Use Back to School Activities That Help Teach Character Traits

It's time for back to school and that means planning fun back to school get to know you activities that students haven't done before.  Plus, the first week activities you plan set the tone for your year.  I want students to know that they will be working together, doing projects and activities with other students and collaborating.  It's important to establish rapport and teach students how they are expected to treat each other, with dignity and respect.  We also value and teach character traits.

On day one I want students to be see what their year will be like.  I want them working together, talking, and getting to know each other.  Yes, I teach routines and rules, too, but I want students interacting. I want to hear laughter. I want to see smiles on faces.  I want new friendships to blossom.  I want students to accept each other.  Through play, this process begins.

I recently designed a great set of activities that can be used for the first four days of school.  They best part is they are Cootie Catchers.  Who doesn't love making and playing with the?  Best of all, they let the teacher talk about four character traits each day so by the end of the fourth day, 16 traits have been discussed as a class.  Teachers can reinforce why the traits are important to creating a positive class culture.  The first Cootie Catcher gets students paired up and allows for the game playing to be non-threatening because the questions students ask each other are non-personal.  Each of the next Cootie Catchers gradually ask more questions that are more and more designed for students to share more about themselves.  Hopefully by the end of the week students will have new friends with things in common.

Here's some examples of the questions designed to gradually allow students to become comfortable sharing.

Cootie Catcher #1 - These are a few of my favorite things : 

• What is your favorite food? 

Cootie Catcher #2 - Get to Know Me! 

• Do you celebrate holidays? If so, what’s your favorite?

Cootie Catcher #3 - More About Me! 

• What do you like to do for fun on weekends?

Cootie Catcher #4 - Wishes, Hopes and Dream

• What is one thing you wish people knew about you?

This activity is designed so students can play the game with one to four partners so that over the course of the first week, students know at least four students really well.

What are your favorite back to school ice breakers and get to know you activities?  Have a great school year!

Teach Character Education the Easy Way

In my 33+ years teaching middle grades and middle school math, I've learned a thing or two about how to focus on teaching and not spend time dealing with poor behaviors.  Yes! It can be done!  You have to devote time early in the year connecting and getting to know each and every student.  Take the time to teach students how to treat each other, how to treat you, and the classroom materials.  If you don't do this right, you will likely struggle all year managing poor behaviors and that is not good for students or you!  If you teach them what good character looks and sounds like, your students will show mutual respect for you and each other.  Sound good?  It can be done.

 

See it on TPT

Blast from the past!  One thing I do is post the key vocabulary words that help me teach good character where it's in student's view.  I usually focus on 18-20 traits for my wall display.  Note:  I post the posters alphabetically so I can do some indirect teaching of alphabetizing, too.    Here are some old photos from my classroom character traits wall.  It's where it all began. 

 

My new set of character traits posters is so much nicer.  The new set of character trait posters that I just posted today to TpT has 169 traits and is a growing set.  The set also includes several bulletin board titles. It's also in PDF format for easy printing.  

Some years our school chose to use a monthly character education focus.  No problem, I can do that but I'm also going to focus on it daily without directly teaching!   When students are showing good character, I point to the poster displayed on the wall and make simple comment about the trait.  Sometimes I'd say this quietly to the child and sometimes I'd say it out loud, depending on if it was something the class was working on.

I also run a Special Student of the Week program where each child gets to the be "Star" for the week.  My motivation is simple with this amazing program.   You can read more about in on this blog post.
#1:  That way I don't have to change a job chart every week!  I have the special person do EVERYTHING that needs doing all week long.  It's awesome!
#2:  On the last school day, the special person gets interviewed by classmates.  Then, classmates focus on character traits and write (at least) two compliment sentences.  Students scan the wall looking for words that describe the person and give examples of how the student shows that trait.
#3:  Everyone likes to be recognized and noticed as important.  The combination of focusing on great character and strengths of the student make it a win-win.

Another program I use and can't do without is the Wise Owl Student of the Month program.  I created this program to also focus on character traits.  The Wise Owl program was my dad's idea.  He's got great ideas!  (See his Scottish Heritage website here).  In Scotland as a young boy, my dad was recognized in school as the Wise Owl Student of the Month and it made a big difference for him. He bought a beautiful wooden owl hand carved in Mexico and brought it home and it became my first owl.  The wise owl award I gave out focused on 12 character traits.  This program changed behavior like no other I've used.  Students wanted to earn this award and worked so hard to have the recognition.  

Student of the Month Wise Owl Award Student of the Month Recognition Program

The Wise Owl Trophy by Mrs. Renz Class

What do you do that helps build good character?  Leave a comment to share what works with other teachers.  Thank you!

