Healthy and Happy

A happy and healthy class is an important piece of student growth socially and academically. Our class is full of energy! We have 11 boys with lots of energy and seven girls with just as much! I try to incorporate as many activities and lessons with movement as possible, ESPECIALLY when it is cold outside. Here are a few tools that help  achieve happy and healthy students.

Activity

The more activity I can add to the room the better, especially for all of my kinesthetic learners.

Smart Koosh Ball lessons are so fun! The students throw the Koosh ball at the smart board and pop a bubble. In this lesson multiplication facts are under the bubbles. Students had to ask their classmates the facts. 

Scoot and I have, who Has are also great to get the students up and moving. 

Here is one Scoot game we have used by Angela Nerby.

Here is one of the I have, who Has games we will play this week by Kristen Vibas!

Brain Breaks

Studies show that short bursts of physical activity throughout the day (especially in the afternoon) increase student's focus, academic performance and behavior. When it is warm outside we can go run, take a walk or have a mini race. Throughout the cold months I love to get the students on Go Noodle!

Sprints!

Hurdles!

Yoga!!!

 If you have not seen this site, you should check it out. You can do these at home too! I had Lucas running hurdles the other day when it was to cold to go outside! Click on the Go Noodle icon above to get more information!

Class Meeting

We have a morning meeting each day.

Every morning after announcements students come and sit around the perimeter of the carpet. Students pick a greeting for the day and we greet our classmates with respect. After our greeting we will often have an activity, and discuss what the day will be like. These meetings provide students with a time to share news and ask questions about the day.

At the beginning of the year, these meetings provide students with the opportunity to learn each other's names and get to know one another. They help build classroom community and teach numerous social skills including working together as a team.

I strive for students in my room to feel secure. If a student is anxious or uncomfortable is more difficult to communicate with their peers, myself, and participate in class. These meetings help students feel a sense of belonging.

A few of our many favorite greetings are:

• Butterfly Greeting- a simple, quick greeting where they shake with their hand like a butterfly.
• Ball toss greeting-students toss the ball to someone across the circle and greet them and so on. 
• Tacky the Penguin-students pat the student to one side of them and greet them like a penguin.
• Alien Greeting-students greet their neighbor with an alien voice and sign. 

And our recent favorite is the dice greeting. Students roll the big dice in the middle of our circle and whatever number it lands on is how many people they walk by to greet the person. For example, if I roll a two, I would walk by two people and then greet the third person. That person would then roll. Simple but they ask for it daily!

The students favorite activity is spider web. We also use this as a greeting. They greet someone and toss the yarn over or under to someone across from them. At the end they hold tight and we count and let go. Here is a video of it. 

Class Meeting

Our class meetings are held every Thursday after Art and are a bit different than morning meeting. We They are actually more important to our classroom community. The purpose is to create mutual respect,cooperation and foster responsibility. These meetings are a safe way for students to share problems and get advise from their classmates. In the process they become better problem solvers, listeners, and empathetic. Each student who shares feels special, and that their problems matter. 

Here are our Class Meeting rules. 

They drag their name to the white part if they have an issue they would like to discuss. 

When students come to me with a problem I ask them to think about signing up for class meeting to discuss. Students are encouraged to express themselves and give honest, thoughtful advise. If they do not have any suggestions or if the person just needs the class to listen the students say something along the lines of, " I am sorry to hear that is happening to you". If the problem was about another student in the class they are now aware with out being embarrassed that they hurt a classmates feelings. I am often amazed at the advise that they give, they are wise beyond their years. I also will bring up issues that are happening within the class. The students are much more likely to follow advise from their peers and more likely to respond to decisions on behavior incidents when they have been given the opportunity to give their opinion on the matter (even if the final word came from me). They sometimes will even come up with more severe consequences than I intended! Students in our class have become more articulate, comfortable, and respectful to one another!

I love our classroom family!!!

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Here are a few examples of how I "try" to keep the kids healthy and happy. Our class is amazing socially and academically. 

I hope everyone is staying warm through this second (or third?) round of yuckiness! Let's hope we are back at school on Monday, I miss all of my friends!

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Today, 2/21/15 is the last day to use the code SPARK to double a donation for our class project! If you have donated already or cannot donate, thank you for listening and/or spreading this email around!

     Click on the image below for our project

Have a great weekend!!!