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We did the Philosophical Chairs in science on our lesson about momentum. We had a scenario of a girl skateboarding in the park and students had 3 options to pick from as to what was going to happen to her when she runs into the curb. A lot of the students thought the skater was going to fall forward off the skateboard. There were a few that thought the skater was going to fall backward.

This brought a great class discussion. Students were able to persuade other students. Many students were able to give examples and teach them the right answer. This caused some students to go to the other side. The students really enjoyed it.

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I tried an activity with Fact and Opinion using QR Codes. I had made several QR codes that when students used the iPad QR code reader it would give them either a fact-based statement or an opinion-based statement. Students had to decide if the statement was either fact or opinion. They then walked around the room with clipboards to complete the activity. They loved the hands-on/movement and responded very well to the activity.

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We played irregular plural noun go fish. It was a great way to reinforce irregular plural nouns. The students also had to work together to make sure they were making correct matches. They had a great time playing this!

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I put up 17 Gr8t posters in my room.  That is one poster for each student. The Gr8t exercises are each designed to trigger brain activity.  Each child made a poster of their spelling words and placed it underneath an exercise poster.  Off and on during the day we take a minute to go to our Gr8t/spelling station and we spell our words as we perform the exercise.  We also trade stations and try another exercise.  I will use these posters for many different purposes in the future.  I have had the posters for awhile.  The push to engage our students helped me think of a constructive way to use them.
Guess who this is?

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I’m a big fan of project based learning. The kids hosted the Olympics in our classroom. They learned how to use timers and record time, understand what a faster versus slower time meant, record points with tallies and report the most and the fewest, how to measure string with rulers when they made medals, ordinal numbers, change things that weren’t working, solve problems, journal daily, Olympic fact and opinions, sorting events, sorting by color, dividing groups evenly, talking to people, understanding the importance of rules, and so much more. PBL can be a lot of fun and kids were super engaged!

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So, this concept can be used for any type of learning or review. All you need are cards (cut up pieces of paper, notecards, printed off and cut out, etc) that have a question on the front and an answer on the back. I did this with some inferencing reading passages. Each student was given a card and they were supposed to read through it and try to think of the answer. Then, they could look on the back and see the answer. Then everyone was supposed to get up and find another partner. They read the passage to their partner and finish by asking them the question. Their partner is supposed to try to guess the answer. Then the partner would read their card and the other student would guess their answer. At the end, they switch cards, so the student now becomes a new expert on a new card. Then, they go find another partner and do the same thing. You can do this until everyone has had a chance to switch or set a time limit on it. I don’t normally have it so everyone switches with everyone. But, they are all practicing finding inferences, they are reading with fluency, and interacting with each other. At the end, I ask if a few people want to share the card they ended with and once they read it, everyone says the answer at once!

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Wanting to tie in some of the enthusiasm everyone has been showing for the Olympics, we played our own version of curling to help us review contractions.  Forgetting the actual points you get in the game of curling, we just went curling for contractions. I printed off a few curling game templates off Pinterest and wrote the two words that make up each contraction on the blue or red parts of the game. Students took turns rolling a coin down the board to see if they could land on a contraction. Once they did, they looked at the two words, and then wrote down the contraction for the words on their recording sheet. The goal was to come up with the most amount of contractions written correctly as a team!

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Everyone was given a small container of playdoh and asked to see how many 3D shapes they could create and name. Then, as a team, they drew a Venn Diagram on their... table (gasp!) and put their shapes into categories of shapes with curves and without. I mean, are making Venn Diagrams even fun if you can’t write them on the table?

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We tried Philosophical Chairs in my classroom. Students lined up on opposite sides of the classroom to debate this question: Is too much TV hazardous on your health? We had a lively debate, and some students were even persuaded to cross to the other side of the room as their opinions on the topic changed. I used this as a method to get the kids to think "persuasively" since we are just beginning our persuasive essay writing unit.

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I was wanting to have a meaningful Valentine lesson. Using John 3:16 as our verse for the week, I shared how much God loves us and that because He loves us we should want to love him back. I found this cute Valentine bee craft and used it to reinforce our behavior poster. Each child made a bee and than chose one of the four areas that they could work on and wrote it on a heart to put on the bee. I have noticed that throughout the day the kids have really wanted to work on the area they chose.

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I was wanting to have a meaningful Valentine lesson. Using John 3:16 as our verse for the week, I shared how much God loves us and that because He loves us we should want to love him back. I found this cute Valentine bee craft and used it to reinforce our behavior poster. Each child made a bee and than chose one of the four areas that they could work on and wrote it on a heart to put on the bee. I have noticed that throughout the day the kids have really wanted to work on the area they chose.

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Students lined up to debate this question: Are all squares congruent?  Reflection: all students were highly engaged, thinking critically, and respectful of others' opinions.  Next time we do this I'll double check to make sure that those who ended up on the wrong side of the debate truly understand why they were wrong; I think they may have verbally agreed/repeated the right answer without completely understanding the "why."  I might take them for a brief reteach in a small group, or reconnect with them the next day after the intensity of the debate has subsided.

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I am looking forward to using this suggestion from Richter's Reads:      I Wanna New Room     Have students create blueprints of their very own “Dream Rooms,” complete with every feature they can dream up.  Have them calculate the areas and perimeters of the different features of their rooms.  I will be combining this with our Treasures Reading: My Very Own Room and our Envision Lessons on area and perimeter.

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I am looking forward to using this suggestion from Richter's Reads:      I Wanna New Room     Have students create blueprints of their very own “Dream Rooms,” complete with every feature they can dream up.  Have them calculate the areas and perimeters of the different features of their rooms.  I will be combining this with our Treasures Reading: My Very Own Room and our Envision Lessons on area and perimeter.

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I've always had sticks with the kids' names on them in my classroom to use for cold calling. However, I hadn't been using them for that purpose lately. After our meeting, I decided to use them for that reason again and I have loved getting to hear from some of those students who don't always raise their hands.

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I had 17 different reading comprehension questions and I had studrent

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I am looking forward to posting a schoology quiz this semester.  I tried a socrative quiz last semester, which went pretty well, but I like the idea of one on schoology because then the grade is automatically entered when students finish the quiz.  I'll probably need help from Brandon for the first go around.

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This past week I had my students lead their own discussion about a passage we read. I asked them to come up with their own questions or realizations about the passage. Hearing their own take on the passage gave me insight into their thinking and their ability to form high level questions.

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Every student was engaged and had to participate in the learning. I realized, however, when I tried to get students attention it was difficult because I tried to speak over them. The next time I try TPS I will just count down from 5 to 1 and teach students that when they hear 1 it's time to be quiet again.