Gobble, Gobble Class!!

Today was a BUSY day!!  This morning I taught my class one of my favourite, if not thee favourite Thanksgiving song, "I Heard Mr. Turkey Say..."  Boy do my kiddos adore wiggling their fingers under their chins like the waddle of a turkey. 

Then, it hit me that it was time to change up the Class/Yes!, Mighty Oh Yeah, and the Mighty Groan!  It is now October and with Thanksgiving on the way we have to add some poultry seasoning!!  Enter "Gobble, gobble Class!" "Gobble Yeah!" and "Dun, dun, dun!  Your goose is cooked!"  It was like everything was new again!  I was getting way more participation and quicker response times!  

That afternoon, I had a bunch of parent helpers come into the class to help us make our crunchy, marshmallowy delicious apple turkeys!  Boy was I a happy teacher when my students responded quickly to my fresh gobble, gobble Whole Brain Teaching techniques!!

My Apple Turkey Zinger

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!  Hope you have a wonderful weekend!!!

Pointer Counting WBT Lesson and Activity

Last week I taught my very first math lesson with Power Pix!  It was so much fun!  The kids had a great time because of course it involved a little snack...  These are a bit of a review from Kindergarten but I like to start my year off with them just to see where my kiddos are at!  Here is a little synopsis of my lesson plan:

Class/Yes! "Today we are going to be talking about pointer counting!  Tell your neighbour what we will be talking about!"

Class/Yes! I show them the Power Pix. Mirror! Mirror check!  "The question is: What is pointer counting?"  Mirror and Words, "What...is...pointer counting?" Class/Yes! "The answer is: Pointer counting is pointing and counting!" (with gestures).  Mirror and words. "Pointer counting is pointing and counting."

Class/Yes! "Turn to your neighbour and one partner will ask the question - What is pointer counting? and the other will answer with big gestures - Pointer counting is pointing and counting - over and over until I say switch." Teach/OK! Oh, oh, Switch!

Class/Yes! "Now let's practice.  Let's count these _____________.  Count with me!  Now let's count these ______________ the wrong way." Count and skip a number or begin at 2 instead of 1.  "That is the how not to pointer count!  Oh yeah!"  Give a few more examples.  "Turn to your neighbour and come up with some Example Poppers of how to pointer count and how not to pointer count.  Be prepared to use a Because Clapper in your answer!"    Class/Yes! "What are some of the Example Poppers you came up with?"

Class/Yes! "Now it is time for the Yes!/No Way game.  If what I say is true, say Yes!  If what I say is not true, say No Way!"

Is this pointer counting?
Is this the pointer counting Power Pix?
Is this the pointer counting gesture?

Class/Yes! "Now it is time to play Cutie!  When I say Cutie! put your head down on your desk, cover your eyes and put your fist out in front of you.  If what I say is true, put your thumb up.  If what I say is not true, put your thumb down.  Cutie!"

Pointer counting is pointing and counting.
2, 5, 27, 6 is pointer counting.
1, 2, 3, 4 is pointer counting.

"Heads up! Now we will practice pointer counting with a snack attack!!  Take each penguin and fill the circles.  Starting at the arrow, pointer count as you eat!"

Click on the picture below for your free copy!!

Swap Day

Today was swap day at our school - yes!  All the primary teachers drew an intermediate classroom to teach for the day and vice versa.  I drew the Grade 5 classroom and the Grade 6 teacher taught my Grade 1's.  It is amazing how many little details go into planning for a sub - especially for a teacher that you work with - I kind of wanted to impress her with my skills:)  Luckily, I had the WBT Sub guide created by the lovely Deb Weigel.

I have to admit I was a bit of a nervous wreck.  However, I was confident Whole Brain Teaching would save me and....of course...it did!!!  This particular class had already done a little bit of WBT.  They knew the Class/Yes!, the five rules, the Teach/OK! already.    I taught the Scoreboard (the incentive was 1 minute early to lunch) and reviewed five rules within minutes.  We recited the rules.  I talked a little bit about how the brain works and the importance of keeping the entire brain active through gestures, visuals, speaking and fun.   Then I taught Bodies Up!  and Seats!  Finally, I added the Woo! and the It's Cool, Hand and Eyes, Mirror and Switch!.  The kids were really into it.  They kept on getting faster and more in sync with one another.  It was really cool.  I did have to ping pong a bit and practice a few times but it was still super exciting.

