Little Quack's New Friend
Posted on April 21, 2006
Little Quack's New Friend is a new book by Lauren Thompson and illustrated by Derek Anderson. Little Quack and his four brothers and sisters love to play together, but when a green frog wants to play with them, all but Little Quack say "No". One by one the little green frog wins them over by being himself. It is a fun story about having fun with a new friend and accecptance of differences. Great illustrations too! The kindergarteners at Ambrose School loved it.
Unlovable for Respect and Responsibility
Posted on March 21, 2006
For my last two visits to Swanton Elementary School, I have read the book Unlovable (see below) by Dan Yaccarino to kindergarten through second graders to illustrate the concept of Respect and for third and fourth graders to illustrate Responsibility. All of the students (12 classes in all) loved the book! It is a good example of how you can take one story and by highlighting certain aspects you can highlight different Core Concepts. With the older students we were able to make connections to other books they were reading this year. It is the integration of the concepts throughout the curriculum that makes this curriculum work so well. Keep your eyes and ears open. You will find the Core Concepts everywhere!!!
Sense Pass King by Katrin Tchana
Posted on February 9, 2006
Last Thursday, I spend the day at the Swanton Elementary School visiting seven 3rd and 4th grade classrooms to share a lesson on respect. I shared with the students the book of respect letters written by the kindergarten through second grade students at Babcock School and we talked a little about why treating each other with respect is so important. I then shared with the students a favorite book of mine, Sense Pass King retold by Katrin Tchana and illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman.
I have a couple of connections with this book that I also shared with the children. First, this book is a story from Cameroon, a country in West Africa. My wife and I are avid fans of UVM basketball and a young man that played for UVM for the past 4 years was Germain Njila. He is from Cameroon. He is also a respectful, kind and gentle person that I respect very much. A second connection is that the author, Katrin Tchana now lives in Thetford, Vermont with her husband, Eugene (who was born in Cameroon) and their two children.
The story is about a young girl, Ma'antha, who is extraordinary. She was so clever that the villagers began calling her Sense Pass King which means "smarter than the king". This angered the king who tried his best to rid himself of Ma'antha. As the story progresses, she remains kind and respectful while we learn that the king is not! There are several points in the story where it is fun to stop and ask the students to predict what will happen next. There are lots of examples of Sense Pass King acting respectfully while the king disrespects everyone.
If you haven't read this book, read it. The students loved it and so do I.
Nora the Nonapus
Posted on January 25, 2006
Nora the Nonapus is a great book for fifth-graders to address issues about bullying, trust, belonging, sharing, respect and responsibility. It was written and illustrated by four fifth-grade girls. The authors are Susan Cavender, Vaishnavi Krishnan, Alison Smith and Zoe Gan from Estes Hills Elementary School in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Kids love knowing that this is a book written by kids for kids!
I used this story last year when I worked with a group of 120 or so 5th and 6th graders at Hinesburg Community School to help them develop recess norms for their team. The story is about Nora who is a unique octopus with nine tentacles. She is afraid to let her friends know she is different and goes to great lengths to hide her extra tentacle. When Boyd, the Bullypus joins her class, things get out of control! How can Nora save the day? You will have to read the story to find out.
Reading a story to such a large group was a challenge so I scanned the pages into my computer and put them into an Apple Keynote presentation. I used Apple's GarageBand to record my voice (with special effects added) to make it possible for everyone to see and hear the story. Since the class meeting was divided into two 1-hour sessions with a week in between each session, I played part of the story on the first day and asked the students to work in small groups between the sessions to predict how the story might end. During the second hour, groups of students presented their ideas on how the story would end, and then we listened to the story to see how it really ended. It was fun and interesting. Students had some great ideas on how Nora could save the day!
The Snow Bear
Posted on January 4, 2006
The Snow Bear by Liliana Stafford is a wonderful book that tells the story of an Inuit boy and a snow bear from the wild. It is an excellent book to discuss the core concepts with children. In order to help the bear, the boy disobeys his father and leaves his family to be with his new friend, the bear. From the bear's point of view, the boy is trustworthy, caring, respectful and a great friend. But what about from his families point of view? Is the boy right to leave his village to help the bear? As the story progresses, new conflicts emerge to deepen the discussion of the core concepts. As you can tell, I really like this book. It is a great book for all ages.
