We just finished our third week of school! I can't believe how FAST the time has gone. We've spent a lot of time on rules and procedures these past few weeks. The kids have come so far, already. For example, we used glue sticks this week and nobody glued the glue stick to any part of their body. Transition times are getting better, clean-ups are faster, and they are following directions just a little bit faster. But, yes, there is a but....they are so chatty! They are my little chatter boxes! I think I've pulled out all my tricks already and we are still in August! Haha! Fortunately, I came across this fun little app last weekend called "Too Noisy" to add to my bag of tricks. I'm not going to say it works 100% of the time ....but it's new. Kids like new. Heck, I like new. Here's how it works: I just click on the app and set it under my document camera so it is projected on the screen. It's looks like this:
Didn't these turn out cute!? Each student was given a different color set of clothes to cut out. After everything was cut out they had to get up and ask their friends to trade clothing pieces. We practiced using complete sentences....and not just grabbing pieces from each other. It was a success!
Making a trade. Can I trade my red shoe for your green shirt?
Well, it looks like this when they are quiet.
Here's what it looks like when the classroom gets too noisy. Oh look, that's me in the top right corner haha! I haven't quite decided if the app works or if the kids just like watching the screen change...which makes them quiet down & start talking again. So, if you have a chatty class, check out the app. Just a little note, you will have those couple of kids who will want to blurt something out just to watch the face change (while everyone else is quiet). Give the kids a few seconds to yell and scream after you introduce the app....get it out of their system. You will thank yourself later:).
Moving on to a couple other activities...
We've been working on building sentences that have a subject and a predicate. I think this activity really helped the kids "get it." I asked for a volunteer to be "The tiger" and then would ask the kids if that was a complete sentence (they would say no, after practicing of course). Then, we'd go through the cards and they would help me pick out a card that would tell more about the subject. I would then ask for a volunteer to hold the predicate card. We all read the sentences together. They loved it!
We also worked on identifying the characters and setting in our stories this week. After reading, I gave the kids two puzzle pieces. On one piece they drew the characters from the story and on the other they drew the setting. The kids put the pieces together and shared their puzzles with their partners.
Color bears!
Writing with color words.
Have a happy three day weekend!
-Jamie
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