My grade level has a new approach to planning this year. We use planbookedu.com and lesson share. With the stress of aligning our teaching methods with the rigor of new Common Core State Standards this has been a huge help! We have a template that each team member posts lessons to. Each team member hunts and searches through our county's curriculum pacing and finds fresh and fast paced ways to present the information to our 21st century learners. One team member writes the CAFE/literacy mini lessons, one writes the phonics program mini lessons, one writes science and social studies, another writes the writing mini lessons and writer's workshop lessons, and I do the math. I'm a literacy girl but as you can see from my TpT store and blog, I've been getting creative with math lately! As the weeks go by we continue to improve now that each of us is becoming the expert in our one area. This week I FINALLY got my lessons in by the deadline...6pm on Sunday evening. (Grad school often gets in the way of my timely execution of lessons and laundry!)
We all have projectors in our room so often times I put a pdf of a game on the big screen during morning meeting and we play girls vs. boys. We move magnets around the game board in place of pawns. I can write directly on the board or game spaces and the kids have so much fun. It's a great way to integrate skills into the social aspects of your morning meeting. Many times we play games as a group before they are introduced in a guided math small group or before students play them with a partner during math games rotations. I like to be sure the kids get lots of exposure to the skill or strategy before I turn them loose with a game.
Since I have many so many themed sets, I find myself changing the graphics on the games to make a quick review that goes along with our current theme. We are beginning third quarter with a shapes unit. I re-purposed one of my Thanksgiving games to play during morning meeting. I'm currently working on my February math games pack, so this may make the cut, or I may just leave it as a freebie. The game is called Shape Lovin'! As students move around the game board, they name shapes and give real examples of objects with that shape. When I played with my students we tallied flat and solid shapes during the game. It was fun and generated authentic math talk among students. Download it and let me know what you think! :)
Our second quarter unit is about solid earth materials. Ever year I give my students a little bag of rocks and a cute mini book about geology. The kids LOVE it! Because my brain is constantly thinking "common core, common core, common core," I decided to add a new twist to my usual Christmas gift to the students.
I made a simple game board that mimics a cute handmade earth materials game that I always use as a fun review during morning meeting. Since our common core ELA focus is informational text, I made game question cards that reference the mini book.
I personalized the game boards with each child's name, included different colored rocks to use as game pawns, a die, a set of question cards, the mini book, and a set of informational text question cards. The kids loved playing the game! It was a creative and affordable Christmas gift for my students and I am so glad I have this idea to use next year! Feel free to use this game in your classroom as a morning meeting activity or as a fun science review! I removed the student name blank from the game and titled it "Geology Rocks" so it can be used with any child in your class.
I copied the original handmade version of the game from a super creative first grade colleague that always inspires me with her creativity and passion for teaching. The creativity cycle continued as the game board we use in morning meeting inspired the great Game Challenge of 2012 with my class last year.
To earn a week with no homework, students created earth material themed games. It was great! I received a beach themed game with shells as pawns, a shoebox game, a "famous rocks" themed game, and a jeopardy game. We loved playing each child's creative contribution during morning meeting. What surprised me the most was that the students that were the most creative with their games were the students that struggled in academic areas. The overwhelming response to this experience reminded me of a quote by Albert Einstein that says, "Creativity is intelligence having fun." When I show students my love for using creativity to learn new things, they catch the spark of excitement and join in!
Happy Monday! Today was a great day! My class practiced "read to someone" and it was a fantastic success! My kids loved the EEKK poem so much, they asked for a copy of their own to keep in their fluency folder. They also did a great job at the "check for understanding" strategy and asked for mini strategy cards to use as bookmarks in their book boxes. I can't wait until reading groups and strategy groups begin! I've got a gumball "motivation" machine waiting in the wings that will be perfect with our Candy CAFE theme.
Today I wanted to share one of the greetings we use during morning meeting! It's called the Rhythm Stick Greeting. We made our sticks on Music Smart day during the first week of school.
We used 3/4 inch PVC pipe (cut to 8, 10, or 12 inch sections with a PVC pipe cutter) and colored electrical tape to create our sticks.
We use them at least once a week during morning meeting or as a brain break activity. Students enjoy creating rhythms and leading the class in pattern making. Download the greeting chant and begin enjoying this activity with your kids! It's simple fun that lasts all year!
