Ruth Ayres invites us the celebrate each week. Click over to her site Discover. Play. Build. to read more celebrations.
Last week I celebrated the hard work of planning a new learning community, our 6th grade enrichment project. We call these special Wednesdays, “WOW” as in “Way out Wednesdays,” and this week was WOW! We have an amazing group of students who enthusiastically mingled and became fast friends. One of our teachers had the brilliant idea of grouping them by what they like to do (computer, art, writing a play, building/crafting), and these groups built their own super hero. One group did a Powerpoint, another a play. The art group created a poster, and the craft group built a costume. This was one of those situations a teacher dreams about. All the students on task and completely self-directed. I celebrate this new learning community and have high expectations for the products they will create.
Super Hero costume: Cop Copter!
My classes are becoming places of safety, learning, and fun. Yesterday we celebrated two birthdays. It delights me that the wish that my students have for their birthday celebrations is the apple peeler. I have an old turn style apple peeler. They each get a turn to peel their own apples. Kielan brought in cookies to share. She created a scavenger hunt that included book titles. And she chose a poetry writing activity from Laura Purdie Salas’s book Catch Your Breath. This is what I call a literary birthday celebration.
While every other day of the week is focused on reading and writing, Fridays are fun! In my other classroom (I teach at two schools), we celebrated completing the week’s assignments with game day. Don’t tell my students, but the games are all educational. They don’t know that. They just think it’s fun. As it should be!
Game Day: Building with the game Brain Builders, challenging and fun!
Reflections on the Teche 