Give Me Five Friday!

Happy First Friday of HA!

We spent the entire first week doing team building activities.  It's so important for the students to relate to their peers and teacher before any real learning begins.  We will continue to build relationships over the school year.

I also shared a brief PowerPoint Presentation to introduce myself to my students.  I shared with them my previous teaching experiences, pictures of my family and some of my interests.  Plus we talked about the HA program and my expectations.

A small part, but yet a BIG part, of each and every day is discussing the Lifelong Guidelines and Lifeskills which are taught at Yost.  I've always taught using Lifeskills and know what an important role they play in setting the tone of our classroom climate.  My tree has a different Lifeskill listed on each of the leaves of the tree.

  

Each day, the students check in and read the welcome board message.  It will have them do a brief activity which stems from the Lifelong Guideline or Lifeskill, give them important information about the day and then we'll discuss a quote of the day.  It's to get them thinking about the Lifeskill and how it applies to them.

I like to share the quotes we talk about weekly.  With the way it's set up, I have LA on Mondays and Tuesdays, math on Wednesday and Thursdays, so different quotes may fall on different days.  

This week the focus was on Active Listening.  Although many of our activities in HA are student directed with me acting more as the guide on the side, active listening is critical.  They need to be respectful while listening to me and their peers.  Not much will get accomplished without this!  

• If we were supposed to talk more than we listen, we would have two mouths and one ear.

Fourth Grade:  LA-A few missed due to Camp Goodfellow which is fine.  I plan on doing something briefly next week to catch up those who missed.  We had fun with a name game where the students introduced themselves then acted out something they like to do.  It was fun because with each new person added, we had to go back and remember the previous students.  We also learned about the class through "Find the Fib" and "Did You Know BINGO".  Ask them how to play.  

For math, we started off with a problem of the day.  They use their white boards to figure the problem individually then I open it up for discussion at their learning club.  It's a quick way to review and maybe even teach a new skill.  We knocked the cob webs off a few brains when remembering how to multiply two digit numbers.  Then we did a community circle where we passed a ball of yarn around.  They each had to tell "what they like best about this school year so far."  Ask them what they like about school so far.  You can see our end result by the neat picture below.  I also had them "mill to the music".  This is where I play music while they walk around the room.  When the music stops, they find a partner by giving a high five, then I give them a topic to discuss.  So many interesting things we learned!  We only met once this week due to early dismissal.

Second Grade:  LA-Our first day was shorter than usual because students come right from specials.  We'll get into a routine, so that minimal time is lost. This group also did the name plus an action game.  This was a nice size group to do the "Did You Know BINGO".  We found lots in common with each other.  Ask them what they learned about someone in class.

Math-My math group went from 11 in LA down to 3.  I had them "Interview a Friend", so they could find out a little bit new about their classmates.  We then took the data and put it into a Venn Diagram where they could see similarities they shared.  We made sure to find something they had in common with each student AND something they all shared in common.  Ask them what that was.  On the second day we did "Fan and Pick".  It was another way to find out about each other.  They each had a job . . . Fan . . .Pick . . .Answer . . . Respond.  It's a fantastic way to keep everyone involved!

Third Grade:  LA-I have a small group of three, so after "Find the Fib" and the Name/Action game . . . they interviewed a friend.  They each asked the person to their left a series of questions.  Once all the data was collected, we worked together to fill in a Venn Diagram with three circles.  Each circle represented a student in the class.  They were able to see common interests they had with each student as well as a common interest they all had.  Ask them what they ALL had in common, it's a good one!

Math-We had a quick go at the Problem of the Day.  These are so priceless because it touched on a skill and I'm able to see who understands and quickly teach a mini lesson to those who may not understand.  Next we did "Milling to the Music".  When the music stops they are to hold their hand up indicating they need a partner, slap high five when they find one, then discuss the prompt I give them.  The following day we learned about each other from a "Did You Know Bingo!"  They walked around having classmates sign their Bingo board.  For example, went to the drive-in, has brown eyes, can play an instrument, etc.  Ask them which ones they signed their name under.

First Grade:  LA-It's nice working with this small group of three for LA.  We began by learning each others name by playing the name and activity.  They had to remember each persons name and act out the activity they like to do.  We also did a quick activity of "Finding the Fib".  Ask them what fib they put on their white board and what some of their truths they shared with us.  We ended our two days with "Interviewing a Friend".  Not all were happy to write so much, but it's something we'll be doing more of this year!

Math-When we have early dismissal, unfortunately this is the group that will miss.  I only got to see them on Wednesday this week.  We started off with a Problem of the Day.  It's a great site that posts a different problem each day by grade level.  They like it even more when they solve a grade or two up.  Next, they walked around getting to know their peers by playing a "Did You Know? BINGO"  They each took turns signing their names under the box that pertained to them.  Ask them some of the things they signed and what they learned about their classmates.

I've really enjoyed getting to know all the children this week.  I'm excited to dive into the new HA LA Curriculum which is new this year.  We'll start off by giving several Pre-Assessments to get a baseline knowledge of where the kids are and where we need to take them.  No worries, grades are not taken in High Ability and I will make sure to be clear with the students too.  Easier said than done, I know.  I truly think they'll be shocked to see how much they've learned when we take the Post-Assessments!  Awesome!

Math we have several great lessons that are planned according to state standards.  We will add and adjust several things we've done in the past.  Problem of the Day will remain constant each week.  Be patient, timed tests will be coming, but not for a while.

Have a great weekend and don't hesitate to email me if you should have any further questions.

Yours in Education,

~Mrs. Koedyker