6th Graders Encouraging our Newest Test Takers

Each time spring rolls around the topic of our standardized test, STAAR, begins to enter the conversations of our students at Lee Elementary.  Since we have some resident experts on the ins & outs of what the STAAR test is really like, I thought it would be a good idea for them to impart their knowledge onto our newest test takers: 3rd graders!  I typed up a list of all of our 3rd graders and then our 6th graders picked 2-3 to write an encouraging letter to.  They could write encouraging words, test taking tips, confidence boosters and any idea that they thought would help lower their anxiety about testing.  We had a great conversation about empathy and tried to remember back to when it was our first time taking the STAAR test or even how we feel now about it.  Once all of the letters were all written onto colorful bordered stationary, I put them into an "Special Delivery" envelope from the White House (also our nickname for the house beside our school that 6th grade is housed in) and delivered them to their homeroom teachers for students to receive before the test.

The Marshmallow Test

I stopped by the first grade teachers team meeting last week and asked them which social emotional skills their students are struggling the most with.  All 3 teachers, almost in unison, replied with "SELF CONTROL!"  So, I began searching for the best lesson in self control I could find...and I stumbled across an old favorite, The Marshmallow Test.  It was a fascinating study done in the 1960s at Stanford University (if you google it there are tons of articles about it) where they had preschoolers sit in a room alone with a marshmallow for up to 20 minutes.  If they ate it, that was all they got.  If they waited until the researcher came back, they earned a second marshmallow.  This longitudinal study predicted higher SAT scores, lower BMI scores and various other themes when they followed up with the students that waited for the second marshmallow.

I wondered how our first graders would do with this marshmallow test.  Who would eat the marshmallow?  Who would wait?  I had to do it.  First, I  checked our student's allergy list.  Then, I came into each classroom and I simply explained the marshmallow test.  You could choose to eat it now, or you could choose to wait until the end of my lesson (in 30 minutes) and receive a second marshmallow.  I passed them out and began the hilarious video below:



While the video aired and students laughed, I watched to see how they were doing.  Some were playing with their marshmallow, some hiding it under a tissue, one even zipped it up into their binder.  After the video I introduced the topic: Self Control.  What is self control?  How do we know when we have self control?  Is self control easy?  We brainstormed ideas to help us with self control and I showed them this poster (found here):

I went through each step carefully and students modeled how they have shown self control in the past.  Then I put them through a challenge to see how well they could show self control (in addition to those yummy marshmallows sitting on their desks).

I explained that we were going to play Red Light, Green Light.  But with a twist.  We were doing it in the hallway.  Yep, the hallway!  A place where you are not allowed to talk and you are only allowed to walk.  Their eyes grew big.  Would they be able to play Red Light, Green Light and have the self control to stay in the game by following our hallway rules?

Each class performed differently, but overall it was a success and we didn't make too much racket.  When we came back into their classroom we celebrated by watching Cookie Monster's video about self control and had a mini dance party, with our marshmallows of course.


 
When the time was up their eyes were anxiously looking up at me.  Would I fulfill my end of the deal?  Were they able to exhibit self control?  The results were in as I walked around passing out a second marshmallow.  All but 2 students were able to wait.  One surprised me, one did not.  Not too bad roadrunners...I'll get you next time.

Teamwork & Sportsmanship

In second grade we worked on teamwork and sportsmanship this week.  By introducing this topic early, I hope to be preventative in the increasing number of playground conflicts that happen as they develop.  I found this great video that shows 3 different examples of teamwork:


We brainstormed ideas that we saw in the video.  How did the animals show teamwork?  How did the animals show great sportsmanship in their challenges?  How can we show these skills when we're playing with each other or learning in the classroom?

After our discussion, we played one of my favorite games, Transformation Rock Paper Scissors!  I recently played this with third grade, you can check it out here.  I can't take all of the credit, I stumbled across this fun game here.  

I left a few minutes at the end of the lesson to process how we each did with teamwork and sportsmanship.  What went well?  What do we need to work on for next time?  Are there any rules we should take out or add to make the game more successful?

How to Lose All Your Friends

In first grade we have been working on social skills.  One very important social skill is learning about friendships: what we want in a friend, how to keep friends, what we bring to a friendship, etc.  I usually read the book How to Lose All Your Friends written by Nancy Carlson, but this year I found a cute video that reinforces her story.  I chose to show the silent movie and I read it aloud so we could pause to discuss at different points.


The students found the video hilarious and they quickly understood that this video is all the things NOT to do if you want to make and keep friends.  Together we brainstormed a list of what we look for in a friend and what we bring to the table as a friend.

Then we made "Wanted" posters to show and describe what we want in a real friend.  You can download the template here.

The Great Kindness Challenge

Lee Elementary will be participating in The Great Kindness Challenge this week, Jan 26-30.  This is one week dedicated to creating a culture of kindness on campuses nationwide.  Last year 1,099 schools participated!  Lee Elementary is proudly participating in this proactive, positive bullying prevention initiative!

All students will receive a Great Kindness Week checklist with 50 kind deeds.  Please encourage your child to complete the checklist to show the world that kindness matters.  If your child completes their checklist by Friday, January 30th, have them turn it into Ms. Sepp for a special surprise.

During guidance lessons we will be reading What If Everybody Did That?, The Invisible Boy or Ordinary Mary's Extraordinary Deed to spur our conversation about kindness and paying it forward.

 Then we will watch some inspirational videos...



