When my students enter the classroom in the morning, they are often eager to see their friends and share experiences with them. We have a period in the morning that, while most of my students are in the classroom, the school day has not yet officially begun.
Instead of trying to get my students to sit quietly during this time period, I have decided to use this time to build our classroom community by allowing my students to engage in activities that foster creativity, and require collaboration and thinking not otherwise demonstrated by completing a worksheet. Students will be given the opportunity to choose activities and with whom they will work. The LEGOs, magnetic tiles, design and build engineering kits, K'NEX, Super Fun Marble Run, and create your own chain reaction sets will allow the students to use their imaginations and build freely, or follow directions to build a specific design which can help build working memory. I've found that students like to do these things collaboratively, so it creates an environment of cooperation and helps build friendships. Connect Four, Uno, and Sorry! teach children to think strategically so they can defeat their opponent. These games require a similar type of planning, analyzing, and problem solving as our math program, but in a much more engaging format. For example, in the game Sorry! when you roll a 7 on the dice you can split the amount between two pawns. That type of thinking can transfer over into how students approach mental math problems. Connect Four and Uno both require a player to plan ahead in order to be successful. All of the items requested will foster an environment where working together, many types of thinking, and problem solving skills are valued.
About my class
When my students enter the classroom in the morning, they are often eager to see their friends and share experiences with them. We have a period in the morning that, while most of my students are in the classroom, the school day has not yet officially begun.
Instead of trying to get my students to sit quietly during this time period, I have decided to use this time to build our classroom community by allowing my students to engage in activities that foster creativity, and require collaboration and thinking not otherwise demonstrated by completing a worksheet. Students will be given the opportunity to choose activities and with whom they will work. The LEGOs, magnetic tiles, design and build engineering kits, K'NEX, Super Fun Marble Run, and create your own chain reaction sets will allow the students to use their imaginations and build freely, or follow directions to build a specific design which can help build working memory. I've found that students like to do these things collaboratively, so it creates an environment of cooperation and helps build friendships. Connect Four, Uno, and Sorry! teach children to think strategically so they can defeat their opponent. These games require a similar type of planning, analyzing, and problem solving as our math program, but in a much more engaging format. For example, in the game Sorry! when you roll a 7 on the dice you can split the amount between two pawns. That type of thinking can transfer over into how students approach mental math problems. Connect Four and Uno both require a player to plan ahead in order to be successful. All of the items requested will foster an environment where working together, many types of thinking, and problem solving skills are valued.
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