Lately we have been noticing how our words can help or hurt. We can choose to have powerful self-talk, and we can use our words to encourage others. Our words are powerful!
I shared the following quotation with Room 408:
We talked about how positive self-talk is very important, especially when things get tough.
We made a ring of self-affirmations to keep in our safe zone.
Each student decorated a self-affirmation card for the ring to keep in our Safe Zone for when we need a boost to believe in ourselves. They worked so hard to make sure people would feel good when they looked at them!
Here is a great video about believing in yourself.
We are learning about how grit is important. We don't give up when things get hard, and we understand that struggling helps our brains grow. A great example of this is the book The Most Magnificent Thing by Ashley Spires.
Another great example is the book Making a Splash by Carol Reiley.
We have grit! We don't give up when things get tough.
We have been learning about how our brains grow strong with practice and by struggling--this is like exercise for our brains, and it helps our brains grow.
We have read lots of books to help us understand this:
We get smarter when we practice. It helps our neurons grow stronger. Here is a video of actual neurons connecting.
We have been trying to make our counting by 2s neurons stronger. We learned a song and looked for counting by 2s patterns.
Today we made our calming glitter jars. To see how they help us, refer to this post by clicking on these words. Many of the kids in Room 408 said they wanted to set up a Safe Zone at their house.
We have been brainstorming rules for how we want it to be when we learn, work, and play together in Room 408. We talked about how we will do our best to stay on track. I told Room 408 how we are like trains.
In fact, we are all like trains running on a track.
Sometimes, we make a mistake and our train runs off the track.
My job is to help get your behavior train back on track and running smoothly again.
There are three ways that I will help get your behavior train back on track.
One way is...
We can break feelings, creations, or have accidents...but the great thing is, we can fix it!
The second way I will help get behavior back on track is...
If you can't be safe with something or take care of something, I wouldn't be doing my job if I let you keep doing it! For example, if you were walking across the top of the monkey bars you might need to simply stay away from the monkey bars until you are ready to show me you can be safe.
The last way I'll help keep you on track is...
Sometimes we all just need a little time to get ourselves under control. Take your break, take some quick calming breaths and come back ready to learn.
We all got to practice taking a break in our "Take a Break" spots. While we practiced, we watched a calming music youtube video.
We also put these pictures up as a reminder of the three ways I will help us get back on track.
This week we will talk about how we have different states of our brain.
We all want to be in the Executive State, which is when we are making good choices and have good self-control. It's like when you're driving your Brain Car.
Sometimes, we get into our Emotional State. This is when we might be mean to others, cry, or say hurtful things. It's like you're in the backseat of your Brain Car--not in control!
We also might get into our Survival State. We might hit, scream, or hurt others when we are in this state. It's like when we are in the trunk of our Brain Car--definitely not showing self-control!
When we are in our Emotional State or our Survival State, we can use the Safe Zone in our classroom. This is a quite place to go when we might need a little longer to gain self-control. As a class we talked about how this happens to all of us...even adults! We watched this video to help us learn how to calm.
Soon we'll be making our own calming Glitter Jars to take home. Here is a link explaining it.
We have had a great first week of school!
We are becoming a classroom family. We will learn, work, and play together for 172 days...it will go quickly!
Our first week has been filled with good books, discovering and exploring our classroom tools, and learning.
We read classics, like...
...as well as new books like
We explored our new classroom tools, like markers, scissors, and glue sticks, and learned how to take care of them.
We also did a little research into what we will learn in first grade.
We took our clipboards out into the hallway and wrote down things we are excited about in first grade.
We also loved exploring our math materials! Enjoy this video:
We look forward to lots of learning this year in Room 408!
