Organizing...Many Pieces!

As we head back into our classrooms (or spaces), we clean, purge, organize and prepare the best we can for the little humans that will be with us for the next 10 months.  It is a fresh time.

Puzzles have been a staple in our first grade classrooms the past couple years when we realized that it was becoming a lost art.  It provides great critical thinking, problem solving, and organizational skills for out students.  But many did not know how to complete one.  So we worked on this.
This year my teammate has added memory games.  These help to support student concentration and visual memory. Not to mention, it is a way for students to ease into their days calmly.

One problem...both games require many pieces.  And we are talking about little kids-pieces get dropped, lost, misplaced. (Okay-let's be honest-I'm an adult and do the exact same thing to small pieces).

My teammate has put each of the memory games and puzzles into small plastic containers.  They are clearly labeled with the picture of the game/puzzle on them.  Students know exactly what they are working on because they are so clearly marked.

She also added a number to each piece and container.  This means when a piece does end up on the floor, a table, or another box--it can easily be placed back into the correct plastic box.

Sometimes it can be these small changes that add calmness to a classroom.  And that calmness might be just what a student needs.

Empathy in the Classroom Part 1

 Earlier this week I shared some information I learned about the 7 Essential Skills that our students need to possess once they leave the education system.  Let's take a closer look at empathy.

 This is, for sure, a lifelong skill that we need to work on with our students but continue to work on even as  adults.  It can be difficult to understand the feelings and emotions of another person.  Especially if you come from different backgrounds, life styles, or belief systems.  But this makes empathy even more important.  But how do we help our little kids to understand this skill?

We have to start at the beginning.  Feelings.  Emotions.  Body language.

Language is a key component to this. Busy schedules and technology have put a strain on the language children hear and the facial expressions that they see.  As teachers of the younger grades, we need to make sure they have a good grasp on the variety of feelings/emotions that are out there (not just happy, bad, and sad).  We also need to ensure they understand and can read the body language associated with these emotions.

One suggestion that was given during my session at Nerd Camp was silent films.  With a silent film, you must pay attention the body language, not the words.  The way that I envision using these in the classroom is to stop and really look at the facial expressions on the characters.  How are they feeling?  How do you know?  Why are they feeling that way?

Each of the videos listed below come from Youtube.  You can click on the image to watch the video but I also included the title and author in case you want to find the video on your own.  I picked these silent films because each one focuses in on the character's face.  You can read the emotions through the face and body.

 Mouse for Sale by Wouter Bongaerts

Embarked by Mikel Mugica, Adele Hawkings, and Soo Kyung Kang

Bridge by Ting Chian Tey
Good one to also discuss how animals are not being empathetic

For the Birds by Pixar

Broken Wand by Anne Yang and Michael Altman

Runaway by Susan Yung, Esther Parobek, and Emily Buchanan

I hope you can use one or two of these to build empathy in your classroom.  Do you have any other silent videos that work well for this skill?

Adding More Positive Too

Last month I shared some ways that I have been working to highlight positive actions that occur in my small groups.

 Through our school wide discussions about creating trauma sensitive classrooms, we decided that between intervention cycles, we needed to do some celebrating.

Let me back up just a bit...

After six weeks of intervention, my building wide interventions stop.  My RtI team reassesses each student in intervention to ensure that they are receiving exactly what they need.  This does mean that groups and interventions change.

What we realized is that we were not giving our students enough "closure" between the groups.  I personally felt like I needed to do a better job explaining why they were changing groups and celebrate the work they had done to improve!

Our first intervention cycle recently ended.  To celebrate, I asked each group member to tell me something positive that another student did or added to our group.  Then they wrote a note to that student with that positive thought on it.

It was a really nice way to transition groups.  Each student complimented someone else, but left with a compliment for themselves.

I am thankful that my teammates continues to push me to improve my teaching skills.  It is having a positive impact on me, as well as my students.

Em

Writer's Workshop: Conferencing

I know it's summer, but my gears never shut off.  They may slow down a little but, but there is not a shut down mode on my teacher brain.  I partially think this is because I'm doing what I love and I LOVE what I do.  Teaching only writing to our firsties has opened up an amazing world for me.  Throughout the summer I'm just reading and researching to better my craft and I find so much joy in learning.  Towards the end of my school year I had noticed that taking notes during my conferences had really gone by the wayside.  We were still having great conversations, but I just wasn't writing things down for me or my students.  This was not good.  Especially when we came to the next conference and I thought we had talked about things to try but neither of us could remember.  It was ok, but I knew I had to get better so I jumped online.  I came across Julie Shope's Writing Workshop Checklist. You can check it out here.  She did a fantastic job, but it just didn't fit what I needed to help my littlest authors.  That's when I decided to make my own.  They are common core aligned and really just hone in on what I need my firsties to do.

