Team Building Activity

So my students are probably getting sick of hearing my voice. I'm just guessing. What's the clue? I'm sick of hearing my voice.

I don't know if it's the recent warm weather, the amount of days we've been together, or it's just the normal course of the school year, but I'm tired of tattling, arguing, lack of respect, and lack of team work.

I borrowed several books from the school library to address these issues, and slowly but surely some of them (I hope) are waking up. I changed a few of their seats today, in hopes of calming the issues, and I think it slightly helped. But that doesn't change the fact that they need to work together as a team. In my class, some kids think that their team is their friend on the other side of the room, others think they are a team of one, and a few think they are on my team.

What sparked the activity I'm going to share with you today, was a story about a bundle of sticks. In the story, a teacher asked her students to paint a mural. The kids spent the entire time arguing about what should be on the mural. When the teacher returned, seeing nothing had been accomplished, she asked each of them to pick up a stick. She had one student break his stick. She asked if it was easy to break the stick. He replied yes. She then tied all the sticks together in a large bundle and asked him to break the bundle. When he couldn't, she told them they were like the sticks...together they are strong. She walked away, and when she returned, they had painted a mural of the bundle of sticks.

So today I gave the kids a short activity to see if they could actually act as a team. I had them get out their dry erase boards and turn them upside down. I showed them a series of numbers in the shape of a pyramid on the Promethean Board.

I then gave them 30 seconds to study the numbers. After the 30 seconds, I turned off the screen and had them turn over their dry erase boards. They wrote down the numbers in the correct order as best as they could. 

Next, I turned the screen back on for 15 seconds and had them check their work.  I turned off the screen and asked them to erase their board and turn it back over upside down. They were then instructed to talk to their partner to create a strategy of how together they could get all the numbers correct and in the correct order.

I overheard one student say, "I'll copy you!" And then like wildfire, that was everyone's "strategy". I reminded them that copying isn't going to make the numbers magically appear correct on their dry erase boards. They were all out of ideas. I was shocked. But, I was curious how this would play out.

I repeated the 30 seconds of studying, followed by one minute of writing. They got farther this time, but not by much. I asked them which was easier, working alone, or working with a partner. They all agreed working with a partner.

After that round, I had them talk in their team (of four) to come up with a strategy to make it happen. I put up a new set of numbers, and miraculously, several teams were able to accomplish the task successfully.

If even for a few minutes, I feel that I was able to have my students work together as a team. I was happy. An hour later, I was once again tired of my own voice. *Le Sigh*

Make it Rain in Your Classroom!

My students are studying weather this unit. Since it's been relatively dry these past few weeks, our weather caterpillar pretty much displays sunny days. What kind of winter is this?! Oh, that's right. I live in California...annnnnd I shouldn't brag.

Anywhoooo....so since it hasn't been windy, or more importantly, rainy, I decided to bring the rain indoors. That's right. We made it rain in my classroom. My kids were incredulous too.

We started by doing a "rain song". We start by rubbing our hands together to make the sound of the wind. Then we "clap" using one finger, then move up to two, and so forth until we are fully clapping. Then we pounded our laps, and then our feet on the floor (I highly recommend this in a portable classroom) for the loud thunder. We then moved back down until we were rubbing our hands together again. The kids loved it and I told them it will help to make the rain appear in our room.

I then showed them a picture of the rain cycle and we talked about how rain is made. And then...the rain came.

To make it rain, I used my electric tea kettle and filled it up halfway with water. In about 3 minutes, I had a nice whistle going. I held the plastic cup (it's just the top to the science kit) over the steam. The pink bucket was to catch the rain. I had to be very careful not to give myself a steam burn (which is easy to do). I think next year, I'll bring some tongs to hold the cup. Within another 3 minutes, we had quite the condensation happening!

As the condensation slowly fills the cup, the kids can see what each item represents:

kettle = ocean

water vapor = evaporation

clear plastic cup = cloud

condensation = rain (precipitation) 

pink bucket = lake/river/stream 

We then drew the water cycle and labeled it. 

At the end of the day, we wrote in our Room News that we made it rain in our classroom! I think this is an excellent conversation starter for home communications.

Fun Kid Math

Sometimes the best ideas are the ones that come up unexpectedly. Yesterday I had the pleasure of experiencing one. 

The students were joking around during a math lesson about subtraction and one kid jokingly asked, "How much is half of Austin?" 

"Oh, that's easy!" I said, "It's Alexis!"

"Wait, what?" asked my student as Alexis' ears perked up. 

"OH I GET IT!" shouted another.

Each student in my classroom has a number. It makes life so much easier and I'm sure many of you have the same system. Therefore, just use the students' names instead of numbers to make it more fun! As an added bonus, I had them do this for points for their groups. They ware all given a list of names earlier in the day (for Valentine's Day), and I told them to get it out to use if they needed to.

I made it harder too by having addition of three digits. The kids LOVED it! I plan on adding this to my board math. Sometimes the best ideas are the simplest.

Task Cards

Okay, so task cards are new to me. I've seen them posted for the people I follow, but never really checked them out. Today I was hanging out with a friend who showed me some she uses in her classroom. All I could think of was BRILLIANT!!!

If you aren't familiar with how these work, there are enough cards for each student desk. You place one on each desk. Students then walk about the room answering the questions (or tasks) on their answer sheet.

Seriously brilliant! My friend says you can use these not just as an activity during language arts time, but as a finish early task as well. Or she has some that she put on an O ring and flips through them to have the kids answer as they walk out the door. Another brilliant idea!

I'm thinking, you could use them as a PowerPoint warm up on the Promethean Board, or as part of board language. If you cut them out then laminate them, they'll last even longer! I made these tonight and I can't wait to try these out in the next few weeks! Check them out by clicking on the picture below.

100th Day

I am officially 100 days smarter. Yesterday was our 100th day of school. I've learned so many new things at my school that I couldn't possibly list them all here. But, I will let you know what we did in our classroom:

One cute resource for the 100th day is a short video on Starfall.com. The kids recognized it, and I liked that it was short! Another video they watched was "Emily's 100 Days of School" (note: the link takes you to a 30 second youtube video). It is based on the Ruby and Max characters. The 20 minute video bought me some precious bubbling in of bubble sheets. I liked listening to it though! The kids were awfully respectful and watched the whole thing without complaining! 

My kiddos created these cute hats using construction paper. Before stapling them together, we drew 100 small pictures on them and decorated them with a sticker and markers. It was a nice activity because it also gave them a lesson on following directions. I only had one kid cut too far and chop off the round part. Usually there are three or four!

We also used a 100 chart to make 100. It's fun because I call off numbers, color them in, and the kids have no clue as to why they are coloring the numbers they are coloring! It took them a LONG time this year to figure it out. I was sneaky. I had them color squares on opposite sides and didn't close the tops of the digits together until the very end. Hilarious!!!