Challenge Your Students with Mastery Club! It's EASY and Fun!

Mastery Club has a New Home on the Web! 

Mastery Club has a New Home on the Web! 

The Scenario:  You're in the middle of a guided reading group.  You're on a roll, students are with you.  Your group is focused.  Suddenly you feel a tap on your shoulder and one of your sweet students says, "I'm finished.  What do I do now?"  Argh, just what you don't want to hear!

You want to find a fast finisher activity that students understand and can do independently without needing you and you don't have tons of time week after week to prepare all of the fast finisher activities.

If this is something you don't want to deal, make your life easier by using Mastery Club!  It's easy to set up, and once you do, you can use it year after year with no additional prep!

In my fourth grade classroom, my goal was to help students become independent learners.  I leaned early on in my career that giving by students choices, I get more in return; sometimes WAY more than I expected.  I always want students to know what to do when they were finished.  Enter the idea of Mastery Club.

You want to challenge your students to learn new things and you're tired of students saying, "I'm finished.  Now what do I do?" or worse yet, "I'm bored."  Oh boy!  Those are NOT the words you NEVER want to hear!  

Mastery Club consists of a list of challenges to learn something new.  There are 86 challenge questions broken down into five main topic areas:  Social Studies, Science and Health, Language Arts and Linguistics, Math, and a Miscellaneous category.  Students use my website, Mrs. Renz.net, to access the links to research each challenge, or they can do research on their own.  Of course, books and other resources can be used for conducting research.  That's how we did it in the old days!  😉 When a student is ready to take the test, s/he simply goes to the storage crate, finds the corresponding answer recording sheet, sits at a special table that you designate and takes the test.  When s/he is finished, they turn it into a special Mastery Club turn in spot.  That's it!  You (or a parent volunteer) use the answer keys or web links to check the answers and if the student got 100%, the challenge was passed and the student officially became a "1 star" member of Mastery Club.  Easy!

Excuse this (really old) photo of the Mastery Club challenge question area.  

It's all about choice!  Students love choices and you will love it even more because students learn about what interests them.  You're not telling them what to do.  Students choose the topics that interest them and learn about the topics in the order they choose.  If you give choices to students, when you need students them to do what you ask, they won't mind because it's been a give and take and this time it's your turn.   

The plastic crate (in the photo below) shows the file folders that holds the student recording worksheets and a binder that keeps the answer keys.   In the set I made for TpT, there are even file folder labels to simply print and attach to the folders.  Set up is easy! 

Once a student has earned at least one challenge, s/he becomes a "1-Star Member."  Teachers simply record the challenge number earned on the grade book sheet included in the set.

Students keep earning and try to do as many challenges as they can before the end of the school  year. You can choose a date for the challenge to end so it allows you time to get the certificates ready.  If you're really lucky, you can maybe ask a parent volunteer to copy and paste the challenges onto the certificate for each student. It makes the certificates that much more special to be personalized.

I can't say enough about how much my fourth, fifth, and sixth graders loved this program!  Many times a student would come back to say hi and would go right to the Wall of Fame to see where their name was in relation to the new names that were added.  Awesome!

Don't let students say they're bored in your classroom!  What do you do for your fast finishers?

Mastery Club has a new home on the web! http://mrsrenz.com/mastery-club-links

Capture End of Year Memories with a Memory Book!

The end of the school year is approaching.  State testing is over.  Student enthusiasm is high. Students are getting eager to be out on break (and so are teachers).  Behaviors can escalate if you're not on top of things.  What do you do that's meaningful work that will hold your students' attention during the last few days of school?"  It' easy!  It's engaging!  There's one last bit of writing involved!  But best of all, students make their own memory book and remain focused during this crazy exciting time of year.  This great activity gives you a few minutes to begin room tidy-up and end of record management.  What could be better?

I love using memory books to capture the highlights of the year students spent in my class.  I prefer to create book in a half-page format because if your school is like mine, we tended to put a freeze on copy printing and were nearly out of budgeted paper supplies for the year.  For a class of 34, I could print 17 pages and have 34 individual memory book pages.  I know some teachers prefer the ease of using a single page per sheet, so I created memory books just for you, too.  They're in my TpT store under the category, "End of Year."

At the beginning of the year, I create a file folder for each student and file them alphabetically in a hanging file folder in a plastic crate.  These folders are now ready to file memory book pages of special events that we do throughout the year.  Each time we go on field trips, have guest speakers, do cool projects and events, photos are taken.  I use a class list and check off each student's name to be sure I've got a photo for everyone.  Then, right away, I'd add each child's photo to the template for the page destined for each memory book.  Each photo is captioned to be personalized for each students. Then pages are printed, cut in half and filed into each student's folder.  Newest pages go a the back so the books end up in chronological order for easy assembly at the end of the year.

