This year's celebration DID NOT disappoint! Each year I try and celebrate International Star Wars Day, which is on May the 4th! I know this is my "thing", since I've been a Star Wars girl all my life! I'm happy to say I am a member of the Class of 77'. This has nothing to do with high school. This, in Star Wars land, means that I was actually there, in 1977, to see the movie! It was so fabulous, my mother let us all see it TWICE! This was a BIG deal in the 70's, as no one could really afford to see a movie twice! However, there is so much you can actually do that even if you are just familiar with Star Wars, you could run a successful day!
Everyone needs some Star Wars in their life-a mug, a shirt, and some fun friends!!
Let's Get Started!
First, this was the PERFECT time for me to throw in a celebration for ending the FSA, Florida's version of State Testing! My kids were totally wiped out after two days of testing. So, today's celebration offered a wonderful chance to decompress and do something fun! So, we started with a fun math that was easy yet worthy of a grade! Check out what we did here! This math idea would be one of the easiest ways that you can include this celebration into your classroom!
Another great way to include this celebration into your classroom would be to add a touch of art! This year, we added Symmetrical Aliens to our activities! These are super simple to do and can be done with almost any theme! Simply fold a piece of paper in half and have students draw 1/2 of their alien ON THE FOLD! Once they finish, have them trace this design in crayon.
Next, fold their alien into the inside of the paper and rub this line with a pencil on it's side. They need to rub HARD! Once you are done rubbing, open it up again.
You will have a very light line. Trace over it, and, you have a perfectly symmetrical alien! Add any other details and color it in!
These came out so great!
Again, I kept with the tradition of letting the Wookie Win! This game is so fun and plays like a Jeopardy game. It would be super easy to create because I can't share this one due to trademark issues. The questions focus on review and you could even play this game without the fancy PowerPoint! Just think of some fun questions from each category that you teach and go for it!
It isn't a Star Wars celebration unless you have an tasty treat! This year I went with TIE-fighters and Wookie Cookies! Both of these were super simple! Each child needs some Oreos or other cookies, a marshmallow, and some frosting! They just put the frosting on the marshmallow and add the Oreos on the end! Yum! Our new treat was Wookie Cookies! I put some chocolate frosting in a ziplock and cut a very small hole in the tip. The kids used this to put the frosting on a chocolate chip cookie! Then they added some edible eyes! So cute and tasty too!
It was a totally fun day and a truly great way to celebrate our success at the end of testing! I hope you enjoyed International Star Wars Day and, if you have never celebrated, I hope it inspires you to try your own celebration! Let me know what you do, too, in the comments! And, May the 4th Be With You! Pin for Later!
Happy New Year everyone, even if it is a little early! Or, you may be joining me for a look at this STEM based off a duplicate product found in my store! Either way, be prepared for some FUN with STEM and Sound Energy!
In this STEM you will find the following steps: Ask, Imagine, Plan, Create, and Improve. I have also included a chance to Reflect on this STEM though a quote provided to inspire deeper thinking about this activity. It is important to know that while STEMS come with a variety of step models, each of these models cover the same principles within STEM. The key is that students apply the principals of creativity and engineering. Students should be developing systems and ideas based on what they see as the best form of applying their personal skills and the concept presented to them in the challenge at hand. That means you are as hands off as possible. The only thing I really did in this STEM was to manage supplies, cut the duct tape (because it is REALLY sticky), mark the results, and vacuum after the clean-up (More on how to avoid this from my lesson learned to come!) So, here we go!
First, students were able to apply their understanding of sound energy from their schema from our lessons in class and from the video suggested in the product found here. This is the ASK stage!
In the product, you will find an open note taking page and a guided notes page. With my third graders I use the guided page. I also let them watch the video once through without taking any notes. Then, I stopped it at spots so they could write down what they learned because she talks REALLY fast! You could always swap out this video with another, as the Powerpoint allows you to embed any video you choose (directions are included).
Once my students worked through the ASK stage, they moved to Imagine. This is where students had to think about the Criteria and Constraints involved in this activity. In other words, what the could and could not do. These are established to keep students within a boundary so that they are not getting off task and wasting time going down bunny trails or even socializing. In this STEM, one of the Criteria is that they must have different designs for each team member's noisemakers. This was key, as one team got off target because, during create, they decided they liked another noisemaker better. They all wanted it and headed down that bunny trail. I was able to redirect back to the criteria to get those students back on their PLAN!
