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.  

You're finally here!

We had a wonderful first day together! We got to work right away learning new routines and procedures. We talked about the three most important things we need to bring to school each day: our manners, our sense of humor and a kind heart. We also took a look at our Morning Message, where we learned the 12 "big things" we need to remember (see below).

Tomorrow will begin to look more like a typical day when we shake hands in the morning as we enter the room.  This is a huge classroom routine and I look forward to starting it on Wednesday. A good handshake is invaluable and by the end of this month, students will be shaking hands like a pro and will have a better understanding of the importance of eye contact and why it's essential to be sincere and engaging in our interactions with others. We also had fun talking about what a good handshake looks like (and what a bad one looks like-that's where we had some laughs!) 

We began working on this back to school booklet I created. We measured our moods throughout the day by checking in with this page often.  

We will continue our work in this booklet this week.    

This afternoon we read a really funny story by Melanie Watts called, "You're Finally Here!"  Prior to reading the text, I got to know my students by asking them some questions that related to the story: 

• Have you ever had to wait for someone that was really, really late?
• What do you do when you're bored?
• What do we mean by the phrase, "We got off on the wrong foot?" 
• What annoys you? 
• What's a contract?  
• Why was this book written? What is Ms. Watt trying to teach her audience?  

The kids got a kick out of the book and we all enjoyed a very lively discussion about what annoys us and what we do when we're bored! 

So that's our day in a nutshell, and if today is any indication, it's going to be a great year! I try to update the blog as often as I can, but for a fun "mini-blog" and more regular look at our day, be sure to follow @meandmythrees on Instagram!