Classroom Spaces

The space we inhabit on a day to day basis is important.  We all have our own styles, comfort levels, and quirks.  It can make sharing a space with little ones easy or hard.  It can make sharing a space with other adults easy or hard.  Regardless of all of this, one thing is pretty clear...starting the year off with a fresh start is essential.

This does not mean you buy all new things or you have a new "look" to your room each year.  Nope.  It just means that you feel fresh, organized (whatever that means for you), and ready to welcome a new batch of faces.

I no longer have a room since I teach in a smaller group format.  But my little corner is an important one to me.  So it is clean and ready to be added to by the readers and writers that I will work with.  As I walked around my building today, everyone was working so hard to make our students feel welcome.  And I found that there were special parts to each room that I walked into.

When I walked into both of these second grade classrooms, there was an inviting feel. The soft greens and browns of this room felt calming.  The cute cacti hanging out around the room give it some fun pops of color! I loved her empty boards around the room that were ready to be filled up by students.

The other room is splashed with pinks, yellows, and greens.  The colors are fun and engaging.  This small centerpiece hangs over a round table, giving it a feel of importance and excitement.


Our third second grade teacher has been working to integrate flexible seating into her classroom.  When I walked into her room this year, I found a small picnic table.  I was drawn to it immediately.  The students are surrounded by many different seating options to fit their diverse needs!

As I moved into the first grade classrooms, I found different parts of each room that I gravitated towards.  Our newest first grade team member, had freshly painted boards eagerly awaiting to be filled by students and a ready to use calming corner.  This little area has books, a stuffed buddy, and a cozy chair.
One of my favorite spots in Maria's room is her golden frames!  These quickly get filled up by "golden" work completed by students.  It may be a well constructed hook or an illustrated picture that is showcased within the frame. But it means so much to a firstie to be "shown-off" in one of these frames.

In our third first grade classroom, I seek out all of the stations.  Each one is filled with a variety of books to be explored.  This is the listening station.  But as you can see, there are baskets and baskets to be rooted through once the listening is through.  There is no place in these classroom walls that is not within arms length of a basket of books.

In each of our kindergarten classrooms, my eyes immediately darted to certain parts of their rooms.  Each classroom offers places for these new little learners to explore.  I could not stop checking out all the books on display in this bookcase.  I love to see books out in the open and ready to be looked at and read over and over again.  It is especially important for the children that may be receiving their first experiences with books.
Along with all the books, I found more play in each of the kindergarten classrooms.  Yay!!  It was so exciting to see a kitchen set, grill, doll house, tool set.  For so many teachers, this type of play had to be removed from the classroom for more "academic" purposes.  But we know so much learning is acquired through play.   It is back!  And I am so happy to see it.

In our third kindergarten classroom, I found a rather inviting circle.  This is the whole group area.  But I really liked the way it was set up.  It felt inclusive.  There was no open sides to the area.  But rather, the circle had seating, an easel, and a wall surrounding it.  To me, it felt like a place where everyone would fit, everyone would belong.

Each classroom has such different things to offer because each classroom is constructed by a teacher alongside their students.  Our teachers and students hold the heart to the classroom and the environment within it.
I am excited for a new year.  And we are ready for our students.

Let's Encourage...With Books

As each new year begins, I look forward to what I will teach my students.  My vision has always been relatively the same, but as I grow and change, my lessons for my students do too.  For the past few years, we have taken the first one and a half to two weeks to focus on explicitly teaching students the meaning of curiosity, bravery, trustworthiness, strategic thinking, responsibility, respect, and persistence.  This may sound like a big task.  It is not expected for a first grader to master these skills (I'm still working on them as an adult!).  But working on them throughout the year is important.  And (of course) there is a book for that!

Bravery:

Being brave is all about taking risks.  This looks different for each one of our students and they need to be explicitly taught this fact.  For one student, bravery may be in the form of raising their hand to answer a question.  For another student, it may be taking risk to try a new food they have never heard of before.

Courage by Bernard Waber illustrates some everyday risks that can pop up in our lives.  While Jabari Jumps does the same, it focus on just one child and one risk...jumping off the diving board!  Girl Running by Annette Pimentel illustrates the risk Bobbi Gibb took to run a marathon at a time when women were not welcome.
One more great book to mention is Stand Tall, Molly Lou Melon.  This young girl stands up for who she is and that takes guts.