Yes, that's the next step, PLAN! In Imagine, students are simply brainstorming all of the possibilities that they have. This PLANning stage allows them to square up the actual plan they have. In this case, this is where students developed a specific system to make noise and decided on what supplies they needed. I supplied them with beans, rice, cereal, duct tape (needed but STICKY), paper towel rolls, gift wrap rolls (A parent brought them in!), paper plates, jingle bells, fabric, embroidery hoops, cups, tongue depressors, staplers, regular tape, and glue. Then I opened my classroom cabinets to them with the understanding that it couldn't be anything that I needed back from them! Many of these things were already in my room. I did utilize parents for some of the things that needed to be purchased (beans, rice, cereal, jingle bells). I gave them a good amount of time to plan. They did a very good job of planning and knew what they needed when we moved onto CREATE!
CREATE is the time that they will actually BUILD their noisemaker. I provide a half hour for this step. This seems to be a fair amount of time for all groups to be able to be ready, based on the STEMS that I have completed so far. This did not include the time I used to pass out supplies. I did this pre-CREATE. I had student team members come to a table area and pick up supplies such as the rice, beans, and cereal. This is where I didn't think! Before they started CREATE, I should have laid down large pieces of bulletin board paper. We had a little bit of a mess from kids not knowing how to pour the materials. I was able to show them how to make paper funnels after I discovered that pouring didn't work so well. I would definitely suggest this for your classroom before you begin! I haven't vacuumed in years, as we have wood floors at home and I sweep! It was an experience for sure! Anyways, students went fully into CREATE mode and were able to complete this step within the half hour provided!
Now it was time to test their systems! Included in the product is a fun slide in the Powerpoint just for this! It includes a website specifically designed for detecting sound levels in the classroom with a fun graphic-Bouncy Balls! I used this and set the bouncy balls on the lowest amount available. Then I explained we would use the large bouncy balls, as these are the hardest to move! I also explained to students that they were not to make ANY noise with their voices (unless they made a horn type of noisemaker) because 1. they could be helping another team win or 2. they would be getting a false read on their noisemakers. Then I stood at the board and marked the three highest bouncy balls that each team achieved! This is how we judged the assigned group winners!
What we did next was even more fun, and this is also where we got into some serious science application! I allowed kids to group randomly and we tried it again! And we got totally weird results. Weird in the fact that we were able to see how variables affect an experiment. When students were randomly grouped, meaning they were with similar equipment made by other students, our data flatlined! They were not able to create sound higher than the original groups of differently designed noise makers. More importantly, they got a hands-on experience with variables! I love that we could apply that science term and skill in this very minute! Real life application!
Next, we headed to IMPROVE! Students were able to look at all the different noisemakers and discuss and plan for even better noisemakers. Also included in this was an opportunity to reflect. IMPROVE doesn't always have to be about the STEM. It should also be about how they could be better as students-with each other and within creating and growing. Right now I'm getting a lot of "we worked good as a team" instead of those deeper reflections as a cooperative group. That is going to be one of my goals as we get more and more into learning about how we work together in STEM and how this connects to us working as a team in other areas of our classroom.
I'm totally excited to add STEM to my growing knowledge of the Student-Led Classroom. I can honestly say, I can see this being key in the development of how students lead in a classroom setting. If you'd like to learn more about Student-Led Classrooms, jump over to my general post called Just the Place to Start. Are you interested in checking out my growing STEM products? Check them out over at my store, The Best Days!
More importantly, thanks for stopping by. I'm super excited you did and would love to hear any feedback you have about STEM or this idea, in general. I'm still learning and would love ideas, suggestions, and even improvement ideas you may have!
One way to enjoy a holiday is through STEM activities. I am just venturing into STEM and it seems like a perfect fit for Student-Led Learning. While I was thinking about what to do with the two days before Thanksgiving, STEM came to mind! Why not?! The students' brains would not be able to do much, they would loose whatever learning we were doing over the long weekend, and, well, I would be just to tired to teach-period! Also, I have viewed STEM as a fun adventure-up until creating and implementing one! I knew I wanted to think of my very own idea! The way I learn how to create something new is by developing something from start to finish. I have always been this way. It allows my brain to cycle through a cycle. I know that's a lot of cycles, but that is truly what it does. Suddenly, the Turkey Hotline popped into my head and that's where I went-turkey thawing! Yep, but HOW?! How do I implement such a crazy thing for kids! Here's how it went down! First, I shared the basic concept with my students. I designed the pages in the Holiday STEM: Thaw a Turkey to be both printable pages and a PowerPoint presentation.
