As we learned about different smarts each day last week, we added pieces to our MI magnet man.
Now that we have learned about all eight different
intelligences, our magnet man is complete. As we learn and share during
the day, students enjoy identifying which parts of magnet man we are
using. Sometimes we are using three or more smarts, and other times we use
only one or two. It's become a game! Students have enjoyed MI man so much
this year that as soon as the class marble jar is full, we will be
making our own mini MI magnet men as a craftivity celebration!
Tomorrow is OPEN HOUSE! The students completed a "smarts survey" today to show their parents. I know the parents will enjoy looking at their child's brain maps, self portraits, and MI surveys. I am always amazed at how children view themselves and how they are able to set personal goals for their learning.
Many times I have parents take the survey about their child before I show them the survey their child completed. Feel free to download my MI survey and use with your students to identify their learning styles and strengths.
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!
Today we celebrated our many smarts by making "smart necklaces" and brain maps. Students used color beads to show their strengths. Each of the different smarts were represented by a color. Students chose letter beads for their initials and then put their two best smarts on either side of the initial beads. All colors/smarts were represented on the necklace with the students' "best" smarts having the most beads.
I read the story "ABC I Like Me" by Nancy Carlson to the students while they wore their new necklaces. As I read each page we identified the "smart" that was illustrated. The students were able to explain their thinking for each page. Some were easy to identify (E for explore = nature smart) and others made the students think (C for cheerful = self smart). We talked about how each of us is unique; we all have the same eight kinds of smarts in our brain, but each of use our smarts differently because of our different strengths.
Students made brain maps showing the eight strengths in their brain. They made their strengths/best smarts take up the largest areas in their brain. We shared our mind maps with our friends, elaborating on our best smart, least favorite smart, and a smart we would like to grow in during the school year. Students completed a fill in the blank writing reflection sheet to display with their mind map.
I displayed student mind maps and reflection sheets by their self portraits they painted on self smart day. The display is too cute! I can't wait for the parents to see the mind maps when they come in for Open House next week. Parents are always surprised at how the children view their abilities and strengths. It is very revealing.
I make special note of what each child says they want to learn more about during the year. I hope to help all students meet their goals and increase their abilities in areas they don't feel as strong in.
Today my class learned about "nature smart" (naturalist intelligence). We began our Morning Meeting with a mystery greeting. Students listened to "My Five Senses" by Aliki and then used only their sense of touch to try to guess the item inside the mystery bag. I put a paperclip in the bag and let each child take a turn feeling the mystery item. After all students had a turn we counted to three and shouted out the mystery item. Students explained how they were able to decide the mystery item was a paperclip.
We had lot of fun reading "We're Going on a Leaf Hunt" by Steve Metzger. Students instantly compared it to the bear hunt version of the story we read on Music Smart day.
Instead of going on a leaf hunt like the kids in the story, we ventured out on a nature scavenger hunt. I saw a great idea on Pinterest about a Nature Scavenger Hunt. I created a sheet for students to use during our nature walk. Students were allowed to tally items, check off blocks, or to write what they found in each box. We had so much fun walking all around campus collecting nature evidence and writing/discussing what we saw!
I am attaching the sheet I made for our Nature Scavenger Hunt Sheet. There is a blank version and one with a few clipart images. Enjoy!
What an eventful day! Universal screening assessments began in first grade at 9:30 am...no time to thoroughly "prep" the students for any type of independent work. At the same time I tried to group children into math exploration stations, I had a knock on my door and got a new student! Even though it's only day seven, the new student packets came in handy! I had a set of every notebook, folder, paper, and all the odds and ends each student needs all ready to go! The children were more than happy to maker her feel at home as we unpacked the new student kit and added her name to all the labels.
I introduced "math smart" to the kids today. We played math I have, Who has? games during morning meeting. We play one of these games at least once a week as a team building activity during morning meeting. I have tons of handmade versions that I hope to convert to electronic files that I can share. Slowly but surely...I have already completed a few sets (Nonsense Words and Sight Words) and put them on my TpT site. During math stations I noticed that the children really enjoyed working with a simple center I made a few years back.
What do you do with all those 1x1" squares and red/yellow counter chips in your math kits? I have thousands of each...so I wrote numbers 1-100 on bunches of them with a sharpie. Instant hands-on skill practice!
Today we matched the number to the hundred board, but there are plenty of other ways to use the number squares and counters. Students can...
- Select numbers to put in order from least to greatest
- Select a number and then mark it off on a wipe-off hundred board
- Select numbers and mark off one more/ten more
- Create "number puzzles" putting numbers in sequence (horizontal by ones and vertical by tens) without a hundred board
- Find / sort numbers that are odd & even
Send home a sharpie marker and a bag of math tiles or counters with a parent volunteer today and you'll instantly add a few hands-on activities to your math bag of tricks!
During the first two weeks of school I introduce EVERYTHING (rules, procedures, academics) through the lens of Multiple Intelligences. We focus on a different "smart" each day (body, people, self, music, word, math, nature, and picture/art). Students identify their strengths and recognize abilities and potential in each of the eight smarts. In every procedure we practice or activity we participate in, we are constantly identifying ways we can be smart!
Today we focused on intrapersonal intelligence or "self smart." Self smart kids know their likes and dislikes, have high self-esteem, are independent, and have many interests or hobbies.
In Morning Meeting, we did a
greeting/sharing combo called "Snowball Fight." Students folded a piece
of paper into four. On one section they wrote their name. Then we
identified things we love, things we like, and things we dislike.
Students recorded their ideas (sketches) on the remaining three sections
of their paper. We crumpled our papers and threw them into the middle
of the circle, shouting, "snowball fight!" Students open a snowball and
greet the friend it belongs to. We had a "ball" learning about our
classmates' likes and dislikes! Download my snowball sheet here.
One of my favorite self smart books to read is, "I'm Special, I'm Me!" by Ann Meek. The little boy in the story, Milo, looks into his mirror each day wondering what he can be until he finally finds his own voice and makes his own decision. After reading this story, I pass out little mirrors to each child. We draw black crayon outlines of our face and then use watercolors to paint our self portraits. We read the book The Way I Feel by Janan Cain and discuss the many feelings that self smart kids can identify within themselves. Students paint their favorite "feeling color" for the background of their self portrait. The finished portraits are absolutely precious! We will use them in a display at the end of our Multiple Intelligence unit and then save them to display beside our end-of-year self portraits.