Trustworthiness

We know that it takes a lot of love, consistency, and time to build trust.  In order to build independent students, we do need to maintain a level of trust.  Trust to use the restroom, walk the halls, or to work at a station.  Plus, we need to ensure that our students trust us to teach them, love them, and to create a safe environment.

The Big Fat Enormous Lie does a great job of illustrating what it looks like and feels like to be sitting with a lie all day.  This book can lead to a lot of great conversation.  The Empty Pot by Demi really shows the importance of honesty, even when you think you may not benefit.  The classic, The Boy Who Cried Wolf, really does demonstrate what can happen when you are dishonest over and over again.

Strategic Thinking

Strategic thinking is a powerful skill to possess.  We must tap into this skill when any problem arises in our lives.  It allows children to be problem solvers and fosters independence.  One important thing to note is that our students need to also acknowledge that there can be multiple ways to solve a problem.  Discuss what other ways the problems could have been solved.

Here are just a few fiction titles that spotlight characters that needed to think strategically in order to solve a problem.  Picnic with Oliver by Mika Song is a story about two friends on a quest to have a picnic together.  Unfortunately a storm pops up, leaving one friend stranded in the middle of a pond.  Quick thinking and problem solving must take place to save the little mouse!  Two Problems for Sophia by Jim Averbeck is a sweet story about a girl that is determined to keep her pet but to do so, she must solve a few complications.  There's An Alligator Under My Bed by Mercer Mayer is another creative story about problem solving and creative thinking!

Responsibility

"It is your responsibility."  I feel like I say this 100 times a day in my household.  This is one of those skills that we just have to continue to nurture and patiently teach over and over again.  But by fostering it, we are once again adding a layer to the growth of more independent learners.

I love how visual Pigsty is!  Mark Teague does a great job illustrating what it looks like when you are not being responsible for your own space.  Good Dog, Carl is interesting because the mother in the story is not responsible at all!  But Carl is and that can lead to some good conversation. I think The Berenstain Bears' New Pup is a book that many of our students can relate too.  Adding a pet to the household means new responsibilities for everyone.

Respect

This word can take on many different meaning in a classroom.  We must have respect for our space, our tools, and the other people in the classroom.  For children, it is important to help them respect the differences and to see value in that.

In The Crayon Box that Talked, the crayons learn that one is not better than another.  But they are stronger when used together.  I'm the Best by Lucy Cousins has a similar message.  Dog is sure that he is the best at everything but learns that each animal has their own strength.  Me and You takes a different approach to respect.  The characters both want to be like their friend.  They discover through this story to respect themselves for who they are.

Persistence

This is a hard skill, but so important to learn at a young kid (and then continue to work on!)  Things are hard and to learn to persevere will help you throughout life!  We have to provide lots of support, examples, and practice with this skill!  There are so many great biographies that illustrate strong individuals persevering through hard times.  But here are a couple fiction titles:

Let Me Finish! by Minh Le is about a boy that just wants to read!  But some animals are keeping him from enjoying the book.  He does not give up on reading!  More-igami is a new favorite of mine.  A young boy is struggling to learn origami and learns he must be persistent.  Flight School features a strong character that just really wants to fly even though it may seem impossible.

Curiosity

Curiosity and wonder has led our world to so many discoveries and inventions.  But I fear that we have taken much wonder out of our schools.  Promoting creative thinking and questioning can help to nurture this curiosity. 

Dreaming Up by Christy Hale is an interesting book that combines photographs of architecture and illustrations of characters utilizing the photographs for their own creations.  The Cow Who Climbed A Tree shows that their are no boundaries to what we can wonder and explore.  Ada Twist, Scientist explores what can happen when we act on our questions and dive into our wonderment!

Please note that these are only a few books that hit on these topics.  There are 500 million more out there!  Especially since I didn't hit on all the great nonfiction that can also be utilized.  I am always on the lookout for more books to share.  Please let me know if you have titles you can't live without!

Encourage Book Love

The beginning of the year is a busy time of year.  Setting up routines, procedures, getting to know you activities, organizing supplies, and five million other things that we must balance to have a healthy classroom environment.

Among these first weeks of classroom environment "set-up," we also want to establish the place that books play in the life of our classroom.  Some students come to us with book love already in place and some may not have much experience with books.  So it is important to talk about it and let the students know how you feel about books and the value you place on them.

And there are some great books to help you do this!

