Over the last couple of weeks, K-5 has been focusing on understanding the brain and growth mindset.
We focused on stretching our Amygdala or how we can grow to be regulate our emotions when trying a new skill. I read Little by Little by Amber Stewart. Otto the Otter has to learn to swim, little by little. He starts by doing hops in the water, to floating to swiming the lenghth of the pool and beyond. I also read The Very Impatient Caterpillar by Ross Burach. This caterpillar is trying to follow all the steps to becoming abutterfly and he's not being very patient with himself or the process. These are the keys concepts I wanted to students to walk away with: 1. When someone offers you help because they see you are struggling be willing to accept help and follow directions. That means that they believe you can achieve your goals and want to help. 2. Ask questions and be specific about what part you don't get. Don't pretend to understand when you don't. It may look like everyone one else understands, but even if they do, the questions you ask makes sure you understand what to do and it likely clarify something for someone else. 3. Be patient with the process and yourself. Use your prior knowledge to help you, but learning is a journey and it does take time. Also be patient with the person that is helping you. 4. Believe in yourself! If you believe you can't, even when you could accomplish something - it will feel more challenging or you won't take the risk to meet your goal. If you believe you can, it will make the journey more tolerable. We are struggle and need to be encouraged and no one person can do all things at one time. Be patient, you can do hard things! Welcome back! I hope that you a refreshing and bonding winter break!
This week in with 3rd-5th Grade classes, we focused on learning more about the brain. Students shared what they already knew about the brain, then we read Your Fantastic Elastic Brain by JoAnn Deak. The book highlighted the major parts of the brain: Cerebrum - Thinking and Speaking Cerebellum- Muscle Coordination and Balance Prefrontal Cortex - Planning and Decision Making Hippocampus - File, store and recall memories Amygdala - Controls emotions and Neurons-- tiny brain cells that send messages to other cells to control body functions. We had fun checking our short term memory by having students memorize the number 2831908. I pointed out that hearing something multiple times, said in different ways, helps keep items in our memory. We stressed the importance of practicing to help memorization and muscle memory so that you can build on the skills when you need to. Students shared skills they were working on like cooking, dancing to jazz music, and riding a bike. A student shared that while he is confident bike rider he is now trying to do wheelies. We discussed the importance of pressing forward and continuing to try new things because even as we make mistakes our brains continue to grow. At points throughout the lesson students made connections to the text... a few shared that they have a favorite word...I look forward to find out what some of those words are during our next lesson! In grades 3-5, we read Marilyn's Monster by Michelle Knudsen. In the story Marilyn's frustated because all the other kid's monsters have found them and she waits and her monster never comes. I asked students to stretch their thinking, and think of the "Monsters" in the story as any skill or problem they are simply supposed to have the solution for.
We discussed that academically some students understand concepts the first time through and often leave us who struggle with a concept to feel like everyone gets this concept or understands this skill and I just can't. ( This also called a fix mindset ...we'll talk about this topic again). Marilyn decides to try a different strategy to get her monster...her brother tells her "It's doesn't work like that." But Marilyn decides to go after her monster anyway. Spoiler Alert*** she finds her monster. Who says " I got lost, that I got scared, and then I got stuck". I ask the children, can't they relate when they get stuck in their thinking for same reason. I explained that for some problems, we do know the solution, we have been taught, or it just seems logical, but sometimes things happen outside our control: friendship issues, academic challenges, time -management etc... For the times when don't know what to do an feel stuck, here are the steps we can follow to help us. The choices we make may still have unexpected outcomes be it positive or negative and we may have to problem solve the new situation. Students wrote down a problem they had or are having and then went through the Problem-Solving Steps. Students who wanted to share did. It was great to walk around and see students thinking through the situations and even asking friends for help. I told them asking for help is always an option. Students learned these steps of Problem-Solving: D- Deep Breathing at least twice. S- Say the Problem T - Think of a way to solve it. E - Explore what could happen. P - Pick the best choice. Not to be ignored is the vital role that Deep "belly breathing" plays in being able to problem solve. It helps us get from the Amygdala, the emotional center in our brain, to the Prefrontal Cortex or the Thinking, Logical, Problem-Solving part of our brain. We have the power to choose how we react to a situation, even if when we have no control over the event itself. This week we discussed the steps in problem-Solving. We read What Should Danny Do? and interactive book that lets the students make the choices for Danny. With each situation Danny faced we discussed what we thought options to solve the problems could be. Then students voted on which of the provided choices Danny should make and we followed his journey.
