Counselor Lesson

Our wonderful school counselor did a lesson about self esteem.
She read the book, Cupcake, by Charise Mericle Harper.

He is a vanilla cupcake that feels inferior compared to his brother and sister cupcakes.

She talked to the kiddos about choosing their own weather channel.
Cloudy channel, I grouchy and feel like everything is just awful. I'm going to have a bad day and it will not get any better.
Sunny channel, happy and positive. I like myself, I love myself. I'm going to have a great day!
Rainbow channel, I feel ready to help myself have a better day.

She told them that you can change your channel!

Positive Self Talk! Mrs. Hougham looked into a mirror, smiled at herself, and said, "I am a great kid. I work hard and I do my best every day."

Then she called up a few students to model positive self talk.
During the lesson she complimented the kids and told them, "Tell yourself, 'I am a great listener!'" They were all so engaged during the lesson.

Then the kiddos filled out a little worksheet about reasons why they're special.

We used this to make our first poems..

They all started with "the best thing about me is______________" and then listed a whole bunch of special things about them, and ended with, "But the best thing about me is _____________(same as the first thing). 

Mine was:

The best thing about me is I am kind.

I am a good dog mom. 

I am brave.

I am a teacher. 

I am a loving little sister.

I graduated with high honors.

I can do yoga.

But the best thing about me is I am kind. 

Raghav's poem

Sofia's poem.

Caelyn's poem.

New PYP Unit!

We are finished with our unit- Sharing the Planet.

Now it's time for the next unit- Expressing Ourselves

An inquiry into the ways in which we discover and express ideas, feelings, nature, culture, beliefs and values; the ways in which we reflect on, extend and enjoy our creativity; our appreciation of the aesthetic.

The central idea, "People express themselves through poetry."
I love poetry. I love writing it, reading it, learning it, and teaching it!

Check out my poetry pack here.

Here are some online resources for poetry

http://pbskids.org/arthur/games/poetry/index.html

http://www.kathimitchell.com/poemtypes.html

http://www.readingrockets.org/calendar/poetry/,

 http://www.theteachersguide.com/poetrymonth.htm,  

http://teacher.scholastic.com/poetry/index.htm,

www.shelsilverstein.com

www.poetry4kids.com

http://www.gigglepoetry.com/

We started off by making a wordle about the things we know about poetry already.

synonyms

We talk about SPARKLE words in writing all the time.
I taught them the word "synonym" this week. Man, that is a tough word for children to say! I could've also said it is a difficult, hard, laborious, demanding, grueling, trying, awkward, back-breaking, challenging, word.

Here is my synonym poster pack.

I started by reading "I'm Talking Big." I had the kiddos close their eyes and imagine what I was reading about. Their responses were great! I love my creative students. They imagined monsters, ships, dinosaurs, and giants.
This poem is perfect for talking about sparkle words and synonyms.

I’m Talking Big!

By: Colin McNaughton

I’m talking big!

I’m talking huge!

I’m talking enormous, immense,

Tremendous!

I’m talking hulking, towering,

Titanic, mountainous!

I’m talking maximum, massive, stupendous, gigantic, monumental!

I’m talking fantastic, fabulous,

Incredible, unbelievable, mammoth,

Vast!

I’m talking astronomical, mighty,

Monstrous, universal, colossal,

Magnificent, galactical!

I’m talking BIG!

After reading the poem, we talked about all the different sparkle words we heard. We counted them all up. TWENTY-SEVEN!

Then we made our own poem called, "I'm Talking Little"

I'm talking little.

I'm talking small!

I'm talking tiny!

I'm talking itty bitty, teeny.

I'm talking nothing!

I'm talking opposite of big, minimum, miniturized

I'm talking pip squeak, weeny, petite, child-sized!

I'm talking little!

I’m Talking                                     

                       (descriptive word)

I’m talking                                       !

                     (descriptive word)

I’m talking                                       !

