Really, do you wanna see something really cool?
Check this out (scan it or click it):
There are some pretty amazing things happening with our other-side next-door-neighbors, too, in Mrs. Hong’s class. Thought you should see it! I think I just might work in the most creative place ever!
Ever heard of a Squzzle? I hadn’t either, until earlier this Spring when I was searching for some activities to use to help my kids with GRIT and persistence through struggles. My friend, Mrs. Berger, who works with our gifted and talented kiddos (but helps us with countless other amazing things, too!), volunteered to share a big, ole crate of problem solving games with us to try, one of them being Squzzles.
Basically, Squzzles are square puzzles, made of 9 smaller squares covered with designs. The challenge is that they only fit together one way, and the images spread from one piece to another.
Because there are so many talented Robinson Roadrunners working on Squzzles (Mrs. Berger has shared them with many other classes besides mine!), she started Squzzle Hall of Fame bulletin boards where you can get your picture posted when you finish a Squzzle. Just thought it would be great to give our Squzzle puzzlers a shout-out here, too! Check out the smart thinking and GRIT-using that has been happening!
Way to go, Rm. 202 problem solvers! You are amazing!
Have you ever heard of Squzzles? What other kinds of puzzles do you like to do? Tell out about them! 🙂
The storytellers who visited us last week sure could! We had the pleasure of being visited by some professional storytellers on Friday, and MAN did they do a great job! We were amazed by the tales they spun, and everyone–adults and kids alike–were totally engaged!
The first storyteller has some hilarious stories about growing up–which were great, because we could all relate! The first story was about learning to play the juice harp, and all about the WRONG ways of doing it! He even played it for us, which was really cool! We found out that he is responsible for many sounds we hear in cartoons, as well, including the sound of Bullseye galloping in Toy Story 2 (since this is one of my family’s favorite movies, I got an extra kick out of that detail! Felt like I was in the presence of a legend!). The other story he told us about were the strange gifts he got from his grandpa, which included a rock and a stick, tied in a fancy red bow.
Our second storyteller came in full costume, which represented his Cherokee ancestry, told some amazing stories about animals, as well as Daniel Boone. The most unbelievable one was about Daniel Boone’s final hunting trip, where he encountered and then killed a bear, and then “wore” the bear hide to keep warm. He ended up heading up, crawling right into bed with his wife–still in his bear suit–and scaring her half to death! He told us it was true, but I have yet to find proof….either way, it was GREAT story that kept us interested until the very end.
I haven’t heard many live storytellers, but in many ways they are like me–lovers of words! I appreciate performers who can incorporate their words and their voices to weave magical tales for kids and help them want to do the same!
What story can you tell us? Have you ever heard a great storyteller? What about their performance was most interesting to you? Do you know if that Daniel Boone story is true?? We’d love to hear from you! 🙂
A couple of weeks ago we were invited to attend a very special writing celebration. Our next-door-neighbors (Ms. Turken’s class) had been working on writing persuasive arguments and wanted to share them with us!
She had kiddos divided into small groups, and everyone went around the circle and read aloud their essays. Their writing was great! We heard about a variety of topics, from girls being able to play traditionally “boy” sports, wearing helmets while skateboarding and bike riding, wearing seat belts and many more. We were definitely treated to many great essays, and are thinking differently about these topics because of the evidence they shared with their opinions. It was also helpful because we were getting ready to start this unit in our own Writer’s Workshop next! It has been great to be able to use this day as a touchstone in our own persuasive work. Great job, Ms. Turken’s class!
Check out a few more pics from this super learning opportunity:
What do you know about persuasive writing? What topic would you choose to write about if you had an opportunity to write an opinion essay? We’d love to hear your ideas–we’re just about ready to choose the ones we’ll write about! 🙂
First, a moment of cute that happened last weekend:
Don’t you just wanna squeeze those cheeks??
Ok, so back to that GRIT question…
We are now smack-dab in the midst of state testing, so GRIT, stamina and focus are essential this week! This is a poster hanging in our room right now to remind us to believe in ourselves, try our best and show what we know. That’s what assessments are for, after all, right? 🙂
Here are some other motivators from around our room:
Ms. Shifflett helped us out and got creative with paint the other day. 🙂
Another one. 🙂
Covered up some vocabulary words with encouraging ones!
There’s a calendar under there…
Even Mrs. Sisul got in on the fun! What encouraging words to remind us that we got it!
I have to say how PROUD I am of how much grit, stamina and focus I am seeing as my kiddos work this week! I am seeing examples of all of the smart testing strategies we’ve been talking about in action and I KNOW that we are SHOWING WHAT WE KNOW! PAT YOURSELF ON THE BACK, RM. 202! You are ROCKING this test!
What a great day in PE yesterday as everyone worked together to create the most amazing pyramid! This can only be done when EVERYONE does their part and works together as a team! Way to go Rm. 202! You rock!
I know, I know. You thought I had completely forgotten I had a blog. Because it’s been MONTHS since i have posted anything. No. Instead it has just been another one of those times in life when I have had so much to do that it’s been hard to find time to sleep and breathe, much less blog. :(. So here’s to getting back on the wagon, and back in the saddle again. 🙂
On Thursday we had some special visitors:
Mrs. Johnson, the counselor at our middle school, came over to give us a taste of the fabulousness that is Nipher, and she brought some important people with her: Mr. Nelson, the Educational Support Counselor; Officer Bonner, the School Resource Officer; and some old Robinson friends that are rockin’ sixth grade (here’s a big shout-out to my pals Devan and Ames who so perfectly represented their school)!
The started by answering some burning questions.
These included things like how much time you get between classes, if there are sports to play, and how much homework to expect. Then we played a trivia game where 5th graders answered questions about their soon-to-be school. Do you know the answers?
1. What is Nipher’s mascot?
2. On what road is Nipher located?
3. How many teams are in 6th grade?
4. What famous museum is located next door to Nipher?
5. Name one core class that 6th graders take and 1 Explo class they take.
(If you know these, or want to play along, leave a comment with your answers!)
Then Mrs. Johnson explained the important job of how to register for classes for next year.
Our time ended with picking up our registration folder, and being treated to a new fancy pencil or eraser. Gotta love that!
Now….the hard part will be staying in 5th grade for a few more months. 🙂 Nipher here we come!
It was group picture day today! Ok, so obviously this is a picture of us having our picture taken, but it’s here nonetheless. Say “cheese,” 5th grade!
Ok, so I have to admit making a really old reference to a less-than-great song from the early 90s with that title, but hey, it sounded good. 🙂
What is OBPP, you probably wondering? OBPP stands for the Olweus (ohl-vay-us) Bully Prevention Program that we have recently started at our school. It’s not new–just new to us–and is actually been around for years and based on some great research.
We began our Olweus journey with a very important definition. Regardless of what we (or our students) thought bullying was, this is now our school-wide, shared definition:
We started talking about this definition last fall, after we discussed what we thought it meant. What we found out was that we were not all on the same page. How important that we’re all now speaking the same language!
The second part of starting Olweus with our kiddos came by way of learning some new bullying rules. They are related to the Robinson Road Rules that we already have in place, but are specific to what every kiddo (and adult!) should do if we see bullying happening:
After we’d been working with these two important documents for a little while, and after the staff/teachers had done some learning together about OBPP, we were ready to officially kick this off with our kiddos. This happened on a really spectacular half-day in January.
Check it out!
We started the day off together as a whole school in an assembly. The energy in the gym was so great–wish we could do this every Friday!
5th Grade sang “Everyday Heroes”
Following our assembly, 3-5 grades rotated through some activities designed to get us motivated and excited about the work ahead.
First, we had a class meeting around our new bullying rules, and our thoughts about them.
During our 2nd rotation, we got to go to the gym to work with Mr. Lee on some tae kwon do. He’s been to our school before, and always has a great presentation for us.
Here we’re learning about how bullies are more likely to target people who seem like they don’t have confidence….
Among some other things, we also did some exercises. In this video, Landry did an AMAZING job of leading us. He is BEAST!
For our last rotation, we participated in something that teachers around Robinson do all the time–look at data. As part of the Olweus work from last year, every kiddo in grades 3-5 took a bullying survey and we were looking at the results. There were graphs up all around the cafe, and our job was to silently comment on what we thought about what we saw. (As a point of clarification–our answers are represented by the 4th grade data.)
What an amazing day of inspiration and learning! We are ready and motivated to make a difference in our school and our world!
I went to my first EdcampSTL two years ago. At that point I was a newbie on Twitter, and although I was excited about learning something new, I let my discomfort of going there by myself get in the way of having a great day. I didn’t talk to anyone, didn’t make any connections, and can’t even remember walking away with anything.
Then there was last year. EdcampSTL #2 was about 3000% better than the first go-round. I know that some of it was because I went with friends–my best friend, my hubby, actually :)–and since I had been on Twitter a year longer, I had some familiar faces I’d “met” online to connect with, as well. Plus, I guess like with most things, the second time you do something it’s always easier. I met a great new friend, as well, and have been able to learn and share much with her since then, too. Much better experience.
This year was the 3rd EdcampSTL, and it had the largest enrollment yet. We were actually hoping for a record, but I think the weather kept some away from the fun. 😦 For those of us who were there, though, it was a great day! I have to give a shoutout to by little bro, Chuck Baker, who is a fabulous teacher/father/tech guru/blogger, who came today for his first time! He even got in on the fun and presented a session. Gotta love the initiative there–I haven’t had the courage yet. 🙂 And then, yep, my more-than-fabulous hubby (who is also an amazing teacher, father and blogger in his own right!) Grant was in on the fun again, too; I love that we can do this whole teaching thing (as well as our Masters’ program) together. Adds a different level of help, support and even collaboration when he “gets” what I do. LOVE YOU, honey!!
While I attended several great sessions this time around, I think I am most excited about the one where I learned more about Makerspaces. I’ve been looking into Genius Hour for a little while now, and am also interested in problem/project based learning, and this was exciting to hear; two middle school science teachers shared real-life examples from their classrooms. While it won’t look exactly the same in my situation, I’m interested in getting it all figured out. I’m thinking about doing a really basic, Valentine’s version of a makerspace this week for Valentine’s boxes. Not exactly how it’s supposed to work, but I think it could be a good way to introduce it. Guess we’ll see!
I know to some it seems weird to go to school on a Saturday, to make a choice to get up early to learn on your day off. Believe me, I wouldn’t do it for everything, but for EdcampSTL, it’s totally worth it! Join me next year, will ya? 🙂
20somethingkids and 1kookyteacher 