We got our slates today!

I love technology with a capital "L" but using personal dry-erase boards in the classroom has to be one of the best low-tech learning tools ever. 

On Friday, we'll have a quick mini-lesson on the life of a pioneer student. The boys and girls will learn about how all grades were in one room and all work was done on a slate. It seems fitting that given students will be learning about pioneers in our Social Studies lessons later in year, that we refer to our white boards as "slates". 

We've already had an important talk about taking care of the slates and markers, how they will be used in many ways to help students to be more successful and about how misuse will result in the slate living it up in my desk drawer for a week.  

Oh, and on Friday, we'll also talk about how the pioneer teacher would live with her students' families for a month at a time. So I thought come January/February, when we begin our unit, in order to fully immerse the students in the subject, I'll be knocking on doors. 

Ha! Just kidding! 
Unless there's cake.   

A lovely day!

We had the loveliest of days today!  Nothing fancy, just a really nice, really smooth day.  It's exciting to watch my students adapt to their new classroom, the expectations and routines. 
Let me tell you a few of the great things we're mastering in Room 208 these days! 

• shaking hands and making eye-contact when doing so 
• tucking in our chairs
• copying our agendas correctly and in a timely manner 
• transitioning from different learning areas in the room (e.g. going from our seats to the carpet, quickly and quietly)
• washing our desks after lunch 
• reading for a sustained period of time during the independent reading period each afternoon 
• sitting appropriately on the carpet without reminders when I'm reading to or teaching the class 
• using our "Portable Word-Wall" to get help with spelling unfamiliar words (see pic below) 
  

Parents and families, please encourage your child to continue their hard work and excellent self-regulation!  

We read (most of) a great new text this morning called "Those Shoes" by Maribeth Boelts.  It's a very relatable story and students are going to do lots of interesting writing about this text and the connections they make. This booklet is a great way for the boys and girls to learn more about what's expected of them in terms of writing in grade three.  

In Math, we started our new unit!  Students wills be reviewing addition and subtraction strategies with a bit of patterning tossed in for fun!  You can read an older post here with the big ideas and learning goals of this unit.  

This week, our focus is on addition and subtraction strategies and key words in a problem that tell us we need to add or subtract.  

And we're really coming along with a number of projects from last week!  Most students have finished up their "Popcorn Guy" and their Number-sense folders! Parents, please encourage your child to make great use of their class time. They're getting better and better at this!

And of course, like most days in Room 208, we wrapped up the day with our Brag Tag ceremony!  We love our tags!  

What is schema?

We had an important talk on Wednesday. We talked about schema.  

What is schema? 
I use a book by literacy expert, Debbie Miller as my guide. Reading With Meaning is one of those books I come back to time after time in my literacy instruction. Debbie Miller is *that teacher*. When I was a kid, I wanted hair like Blair from Facts of Life. As a teacher, I want to be just like Debbie Miller. 

Schema is all the stuff in your head. It's your experiences, your likes, your dislikes, your friends, your knowledge, all that good stuff. Basically, it's the prior knowledge that you bring to the table when you read a book, watch a movie, have a conversation, just about any experience you have. 

When we read, we use our schema to connect with the text. It's really the deciding factor in whether or not we like a book. If you can't connect to a text on some level, you likely won't enjoy it.  Without our schema, we're just reading words and not relating, we're not constructing meaning and having a conversation with our self.

You have more fun with a text when you can relate to it. We can likely all think of a story that we just never got "into" (hello Harry Potter...I'm looking in your direction).

When you use your schema, you say to yourself, "Hey, that happened to me once" and you can appreciate how the character must feel, you can put yourself in their shoes.  

So now that the boys and girls know what we mean when we talk about schema, we say it a lot. In fact, even when dealing with challenging situations that arise throughout the day, I might say to a child, "Now you can add this to your schema, so you'll know what to do next time." We don't only use our prior knowledge to assist with reading. I get a lot of mileage out of this word! 

As a youngster, I loved reading Judy Blume books because I could so easily relate to many of the themes in her stories.  I didn't realize it at the time, but that connection, that use of my schema, is why I devoured every one of her books. When we use our schema, we tend to see reading as a more pleasurable activity.  

The boys and girls learned and reviewed all kinds of new words: schema, connection, relate and prior knowledge. It was a great Literacy Block and as we move through the year, my hope is that the students will see how using their schema takes reading to a whole new level.

Reading With Meaning by Debbie Miller  

Fabulous fluent readers!