Then they dove into the process. I designed this with the idea that they would complete the activity in two days. The first day, students worked through the Ask, Imagine, Plan, and Create stages. This took very little time actually. In less than an hour students had worked through these stages and created their thawing devices. Here they are!
So, where were the "turkeys"? My school has a freezer in the office. Once I got permission, I started the freezing process there. Then, the second morning, I sent students to the "grocery store" to pick up the "turkeys"! They all wanted to go! Once the turkeys arrived, we took off the "wrapping" and got started! There were some interesting designs for SURE! This group actually defrosted their turkey in 45 minutes. This equaled an uncookable turkey! Yep-they better have a different plan!
This group finished in about two hours. Out of nowhere their turkey exited the ice! Yep-uncookable!
These two groups didn't make it but their turkeys thawed within 15 minutes of "time". We talked about how they would have a dinner, but they would have unhappy guests because the meal would be late!
And this teams took an additional hour to thaw! They would have very unhappy guests, because their turkey would not have been able to be cooked!
Overall, they had an AWESOME time with this STEM. We had just finished learning about states of matter and freezing points, so that is all they had to go with scientifically. Our next unit is energy, including heat energy and insulators. We will finish right before the Holiday Break! Guess what we will be trying again! Yep! Students completed the Imagine stage at the end of our STEM. I am keeping their papers and will give them back with their new found knowledge and give it a go again! I can't wait to see what they come up with!
You can grab the Holiday Stem: Thaw a Turkey in my store, The Best Days. I'd love for you to try it out! And, feel free to share what kinds of STEM have you tried in your classroom. I'd love to hear all about it! Leave a note in the comments and have an AWESOME Thanksgiving!
Have you heard of Open Seating? I hadn't and my first reaction was that it was just another name for Flexible Seating. Was I surprised when I read that it was not! Was I even more surprised when I decided it was just right for me!
I was tooling around the Net when I happened upon THIS ARTICLE from Scholastic. The idea intrigued me, but, to be honest, I thought htis lady was NUTS! Letting kids pick their own seats! Well, the more my Professional Learning Community discussed this, the more it seemed to fit into the Student-Led Learning model. We wisely began to look closer at this model and we decided to incorporate one more idea into this. REFLECTION! If kids really thought about what worked for them in seating, if kids really thought about location and issues with others around them, could they actually do this? Could we trust them with this wisdom! So, we made a decision! We are trying it out! With this came the idea that came the fact that students needed a way to be guided and to reflect upon the seats they were in. Open Seating Posters and Reflection was built upon that idea. Here is a little video explaining how I set up my classroom and how Open Seating will be used. Sorry about the VERY quick change over! I'm still learning video!
You may be joining me for the first time or you may be joining me by following along in this series of posts about Fearless Learners, but I welcome you all to the CELEBRATION! Yes, that's Step 6 in the books we've been enjoying this summer-Celebrate! It's time! Sutton and Westberry have done it again in this chapter! There is no way you can't get through this text without knowing, deep down inside, that you can do this thing, this Student-Led Learning thing! You feel grounded and passionate and READY even with so much to think about and/or prepare! That is something to celebrate!! But, be prepared! You will meet resistance and get "those" looks! It happened to me at a recent inservice. I just mentioned the Student-Led Learning model at my last inservice to my table teachers and two things happened. The younger teacher turned to her computer and started looking at the dieting website she was exploring and the older, almost retired teacher rolled her eyes. This was NOT the first time in these four days this exact thing happened with the two of them! The whole premise of the inservice SCREAMED Student-Led Learning and each time one, if not both, said, "My students could NEVER do that!" Why, you ask-they were from Title 1 schools! Yet, research shared in Make Just One Change by Dan Rothstein and Luz Santana points to something else! You see, I'm making a connection here that Student-Led Learning falls into the category of creating divergent thinkers! It IS the ability to generate a wide range of ideas, options, hypotheses, and possibilities! It is the combination of convergent thinking and metacognition! It is all of this and more! So, what do they say about the students that these teachers were speaking of? Here's what they found, "Divergent thinking is almost always seen as a gift rather than an acquired and developed skill. But this view is far from the truth: divergent thinking is a distinct form of higher-order thinking that can be taught to all ages and all students....low academic performance showed an ability to learn divergent thinking and gained greater self-confidence in their overall abilities the more they practiced." Let's celebrate THAT! Stop thinking that your students CAN'T and let's celebrate that research says THEY CAN! Give this model a try-it may very well surprise you and your students! And, with that, I am a little perplexed right now as to HOW I'm going to celebrate successes. I have to say, this has always been my weak spot. I always give high-fives, etc. as students learn, but it is important within the class for students to celebrate each other. So, my first week I'm going to practice what I've read and let some control go over all the steps in this process. I am going to recruit the help of my students to develop a plan for this. It is leaving me with a pit feeling in my stomach, but it's my first big step into what I can't see. And, yet, I know I will be celebrating the awe of seeing my new third graders make decisions that will impact us for the whole school year! After all, it is their class, not just mine! Let me know what you think by leaving a comment with your successes or even your fears about this process! It's going to be an awesome journey this school year, so stop back by! I'm not even ready to end this this summer, so expect more posts as ideas and new knowledge found comes my way!
