We had so much fun getting performing our Reader's Theaters for our Book Buddies last Friday! Each group practiced their fluent reading by adding in expression, using appropriate pacing, and changing our voices to sound like different characters. Each student wore either pipe cleaner headband ears to match their character or a narrater necklace.
These are the plays students performed: The Tortoise and the Hare The Three Little Pigs The Three Billy Goats Gruff Snake's Birthday
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Check out some of our kids who participated in Bike To School Day on May 10th! Thank you to all of the family volunteers and the middle school student helpers! This April, students participated in the Flat Stanley literacy and social studies project. Students wrote letters to friends and family around the World and mailed them with a Flat Stanley. Recipients were asked to take Flat Stanley on adventures around their hometown and to send him back to us with photos of his travels.
With the help of a Dover SEED grant that gifted our classroom a webcam, microphone and high quality speakers, we were able to take this project to a digital level. Our class used Skype to communicate with two of our Flat Stanley recipients - Ms. Allen's sister, Kristin Allen, and her 9th grade English students in Madrid, Spain as well as Ms. Gennett's friend, Dr. Fathima Muzamil (nickname - Muji), a recent recipient of her Doctorate in Physics from the University of New Hampshire. Students prepared questions to ask to learn about the culture, environment, school, and favorite activities. Our class has plans to Skype again with the Madrid students in Ms. Allen's class! WOW - my last post was March 1st?! Clearly it has been a VERY busy March and April. I will try during vacation to post a few updates about all the amazing things we have been doing in the classroom over the past two months! Ms. Allen's last day was Friday before vacation. She has completed all the requirements for her internship with the University of New Hampshire and will graduate with honors in May! We are so very proud of her! Jenn has been such an integral part of your child’s learning and growth this year. Throughout the school year, Ms . Allen has taken the time to get to know each and every student, enabling her to support each child in the way that best fits their needs. Her classroom management, professionalism, instructional techniques, and knowledge of the curriculum far surpasses her years of experience. She is an incredible teacher and will be very missed! Below is a picture of the monogrammed tote bag that was filled as a gift from all of the students. Each student left a fingerprint inside the tote bag, creating a class caterpillar. Students made special cards and notes to be included as well. Thank you for all of the donations to help fill Ms. Allen’s bag! The school supplies and gift cards will be extremely helpful as she prepares to have her own classroom! Our class worked together to create an Adobe Spark video highlighting some of the amazing lessons Ms. Allen taught. This truly was a collaborative, student project. As the teacher, I compiled the pictures, but the students came up with the narration. Click on the link below to watch the video. (Make sure you have your tissues handy!) Ms.Allen'sGoodbyeVideoThis Fall, I applied for a Dover SEED Grant (Seacoast Educational Endowment for Dover) with another first grade teacher, Maria Frangione, for both of our classrooms to be equipped with a microphone, quality speakers, and a webcam. Our plan is to utilize Skyping as a tool to build students' digital literacy and communication skills in connection with our traditional spring social studies and letter writing unit. You can see our project and other projects that were funded on the Dover Seed website at https://doverseed.org/projects-funded/fall-2016/
Each spring, first graders learn about and practice mapping skills through a literacy study of the short chapter book Flat Stanley written by Jeff Brown. In the story, Stanley becomes accidentally flattened when a bulletin board falls on him while he is sleeping. He is unhurt, but completely flat! Being flat allows him to go on lots of adventures and even helps to solve the crime of the art museum thieves! Flat Stanley is even mailed to visit his cousin in California! Each student will write a letter and mail their own paper Flat Stanleys across the United States and even the World to friends and family members. We ask that they take Flat Stanley on an adventure and take pictures to be sent back with Flat Stanley to WPS. Towards the end of March, we will be asking for an address of a family member or friend who you think would be interested in participated in the Flat Stanley project! So, how does the webcam, microphone, and speakers come into play? We are excited to take this unit to the next level of digital literacy! With the help of the webcam and microphone, our classroom will be able to communicate via Skype with a 7th grade English class in Madrid, Spain. Students will learn about the culture, school, and environment of Madrid, Spain by interviewing the students via Skype. We have been practicing our Skype etiquette by playing Mystery Skype with Ms. Frangione's first graders. Given a topic of the week (animal, Dr. Seuss book, number, character, etc.), students ask questions to try to figure out what the Mystery of the week is. We practiced taking turns, speaking clearly, and looking into the camera. We are so excited to use our digital literacy skills to get to know our new digital pen pals! It doesn't get much better than a Minecraft-like game with math practice that meets the first grade Common Core Standards! Double win!
