Valentines Day Fun 2015

Fact Families in Intervention Group

We are beginning our fact families using combinations of 10. I told my intervention groups that if they completed their family properly I would put their photograph on our blog.  Everyone got their problem correct!

100th Day of School Poem Recording

Today is our 100th day of school. The students wrote a poem and recorded it. Enjoy!

listen to ‘A Hundred’ on audioBoom

Stability Balls In Our Classroom

Hello Parents,

     I know you have come to our site looking for information about the "balls" your children will be sitting upon soon in our room.  I am sure they came home today excited to share this news.  

     The balls were given to us by RESA 5. RESA 5  is the Regional Education Service Agencies.  "RESA 5 is a constantly evolving vision of 21^st century learning, driven by goals to continue a positive, on-going transformation of education in West Virginia’s county schools, with outcomes that influence the success of students, teachers, and school administrators." 

 Here is a excerpt from RESA 5's newsletter about the stability balls.

"At the beginning of the 2014-2015 school year, the

School Wellness Program at RESA 5 offered stability

balls for teachers to test in their classrooms as a re-

placement for traditional classroom chairs. Numerous

research studies have shown using the balls helps

improve student concentration, focus, core strength,

posture and a variety of other cognitive and behavioral

indicators."

 According to Ms. Michele Smyth from New Adventures in First Grade

"There are 3 main purposes for using the ball chairs and incorporating movement into the classroom:

1. Movement increases blood flow to the brain, which is better for brain function (and learning!).
2. Movement helps children "get the wiggles out" which aides their natural need to move.  This helps them focus by expending the excess energy they build up throughout the day.
3. Sitting on a stability ball supports and builds their core muscles.  Pediatricians are finding that children in the last 10 years are suffering from poor core strength due to the practices that are used while they are infants and small children (swings, back to sleep, car seats/ carriers, strollers, activity rings).  They are not developing the same strength as previous generations.  This also helps develop large motor muscles, which support small motor muscles (think writing and hand strength)."

     In our classroom we use many research based instructions, strategies, interventions, and  best practices to create an environment for optimal learning to occur.  I feel that these stability balls will enhance this even more.  

     I will be inflating them this weekend and we will begin using them on Monday! I will keep you updated and post pictures later this month.

 Here they are uninflated.  I will be busy this weekend!

Mrs. Wood from RESA 5 telling us how to effectively use the stability balls in our classroom.

 Update...
Finished filling them and they are set up and ready to go!  Can't wait for the class to get to use these for the rest of the year.

 Here are some links to articles if you want to learn more about using stability balls in the classroom.

 

http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2014/06/exercise_balls_replace_chairs.html

 

http://bangordailynews.com/2013/06/03/health/replacing-classroom-chairs-with-stability-balls-benefits-students-study-finds/

 

http://www.ktxs.com/news/stability-balls-instead-of-chairs-in-clyde-classrooms-experiment-tests-kids-ability-to-focus/22754856

Icicle Ball and Repeated Reading

We are doing repeated readings on the song called the Icicle Ball by Karen Rupprecht and Pam Minor. 
 ( Click the following link to see or print the text and hear a sample of the song. http://www.songsforteaching.com/calendarweatherseasons/theicicleball.php .
 Right click to open it in a new tab and keep this page open, too.)
  Repeated readings help students with fluency, accuracy, and sight words.
 I create a movie for the students with the music so we can read the lyrics and sing the song as we learn it together. 
I use the same video with pictures of  the vocabulary we will cover as I read the text. (See below.)  Students can follow along, as this has been proven to support struggling readers, too. 

Movie with me reading the lyrics as text.

I also have created a QR code for the students to listen to me read the lyrics later in the week as they track the text or read along with me during "Listen to Reading" workstation.