Character Rings

Our Olympic theme gave us an opportunity to discuss important characteristics that make champions.  As we have been learning about different Olympians and gold medal moments, we have been seeing similar character traits.  We connected five important character traits to the Olympic rings and have been discussing how these traits can help us have gold medal performances this year.

Dream Big and Believe in Yourself

While all the rings connect and overlap, the first two we discussed are really linked.  As you saw in the first day post, we read an inspiring picture book biography about Nadia Comaneci.  We also watched a video of her perfect 10 routines.  However, those perfect 10s didn't just happen.  Nadia had to set goals and work hard to achieve.  We used the read aloud Nadia The Girl Who Couldn't Sit Still as a springboard for writing our own goals for the upcoming year.  The first and second grade students have a lot they want to accomplish this year.  I can wait to get started.  Here are a couple example goals that students wrote:

My goal is learning.

My goal is to listen.

My goal is to get better at math.

My goal is to read harder books.

My goal is to be the best I can be.

Sportsmanship ~ Showing Respect

We used the red ring to discuss sportsmanship and showing respect.  Showing respect seemed to come up in almost everything we did the first two days.  From greeting fellow students and teachers with eye contact and a handshake to pushing in our chairs and cleaning up after ourselves, opportunities to show respect are everywhere.  We also practiced sportsmanship by playing a math game.  Of course, all the students wanted to win the game, but more importantly we focused on learning and having fun.  We show good sportsmanship whether we win or lose.

Kindness

Beyond sportsmanship, to have a gold medal year we need to be kind to one another.  Many of the students knew the Olympic moment where the two runners collided and then helped each other finish the race (click here for video clip).  If you watched the slide show of the children's best part of the first day, you noticed that most of them mentioned friends.  This group of students have such wonderful hearts.  Our year is going to be amazing because these children already understand the importance and joy of spreading kindness.

Teamwork

Last but not least, we used the green Olympic ring to represent teamwork.  We have a unique team that combines first and second grade.  I think our different backgrounds will give us strength. One team building activity we did this week was creating a puzzle. Each student got a puzzle piece to design. Then, we gathered on the floor, each student with their piece, and worked together to assemble the puzzle. The students discussed strategies and encouraged each other. This puzzle was different from other puzzles the students had put together because many of the traditional puzzle strategies wouldn't work. For example, the students couldn't match up colors because they each decorated their puzzles individually. When it was complete, each child's unique piece fit together to form the Connected Combo!

Let Your Light Shine

On our second day in the Connected Combo, we focused on each child's individual light.  The children shared unique traits and talents about themselves that make them shine like the Olympic torch.  We did a writing activity where the students had to brainstorm about three different categories: What makes you you? What are your talents? What would your friends say about you?  The students then picked their favorite idea from each list and wrote a short paper.

We kept the learning going by playing a game called "Find a Friend Who..."  In this activity, the students had a list of items like "went to the ocean" and "lost a tooth."  The students walked around with clipboards.  They had to shake a friends hand and then find a category the friend could sign.  The goal was to find a different friend to sign for every category.  So fun!  We learned so much about each other.

Credits: Thank you Hope King at Elementary Shenanigans.

Gold Medal First Day

The first day of our combo class was GOLDEN!  What a terrific group of enthusiastic learners!  I am so excited to be teaching these 16 amazing children. We were busy, busy, busy this week!  For our first day, did several activities to learn each others' names.  One activity was a response chant using the "Knock, Knock" joke pattern.

Knock, knock.

Who's there?

Courtney

Courtney, who?

Courtney Niemeyer

Good morning, Courtney Niemeyer!

Each child introduced themselves and was greeted by the class.  We also made a book of the "Knock, Knock" greeting.  All the students made a beautiful name page to add to the book.

We read a funny book called First Day Jitters! I think it helped ease some of our own first day jitters. There is quite a twist at the end of the book. Ask your child if they remember what it was. After lunch, the students were introduced to one of my absolute favorite apps. Reading Rainbow! The app is filled with incredible fiction and nonfiction books that are read aloud to the children by terrific, fluent readers. There is also an amazing library of videos that build background knowledge and take the children on interesting virtual field trips. The kids are so engaged in reading anytime they are logged in. Their eyes light up as they "turn" through the pages of the digital books. You can hear giggles as students listen to funny stories and "WOW"s when the students see and hear something interesting.

You can get a Reading Rainbow subscription at home for $4.99 per month. Visit their website for more information: https://www.readingrainbow.com/. Just last year, the app launched the education version of the app. Our teaching team has used some of the money raised from last year's Read-A-Thon to purchase a subscription. You may access our class account from home. How exciting is that! On any web browsing device, go to our class blog. On the top button bar, click "Reading Rainbow." You will be taken directly to our class's page. Click on your child's balloon and have them enter their password. Please take advantage of this incredible library. You will not be disappointed!

Of course it is not all about the digital books.  We read a perfect book that combined our Olympic theme and a great message about dreaming big and believing in yourself.  The book is called Nadia: The Girl Who Couldn't Sit Still. We also watched a short video clip of Nadia's gold medal performance in the 1976 Olympic games.  The children were amazed.  After reading her story, we set our own goals for our first and second grade years.  The students did some great thinking and writing.  I will share some of the goals in a later post.  With our goal setting we had a gold medal snack!

Yes, it was certainly a busy day.  We also mixed in some math, recess, and birthday treats. We often took brain breaks.  I used a site called GoNoodle.  They have tons of fun brain breaks including virtual track and field events introduced by real Olympic track athletes.  I think the children's favorite was the 100M hurdles.  Look at them go!

At the closing ceremony at the end of the day, each student earned a gold medal.  I asked the students what their gold medal moment was for their first day in the combo.  Enjoy the slide show below the photo collage to see each child's gold medal moment.

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