reading story, Roberto Clemente, Pride of the Pittsburgh Pirates.  I often use baseball adages with my students, such as the fact that a player who gets 3 hits in every 10 at bats is considered a success! My students have also been blown away by the story of one handed pitcher Jim Abbott and struggle of Jackie Robinson. Here are some notable pictures from my trip:

Doubleday Field, site of the Hall of Fame Game

Built in 1920, and site of the reunion game scene from A League of Their Own

Women's Professional Baseball League uniforms circa World War II - Rockford Peaches!

 National Baseball Hall of Fame

"Today I consider myself the luckiest man on the earth..." -Lou Gehrig, dying of ALS

The Iron Horse, Lou Gehrig's uniform

Ruth and Gehrig struck out back to back by a 17 year old girl!

Record for most stolen bases in a season, 201, held by a woman.... the bases may have been closer in women's baseball, but she had to hit, run, and slide in a skirt! The closest male player had 138.

 Babe Ruth's plaque in the Hall of Fame

Babe Ruth's locker and uniform

Babe Ruth's bat and ball from "the called shot."

Babe Ruth hits the first All Star Game Homerun - 1933

The House that Ruth Built

Babe Ruth Central

Babe Ruth as Santa Claus

Jackie Robinson

Jackie Robinson Breaks Barriers video

Jackie Robinson Brain Pop video

Henry "Hank" Aaron exhibit

Hank Aaron Homerun Balls

Hank Aaron bats - 600th homerun and 3,000th hit

Hammerin' Hank Hits Homerun #715 to break Babe Ruth's record (video)

Old balls from the 1800s - they look like concrete!

Roberto Clemente:

12 time All Star, 12 time Gold Glove Award winner, 4 time batting champion, 2 time World Series Champion, 1961 NL MVP, 1971 World Series MVP

Roberto Clemente statue and picture at the entrance to the Hall

Pirates / Roberto Clemente memorabilia

MLB Roberto Clemente Award 

PNC Park

Roberto Clemente Jr. and Roberto Clemente bridge in Pittsburgh, PA

Roberto Clemente podcast

Roberto Clemente video clips

Roberto Clemente's 3,000 hit

 Ted Williams memorabilia

Ted Williams' predicted batting average when the ball was pitched in different areas of his strike zone - even ball players use math!

Joe DiMaggio - always give it your best!

Roberto would want you to remember...

...there's no crying in baseball!

What's in the Cat's Hat?

I just came across this Dr. Seuss What's in the Cat's Hat game when I was visiting with a friend this weekend. She bought it for her 3 year old daughter's birthday, and I thought it was a great game to use in the classroom with all ages.  All you have to do it open the velcro area of the hat, place an object inside, and then show students how to use the cards to guide them in asking questions that will help them guess what's inside the hat.

 It's great for a 1-2 kids, a small group of children, or use at Morning Meeting. There are little velcro flaps around the hat, that allow you to do things like smell, see (through a colored material), and touch the object inside. The pictures on the cards help non-readers figure out what to do and there is a sentence under the picture for readers. I am definitely putting it on my classroom holiday wish list!

Math Activities - Problem Solving

Here are a couple of samples from my new Teachers Pay Teachers product, Scott Foresman Grade 3 Math Problems of the Day and group activities. You don't have to use the program to use these sheets. In most cases, the only materials you need are these sheets and a pencil! Activities are simple enough to use with second graders and challenging enough to use with fourth graders. Enjoy!

Lesson 1.9 - number patterns

Lesson 1.10 - rounding to the nearest ten or hundred

Click here to download my Scott-Foresman-Grade-3-Chapter-1-Math-Activities at Teachers Pay Teachers!

Technology Tricks - Changing Layout / Page Orientation

Not sure about you, but switching between my school desktop DELL and home Mac laptop is driving me crazy!!!  I have also have different word processing software at each place - Microsoft Word at school and OpenOffice at home with different printers at each. My school printer sometimes won't print my documents because it doesn't recognize my fonts. I try my best to save everything as a PDF to Google Word so I don't have to run around with a flash drive, but I still bring my laptop to school...just in case! We also have art and music in our classrooms, meaning that sometimes our specials teachers are using our computers with the Promethean Board during my our preps. I'm not complaining because I know many schools don't provide teachers with printers, computers, or Promethean Boards. Anyway, here's a tip that will hopefully help you if you're in the same boat and need a quick reminder!

If you don't have Microsoft Office / Word and want a free option for word processing, try Openoffice.org. It gives you more options than Google Docs, such as being able to import fonts.

Here's how to change the page layout in OpenOffice.

Click Format from the toolbar --> Page

Find Orientation --> Click Landscape or Portrait --> OK

Here's how to change the page layout in OpenOffice:

Click File --> Page Setup

Click Portrait or Landscape --> OK

Here's how to change the page layout in Microsoft Word:
Click File --> Page Setup

Show, Not Tell! (First Day of School with Students)

A scene from one of my favorite movies is the best thing to start off my first day of school with kids, especially since I leave home at 6:45am and need a laugh to start off the day! If it wasn't for my Sirius satellite radio, I might not be able to handle the drive... cross your fingers that there aren't any accidents or traffic!

To celebrate, here are some graphic organizers we'll be using after we read Officer Gloria and Buckle to talk about rules. I attended a behavior management training this summer that said we need to do a better job of modeling exactly what following the rules looks like, and I think this is a great way to do it! You can create your own charts on chart paper, an interactive board, or get these blown up if you are not doing these with small groups.

Please leave a comment and Click here to download!