New Books
Posted on December 12, 2005
My wife and I went to the Scholastic Warehouse sale in Williston last week and I bought two new books. "I Like Myself" by Karen Beaumont and "Unlovable" by Dan Yaccarino. They are both short books for younger children with very cool pictures and a simple message about belonging. I would use them both together. The message in "I Like Myself" is that being you is OK! It doesn't matter what you look like, "No matter if they stop and stare, no person ever anywhere can make me feel that what they see is all there really is to me."
The second book, "Unlovable" is about a small dog that is told over and over again by the cat and parrot, "You've got the ugliest mug I have ever seen. No one could love you!" He listens to what they and the other dogs say and believes them until he finds a friend.
If you try theses book with your students, let us know how it went. How did you use them together?
Identifying the Communication of Behavior
Posted on December 8, 2005
During today's podcast I discussed developing Student Success Plans for students with challenging behavior. One of the tools from the Suportive Classroom manual that I talked about is the set of forms for helping the team decide what the student is communicating through his or her behavior. The six categories of communication include:
1. To Get Attention
2. To Get Control / To Get Something
3. To Escape or Avoid a Situation
4. To Get Revenge
5. To Have Fun - Play
6. Self-Regulation
Click on the link below to view the forms.
The Stray Dog - A Book About Belonging
Posted on November 30, 2005
Jo Evelti, the early childhood teacher at Hinesburg Community School, was kind enough to share this book with me. Last week I visited her class and read the book "The Lonely Scarecrow" with her students. We talked about belonging, friendships, trust and safety in relation to the story. What a great group of kids!
The "Stray Dog" by Marc Simont is about a family that meets a dog (they named him Willy) and how Willy becomes a part of their family. The final line in the book is "and Willy settled in where he belonged". It is a fun book, nicely illustrated and apparently based on a true story by Rieko Sassa.
Student Success Plans
Posted on November 21, 2005
During todays podcast I talked about Student Sucess Plans. The above link is a sample plan in a pdf format.
The Success Plan provides a framework for gathering and summarizing important information about each student in the class. The process for developing the Success Plan is divided into several tasks or activities that can be arranged in various ways depending upon the needs of the students and the desires of the instructional team. The tasks to be accomplished include the following:
• Get to know each student.
• Identify each student’s strengths and interests.
• Identify family concerns that may impact on each student’s ability to participate in school activities.
• Identify collaborative skills and other priority skills for each student to learn or practice.
• Identify supports for helping the student succeed.
Understanding each student’s strengths and interests provides teachers with a wealth of information for developing motivating learning activities and themes. The public recognition and regard for each student’s strengths and interests communicates to them that they are cared for and valued. In addition, information on strengths and interests can be used to facilitate students developing positive relationships with each other and learning to respect similarities and differences among people.
The use of a strengths-based approach to planning is essential for developing effective student support plans. If we can arrange class activities so that each student has daily opportunities to highlight their strengths and interests as well as work on learning new skills in areas that may be challenging, we can create an atmosphere in which each student can be successful.
Personal Learning Plans (PLP)
Posted on November 21, 2005
During todays Podcast I also mentioned Personal Learning Plans. The above link is to a .pdf file of the PLP map that I described in the podcast.
The student's Personal Learning Plan is her vehicle for identifying additional content that she would like to address during the school year based upon her individual interests. The main benefits of Personal Learning Plans are to give students a stake in their education, give teachers a way of getting to know their students on a more personal level, give the student's family increased opportunities to be involved in their children's education and to provide a valuable learning experience which teaches students to set goals, evaluate their work and take greater responsibility for their own learning. The priorities identified by the student with input from her family and teacher may be met through some of the same activities and projects already planned for the class, or additional activities or projects might have to be identified for the student. The plan can easily go beyond the classroom and extend into the home and community. For example, if a student wants to train her new puppy and sets this as a priority, she may be able to learn about dog training methods through reading in school or at home, do research in the school library, the community library or on the internet from a computer at school or at home, and attend dog obedience classes after school. The culminating activity for this priority might include bringing the dog to school to show her classmate how well she trained him and to share techniques for training dogs. It might also include a written report or a video production.
