Talk about a time they played tug of war and then watch a video of people playing tug of war and talk about it

Play tug of war if you're feeling fancy

Additionally, I spend a few weeks when I start with a new kid by asking about them, what they like to do, if they have siblings, etc. and this way I can make them feel more connected and welcomed in my classroom as we work together through SEL lessons.

An upcoming history lesson is on child labor. Some of my students may have had to work already to help their families.

In geography we're just starting our Latin America unit so many of my students can share where they are from and aspects of their culture.

Give each student a turn picking out a vehicle from a box. Ask them yes or no questions about each item. Talk about what kind of vehicles they have at their house. Have they ever seen a dump truck? Have they ever been on a boat?

Students are writing paragraphs on Octopuses. To build background, I will teach vocabulary words - bones and ink. I will show a short video about bones and have students feel their bones, then show a ink pen. Then show a video of an octopus squeezing into a jar and spraying ink. Then reading a text.

Weekend review - students share what they have done with the class. We often reference their experiences as we make connections with the text during class instruction and discussions.

4th grade general education--in our wit and wisdom lessons, when introducing vocabulary, we could have students share ways they connect to the words from own lives

I can use a random generator to put them in new groups to work together.

Let the students choose 5 vocabulary words that are personal to them; example for unit on food instead of them memorizing all the names of vegetables they choose 5, 2 they love, 2 they hate, etc.

-Lacey Erichsen

• Lacey Erichsen

Have two fractions written on papers around the room and student write their response of greater than or less than on the papers.

As I learn about my students interest I try to incorporate that into the content that we read. Both reading stories that students have interest in or expanding to new similar topics can increase the engagement of my students. I am only with them a short amount of time and we do the work that is hardest for them, so the more engaging it is the better!

I was thinking about connecting to students by including an anticipatory set involving dividing a common dessert, and then more students showing up, and having to divide it into more pieces. I could ask students what their favorite desserts are, and choose one of the rectangular ones to connect to fraction strips

I will be facilitating a structured discussion to help students brainstorm the different types of conflict that a person can encounter in their lives. I would then use the think-pair-share strategy to have students work together to determine the categories of different types of conflict.

I would ask each student in the partnership to share a conflict that either they know of or have experienced within the categories with each other.

I then would lead a classwide reflection and conversation and made connections from the present and the past.

I want to facilitate more student talk time and discussion time to help in the synthesis of the material.

This works well for me ELL students that haven't come up with their own response but can rely on what they learned from their peers.

In the past I've used equity sticks, I should bring those back. I like the idea of pairing it with letting all the students write down their answers first so that they are prepared.

In future lessons, I want to incorporate more movement because I have seen that movement encourages engagement automatically.

Group work is important same with giving scaffolds to the group time so they know how to get along.