Feelings Bingo

My 5th and 6th graders were in need of expanding their vocabulary in regards to feeling words.  So with our annual testing time coming up, and the limited time I had for lesson planning (combined with a crazy schedule for me)...I made up a list of entertaining feeling words. 

Giving the kiddos a blank Bingo card, they were able to create their own card and learn just a little about the words.  I did not give them the definitions in the beginning...they just had to write the words down on their cards.  While calling out the different words, I would use them in a sentence so that they were able to become familiar with them.  After a number of rounds of regular Bingo, Big X, Big T, and various other versions of "bingo", I had the kids group up and choose three words.  They were to use their iPads to look up the definition and then they had to create their own sentence using the word.  Laughter was a significant part of this lesson and it was a great stress relief for not only myself...but the kids as well!

Fun Bingo Words:

irascible

love-struck

ferocious

exasperated

guilty

rejected

content

bitter

numb

valued

jealous

hysterical

awkward

frustrated

envy

resentment

animosity

amiable

complaisant

optimistic

pessimistic

indignant

infatuated

adored

cherished

irritable

jovial

tolerant

And here are just a couple of the sentences they came up with:

• Ms. Davis is very pessimistic without coffee.  (Gee...thanks guys!  I think it may be more that I'm half-asleep!)
• Megan is irascible when Zeke is annoying.
• I have animosity toward healthy food.  (I think they were really wanting a Girl Scout cookie...which was the reward for winning Bingo)
• The CRT's make me exasperated!

I love hearing the students use some of these new vocabulary words to describe how they are feeling!  

Twelve Rules...

I cannot believe that today marks the end of the 1st quarter for us!  Time has zipped by so quickly that I keep looking back and wondering what happened...and if there is a slow motion button I can hit for this next quarter. 

My original goal was to post something at least once (shooting for twice) a week...but that just has not happened!  Between meetings, lesson planning, crisis with kiddos, behavior with kiddos, a birthday, parent/teacher conferences and Halloween...my best laid plans did not succeed.  I would totally set that goal for this next quarter......but....yea....

Anywhoo, I was reading some literature on "teaching practical life skills in every stage of life" in order to spruce up my knowledge and understanding of where kiddos need to be at each age level, and I came across twelve rules that made me chuckle but also made me sad in the truth of it all... 

Twelve Rules for Raising Delinquent Children

1. Begin with infancy to give the child everything he wants.  In this way he will grow up to believe the world owes him a living.
2. When he picks up bad words, laugh at him.  This will make him think he's cute.  It will also encourage him to pick up "cuter" phrases that will blow off the top of your head later.
3. Never give him any spiritual training.  Wait till he is 21 and then let him "decide for himself."
4. Avoid use of the word "wrong".  It may develop a guilt complex.  This will condition him to believe that society is against him and he is being persecuted.
5. Pick up everything he leaves lying around (books, shoes, and clothing).  Do everything for him so he will be experienced in throwing all responsibility on to others.
6. Let him read any printed matter he can get his hands on.  Be careful that the silverware and drinking glasses are sterilized, but let his mind feast on garbage.
7. Quarrel frequently in the presence of your child.  In this way he will not be too shocked when the home is broken up later.
8. Give a child all the spending money he wants.  Never let him earn his own.  Why should he have things as taught as you had them?
9. Satisfy his every craving for food, drink, and comfort.  See that every sensual desire is gratified.  Denial of his desires may lead to harmful frustration.
10. Take his part against neighbors, teachers, and policemen.  They are all prejudiced against your child.
11. when he gets into real trouble, apologize for yourself by saying, "I never could do anything with him."
12. Prepare for a life of grief.

*What Every Child Should Know Along the Way by Gail Martin

I know some of them seem extreme and I haven't quite processed through all of them....but....What are your thoughts?

Obedience

It's been a whirlwind of a month with parent/teacher conferences, an illness I'm still recovering from, and a few extra days off this last week!  So, here's a little lesson my 1st graders completed somewhere around the end of September, beginning of October. 

We were discussing my three rules...

• Be Respectful
• Be Safe
• Be Trustworthy

...and we were investigating the "Be Safe" rule.  I read the classic story of "Peter Rabbit" to them and we learned about how Peter's disobedience caused him to lose his jacket and shoes and almost be injured.  I was giving the kiddos the saying "Obeying means following directions all the way, right away and with a happy heart".  And by golly the kiddos still remind me of this today!!!  A lesson that they remember....and one that was so simply to put together.  Read a story, discuss, and write a letter to Peter on how you would help him obey so he can remain safe.  The kiddos enjoyed writing the letters and wanted to mail them...I'll have to save that idea and add it to my lesson next year so they can "mail" their letters and receive a "response" from Peter.  :)

Tech Junkies

My fourth graders have been spending the last couple of lessons discussing teamwork and the importance of learning how to work well with others at an early age.  We have equated this with a baseball team, talking about how there are observers, participants and helpers and how each has a very important roll to play.  The kiddos have grasped this concept and taken off with it!  It has been a pleasure to watch them learn to work with one another and encourage one another.  I am truly seeing teamwork play out! 

After I broke the kiddos into groups of three, their assignment was to peruse from a list of 10 creative activities, choose one as a group and create it.  The catch this year though, is that instead of handing out large sheets of construction paper, the kids were able to use their iPads to aid in their creative process.  And I must say...I was impressed!  Even though the pictures may appear that they are not "working" together...what the pictures failed to capture were the conversations they were all having while working on gathering things for their projects.  In the all the years that I've done this lesson I have not had 100% participation.  There was always at least one or two kiddos who just would not actively participate.  But not this year...the technology has created little tech junkies...but hey..at least they are reading, learning and working together!  :)

R.E.S.P.E.C.T.!!!

