The afternoon of our last day before break, my class went on a very special trip. During the month of December, we collected candy. Parents jumped at the opportunity to get rid of left over Halloween candy!
Each student carried a grocery bag full of candy to a local soup kitchen. We really enjoyed getting out for a walk! At the soup kitchen, students went on a tour of the building and learned about resources they could take advantage of if they ever need a meal. Then, we set to work stuffing the candy we had brought into stockings. The soup kitchen gave these stockings to kids that ate at the soup kitchen on Christmas.
We also brought holiday cards made by our students and a few canned goods. This was really just the beginning of our relationship with this soup kitchen. My students were very well behaved. They stayed on task and respected the men who live and work at the soup kitchen. As we were leaving, my students asked, "Can we come back and help for Easter?" I was surprised and impressed! My students are developing charitable hearts. They are getting out into their community and helping others.
My class was given this cute stuffed animal cow by the soup kitchen. We affectionately named him, "Cowy."
I cannot believe it has been almost a full month since my last post! I'm so sorry!
Those last two weeks before break we're crazy busy! I fully intended to write as soon as break started, but I received a rather unpleasant gift from my students-the worst cold of my life! It made for a rather miserable break. I guess I needed the time to relax and recharge, though. Anyway, two weeks of break and I'm almost back to 100% health. We have a professional day Monday and students start back on Tuesday, unless we get a snow day!
It's time to get back into school mode. Here is a glimpse back to the week before Winter Break:
We went to the zoo two days before break began. Crazy? Yes, we might have been. We returned to school with all the students and they had a great time. It was a successful trip! Plus, we learned about elephants and rain forest animals!
On the last day of school before Winter Break, a local private high school sent a class of Sophomores to our school to do holiday activities with the kids. They began the day making these cute paper bag reindeer. Then, one of the highschoolers dressed as Santa and each student received a wrapped gift. It was really impressive the thought and care put into the event by the high school students.
While the rest of the school watched movies in the afternoon, my class went on a "secret" mission walking trip. More on that tomorrow!
On Friday, we had our monthly visit to the senior center. Our craft was ornaments made from pony beads and pipe cleaners. It was great to sharpen fine motor skills for the students and seniors! The seniors thought it was very creative. I have to thank Pinterest for this one!
Follow this pin for instructions:
I put the supplies for each student and their senior partner in a bag to pass out materials quickly. I made some with pre-formed shapes for my younger students. Students made candy canes, Christmas trees, wreaths, and stars. The most creative was a student who used multiple pipe-cleaners to make a Santa face. Of course, I was so busy helping students I didn't get a photo of the final product.
Somehow it seems that having only 17 students makes each of their needs ever more apparent. As I analyze the assessments of each student, I realize just how different the needs of each student are. It is hard to group students in a way that truly benefits each student and it is impossible to work with each student one on one.
In my gut, I know that what these students need is weekly extremely targeted instruction in the skills they are lacking. However, this is a level of intervention they will not receive until Spring (waiting on money from the state). All of the assessment data I have collected so far indicates that these students are severely behind and may even need tier 3 intervention. I think we could be closing the gap a lot faster if we offered more individualized interventions from the beginning of the year.
Math seems to be the most difficult for me to give intervention during instructional time. I have been thinking a lot about why this is and it finally came to me: because students require more support with reading instructions, I am not as free to work with small groups. Now my search begins for apps and websites that will target the math concepts they need to learn, but will also read the instructions to the student. That will allow me to do more work with small groups.
Recently we've been working on number line skills and using skip jumps to add. We did some whole group warm up intervention by working as a class to create a number line on the floor. Students then took turns making jumps of 2, 5, and 10. It was a lot of fun and great for kinesthetic learners. It's simple, but its the most intervention I can do at this point.
I would love to hear your thoughts on interventions in math with struggling readers.
One great idea sparks another! The yearbook club did a canned food drive and needed places to send the cans. I got connected with a local mission and we've been brainstorming future charity projects for the school ever since. It seems that the biggest needs are cans, holiday candy, and holiday cards. Unfortunately, my class didn't collect the most cans (no pizza party for us), but I'm hoping that my students really get behind me on my candy drive. The prize will be a pinata provided by the mission! The winning class will also take a field trip to tour the mission.
I'm amazed how the yearbook club is setting precedents in our young school. Because of them we will do ongoing charity work with local missions. Oh, and they also inspired me to start a drama club! These kids are eager for ways to spend more time at school!
I was asked to review this simple alphabet app. It looked extremely simplistic to me, but we just received iPads in the classroom and I was desperate for a way to spice up letter learning. Some of my Kinders came in knowing fewer than 5 letters out of 52 (uppercase and lowercase). Progress has been slow...
Now that we have iPads I can reward them with extra alphabet practice! One lucky little guy got to be the first tester of A to Z Monsters. He spent no more than 2 minutes on the app before there were 5 others surrounding him eagerly waiting for their turn. I'm amazed how quickly students figure out how apps work! Even my first graders wanted a turn at this app! I think the app's simplicity worked to its advantage. It was such a big hit that I even used it during transitions! Students who lined up quickly and quietly got to press a monster and say the letter.
Here is how it works:
Select the first letter (the first time through you must go in alphabetical order). Once selected, the monster comes to life. The goal is to squish the monster to hear the letter name. My students loved chasing the monsters around the screen! I found out that some of them have better hand eye coordination than others.
This app made learning letter names fun and engaging. The animations are really cute, too. What I love most is that it links each letter with a word. This is really important as my letter learners are also building their reading skills. Hopefully they will be making the transition from letter learners to beginning sound learners soon! Get these crazy letter monsters for your students here.
And now an app that I was not asked to review...
While browsing word work apps in the App Store, I stumbled upon Spell Sam Spell. Ironically, it is by the same app developers as A to Z Monsters! Spell Sam Spell is like Mario Bros with a spelling focus. My first and second graders loved controlling the little character and collecting letters to make words. The fun never ended with new levels and quick brain break coin collections in between. This app brought spelling to a whole new level of fun!
Now that we have the iPads, I'm sure I'll be trying out many more apps! You can find my ever growing list of apps for the classroom on Pinterest.
Today is the day to prepare your wish list! The TpT Cyber Sale begins tomorrow! My store will be 20% and TpT is giving an extra 10% off when you enter the code "CYBER" at checkout.
These are the two most wishlisted resources in my store:
