Literature Is Where Empathy Is Strengthened

Wednesday, July 1, 2020

Hi Everyone,
Wow, I cannot believe it is July!  I just wanted to write a quick post about some thoughts I had as I was reflecting on the book, The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas.  I finished the story last week, and I am constantly thinking about the characters--Starr, Kahlil, Mav, Seven and Momma.  Their experiences pop into my thoughts at various times during the day.  I think about them when I listen to the news, I think about them when I'm reading an article about anti-racism and white privilege, and I think about them as I write new lessons for the upcoming school year.  Those characters touched my heart.  They have a way of constantly reminding me to reflect on my own implicit bias's.  They remind me about my white privilege.  Those characters are the ones who remind me to keep improving myself as a human being and the need to do my part in healing humanity.

My reflections remind me of why I love children's literature and realist fiction in general.  When a story is well-written with believable characters, readers cannot help but become invested in them.  Readers begin to feel connected to those characters.  They root for those characters and want the best for those characters.  If students are taught to pay attention to their thoughts as they read and are guided to read between the lines and infer the character's thoughts and feeling--they may just start to reflect on their own lives.  Readers may start to remember the traits of good characters and want to emanate them.  They may remember the obstacles and struggles their beloved character went through, inspiring students to be more aware of their actions and behaviors.  Students may be able to see another side to situations.  They may be able to step in someone else's shoes for a moment to see the world from that person's point of view.

I'm almost done writing this learning path!  I'll share it soon.

That is what Starr, the protagonist in The Hate U Give has done for me.  Among other things, she has inspired me to become aware of my thoughts, feelings, actions, and privilege.  She has inspired me to be brave, more compassionate, and to keep myself open to new perspectives.  I've come to love that girl and her family.  Her story, getting a look at some of her daily experiences and interactions in the world, has created a feeling inside of me that a news story or a nonfiction article could ever do.

Still my favorite book ever!

Another book I read last summer, that awakened my awareness of the connectedness of all living things on earth, is Tree of Dreams by Laura Resau.  I still think of that story and the characters Coco, Leo, and Gali. Tree of Dreams is beautifully written to show how our actions, both selfish and altruistic, affect others and our environment.  It was this story that immediately appeared in my thoughts at the start of our world-wide pandemic.  As I recalled the events of that story and the far reaching affects Gali's actions had on others, I was reminded that we are all connected...what we do or do not do will affect us all.  No one is beyond it's reach.  As I see the kindness and consideration of others in this very scary time, I am comforted to know those actions will have powerful, lasting effects on us all. They certainly did for the amazon rainforest, the Huaorani people who live there, and all the other main players in Tree of Dreams.

Gone Crazy in Alabama

There are countless children's books, young adult books, as well as adult literature that I could include in this post, but I won't.  My main point is,  developing greater empathy and compassion for others, as well as developing more awareness about humanity, the earth, and ourselves is why I believe literature is vital in helping to heal our world.  I cannot wait to share new stories, and the experiences of characters from all walks of life, with my class in the upcoming school year.

Here are some new titles I want to read.  Some of these books are just for my own reading, while others I intend to use with my class.

Last Stop on Market Street

The View From Saturday

The Red Crayon

These are just a few of the books that are on my list of "want to read."  As I was doing some research for my new learning path, I came across a website titled 27 best moral stories to read with your kids.  It has titles like The Invisible Boy, Beautiful Oops, and a title I remember hearing about years ago, but never bought...The Empty Pot.


So, I guess this was not a quick post, but I'm just so excited about getting back to school to engage my students in reading and discussing books that will touch their hearts, ignite their compassion and empower them to help make our world a kind, healthy, flourishing place to be.

Have a great holiday.
Kim

                                                                                                 

                                                                                           

Valentine's Day, SEL, and Math All Rolled Into One

Sunday, February 9, 2020

Just a quick post to share some Valentine fun.  Anne and I found a new Valentine candy-heart math activity to use with our students.  Most years, we give each student a box of conversation hearts and have them use the candy to practice graphing, comparing numbers with symbols, and division.  However, this year we decided to combine this new math activity with some SEL.  We wanted to have students work in groups of 4 knowing they may struggle with sharing and working together.  Candy does that. :)  So, before beginning the lesson, we had a class meeting to discuss some pluses (pros)  and some deltas (cons) about working together in a cooperative group.  We reviewed Habit #6 Synergize and Habit #4 Think Win Win.  Then, the students decided which delta they would be mindful of during the activity, and if they noticed it creeping up they would gently bring themselves back to synergizing and thinking win-win.   

We cannot believe this is free on TpT!  It's so good.