Where is the Care?
Posted on November 2, 2005
Yesterday I visited with Mrs. Barber's 1/2 class at Hinesburg Community School. Mr. Bear (see above picture) and I lead an activity I call "Where is the Care?". There are times when children act in ways that make each other feel sad and "Where is the Care?" is a simple way we can remind each other to treat each other with respect in a caring way that will enhance our feelings of belonging and friendship. Mr. Bear and I acted out a few examples of when friends might treat each other badly. When the children noticed we were not being nice, they said "Where is the Care?" so Mr. Bear and I would stop what we were doing and THINK. Once we stopped, the children helped Mr. Bear and I think of several solutions to our dilemma and then we role played the solutions for the class. It was a lot of fun and the children learned an easy way to point out to others when things are not going as well as we would like. Simply say out loud, "Where is the Care?"
The podcast, Episode 5 - Forever, has a brief description of the activity and Mrs. Barbers class singing their song, Forever.
Venn Diagrams Up-date
Posted on October 14, 2005
An earlier posting (Sept. 9th) described a "getting to know you" activity using Venn Diagrams from Sally Fuesner's and Micheala Whitman's 3/4 classes at Hindsburg Community School. As promised, here is a sample diagram for your viewing.
A Kindergarten Belonging Song
Posted on October 11, 2005
If you listened to the second episode of the podcast, you heard Mrs. Freed-Thall's kindergarten class sing their Belonging Song. In case you couldn't understand some of the words:
We all belong together, we all belong together,
We all belong together in the Butterfly class.
Student's name, student's name and students name,
Student's name, student's name and students name,
in the Buterfly class.
(repeat this verse until you have named all of your students)
We all belong together, we all belong together
We all belong together in the Butterfly class.
This song is important is several ways. It sends the messsage that everyone in the class is important and "belongs" to the class. It also gives the students practice at learning each others names in a fun, "musical" format. Finally, it identifies the class/team name, the Butterflys, and gives the students practice at learning their team name.
Great idea Mrs. Freed-Thall! Thank you.
Kindergarten Belonging Activity
Posted on October 10, 2005
If you listen to my Podcast (Episode 2) you will hear audio of a lesson that Mary Wood, the SCOPE Coordinator of the Swanton Elementary School, and I did for 5 kindergarten classes this past Thursday. This was our way of intorducing ourselves to the new kindergarteners at Babcock School. We spend about 25 minutes with each of the five classes. I have to be honest, Mary planned the lesson and I was along for the ride. She did allow me to read the story, Friendship Day. Friendship Day is the first book of Disney's series "Lessons from the 100 Acre Woods". It is a Winnie the Pooh book that all of the younger children loved!
Mary made paper hats (like the hats Christopher Robin made in the story) for the children to decorate and complete the sentence " I am a Special Friend because....".
Listen to the podcast! There is a suprise song at the end.
1.2.3 Music is a Fun Book
Posted on September 27, 2005
1,2,3 Music by Sylvie Auzary-Luton is about a little girl, Annie, who is crazy about music. Her passion for music gets her into lots of trouble with her family and limits her ability to connect with her cousins. Something exciting happens that allows Annie to share her love of music and reconnect with her family.
Can a person be too passionate about something? How can we temper our passions so that we can keep them and share them, yet also take care of our responsibilites, form positive relationships with others and honor and respect other peoples passions too? These are a few questions for discussion that this book can raise. It is also a great unit grabber to begin a discussion on sharing, belonging, respect or even trust. Each core concept can be addressed with this delightful book.
