Can you believe it is December already?!
What has been going on in Stanton Time? Let’s do the roll call…
...Starting off with some great conversations and learning about “tattling” vs. “reporting/telling” in Kindergarten. Kindergartners are learning the difference between telling an adult because someone is in danger/hurt or something destructive has been happening that might be hurting our community, school, or property. We compared this to telling simply to get someone IN trouble. This gives people red thoughts and makes it hard to be a good friend. We read a great book called Miles McHale Tattle Tale that helped students see these two concepts in action. We recite the “Tattle Battle Pledge” during our time together:
If a friend is hurt, sick, or in harm’s way, then telling someone is OK. Unless it’s danger, sickness, or bullying I see, then I will mind my own business and worry about me!
We are now talking about “Size of the Problem”. We compared problems to weather/rain - how problems come in all shapes and sizes - some are small “kid-sized problems” that we can solve on our own (pencil tip breaks, someone borrowed our crayon, sock is inside out, etc.). We call these “sprinkle problems”, like a light sprinkle of rain that doesn’t ruin our outside fun or activity - it isn’t a big deal and we can quickly solve it and move on. Another type of problem would be a “Thunderstorm Problem”. This might be bigger than we can handle or solve on our own and it would be a time when we would want to get adult help (left our lunch at home, got a really bad scrape that is bleeding, someone is being teased at recess everyday, etc.). Students were really awesome at being able to identify kid-sized (sprinkle) vs. adult-sized (thunderstorm) problems. We will keep working on this concept the next couple of weeks and start to talk about how it’s expected that the size of our reaction matches the size of our problem. Continually proud of and impressed with these deep thinkers!
First graders have been learning about SUPERFLEX! SUPERFLEX is a social superhero who lives inside each of us! He shows up when UNTHINKABLES (that also live inside our brain) try to take over our brains and keep us from being flexible thinkers! One of those Unthinkables is ROCK BRAIN. This Unthinkable makes us feel STUCK in what WE want to do and what WE think the plan should be. Sometimes ROCK BRAIN makes it hard for us to think about others, be ok with plans changing, and have big upset reactions when things don’t go our way. This can give people around us red thoughts. Superflex teaches us strategies so that we can be more flexible in our thinking when situations arise where ROCK BRAIN gets us STUCK. Being flexible in the moment can give people around us green thoughts. Most recently, we played a game where students decided whether the situation was the person was having a ROCK BRAIN moment or SUPERFLEX moment. They did a great job with this identification! Next, we’ll work on SUPERFLEX strategies we can use in the moment to defeat ROCK BRAIN and other UNTHINKABLES.
We are learning about one of our Lyme School values “Responsibility” in second grade. We’re coming up with ways that we are becoming more responsible at home, in school, and in our community. We’re also learning about taking responsibility for our actions. We read a funny yet informative book by Julie Cook called “But it’s Not My Fault”. This story was about a kid named Noodle who always blames someone else for his mistakes. Students recognized how this made peers, parents, and teachers feel and how Noodle can take responsibility and own his mistakes - this will help him learn and move forward. Next class we’ll talk about being responsible for our words and using our “Social Filters”.
The Compassion Project is a curriculum that we have been exploring in third grade and has been a great way for students to learn about empathy and compassion through activities, videos, skits, and games. In the simplest terms, it teaches that “Compassion” is SEEING someone in need, CARING about their feelings, and DOING something to show we care. Ms. Connie and I are also enjoying our time working with the 3rd grade in our Positive Peer Relationships group - students have made great connections between Stanton Time and our group time on Tuesdays and Fridays.
Fourth and fifth graders are continuing their Team Building Unit. Each group has created their Recipe for Success which we will use to check in on ourselves and each other. In what ways are we demonstrated those ingredients through our actions and words, and what areas do we need to focus and practice more? Our challenge last week required teams’ physical as well as strategic prowess to be successful. Ask your students about Stanton Time Challenges that have been presented to them! At the end of our time, we did a round of “kudos” and a student declared at the end, “We should do this at the end of every class, Mrs. Stanton.” I couldn’t agree more! Students taking time to share what they appreciate about each other and hearing that gratitude and praise from their peers is truly the icing on the cake. Great work, students!
6th graders are working with myself and Mrs. Neuroth (the former Ms. Wipfler) on passion project podcasting. We ran this as an elective together last trimester and felt like this group would rock it as a weekly class. We are going to start with students brainstorming this week to set them up for the research, scripting, and producing process. We will be using a new web-based program called Soundtrap to create their podcasts. With student permission, we hope to upload them on to our Lyme School library media website for all to enjoy!
Looking forward to the rest of the 2021 year of fun and learning with these students!