  

Here's how I intend to use these guys.  When conferencing with my firsties I will highlight what he/she can do and focus on one thing they can try.  Both will be highlighted.  At the bottom, I will write a little note that will include encouragement as well as a suggestion.  Then, the firstie will put this notes page back in his/her folder and off they will merrily go to try out what we discussed. (I do snicker a little at this comment because I know we will probably have the same conversation the next time we talk. hahaha) I do love how each firstie will keep this notes page in their writing folder for safe storage. I love how we will be able to take it out over the course of a unit and see our conferences together, what we've talked about, and the growth that has been made as an author.  I also think I'll send these little babies home at the end of each unit or save them for parent teacher conferences. That's yet to be decided.  Click the above images or HERE to get this packet for yourself!

I hope you'll be able to use these in your classroom and I'd LOVE, LOVE, LOVE any feedback you have. :)

Happy writing!!!

Take Your Pick

I am always looking for fun and interesting ways to get books into the hands of our firsties!

Over the summer I stumbled upon Lesson Plan SOS (through Pinterest, of course).  They started a reading raffle at their school.  Love it!

So...I started my own version called "Take Your Pick."

This is a weekly drawing (again...trying to get those books in their hands)!!  Students earn tickets for whatever the classroom teacher decides and then they have their pick of what book they would like to win.  They just place their little tickets in the box and on Friday I pick 5 winners!

We started this today with our little firsties.  They were so excited!  So far...SkippyJon Jones has the most tickets.

I am looking forward to picking the winners on Friday.

Em

CHAMPs and WBT, a Little Wedding!

Classroom management... sends shivers down the spine.  Picture in the Lion King when the hyenas say, "Mufassa".  It's always a challenge to be sure you're meeting the needs of every.little.firstie and getting them to buy into your class and school rules. 
So this summer while blog stalking perusing the blogging world, I came across First Grade Fever.  If you haven't visited Christie, you need to hop.right.over to her fabulous little site.  She had a post on Whole Brain Teaching which quickly reminded me that our curriculum director had sent us the same video Christie had posted on her site.  I was immediately drawn in again to the WBT method.  I quickly hopped over to the Whole Brain Teaching website and began reading up.  I was in love!  I thought/think it would be perfect for our little firsties. 
Well.... we also have a school wide behavior program called CHAMPs.  I have loved CHAMPs and it has worked very well for our little guys, but sometimes... it just doesn't reach all of them.  Here's a little snippet of CHAMPs that we provide to our parents:

The “CHAMP” acronym is specific and narrow in that it explains exactly what to do in each learning situation, so all students can be successful.   At the beginning of new learning activities or lessons, the children will receive an explanation, visual reminders, and modeling of how to be a CHAMP in each situation. 

This means:

• C = Conversation.  (May we have any?  If so, what kind?)
• H = Help.  (How do we get help?)
• A = Activity.  (What is the activity?)
• M = Movement (May we have any?  If so, what kind?)
• P = Participation.  (What does it look like?)

Do you love a wedding????  I do! haha  I just got that myself.  Oh my.... lack of sleep already is getting to the brain.  Back.on.track.  So we are going to do just that!  We are going to marry the WBT and CHAMPs this year since it is the district and building expectation that our students follow this procedure.  Are you as excited as I am?????  :)

As a team we sat down and looked at each letter, it's meaning, and then came up with a gesture just as you would do in WBT.  Christie's has AWESOME Rules and Call Backs as a FREEBIE on her site, ( I LOVE them because I have a secret obsession with polka-dots).  I printed off a copy of "Attention Grabbers" from Run! Miss Nelson's Got the Camera!  We are also adding a few of our own.  "Curious"(teacher says) "Firsties" (students call back) and "Champ" (teacher says) "Strong" (students call back)
We are so excited about this wedding!  I need to thank all the wonderful bloggers out there for the inspiration!

So, if you're using CHAMPs and want to try to marry it with WBT, feel free to print your FAVOR!  Every wedding needs one!
We'd also LOVE to hear how you use WBT or CHAMPs in your classroom!  :)

CLICK HERE  to grab this FREEBIE!!!

It is a wall set of each letter with picture reminders.

A little explanation of how we will use these rules. 

For 'C' we will say, "Conversation _______ (red, yellow or green)" then make the gesture of a finger to our lips for red, whisper hands for yellow, and talking hands for green. 

For 'H' we will say, "Help, raise hand" and make the gesture of raising our hand.

For 'A' we will say, "Activity, I can ____(state I can)" and make the gesture of a thumb to our self and then a thumb up.

For 'M' we will say, "Movement, sit (or walk)" and our gesture will be the signs for those movements.

Finally, 'P'.  We will say, "Participate and keep your dear teacher happy".  Our gesture will be framing our face somehow.  :)

Click HERE for the Teacher Cheat Sheet

Have a GREAT Tuesday!!! It's our Open House night. :)  I'm so excited to reveal my new classroom look. 

Come back for a visit tomorrow!  I will be posting classroom pics!

Maria