Sometimes the simplest things make such a huge impact in the classroom. My class, like most, does not like to clean up at the end of the day. Sometimes it takes so long that we end up leaving the classroom too late. One day, on the spur of the moment, an idea came to me. We have classroom supplies, and not individual supplies. We have lots of plain pencils, by no fun pencils. However, I have a stockpile of fun pencils from previous years that are just waiting to be put to good use. And so, I told the class that the group that cleaned up quickest (floor, projects, work, and table) would receive newly sharpened FUN pencils. I have never seen those students move so fast or be so thorough at cleanup time. Within about two minutes, everything was pretty much spotless and my first winning team, all smiles, was awarded the pencils to use the next day.
Throughout the rest of the week, those pencils were switched off each day...or they could be kept by the defending team. Whichever team was the quickest to clean up got the pencils the next day. Cleanup time went from a drudgery to an exciting game where teams now work together to get it done! After a week or two, I introduced a new set of pencils and that sparked more excitement.
If you don't have a pencil stash, might I suggest the dollar spot at Target or Dollar Tree. Usually you can get a pack of 12 pencils for about a buck. My groups only have 4-5 students so I can use those packs more than once throughout the year.
If you want some more cleaning solutions, check out my Making Cleaning Fun post over here. Make cleaning fun, ya'll!
I knew that Kahoot would be one of those things that my students would absolutely LOVE! It was chaotic in a good way, if that is even possible. My students could not contain themselves. They were just beyond excited the whole time. I am just starting to get over laryngitis and it was so difficult to be heard. I finally had to bring back the silent celebration we have used before instead of cheering wildly each time an answer is revealed.
So here's 4 of my takeaways:
1: First, we will definitely do this again...and again...and again. They just loved it that much and it can be used for any subject area. I could see us doing it at least a time or two every month.
2: There is not a huge investment in time to set this up. It is super easy to type in some questions and possible answers. You can save your Kahoot games to use from year to year, so once they are done you will be able to reuse them in future years.
3: Some kids may not be able to handle the disappointment and competitiveness of this game. There can be some problems with some technology not working fast enough (that really upset one of my competitive students) and when a student does not win, that could set them off as well. I would still do it again, even with those challenges, but I think that if I had some students who could not handle those situations in a positive way, we would definitely need to do some prep work together about how to handle those situations that are sure to arise.
4: It will take a while to set the students up on IPADS if you teach primary grades. My students needed help finding the website and some needed help with entering the code. They did like that they can choose a nickname to go by and they were super creative with that and enjoyed their new names.
As a side note, I did give a prize to the student who had the top score. I do not have a prize box, so I just had that student choose one of the flex seats that we have in the common area outside of our classroom and that seat became theirs for the day...BIG HIT!
So there you have it! If you want to try it out for yourself, sign up for a free account here.
This weekend we played Kahoot at an evening program for our church. It got me thinking about how fun it would be to use in the classroom. This year we have 1:1 IPADS and so it is possible for us to play as a class. I just set up for first game, a math one. Can't wait to surprise my class with this engaging way to review what we have learned this year so far in math. Have you ever used Kahoot in your class? I will check back in tomorrow night to tell you how it all went. Stay tuned! If you want to create a game of your own (over any topic) for your own class follow this link. For now, I will leave you with this great reminder.
The classrooms at my school are organized into pods. In my pod, we have grades 1-3. Kindergarten is in another pod, but also moves to ours for some activities. Within our pod, we have a rotation of yearly themes. This year, our theme of focus is community. Each classroom can take that focus in any direction they choose. My class has begun by studying the different types of communities: urban, suburban, and rural. We have been creating representations of the different types of communities using different art methods.
For our Suburban art activity, each student created trees in green and also fall colors. Each student also created a house. Afterwards, we rolled out a long piece of paper and each student claimed a space. Their job was to turn the individual houses into a community project that showed a suburban neighborhood. They had to place their houses and trees in their space and could add grass, a road, clouds, etc. I am loving how it turned out overall...despite that fact that we ended up with three suns....live and learn. Next time I do this project, we will discuss ways to be more successful and only include one sun.
For the rural area, we did a directed drawing of hills. On each hill, students were to create a pattern of stripes, swirls, circles, or whatever their heart decided. Once the landscape was done, we added fences, a farm, and animals on top of the hills. We simply colored these with crayons. We focus a lot on quality of work at our school and because of that, we will be redoing some of our farm pictures to up that quality. It's a process.
Our final community is the urban city. We looked at some pictures of big cities. We talked about the shapes we saw. We discussed the different types of buildings. Then we drew our own cities. Afterward, we got out the watercolor paints and the details came alive. I am loving these. Most of my friends did an amazing job!
Next week, I hope to wrap all of our community learning up and move on to something new.
When I was engrossed in my master's degree program, nature journaling was a huge part of it. My master's is in outdoor education so we kept field journals full of notes, sketches, and watercolor paintings. That journal has since disappeared somewhere in my mementos, I am sure. But those classes, those moments sitting quietly, soaking nature in by streams, in fields, and by simple planters got me thinking about how this could make a difference in my classroom and with my students.
In the years since, I have done nature journaling with some classes and not with others. I loved the times that I did do nature journaling and the students seemed to as well. This is a great activity that can enhance observation techniques and documentation skills. It is a reflective activity that brings those tech overloaded students a way to connect again with nature.
Statistics show that today's children are outdoors less than ever before. While they spend hours staring at a screen each day, the average student spends merely a handful of minutes in unstructured outdoor activities. Despite the research that shows the way students with ADHD and other disorders are impacted positively with a few minutes in nature, students are kept inside, locked in their learning indoors.
Why can't they go out and experience the calming effect of nature? Why aren't they being allowed to garden, play, walk, and yes, journal in the great outdoors? Students and all people need this connection to nature as it reduces stress and gives a sense of peace.
This year I have moved to a new school. At our school, we are creating a lot of outdoor learning environments. We have an osprey pole that is waiting for nesting season and an osprey family to build it's first nest. We have a bat house. A pond with an island and dock are situated at the back of our property. A trail has just been blazed through our wooded area. You guys, I am so excited about all that is happening. I have big plans for these gifts our school has been given. But even if your school is in a city with little natural areas, most schools do have flower boxes or shrubs, trees, or even picnic areas. Get those students out of the class. You will never regret it.
Here is a collection of resources to help me along the way. You can also check them out on TPT by clicking on the names below.
Bug Journal
Nature Journal
Scavenger Hunt
I am getting ready to brush off my nature journaling resources and get my students out there to connect with nature again or maybe for the first time. I can't wait to combat their nature deficit disorder with a touch of nature. What about you?
The beginning of the year is a great time to spend some time reviewing skills. I needed to spend a couple of weeks reviewing these basic skills to get a feel for where my students were at the beginning of our year together. I was looking for a fun and engaging way to practice tally marks. I found a few ideas, but wanted another game to throw in the mix. That's when I created this simple Pop math review game. It's quick, easy, and will keep your students engaged while you work with small groups. Check it out over here.
