emotional and mental well-being in the classroom

We've been learning a lot about Wellbeing these days as part of our Inquiry:

Emotional, physical, spiritual, environmental, mental, and social health

and finding balance in our daily lives.

In order to help students understand emotional wellbeing a bit more, I read this book:

The Heart and the Bottle by Oliver Jeffers

This is such a beautiful story.

It deals with a pretty heavy situation but one that is only to be inferred - the story never tells us explicitly whether the girl's father passes away, leaves the family, or what.
It's all about how the young girl, once curious about everything around her, places her heart in a protective "bottle" when her father is no longer there to guide her wonderings.

It follows her as she grows, as she comes to deal with this huge loss and then how she begins to overcome it.

Our class discussion afterward was so rich and incredible.

Tomorrow I'll read this book 

The Red Tree by Shaun Tan

and have the students come up with a way to show their connections to and understandings of one of the stories.

Today, to connect our understanding of mental health, students inquired into this question:

Does exercise help our mental abilities?

{Thanks to a student for coming with this Wednesday Wondering for us!}

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They created experiments to test their hypotheses and it was amazing to watch them get straight to work, figuring out how to test this big question and how to measure the results. 

My VP happened to come in just as they were beginning their experiments and, happily, he gave some great positive feedback.

Particularly about how quickly the students were able to find a "smart" partner independently.

And what's funny is I hadn't even considered that to be a great skill since I'm so used to the kids doing it on their own all the time now! 

When we talk about finding partners for any activity, the kids always say:

You need to find a smart partner.

You need to be a smart partner.

They know that a smart partner is someone that will allow you to remain focused and will not be a distraction.

Experiments ranged from doing jumping jacks and then answering some standard addition questions to jogging on the spot and then writing a series of sentences about their personal interests. 

Smart bunch!

Most groups decided that exercise has a positive impact on our mental health, but some weren't so sure.

Tomorrow I'm going to show this video and see if they have any connections or further inquiries:

And next week we're going to be discussing what makes us happy and how we can be our happiest selves. 

Looking forward to that for sure!

i-time {inquiry + personal interest = kids in control!}

One of my favourite parts of our first week was our I-Time.

Anyone else use this?

It's something I've never used before, but after jumping in, I highly recommend it!

We teach an inquiry curriculum, meaning students are given a lot of control over their learning.

They take the reigns, so to speak, and that whole idea, I'll admit, made me uneasy.

Coming from Kuwait, where I had to implement behaviour expectations like crazy, teaching through inquiry seemed like a big loss of control on my side.

I have to say, though, that the transition has been really really great so far.

I love giving the students the responsibility and independence that inquiry calls for.

It's amazing watching them learn together.

What is I-Time?

Basically, it's a time for students to choose a topic of personal interest and research it.

My students are allowed to sign out up to four books from our library, so my one stipulation during our browse and borrow time will be that each kid find at least one non-fiction book focusing on something they want to learn more about.
Note: We have an absolutely AMAZING library space in our school! We also have five iPads in the class and I'm able to book a class set of Chromebooks.

Immediately following our library time is a single forty-minute period that I've designated for I-Time.

Each student has an I-Time notebook where they will write down their questions, ideas, new learning, diagrams, thoughts, etc. etc.

For this week, I pretty much answered "yes!" to all the "Can I..." questions the kids asked.

{Can I draw pictures to show what I learned? Can I write questions about things I want to remember to look up later? Can I write the things I learn in a list? Yes, yes, and yes.}

They grabbed a pencil and found a comfy spot around the room to read and learn about a personal interest.

Everyone was so engaged!

In the coming weeks I'll start to teach the class about framing their inquiry questions - how to broaden questions, how to write more specific questions, how to research effectively, how to go about summarizing new knowledge, and options for presenting their learning to the class.

Letting kids make choices about what they learn is a very powerful tool; I'm already looking forward to our next I-Time session on Thursday!

Birthdays Around the World Giveaway

Fourth quarter.
Ahhhh!
It's like I can taste summer already!
This will be a quick summer, with just a month and a half in Canada before we ship out to Manila.
I'm sure we will savour every moment.

But before I get lost in those dreams...
To end the school year, I thought a fun unit was in need.
And since I've been rather ill in the last few weeks, I've been able to finish off this new unit:

It's packed with all this and more...

We've done several activities already and it's turning out to be a hit! 
Plus, while I was out unexpectedly {thanks, nausea}, it's been easy for my EA to read the lesson plans included and work through some it for me.

Check it out here on TpT and here on TN.

I'd love to give one of these away, too! 
Leave me a comment below with your favourite birthday memory and your email; I'll random-number-generator them!
Happy fourth quarter, everyone.
- Amanda

Mapping Skills

First week back and running! Considering the 30-hour journey back from Canada I'd say jet lag has been nice to me this time around AND my class is amazing as always :) We've picked up right where we left off: measurement in Math - capacity; animal groups in Science - amphibians and reptiles; nouns/camouflage integration/sentence structure/word choice/main idea/editing {among others as usual!} in Language; and mapping in Social Studies. Speaking of Social Studies...

