Getting to know them

 We need more parties at school! That is my epiphany. 

On the last day of school, my class had a pizza party on our room patio. After the pizza eating, the kids ran about blowing bubbles. Everyone was laughing, smiling, talking. One student came up and announced, "This is the best day ever!" 

More importantly, the kids came up one by one and started sharing their lives with me. I learned that my most troublesome student had been taking piano lessons - I could have used that knowledge. Another one, the "best day ever" student stated, as an aside, "Now, if only my dad doesn't drink wine..." Yes, I did ask a follow up question and yes dad drinking wine is a very bad thing. I felt helpless on that last day of school. 

Of course, I will share Christopher's piano playing with next year's teacher so he (at least I hope he gets a "he" teacher) can tap into that interest. And, I will advise the new teacher and the counselor of "Best Day Ever's" home situation, but I should have known sooner and for him it will be 2 long months before he gets the emotional support he needs.

 I need to make a big change. The time allowed for parties, two end-of-the-day 10 minute parties a year, is barely enough time to pass out the usual birthday cupcake and say goodbye. That is not a party. That is not enough to get to know a thing, except who doesn't like chocolate.

We need more parties - sooner and often.  My plan?

Just like my end of the year party, we will have lunch parties, at least 3 times a year. There will be two important components  - dining and an activity. 

 The dining is important because I can see how the kids interact. You find out who sits where and what groups are formed? In this case, I was struck with the fact that all students found a group to sit with except one. He sat smack in the middle of the patio well away from the two other groups. When he was done eating he looked over at the two separate groups and choose neither. Instead, he wandered the patio checking out the plants or the sky. He was trying to look occupied without having to interact. What was most surprising to me was that this is a very intelligent verbal student: not one who strikes me as having social issues.

The activity was equally important. When several kids came up after the pizza was devoured, they were disappointed that they were missing their recess, until I brought out the bubbles. Bubbles are perfect. It's an activity that brings delight to all and creates lightness in the most troubled of students.  In my year end example, I asked my newly discovered loner to help me sort the bubble containers -  wands/no wands, empty/ full. He was a little grumpy, he seemed to think he had been given a job. Periodically, a student asked to go to the playground or for a bubble container. We took turns sending them back to the patio to wait for directions. He'd take a deep breath and repeat the instructions to the next set of students to inquire. Eventually, all containers were sorted and I sent him to pass them out. That was a task in itself especially when the others swarmed him. He seemed dually exasperated with the rush and pleased at being the center of things. I brought order to the group, all containers were passed out, and he turned for further instructions, which were to take some bubbles and go have fun. And have fun he did. He was Mr. Best Day Ever!

During both activities kids felt free to come and just talk to me. There was no rush, no deadline or change of program to start. We need more parties.

An Array of Students

Two days ago, we started our new chapter on multiplication. Naturally, I had scanned Pinterest for ideas and graphic organizers to get me started. And naturally, I found just what I needed. The lesson went off without a hitch. We discussed the needed vocabulary; multiply, factors, products and arrays. We made charts of groups, arrays, multiplication sentences, related addition, etc. All went swimmingly and they seemed to get it. Yeah!

Yesterday, the math lesson focused on making and using arrays. An array in when objects have been organised into columns and rows (I must confess I'd never heard of an array - although I've been using them all my life -so have you.) Anyway, I digress.

The day started with Language Arts and it was the last day of unit. The kids (yes, sometimes I call them kids - students is too bookie and kiddos - well, is a little over done) needed to be put in groups to  share their thoughts on their favorite stories in the unit. Lightbulb! Ding, ding, ding! Groups - multiplication - 1 guy is absent that means 28 students to group - yes I'm saying EQUAL groups!! Can't pass up this teachable moment, can I?

So, I asked them, "How can we get all 28 of you into a group and have equal groups?" Their little lightbulbs went on ding, ding, ding! I wrote the #28 on the board. A volunteer suggested, "We could have 14 kids in 2 groups." YES. I wrote 2 x 14 = 28 on the board, then drew 2 groups each with 14 dots and asked," Hm-m. How does that look? Would those be good working groups?" A couple of yeses but louder no's. The no's explained there'd be too many in a group! (I was having so much fun.)
Volunteers went on to explain how to make those 2 groups smaller until we ended up at our desired 4 groups of 7. We made all those connections on the board. They moved into groups and book talks. Yeah!

NOW, here's the connection. When math time started, I reminded them of the morning's grouping activity and suggested that we could make a student array, using our morning groups. There was a general mummer of excitement and approval. So, I told them to return to their grouping positions quietly, (the quietly was a little difficult but they tried - such excitement.) Once in their groups, I began lining up one group into our biggest floor space ( you'll see, it was tight.) When the kids saw what I was doing, they lined themselves up and waited to be called. We got our 4 lines of 7 students each lined up - 28 smiles, I love it! Then, I brought out the camera to capture the moment. That created more excitement and was a little challenging; they all wanted to be seen and kept moving out of line. Not looking like columns! I sent a couple of tall ones to the back, but had to explain that the important thing was to see clear columns in our photo (to line everyone up by height would be just too time consuming.) They got with the program, we got our photo!

Monday, we'll follow-up by making the related multiplication and repeated addition sentences for our photograph. Then fill in the graph for 4 x 7 (see graph below.)   Good Day.

multiplication chart  When I uploaded this to Google Docs something got lost in translation. But it will give you the idea.

"Whew."

Well, life has been a whirlwind! I'm so glad I started this blog over the summer 'cause it would never have been started in the fall. I knew switching to a new grade would be challenging, but I didn't realize what a huge leap it would be from 1st grade. On the surface, most of the elements are the same. But they are certainly not taught at the same depth. I've had to reactivate knowledge that has been sitting dormant in my brain for a very long time- and I'm loving it!

