Transcript Jackie-Judy PResentationx

By Judy Lesar and Jackie D’Aoust Trevino
Using the curriculum design and direction of Laurie
Frank, Carla Hacker and Kathy Hellenbrand with
gratitude.
We taught students the welcome activity to help our
new friends learn names of classmates and feel a part of
our classroom community. Students ended the activity
with grins on their faces!
Processing afterward revealed that they liked the
activity very much and it made them feel special. Our
new student also participated and we caught him
smiling!
Following the model of our mentors, we had a
class discussion and explored the differences
between rules and agreements. In cooperation
with the students, we talked about what we valued
for our class, came up with our class agreements
and transcribed them to display in class.
Combining words about friendship in school, learning letter names
and working in groups our students performed “The ABC Rap”. The
students had to work together in small groups and finish in the large
group for the end of the song. It took some cooperation, patience,
tolerance (for students with no timing, etc.) to perfect the group rap
that we recorded for our student’s parents to enjoy. In the end, the
students were very proud of the group performance and the feedback
from their parents. We were able to process why it worked after a few
setbacks, talk about the mishaps, laughing with and not at each other
and using the language of our friendship unit and Second Step
curriculum.
The “speed” piece of this game took a bit to understand in
kindergarten but soon they were embracing the idea of animals that
are ‘reptiles” and learning their names and features. Together the
group came up with body movements for the reptiles they chose to
represent and played the game.
A turtle.
After they mastered Speed Rabbit we processed the activity with the
students. Some things discussed were how they felt when they made a
mistake or ended up in the middle. Also we talked about the stress they
noticed when they had to perform quickly under the pressure of
counting, but that they liked it and had fun. They noticed that feeling
stress or nervous is not always bad.
Much of our discussion for Second Step and during our
friendship unit revolved around the power of kind words and
hurtful words. We discussed this and presented some hearts with
hurtful and kind words and sorted these together. Then we
solicited words from the students and wrote these on hearts to
sort as kind or hurtful. We put our kind hearts in a prominent
place for students to see and add to. Then, we very dramatically
read the hurtful hearts and one by one said good bye to these,
crumpled them and tossed them in the garbage. Hurtful words
are garbage in our classroom and the use of kind words are a part
of our classroom agreements and culture.
Tossing hurtful words.
Adding kind
words
written on
hearts to our
classroom
agreements.
This activity has each person in the group holding a talking
stick and taking turns speaking a phrase or sentence with
different emotions. We modified this game to practice facts
about reptiles and the emotions and voices a reader uses with
different punctuation marks.
Procedure:
1. Solicit facts from the students about Reptiles.
2. Review the meaning of comma, period, question mark and
exclamation point. Give examples of voice and expression
changes.
3. Take one fact to practice with one given punctuation mark.
4. Going around the circle with a talking stick, students say the fact
with the appropriate voice and expression.
5. Students split into pairs with 4 cards of different punctuation
marks and a fact to take turns practicing, changing their voices
and expression to match the mark given on the card.
6. Change the fact and the partners.
Reptiles are
coldblooded?
The students were given the challenge of earning coins from the teacher if
they could state a fact or answer a question about reptiles randomly
throughout the morning. The coins each student earned would be
collected and added together to meet a given total or group goal. If the
group met the goal everybody would enjoy Oreo cookies for snack.
Reptiles have
dry, scaly
skin.
Reptiles
lay eggs,
This activity was based on the storybook “One” by Kathryn Otoshi.
Procedure:
1.
Introduce the story and ask the students to pay close attention to the
colors and counting.
2.
Stop and reflect with students during and at the end of the read aloud.
3.
Hold up a large heart.
4.
Solicit examples from the students of mean or hurtful behavior they have
seen or experienced.
5.
After each anecdote, crumble a bit more of the heart.
6.
Using some examples given, ask what could be done to fix it.
7.
Smooth out pieces of the heart as these are given.
8.
Discuss how the heart cannot be completely restored after hurtful acts or
words.
Partners share thoughts at the
stopping point in the read aloud.
A meaningful discussion
about what can fix a heart
that is hurt.
Several of our activities were to encourage problem solving and
self-monitoring of behavior. We refer to our agreements and
the “crumpled or damaged heart” often during conflicts and ask
children to try to solve their own problems using the tools we
role-played or talked about in class. They report kind behavior
to us and we write these on hearts to display. The teachers also
acknowledge kind acts that we witness and give students a
“shark bite”, display a heart and discuss the kindness in class.
Using knowledge from Speed Rabbit and Blue
Jelly Beans, students can name five reptiles and
write at least five facts about reptiles.
Many experiential education activities can be accommodated to
meet academic and behavior goals, as well as building
community. Vocabulary can be taught and learned in context
with movement. Repetition of the activities allows for extra
practice of academic language around the themes in
kindergarten. In particular, English Language Learners benefit
from these methods. Finally, experiential education activities
are engaging. An engaged student is learning.