Sharing Activity for Ambrose 2nd Graders
Posted on September 27, 2005
Last Tuesday, I visited Ambrose Elementary School in Winchester, MA. During my visit I had the opportunity to lead a "Sharing" activity for the four 2nd grade classes. I did two sessions with two classes in each session (30 - 40 students per sesson). What a great group of kids!!
I began each session by greeting the students and their teachers and sharing about myself by sharing the contents of my "Me Bag." My "Me Bag" contained a blue ribbon my father had won the year I was born, my 1st grade school picture ( I couldn' find my 2nd grade picture), a paper I wrote while I was in 2nd grade, and pictures of my children. I also shared a passion that my son has for music. We talked about what it means to be passionate about something and I played for them a song my son wrote and played on his electric guitar. I then asked the students to think of one thing they were passionate about and we shared their passions and saw how many of the children shared each others passions.
Next I played the song "Sharing" by Jeffrey Meyer and Denise Mangiardi and asked the children to stand and dance with me ( to add some movement and FUN to the activity). I next connected the theme of music by reading the book "1,2,3 Music" by Sylvie Auzary-Luton (see above book review). We talked about the book and the concept of sharing. I finished the activity by playing the song "Sharing is Fun" by the Happy Hatters and we again stood and danced together.
I had a great time! Thank you Ambrose Elementary School 2nd graders and teachers!!!!!
Another of My Favorite Books
Posted on September 18, 2005
The Lonely Scarecrow by Tim Preston and illustrated by Maggie Kneen is a beautifully written and illustrated book. It is about a scarecrow who is understandably lonely since he was made to scare the animals from the field. The story takes the scarecrow through the seasons and we see him transform into a "friendly" snowman! As a snowman the animals are no longer afraid and he starts to gain a sense of belonging. But what happens as the snow begins to melt?
It is a great book to lead into a discussion about belonging and trust. Are the animals smart in staying away from a scary stranger? Should they have approached the "friendly" snowman that they did not know? For younger children especially, we want to make the point that safety is always the first concern and is much more important than trying to make someone else feel a sense of belonging.
Great Book Idea
Posted on September 9, 2005
"The Other Side" by Jacqueline Woodson is a great picture book to use with children when discussing belonging. It depicts a time in our country's past when a small town was divided by a fence. Black people lived on one side and white people on the other. In this story a white girl named Annie begins to sit on the fence and Clover, a black girl, grows more curious about the fence and the girl that sits on it. The illustration by E. B. Lewis are beautiful.
I was also thinking that this book would be a good book to read to older students ( 4th -8th grade) to begin a discussion about the "invisible" fences we build around ourselves and between our "group of friends" and others as we enter adolescence.
If you read it to your class, let me know how it went. Maybe your students could write a reflection to add to the Student Area!
Venn Diagrams for Getting to Know Each Other
Posted on September 9, 2005
Yesterday I visited in Sally Fuesner's and Micheala Whitman's classrooms. Micheala and Sally team together in the 3rd / 4th grade multiage wing of the Hinesburg Community School. This summer Sally took a two day workshop on Project CRISS (CReating Independence through Student-owned Strategies). Project (CRISS) is designed to help all students read, write, and learn more effectively. You can get more information on Project CRISS at: http://www.projectcriss.com/.
Students were working in pairs creating Venn Diagrams about themselves. A Venn diagram consists of two linked circles. In the left section of the circle one student put information that was unique to him. In the right section of the second circle, the second student put information that was unique to her. In the section where the two circles overlap (the center of the page) the students listed information about themselves that they had in common.
This was a great example of taking an academic skill of organizing material and relating it to a fun relationship building activity! When the diagrams are complete they will be displayed in the hallway. I will take a few pictures and show you some examples in the next few weeks. Great idea. Thanks Sally and Michaela.
Welcome to the Classroom Area
Posted on May 14, 2005
This is the place for Instructional Teams to share their ideas for lesson plans for teaching the Core Concepts of Belonging, Respect, Trust and Sharing and for teaching Collaborative Skills. Ideas for integrating the Core Concepts and Collaborative Skills into academic lessons and projects will also be shared as well as fun and instructrive entry routines.