This bundle is perfect for our students because it involves gathering data in a tally table, creating line plots, finding fractions, determining probability, multiplying, dividing, finding the mean, median and mode, and a challenging word problem to solve.  There is something for students of all math levels to enjoy.

So proud of how well everyone worked together and cooperated.

Close-Up!

Everyone was focused, engaged, and having fun.

Thinking hard!

After we complete the activities on Monday, we told the students we would use the hearts to create a Valentines Day pin.  We do these each year and they are definitely a hit.

This one is a little old.  My newer one was eaten by someone I love dearly.  I'll leave it at that.  :))))

Other fun activities we will do this week include a Valentine logic puzzle, writing Valentine poems to our principal, and reading Love, Z and making an area robot.  Cannot wait for tomorrow.

Another freebie.

This frame is from the notsowimpyteacher blog.  I will change it to "I like you more than..."

This is an adorable book with a heart-felt message about love.

Below is one other area Valentine's Day activity we hope to do this week.

We want to now solve area and perimeter problems in the same lesson.

Happy Valentine's Day!
Kim and Anne

Officially In The Halloween Spirit

Sunday, October 13, 2019

October 13th!?!?  This month has flown by faster than a wicked witch on her broomstick!  Anne and I love the month of October and don't want it to end so quickly.  We have a myriad of Halloween and fall activities to keep our students engaged, excited, and challenged.  We are excited to pack in as many as we can in the next few weeks.

Last week, we introduced the students to Haiku poetry by reading aloud the adorable book, Boo! Haiku by Deanna Caswell.  Needless to say, the kids went crazy for this book.

To deepen their understanding of this type of poetry, we showed a PowToons video and a slide show.  Then, we dove right into writing some fall haiku.  We wanted to guide them in writing a few haiku poems and help them feel secure before sending them off on their own.  Once we were confident they understood this genre, we allowed them to find a partner and begin writing Halloween haiku poems.  Their drafts are great and need to be published.  As soon as they are we will upload some examples.

This is the outside of the Haiku.

This is the inside.

 We had an impromptu SEL lesson that focused on Habit #1 Be Proactive due to  a video I saw on a social media site. It is important for Anne and me to help the kids understand that, for the most part, they can choose their moods, attitudes, and actions each day.  We feel that having students understand this will give them a sense of security and control over themselves and their lives.  It was also important that the students realize the can impact others' lives, positively or negatively,  depending on the mood/attitude they choose. 

We read the lovely book I Am Peace: A Book of Mindfulness by Susan Verde.  (I loved the book so much I bought the other two--I Am Human and I Am Love.)  The lesson took two days.  The first day, we had the kids brainstorm a list of positive mood and attitude words.  The following day, we watched the kindness video, linked above, and had an amazing discussion. To follow up, the students wrote what attitude/mood they chose to have that day and added details about their chosen word. Lastly, they drew a picture of what they would look like having that mood.  Of course, I forgot to take pictures of the kids' work, but I will upload my sample on Tuesday.

The above SEL lesson will be a perfect flow into our writing lesson.  We are going to read aloud the book Crankenstein  by Samantha Berger.  It's about a boy (Crankenstein)  who wakes up in a cranky mood.  Throughout the book, the author details the character's negative, grouchy behaviors.  By the end of the story, Crankenstein is motivated to change his mood and attitude.  We anticipate an amazing conversation before, during and after our reading making connections back to Habit #1.  Our students will then write a focused personal narrative about a time they remember being "Crankenstein."  We will focus on adjectives, elaboration of details, first-person point of view, and narrative elements.

This is just an old sample of mine.  We will share the students' writing soon.  This project was inspired by Amy Lemons.

Lastly, these little gems will be displayed in our classrooms for the next week.  Hopefully, igniting curiosity and wonder in our students.  We will let you know the fun, but rigorous reading and fluency activity we will be doing that connects to them.  We also have a super cute project to go with the reading rigor.

We are so excited about these little critters.

Have a fabulous week and enjoy the beautiful month of October.  It is quickly slipping away.

Kim and Anne

Science and SEL--What could be more fun?

Sunday, September 15, 2019

Good Morning!
We hope everyone had such a fabulous week with their students that they cannot wait to get to school tomorrow.  I know Anne and I did!  This blog is just going to be a snapshot of some of those fabulous moments.

Monday morning, a boy who is really excited about the rocks we give away, decided to paint one for Anne and me. It says "Inspire."  That really set our week off on a positive note!  We are thrilled that he is inspired this year and has proven that many times already.  He is a hard-working, positive, helpful, kind-hearted boy!  What a leader.