Each morning, students are responsible for volunteering to read something from our Morning Message.  You can read all about Morning Messages from an older blog post here.  I've tweaked and updated things since then, but the overall purpose remains the same.  

Here are some screen shots from a recent M.M.    

Students are invited to identify new (and often fake) events I post on our calendar as a way to develop oral communication confidence.  They are required to speak in full sentence (e.g. "I notice that on Saturday September 9th, we're going to a baking class.) 

I purposely design my messages so that there are reading opportunities for every level.  The focus is on participation, developing fluency and building skills in quick, short, commercial-type bursts of information.   

We also review our T.O.T.W (Text of the Week) each morning. We read the text together and then students respond to a variety of questions that help prepare them for the test that Friday.  

One area where I would like to see the boys and girls grow, is around fluency.  I would like to see oral reading sound more smooth, like the way we talk.  What exactly is fluency?  I would like to refer you to the photos below from Jennifer Serravallo's "The Reading Strategies Book". This resource has greatly influenced the way I teach reading for the last few years. I can't recommend it enough to teachers and to parents who are interested in supporting their child at home.  Please click on the photos to read what she has to say.  

To help support my students, I wrote this story over the weekend. 

I'm asking that parents have their child read it aloud each night.  The text is quite simple and most students should be able to read it with little support. Please encourage your child to: 

• group words into phrases so it sounds natural when read aloud
• try to sound like the character (he doesn't actually speak in the story, but there are opportunities to express his exasperation and excitement) 
• avoid reading word-by-word (we call that "robot reading") 
• pay attention to punctuation! Pause at commas and show excitement at exclamation points.
• monitor pace: we don't want to read too fast or too slow 

I think that with practice and a little bit of nudging from the grown-ups who love them, my students will be able to become very fluent readers! 

Two very important chats!

Last week, we talked a lot about how to show initiative in the classroom and school.  I explained to the boys and girls that within our little community, when they see a problem they can (within reason) solve (e.g. sweeping up a mess they didn't create) they are invited to do so.  Asking me, "Mrs. M, would you like me to hand back those agendas?" is another way children can show initiative in the classroom.  Taking it upon oneself to tidy up some papers on an absent classmate's desk shows initiative, so does straightening up the carpet pillows while waiting for Evening Meeting to begin.  These are all safe and reasonable ways children can begin to develop their leadership skills.  

On Thursday, we talked about another important trait: being accountable for our actions. I explained that when we're accountable, we accept responsibility for what we've done, apologize if necessary and don't blame others for our actions (e.g. "She did it too" or "It was his idea"). We also don't deny what we've done as this causes confusion for others, especially teachers and parents. 

Being accountable means being responsible and owning our...um...less than "5-star"decisions (guess who's been shopping on Amazon?).

I believe that even in grade three, children can develop their leadership skills. By explicitly teaching kids how to show initiative and role playing accountable talk, we can (and I know this sounds cliche) help children be the best version of themselves,  but we also provide them with a foundation on which to build even stronger skills, and those are the people that change the world. If you can admit you were wrong when you're 8 and fully own and apologize for the decision to eat the teacher's lunch,  AND you think to organize an absent classmate's desktop full of papers, what does that look like when you're 18? While you might have a hard time keeping your hands off someone else's sandwich, you're likely a person who is confident, compassionate, creative, dependable and responsible.

And of course, we have Brag Tags for this! 

     

It still smells so good!

A new school year, new teacher, new classroom, new expectations, new, new, new!  It can be hard for an 8 year old to keep up with all this new-ness!  They're even on a new floor in the school!  

I don't know about you, but I can't do my best when I'm feeling overwhelmed, so this year, I'm trying something different: Play Doh.  

In addition to initiatives such as Brag Tags, morning handshakes, lots of singing and happy notes in the agenda, I'm  using Play Doh first as a confidence booster and community builder, and then as an actually learning tool.

Here's a bit of our backstory: each student had to "earn" their Play Doh this week and I'm proud to say, that by Tuesday afternoon, they've all done so.  By copying their agendas neatly, correctly, and in a timely manner, they were able to choose their color from the reading table. Students were told to put the Play Doh in their desks and that at some point this week, an explanation would be given.  The curiosity started building right away!  