Our Grant All-Stars were great at picking the best choices. I explained to them that the reason we practice these steps is because even when know what to do it can be hard to make the kind and respectful choice, so this reminds us to think about the possible outcome of our choices. As we saw in the story that even when make the best choice, sometimes other problems still arise or we aren't able to make the best choice because our emotions are in control and now we have to think about how to try again. Students learned these steps of Problem-Solving: D- Deep Breathing at least twice. S- Say the Problem T - Think of a way to solve it. E - Explore what could happen. P - Pick the best choice. We have the power to choose how we react to a situation, even if when we have no control over the event itself. Grades K-2
To explore diversity, difference or variety in people, we read All Are Welcome by Alexandria Penfold. I asked students to identify the difference that they see within the book, differences from themselves and or Grant School. Then students each completed a page that read: I am unique. I am me. I am who I want to be. They identified one why they were possibly different from their peers... it could be their hobbies, interest, favorite food, family, etc... The outcome of this conversation was that not all differences can be seen, and it is important to get know people around you to learn from them. Discussing what makes a person unique can be a great conversation starter and you find out that you may actually have more in common than you imagined. Grades 3-5 Just as I did with grades K-2, to explore diversity, difference or variety in people, we read All Are Welcome by Alexandria Penfold. I asked students to identify the difference that they see within the book, differences from themselves and or Grant School. Then each student was given a note card to write down one way they were possibly different from their peers... it could be their hobbies, interest, favorite food, family, etc... Students put their names on them, so I would know who wrote which statement. Even the teachers participated. Then I read each statement and others who the statement was true for stood up. Again this was to emphasis that not all differences can be seen, and it is important to get know people around you to learn from them. Discussing what makes a person unique can be a great conversation starter and you find out that you may actually have more in common than you imagined and helps to build community. Then the person who wrote the statement remained standing and everyone one else set down. I learned a lot about our amazing Grant All-Stars! This our 3rd-5th grade students discussed and practiced cooperation. Student began by sharing their thoughts on what cooperation means. Everyone agreed that cooperation was working together as a team to accomplish a goal. Students then played a Taboo Themed Card Game where I wrote words on a note card. Students goal was to work in partners to get the opposing team to guess the word written at the top of the card. Students couldn't say any word, or part of a word that is on the card, which was the only rule.
We discussed the activity and learned that there were skills necessary to cooperate such as: Listening to what the partner was saying and even body language; focusing your attention, using prior knowledge about friends and the topic to provide clues, and problem-solving. Students couldn't say the most obvious clue words. We also discussed when we are expected to cooperate and the difference between giving someone an answer versus clues so that they could stretch their thinking and learn something too. We are asked to cooperate everyday at school, at home as a family, and in traffic to navigate our community safely. I also stressed that cooperation is life-skill and everyone's skills, experience and perspective play in an important part in accomplishing any goal. Kindergarten - 2nd Grade Lesson
This week we focused on work problem-solving and cooperating with others. We read " Wanted: Best Friend" . We identified the the skills that were important in being a good friend and problem-solving are:
3rd-5th Grade Lessons
This week we concluded our Bully Prevention lessons. We read "Hooway for Wodney Wat" by Helen Lester. Students were able to: Recognize Bullying: Bullying is Someone does something mean on purpose over and over again and the person it's happening to hasn't been able to make it stop. Refuse Bullying: Saying words that mean no in a strong respectful voice, such as " Please stop I don't like when you call me names", "Please stop I don't like that", "You are being unkind" walking away, or joining a different group of friends. Report Bullying: Tell a trusted adult. Making sure to include the details. For example " Almost everyday Joe is kicking me in line. I have told him to stop and he keeps doing it". We also talked about Bystander Power. Bystanders are people who see bullying happening. They can either help stop bullying or be part of the problem. Bystanders help Stop Bullying by:
K-2nd Grade Lessons
This week we concluded our Bully Prevention lessons. We read "Hooway for Wodney Wat" by Helen Lester. Students were able to: Recognize Bullying: Bullying is Someone does something mean on purpose over and over again and the person it's happening to hasn't been able to make it stop. Refuse Bullying: Saying words that mean no in a strong respectful voice, such as " Please stop I don't like when you call me names", "Please stop I don't like that", "You are being unkind" walking away, or joining a different group of friends. Report Bullying: Tell a trusted adult. Making sure to include the details. For example " Almost everyday Joe is kicking me in line. I have told him to stop and he keeps doing it". We also talked about Bystander Power. Bystanders are people who see bullying happening. They can either help stop bullying or be part of the problem. Bystanders help Stop Bullying by:
3rd-5th Grade
This week we explored the varying intensity of feelings and appropriate ways to express and manage them. In most classes we read the book " The Color Monster" by Anna LLenas. We talked about people can experience different feelings and intensity of feelings from other people who experience the same thing. Each class listed several strategies they could use at school or at home when they are experiencing strong emotions and want to express or cope with it in a healthy way. Some examples included: Breathing Counting to 10 slowly Reading a Book Thinking about something that made us happy or that we were thankful for. Talk to a friend Talk to a trusted adult. We also agreed it is important when feeling strong emotions, to STOP, Name Our Emotions and then pick a strategy that will help us in the given situation. |
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January 2020
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