Conferences, Book Fair, and Book Orders

There is a lot going on around here next week!

1. Conferences:  Your child came home with a yellow page of information about conferences next week. That paper stated that date and time of you conference.  It is HIGHLY encouraged that your child attend the conference with you.


2. Book Fair: During conferences, the book fair will be set up in the Library. Please stop in and take a look at the books for sale. It is a great opportunity to stock up for summer reading.
**There will also be a basket raffle this year, so be sure to take a look at all of the wonderful baskets.


3. Scholastic Book Order: The March book order flyers came home with your child early this week.  We have a few orders in already and I encourage you to take a look. There are a lot of books available for $3.00 and under! This too, like the Book Fair, is a great chance to replenish home libraries and help encourage summer reading. Scholastic book orders are due to me by Wednesday, March 16. 
**Remember that you can order online by signing up and using my code MDHBW. This is a quick and easy way to pay and help our classroom earn reward points to purchase new books!

Flexible Seating: Options, Areas, and Implementation

(Long post alert) 

One week down! 

We have officially used flexible seating for one week now and I have to say, I'm quite impressed by how well students are following the expectations. I took a great deal of time researching how I wanted flexible seating to look and what would work best with my 5th graders. Using that research, I created a new classroom arrangement and our expectations. The following list will explain the various options students have for seating, the areas of our classroom, expectations, and how I implemented flexible seating. 

To start, it is important to mention that how I rolled out flexible seating was some what of a fluke. After my donorschoose.org  project was funded, the items I requested were shipped the same week. Each item was delivered to my school on a different day, which helped me decided how to start implementing flexible seating.  Because items were arriving on different days, I decided to embrace the idea of a gradual roll out. When something new arrived, I prepared it and students were free to use it that same day (or the next, depending on what time it arrived). This helped students explore the different options slowly and get an idea of what they were able to work with the best. Doing this allowed students to familiarize themselves with the options and gave me an opportunity to observe how each item was working before full implementation. 

It was interesting to see what students were drawn to, what students thought they would like and didn't, and what they discovered to be their favorite flexible seating option. After all items were in our room and being used during the day, I surveyed students to see what they were enjoying the most. This information helped me learn what items were in high demand and how I would create a morning attendance spot (more information to come). 

Okay...here we go. 

After our week of exploring the seating options, we started this past Monday in full flexible seating mode. I explained the expectations (which were read and on display the week prior) and how our day would look. 

Expectations

 I used some of the expectations from @luckylittlelearners and tweaked them to fit my 5th grade classroom. I made it clear that flexible seating does not mean you find your buddies and "hang out". Flexible seating meant that you are finding a place where you can work responsibly and appropriately. I was impressed that most students took that information seriously and really thought about where they would work best.

The other strong expectation was that I am able to move anyone at anytime, no questions asked.  I informed students that if I thought they were not in a successful learning spot, they would be asked to move. If that happened, they were to simply get up and find another place.  I have had to move a few students, but they were aware of why and did a great job of taking ownership of their actions and found a better place to work/learn.


Attendance Spots

In the morning, I have to take attendance, my students make their lunch choice, get breakfast and eat before we start our day. With this routine strongly in place, I didn't want to change it at all. What I decided to do was give students an attendance spot for our morning routine. Every day, they have a spot they go to to complete their morning activities. This spot was determined by the survey I gave out.

This is working extremely well. I am able to maintain our morning routine and start our day with consistency. I am also able to give work/mail out easily and check agendas quickly without having to buy/create some other method of giving students handouts. We then start flexible seating when students return from specials (Gym, Music, or Art) around 9:30.  They come in, put their take-home binders away and find a spot to work.

Seating Options/Areas
Tables and Chairs

I have two tables in my room that each have four chairs. There were a number of students in my classroom that still enjoyed working at a table in a chair. I knew that I still needed areas like this and offered students the use of a stability cushion to use with the chair.

*If you know me, you know that I love organization and coordination. The fact that flexible seating allowed me to remove some standard chairs from my room and keep all the chairs that matched...made me jump for joy (internally). These tables look neat and uniform with matching chairs, and to please me even more, match my classroom colors (blue and green). 

I like that one table is round and the other rectangle. Both allow for great collaboration but in different ways. When students are working on a project together they are drawn to the round table and when finding a place to discuss a math task or compare writing pieces in pairs, the rectangle table is the typical choice.

I previously mentioned stability cushions. We have 15 of them and they are kept in these two hampers. If students want a stability cushion, they take one from a hamper to use on the floor or on a chair. When they are finished, it's required that they return it so another student can use one.

Stools

At this table, students have the option to sit on a stool. These are quite popular and are always in use. I like the stools because they nearly eliminate all tipping while allowing students to sit comfortably. We have four stools in our room. I am in the process of making some bucket seats to add to these tables to give more stool-like seating.

You'll notice that this table has a desk. Two table areas of our room have them. I have students in my class that greatly benefit from using a desk to keep their materials instead of a bin and they have requested to keep their desk.  These desks have stools to ensure that students feel included in flexible seating in the morning and tend to stay at their desk for most of the day, even when they are able move to a spot of their choosing.