I have some favorites that have been used year after year.  But this one is new to me this year!  It is called Look! by Jeff Mack.  In this story, the gorilla is desperately trying to get a boy to pull his eyes away from the television to look at a book!  He goes to great lengths (just as we do) to engage this young child!

I will not spoil the ending for you; although, I am sure you can predict it!  This is a new read that will occur in our classroom this year!

In case you are looking for other books that focus on this same topic, here are some of my favorites:

 If you have some more to recommend, I would LOVE to hear what they are!! Thanks!






The book Look! is linked to an independent book store in South Bend, Indiana.  I am not an affiliate in any way.  Just a girl that tries to support independent book stores!

Relevant Reading: Connecting Students to What Matters

As summer winds down, I reflect on what I've learned this summer through the workshops I've attended, the books I've read, and all the great conversations I've had with professionals.

This quote has had me thinking quite a bit.  It comes from Disruptive Thinking: Why How We Read Matters by Kylene Beers and Robert Probst.  What they state is absolutely true.  Students need to find relevance in what they are doing right now.

So let's backtrack a little...
I have always been about purpose.  I look at what I'm teaching and ensure that what we are doing serves a purpose.  And I share that with students.  Understanding why we are doing something is very important to me.
Interest is also imperative.  I have always tried to make sure that I am matching the books I choose to the interest of my students.  Interest surveys, conversations, and book selection time have always been informative to me.

But relevance.  This is something much deeper.  It is something you are connected to.  It is something that MATTERS. 

Well...and when I think about it...do I really read anything that isn't relevant to me?  Nope. Not really.

So what do I do now?  I've been thinking a lot about it and my first step is to just ask my first graders.  What issues or problems matter to you? So I added it to my interest survey (click to grab for free):

From there...I will need to get creative.  They are new readers.  And some of them may share some big issues and some students may not. But I need to be prepared to help them make connections to what matters to them and the books we are reading.  And I am up for the challenge because Beers and Probst state that:

"If they are to undertake anything significant in the future, it will be because they have learned the importance of significant work early on in their schooling."

This statement says a lot.  We need our students out there doing significant work.  We need them to have a voice.  So we need to help them find that voice...even at a young age.

Em

Mystery Box: Introducing Questioning

For many kindergarteners and first graders, forming a question can be a challenge.  How many times have you heard, "I have a question?"  But then they proceed to tell you a really long story.

Yep.

A couple years ago, Karen started using a Mystery Box activity to introduce our firsties to questioning.  Any type of object can go inside the box.  Karen typically puts something in it that will connect to a story or activity that we are teaching.  Here are the rules: Ask a question about the object in the box but we can only answer "yes" or "no."

These are not higher order thinking questions.  What we are working towards is knowing how to ask a question versus a statement.

Once that is established, we encourage them to ask questions that help them to gather more information.  And when we sat back and actually looked at the questions they were asking, we were pleased with the results.

Day 1:  Our little firsties started off by asking a lot of questions like this: "Is it a rat?"  "Is it tickets?"  These types of questions are not going to get them very far because they are not able to gather information from them.  But then a little girl asked, "Is it made of paper?"

Now we are getting somewhere!

Once this question was asked, Karen and I were able to swoop right in and point out all that they had learned about the object from this one question.  With this little bit of encouragement, questions were formed with this in mind. "Can you draw on it?" "Does it have colors on it?"  Wow!  Great questions!

By Day 3 look at the questions that were being asked...

 Each question seems to be so thoughtful and each provide us with valuable information about the object.  How quickly they caught on to this idea!

As the year progresses, we will revisit this activity.  They love it because it is a mystery and they must work together to solve it.  But in the end, it provides us with a tool to teach questioning.  And this is a much needed skill.

Classroom Ninja Training: Trustworthy

This marked the last day of our ninja training.  After discussing bravery, perseverance, curiosity, responsibility, respect, and being strategic, we pulled it all together with the word "trustworthy."

This day looked quite a bit different than all of our other ninja training days.  There was a lot to accomplish and the students needed to be learn to put all their amazing ninja skills into practice.

Throughout the ninja training, half of my team was completing assessments and the other half was teaching the whole grade level.  As you have read in the previous posts above, we have been working on all the behavioral expectations that we will be working towards this year.  Students also got to know each other, learned some questioning techniques (I will share this in a later post), and were introduced to some of the tools they will use this year.  It was all productive, meaningful, and we made it as fun as possible.  It provided us with the perfect opportunity to complete all those necessary assessments that occur at the beginning of the year.