In fact, he inspired some girls to paint their own rocks.  They collected rocks outside and painted them during their recess time. We thought they were painting the rocks for themselves.  How wrong we were! While painting, one of the girls asked if we would bring the kids together once she decided who should earn the rock she was painting.  She wanted it to be a special time, kind of like Anne and I do when we are ready to present someone with a rock. The four other girls also want to eventually give their rocks away to kids in our classroom.  We cannot believe the positive energy that is permeating throughout our room!  As soon as the girls are finished painting, I will upload their pictures.

Our leadership portraits are complete, and we sent them home Friday with some very excited kids.  They could not wait to get them home and show them to their families.  We hope they display the clay creations some place prominent in their homes so they are reminded that they are leaders. Their writing communicates exactly how they are going to show their leadership this year. This project was inspired by an art teacher I found online.  He had second graders create their own portraits out of clay.

We did our first science experiment of the year.  This is an oldie but a goodie.  Anne and I have not done this experiment for a few years. We forgot the excitement it provokes.  We only did Part One...Tuesday we will begin Part Two.  There are three parts with each one building on the other.  We know that STEM is the buzz word in science, but we still want to teach the students how to think through the scientific method.  If nothing else, it helps them activate their creative thinking and problem solving skills.  The discussions that surrounded each part of this experiment were deep and insightful.  Not to mention the energy and enthusiasm to participate in such a fun activity.

We used Steve Spangler's water cubes. After using four of our five senses to observe the cubes and record those observations, we asked the question, "What will happen to the cube if it is placed in distilled water over night?"  The hypothesis were interesting.

We did make observations after about an hour.  The cubes were doing some funky things.  The kids went wild; simply wild over what they saw!  But, that was nothing compared to their reactions when they took the cubes out of the water the following day.  Take a look at our results.

This is such an exciting activity.  We cannot wait to embark on Part Two.  We will let you know how it goes next time.

Well, have a wonderful rest of your Sunday.  We wish everyone positive vibes for the upcoming week.

Kim and Anne

Monday, September 2, 2019

Happy Labor Day Everyone!

Wow, we cannot believe it is Labor Day, and that we have already been in school for seven days!  The time has have flown by, but we have to say we have been having a lot of fun.  Our students are amazing!

Once again, our first-day explorer kick-off was a hit.  The kids loved coming into the classroom to find their desks filled with explorer gear that they could put on immediately.  After exploring the classroom and completing their checklist, the students wrote about what they saw.  It was fun to read what they focused on during their exploration.

Anne and I also gave out three of our painted rocks!  The students' faces lit up like twinkling stars on a clear summer night when we announced their name!  They were shocked, but so proud of themselves.  One boy even said, "I'm going to keep this forever."  He received the "leader" rock. Another boy received the "thoughtful" rock, and a third boy received the "helpful" rock.  I know the kids loved them, but it made us feel even better to give them because they were so well deserved and unexpected.

Now we just need to incorporate a rock writing lesson or SEL lesson so we can use the rocks we bought from the science store.  In that lesson, each student will receive their own rock to write about and keep.  We will write about it here once we plan it.

We've decided to begin our math unit as an inquiry lesson about multiplication.  When we went to Teachers Pay Teachers to find vocabulary sorting cards for Eureka Math Grade Three Module One/Lesson One, we did not find exactly what we wanted.  What to do????  I made a set.  Anne is going to put them up for free in our TpT store incase the link I gave you does not work.  Before beginning the lesson, we are going to have our students get into groups of 3-4 and match the words as they see fit.  Then, they will watch a Module One/Lesson One video to learn about the lesson.  They will complete the homework page with a partner.  Then, after they have "played" with the concepts of that lesson, we will do the Problem Set together.  Hopefully, they will have a complete understanding of the concepts on that page, but if not I will fix any misunderstanding or confusion on the spot.  Finally, the kids will go back and correct any mistakes they made on the homework page they did independently.  Our goal is to have the students more engaged in the lesson for a longer period of time.  We have found that these long Eureka math lessons are an invitation for kids to "tune out."  We will let you know how it goes.

**As a side note, we have decided to not send home the homework pages from Eureka Math.  Instead we will send computation pages home so the students can meet the standard for memorizing all for operations up to 12.**

For Module One/Lesson 2, I have decided to begin with an activity called "Odd One Out."  That lesson focuses on rows, columns, and products.  I'm hoping this activity activates my students' thinking about those concepts.  I will also incorporate some of the lessons from Amy Lemons The Magic of Math Multiplication Grade 3.

Students decide which picture does not belong with the others.  They must have reasons to support their decision.

That's all I have for now.  I'm going to type up my plans for the week before enjoying the rest of my Labor Day.  I hope you all do the same.

Kim and Anne