On Tuesday afternoon, the boys and girls learned the rules around the Play Doh:  

• it stays in our desk until we're asked to take it out
• using the Play Doh will require a great deal of listening 
• we're likely not talking when we're using our Play Doh 
• if expectations are not followed, the Play Doh is put away for the session and one becomes "an observer" 
• little bits of Play Doh are not to be removed to play with at our leisure  
• natural consequences will be experienced if the lid is not replaced correctly and the PD dries out 
• we can't be pounding our desks with the PD because the purpose of our sessions is to relax our mind, focus on developing our listening skills, overall self-regulation and support our learning

Finally, around 1:55 on Tuesday afternoon, the boys and girls were told that if they "Took out their agendas, retrieved their lunch bags from the shelf in the classroom and lined up quietly to pack their school bags for the night" I would have a big announcement. They knew where this was going.  See what happened right there? A common goal to work toward and they succeeded! 

From there the instructions were, "You may open your Play Doh and play with it. Please do not talk, just enjoy your time. If you want to communicate with someone, you must find a way to do so without actually speaking."  That was their challenge and once again, success!  

When they couldn't get their Play Doh out of the container, they silently asked for help and a table-mate assisted (relationships building!). From start to finish (including the trip in the hallway to pack those school bags) this all took about 6 minutes and it was well worth it. Everyone went out for recess with a huge smile on their face and I believe it was the highlight of our day. 

I'm really excited about all the different ways we can use our Play Doh in the classroom.  I found some great ideas here to support my students' learning, but right now, the focus is on simply developing our listening skills, showing responsibility for our own success and learning materials, along with building relationships.  I'm hoping it helps my students relax, and because they're able to follow my simple instructions and expectations, they feel like they're succeeding in grade three, regardless of their reading level or math skills.  

I think we're on to something here! And I couldn't resist, there's 19 students in my class, but I picked up an extra can for myself, just to take a whiff and go back in time!   

What's a whisper-phone?

Well they're just the greatest thing ever! Sure, I could have bought them from some fancy-dancy school supply website, but when your Valentine happens to be a handy feller, you get a class-set for less than latte (say that five times fast!)!  

A little ABS pipe and elbows (did I get that right, dear?) and we're talking greatest classroom tool ever. 

A whisper-phone is just that. It looks like a phone and when you whisper into it, you can hear yourself. Students can monitor their own reading fluency and proofread their work to see if it "sounds right". The boys and girls will be asked to read all their work into a whisper-phone prior to handing it in. It's such an effective tool because children can hear themselves read without disturbing others.  They also help students who are reluctant to read aloud to the class develop their confidence.  

Each student in my class has one in their desk and they are welcome to not only use them to proofread their own writing, but during any reading opportunities throughout the day. 

What's Fun Friday?

We have a long standing tradition in room 208 called "Fun Friday". Most Fridays I plan something super-fun to complement the week's learning. Occasionally, we're not able to have Fun Friday, but I always do my best to make our Friday afternoon special. Sometimes the activities build math skills, other times, it's more of an arts focus.  And every now and then, we do some cooking on Fun Friday (which usually goes hand-in-hand with whatever we're learning in math)!  I especially love "Puzzle Day" because it gives the boys and girls a chance to develop their interpersonal skills and work together on a non-competitive group task.  

Our theme for last week's Fun Friday was "You're oh-fish-ially in grade three!"  and the boys and girls learned how to draw a cartoon fish!  Next Friday, we hope to paint them.  We were a bit short on time because the first FF usually takes a bit longer to get rolling, so next week, I'll read the boys and girls this great story to kick off our afternoon and we'll enjoy our very appropriate snick-snack!  

We love Fun Fridays in room 208 and I'm sure parents and blog visitors will too! 

Do you know about brag tags?

Once again, I'm so excited to be using brag tags as a motivational tool in my classroom. You can read all about them and why I love them so much in a blog post from last year here. 

I set up our bulletin board on Tuesday night and the kids were so excited to hang up their lanyards on their personalized hook.  

We had our first "official" brag tag meeting this afternoon and it went really well. Prior to handing out the brag tags that were earned today, we talked specifically about the following: 

• We must remember to applaud our classmates when they earn a tag.
• How will we cope when we don't receive a tag? After all, not everyone receives a tag every day? 
• They're called "Brag Tags", but we know we should not actually boast about how many we have or which ones we've earned. We'll need to stay humble and gracious about our tags.  

So right now, we're really working on these three points. We talked a lot today about what a good and supportive audience member looks and sounds like.  We even practiced cheering for classmates when they earned a tag. Being able to cope with "not winning" is also a secondary benefit of Brag Tags. It's really and essential skill that helps children learn to develop emotional resilience and builds collaboration.  

At this stage, everyone wants to earn, earn, earn,  but soon, my students will be able to look through their collection of tags and begin to tell a story: a story of hard work, special memories and many achievements.