Get Rid of Iron Stains in Your Pool

What a beautiful day in Michigan today.  92 degrees with not a cloud in the sky.  Us (grammar check) We Michiganders (yes, that's what I call those from Michigan) deserve many days like this after the record breaking winter of 2013/2014!

I decided to take a break from my masters program studies and read by the pool.  After reading, soaking in some sun, and becoming quite sweaty I decided to take a swim in the pool which was absolutely beautiful.

We have a fiberglass, in-ground pool which we fill every year from our garden hose.  Since we have a well, a lot of iron passes into our pool even though I use a filter on the hose.  This iron creates an ugly, orangey-brown stain all over the pool - especially on the seats and steps, but it is ALL over.  This iron staining makes our pool look dirty even when it is sparkling clean. 

Yesterday, I suddenly remembered that last year I discovered an easy, inexpensive way to remove these iron stains.  Simply...Vitamin C Crystals.  That's it!  Really!  Sprinkle the crystals into the pool and almost immediately the stains begin disappearing.  After I remembered this, I went to the cabinet and found a half-filled bottle of Trader Joe's Vitamin C Crystals.  I sprinkled them into the pool paying special attention to the steps and seats.  This was about 8pm.  I noticed right away some of the stains disappearing.  I decided I would go to Trader Joe's in the morning and purchase another bottle of Vitamin C Crystals.

This 16oz bottle was $11.99.

This morning when I checked the pool almost all the staining was gone!  I still noticed some along the water level and on the bottom of the pool.  I purchased some more vitamin c and sprinkled the entire 16oz bottle into the pool at 1pm.  Checking on the pool at 4pm all the staining was gone!  Well, there is still a small amount by the skimmer basket return.

I don't know what precautions there are concerning the chemicals and water balance, but I have never experienced anything negative from using Vitamin C.  I would recommend to research it more if you were going to try this.   You can find Vitamin C crystals at many stores.  I believe it is important that you choose a Vitamin C product that is from ascorbic acid.  You will be able to tell by looking at the ingredients label.

This is a picture of the staining that remains.  Look closely and you can see the staining.  Almost my whole pool had this staining, but much darker.  Since I just added more vitamin c today, I will check on any improvement tomorrow .


So use this tip and enjoy your sparkling, clear pool this summer and many more to follow!

Catching up on some of our Christmas activities...

I am still not used to blogging, hence the reason I have not posted in 2 months! 

Although it is February, I am posting about a few Christmas activities my students had fun with this past Christmas.

 

Our elf, Snowflake, was with us throughout the month of December.  It was fun seeing him in a different spot everyday.  I must say, Snowflake was a good elf...pretty much!

The day Snowflake was delivered to our classroom.



Here is a picture of our classroom door....

 

found this idea here

 

The bottom is green mountains with more angels.  The angels were the students' hand prints and the angel bodies were made from gold tissue paper.  The heads were circles cut from cardstock and the students added the faces and halos (I had this word spelled 'haloes' but spell correct corrected me.).  All of this was glued on blue construction paper then cut out.  I think they turned out great!

 

Here is my classroom Christmas bulletin board...

 

 

Just thought it up during class one day.  The border is made from manger scenes the students made.

 

Here is a close up picture of the student manger scene...

 

 

The students loved building 'Christmas trees' with green plastic cups!

 

Very proud they are!

I also had the students make Christmas trees out of strips of paper with scrunched up tissue paper as ornaments.



 Great for fine motor skills!

 

We made applesauce & cinnamon ornaments. 

Our classroom smelled sooooo good!

Click here for the recipe. 

These do not have to be expensive as you can usually find cinnamon at the dollar store. 

I even found $1 cinnamon at the local party store right by my house!

 

 

We used a straw to put a hole in each ornament and then added ribbon when they were dry.  It took a few days for them to completely dry.

 

Last project to share is the Moosteltoes the students made. 

 I read the book Mooseltoe to the class then they created their own Mooseltoe.  Scholastic had this book for $1 during its Christmas brochure, but you can find it on amazon.com anytime.

     

Click here to search for Mooseltoe on amazon.

 

Here is one student's Mooseltoe.

I found a *freebie* template from Smedley's Smorgasbord of Kindergarten blog here.

 

Although there was a lot more going on in our classroom, this is all I am sharing today since I am trying to get up-to-date with blogging.

 

Thanks for reading!

Happy Teaching!

 

 

 

Some November Happenings...

