Monday, January 22, 2018

 It's All About Choice

Flexible seating might be the trendy thing to do, but I have been giving students seating choice for years.  I like to choose where I work, why wouldn't kids as well.  Assigned seating drives me crazy:-)
Here is what seating choice looks like in my classroom.

Before we start, we go over how to make appropriate choices.

A traditional table and chair is always a choice.

Lowered table and adirondack chairs. Students also use the pillows and sit on knees or bottoms.

Tall wooden stools.




The carpet is a popular choice...with or without lap desks.


Some students created some very clever seating choices, and they actually worked out really well, so we kept them.


We started with exercise balls, but I have swapped them for Hokki stools.  I have about 12 Hokki stools. We also used to have risers, but students kept finding screws and bolts on the ground, so they had to go away because...safety.




A white bench I found at ikea.

 Scoop seats and a raised table are next on my list of choices to add.

Monday, October 6, 2014

 Themes from Lyrics

#onlytwokiddaysthisweek #icanmakeit
Every year, I make a class playlist.  Each student tells me their favorite song and I add them to a playlist.  I love it!  There are songs I hear now and I think, "oh that is _______'s song."  Many songs, I know and don't worry about content/lyrics.  This year I had a handful of girls chose Ariana Grande songs.  I read through the lyrics...no bad words and then I started thinking about the message some of the songs were sending and decided to let the class decide.  I put the lyrics on the projector and we read them...not sang them and immediately the kids were not fans of having the songs on our playlist.  It was an interesting thing to notice that when you take the tune away...you are really able to focus on what the song is saying.

The lightbulb....we are beginning our study into themes in literature...and there was clearly a message in the songs we were looking up.  SO this week we are studying the themes in some popular songs before we dive into literature.

The kids loved it.  We did are starting our study with Frozen's Let It Go. We read the lyrics and watched the sing-along video version.  Then I printed the lyrics out for everyone.
Finally we talked about needing proof for our thinking.  I gave them a sentence frame to help them get started.
Next up is The Lego Movie's Everything is Awesome.

Happy Monday,

Monday, September 29, 2014

 Mixed Media Art Awesomeness


We finished up a mixed media art project today.  It turned out better than I expected and I always love that!  Last Friday we traced and designed our hands using lines and shape zentangles.

We did some Color Factory ala Annie Painter.  I am always amazed at how all the papers look so different with just three colors!

Then we played "musical friend adjectives"  When the music played, move around the room.  When the music stops find a friends card and write an adjective that describes them.

After finishing our "game" we chose the three words we liked best and wrote them on black pieces of paper; and finally put it all together into our masterpieces!






Happy Monday

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

 Wordless Wednesday

It is Wednesday #wishitwerealreadyfriday Check other people's Wednesdays at Second Grade Sugar and Spice.
Field Trip to the Local Library

 
The Return of Television
What shows are filling up your dvr this week?
Thinking blue everyone!!!! #itfdb

Happy Wednesday,