{How was that for a smooth segue?!}

I have a new product in my store and, like most, it's classroom tested! To introduce some of those tough mapping terms, I made an interactive reader with a matching student booklet so students were able to follow along and fill in the blanks with important words. This worked well with my ESL kids and serves as a great study guide. I've included possible assessment pieces and other activities to use with a mapping unit. There's an American, Canadian, and a non-specific "worl"d version and they've been great sellers so far! Here are some sample pages if you're interested:

You can find out more about each one by clicking below:

I hope you're having a great first week back!

- Amanda

Talking about solving problems

This is a tough topic for some little friends. Am I right? Really, it's no surprise - they are still learning to recognize, process, and understand their own emotions. I've found (in my 1.1 years of teaching - ha!) that children really need to be taught skills to solve problems with their peers. I had a lot of hands-on last year, a lot of tattling, a lot of miscommunication, a lot of misunderstandings, and a lot of emotional outbursts among my students. I took quite a few Social Studies periods to teach about problem solving. It started to work. Phew! Saved me. So this year, I have a plan to teach these steps - before the problems start. I hope to have my students follow a four-step plan:
1. Think - Is this a big problem or a small problem?
2. Say - "I do not like that because...." or "Please stop."
3. Ignore
4. Ask - a friend or a teacher for help.
If you're interested in this model, I made titles to create an anchor chart with my group. You can grab it here:

How do you teach problem solving in your class? I'm all ears for new ideas. This week we're doing a fun little activity using our clip chart to help students understand the types of behaviours that are expected at the top of the chart, and those that may get you placed near the bottom... I'm looking forward to it! Photos and credit to come.

And a small peek at my Saturday: 

A new year means a new batch of my scratch cards must be made. I'm looking forward to giving the first one of these out!

- Amanda

Cardinal Directions

Here are some short and sweet cardinal direction signs to brighten up your space. Enjoy!

- Amanda

Marshmallow Mania

Today we started a new Social Studies unit about equality and children's rights. Our introductory lesson involved a game focusing on fairness and communication that my students LOVED! Their participation and motivation actually blew me away. Here's how it worked:

First we talked about various ways to communicate. This was fun because I was able to exaggerate all of the little {nonverbal} ways my class and I communicate - thumbs up, nods, W sign for "washroom," shhh-fingers, etc. and they were in stitches. Then I gave each student a small cup with four fruity-coloured marshmallows. Their goal was to trade colours with one another until they had four marshmallows of just one colour. And then they could eat them... The key? NO TALKING ALLOWED! They did a fantastic job and were even able to ask me questions without talking {and I had to try so hard! to answer without talking}. 

If your're looking for a super quick and motivational game, give it a shot. My twos were begging to play again! Easy peasy. 

I hope to be back tomorrow to answer some tag questions!

-Amanda

Rice Pudding {affectionately known in 2C as Arroz con Leche}

Okay, so it isn't the "next" post...

At my school we have an "International Week" where each class chooses a country to study and thinks up some activities to bring into the classroom. I chose Peru, because it's where Jeff and I will go in the summer on our honeymoon! I've had to be pretty creative with this unit... I looked up some Peruvian cuisine and found a lot of recipes for Arroz con Leche. I LOVE rice pudding, so I had to do this one {plus it's cheap to make!}. Initially I wanted it to be something the class could make together, but rice pudding has to be made on the stovetop, so I decided to turn it into graphing and Language extension activities instead.

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First, we tested the dessert, and I gave each student a cut out graphic of a bowl of rice. Then we graphed it: Love it; Like it; Do not like it. I only had two kids that didn't like it! Next we will interpret the results. In Language, the students will write the recipe as a list, then do a simple "First, Next, Last" writing activity based on my retell of the procedure and a few photos I took.

I love love love this recipe, and I was rather irritated when I misplaced it and had to put it back together from memory. It's a mix of different recipes I found online. It's super easy, but a bit time consuming, so keep that in mind.

• 1/2 cup rice


• 1 1/2 cups water


• Pinch of salt


• 2-3 cinnamon sticks


• 2 cups warmed milk {I used one can of sweetened condensed milk and filled up to the 2 cup mark using regular milk}


• 1/2 cup sugar


• 1 egg


• Some vanilla

First, boil the rice with water, salt and cinnamon sticks in a pot. Lower and cook, covered, until there is no more liquid. As this works away, use a fork to mix the egg with the warm milk {so the eggs don't start to cook when you add it to the rice}. When the rice is ready, pour in the milk mixture and add the sugar. Stir constantly on the same low heat. Yep, it takes awhile. When it gets thick, add some vanilla, and stir it in well. Take the pot off the burner and it will continue to thicken as it cools.

Enjoy!

- Amanda