Yesterday, each student was able to create their own profile on the amazing FREE website www.prodigygame.com. During Computer Lab, students explored game, created their own username, password, and character, and (the best part) practiced math! Prodigy Game is a wizard based theme where students have to "cast spells" to defeat opponents. Each "spell" they cast is actually solving a math problem correctly. As they defeat opponents (and master math skills) the game intuitively increases the difficulty of their math problems. As the teacher, I can tailor the math problems they encounter to match exactly the skills we are learning in the classroom! This is something that I am working on, as the Prodigy Game is new to me, too! The program gives me reports how students' accuracy and monitors their progress. I can see when students log in at home and practice. It also reports on the skills that they have mastered or are struggling with. I am excited to have this be a regular option on our Homework Menu! As promised (Carson and Ethan!) here are the students' usernames and passwords they created. Look carefully, some passwords are wpsk12 and some are only wps12. Happy snow day! : ) Name Username Password aidan b aidanb2400 wps12 aisha k aishak100 wpsk12 alahna b alahnab4 wpsk12 Asher c Asherc239 wps12 Carson s Carsons1362 wpsk12 dasia b dasiab13 wpsk12 denisse p denissep36 wpsk12 ethan s ethans6383 wpsk12 harshaan s harshaans5 wpsk12 jazmine g jazmineg278 wpsk12 Jenn A JennA13154 wpsk12 jeremiah p jeremiahp629 wpsk12 joey d joeyd889 wps12 jordan5 l jordan5l wpsk12 kamdyn s kamdyns27 wps12 kelly g kellyg380 wpsk12 manny k mannyk23 wpsk12 natalie b natalieb1885 wpsk12 sadie s sadies811 wpsk12 sophia h sophiah1907 wpsk12 violet m violetm363 wpsk12 Oh the weather outside is frightful!
But, my wood stove fire is so delightful! And if you no place to go... Lets, catch up on some school work! (Sorry, that last line didn't rhyme!) This truly IS what teachers do on Snow Days! (Well... that and maybe a teensy weensy bit of favorite TV show catch up with a warm cup of tea). I realized during our Teacher Workshop yesterday that I forgot to post the much anticipated Adobe Spark digital story version our class made of The Gingerbread Man! Sorry about that! So let's rewind: In December, we conducted an extension study of different versions of The Gingerbread Man. (Scroll through the December 2016 posts for more information and pictures!) We integrated our knowledge of the Gingerbread Man story structure with what we knew about story elements (setting, characters, plot) to create our own version! Our class began writing by brainstorm different settings and characters that would match with each setting. Once we decided on our setting and primary characters, we began writing our version using the amazing Adobe Spark program. (Check it out - it is seriously amazing and multi-functional). Ms. Gennett helped to find images to represent our setting and characters and type up our words. And the kids really did the rest! They recorded their voices reading the class story, as well as chose the theme, layout, and music. Most excitingly, we presented our digital story to our Book Buddies during the Holiday Book Exchange celebration! Students were so proud and received MANY compliments from their Book Buddies and teachers. So, without further ado - here is our class' digital version of The Gingerbread Man! https://spark.adobe.com/video/hU8KueIf7eMr9 The term Growth Mindset is definitely an educational buzz word that everyone should know. The theory of Growth Mindset (developed by psychologist Carol Dweck) is that anyone can learn and grow using hard work and perseverance. If you think you can... you can! If you think you can't... you probably won't. Studies have shown that "students who embrace a growth mindset - the belief that they can learn more or become smarter if they persevere - may actually learn more, learn it more quickly, and view challenges and failures as opportunities to improve their learning and skills" (http://edglossary.org/growth-mindset/). Research shows that when you make a mistake your brain actually has an electrical response by firing a synapse between parts of your brain. Basically, making mistakes results in brain growth! Making a mistake and persevering results in even MORE brain growth! (www.youcubed.org/think-it-up/mistakes-grow-brain/) Ms. Allen designed and taught a series of lessons this past week on Growth Mindset and we saw an immediate positive impact on students' learning and perseverance! This week, students practiced using their mistakes and initial failures as opportunities to "grow their brains!" The class brainstormed positive language that supports a Growth Mindset ("This is too hard." vs. "I will try to solve this a different way." and "I can't do this!" vs. "I can't do it... YET!"). We celebrated any time a classmate struggled or made a mistake and persevered by adding a "neuron" to our class brain. Check out the pictures below! This truly was a powerful unit. The concept of having a Growth Mindset has now been integrated in all aspects of our school day and learning. ALL children took risks and talked openly about things they could improve on, ways they have failed and tried again, and mistakes they have made and how they grew from those mistakes. We have seen children be more open about making a mistake and pushing themselves further and more confidently in tough situations, such as our current challenging math unit introducing regrouping. Way to go, Ms. Allen! Check out the Class Dojo link below to watch the Growth Mindset educational videos Ms. Allen incorporated in her lessons! https://ideas.classdojo.com/Dear Anonymous, The Wednesday before December vacation, I