New Year, New Me, New Ideas About Complexity!

            I have to admit, I miss fun crafts from my primary days.  Especially when we return from a break.  I also have to admit, I did the bare minimum for Christmas.  It was really upsetting to me, honestly.  I don’t ever just ignore holidays.  It’s half the fun of school-creating those crafts and hanging them up in your house.  My kids are in middle school and our fridge still reflects this theme.  If they do anything fun, it still goes up there.  So, I’ve been feeling a little bit lonely when it comes to crafts and fun. We did do our Charlie Summary, and, that was fun, but I wanted something to start our year off better, to remind me to remember that students need these memories. 

            I started with Pintrest.  There are some fun things.  I really liked this idea of “Toasting the New Year”, but I just couldn’t come up with the complexity that I needed.  I know that I will eventually come back to this idea and try the complexity bump, but I couldn’t find it this year.  Then I found this-New Year’s Resolutions and Good Fortunes. 

I didn’t think it was primary, because it had the looks of a more intermediate type of activity, and it is actually listed for 2^nd-5^th.  When I looked at it closer, it was definitely a stretch for 4^th grade.  I decided though, that it could be tweaked a little.  My thought was to play off the balloon idea.  Originally, I was going to cut the fortunes and place them in balloons for every kid, but the idea of a.) filling balloons at a store was too pricey, and b.) blowing up those balloons would have made me winded and dizzy, I decided on a different route.  I took balloons and put enough fortunes into them to meet the needs of the table group.  I had 5 balloons, 4 with 4 fortunes and 1 with 3.  Perfect! 

            Here’s how it worked.  Besides the fortune balloons, I copied the balloons on 6 different colors.  I did not copy the white writing page.  I wanted to save the paper and, as it came out, they looked fine with just the writing on them.  Once I had everything copied and blown up, I passed out the balloons to each group.  I made them stop and come up with a plan of how they were going to pop the balloon without sitting on it.  I allowed them to talk about it. This simple act of stopping and thinking saved a lot of hardship.  It made them cooperatively decide who was doing what and come up with a safe plan (no scissors!)  Amazingly, pens and pencils did a great job of bursting those balloons! 

            Once the balloons were broken, the kids each picked a fortune.  

This is when the magic happened!  It wasn’t long before someone said, “I don’t understand what this means.” And out of my mouth came, “These are metaphors for life.  You make them what you want them to be.  It is comparing two things, you have to fill in the connection!”  Holy cow!  We finished figurative language before break.  I could make this connection for them.  They began to roll with it!  They were able to go with it and complete some pretty amazing things.  

This got me thinking-Why, oh why, haven’t I hit the idea that some of these primary “fun” stuff have much deeper meaning.  The complexity is there; we just have to see it!  I’ve got to start taking my own advice (Shades of Meaning) and start calling these things what they are!  It’s given me a different perspective on how to put the complexity back into things and make them count for more!  We finished up the balloons by cutting them out and adding some ribbon I have been hoarding in my closet for making jellyfish for an ocean unit I never got to!  So, not only did I use complexity, I used hoarded supplies! 

            Now, you will notice, I didn’t include the resolution in my work with the balloons.  Last year I stumbled upon the 2013 (updated for 2014) New Year, New Me activity. 

I loved it so much, we are doing it again this year!  Tomorrow we will work on filling out the written parts of the mobile.  Today, we colored!  It was actually nice.  They were able to communicate to one another their holiday fun stuff.  I heard about presents, trips, family events, and an impromptu lesson on who Ben Franklin was!  If there’s one other thing I’ve learned about doing these projects now, it is that sometimes you have to stop and  take time to be together as a class.  That’s what has been missing, that’s what racing to get curriculum covered and worrying about every assessment under the sun has done.  It has robbed us of the opportunity to just breathe and be.  And it’s robbed us of the chance to see fun activities as the complex being that they can be! 

            Now, for a freebie!  Like I said, we were working on figurative language.  We made this great foldable that I saw on Pintrest one time. (Here is the link: http://www.pinterest.com/pin/111604896985892846/_ ) 

It is an all about me project.  But I like that it had figurative language in it, and thought I could adapt the layout to fit figurative language only.  So, as a freebie, I will include all of the insides for the foldbable. 

  

Figurative language:   Page 1

                                    Page 2

                                    Page 3

Feel free to think about how you might change this and make it more complex for your class!  Then let us know how you might do that in the comment section below!

Classroom Reveal!

