3rd Grade Study Skills Unit #1

3rd Grade is starting a new unit on work habits, and being a better student in school.  This is part of my academic GLE's, from my curriculum.  They will be learning with Helen K. the honeybee- pictured above.  Helen is a puppet.  She is named after Helen Keller.
In lesson #1- the kids learn about honeybees and their work habits.  They learn about the 3 rules of hardworking honeybees- Be serious, Be positive and Be persistent.
The students worked on creating a goal for themselves- which of the 3 rules could they work on, to be a better student?  Ask your 3rd grader which they chose :)
Helen will be back next time to teach another new work habit!

5th Grade Decision Making #2

5th grade is continuing our discussion about decision making.  We discussed how our personalities can effect the way we make decisions.  We learned about several types of decision making personalities- a bumper car, a race car, a family van or an 18 wheeler.  A bumper car personality has a hard time coming to a final decision- they "bump around."  They make a decision quickly, see something else they like and change their decision.  A race car personality makes a decision very quickly and sticks to it- they do not consider any other options.  A family van personality takes forever to make a decision- considering all possibilities and thinking lots before coming to a conclusion.  An 18 wheeler personality is one that makes a decision and sticks to it, no matter what the other options or suggestions are- they do not budge.

We talked about how all of these are appropriate at different times- it would be good to be a family van if you get money for your birthday and need to decide what to buy.  It would be good to be a race car in the lunch line.  It would be good to be a bumper car at recess.  It would be good to be an 18 wheeler when you make a decision when you make a decision around peer pressure- are people trying to get you to do something you don't want to do?  It would be good to make a decision (hopefully a good one) and stick by it, no matter what.

Talk to you 5th grader about what decision making personality they think they are!

4th Grade Coping Unit #1

We are starting a new unit in 4th grade, about coping.  We worked on defining coping, and discussed what it means to us.  Coping is "dealing effectively with difficult things."  We talked about approaching our problems with 3 C's- control, change or cope.  We discussed how hard life is sometimes- we all have problems we encounter.  How can you deal with them?  Can you control your problem? Can you change it? If neither- you will have to cope with it.  We discussed how problems are either rock or clay problems.  I asked the students to come up with a rock and a clay problem they have experienced.  Next time, we will discuss how to cope effectively with our rock problems.

3rd Grade Baditude

Julia Cook is one of my favorite authors!  We read this book together and discussed what to do when life does not go the way you want it to- when it gets hard.  We discussed what hard things we have been through.  It was a great discussion- ask your 3rd grader how their attitude has been lately :)

2nd Grade Diversity

2nd Grade is learning about Diversity!  We discussed all of the different ways we are different from each other.  We compared skin color, eye color, hair lengths and color, clothing styles, likes and dislikes, etc.  It was fun to watch the kids learn about the differences amongst themselves!  We celebrated those differences.  We read the book The Sneetches by Dr. Seuss.  In the book, there was a certain group of Sneetches who thought they were better than the others because of how they look.  We had a great discussion about not judging others based on how they look on the outside, but getting to know them as a person and look inside.  Ask your 2nd Grader which group of Sneetches thought they were better than the other, and why  :)

2nd Grade Personal Safety

Julia Cook is one of my favorite authors!  I'm so excited to share this book with the kids!  2nd grade is working on personal safety.  We read the book above and talked about how to be safe, especially around strangers.  In the book, Julia Cook discusses 5 scooper safety rules- to help the kids remember how to be safe.  S- be smart C- call list O- zerO talking to strangers, O- keep strangers out of your personal space, P- pair up.  Ask your 2nd grader about the SCOOPER safety rules!

1st Grade Study Skills Unit #1

This is one of my favorite units for 1st grade!  I bring in the penguin puppet.  His name is P. Revere Penguin, and he teaches the kids good work habits and study skills.  For the first lesson, I introduce the penguin and share some interesting facts about penguins.  Then the penguin takes over- the kids love it!  He talks to them, and there's a song that plays.  For this lesson, we discuss the importance of penguins working quietly- with their job of collecting food.  We connect this back to us, and discuss what our jobs are at school and why it's important to work quietly.  Ask your 1st grader about P. Revere Penguin :)  He will be back next time to discuss another important work habit.  Stay tuned!

1st Grade Safety

During this lesson, we learned through looking at comics!  We went online to this website- elementarysafety.com and learned about all kinds of safety- safety at home, fire safety and safety outside.  There's so much more to learn from this amazing website- feel free to check it out with your 1st grader!

Kindergarten Families

During our lesson on Families, we read The Family Book by Todd Parr.  We discussed all of the different types of families there could be.  We celebrated our different families.  They learned all about each other's families and realized their families are special, no matter who they are.  They learned that a family is a group of people who love and support you, no matter what.  It's fun to watch them realize there are other types of families, besides theirs.

Kindergarten Feelings

Kindergarten has started talking about feelings.  We read this book and discussed the feelings listed in the book.  I find that kids are so good at identifying basic feelings- sad, mad, happy, etc. and do not understand there are other types of feelings.  We talk more in depth about the other types of feelings- frustrated, jealous, excited, etc. and they share about a time when they felt these feelings.  We also complete a worksheet where they draw in a face to help recognize and identify the feelings.