Gingerbread Man

Wow!  What fun the Gingerbread man has been having in our room the last two weeks!  He has been spotted reading his book to many of our classroom friends.  What great words my kids came up with to describe him.  "He is sneaky and he only runs around the room at night!"

I was wondering if the kids would notice that our little friend was moving, but needless to say, the ones who have the hardest time focusing, were the first ones to find him each day.

And then, what do you know?  He ran away!  While we were at lunch (on gingerbread house day) he ran away.  We had to search high, and low for that sneaky little guy!  I loved listening to the kids as we searched for him through the school, reading his clues and deciding where he might be next.  They had so much fun.  

Then when we got back from our hunt we made Gingerbread houses for him to look at.  

My kiddos this year were extremely creative.  

 Another one of my favorite activities this year was our science experiment to discover why the Gingerbread man shouldn't go into the river.  

(The worksheet is from Babbling Abby, 

a freebie you can get HERE)

We also made our own Gingerbread people. 

                             

 I found the pattern for these adorable little guys at 

Mrs. Miner's Monkey Business.  

You can link to it 

HERE

In case you can't tell, I love the Gingerbread Man.  There are just so many areas of the curriculum that you can teach with it. These are just the highlights of things I remembered to take pictures of. I had an awesome student teacher who was gracious enough to use the many activities and ideas I have collected over the last few years instead of what she may have wanted to do herself.  Thank you Tanya for humoring me!

And with all of that,  I wish all of you a Merry Christmas and safe and Happy New Year!

Until next time.....

Deanna

Silence for Sandy Hook Elementary.......

Congrats to Reading with Mrs. D!

Just want to say Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.  I hope all of you had a blessed Thanksgiving with family and friends.  I am blessed to have been able to spend mine with my family.  Lots of good food and laughs.

Congratulations to Reading with Mrs. D.  She has made it to 100 followers!  If you haven't visited her blog yet, click the pic to go and do that now.

Enjoy the rest of this beautiful Thanksgiving weekend!

Until next time.....

Deanna

Pumpkin Jack

I'm sure many of you are familiar with the book Pumpkin Jack.  It is a sweet story about a little boy and what happens to his Jack-o-Lantern after Halloween.  It shows how the pumpkin decomposes and becomes one with the Earth again and then in the spring, once again sprouts a new pumpkin life.  A wonderful story that teaches the life cycle of the pumpkin.

Well I decided after reading this that my class should experience the natural life cycle of a pumpkin as well.

We began on Halloween with our pumpkin...............

We scooped...............

We counted by 10's.....

and then, after all of the expected tasks, we began the real project...........

Meet OUR Pumpkin Jack.......

 Pumpkin Jack, October 31

Pumpkin Jack lives in a large, plastic jug on our counter.  We discussed as a class what happened to the original Pumpkin Jack and decided we would like to see what would happen in our class if we left him all alone.  We left some pumpkin seeds inside him and then also added some soil, (if he were to be left outside, he would have dirt so we decided adding some would be ok.)  Then we let him be.

 November 6

November 8, seeds beginning to sprout, (hard to see the black fungi growing inside as well.)






               



November 9, the kids are absolutely loving this!  Pumpkin Jack is the first thing they check out in the morning.  It makes me laugh to hear the combination of ewwwws and oooos from them.




                                                                       

 







      Nov. 13 & 14

 This is actually pretty amazing to me as well.  I am surprised that Pumpkin doesn't smell.  I have decomposed a pumpkin one time before and the aroma was not pleasant!  The main question I have been asked is "Why are you doing this?"  A few reasons.  The conversations the kids are having with each other are awesome to listen to.  The conversations they are having with me!  My goal this year is to get my kids to speak in complete sentences and to think.  This is one little way to get closer to my goal.  We have something to talk about.  Another reason is that it is just cool and gross all rolled into one!  I will do almost anything to get my kids excited to come to school.  If this does it for some of them, then I am all for it!

The dilemma now is where should he live while we are on break next week................ any takers?


And now for the bonus round of earth science.........

Our school participates in a program called Harvest of the Month.  A local grower provides our school with different fruits and produce to introduce the kids to.  October was winter squash.  This is the surprise we received when I cut into ours!  

WOW!

Well, I just couldn't let this amazing opportunity God provided for me slip by, 

so we decided to trim around the seeds and plant it!

Looks like instead of having a class Christmas tree, we may have a class pumpkin and squash patch instead!

Until next time.....

Deanna

 

The Happies FINALLY won! OH YEAH!

Wow!  What a fantastic teacher heaven day!  Who would have thought that three, little, angry birds would make 22, little, six year olds sooooo happy.

In case you haven't heard, I am a HUGE fan and follower of Whole Brain Teaching.  The scoreboard is one of the "Core Four" meaning it is one of the main components of WBT.

 The scoreboard is a main component of my classroom management and is how I:
1. Keep students on task
2. Ensure that students are following directions quickly
3. Ensure that all students are Looking and Listening so they are Learning.