The first lesson was on Sentence Fluency from 6+1 Writing Traits.  I taught it like a Power Pix with gestures.  Then I had them teach their neighbour using the Teach/OK.  We did a really neat sentence building activity and I used Papers! and the count down to hand out and collect everything.

After recess, two students came up to the front and lead the class in the rules.  One even did it using a silly voice.  In Math, I had a few students teach the class.  There was some really cool teachable moments and I even threw in a quick mini-lesson on the equal sign with gestures.

In Social Studies, I taught the four requirements needed to vote in an election.  As a class we came up with gestures to match and the students taught their neighbour.  I even still remember them - lol!  Alas, they lost the Scoreboard before lunch so we had to try again in the afternoon.

In Science, I taught about the circulatory system using an analogy about cars and highways to describe arteries and veins, gestures included.  One students had the definition down so she taught the class.  At the end of the period there was a little time so I taught them my version of Mind Soccer and I used the material from the previous chapter on respiration for the questions.

The rest of the day was pretty zen.  They did win the Scoreboard for the end of the day so they got some D.P.A. (Daily Physical Activity) time out on the playground.  I really made them work for it - no calling out and staying in their seats was big!  All in all, WBT and the day was brilliant.

New Year's Class/Yes! and Scoreboard

Happy New Year!  My Grade 1's are back into WBT and we are having loads of good times!!  Some quick fun things:

Currently, I am saying Snowball Class and they say Snowball YES!  all the while making a snowball and throwing it at me - I duck and cover!!

Also, I say Snowball Fight Class and they say Snowball Fight YES and they throw a snowball at each other.

Smilies are POW! and Frownies are UGHH! - pretend like a snowball hit you in the stomach.

Update

Tried out the Genius Ladder orally these last couple of days.  Here is the example my kids came up with.  They were tickled pink by it!!

Blah Sentence:  Here is a school.

Spicy Sentence:  Here is a castle school made of pizza.

Extender Complexor:  Here is a castle school made of pizza where students get hot lunch and a pepsi every day!!

Super Improver Wall is ticking along!  Kids love it and almost every kid is on to the next level!  Oh yeah!

The Scoreboard fun continues.  Right now I am using Booyah for Smilies and No Treats for You for Frownies.  For Class/Yes!  I am saying Boo! Class, Meow Class, and Trick or Treat Class.

Practice Cards are in effect and working well!

Next week I am going to start using the student leader buttons!  I'm excited!!!  Happy Whole Brain Teaching!!!!!

Beginning Gradually in the Classroom

So here is Andrea Schindler's document for starting Kinder adjusted for First Grade!

Day One:
Class Yes!
Rules 1-5
Scoreboard Game
Hands and Eyes!
Criss Cross Applesauce
Bubble in your mouth
Lines, Lines, Lines
Seats, Seat, Seats
Cubbies, Cubbies, Cubbies
Backpacks, Backpacks, Backpacks
Tell your neighbour

Day Two:
Practice all the routines introduced so far

Mirror

Mirror/Words

Switch!

Teach your first 5 Step Lesson

Pencils and Erasers, Pencils and Erasers, Pencils and Erasers

Name, Name, Name

Work, Work, Work

Papers, Papers, Papers

It’s cool
Ten finger woo



Day Three:
Practice all the routines introduced so far

Continue to teach one 5 Step Lesson a day - try to make them short as it is the beginning of the year.

Week 2:
Practice all the routines introduced so far
Weekly Stars (When students get 10 stars, which usually takes about a week, they earn a special reward, like a five minute game of Mind Soccer).