Everyone wants a connection... a spark wants to ignite anything it can to continue to burn. With Student-Led Learning, it is the same thing. Fearless Learner's authors Sutton and Westberry are quick to point this out in Step 4: Connect! As I read this step, I happened to be attending an inservice where we learned an AWESOME technique by Dr. Larry Chew! Honestly, it is a BRILLIANT method of learning and requires specific student interaction, one that allows for trust in a student centered classroom. We also focused on the 5 E's, which fit perfectly into Dr. Chew's technique. To me, it was a no brainer to put this into the lesson we were required to write with other teachers for other teachers in the inservice and the district itself. If you put together the requirements of the inservice into your output to prove you were there-YOU WIN! Yet, neither one of the teachers I was working with would consider including this technique at first. One clearly stated, "I know the kind of kid I work with and they could NEVER do that!" "They could NEVER do that, or you couldn't lead them to do that!" was what I thought-because that's what it really comes down to! WE decide how our classrooms are run. WE decide how much of "ME" we put out there and how much of "YOU" we allow! And this is exactly what the authors point out. We must be prepared, as we examine this model for the reality of having other teachers be negative and judgmental about what we are doing. We must be prepared, and proactive, in helping administrators understand. It starts with us. Gather a friend or two to walk this journey with you! You will need them. Although I am writing this blog solo, I am working with three other teachers at my school and one other teacher from another school. The five of us set up our own social media page where we can share and discuss beyond the school day because we all know there is no time. We are working to build a community where there is "safety" in numbers! Find your tribe at your school and try it out! In addition to connecting with professionals, I can agree wholeheartedly with the authors on the relationships you will build with students and parents. I love the idea they share of connecting with parents through a set of promises (see page 141) and I plan to develop that in my Back-to-School Brochure. Build that team work into your connection with them. It is going to be key! And the students! Be prepared to know them like you never have before! When I have used this model in the past in math, I knew the ins and outs of every kid. I could look at their work and know what steps they were missing. I knew strengths and weaknesses and holes! I could remediate on the spot-literally-and never have a student miss a beat! From the highest student to the lowest student-I knew them all-and, more importantly, they knew me, could come with a question for me, could trust me AND their other classmates. It was wonderful, and I'm so looking forward to that again. Plus, both authors point out-and I can back up-that their test scores rose! I can clearly remember my two ESE students scores when they came back the first year I used a similar model to this one in my classroom. They had both gone up a whole level-and it was the second year I had them! So, the only thing that changed (little did I realize then) was that they were involved in a student-led learning model! So, I stand with Sutton and Westberry and call to you to FIND YOUR TRIBE, build those relationships with parents, and get ready for the best relationship with your students you have ever had! Let me know what you think in the comments section or leave any tips or ideas you have! I'd love to hear them!