In order for the scoreboard to be beneficial the points need to stay close.  The students need to feel that they always have a chance to catch up if the "Happies" are behind.  They also need to stay focused if they don't want the "Frownies" to win.  In my class the students have a chance to "win" an extra minute of recess if the Happies are ahead at recess time.  If the Frownies are ahead then we go out a minute late. Very easy doable rewards for a class that is on task and engaged in their learning.

The bonus reward they have been working for is for the Happies to be ahead at the end of the day.  We have had our mornings run great, only to come back after lunch and have a hard time remembering our rules.  I thought that as an added incentive to achieve this we could play some Angry Birds bean bags.  They have been looking at it, in the box, for two weeks.

Today, finally, the Happies won!  They were so excited to know that after our "specials" rotation we would be playing Angry Birds.  I am smiling now just remembering the excitement in their eyes.

This is the part that makes ME the happiest.  They had to answer questions about nouns in order to get a chance to toss the birds.  I loved that each and every child in my class, (yes, even the shouter outers) remembered rule number 2 for this game!  They cheered for their fellow students to toss the birds and were just as disappointed when they missed.  We played this for 10 minutes, while we were packing up to go home.

Can you believe this??  Students begging to play a review game?!!

I continue to love all aspects of Whole Brain Teaching.  If you want more information, please go to visit the web site.  There are many other teachers that know more than I do and are far better at implementing all the components.  You will be happy you did.

I leave you with this little picture from my day.  While we were lining up to go home, one of my students, (one of my harder to follow the rules students) stopped by the birds and placed them in the open spots.  I couldn't believe my eyes.  He wasn't tossing them without permission, just placing them carefully into a place he thought they belonged.

Until next time.....

Deanna

Rule #5: Keep your dear teacher happy!

Last Saturday I had the privilege to attend a FREE conference for Whole Brain Teaching.  Have I mentioned before how much I rely on WBT techniques to help me in my classroom?  Well in case I haven't, I LOVE Whole Brain Teaching! I may not be the best at it yet, but I will continue to work everyday toward the goal of being an inspiring WBT teacher.

While attending this conference we had break out sessions by grade levels.  My group was led by Deb Weigel.  She was quite the motivator for really understanding rule #5: Keep Your Dear Teacher Happy.  Rule #5 really isn't about me, but about the kids.  If I see them engaged and happy and learning then I am happy.  The only way to break rule #5 is when kids are not actively engaged in their own learning.

I went back to school Monday with a renewed purpose; to keep my kids actively engaged.

This is what we did:

 Yes, that's right, we learned how to do Subtraction!

We had big gestures to remind us that subtraction means you "Take it away."

The power pix help me to remember what concepts I am working on.  Power Pix also help to keep things simple!

Simple means the kids can turn and tell their neighbor all about subtraction.  Simple means they can explain it and if they can explain it then they can do it.  I enjoy walking around and listening to them as they are teaching their neighbors.  This is my assessment as to who is hearing me and remembering what my words are.  Which means they are closer to understanding.







Which brings me to the next key component of teaching the Whole Brain Way

Mirrors

When I call out "mirrors", the kids reply "mirror" and they hold their hands up like L's to frame their faces.  Then we do the mirror check, their hand should do what mine do, (this is a favorite little activity of mine) it is great for doing a quick little cross lateral too!  Then I start to teach the concept, quickly, with few words.  I repeat myself a few times doing the gestures.  The kids should be doing what I'm doing not saying what I'm saying because mirrors don't talk. (Haha, that one always gets them.) 

Then we move to "mirrors and words."  Then they are repeating what I am saying while mimicking what I am doing.  We do this for just a quick minute or so.

Finally, they move on to teach your neighbor, where they should turn fully to face their neighbor and then do the gestures while repeating what I had said.  This is where I will decide if we need to practice again or not.  If I hear the majority of the group saying what I want to hear then we can move on.  I call them back with "Hands and Eyes" and they turn back to me, repeating "Hands and Eyes."

The final activity is the time to work as a whole group and do some hands on subtraction.  This is my way of seeing who can follow along.  I can also usually get a little glimpse of who is probably able to venture out on their own.

All in all, we had a great week and they were exceptional at following rule #5 as well as astounding at understanding the concept of subtraction!!

As a matter of fact, one little guy loved subtraction so much he included it in the birthday card he made for me!

This is what I live for, this is why I teach!

Don't forget, if you want more information on Whole Brain Teaching, please visit the WEBSITE.  All of these awesome classroom management and teaching techniques can be yours for FREE!!

Until next time.....

Deanna

What does a Scientist do?

Let me begin by saying, "I love Science!"  I especially love to teach science to first graders.  Maybe it is because everything amazes them or maybe it is because I actually have the answers to their questions, who knows, the main thing is "I love Science!"

This is what we have been up to in science for the first few weeks of school:

What does a Scientist do?

I began by using the posters created by Deanna Jump,  they are perfect for introducing the scientific method in simple terms for first graders.

Next, let me say how much I also LOVE my document camera!

So we have been talking about the 3 states of matter and also doing color review, so this little project is perfect to combine the two.

I used clear cups with the three primary colors and then asked the question, "What will happen if we mix blue and yellow?" I ask students for their hypothesis and then we test their hypothesis.  They ooh and aww as they see, live and in color on the big screen, green magically appear!  I continue the same routine and make orange and purple.

The finale for this lesson is the little experiment I saw on Pinterest, (another thing I LOVE!)

 This project absolutely amazed me!, (oh, and the kids too!)  I started with blue water and yellow water, tore a paper towel into 2 strips and then stapled the 2 pieces to make the middle.  I put each end into the water and then placed the center into an empty cup.  I knew the towel would turn green in the middle, but I actually wasn't expecting the cup to fill with green water!  You should have heard the kids as they watched the yellow and blue climb up the towel, and then the next morning when they saw the final results.

And because we do rotations every day, I got to do it again with another class and we made orange!  For whatever reason, I tried to make purple 2 different times.  The first time we ended up with blue in the middle and a little purple on the towel.  The second time we ended up with a dark red in the middle.  Weird. I'm sure it must have something to do with the amount of food coloring.

Finally, along came fun Friday and it was time for my kiddos to get to play, I mean experiment, with making their own colors.

My favorite part of this was of course listening to the kids ooh and aww as they made their own colors.  I actually laughed out loud when I heard one of them tell another,  "Look, I'm a scientist!"

Gotta love it!

 

        

I hope everyone is having a great year!  Happy experimenting!

Until next time.....

Deanna

Power Pix + Genius Ladder = Double the Fun!

Wow!!
We have already been back in school for 14 days.  Time sure does fly when you are having fun.

Whole Brain Teaching is now in full swing.  We know our 6 rules and practice them constantly.  We know class/yes, hands & eyes and we are beginning to practice switch.  I think the hardest part is making myself stop when they don't respond properly to coach them.  Just like the kids, I need to practice, practice, practice.

We began working with our power pix last week.  I thought I would share with you all how I introduce a few of them and then how I use them as a lead into something else.

First I introduced each of the following power pix, (you can get your own, full set of first grade power pix at Whole Brain Teaching.)
                                                       

  

 To begin, I showed the kids my picture and then asked them the question, "What are letters?"  After teaching them the gesture and modeling it the students then taught each other, "Letters are joined together to make words."   As a little test, I point to different things in the class, numbers, books, etc. and ask "Is this a letter?"

Next up is Word.  Ask the question, "What is a word?"  Teach the gestures and model the gesture while telling them the answer, "A word is a group of letters that makes sense."  The kids then teach each other while practicing using the gestures.  Practice, practice, practice.  After some time I do a little test, writing various groups of letters for them to tell me if it is a word or not.

Now on to the final power pic for the day.  "What is a sentence?"  Following the same procedures as before, I model using gestures and they mirror me and then teach each other the answer.  "A sentence is a group of words that makes sense!"  We practice, all the while using our gestures and teaching each other.  Our little test for this is to write some groups of words on the board to decide if it is a sentence or not.



These power pics get practiced daily, quickly, before I begin teaching spelling or writing.  The kids are beginning to understand what a sentence truly is.  This helped me to lead into my first lesson using the genius ladder. (The genius ladder was done later in day.)

To begin the genius ladder I review quickly the sentence power pic and then also introduce that every sentence needs a "who" and a "did what!"  I have gestures that go with this as well.

I showed them the lowest rung on our ladder and started to snore to help emphasize that there is more to writing than making sure our sentences are complete.  We need to keep our audience AWAKE!
Quickly I chose a student to give me the name of an animal, any animal.  He chose a cheetah!  Wow!  Then I asked another student to tell me what a cheetah does.  She decided a cheetah growls.  So I wrote the blah sentence.  A cheetah growls.

Now to spice it up!  I pointed to the next rung and asked a student to tell me the color of a cheetah.  Yellow! Spotted!  I asked the question how does a cheetah growl?  Loudly! (by this time, everyone was shouting out answers!)  So now we have a "spicy" (I absolutely loved how the kids said spicy!) sentence.

The best part of this entire lesson was how involved all the kids were.  They really understood the difference between blah and spicy.  I told them to close their eyes and see if they could now really SEE the yellow, spotted, cheetah growling loudly.  They were so animated showing me what they saw.  I love the genius ladder.  I can't wait to see how much better their writing will be as we move into using it with other power pics like nouns, adjectives, pronouns.............  I am loving being able to use the two together to reinforce all aspects of their learning.

I know this post was long, so for those of you who made it through, a ten finger wooo to you, wooooooo!

Until next time......

Deanna