was frantically trying to help 19 six year olds wrap their hand-made holiday family gifts. Each child had chosen 4 – 6 gifts to make from an array of creative choices. They all thoughtfully designated each gift for their loved ones at home; mothers, fathers, grandparents, siblings, even neighbors. Christmas and Hanukkah were only a few days away and they were beyond excited to wrap and label their gifts. Students who weren’t wrapping at my table were working at their seats on winter worksheets, games, or reading to themselves. Frequently, I would scan the room and catch the eyes of a student hopeful to be called next to my table to wrap. At an 1:19 ratio, I was wildly outnumbered. After an hour of taking two students at a time and wrapping as quickly as my little hands could move, it became painfully apparent that I wasn’t going to be able to finish in time for our Computer Lab block at 2:15 pm. This was a problem, because it is not uncommon for families to keep their child home on the last day of school before a vacation. (Some families begin their holiday travels early or take their kids to do holiday shopping.) Do I send home the unwrapped gifts Wednesday to avoid the risk of absences and students not having their gifts for family members? Or do I risk it and continue wrapping tomorrow? Now, this might seem like a very trivial problem, but to a six-year-old who just spent the last two days carefully designing, gluing, painting, and crafting heart-felt gifts, this is a major problem. I called for the attention of the class and began to apologize. I was trying my best, I explained, but, unfortunately, we would have to finish wrapping tomorrow. A few students understandably expressed their disappointment, but then one student stood up and said, “I’m a good wrapper, Ms. Gennett. I can help you wrap the rest of the presents.” Then another student said, “Yeah, I can help, too! I help my mom wrap all the time!” A couple more students also volunteered to help their peers wrap. And just like that, several six year olds came to the rescue of their overwhelmed teacher and their classmates, so that everyone could bring their wrapped presents home at the end of the day. It is small moments like this one that reaffirms my love of teaching and my belief in the human spirit. Now, that sounds slightly cheesy to say that, but it is so true. I have been teaching ever since I could read, probably even before. I used to line up my stuffed animals and “read” a story to them. I would ask my teachers for extra homework and worksheets so I could play school at home. My poor little sister was often forced to play the role of my student. I’ve always felt the calling to be a teacher. Although I have been “teaching” since I was a little kid, I have officially held the title of classroom teacher at Woodman Park School now for 8 years. I have learned so much about the art and the craft of teaching. I have learned tricks of the trade to obtain and hold your children’s attention. I have worked hard to increase my understanding of the content that I teach each day. I have learned strategies for delivering instruction, integrating technology, and supporting students who are struggling. I have learned so much, but know that I still have so much more to learn. Teachers truly are lifelong learners. But what I am most proud of, above all else, is how I have learned to take a group of 20 individuals with a wide spectrum of home lives, family dynamics, socio-economics, experiences, and opportunities, and instill in them the importance of kindness, compassion, and community. Yes, I aim to teach children to read, write, and do math proficiently. Yes, I hope to teach children about history, science, and their local community. I try to provide opportunities to explore and to be challenged academically. And in my eighth year of teaching, I can say with confidence that I do a darn good job at all of those things. But, at the end of the day, when I go to bed each night, I think about ways to help to lay the foundation to support my students as they grow into adults. I want to help create good humans. And it is moments like last Wednesday, that make me think that I might be doing an okay job at that, too. So, THANK YOU so very much to the annonymous family member that nominated me for the Life Changer of Year award. It was extremely unexpected and incredibly touching to have someone take the time to write such kind words about my teaching. Thank you for affirming that I am on the right track. Thank you for sharing that my efforts in the classroom are positively impacting your child. Thank you, because, just like everyone else, I sometimes need that reminder that I am doing an okay job. That even though I am far from perfect and make mistakes daily, that I am pointed in the right direction. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, thank you. Most Sincerely, Kelly Gennett https://lifechangeroftheyear.com/kelly-gennett/In December, we learn about how people celebrate around the World. We "travel" around the World and learn about different cultures, celebrations, and traditions. Students complete a Holidays Around the World passport application and wait anxiously to see if they were "approved" to travel. Students must use correct spelling for their first and last name, their date of birth, as well as their physical description. Thankfully, everyone was approved this year! :)
I always begin December with a literature study of Gingerbread Man stories. Students love comparing and contrasting the characters, setting, plot, and refrain. Using oil pastels, the children created their own Gingerbread people. Check out our display in the first grade hallway! |
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