Hi Everyone,
Sorry I've been MIA for awhile. Anne and I have spent a few weeks planning for the beginning of our school year. We have so many new things planned because we were so inspired by what I learned at the Get Your Teach On conference. In fact I loved that conference so much that we are going to both go the conference in October because they are coming to Lombard!!!! Yeah! We are absolutely so excited, and this time we are going to the 4th-5th grade sessions.
As I might have mentioned in my last post, Anne and I are very passionate about student engagement, especially in these days of Common Core Standards and high stakes testing. We want students to enjoy the rigorous lessons we plan for them so they can absorb as much learning as possible. So, we are stepping outside our comfort zone on the advice of Hope King and the GYTO conference speakers. To get our students excited about coming to school and anticipate what third grade is all about, Anne and I are going to dress up as Safari explorers! Before we even enter the school, we are going to tell the students we are going to go exploring and we want them to come with us. On their desks they will find safari hats, binoculars, and a little globe. They will need to put these on before we begin our adventure.
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| I had so much fun looking for this costume. Boots from Walmart, shorts from the Gap, vest from Charlotte Russe, and hat and accessories from Amazon. |
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| Supplies from Oriental Trading Company and Walmart. |
After everyone is in the room and dressed, we are going to explore our room to try and discover what third grade is all about. We will have special pencils and clip boards on their desks with a recording sheet. They will need to go around the room and explore what's there!
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| These recording sheets will be clipped to a clipboard waiting for them on their desks. |
When we have observed, and explored, and recorded all that we can, we will do a writing activity called What I Anticipate Third Grade To Be All About.
As Hope King has advised, it is important to hook them in, but then get into the rigors of learning. Following their first writing activity will be a reading activity using the poem Rules by Karla Kuskin and the book Back To School Rules by Laurie Friedman. We will discuss poetry devices students recognize, as well as compare and contrast the book and the poem. These two pieces of literature will guide us into a discussion about leaders, what leaders are and how leaders behave. Then we will brainstorm Leadership Expectations for our classroom.
We have never started out our school year with such fun and such rigor the minute we've stepped into the classroom. We super excited and think this just might be our best beginning yet.
Kim and Anne
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