I’m always looking for different ways of forming groups either for teams in games or for class projects/presentations. I like to make sure that not everyone is always working together with their friends. In a book called Energizers and Other Great Cooperative Activities for All Ages (Quest Books, 1991) I hit the jackpot. I know it’s an old book but good ideas are good ideas. I found these to be a great alternative to “Choose Your Own Partner” or randomly drawing names on popsicle sticks, etc. Not only did these provide a nice break or “energizer”, they were so entertaining that people forgot to complain about their groups!
Line ‘Em Up
Have the class line up in a single line according to the following criteria:
by age
by length of hair
by the time they get up in the morning
by how long they’ve lived in the community
Once in a line, you can then simply count off depending on the number of students you need in a group (ex 5).
Group Puzzlers
Select a picture from a magazine for each group you need (ex. If you need 5 groups, you then need 5 different pictures). Cut each picture into the same number of pieces as group members needed and mix all the pieces together in a container.
Students each draw a piece from the container and must then find others with pieces of the same picture. When they find each other, they must then put their pictures back together again.
*Make sure to select pictures that are distinct from one another.
Stone Soup
Fill a pot with groups of common items-the same number and kind of objects as the number of members needed in each group. You could use small rocks, jacks, marbles, squares of fabric, paper clips, paper umbrellas for drinks, etc.
Have each student draw an item from the pot. Holding up their selections, they mingle and find their fellow group members who have also chosen the same object.
Recently, our school went to an overnight outdoor education centre. Parent/student/teacher relationships are developed and also expanded during these types of trips. I had three students with special circumstances. All were brought to my attention before we left for the trip. I had one student who had separation anxiety, another had social issues and a special family event during the trip, and the third was a student with Aspergers and mom was concerned about the socialization/routine for her.
Although most of my time was occupied with these three students, I still feel my time was spent in a very productive way. One night, I spent the time helping a student get to sleep. Distracting her thoughts, staying near her, making sure she was ok. She made it through the night. The second night, she didn’t need me at all. When we returned, the parents were very appreciative and gave me a very nice note and flowers. The flowers were a very nice thought and I really appreciate them but the note I will keep forever. The parent also went to my administration team and spoke to them letting them know how appreciative the student and parents were and what a difference I made. It was a very kind gesture which will always be remembered!
I had another parent who also thanked me through the student and with a small taken of appreciation. Her child ended up getting sick and her mother was very happy that I was there with her until her mother came to get her. The last parent showed up at the school and was all smiles. Again, I received another thank you.
We may not get thank yous for all we do but remember we make the difference in students’ lives. Whether it is a child who feels included, another who is happy to be part of an event, or the student who feels s/he has learned something new – all it takes is one effort to make a difference and change that child’s life for the better.
I recently created an account on Bitstrips for Schools. Bitstrips is a free website where students can create comics or other graphic texts. Creating an account is easy. Bitstrips provides you with an access code that you share with your students. Students simply log in with the access code and they immediately have access to the different activities you create. Their first task (and yours) is to create an avatar. Students can then begin to work on the activities you create.
My Avatar
My initial activity was an introductory activity where students were asked to create a comic introducing themselves to the class. The learning goal for this activity was for students to become familiar with the comic building tools. After a week of in class work, Bitstrips is now an activity students have an option to go to when other work has been completed or they can work on activities from their home computers. Now, most of my students are completing the graphic text activities at home for ‘homework’. Parents appreciate that their children are using the Internet to complete school activities rather than to play games and watch videos on YouTube.
A quick and simple activity to help students become familiar with the tools.
What I appreciate most about this website is that all students, regardless of abilities, can navigate the tools and create a piece of writing. Once students complete an activity, it must be submitted to me for review before it can be published. I can access student writing from anywhere; smart phone, tablet, at home, or school and I can give them timely specific feedback on their written submission. I am using Bitstrips to reinforce punctuation and spelling with my third grade students. I spend a few minutes each evening sending students feedback on their submissions. The next time students log in to Bitstrips they will see my feedback and they can immediately edit and/or revise their work and resend it to me for another review.
Below are some sample comments I have submitted to students:
Hi Charlie,
This is a fun comic! Please make sure you begin each sentence with a capital and end with a period.
Hi Krisandrew,
I really like how you ended your comic! I am impressed with all your slides. Please review for punctuation. For example, sentences must begin with a capital. Example “Me too.” You missed a period in one of your thought bubbles. It is movies not movie. Otherwise, great effort! Please correct and resubmit.
Below are two activities I have assigned on Bitstrips.com:
Turning Narratives Into Graphic Texts
You are to select one of your personal narratives and create a Bitstrip.
You are to use speech bubbles for your dialogue sentences.
You are to use thought bubbles for your thinking and feeling sentences.
You are to use captions for your action sentences.
Your bitstrip should meet the success criteria for personal narratives!
Silly Story Comic
You are to write a silly story!
You are to use the success criteria for a personal narrative. That is,
-Action, dialogue and thought sentences;
-Beginning, Middle and End;
-Correct punctuation and spelling;
But your story must also include the characteristics of a silly story:
-Strange and impossible events take place;
– Characters act as if everything is normal;
-You leave the reader with a smile on their face.
Your story should be a at least 5 frames long.
Dialogue sentences must be in speech bubbles.
Thinking/Feeling sentences are in thought bubbles.
Action sentences must be in captions a the top or bottom of the frame.
I am fortunate to have unlimited access to computers throughout the school day, but you can do this in a one computer classroom. As I mentioned in a prior blog post, it is important to know what access your students have to the Internet from home before you encourage Bitstrips as a homework activity. Bitstrips has helped me engage students in the writing process. It forces them pay attention to writing conventions and it provides me with a manageable way to provide timely feedback to students.
There is nothing like the gift of time. I so look forward to long weekends, not just because I can spend extra time with my family, or catch up on sleep, but also because it gives me time to reflect. I made a few changes in my classroom after March Break and it seemed like the right time to consider what’s working and perhaps not working, and how to make it work. That’s the beauty of teaching…change can happen at any time!
1) The desk arrangement in my classroom seemed to offer less space for movement, so I moved groups of desks together on an angle.
It still somehow feels like too many students at one table grouping…and sometimes group work can be challenging. This one I will have to re-think, perhaps making smaller groups and varying the sizes based on my students.
2) The table basket materials at each grouping often seemed disorganized, and I realized I had assumed that because my last set of Grade 4 students had been relatively organized and independent, this year would be similar. An unfair assumption on my part, given how unique each group can be! Therefore, I tried to add a list to these baskets so students could put materials back in the appropriate spot, thereby allowing them to access what they need.
This idea seems to work when the student assigned to table monitor checks the baskets throughout the day. I’m noticing my students are spending less time getting prepared and more time on actual tasks.
3) Many years ago, I noticed that the amount of unfinished work in different places made it difficult for me to know when my class needed “finish up” time. So, I hung hoops over each table grouping and when students were not finished, they would hang it on the hoop and return to it when they had time. It also helped me to see who might be struggling to complete work and when accommodations might be helpful.
This year, I’ve asked students to put their work on one particular hoop, so that they do not need to search several locations for their unfinished work. I find this method also more helpful for me, so I can support students who have unfinished work at each table grouping.
4) Many of my students seem to have self-esteem issues and it’s hard for them to reflect on what they are doing well. I’ve tried a variety of ideas over the year and most recently, we’ve added this “go-to people” list so that they can feel they have expertise and the ability to help others.
This idea is one I have to followup on and possibly add to, given that some students will not be able to share their expertise in a classroom setting (e.g., swimming)!
5) The last idea I wanted to revisit was reducing anchor charts to frames that can be used at the tables as a reference. This idea has been helpful for some of my students and I hope to continue using it for art activities as well.
The best part is, I have to spend less time trying to find places to hang chart paper! Next, I want to take the papers out of these frames and put them in a book that students can continue to refer to later, if they wish.
Now that I have completed my long weekend reflections, it’s time to head back to eating chocolates…
When I was teaching pre-service and visiting teacher candidates at their practicums, I had many opportunities to see the different ways teachers create community in their classrooms. One fourth-grade classroom teacher (I am sorry, I don’t remember the classroom teacher’s name) assigned a table in her room for a student to set up a display about his or herself. This display immediately caught my attention because the student, whose turn it was to share, had brought in a variety of Montreal Canadian artifacts. Since I am a Habitant fan, I immediately wanted to meet this student and talk with him about the artifacts he brought to school. The student was so pleased to talk to me about how he and his family came to be Hab fans. The other students in the class were quick to fill in pieces of information the student didn’t share. This told told me that his classmates practiced attentive listening and mutual respect when the artifacts were presented. I left that classroom knowing that when I returned to teaching elementary students I would do something similar.
