Friday, May 25, 2012

Good times


A few days ago, I went to pick up the kids from lunch and walked in as one of the amazing women from the lunch staff was having a serious discussion with them.  Of course my first thought was “what in the world did they do this time,” but it turned out that she was just talking to them.  As I stopped by the Room 114 line, I heard Ms. J* telling the kids that they were lucky that I was their teacher and so they should treat me well.  The conversation stopped when Ms. J spotted me, but I thanked her for the compliment.  That’s when one of the sweetest comments ever happened.  One of my boys, David*, gave me one of his gigantic smiles and said “we always have fun with Ms. Fiema.”  I looked at Ms. J to make sure that I had heard David correctly and then I looked back at David and my heart just melted.  David is a super sweet little boy, but he can also be a handful.  David has the potential to be incredibly smart, and he’s almost always so positive with his bright smile, so I can be hard on him.  Because I’m hard on him, his comment meant that much more to me.  I realized that David takes my expectations to heart and sees that at the end of the day, I do just want to have a good time learning in 2nd grade.



We have a giant 100 chart and as the whole class does something really well one student pulls out a popsicle stick and colors the number found on the stick.  Once ten numbers in a row are colored in, a party is earned, and Room 114 earned a party yesterday.  Since it’s been incredibly hot this week, we had a popsicle party at recess.  All of the ups and downs in Room 114 were worth it as I saw the smiles on the monsters’ faces yesterday as they smiled for a picture and said “POPSICLE DAY!” 

-Lisa

19 comments:

  1. What a sweet post! I love your 100 chart ideas!

    Mary
    Mrs. Lirette's Learning Detectives

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  2. i just made this for my kids and i teach middle school! it should work with them, too!

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  3. So glad you were able to use the 100 chart idea!

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  4. Great way to reinforce numbers in my first grade class. Now I just need a catchy title. Any ideas?

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  5. How about "Connect 10," "Color Me 10," or even something about working together for 10?

    Hope that helps!
    Lisa

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  6. I love the idea. I teach fourth grade (3 classes). How can I make this work when there is always 3-4 students that will ruin it for the class? Ideas welcomed.
    Jglenn

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  7. I have found that the rest of the class motivates the children who would normally be the ones acting up. As soon as the children with the behavior problems do something positive, use that as a learning opportunity and give away a popsicle stick for a square on the chart. Hopefully, that will help them see the future reward!

    -Lisa

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  8. I love this idea! But I have a few questions:

    1. Do you start over with a blank chart once they get their 10 in a row?

    2. Do you have one class or multiple classes?

    3. For multiple classes, would you use separate 100s charts for each group or just one for all?

    Thanks!

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    Replies
    1. Lisa, I keep the chart going until every single number is colored in. My class this year came VERY close to filling in all 100 numbers.

      I do have just one class, but you could absolutely do this with multiple classes and charts for each.

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  9. How about "Way to go, ten in a row!"

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  10. Love this idea for a whole class reward! Great reinforcement for number recognition in my kindergarten class at the beginning of the year. Thanks so much for sharing.

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  11. What do you do if a student pulls a number that is already colored in?

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    1. Once the Popsicle stick is pulled, I put it to the side so that it doesn't get picked again.
      -Lisa

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  12. Replies
    1. I put the number to the side so that each number is only chosen once.
      -Lisa

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  13. Once ten numbers have been colored in are they marked out? Can students use numbers that were a part of a previous ten in a row?

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    1. Yes the number can be used again. For example if 91 is used for all of the numbers that end in "1," then 91 can also be used in the 90s. Hope that helps!

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