Today.... I saw excited learners

Today we did rule/procedure review (and introduction for my new students) and some character training. We reviewed our rules as a group and then wrote them and gave an example. Then we split into groups and made a skit to demonstrate our rule.  I love how animated the students were when they were working and how they worked together. Even my new students got involved. Rule number one: Listen when the teacher is talking. They acted out what that does NOT look like, then they acted out what is DOES look like. They even added in an 1870's consequence for not following directions when they did not listen! In December we learned through our visit to Cowtown that children might have to put their nose on a mark on the chalkboard if they didn't follow the teacher's instructions, so they acted out doing that when they didn't listen to the teacher in the first skit. I thought that was pretty ingenious!

Here is the group when they were NOT listening to the teacher! 

Here they have their noses on the chalkboard. 

In their last seen they acted out listening to the teacher and then following his directions.

Today we watched Kid President's video: Make 2015 Awesome! We decided to take on his challenge and students wrote about how to make 2015 awesome for others at Mount Hope Elementary. They really liked some of Kid President's ideas in the video. We will practicing some of them for the rest of the school year. I also took advantage of this to focus on grammar. What does Kid President say "gooder" when it is obviously not correct? One student nailed it.... she said that it increases interest in what he is saying. EXACTLY. I was was so excited that she caught on. I try to point out those "little things" during our learning time, but it is just nice to see students notice and figure it out. And yes, they did know how to correct those grammar errors too! However, Ms. Horn made a huge usage mistake today and I hope no one else caught that one! Here is Kid President's video...

We had three new students join our class today. I am very excited. Our little school is growing! Woo-hoo! The best thing I overheard today.... As students settled in for lunch, one of our new friends asked where they were supposed to sit and when he was told by other students that he could sit anywhere, he excitedly exclaimed~ "I LOVE this school!" 

On that happy note I will end this post. 

How was your first day back?