Wow! Group B hard to believe that we started our journey a month ago - helping kids develop a deeper understanding. I have been in school with my new second graders for almost a month. It is always an exhausting time of year since we are setting the stage for the year. I have 25 kids this year who range from nonreaders (some letters) to 5 grade reading level, so teaching is a juggling act.
I started the year with the yarn connection game and we learned that we are very connected in our learning. Then we began learning different ways to explain our thinking with thinking maps. I took the creativity lesson that Fred did in his mini- course to create something that represents you out of these items in 10 minutes. I was amazed how the same objects created such different results- bunny, dinosaur, bracelet, and computer screen were a few of the objects that stood out.
Planning in the next two weeks to introduce slow looking to the group along with chalk talk. Pictures coming after I double check all of the forms.
Brandy
Nice work Brandy! We started today and I am planning to do the web with my 3rd graders. We did a slow looking activity today where they got to walk silently around the room and observe different areas. Then, they moved on to a scavenger hunt in pairs to see if they could easily find items. It will definitely take WAY more practice.
ReplyDeleteSounds like you're off to a great start.
Hello!
ReplyDeleteI love the ideas shared. On our first day of school, I had a fun, colorful art print hanging in the classroom. As the kindergarten students walked around and completed a scavenger hunt with their parents, they all stopped at the art print to do a little slow looking exercise. I had parents and students slow down and look at the print. They had to write something down on the white board around the print that they saw, but they could not write down something another person already wrote. Then I had parents begin a conversation with their student about what that part of the print made them think about or a connection they could make to their own life or experiences. I did this so parents and students could have a shared experience of what is to come this year. After the students left, I had parents do a close looking activity where they drew a picture of their child. (I had parents pull pictures of their children up on their phones to look at.) They drew for 15 minutes. It was interesting to hear the conversation and comments the parents made about their own work. I think this was a fun way to introduce some of the new things we will be doing this year in class to the families.