Rockin' Super Improvers

I have been testing the waters with Whole Brain Teaching this year. I haven't fully jumped in yet. So far, I really like most of it. We do the attention getters- class, yes? and the "teach-okay!" I love the "teach-okay!" It's very effective for keeping them engaged. I use it a lot with teaching our amazing words. I make up gestures to go with each word. I've been using lots of different motions for the teach-okay part which they love. I'll do stomp, stomp, stomp, salute! And they echo back. I mix it up. If you're not familiar with WBT check it out on youtube. Here's a link to a bunch of videos and a great first grade blog- http://mrsshipleywholebrainteaching.blogspot.com/p/whole-brain-teaching-videos.html.



So anyway, I have not done the scoreboard. I tried it for a while, but couldn't think of good rewards. So that's fallen by the wayside. I discovered WBT two weeks after school started, so I am learning as I go.

 

 

I am planning to incorporate the Super Improvers Wall next week. I finally finished the board (the kids have been asking me about it all week, so i've gotten their attention.) I hope it works! I really, really do. I need to find a way to motivate my kids.

 

I did a rock theme which I stole borrowed from this awesome site- http://wolfelicious.blogspot.com/2012/08/my-super-improvers-wall.html. I hope she doesn't mind. I must say, I'm pretty excited about how mine turned out.

There are ten levels. Every kid starts out with a gold star (fan). When I see them improving on something (it could be anything from making a 100 on a spelling test to raising their hand before talking) they get a sticker. Ten stickers-move to next level and get a purple star and so on... I like the idea of setting individual goals for my students. They're all so different but everyone can improve on something.  

 

These letters took me forever to draw...

 

        Rock star font- LOVE! I did extend the line on the 'a' a little further with a sharpie because it looked like it said "hell of fame."

I found these guitar cutouts Michael's and decorated them with the new fancy schmancy duct tape.

 

I am excited to try this out. It's different from anything I've ever tried before. We'll see!

Honeybees

This is a little sequencing/retelling activity we did for "Honeybees." They had to draw a picture in each cell, cut them out and glue the cells in order. Some tried to make it look like a beehive. It took them quite a while to do this. On Fridays, I usually give them some type of art activity instead of stations.

The Big Circle and Life in the Forest

Here's a fun little craftivity (i love how we make up words, like today I heard "verticality" on Dear Geneive and I wondered if she just totally made that up) we did for The Big Circle.

 

This is an activity I found on TPT that I thought went really well with the story "Life in the Forest". Plus it was FREE so you can't beat that! The kids did a really good job with this. Their drawings turned out super cute..

 http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Animal-Babies-Addition-Word-Problems-with-Three-Addends-for-First-Grade