                     (synonym)

I’m talking                             ,                            !

                          (synonym)                (synonym)

I’m talking                             ,                            ,                            !

                   (synonym)                               (synonym)                   (synonym)

I’m talking                    ,                      ,                         ,                         !

                   (synonym)                 (synonym)        (synonym)                (synonym)

I’m talking                    ,                  ,                  ,                  ,                  !

                   (synonym)         (synonym)        (synonym)      (synonym)        (synonym)

I’m talking                             !

                     (descriptive word)

Patterns

 This book is awesome for introducing patterns.
"In a gorgeous photo essay, simple, straightforward text introduces patterns, focusing on their varied forms and their prevalence in nature, and looking at patterns in oceans, ponds, spider webs, snakeskins, fruits, and rocks. Contains a forward that discusses patterns."

Check out my patterns packet here.

TEKS:

2.6A Generate a list of paired numbers based on a real-life situation such as number of tricycles related to number of wheels

RRISD 2.6A Generate a list of paired numbers based on a real-life situation such as number of tricycles related to number of wheels

RRISD 2.6B Identify patterns in a list of related number pairs based on a real-life situation and extend the list

RRISD 2.6C Identify, describe, and extend repeating and additive patterns to make predictions and solve problems

2.6B Identify patterns in a list of related number pairs based on a real-life situation and extend the list

2.6C Identify, describe, and extend repeating and additive patterns to make predictions and solve problems

The first pattern goes BLUE, ORANGE, RED... and repeats itself so it is a repeating pattern.

The second pattern is a growing (or additive) pattern because the number of parallelograms increases.  

Today the kiddos made their own repeating and growing patterns. 

We are thankful for....

Miss Dower is thankful for 19 wonderful, smart, healthy, wonderful students who make her smile every day. She is also thankful that she has such wonderful supportive parents of students who bake her bread, help make copies, organize the literacy library, donate whiteboard markers, and bring Starbucks!

Sarah is thankful for Sadie Lady because she is cute.

Aakash is thankful for his friends who are nice to him.

Lucy is thankful that she can run, walk, play, and do fun things.

We are all thankful for the earth.

Aubrey is thankful for a house because if we were outside, we could die.

Caelyn is thankful her dogs Otto and Quamer because they're cute and playful.

Raghav is thankful for school because it's always fun.

Leon is thankful for having such a nice teacher.

Olivia is thankful for a beautiful, awesome, cute, perfect, and just right classroom.

Mike is thankful for Thanksgiving holiday and sleep.

Sofia is thankful for the books, the classroom, and her teacher, Ms. Dower.

Rachael is thankful for all of her family, her mom, her dad, her sister, and horseback riding.

Nehan is thankful for learning, reading, writing, and cursive.

Ryan is thankful for every single classmate and happy that all the things that everyone has.

Emilee is thankful for her friends and playing with them.

Travis is thankful for his house because it keeps him warm and safe from storms.

Ryland is thankful for his house, and school.

Ella is thankful for love.

Endangered Animals

Part of our unit on Sharing the Planet involves learning about endangered animals.
This website is a GREAT resource for learning about those animals.


I'm using this graphic organizer for my kiddos.

To show the kids some of the currently endangered animals, I let them see this video, it was neat to show how beautiful all the animals really are!

Race to 100

Today we played an impassioned game of Race to 100.
Each kid gets a number and then has to tell me what the number needs to make 100.
The strategy I teach them is to find the next friendly number, and then count by tens to get to 100.

Example:

Some of my students are able to do all of this in their head. Others need to go by the steps. Either way is fine, but I expect that they can get to a friendly number quickly by now.

If they are still struggling to make their friendly numbers, I go back to the basics of what makes ten. 

I encourage my parents to practice these strategies at home and then eventually when the kiddos can do it in their head, practice in the car!

Remember, friendly numbers are numbers that end with zero!!