The Social Teacher

DAY 1: Getting Prepared and Learning From Our Mistakes This is a three part blog! Today we read the book The Three Little Pigs . There are so many versions and authors of this story, any one will do.  I wanted the students to just understand that a house was built three different ways.  Two didn't make it past the wolf and one did. The brick house was the strongest.   After reading the story, we discussed the pros and cons of a hay, sticks, and brick houses.   Our next STEM project will be very similar to this storyline.  Today they looked at their materials and we discussed pros and cons to the materials:  -variety of shape blocks (you won't know what shape you get -wooden blocks, arms length of tape OR -structure blocks, no tape OR -straws, all the tape you want OR Here were the pros and cons of each groups materials.  You can see my students really thought about the materials and how if they used them what could go wrong and why they would...

This game has nothing to do with the Beanie Baby Breathing blog.  This is a game that involves two (maybe three, depending on your class) beanie babies.  I get the students into a circle (sitting).  I make sure all the students are touching knees. I don't want to the students to have a bunch of space in between them, nor do I want them on top of each other.   Once the students are all settled, I tell them the object of the game: watch the beanie baby, don't let it fall.  The students toss the beanie baby in the same order for the game.  Each student will get to catch and throw the beanie bag once.   The first time we do it together.  We repeat who gets the beanie baby every time we get to the next person.  So, repeat the order 22 times because I have 22 students.  This will help the students remember who got it and the order the beanie baby goes through.   The first time we do this we only use one beanie baby. ...

 This is the last Mindful Monday.  All of the lessons were created and taught by MHA of Sheboygan County.  You need to be trained by them in order to receive the resources and videos. I highly recommend it.  Our last lesson was a video and coloring activity.  This lesson is about setting the intentions for the remaining for the school year.  My students created posters of their favorite mindful resource. These are up in our classroom to remind us how and when to use them! 

This lesson was taught with our writing lesson today.  My students have been struggling with what to write.  When I saw this lesson was coming up, I thought let's put them together.  This week is all about if you are struggling with feeling sad or mad a lot. Write a list of all of the things you are grateful for. After watching the video. I told my students to take out a piece of paper.   Before my students got to writing what they are grateful for, I had them do a body scan.  After our body scan they their mind was more clear for this assignment.   I showed my students my grateful list.  I wanted to show them an example in case they were struggling.  I know my students should be grateful for many things, but I don' t think they realize they should be grateful for them.  I wrote: my family, my home, my camper, my house, my food, my favorite sports team, etc. This got their mind thinking of the things in their life and they wrote dow...

I am so sad I wait to do this at this time of the school year.  I wish I could do it at least one or twice a month.  This activity was from the Mindfulness training I did way back in February. This lesson is an extenstion off of lesson Week 8.  One way to show generosity is using kind words to each other and use words of encouragement. I gave each student two sticky notes.  One sticky is a compliment to a friend, the other words of encouragement of their self.  I loved reading there responses!

 Being Mindful is also about being kind and generous.   This is a quick lesson about how to be and show generosity.   After watching the video, I give the students take to think about how someone has shown you generosity in our classroom? I make a list.  (HERE IS OURS) Then I ask... How can we show generosity? We think of many ways, I write them down.  Then an idea popped into my head.  Teacher Appreciation is coming up.  My students created cards for all of the teachers in our building to show them generosity.   They were so excited about these cards. They were proud of themselves, and they wanted these cards to look their absolute best.  Here are some of them below! They were so adorable! 

First how is the Mindful resource bucket going... 1. We had to talk about how only one student can use it at a time.  2. You use it for two minutes, then go back to your seat.  3. No one will use the calming jar, only a teacher can hold it.  4. Use it only during lessons, not when you are coming back from recess.   It is going well.  It has been used at the correct times, and the incorrect times.  It is a learning process for us all.  This week is about being aware of your emotions and how to control them using mindful moments.  After watching the video, we mostly discussed the emotion: mad. My students and I talk about our emotions daily.  We discuss how to control our emotions during the day. The one we struggle with is being mad.  After watching the video, we discussed that it is okay being mad.  It is going to happen.  I even told them that teachers get mad.  But how we control our anger can be helpful using mindf...