        I figured I better get on this, since tomorrow starts week 2!  After that, it wouldn’t be new any more!  So, here’s what my place and space looks like!  Let’s start with my student area! 

The baby changing table has been transformed into my student supply center.  Here, students can access paper, their headphones, and other basic supplies found in the bottom two shelves.  The top shelf holds three baskets-two for homework and one for classwork.  I have made small tags for each basket for easy identification.  I also lined the table with a great wrapping paper of green and blue circles that matches the theme of my room-which is also the colors of our school!  The board on the wall is an “Out of the Room Board”.  When the kids leave the room , they move their number magnet to the appropriate spot on the board.  This allows me to do a quick check for where kids are at all times!  There is also our monthly calendar, the iHelp Job chart, and a place for the lunch menu.  I also keep the Homework Checker clip board there for easy access to record homework turn in!  This is important to the kids as well as myself since after 30 successful homework turn-ins, I give a free homework pass out!  On the wall is Marzano’s effort rubric.  I turned it into kid friendly terms.  I will take it down soon to explicitly teach effort.  I’ll share about this when I get to it.  It is really a key component to my expectation system!

            Next, on the white board, you will find a number of wonderful things.  First, let’s talk about the right hand side of the board.  There, you will discover two things. 

The first one are the frames I made to write the daily essential questions we are covering in all subjects.  They were really simple to make.  I found 81/2 “ x 11” scrapbook paper that matched my room. I bought the frames at the Dollar Tree.  Once I got the paper inside, I flipped them over and glued magnets on the back.  They are currently moved over from where they are here.  I made room for our Classroom Guidelines.

These are the rules we worked on together.  They were inspired by a post I saw on Pintrest.  In fact, my room looks like Pintrest threw up in it!  Can I say, I LOVE Pintrest?  (Here’s the Out of the Room Board)  I still need to print off the last page, have the kids sign it, and then get it up there too.  We all agreed on these guidelines and the signatures help to lock in the choices we made as a team.  I stress often-This is OUR room, not my room. Ownership is one of the 8 Keys of Excellence that we practice as a school.  They are located above my board and on the wall with the “Where Do I Live”  line. 

This is a lesson we do as a class about where you live, above or below the line.  It is part of our Quantum Learning training we received as a staff.  If you have never heard of Quantum Learning, you should check it out!  It was a really wonderful training where they tie brain research and best practices into one.  I can honestly say, it was one of the best trainings I’ve had in my career.  It wasn’t that it was chop full of new stuff-it just tied it together in a way that made you realize the “why” of things you do as an educator! 

Back to the board-You will also find this there.

Again, Pintrest!  I did recreate this so that the colors matched my room.  I’m not happy about the E in noise, so I might work on this a little.  I really like this system and have used it all week.  Here is the post that tells you how the teacher uses it.

Located in the back of my room is one, LOOOOOOONNNNNG wall with high windows.  These windows are there because my room meets the roof of our cafeteria.  In other classes, there are great views of our lake and the front areas of our school.  I do like this wall though, because it can house a lot of information.

In the corner you will find my library. 

Years ago I wrote a grant for the Water District. They provided me with a kit that had all those great puppets you see there.  I arranged them in food chain systems!  I also ordered those great posters from them! They were free!  If you are interested and live in my area, they are from SWFWMD.  You will also find my teaching area, which looks blah right now without the posters I add as I teach. 

Also in the back is my desk area and table area. I use this for remediation and for Book Club meetings.  

I have to show a close up of my lollipop tree!

I just love this and it adds fun to my desk!  I found this as a party item on Pintrest with no directions attached.  It was easy! I spray painted a candlestick, added a large foam ball (hot glue this), a tag, and started filling!  The key is NOT to add them on one side.  It will pull the ball off. You have to work around it to keep the balance of weight equal! 

Along the wall by my desk are my cabinets.  I will be adding numbers to them.  That is another Pintrest idea.  Instead of sending kids to the drawers with directions that get them lost (I know you are laughing right now because it is true), you put numbers on them!  Glue sticks are in drawer #5!  So much better!  I also have the Character Traits activity from Rachel Lynette on my cabinets.  I will be doing this again, and soon!  This made Book Club character descriptions so much easier! 

And, finally, one big look across all those desks!  

I have some bulletin boards I didn’t discuss, as they will come together when we start working on more things!  So, you have it-my room.  If you see anything you are wondering about, leave me a comment and I’d be glad to get back with you about it!  It’s going to be a great year!