Our first week of school was so much fun! We really enjoyed working together to build a community of learners! I loved getting to know each of the students and having them get to know and work with each other. We will continue to build our classroom community throughout the year. Below you will find just a few of the activities we did in the first few weeks of school.
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| Our Snack Mix of Stars |
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| Enjoying some Jitter Juice on the first day of school |
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| mmmm...Jitter Juice! |
A little peek at our classroom....
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| Our Super Star Behavior Clipchart |
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| Celebrity of the week board. When you are the celebrity, this board will be all yours for the week! |
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| AR Reading bulletin board |
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| Weekly reading focus board {This board will display the weekly skills, strategies, vocab words, grammar skill, and spelling word for each week.} |
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| A red carpet hello! |
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| my little corner |
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| The Jitter Juice helped calm the butterflies in our bellies on the first day of school. |
The students learned that there are many different ways to do things likes sit on a chair and eat an Oreo. We experimented with those various ways. We then tied this concept to our learning. The students found that each of us thinks how to do something or how to solve a problem differently. They discovered that all of these ways were still "good". They found out that they don't have to do things, learn, solve a problem, etc. the same way as someone else.
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| Let's see how many different ways we can sit in this chair... |
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| She took little bites of her Oreo |
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| She took big bites! |
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| She decided to shove the whole thing in her mouth in one bite. |
Throughout our Kevin Henkes author study, we learned about character traits (the qualities a person possesses on the inside - kind, compassionate, hard working, etc.) We read Chrysanthemum and worked to determine her character traits throughout the story. We also talked about Chrysanthemum's feelings in the story. When the other students in the story said mean things to her it hurt her.
We brainstormed unkind things to say to someone. (You're mean...You're ugly...That shirt looks stupid, etc.) {These are things we wouldn't ever want to really say, but were okay to say for our lesson.}
After saying those mean things, Chrysanthemum's feelings were hurt. Each mean thing caused another wrinkle for her until she was "balled up in a paper ball." We then decided we should try to make her feel better by saying nice things. The students said such kind and nice things to her. She slowly started to unfold and straighten out as they said the kind things. However, no matter how hard we tried to flatten the paper out, the wrinkles didn't go away. The students learned that an unkind or hurtful thing can't be taken back. The "wrinkles" will always be there. We want to make choices that are always kind to others and wouldn't hurt their feelings.
As we worked on building our community, we learned about the band aid theory. (Every child got a band aid placed on their body because it was fair. However, we found out that the band aid on the hand didn't help the cut on the knee, etc.) The students found out the VERY IMPORTANT LESSON that what is fair in class isn't always going to be equal. We all have different needs at different times. Not all students will get and do the exact same thing throughout the year.
As part of our Kevin Henkes author study and get to know you activities, we read "Lily's Purple Plastic Purse." The students each created their own purple plastic "purses" and brought in items to share with the class.
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| Our human clock |
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| learning about context clues using "Skippy the Frog". {"When you come to a word you can't figure out, no need to panic, no need to pout....Just hop over it, hop, hop, hop over it..."} |
We learned more about character traits through the book "Many Luscious Lollipops." The students then created their own lollipops (balloons), passed them around, and wrote character traits of other classmates on their "lollipop." Next we found examples in stories of the various character traits.
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| learning about character traits |
