Literacy in PE

Today I've incorporated some literacy activities within our fitness stations. The 3rd, 4th and 5th graders will be doing a fitness word scramble. As the day has progressed, I've noticed that the third graders would have had more success if I would have provided a word bank. That will be a change for next time. For the 1st and 2nd graders they will be given a list of physical education words, in which they have to circle the verbs. I was informed that both grades should know how to do this. We'll see how it goes!

THANK YOU

Since my student teacher left, as I've been "taking back the reins", I have really found myself falling back on a lot of the classroom management tips we have been trading here.  My student teacher had a very different tolerance level in regards to chaos - especially squirmy little bodies and blurted comments.  Now that I am back at the front of the classroom, I find myself frustrated and asking myself WWED (which usually means "What would Emily do?" or "What would Erin do?" depending on the situation).  Rather than getting upset with the students for blurting out or losing control, I have learned to calmly say, "I only respond to raised hands," or "I will begin when your bodies are still."  It helps me stay controlled, which in turn helps the students stay controlled.  Thank you for being such great Love & Logic role models, both on here and in the hallways at school!

Testing Blues

Do your kiddos have the testing blues?
I often find myself feeling guilty after our first graders sit for 45 minutes on their test. I find myself finding creative ways to make the day more active to compensate for all that sitting during testing. My test scores and motivation to do well has been much better this year. One new idea I implemented is to make sure our morning is very active. We did lots of exercises and review games that involve our body. This year I also did a much better job of expressing why we take these MAP tests. What I explained to them is I know that they are smart but this test it a way for them to show their family and second grade teacher how smart they are. They seemed a lot more motivated to take the test. I also explained that I want them to ask questions when taking the test because sometimes the question is confusing or they heard it wrong. We discussed how great test takers check their answers twice. All these things really helped. We also did a lot of slow breathing in through our nose and out our mouth on the way to the test which got them focused and ready to go.

Earth Day

Earth Day is fast approaching again this year. I have started teaching my students about what Earth Day is and why we celebrate it and why it is important. We are also building a "Trashosaurus" (dinosaur made out of recyclable items) and writing a story about how they taught them about recycling, reusing, and reducing. I have done this the last 2 years. The kids really enjoy this project. My question to everyone else is, does anyone else have any good projects or lessons that focuses on Earth Day or the 3 R's? Thanks for thinking about it!

Sped. Instruction and Testing

A large barrier that we, as a special education team, have been dealing with is the difficulty of meeting both testing needs (ie., small group testing) and maintaining consistant special education instruction. Inevitably, students need to miss their small group Sped. instruction because another student requires small group testing. This is a big barrier, as (by law) we are required to meet the minutes allocated on student IEPs. The same barrier arises in my room (EBD Resource) when I am scheduled to meet with a social skills group while another student is acting-out or requires my full attention. Scheduling becomes very difficult to make up "missed" minutes. This is more of a stating the problem out loud thing :), I am not sure what the answer is. I konw that rescheduling missed time is probably involved. However, we can't take students out of their core content areas to make up this instruction.

Expectations

This is my first year teaching Kindergarten, and I was a bit surprised to find out that we teach inferring.  This is a skill that my third graders struggled to understand, so I was dreading the first few lessons with five-year-olds.  They have far exceeded my expectations, though.  Sure, I'm using simpler texts and focusing more on basic inferring skills, but they are doing great.  It was a good reminder to avoid underestimating my students' capacity to learn and demonstrate deep thinking.

Does anyone have any good recommendations for primary level books to practice inferring?  We've used Knuffle Bunny books, Llama Llama books, and Bear is Scared so far.  I'd love some fresh ideas!

Motivation

I have been working with a little kiddo all year on working efficiently and staying focused. I have tried to use different techniques to keep him on task to get his work done. I have become very frustrated! It gets to the point that if I don't sit right next to him and "hold" his hands he will not get the work done. I am trying to back away at the this point in the year, to get him ready for next year. There are several times that I have given him the time to finish and extra time also I have told him the time that he needs to be finished and then if he is not done then he will get a grade done or not. This may or may not be the right thing to do, but I have gotten to the point many days that I have to let him fail. I do worry that in third grade he will have a very hard time and will not make it. Does anyone have suggestions on how to help get these types of kids for the rest of this year and to help get ready for next year?