Well, I finally introduced the idea of a “Student of the Week” when we returned to school in January. I asked my student teacher to launch the project by sharing personal artifacts before we broke for the holidays so that when we returned, the first student would be ready to go.
Basically, each week a student prepares an oral presentation and display about them self to share with the class. I tell the students that by sharing this information we learn more about each other and we will have a greater appreciation of how each member of our class is unique and special.
Below you will find the learning goal and success criteria for this activity.
Learning Goal:
As Student of the Week, I will learn how to:
Organize my ideas and present information in a logical sequence;
Communicate in a clear way using good volume, speed and eye contact.
Success Criteria:
I know I successfully presented myself as the Student of the Week if:
I included information about my past, present and future;
I used visuals such as photographs, magazine or Internet pictures;
I included objects such as favourite toys, lucky charms or other artifacts;
I looked at the audience when I presented;
I spoke in a loud and clear voice.
My students LOVE our Student of the Week presentations. Each week, after a student has done their formal presentation, the presenter pulls a new name from our Name Jar. The name drawn will have one week to prepare their presentation and display. I can’t believe how excited the students get when someone’s name is read from the jar. You would think they one an iPad or somethingJ
I am so pleased with the quality of the presentations each student prepares, but I am equally pleased with the quality of the feedback the students receive from their peers. Not only do they ask thoughtful and caring questions to find out more about the individual, they also point out which success criteria the student has included and which success criteria they can build upon. What is really cool is that I didn’t ask the students to provide the feedback, they did it automatically, which tells me that peer feedback is part of the culture of our classroom (I guess I did something right!).
After the presentation and Q and A time I ask some reflection questions such as:
What did we learn about <student’s name> that we didn’t know before?
What are some of the things you have in common with <student’s name>?
How does this activity help our classroom community?
I am sorry I didn’t start this activity at the beginning of the year. With a never ending list of things to do, I kept skipping over this activity. In hindsight, it didn’t take long to set up. I basically purchased a display board and stick on letters. I narrowed down our learning goal and success criteria and put it on a handout for students to take home. Now Student of the Week is in the students’ hands! So far, I haven’t had a student forget they were the next Student of the Week. Each week the Student of the Week has come ready to set up their display and prepared to give their oral presentation to our class. I think this activity is a keeper!
The other day I was reading through Professional Speaking (our OCT magazine). I came across a little piece on wait time and it reminded me of a situation and comment from a colleague last year. I was a model classroom for a combined grade social studies lesson. While I was teaching my lesson, I utilized my wait time with the students throughout my lesson. Upon completion of the lesson, during our debrief session, the Instructional Leader highlighted my wait time. Which developed a fantastic discussion amongst the teachers. Some of the comments were about how long I waited, thought no one was going to answer, how quiet the room was, how proud and surprised many colleagues were about the rich classroom discussion developed due to enough wait time.
Wait time is something which is very important. The first few students who are ready to answer the questions are the students who may not need wait time and are ready to answer most questions. However, by using wait time we allow many students (if not all) an opportunity to process the question and gather information to answer the question. We also know that most students are ready to move on in the lesson and are not left behind still thinking about the question or answer.
A strategy I use to help keep the students focused is I asked the question a second time, the third time I will rephrase the question. Also, sometimes I may need to help activate the prior learning by using some guided questions. Every year I use wait time. Some years I have to wait longer than others but all my students know they need to be engaged and paying attention to the lesson and classroom discussions.
Upon the return to school after the Holiday Break, I thought it would be interesting to see how goal setting might look in Kindergarten. We had a little discussion as a whole class about goals, and how at this time of year many people create goals for themselves. We brainstormed some common goals some people may want to make for themselves. Then, I made it specific to school, and my students brainstormed some ideas of Classroom Goals we should have for the 2013 school year. I have attached our goals for each Track that I teach. Some were very similar, but some were very creative and inclusive to that Track only. I was very proud of my students for coming up with such amazing goals.
I also got each student to write about what they would like to learn about for this upcoming year. Again, I was shocked and and so proud of the goals many of my students came up with!