Welcome back! If you're here for the first time, welcome! I am on an experience where I'm Inservicing Myself during my summer break on Student-Led Learning. I have been moving along by reading an amazing book called Fearless Learners by Christy Sutton and Kristin Westberry! Be sure to check out some of my other posts! Today, we are looking at Step 3: Let's Go! Both Sutton and Westberry share a number of personal stories about their beginnings, what kids said and did on those first days. There were some amazing stories and successes within the text, which all pointed to the following-CHARACTER QUALITIES! Student-led learning is not all about just learning about school work, it is also about developing students who can problem solve and think about others. I'm being brief here because I would like to back up a little and give you some background and ideas of my own to share. In 2003, I started doing something with my students that I can now clearly see was student-led learning. I was above the curve and now realize I could have made a million dollars if only...Now, I say that laughing, but, it is a reality. In 2003, I started doing student-centered math, today known as Guided Math. It was so amazing to see 5th graders rocking their own learning. What happened to stop me from making a million-other teachers! You see, after seeing the following student-led characteristic, not only myself, but a fellow teacher, saw the HUGE impact it was having. Students took risks, students helped each other, students were remediated immediately, student test scores went up, and students were leading their learning in many of the same exact ways both Sutton and Westberry are sharing. I can tell you 100% this works, especially in math! So, with the encouragement of that teaching friend, I presented at a district level inservice to...crickets. No reaction, no support, in fact, the opposite. I was told by primary teachers there was NO WAY they were going to teach math more than once a lesson! I was told there was NO WAY they would use manipulatives in small group! I was told by intermediate teachers there was NO WAY they could just let their students work on pages they already knew and move ahead! NO WAY! So, I closed my door and did it-and, then,-stopped! High stakes testing got higher, Common Core math craziness stepped in, and I stopped! Poof-million dollars gone (and now went to someone else! HA!) What I do know is that all of the character qualities discussed in Let's Go can and will develop as I step back into this mode of learning. That's where I'm starting again-math! So, I have a few pics to share and a product or two also!
What my student's rubric page will look like at the beginning of the year.
How my students will chart their work across time (Ignore the red. That's work I have to do!)
First, I will say that I've decided not to use the terms found in Fearless Learners for my classroom. They use scales as the term that they use with students. I have always called what they call "scales" as rubrics. I will not be able to retrain my brain to call them anything but rubrics! I've also decided to call the guiding page a Unit Overview. Again, this is what my district calls our teaching tool, so I feel that it is implanted enough in my head to call it that. Needless to say, you can call these tools what you would like. There is no "set" terms to go by, because, we are all different! Here is one of the things I've whipped up for sale over at my store:
This product is a simple way to keep your kids on track to develop a game. 11 different game boards are in this product with or without cards to match the board! Print and Go-all you need to do is put them in files for easy student access!
As I learn more and more, my brain keeps going to the possibilities of this model! Let me know what you think about this model and the possibilities in your room! I'd love to hear!
Welcome to The Best Days Blog! If it is your first time visiting, I'm glad you're here! If you read my blog regularly, I love that you have come back to read it again! I am SUPER excited to share with you my continual search for the Student-Led Classroom in the form of best practices and ideas that work for me and everyone! I'm calling this Just the Place to Start because it is going to be a place where you can read and discover from past, present, and future blog posts based on my experiences in the Student-Led Classroom! It will be, literally, a list that grows and changes so that you will have most of my posts in one place on this subject. I'm just going to claim right now that "most" will be right. You know how busy we get, so, be sure to follow me here on my blog so you get all the latest posts! So, here we go!
That's a lot! And there will be plenty more as I move into this model in my classrooms more and more! I can't wait to share even more with you, so check back often! Also, feel free to comment and let me know your thoughts, ideas, and experiences! Let's learn together, so comment below!
Happy Friday everyone! I'm hooking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching to share a Five for Friday! This week I've gone around my school and found 5 great doors for Fall! Door décor-on my campus it is a big thing! Each season teachers and parents work together to create many door displays for each season. Some are simple, some are more complex. Not every class does this, but it is always fun to check out the Pinterest and non-Pinterest displays. Here are some of the fall themed doors found in our building right now!
This door is very Pinterest. In fact, it was one of three doors in the building. It is adorable though!
This cute door is across the hall from me. The leaves have the kids names on them. I like how the tree comes off the door and is on the wall.
I think this door is great! Each pumpkin has writing by the kids in this class. Yes, all those kids are in this class. This is one of our co-teaching classrooms.
This door is a"door"able! The cute owl on the door is the teacher. Then the VERY artistic mom in this room had the kids make those cute owls hanging on the wall.
Here's one up close. I just LOVE these adorable owls. I am going to save this craft idea for next year. The owls, mountains, and other parts are made of foam. The wood is paper. LOVE these! (I read my students Poppy and these can totally be a Mr. Ocax craft!)
This door is AWESOME! I have to admit, it is mine! It is really awesome though! My mom's worked really hard at it and it extends down the wall. Each student has a picture on a pumpkin and the wall says, "Welcome to Our Patch!" I just love it!
So, there you have it! 5 Fall Door Decor that you can enjoy or try out! Don't forget to pin them to your Fall Pinning Boards to keep for later! While you are there, feel free to follow me!
