There's something about a classroom full of students... their energy fills the room and we are instantly back into the swing of things!Â
We started our day with our One Word Wednesday. I give the students a prompt and they write one word on their whiteboard to describe their thoughts on the prompt. We take turns sharing our words and discussing how we are feeling. I asked the students, "How did you feel about coming to school today?" The majority of the answers were tired or sleepy... after having to get up early. We talked about how sleeping in was nice over the past three weeks. My second questions was, "How do you feel when I say teacher strike?" The answers varied a bit more with this prompt. One answer that opened up a fantastic discussion was the word weird. The student explained, "It was nice being home and having time with my family...but it was hard knowing that the teachers were not at school and were having to fight for us." After some more sharing by the students, I shared a bit of what the strike was like for me and my family. I didn't want them to be worried about me so I shared a few highlights from my past three weeks. I shared with them that my husband, who is also a teacher, and I attended three rallies and a few teacher walks. We spent a lot of time walking our two dogs, puttering around the house and spending time helping out our moms. The students seemed to relax a bit after hearing that I was ok. All in all, it was a fantastic conversation for our class family.
Tim Burton Study and Art Project
Students provided each other with a bit of peer feedback between their first and second attempts at their portraits.Â
The students loved learning about Tim Burton's very recognizable art style and stop motion animation. They were little sponges for information on Wednesday... so curious and eager to learn as much as possible! For example, after learning that it takes 24 photos to create one second of a stop motion animation movie, they wanted to know how many photos it would take to make one minute of a movie. Then, they wanted to know how many photos would have been needed to film the 76 minute long Nightmare Before Christmas movie.Â
Witch's Brew Recipes
After listening to The Witch's Cat and the Cooking Catastrophe, the students were inspired to write their own witch's spell recipe. First, we talked about what we need to include in a recipe: a title, the ingredients including amounts and the instructions. Then, we brainstormed a list of witch ingredients and amounts. Next, students chose between 6-10 ingredients to include in their spell recipe and came up with a recipe title. Then, we worked together to write four sentences of instructions. Finally, the students wrote the good copy of their recipe on a fancy paper. Marks for this assignment have been posted to PowerSchool.
Halloween
This group is so sweet! They were so excited to take photos together with their friends!
The students enjoyed creating Picasso inspired Franken-portraits!
The Mummy Wrap was a HUGE hit!
Rad Raptors
Silent 30 Reward
In an effort to streamline transition times, I introduced Silent 30s to the students before the strike break. When I ask the students to do something like get their whiteboards out, put their chromebooks away or gather on the carpet, I will say, "Please get your whiteboards out and give me a Silent 30." Students are expected to follow the instructions silently. If they are successful as a group, they earn a Silent 30 point. Once they earn 30 Silent 30 points, they earn 30 minutes of free time.Â