What Kind of Smart?

So this summer I rediscovered the book:  

I think it does a really good job of breaking down the learning styles into understandable language for the little ones. The biographical poems were a little much for them-we only read through a few-Matthew Henson, exploring the North Pole-"Nature Smart". Maria Tallchief a renowned dancer "Body Smart", etc. Then I had the students think about how they learn best. I wrote all the options for them to choose from on the Smartboard, they had to choose one and explain why. I have many "Picture Smart" students-they just love art/painting at this age.

Creative Family Trees

We've been talking about families as our theme this week. There are lots of different kinds of family trees and we looked at some of the variations. Then I asked the kids to come up with their own new kind of a family "tree"--only it couldn't be a tree. They had to use some other design to show connection amongst their family members. Here's what they came up with :

 

A Sorting Challenge

So I was at the grocery store yesterday trying to find something interesting that we could sort for our snacks. Lots of choices-but I went with the good ole' standby of rainbow goldfish. Now I know what you're thinking, they are just going to sort by color right? Nope, I didn't let them off that easy. We had been working on sorting for a few days and they always sort by color or shape. Here they couldn't do it by shape and I told them I wanted something other than by color. Of course, I heard all the complaints of how hard that would be, but guess what....many of them figured out a way. Here are a few :

Smiles/no smiles

Broken/whole

Fat/skinny

Now I know this looks like color. But we watched a video on Discovery about different ways to sort and they talked about using the 5 senses-smelling the stickers that were lemon. So this muchkin said he was sorting out the "lemon" ones. Hey, at least he was paying attention yesterday!

I felt like I actually made them think a little bit today anyway! :)

Our First Divergent Art

One of my favorite activities to reinforce creativity is to give the kids some kind of shape-a circle, a squiggle, a straight line and ask them to incorporate that shape into creating some sort of design. For example-a circle could be a wheel on a car, a snowman head, a sun, etc. The first shape I give them is a squiggle because 85% of the class will turn it into a snake. And while I make it very clear, there's nothing wrong with a snake, next time I want them to try to come up with something no one else thought of, it becomes a lesson on originality. It's also very telling to me who has an innate creativity. Here are some of what they came up with on the 1st try.

a muffin

a self-portrait (the description later changed to an alien portrait).

a hat

a generator (this student is obsessed with anything mechanical)

8

snowman

Bus Snacks

This has become a first-day tradition in our classroom. Partly because I know they are hungry by 3:00-they eat lunch at 11:00. And partly because it's a fun activity and I want them to want to come to school the 2nd day. :) I showed them how to make the bus with graham crackers, waffle pretzels, oreos and yellow-dyed cream cheese ( I ran out of food coloring so it's not as yellow as I would have liked it to be). Usually they make them in different ways, but this was a case where they pretty much all made it the way I did (except one bus had about 8 wheels, a cookie fan apparently :). It was a fun activity though, and we didn't make too big of a mess. These were a few examples of what they came up with.:

Being Proud

One of my all-time favorite read-alouds is Stand Tall Molly Lou Melon. I had actually never heard of it until a colleague started talking about it and now it's a staple in my curriculum. I love the illustrations and the message it sends. When the school bully tells her she sounds like a duck, her response is "Quack". 

So we talked about the word "proud" and things you could be proud of. And of course, the kids then wrote about it. Here are some of their responses.

She has baby twins in the NICU.

I let them take a stuffed animal home for the night when they are my "superstar". We call them buddies.

I Am Unique Because....

So I wanted to make sure to get an initial writing sample from the first week for their portfolios. We read the story:

It's about a girl who doesn't just want to wear the ordinary school uniform and finds a trunk of vintage accessories to spice it up a little bit. About being yourself and that it's good to stand out and take risks.

I asked the kids to write about why they were unique. I love to look at beginning work because I know they will definitely understand this concept better in a few months. Here are just a few: