A few of the skills included are:

• There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Rose!
• Clifford's Valentine's Day
• Stick and Stone
• Roses Are Pink, Your Feet Really Stink!
• Valentine Mice!
• The Best Thing About Valentines
• The Day It Rained Hearts
• Valentines Are for Saying I Love You
• Froggy's First Kiss
• Love & Kisses, Eloise
• Dinosaur Valentine
• I Miss You, Stinky Face

Hey everyone!  I'm so excited to be part of this collaboration.  I know there are some great teachers on this blog and I'm excited to be a part of it!  A little about myself, I teach second grade at a Title I school in the inner city.  I've been married for three years and I am a momma to a beautiful two year old girl and expecting a baby boy this May!

Something that has been weighing on me lately is my kiddos lack of social skills.  They just struggle to exist next to each other!  Some days it's a constant battle to keep everyone at peace and focus, and the longer that I battle, the less time I have to actually teach!





I decided that I'd like to start introducing social skill lessons inside of other lessons.  So I made Creating Kindness.  It's a four week unit that has lesson plans and literary/writing tie ins.  I wanted to teach my kids how to be kind to each other, while not losing any rigor in my classroom.

We focused on talking about what kindness was and how it came in different forms.  It was hard for my kiddos to understanding that we have to be kind to everyone, not just friends, and harder for them to put it into practice.

I just loved her picture!  It totally cracked me up!

It by no means solved all of our behavior problems, but I do get a lot of satisfaction from hearing how their conversations around kindness have changed.  "Thank you for being kind" and "That was unkind" are much better than what I was hearing before! 😳🙊😆 To check out this product visit, my store Mrs VanderKamp's Happy Kampers!

What is a math task?  Is it just one of those things that comes and goes?

I HOPE NOT!

I'm sure you are thinking....  I just can't do it.  I don't understand it!

YES, YOU CAN!

When I first started using tasks I was skeptical.  I was worried that the time I used wasn't worth it.   The first few times it was a disaster, but I kept at it.  Four years later, it has become part of my regular classroom teaching and is one of my kiddos favorite things to do.


Tasks are focused on one math problem.  The best part is that that it can include several different standards and more mathematical practices than you could ever work on during a typical lesson.

When I do a task I divide it into 3 stages.

Stage 1 -  Private Work Time
During this stage I project the task on the screen of my board.  I read the task aloud or have a student read it.  I let the kids work silently for about 10 minutes.  During this stage I don't talk to the kids or answer questions if at all possible.  If a student is really stuck I will ask them scaffolding questions to get them going, but I am careful not to give answers to them.  As I walk around I look at their answers and take notes.  I divide the note into 4 or 5 sections and place kids into spots for the next stage.


What if a group has the wrong answer?
GO WITH IT!  This is perhaps that most teachable moment in the process.  Let them show their solution path and discuss it with the class.  You would be surprised how well they take correct from each other?

Do I group all them into high, medium, and low for group work time?
That is completely up to you.  Sometimes I do and sometimes I don't.  Once I start walking around during private work time I am able to get a good picture of their ideas.  If I have a bunch that are really off track, I might have them all in the same group so that I can spend a little more time reteaching and helping them find their mistakes.   The same is true for kids at the top.  If I see three or four that have solved it, I would put them together so that I could increase the rigor of the problem and advance their learning by giving them an additional part of task.

Can you wing tasks?
NO!  Before you do a task you need to think about your kids an anticipate what they may struggle with so that you can think of clarifying questions to clear up misconceptions.  It is helpful to write them on a sticky note so you don't forget them.  The same is true of those that solve it easily.  Have advancing questions or another twist to the task to give to those students.

Where do I start?
Find a task for your kids.  Read it over and think about how it might unfold in the classroom.  Think about possible questions you could ask them during group work time.  If you are lucky it might already have lists of questions for you to ask during group work time.   Take a deep breathe and give it try! You won't be sorry!

Want to read more?  Just click on my blog button!

Happy Teaching!
Tracy

As an educator, we all know that students become good readers and writers by practicing reading and writing. We also know that reading alone is not enough, children need to comprehend what they read or what is being read to them. That is why I feel it is important, from as early as preschool on, lessons should be based around literature. When I am teaching a thematic unit, I want my students to become immersed in the lessons. Throughout our day I want students to continuously build connections and relationships between characters in stories and the world around us. It is my hope that throughout the year teacher guided activities will become more student driven activities.

 
My favorite Valentine activities revolve around the story, The Day it Rained Hearts by Felicia Bond.  This story allows for great discussions, sequencing, inferencing and story recall activities.  I like to have students close their eyes and visualize what it would be like to see hearts falling from the sky like raindrops.  This visualization alone peeks interests and helps students focus in on key events.  As, I read the story, I pause and ask students questions to keep them actively involved.  The students are all aware of the rule of our reading interactions and wait their turn to share thoughts and ideas.  For instance,  as Cornelia Augusta is making the valentines for her friends, I like to ask them what they think she is doing and whom she is making her valentines for.   After the recipients receive their valentines I like to have them discuss how each valentine was individualized for each animal.

After we read the story, we review all of the main events.   Prior to the lesson I write sight words on die-cut hearts (in preschool I would write each child's name on a heart)  I show the boys and girls several different hearts and ask them to identify the words.  Then, I ask them if they would like to see it rain hearts.  I throw the sight words on a giant play parachute and the boys and girls shake the parachute until all of the hearts have flown off.  Each child grabs one heart and tries to read the word to a friend.  You may need to move to the gym or outside to complete this activity.  This would work well at the end of the lesson as well.

So we're almost a month into the new year. Everyone has settled in, and maybe some of us are even keeping up with our resolutions (I'm determined to see at least 3 Broadway shows this year). Our classrooms have gotten back into the swing of things too.  But if your classroom is like mine, we're kind of hitting the winter doldrums. The weather is cold and dreary.  We miss recess often because of snow or freezing temps.  It's a little hard to get excited about the day's lessons.