Sunday, August 21, 2011

First Week of School

I can tell this is going to be a wonderful school year.  I have some of the sweetest students.  Our school will be using PBIS this year.  At least three teachers have started using the Clip Chart Behavior Management System.  I hope it will work with PBIS.  I love my team mate's Pirate-themed Clip Chart.
Pirate Clip Chart



Our class established some classroom rules and a mission statement.  We also did the Marshmallow Toes activity which Castles and Crayons created. The students had fun with it.  I did have to convince a few students that they have five toes.  LOL!!!
Student Sample: Marshmallow Toes


We also read Chrysanthemum. The students made flower glyphs to label their writing pockets.  For homework, the parents had to explain how their child's name was chosen.  My eyes almost started leaking with some of the stories.  A few were hilarious.  The students wrote 1-2 sentences about their names, and displayed them.  We used the letters in our name to make a Name Graph.  My "Teacher Helper" helped me demonstrate how hurtful words never fully heal.  As I read Chrysanthemum again, she balled up a sheet of paper that had a heart on it.  When Chrysanthemum started feeling better about her name, my helper straightened  out the heart.  The students saw that the wrinkles remained.  So we concluded that the pain from hurtful words never completely goes away.
Our Writing Garden is Starting to Bloom