Here is a glimpse of the many amazingly kind acts that happened throughout the challenge week:

 
We had 100% participation and ***63 students*** complete the entire 50 kind act challenge, designating Lee Elementary as a 2015 Kindness Certified School:

No Name Calling Week Jan 18-22

During the week of January 18-22, Lee Elementary will be celebrating kindness and observing No Name-Calling Week.  No Name-Calling Week was inspired by the popular young adult novel entitled The Misfits by popular author James Howe. The book tells the story of four best friends trying to survive the seventh grade in the face of all too frequent taunts based on their weight, height, intelligence, and sexual orientation/gender expression. The friends create a new political party during student council elections and run on a platform aimed at wiping out name-calling of all kinds. The No-Name Party in the end, wins the support of the school's principal for their cause and their idea for a "No Name-Calling Day" at school.

In classroom lessons we read The Name Jar written by Yangsook Choi.  In the story, a new student moves from Korea to the United States and is teased about her name, Unhei.  To avoid the teasing, Unhei decides that she will pick another name instead, and the students in her classroom start offering up many suggestions.  Will she keep her own unique name or change it?  Check out the sweet story to find out the ending.

After discussing the importance of our names, we had a snowball fight.  Yes, you heard me right!  Each student received a piece of white paper and folded it into 4 equal parts.  In each box we wrote about something different that had to do with our names:

• Do you like your name? Why or why not?
• Do you know why you were names this? Explain.
• If you could pick any name for yourself, what would it be?
• What does your name mean?

They didn't include their own names on their paper to make the snowball fight extra tricky.  They crumpled up their papers and on the count of three threw them around the room.  Each student found a different snowball to open up and try to figure out who's owner it was from the clues inside.  Once they found their match they discussed what they learned about each other.

The second part of the activity came in a subsequent lesson, and was initiated by our 6th graders in the No Place for Hate Coalition.  As one of our projects for No Place for Hate, the 6th graders came up with a thoughtful project that coordinated with No Name-Calling Week.  Each student would receive a small mosaic tile.  They would write hurtful names they have been called or mean words that affected them with sharpie all over the colored tile.  This would help to heal ourselves by removing the horrible memory of its existence from inside our heads and placed visually onto the tile.  Here are some samples from different grade levels:

***STAY TUNED!***

The tiles will be crushed, smashed and hammered into little broken pieces destroying the power these harsh words have had on us.  Then, with the tiny pieces left, they will be crafted into a hopeful mosaic art piece to be hung in the hallway at Lee - representing the positive outlook we have going forward at our school.

Learning about Perseverance

Each month at Lee Elementary we highlight a different positive character trait.  This January we are learning about PERSEVERANCE.  In addition to daily morning announcements about the topic, I try to incorporate the character trait into my guidance lessons.  This week in kindergarten we read The Dot by Peter H Reynolds.  This is a beautifully and simple story about Vashti, a young student that feels she is not an artist.  With a simple kind act from her art teacher, Vashti exudes perseverance and even pays it forward at the end of the story by inspiring another student.

Perseverance is not the easiest word for a kindergartener to say, so we broke it up into parts before we learned what it meant.  Sometimes we feel that something is too difficult for us to do and we want to give up, and having perseverance means that we don't give up.  We keep on trying and working toward our goal, even when it gets difficult.  In the story Vashti starts small with just a dot on her paper.  She showed perseverance when she didn't give up, and eventually she had her own art show.  I had students watercolor their own "dots" (or whatever they chose to paint) to show that they have to strength to keep going even when it might seem hard.

Respecting our Differences

January is a special month at our school.  It is filled with opportunities for students to reflect on their uniqueness and learn about what makes us each an original.  In addition to observing Martin Luther King, Jr's birthday, we also celebrate African American History Month with a program put on by our fifth graders.  No Name-Calling Week and The Great Kindness Challenge also occur this month.  To reinforce the idea of respecting our differences and treating each other with kindness, we read The Sneetches by Dr. Seuss in kindergarten.

This is one of my favorite stories by Dr. Seuss and the message is so powerful.  Although there is a great (free) youtube video on this story, I always enjoy reading it so I can pause at specific points and engage the kindergarteners in discussion.  Students can't stay quiet once they begin seeing how the star-bellied Sneetches treat the ones without "stars upon thars."  As chaos ensues in the story, a natural discussion comes up and students do not understand why the Sneetches do not accept each other for who they are.  After the story I gave each student their very own star to write or draw what makes them special.

(They chose to decorate our Sneetch with all of their uniqueness-es)

Armadillo Tattletales

Every year I read A Bad Case of Tattle Tongue by Julia Cook to our second graders, reinforcing the difference between tattling and reporting.  This year our first graders are in desperate need of this lesson but I can't bring myself to take away this second grade tradition!  I know, it's silly.  So after a few minutes of research, I stumbled upon the story Armadillo Tattletale by Helen Ketteman.  Not only does it touch on tattling, it also includes an important lesson about being noisy too.

The first graders really enjoyed the silliness of the story, and were a little appalled at one part (with the alligator) but they enjoyed the tale and understood the message.  To reinforce and evaluate if they truly understood the difference between which information they should report to an adult and which information they should keep to themselves and try to resolve independently, I had a fun activity planned. I typed up different scenarios and printed them onto post-its (you can download the template here) with a cute picture of an armadillo.  Then I blindfolded each student (with my Viking hat, of course!) and spun them around before they attempted to place the scenario as a reporting situation or a tattling situation.