This is what the NEW memory books look like:

These are some photos of my daughter's memory book when she was a 4th grader in my 4/5 Blend class. You can see how I used to use lots of photos for my students' memory books.  Since then, students create their own pages and we add photos to the books as well.

See all of the Memory Books - in Half Page and Full Sheet Format

Whatever you do the end the year on a positive note, do it well.  Your students and families will remember their year with you as a great one!

Figurative Language Cootie Catchers are FUN, FUN, FUN!

Who doesn't love an excuse to play with a Cootie Catcher?  This set is full of figurative language terms, examples and gives an excuse to play while learning about figurative language!

There's four templates that give students practice using and identifying figurative language plus there's an interactive pocket foldable to store the Cootie Catchers in your interactive notebook.  Also included are 8 posters with figurative language definitions and a PPT slideshow.

Play, learn and have fun!

Earth Day Videos that Engage Students to Action

Water covers over 70% of our Earth's surface.  Are our planet's ocean becoming garbage collectors?  Did you know that most plastics never break down?  So, if they never deteriorate, where do they go?  I'm glad you asked!  Think about an item we all know of and probably use . . . plastic bags. Did you know that they use our Earth's oil resources and have been banned in many cities?  Do you know where they end up?  Do you know where their "life cycle" ends?   This blog post is about an issue I love to teach during April.  April 22 is Earth Day.  Here's a great video I like to show and after viewing it, students want to know more and they spring into action.  What teacher wouldn't love that student response? Students taking charge and self-directing their own learning?  Students want to know more... they demand answers.  I love it!

Our fourth grade environments curriculum is the perfect way to tie in this important concept.  Begin the lesson by asking students what is important about April (besides it being poetry month)?  Yes, it's Earth month. Then tell them you are going to show them a "mockumentary.  Make sure to teach students what it means to "mock" (see image, below) so they "get" the sarcasm in this video.   Then show the YouTube video (3:59) called "The Majestic Plastic Bag - a Mockumentary."   You will be asked to show it again, so plan for that!

This movie sparks tons of questions from students.  The video clip shows what happens to plastic bags i.e: their "life cycle" and ultimately where a plastic bag ends its "life" - it ends up in our oceans as trash.  Students are glued to every word, thinking the video is funny but they soon learn that this topic is sad at the same time.  This video really gets students thinking.  It is a great jumping off place that will lead students to pose questions about our planet, healthy oceans, recycling, reusing, reducing waste, plastics and oil use, animal impact, consumerism, and more.  This lesson is self-directed learning at its finest!

Here is a video note taking sheet you can download {FREE} from my TpT store.

Next, your students will be asking to learn more about this "Great Pacific Garbage Patch" they just learned about during the plastic bag movie.  This is another YouTube video from 2009 narrated by Oprah (1:20).  The video clip is grainy, but it's definitely worth a watch.  NOTE:  Teachers, be sure to preview these videos before you show it to students to make sure they are appropriate for showing to your students.   The video clip is shocking and very sad, but addresses very real issues we all should know about for the health of our planet.

And here's another video "Secrets of the Deep:  The Great Pacific Garbage Patch Good Morning America" show (4:30) that offers even more information on this issue.  It, too, is grainy but has good content.

Here's yet another video that is interesting about the Great Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch (3:34).  this one has some profanity so before showing to students, you will want to mute the sound and show the images in spots.

Here's some vocabulary you may encounter:  buoyant, indefinitely, coexist, decompose, indigenous, closed system, biodegradable, plankton, currents, food chain, debris.

Ask students to come up possible questions.  Some example might be:
  * What are plastic bags made of?       Plastics infographic
  * Why are they banned in some cities and states?
  * How many sea creatures have been injured by plastic bags and other plastic trash?
  * How much oil does it take to make a plastic bag?
  * How long does it take for items to decompose?      Great visual - poster
  * How long does it take marine debris to break down?       Great visual - poster
  * How long do other products take to degrade in a landfill?
  * Is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch real?
  * How can we reduce the amount of trash we create?
  * What happens to sea creatures that get tangled in the trash?
  * When debris gets into our oceans, where do the currents take them?

  * What can we do about this and where does this end?

For a literacy lesson, you can use this Oprah.com website link to do a close read on the topic.  Be sure to click the numbers 2, 3, and 4 at the bottom of each page to advance to the next page.  Much discussion will occur.

To enhance your teacher background knowledge, watch this TED Talk video (4:41) about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

Here's another video about plastics and the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (4:56).

Happy Earth Day!  YOU can make a difference in the world.  What ideas do YOU have for Earth Day?  Please share your ideas!