Since the assessments are complete and the ninja training has come to an end, the students were ready to learn how to start switching classes.  This takes quite a bit of practice because of the different procedures with clipboards, behavior, and the hallway expectations.

This is where our word "trustworthy" came into play.

As the day came to a close, our students were all taken outside.  We celebrated each student because they had completed their official first grade ninja training!  We cheered, clapped, and talked about how excited we were to work with them this year!

I know I'm ready to get started!

Classroom Ninja Training: Strategic

Our firsties have been learning our behavior expectations through their ninja training: bravery (taking risks), perseverance, curiosity, responsibility, and respect.  The activities that we have completed and lessons that have been taught are not that different from years past.  But after our math PD this summer, we realized that some skills needed to be added.  Taking risks (for example: sharing an answer that may be different from others) and perseverance (not giving up even when it is hard) were two important ones because they impact the participation and engagement of students.  Strategic behavior is another important skill for a productive classroom.

So our ninja training continues with strategic behavior!

When I think about the word strategic, two things come to mind.  One is strategies.  First grade is a year of many strategies.  Math strategies to solve word problems, reading strategies to attack words that are unknown, comprehension strategies to understand text, and writing strategies for all those words that are just challenging to spell for a six year old.  Our students have to be strategic about the strategies that they chose to use and that takes a lot of practice, scaffolding, and experience.
The second thing that comes to mind is everyday problems.  Students need to be strategic about how to solve their problems.  They are getting older and have to start taking on that responsibility of not always relying on an adult.  For example, when I hear "my pencil is broke" I remind them that there is a way to solve that problem that we have practiced.  But it is the responsibility of the student to solve that problem on their own.

Maria started this lesson with the book "There's an Alligator Under My Bed" by Mercer Mayer.

The illustrations make this book so much fun!  My girls have had me read over and over and over again!  The little boy on the cover knows that there is an alligator under his bed.  He has to be very strategic about how he gets into his bed so that he does not get too close to the animal.  The parents in the book do not believe that there is an alligator; therefore, it is up to the boy to solve the problem on his own.

Oh my goodness!! What a perfect book for strategic problem solving!

To follow up on this book, Maria created a problem/solution chart.  We first saw this over at "My Silly Firsties."  The idea works perfectly for this day of ninja training!  This is just the beginning of our chart.  Ummm...the paper towel issue is a real one for our school!

Then it was time to test our their strategic skills.  All the first graders headed outside to an obstacle course.

As our year continues, we will revisit this word OFTEN.  It is so important that they be strategic and think carefully about the strategies that they use.

Do you have any lessons that you love to help your students be strategic problem solvers?

Classroom Ninja Training: Respect

So far we have set the foundation for our ninjas to be brave (risk takers), to persevere, curious, and responsible.  As the ninja training continues, I do wonder if real life ninjas were respectful.  But we think our first grade ninjas need to be!

For this trait, our firsties participated in two of my favorite beginning of the year activities.  I started with a definition and some examples of what it means to respect people, places, and things.  But I explained that we were going to focus on how we will respect each other.  So we drew a friend on our chart paper.  Lots of firsties came up to draw the different body parts, which made "friend" look so cute!

Then I read the book "I'm the Best" by Lucy Cousins.

 In this book, Dog is friends with Ladybug, Mole, Goose, and Donkey.  Dog feels that he is best because he can beat each animal at certain activities.  But he quickly learns that they can also beat him at certain activities.  Dog finds out that they all have their strengths and weaknesses.

I like this book.

There are so many times that I hear "I can't" from a kid.  But there are those other situations where we hear a student telling another student that they are "the best" at something.  This statement automatically lets the other child know that they are not good or that they "can't".  Understanding that we all have our strengths and weaknesses is so important when creating a positive classroom environment.

As I read and each time Dog said "I'm the best," a student was asked to crumple up our friend.  The crumbling symbolized that awful feeling you get when someone says unkind words. By the end of book, our friend was looking pretty bad.  Dog does apologize to all of his friends, so we smoothed out our friend, as well.

We did have the conversation about the wrinkles still being present even though an apology took place.  This just shows that we need to respect others and think before we say something that could be hurtful.  I am not convinced that this message was quite received by this point in our lesson.  Our little ninjas are a pretty antsy bunch this year...but it can always be revisited!