Introduce the Practice Cards when you feel the time is right and approximately 85% of your students have bought into the Scoreboard Game. If you start the Practice Cards too soon you will have a ton of students practicing and the goal is not to have any if possible. Some teachers wait until Thanksgiving or January to introduce them and some do not use them at all. It really depends on your class:) Begin with the white cards. Gradually, introduce the purple and green cards - this may happen days, weeks or months later. Remember, it is a long year:)

Month 2:

Begin teaching two Five Step Lessons plans per day. You may even increase this to 3 or 4.

“Milestones to Reach for Further Routines”:

*If you have used the individual pocket chart and still have a select group of students who are exhibiting undesired behaviors, use the Independents Group

*Once students are comfortable with “Tell your neighbor”, move to “Teach! Okay!”, with both students talking

*Once students are comfortable with “Teach! Okay!” add in the "Switch!"

*Once students are comfortable with "Switch!" add in "Tag Team"
*Once students are comfortable with the “Teach! Okay!”, teach the students the Crazy Professor Reading Game.


Here it is in google.docs

Scoreboard Turnover

So the scoreboard turnover to students continued this week.  As the interest grew, I started to have the class vote on who they thought were excellent leaders and teachers.  I chose one for the scoreboard and two for other leadership jobs (calling students to the carpet, etc.).  I LOVED giving the scoreboard job out to a student as I was not forever searching for a pen.  I would just say, "I think the class deserves a smilie for that!" and my student leader would say, "Wait for it!" to which the class responded, "Oh yeah!"

During Library, we read a book about the digestive system and students initiated a discussion comparing and contrasting plant stems and blood vessels.  Students stood up and taught the class their higher level thinking connections!!

I taught a lesson on expanded form after watching Farrah Shipley's amazing video on compound words. To help I had a slide on the SmartBoard for each section of the lesson: the rules, the power pict, examples, non-examples, Yes/No Way!, Cutie, Critical Thinking, written work questions to be completed in a notebook or on a recipe card.  I added a target bullseye to discuss and provide class and teacher objectives near the beginning.  It worked really well and the lesson had better flow.  Next time I want to have a clipboard so that I can assess and record student learning during Cutie.

In other news, I started saying, "Quiet on set!" when Sharing time was about to begin ~ I borrowed this from another post on the forum.  The class responds, "It's show time!"  Way fun!

Also, we did an animal unit this week.  Each student wrote a report about their chosen animal after reading a book and writing down four fact words and an opinion word about their animal.  I demonstrated how to gesture through the title and each of the sentences created from the collected words.  Then, I had the students return to their desks to silently make up and gesture through their own sentences using uppercase letters and periods at the end.  Next, using the Teach/OK, they practiced saying and gesturing their sentences with their partner.  Finally, they wrote down their prepared sentences.  In the end, they produced fantastic reports with beautiful complete sentences!!  OH YEAH!!!

The week ended with a field trip a golf course to learn about our community  The Class/Yes! and the rules were well utilized (although silently with hand gestures by me due to golf course rules:).  The parents and golf course staff were extremely impressed with my students' manners.

Phew!  I think it's time for a vacation!

It's Spreading!!

I heard my vice principal use the Class/Yes with her  students today:)  Oh yeah!!!

WBT and Cross-Country

Hi all!

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile but the internet was not working - now I am back!  Also, this week was our primary concert so it has been very busy!!

Today we had our regular cross-country running practice after school.  I usually ride on the bus with the kids to the park.  Now all of you who have been on a bus know what it is like!  For those of you who don't,  imagine 60 kids being very loud, standing up and down, for 15 minutes.  I decided to give WBT a shot.  Before you know it I had fourth graders all the way up to seventh graders listening and following cues.  I taught the Class/Yes (I changed it to Team/Yes, Coach) and Oh Yeah within in seconds.  Then I got them to mirror while I talked about the rules of the bus.  It worked rather well.  If someone stood up they got a Mighty Groan and when they sat down they got an Oh Yeah.

Then, we arrived at the park and another teacher was running the warm-up.  The kids were having a hard time listening and focusing.  I asked her if I could try something we had just learned on the bus.  I got all of their attention and handed it back over to her.  She tried it and it worked for her too!  Oh yeah, for WBT!