Hoot #1
As many of you know, we went to the Ron Clark Academy in December. Since our trip, we have been implementing many of the things that we learned. Our tables are small and our supplies are stored in the middle of our table, so standing on tables would be a little difficult. Sooooo, we stand in chairs!!! That is right! At this point, during math, I introduce all new skills. Once I feel that the students have an understanding of the skill, I leave them to do the teaching! Yes, my students become teachers. I use large craft sticks to choose which student will be the teacher. That child goes to the front of the room to begin to walk students through skills such as counting on, addition, and subtraction. The student teacher will ask a question. If a student wants to respond, they must be the first one to stand in their chair. He/she is then called on by the student teacher. If another child disagrees with the answer, that child then stands up and begins their statement with, " I disagree because..." Students can not move on to the next problem until all students are in agreement. Students show that they are in agreement by giving a "thumbs up" hand gesture. The same procedure happens when we are at the carpet for reading or writing. The students simply stand where they are in order to respond. The students love doing this! They love taking control of learning and contributing to their classroom. They have learned to support and disagree with each other calmly and with evidence.
I am so proud of them!
Below are pictures during our math time.
Hoot #2
We are busy gearing up for our Boosterthon Fun Run. This takes fundraising to whole new level! Students are sponsored by friends and family by how many laps they run! It is a great way to earn money for your school and get healthy all at the same time! During the week of collecting money, students are given character traits that they learn about daily along with a sticker.The students are given prizes daily for the pledges that they collect. For every $30 raised, a local family will receive 3 meals. This is an awesome experience where everyone gets to participate whether you helped raise money or not, AND money raised helps the school and families in the community. We recommend that you look into for your school! We have never seen our students so excited about a fundraiser before!
This Week's Holler...
This week's holler goes out to Kimberly Jordano at Kinder By Kim! We have followed her for years through her website (kinderbykim.com). We saw her at the I Teach K! conference about 10 years ago in San Diego, CA. We have been in LOVE with her ever since! She has some awesome books packed full of activities that are theme based. We were ecstatic to learn that she has a blog and a TPT store! Go check it all out, and you will see why we think she deserves this week's holler!
No comments: