The Social Teacher

Fun Friyay! Today's focus is: "inhibition" Inhibition is to stop and behave kindly at the appropriate time. I think it is completely fine to be excited when you win or be excited when you are winning.  There is nothing wrong with that. It is also okay to be frustrated if you aren't winning.   That is why inhibition is important. It is important for children to learn when to be excited and when to be frustrated AND how to be those things.   This is a conversation and gets put onto the rule board AFTER the first week.  I don't bring it up the first week because I want to first see if my students can do it without a conversation.  Well...with this group I definitely needed to have the conversation. After the conversation and the games being played, I walk around (like I always do) and when I see a student struggling.  I will give them the options and remind them how to act. We take a quick breathing break and get back on track.  Or the student leaves the game until t

 Where do pirates keep their stolen jewels and gold? TREASURE BOXES!  I have pretty beads, art flowers, and pretty sequences to use as my student's jewels.  I tell me students we are going to be pretend to be pirates and making a treasure box. Before we get into groups, we discuss the questions:  *What does it take to make a good treasure box? I tried to get the students to say that it needs to be close, a cover, and sturdy. Then I tell the students they ONLY get to use glue, tape, and construction paper.  The only rule I had was I didn't want it to leak out the jewels! Day 1: Get your partners and draw your pictures!  I got this great STEM idea from Teachers Are Terrific STEM and SCIENCE.  Take a look at this great website for a ton of STEM projects with very little supplies to buy. 

Monday's Read Aloud is...drumroll please... How I Became a Pirate? by: Melinda Long and David Shannon . This is a story about a little boy that wants to join in a group of pirates. He joined them and realized it wasn't a good as home.   It is a cute story and my students loved it.  It was a creative book to read while talking about being group member.  Pirates aren't very nice people because they steal and are mean, but they are good group members.  They all get along; they all work together to get things done.  Living on a ship is hard work.  If people don't work together, they could get lost, not have enough food, or survive.  Their group members are all very important.  

I know...NOT a Friday! We don't have school Friday, so we decided to play games today!  We played with the same games, not new! No one wanted to play war.  I highly suggest having multiple options because children don't like the same thing longer than a couple of weeks.  But remember my tip: ASK for games from your fellow teachers.  Borrow them, then return! Don't spend all of your money! Another good reason to play Board Games: Planning and Organization  What I mean about this is the ability think ahead and figure out how to win.  Try to find the big picture in how to win, not just play by play.   We want them to see ahead in the future but also try to manage every turn thinking at the same time.   For example: The game TROUBLE.  The object of the game is to get all of your pegs out of the start, around the board, and into the "home" space.   In order get your pegs out of the start you have to get a 1 or a 6. Let's say that have one peg have half across the b

This week's theme is FOLLOWING A GROUP PLAN Problem solving skills is crucial in the classroom.  When they need a pencil, glue, extra directions, transitions, etc.   My goal at the end of the school year to build those problem-solving skills and create independent students.  For some students, this is a struggle.  So, my job is to create fun ways to learn how to solve those problems.   One way, I let them fail.  Yes, that is right. You heard it.  Some students need to fail.  What I mean about that is: if a student doesn't have a pencil. I don't intervene right away; I wait for them to figure out what to do.  I keep going with my lesson hoping they will either ask for help or finally problem solve.  I've had it where I get done with the entire math page and they student is still sitting there without one.  If that happens, I will get the students ready for the next part of our day and then I will quietly go by that student and ask them what is happening and help them thr

  UNO!  Such a fun game! This game doesn't have all the executive functioning skills, but it also has multiple directions to follow and adding (that is a huge plus).  I never thought of the students having a hard time holding the cards.  My students have a hard time with their fine motor skills so holding the cards can be very tricky for them.  Taking one thing off their plate was helpful.  We put the cards face up on the floor with their folders covering them up. With Uno you can have multiple players. I'd suggest keeping it to three students.  More than three is too long of a wait for them.  And with the multiple directions I think the student will get very lost.   But...my students love this! Many of the students knew the game right from playing it at home.  This was the first game students had an idea of how to play.    Back to why I write these Friday posts:  Have your heard of the term: INITIATION?  Initiation means: to start a game, play the game, follow the directions I

I showed the students what book we read on Monday: The Most Magnificent Thing by Ashley Spires . We reviewed what might happen when we are in a group and what we can do about it.  Today they were going to get into partner groups today (I made them smaller in hopes the future groups can get bigger).  There are a couple things I do in hopes to help my students get along in a group:  1. I was very honest with them. I told them that I will not allow them to create their own picture and they will sit out if they can't be a kind friend in a group.  2. I also put the students that were going to struggle in a group on purpose.  We have to get through being a bad group member. Talking through an argument with them and helping them resolve these problems will be great modeling for students.   3. My groups got smaller to get more practice on being good group members.  The students today got one piece of paper and I wanted them to draw me the most magnificent thing.  They needed to draw ONE th

My students struggle with the first STEM project we tried "Bear Cages".  Like I stated in that blog, your students are going to need time to understand and practice being in a group.  This might be the first time these students have been in groups.  That didn't have a "normal 4K" year (2020...you know) and Kindergarten they needed to be six feet apart.  So, this isn't going to be a normal transition, but in the future you students are going to thank you.  We reviewed what it met to have a group plan and show compassion.  I think started talking in a When I...Result sentences.  For example:  When I yell at my group members, they are going to get mad at me and not want to be in my group.  When I am bossy, my friends will get mad at me.  When I am not helping my group, my friends will get upset and want me to help.  When I am helpful, my friends will be happy.  When I am using kind words, my friends will use kind words back.   We read the book: The Most Magnifi

 Fun Friday's are Back! Yay! Students were excited! We discussed how this goes along with the group plan. Before the students played their games, we reviewed the rules and expectations.  After they chose their games, I made sure each group was on the same group plan.   I didn't introduced any new games. They played: War, Trouble, Candyland, or Chutes and Ladders.  How do Board Game help children? It helps their working memory . Working memory is the abililty to hold and store information. As they are playing all of these games there are different directions, different objectives, and different rules. Each game will make them stronger, and they don't even realize it.  Each game they will have information they will need to learn and remember.  This will lengthen their attention span and also help them with complete tasks in the future.  

I found an amazing website of read-alouds with stem activities.  The website: Teachers Are Terrific: Stem and Science  . A lot of my lesson this month are from them.  They are very creative and so cute!  We first read: Big Smelly Bear by Britta Teckentrup. It is about a smelly bear that wakes up with an itch. He finds another bear that tries to get him to bathe.  Not only does this align with a STEM project but you can talk a little about hygiene with them.   This book has a STEM activity that goes with it.  The challenge is to build a cage for the bear.  If you have the bear counters use them! It will make it more "real".  Your students can use any kind of craft supplies: popsicle sticks, construction paper, tape, glue, scissor, pipe cleaners, etc.   My students struggled with listening to each other on making a bear cage.  This time around students ended up splitting up and making their own being that I had so many popsicle sticks for them to use. Clearly the "group p