Quick...the floor is lava! We all know this game.  You say, "The Floor is Lava" and the person has ten seconds to find somewhere to get off the floor.  It is hilarious watching those videos.  I got this lesson walking through school one day and saw in a classroom, students doing something like this. I don't know if this is exactly what they were doing, but this is what I turned it into.   This STEM activity I used as a filler.  If my students were done with their math page and had a little bit of time before the next lesson, I had them complete this activity.   Each group of students get three plastic cups, 3 popsicle sticks, 4 index cards, and three little bear/penguin counters.  The objective of the game is to get the three bears as far off the ground as possible.  The students love trying to their work done quickly so they can try to get their bears the highest.  This was this groups idea today! 

 If you read yesterday's Blog on being aware of your emotions, you learned the biggest part of being mindful is understanding and noticing your emotions.  When you notice that your body isn't listening to the teacher, or you are really mad and can't control your emotions it is time to give yourself a mindful moment.   Most of those moments are intentional breathing: crab hands, star ball, and today BEANIE BABY BREATHING.  When I explain how to take a deep breath, student really understand what I mean by that.  I have the students lie down on the floor and put a beanie baby on their bellies.  When they breath in their beanie babies should go up, and when they breathe out their beanie baby should go down.   This is a great visual of want your intentional breaths should look like. Their minds will be clearer when they do their Mindful Moments on their own.  

 How many thoughts do you think you have a day? Too many to count right?  This week's Mindful Monday lesson is all about thoughts.  Good thoughts and bad thoughts.  The bad thoughts are your thoughts that distract you during the day.  After watching the video, my students and I compared our thoughts to the Zones of Regulation.  We talked about our good thoughts mean we are in the green because we are using our thoughts to help us learn and stay focused on what we are learning to grow. We also talked about our distracted thoughts mean we are in the yellow.  And our mad or angry thoughts are in the red.   My students had a good understanding of the thoughts and how to help them learn or the ones that distract them.   I decided to try something, and we will see how it goes.  I placed a bucket our mindful resources for my students to use while I am teaching.  If a student is noticing their thoughts are distracting them, they c...

 5 Senses...we use them every day...but have you really slowed down and actually look and see it? Or listen? Or smell? Or feel it? Or hear it?  We all take those things for granted and it is when we don't have it is when we actually noticed it.  It is amazing that we have our five senses.   Our Mindful Mondays are lessons from the MHA of Sheboygan County.  My district had the amazing opportunity to get trained in a mindful classroom.  These lessons that I have talked about are all from them.   We first watched the video of the speaker explaining how to use our five senses and noticing the amazing things around us.  A mindful moment is taking the present moment and giving us kindness and grace for a moment to completely focus on one thing, take a break, and go back to real life.  Our five senses can help us to that.  The students practiced taking a mindful moment and took a moment to listen to the noises around them and then we ...

The title itself explains what it is...it is a station were the students creations flow.  I take any art supplies: scrap paper, construction paper, glue, scissors, paint, egg cartons, bingo dotters, popsicle sticks, pipe cleaners, stickers, puffy stickers...serious you name it, we use it!  And the students just create.  CREATE! Without any rules, expectations, the students just go at it! I do give it a time limit (20-30 minutes). The student's attention span last only about 30 minutes.  This is a great way to see my student's creative side and their personality can shine through.   Make sure you leave enough time for the cleanup and plastic bags for projects to put in.  

 I have a quick and easy STEM project to do with your students.  This doesn't need a ton of materials either.  It is called: The Longest Chain. I am not sure where I got this idea, I saw it online somewhere. When I find it, I will post it.  But today was a good day to do it.  It was an indoor recess day and the students didn't need a Work N Play time because indoor recess has used up a lot of our indoor playtime.  I didn't want to the students to go on Ipads either.  So we did this activity.  You only need 20-30 minutes, depending on your students.  You need: scissors, glue stick, and one piece of typing paper. The objective is to have the long paper chain.  I first show how to make a paper chain. Then I tell them they need to first think about how they are going to make it the longest.  I gave my students 30 minutes.  At first, I gave them 20 minutes.  I noticed my students really struggling with this activity, so I gave ...

 I can't say this word enough: MODEL! To model is to imitate.  If you aren't seeing your students playing the board games correctly by now, take a break and start model how to play a board game.  Maybe your reading specialist, cross categorical teacher, a paraprofessional, or even better your principal come in a play on of the board games and model positive behavior and negative behavior.  EXAMPLE OF POSITIVE:  *Model using a game that your students love to play but struggle regulating their feelings.  Have at least three adults playing and play the game.  Say nice things to each other, follow the rules, and when you lose say oh well, next time. The winner will say good job and give high fives.  During this whole time, you are explaining your thinking.  Say out loud because it is going clockwise.  EAMPLE OF NOT BEING ABLE TO REGULATE FEELINGS:   *Now, model how to play negatively.  Start by arguing who goes first, then sta...