Find out what it means to me!  I spent most of last Friday morning trying to prepare lessons for this week...and plan for a sub for tomorrow!  Sometimes it is so hard to verbalize the thoughts that are floating around in my brain and to make them comprehensible for a sub!  I was struggling between wanting to move my 6th graders on to the next topic but at the same time, wanting to be the one laying the groundwork for it...not someone else.  So to compromise...they will do a review of our topic, "Respect", but they will be able to utilize their iPads in a scavenger hunt sort-of-way!

There is a wonderful site where you can create your own QR codes, print them out and have the kiddos use their iPads/iPods to scan the QR and viola!, they are directed to the website you desire.  So in the spare time that I had to find, I located a few websites with relevant information regarding respect, created QR codes for them, glued them to note cards and hopefully (if all goes as smoothly as my brain thought it through) the kids will scan them tomorrow and answer some questions for me.  There are 3 codes that they will have to scan in order to answer all the questions and they are given the choice to work in groups or by themselves...so....crossing my fingers and hoping this all works!!!!

*Even with carefully planning in hopes that my sub would be able to enjoy this lesson...technology worked against me.  Thankfully I was still in the building this day and my kiddos were able to rescue retrieve me from my meeting so I could improvise the lesson.  I neglected to remember that the students' iPads are on a more restricted internet network than I am, and even though I was able to pull up all the sites using the QR reader, the kiddos were not able to.  Using some panicked-quick thinking, I pulled up the first QR reader on the teacher computer and let the kiddos watch the short video on the big screen (aka...SmartBoard).  We then discussed some points from it and the kiddos completed questions 1, 2, 5 & 6 from the RESPECT questionnaire.  After that, they broke into groups of their choice, scanned the third QR code and completed question 7 from the questionnaire.  They loved that they were able to use their iPads to create a bumper sticker, write a rap song, snap pictures of respect and even create a mini-video on respect.  I'm not joking when I say that ALL of my kiddos were engaged in this activity!  Even with technology giving me a mini-panic attack...it all worked out and my kiddos had a blast!

What a little hummus can do...

The district has asked that counselors present a lesson on "Respect for All" this year.  Since my number one expectation from my kiddos is respect, it ties pretty well with what I'm already talking about at the beginning of the year.  Since the district created a PowerPoint yet gave us leeway on how we present it to our younger kiddos, I took the liberty to find literature (since I'm a HUGE fan of reading!) that would match the objective.  Thus, I bring you..."The Sandwich Swap"...straight from this amazing resource!

It's a wonderful storyline with pictures that capture the attention of even my 5th graders (they had some extra time at the end and didn't have their Ipads to complete a questionnaire...so I read the book to them)! Here's the nitty-gritty details of the lesson if you'd like to see how I presented/structured it... 

Not only did the story grab my kiddos attention and provide wonderful discussion on respecting the diversity of others, but they enjoyed actually trying hummus.  Yep!  I brought in classic hummus and used pretzel sticks to allow the children to try this delectable food!  I made sure there weren't any food allergies beforehand, and most kids were apprehensive to try...but bravely attempted it and found that they actually loved it.  *Insert shocked face here!*  Yes, the majority of the kids enjoyed it and wanted more.  And those that didn't prefer it, and to report in a respectful way that "they did not prefer it". 

Once the kids tasted the hummus, I had them draw pictures of their favorite food.  And for those classes that I knew could handle it, we crumpled the papers up and had a "food fight".  Wonderful lesson for all my kids and hopefully they walked away with an understanding of respect and diversity.

*Update:  a fellow teacher came to me just this morning and told the story of her drive home last night with her 3rd grader and kindergartner (who both received this lesson yesterday).  Apparently they told her that they don't prefer the hummus but then they tag teamed and went through the whole lesson with their mama!  Apparently hummus sticks (and they worked together to present the lesson...which as she said was an amazing thing)!  :)

Organization is the Key!

Ok, I admit...I'm a bit of an organizational junkie!  If I don't have things organized then I feel completely lost.  So for me, the start of each year must begin with an organizational system for my lesson plans.  This year I've done things a bit different than previous years.  I used to just simply keep each grade in their own little 2-pocket folder (clearly labeled of course), and stashed in a file holder box thingy (I don't know the correct terminology for it...I haven't finished my coffee yet this morning!).  But this year I decided to spice things up a bit and use a binder system.  Now when I taught special ed., I lived off of binders for each of my students but I never really transferred that into my counseling.  However, with so many classes back-to-back this year, I needed something that would contain all of my lesson info so that I could pick it up and go.  And the result is this:

If you look closely you will notice that my schedule is on the back of the binder...for those moments when I forget where I'm supposed to be am so engrossed in solving world peace.  And it's color coordinated according to grades.  Then...inside of the binder I have my weekly-at-a-glance lesson plan (also color coordinated for grades...and just so happens to match the schedule on the back), which is also turned in to my principal each week.  Inside of the binder I still rely upon my 2-pocket folder system and have each labeled by grade (not color coordinated with my lesson plan and schedule...I know, I'm lazy!).  And if you open up the folder I have the detailed lesson plan for that particular grade, listed with the objectives, matching curriculum benchmarks, supplies needed, etc. 

It may seem a bit crazy, but now that the system is up and running...so am I!  It has helped tremendously on my very busy Thursday's.  And well...who can't help but love the fun graphics and color scheme!  Not to mention that it's quick and easy to keep maintained!