There have been days where I've feel inadequate - where things just aren't clicking fast enough and the curriculum is going at break-neck speed. At the end of the day, I sit down and say, "What happened?" But then, it all started to fall in place,"Whew." I'm glad I've reached the "Whew."

I knew I had reached that day when I looked out over the room, and each and every one was silent - focused - and completely into their activity. They were so intent. Not the intent of  "If I don't get this done I'm failing." But rather the intent of interest and joy of learning. And my brain said, "I love this moment."To be able to stand there and think that thought in a busy day is a great feeling. I was so moved, I had to write it on the board. I didn't want to forget that moment. And I wanted to make sure that I remembered to share just how proud I was of them.

Official Prep Day

Official Prep Day over.

8:30  am ½ a poppy muffin and a mug of coffee. Thanks Admin. Food always helps a morning meeting feel.

11:00 our time. I return to my cyclone of a room and want to start cleaning up and finish my boards, but I want to know who my kids are more. So, a quick trip to the office to preview their files. I love that we put a school photo in their files each year. It helps with that first visual connection. I also tend to remember their names faster. Okay – now I can finish my room.

Here are photos of my main bulletin boards:

    To the far right is my Concept/Question area. I think this is unique to the Imagine It!/Open Court programs. It serves as a good way to help students make connections to the unit theme. Unit 1 is Friendship. 

    Next is the Vocabulary area. In 3^rd grade we sort the words by parts of speech. 

   Then comes the High Frequency Word Wall. Notice that I use push pins to secure the words. I trap each word between the pins so we can remove them easily and use as flashcards. 

    To the far left is my computer/ writing area. This is still a work in progress.(not shown)

Now I can clean my room. Will I ever be ready?

Reward Beads

Okay, it happens. I sometimes, albeit not often, I have moments of brilliance. I've been doing a lot of pondering about classroom behavior and I wanted to add another tangible reward  to encourage a year of good behavior. Well, I was wandering the aisles of JoAnn's craft store and passed a wall of beads and accessories. I paused, my head tilted slightly to the right while my mind tried to connect to some recess in the mind - and yes - the lightbulb went on! 

Last year, some friends and I walked at a cancer fundraiser. Each time we completed a lap we got to pick a bead to add to our walking ribbon. Doing! Doing! Doing! That's it! For each week of positive behavior they earn a new bead! 

Reward Beads

My sample only has 30 beads 'cause lets face it , I'd never get all 37 beads. 

Here's how it's going to work: There are 37 weeks of school. I will keep a daily log of each student's clip position. At the end of the week, if their clip has stayed in the positive zone each day, they'll earn a bead. With their 10th bead, they also get an initial bead. Hopefully, by the end of the school year, they will have earned 3 initials. Many of my students have 4 names - they'll just have to decide which middle initial to use.

Here's what you'll need:

                    a lot of beads

                    alphabet beads

                    plastic cording 

                           or ribbon 

                           or lanyard strips

                           cut into 15" strips

                    lanyard hooks

I'm going to start start each student off with one bead for incentive. My question is- Where will they keep them?  In their pencil boxes? Hanging near the behavior chart? Any suggestions?

It's 4 in the morning and I can't sleep! Arg! I tried emptying my mind, deep, slow breathing, and relaxing with my lavender/flax seed mask on my eyes (that usually does the trick.) It was all very relaxing - but no dice. I might as well update the blog.

Okay, my cup of Don Francisco's decaf (I still have hopes of  more sleep) Vanilla Nut coffee is ready. Hold on - ah, that's better. Love this coffee. Wish you could smell it.

Well, it's been a good prepping week, but no-o, I am not ready. When I left last night, my room looked like an explosion area. Colored paper here - border strips there - stacks of freshly copied worksheets here and there. And I've been so good! There are still workbooks to be numbered, homework - unfinished work - and spelling folders to be labeled and compiled. Oh, my! It's a good thing we still have a prep afternoon to go ( the morning usually gets sucked up with an update meeting).

I did get my Concept/Question board ready for the Friendship unit. My Vocabulary section is ready to put together, but I ran out of ribbon. I'm using it to divide the words into parts of speech. A trip to Michael's is on today's checklist. I've almost finished a Writing Checklist for my Writing board - just need to laminate and attach the label. It will all be easy to assemble on Monday after the meeting. Oh, yes I want to create a Step-Up-to-Writing model for the board to use on Tuesday. I will post photos on Monday. Positive thinking is good. Yes?

Happily, I had a meetup at the Tin Roof Bistro for appetizers and bocce ball with friends at the end of my day. A perfect end to the week!

Ciao, 'til Monday.

Oh, no. I just remembered - I need a trip to the teacher store to exchange the name strips. The ones I bought have the wrong Q in the cursive alphabet . Think I better log off and start my To Do This Weekend list.

Fluency Clocks

Student reading fluency is a regular timed event around these parts. I used to use one-minute hour glass timers that the school provided. The kids loved them but tended to play with them. Sometimes shaking them so badly that some became 30 second timers due to sand loss.

Several years ago, I found these adorable flower clocks with a bee on the second hand. Kids love them, can't hurt them, and learn clock reading at the same time! I use them during Workshop as a fluency activity. Kids partner up. One person reads aloud while the other listens, watches the second hand, and times the reader for one minute. Then they switch jobs. They  read the same passage a total of 3x each, trying to pass the number of words read each time. 



If you look closely, you'll should see the bee on the orange clock.

I was ready to pitch the old plastic basket. But I saw a scrape of green plastic tablecloth, left over from covering my cabinet, and thought I'd put it to good use. Voila! A little double stick tape and a matching ribbon - a new basket. I suppose I should give it a label. We'll see. What do you think? Label - no label?