Having read Sangeeta’s blog about how ongoing conflicts can sometimes hijack your teaching agenda, I was struck with her concept of the “Talking and Listening Chairs”. From my own experience, I know that students seem to run into MANY misunderstandings and oftentimes lack both the forum and the verbal skills necessary to successfully solve their conflicts. Quite frankly, I think her idea is brilliant and the guidelines surrounding their use are thoughtfully considered. She has clearly established boundaries and parameters that would ensure success. With obviously less disruptions for the teacher, the real beneficiaries are the students themselves. Actually having a chance to air their grievances can help diffuse and prevent an emotional conflict from escalating into something more serious and simultaneously allows students to take ownership for solving their own problems. Finally, the end result would be to forge a stronger, deeper rapport between the children and a positive classroom atmosphere. Wow, all that from two chairs! Personally, I’m going to have to think a little more how I could implement this idea as a rotary teacher with older students and a cart (no permanent classroom)…
As I read the previous additions by fellow bloggers, I look for connections to my own classroom, and what I see is the constant of change. We are all working with different age groups, but consider similar topics, such as adjustments to integrate technology, outdoor education, or making learning meaningful. Like others, I am continuously reflecting on my practice and making adjustments. As I am teaching in a new Full-Day Kindergarten classroom, there are many changes that the ECE and I have made in the last 8 weeks.
In September, our days were focused on establishing routines and building a community with our 27 children. The biggest routines were entry and dismissals, learning centres, and independent reading/quiet time. Then, as the children settled into these routines, we constantly re-assessed our schedule. We found that our children are so social, that independent reading is more like a book club with sharing and discussions. So, we now lead meditation and quiet breathing and stretching exercises after our reading block. Some of the children struggle with stilling their minds, while others have embraced it and look forward to this part of our day.
Adjustments to the classroom are also a constant in FDK. As interests in certain areas increase or wain, I change the spaces to accommodate the children’s interests and needs. I also change the materials. The basics in each learning centre remain the same, such as the blocks in the building centre, however, I may add recycled materials, clipboards and paper, or figures to encourage new relationships with the materials.
The planning has become one of the most challenging aspects of the FDK program, as there is no time for the ECE and I to sit down and exchange ideas. I continue to plan weekly with my Kindergarten teacher partners, then I convey ideas to my ECE while we are in the classroom together. I started off the year with my weekly plans in a binder on my desk (as I always previously used them). Then, I realized that it was more beneficial to enlarge them on an 11 x 17 inch page and hang them in the centre of the room where the ECE, and the Special Education Assistant can access the daily plans with ease. We are also using a web diagram to document the big ideas that are emerging in the classroom and the connections to the curriculum, which is visible to all.
Every day at our gathering circle, I start by asking the children, “How do you feel today?” As the children share their responses, I get a better understanding of what adjustments I can make to ensure it is a successful day for all of us. Making adjustments is just another way of being a reflective and responsive teacher.
Recently, for Remembrance Day, I contemplated how to help my students understand the meaning of this solemn occasion.
My class is made up of students from India, Pakistan, Somalia, Czech Republic, Afghanistan and Slovakia to name a few. Through several discussions, I learned that their understanding of war from their homelands seemed different than what our Canadian soldiers went through, yet the common thread was the idea of peace.
Having seen the film, “The Peace Tree” by Mitra Sen, I thought this might be a good place to start. The film is about a young girl whose family is celebrating Eid. She shares her holidayand customs with her best friend and when Christmas draws nearer, she questions why her family can’t celebrate both occasions. This leads her to make a peace tree with symbols from different religions and cultures. After watching this film with my class, I could see them making connections to their own experiences with religion, exclusion and identity.
We became excited at the thought of making our own Peace Tree and I began the search for the right branches to hold our ideas. Together, we spent some time studying different signs of peace from around the world, such as the diya (India), the Inukshuk (North America), the Yin Yang (China), the Star of David (Israel) and more. My students took materials home in earnest to start making these signs and often came up with their own symbols: flags from different countries, chains of people, and hands.
At our school assembly, while each class was invited to bring a wreath, my class chose to bring their Peace Tree which had also been decorated with poppies. Two of my students spoke at the assembly about why we had created this tree and what it stood for. It has been an interesting experience for me to watch my students get so excited about the different symbols and how the meaning of peace is the same no matter where you live in the world.
We were asked to put our Peace Tree outside the school office for others to enjoy and my students often ask when we are getting it back…they want to add more to it!