 This is my favorite thing in the world. The students sit in a circle, and we just talk.  That is truly it.  We call it the kindness circle because we can only be kind (no laughing at people's ideas or comments) and we always start it with nice things to say about each other.   I enjoy the "comments" part because my students are asked to pick other kids in the classroom but their besties.  We also talk about how to say a comment.  The first time we did this it was just "I like Kyles' shirt" or "Katie has cute shoes".  Then we started using "Ann as nice handwriting", and "I like it when Betty plays with my at recess".  It turned from materialistic things to heart felt things.  I also take this time to get to know my students. Yes, in March I still ask questions to get to know them. Each student grows into a whole new kiddo towards the end of the school year.  I ask really random question: favorite color, favorite food, favorite s...

Do you ever notice yourself in a meeting, you kid's winter concert, or something that gets you to sit a long time? Do you notice that after 15-20 minutes, your body starts to wiggle? You may move a little in your seat, move your hands.  Your brain might start to think of other things other than what you are supposed to be paying attention to?  Us adults realize when we are not paying attention. Kids do not.  It is our job to help them notice their body senses. When they to a point that they are not paying attention to the teacher and they body is wiggling, it is time for a break.  BREAKS ARE OKAY. LET THE STUDENTS TAKE THEM! Lesson 4 of A Mindful Classroom (from the MHA in Sheboygan County) is all about helping students understand their body senses.  After watching the video of the explanation, my students find a spot in the classroom to lay down.   Then I create a story of a calming place. Normally I say a field of purple flowers, the sun is shining, ...

If you are turning into my Monday blogs. It is all about A Mindful Classroom. These are NOT my ideas, but I am reflecting on each lesson in hopes that your take it upon yourself to get the training.    I think learning about your brain should be a class teacher take in college.  I think that would be very useful to learn why some students act out and how to calm them down.   Lesson #3 in A Mindful Classroom is all about the brain.  The video explains the parts (in a kid friendly way) of the brain and what is the job of each part.   It explains to the students when you get antsy or really mad, you flip your lid, and you are using a part of the brain that won't talk to people. There are ways to get you to calm yourself down.  One way is through a Mindful Moment.  Have you heard of the "Calming Jar"? It is a jar made with sequences that you shake up and it was flies around the jar. The sequences start to settle to the bottom of the jar....

 Friday Fun Day! This is the last day before spring break. This post will be short and sweet because... MAN, WHO ISN'T READY FOR SPRING BREAK? The Friday boards games have become very successful in my classroom. My students look forward to these board games every week. I've added a new game: Hi Hi Cherry-O!   Not only is this game going to help with their adding and subtracting skills (put your Kindergarten math level students at this game to start) but it will also help students with their executive functioning skills (all of my Friday blogs details).  Today's blog Friday fun and one my whys for board games is very basic: NO SCREEN TIME.  Truly get them off the screens.  I know, my students are on screens for educational purposes, I know.  But sometimes screen activate some behaviors in the classroom.  Screens over stimulate children which then sets off some behaviors in the classroom that could distract other students.  Getting them of...

Alright, I was very interested to see these Lego crayon boxes because their drawings weren't as detailed as I'd like. This STEM project is from   Miss Tech Queen . The students were to create a crayon box using legos.  I told them it had to hold 4 crayons.   Last week we read the book:  The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt.   Today they created! I was very impressed! 

Another Friday Fun Post Comin' At Ya! By now we have been playing board games on a Friday for a while now. My Friday lesson plan have turned into a lot of fun.  This group of students are not used to full weeks at school.   It's true! 4K they learned at home (1/2 days before COVID hit).  Kindergarten our district had "cleaning days" once a month.  That was a four-day week, along with their normal days off for PD days.  There are many months they only have two, five-day weeks.  This year has been long for them and you can tell by their attention spans and effort level on a Friday isn't the same as the other days.  Our Friday schedule looks like this:  SNACK, NUMBER CORNER, READ ALOUD WITH ART ACTIVITY READING GROUPS RECESS EXTRA GYM TIME LUNCH RECESS BOARD GAMES MATH WORK PLACES SPECIAL RECESS ART ACTIVITY GO HOME You see that is very relaxed. The student don't realize the social and emotional learning that is going on in the classroom.  ...