November has been quite busy.  I forget to take pictures of everything we do as I am still getting used to keeping up with a blog!  I will start with my door.  My door has been the same since the beginning of the year.  Thanks to the blog and instagram picture from learninginwonderland.com for the idea!  I did add brown student handprints to his body which turned out really cute (no picture, of course).


Here is my last minute/do this during inside recess turkey...

...and his cute feet.

I created a little Thanksgiving packet for sale on tpt here.  Within that packet is a 'Count the Room' activity.  This is the only picture I took of my students using the activities in the packet - I am still learning!


I think she is so cute with her clipboard!

Another activity I had for my afternoon class was creating their own Thanksgiving dinner plates from store grocery ads.  I picked up enough grocery store ads from a local store and the students cut out pictures of the food they would like to have on Thanksgiving day!  This was super simple and a huge hit with all the students!

The students were all over the classroom cutting and gluing their favorite foods.  Luckily no one chose any alcohol!

Here are my morning turkeys....

 

On Friday we had a Thanksgiving feast.  Students brought the food and we had parent volunteers decorate and get the room ready for us.  The K-5 class were the Indians and the K-4 class were the Pilgrims.

 I love this picture!!!!!

 

Well, that's it!  What a fun time.  I wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving!!!!  We have very much to be thankful for!

A Little Taste of our Apple Unit from October....

It has been a long time since my last blog post...keeping up with blogging will be harder than I thought!  Although we are in November I thought I would post a little of what we did in October.  Since we visited an apple orchard we learned a little about Johnny Appleseed.  We watched the old Disney cartoon first....

 

The students loved to sing Johnny's song!!!

 

Next, we made Johnny Appleseed hats which I downloaded for free here at Kindergarten Rocks' store on Teachers Pay Teachers. 

Hmmm...two very different thoughts happening here,

This pic turned out so cute.  I wanted a picture of his hat, but he would always turn to look at me when I would take the picture!

 

Next, the students worked on a Johnny Appleseed number puzzle which I downloaded free in a Johnny Appleseed unit from Royal Baloo here.  So much good stuff in that free unit!

 

 

 

We taste tested red, green and yellow apples. 

 

She's loving it.  Look at his sour apple face! I don't think he ever ate a green apple before. 

 

We also made apple sauce, sang apple songs, learned about the life cycle of an apple tree, plus much more!

 

 

 

A few pictures of our trip to the apple orchard.... 

 

 

Fun Times!

Short Vowel Cut and Paste Activity....Success!

Knowing the short vowel sounds is essential to great reading.  Since we will begin reading groups in about 6 weeks, I will be reviewing the short vowel sounds often with some cut and paste activities I have created.  I will end this with a final review which is also in my activity pack. Students will work on these individually to allow me to see their understandings/misunderstandings.

Today, as morning work, my students worked on one of my Short Vowel Cut & Paste Activities - specifically the 'a' & 'e' beginning vowels set.  We have been working on the short vowel sounds since the beginning of the year so this was a nice individual review while working those fine motor muscles!

1 of 31 activities in my Short Vowels Cut & Paste Activities Set.  Please visit my store at http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Lighting-Fires-Through-Learning

Here is one student very busy.....

 Do you see her warm fuzzy on the table???

 

I often tell my students that short 'e' likes to sound like other letters as it seems to be the trickiest short vowel for my students to conquer.  Often students will say the short 'i' as in indian sound or the short 'a' as in apple sound instead of 'e' as in elephant.  This activity helped me to see which students needed more review and which students had it!

 

 

He's got it!! Yeah, for him!

and another fuzzy.....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hello blogging world...here I am!

Well, I am new to blogging but very excited to get started!  I have been married for 20 years this month.  I have four wonderful children between the ages of 15 and 22.  I currently teach K-5/K-4 at a Christian school. 

I must say I love teaching!   I began teaching about 15 years ago.  I taught K-4 and K-5 for a total of four years before homeschooling my four children up until two years ago.  I also love homeschooling!  During our homeschooling years I worked on my bachelor's degree in elementary education (Interdisciplinary Studies - to be exact!).  I received my teaching certificate from the state of Michigan in January of 2012.  I began teaching 5th grade last year and moved to K-5/K-4 this year. 

My adventures in education ~which education should be an adventure~ has been great.  I learned so much through homeschooling and the use of different curriculums and the many, many workshops I attended.  I also learned so much through conversations with other homeschool moms, many of whom were certified teachers.  We talked of curriculum, learning styles, instructional methods, learning disabilities, differentiated instruction, dinner, husbands, etc....  

I have also started selling products on teacherspayteachers.com.  Please check out my products! http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Lighting-Fires-Through-Learning

Please join me as I share my experiences of teaching!