By this point, we were ready for a change.  So Maria and our new teammate, Kathy, asked the students to draw a picture in a small group.  Each group got a piece of paper and one box of crayons.  All that was asked was for them to draw the most colorful, beautiful picture that they could.

Then the groans, questioning noises, and louder voices began.  When they opened their boxes, all they found was one color.  A whole box of orange or a whole box of just green.  But they were encouraged to just draw their picture anyways.  And what they discovered was that the picture was not colorful, not as interesting.

Then Kathy read "The Crayon Box That Talked."  This is one of my favorites!!  It is all about the importance of each and every one of us.  In order for us to have this colorful world, we need to be different.  I always tell the students how bored I would be if they all came to school knowing the same things, dressing exactly the same, doing their hair the same way, talking the same way.

To complete the lesson, the small groups got to create a colorful picture with a regular box of crayons!  They also created a unique puzzle piece with as many colors as they wanted!  We placed this whole grade level puzzle in the hall to remember that we need each of us to complete the puzzle!

Our ninja training on respect ended with some reading buddies...but let's save this for another day!  Go Ninjas and respect each other!

Classroom Ninja Training: Responsibility

We are ninjas this year but we are all about the positive qualities that a ninja can possess.  So far we have talked about: bravery, perseverance, and curiosity.  Next up...responsibility

Our goal was to help the students understand that as responsible students they need to take care of their own things, pick up after themselves, and take ownership.   What better way to teach them this than by letting them create a total pigsty.  Right?  Paper ball wads flying everywhere....

As soon as the activity started (with paper balls flying past me and into me), I was pretty sure that Jess and I had made a mistake.  It was not a good idea.  And I am still trying to think about how we can improve upon this lesson.  That will come to me....at some point.

Once the paper balls were picked up, they were calmer, quieter.  We moved on to the "meat" of our lesson.  Making the connection between the pigsty they created, the book "Pigsty," and the word responsibility.

I love this book because the mom in the story tells her son that it is his responsibility to clean his room and he chooses not to.  So what happens?  Pigs begin living in his room, of course.  It is not until his toys and books start to get ruined that he decides a clean room is a better room.  He goes to his mom but receives no help from her (thank goodness)!  After the pigs help him to clean and move on their way, the little boy learns that his room is his responsibility.

I loved that the mom in this story did not cave in and clean his room with or for him.  It allowed me to spring board into the importance of students being responsible for their own things (such as their daily folder or books that are sent home).  These school things are not the responsibility of the their parents.

Once our book, connections to the pigsty, and word responsibility were made, Jess introduced a graph.  We asked them whether they kept their own room clean or as a pigsty. 

Most of our students do not have rooms.  So we quickly inserted the words "where you sleep" or "a space in your home."  After a "turn and talk,"  each student placed a small sticky note in the correct column.  The results were a little stunning.

My own children must be some kind of oddity because their room is an absolute pigsty...ALL.THE.TIME.  But I will not jump on that topic right now!

As our training continued, our ninjas learned about how to be responsible users of iPads.  These types of lessons will continue to occur throughout the next few weeks.  But the word responsibility has its foundation laid and we are ready to build upon it!

Go Ninjas and be responsible!

Classroom Ninja Training: Curiosity

Our training continues this week as first grade ninjas.  Our firsties have learned all about what it means to have bravery (as a kid) and perseverance.  Today we introduced curiosity and its importance to students.

Our lesson on curiosity was not new this year.  We have been doing this same lesson for the past few years because it helps the kids to form questions.

Karen and I begin by showing students the "Mystery Box."  The students will determine the contents by asking us questions.  We model the difference between a question and statement.  The students can begin asking us questions but we can only answer "yes" or "no."

This lesson is then repeated once each day during the entire week of school.  They get into the routine of asking questions and learn how to form effective ones.  Here is what we have found about this lesson:

*Students learn to form questions (versus statements or just saying one word).
*Students learn to ask questions that will give them the most information.  ("Is it a hat?" versus "Is it something I can wear?")
*Students learn how to use what they know already to form more questions.  (For example, after they learn that they object is made of paper, they will not ask "is it fruit snacks?"  This question would not make sense because fruit snacks are not made out of paper.)

These are great lessons to start off the year with because it sets them up to be more successful in asking questions and looking for clues throughout the the year.