Action Verb Charades

When teaching verbs in the past, I had students act out the verb to see the action.  We did this for sentences we read to make identifying verbs more accessible for the kinesthetic learners.  While lesson planning this afternoon, I thought of a more engaging way to involve movement into the teaching of verbs - Charades!

This FREEBIE is available on my TpT site for a limited time!

Building Community in the Classroom

Building a strong community in the first month of school is so important to the success of your classroom.  When students feel part of a whole, they are more likely to be engaged in what they are learning.  Here are a few of my favorite community builders.  These have been successful with second and third graders but could be used for lower and higher grade levels.

1. Hula Hoop Challenge - As a class, stand in a large circle holding hands.  One pair will start with the hula hoop between their connected arms.  The goal is to pass the hula hoop around the circle as students continue climbing through.  Remember - you cannot let go of each other!  I like to stop after each round and have the students discuss what went well and what they will do differently next time to make the passing of the hula hoop faster.  The students love to keep track of time and try to beat their previous pace.   
2. Count to 10 - This community builder involves patience, self-control, and listening.  As a class, the goal is to be able to count to 10, or higher as an extension.  There is no planning, students need to say each number once, and only one student can say a number at a time.  If more than one student says a number, you start back at zero.  They get an absolute kick out of this and no materials are necessary!
3. Mirrors - This activity is for partners.  One student acts as a mirror while the other partner moves about.  The mirror must reflect their partner's actions as best as they can.  This is all about working well together!
4. Back to Back - This is another activity geared for partners.  Pair off students into groups that might not typically work together or socialize.  Have the students sit on the floor, back to back with their partners.  Their challenge is to stand up together without using their hands to push off the ground.  This requires a lot of talk about how to best work together to reach the goal.  
5. The Wind Blows - This community builder will require a little modeling.  Have the class stand in a large circle.  Start in the middle and say the phrase, "The wind blows anyone who..."  This is where things can get a little tricky.  Model picking ideas that will be common among the class.  For example, anyone who likes the color green, went on vacation this summer, prefers math over reading, etc.  After the person in the middle makes the statement, anyone for whom that rings true will need to find a new spot in the circle.  The last one to find a new spot becomes the person in the middle.  This gives students a chance to see commonalities among their classmates.  

I try to use at least two team building activities a week, especially in the first month.  These can easily be a part of morning meeting, or integrated at some point throughout the day for a little extra movement.  

Hopes and Dreams for a New School Year

This summer I worked as the Head Wilson teacher at the Tufts Center for Reading and Learning Research. This program is for struggling readers and many have been diagnosed with dyslexia. In the near future, I'll be sharing some of the supplemental Wilson activities I created, but today I want to share a Responsive Classroom approach for the beginning of a new school year.

Being new to the the Responsive Classroom approach, I was very excited to try out any strategies our director suggested. One of these approaches related to sharing our hopes and dreams. As this program was related to reading, our hopes for the summer were pretty specific to this content area.

I modeled that our hopes should be realistic and attainable. I went the silly route and said that being able to swim 100 miles by the end of week five was unlikely since I'd be spending my time teaching reading. I assumed I would have to provide more scaffolding for this step as I was working mostly with emerging second graders, but this was not the case. They came up with some very realistic and individualized goals for the summer. 

Here are some student examples of the template I created. There are four options available in the pack. The variations are based on font (one is specific to dyslexia) and the border (stars or bubbles). You can find them for FREE in my TPT store.

Having students reflect on their hopes for the school year also lends itself nicely to classroom conversations about expectations and how we're going to help each other meet our goals. I'll be sharing how to create a class constitution together later as well.