Exercise Balls

At the back of our room are exercise balls.  Students are able to use an exercise ball while working at a table. I chose to keep them at the back of the room to allow for more space (due to their size) and incase of any rolling, they would not interfere with another learning area.





I have been impressed with my 5th graders willingness to compromise and find Win-Win solutions when handling this seating option. It is popular and students are very good about giving others a chance to sit at them.




Comfy Chair Corner

This is a cozy choice for students. I have had these chairs all year and have a calendar sign up for each one. I decided that I would keep the sign up and give students the option of when they sit here. Month-by-month, students can select the day they want to sit in one of these chairs. The only difference from the beginning of the year is that previously, students could use the chairs during independent reading time. Now, they can sit in them all day.







Open Floor Space

Along with the front of our classroom, we have this open floor space where students can grab a stability cushion or a small pillow and lounge. Even though the use of this space depends on the kind of activity students are being asked to complete, I find a few students here daily. Some lay on their stomachs, some sit pretzel legged with their work spread all around them.









Low Tables and Floor Pillows

This is my favorite area of the room. The large pillows are so comfy and the work tables are at the perfect height for students to kneel or sit on a pillow and work. This space works for all kinds of activities and is the most popular among students.  I was a little surprised by the popularity the first day with one low table that I lowered a second. Good thing! All eight spots are always taken by students and they work incredibly well here.







If this week is any indication about how flexible seating will work in our classroom, we will have a great second semester choosing our most successful learning spots.  I'm looking forward to watching it progress and the quality of my student's work continue to improve.

Flexible Seating: All of our Packages Came!

We are ready!

The packages came, tables lowered and expectations have been taught.  

On Wednesday, we started getting the deliveries from our Donors Choose project. The first items were the exercise balls. It took a while to get them all pumped up, but minutes after they were, students were asking for one and ready to try it out. 

I should have prepared for the exercise balls rolling all over when students stood up or walked away from them, but I didn't.  I came up with what I feel is a rather clever solution to that problem. I popped into Hobby Lobby and found the wreath forms. They work perfectly! Students can get up and grab supplies without the exercise ball rolling away.  

On Thursday, our stools and stability cushions came.  Both, like the exercise balls, are a hit! Students who are sitting in a chair or on the floor can take a stability cushion and bring it to where they are woking.  

Our journey with flexible seating was now off and running.  It was time for setting up the expectations (ground rules).  Thanks to an Instagram user I follow (@luckylittlelearners), I knew what expectations I wanted to set.  

1. Choose a working spot that allows you to do your best fifth grade work. 

2. Use seating options appropriately. 

3. If a spot isn't working for you, move so you can be successful. 

4. Mrs. Kangas has that right to move anyone at anytime. 

Friday morning, I decided to lower one of my front tables. This really sealed the deal for students that we were going for it! As soon as the first table was down, a swarm of 5th graders came over to try it out. 

They were excited and were ready to start working on the low surface.  There were so many students interested, I ended up lowering another table. Good thing I did! During our morning Writing time, students were drawn to the low tables and worked very well there. 

When students left on Friday, I stood at the front of my room and took in the current arrangement.  It would have worked - two low tables in the front and four tall tables in the back in two rows - but I felt like something was missing. I couldn't picture students really using flexible seating to it's full potential with the tables in rows. I wanted students to lay on the floor if interested, grab a big pillow and have space to spread out and work. The two rows of tables just didn't quite allow for that. I needed more space in the middle of the room and smaller working areas. So off I went and started moving things around.

 (Just for a reference, this is how things were set up before I re-arranged.  It worked well for traditional seating, but as you can see, not a lot of space to spread out. )

Here is what I ended up with! 

I like the different areas, how students have a lot of floor space to work, and that I can still easily see everyone. 

I will post again this week describing each area specifically and all of our flexible seating options. 

Cold Weather, Inquiry, and Flexible Seating...oh my!

We have been very busy the last three weeks of school.  After some reteaching of expectations and practicing our routines, we are back in the swing of things after break.  We are moving along smoothly despite a lot of indoor time due to extra chilly weather.  I am incorporating many movement breaks into our day to help increase or activity levels. We use gonoodle.com regularly and the 5th graders LOVE it! Check it out at home and create an account to help stay active during the winter months .

We wrapped up our Memoir unit by presenting our picture books.  I am in the process of scoring and returning them to students to bring home to show their families.

We have transitioned into our next reading/writing unit.  We are conducting a research project and using multiple sources to collect our information. This is my first experience using an inquiry model of teaching and it is starting off excellent.  Inquiry is a project based learning experience where student are exposed to a topic and then choose their research area.  For our projects, I have given students complete freedom in choosing their topic.  There were no boundaries at all.  This a little daunting for me, giving up a lot of control, but can already see how attached to their topics my students are. Below is information about Appleton Area School District's shared belief on Inquiry and what I referred to when implementing it.

I am beyond excited to see where our inquiry unit leads our research and end product.  Some students asked about doing extra work at home after school or on weekends - of course! Students are welcome to do any research outside of the school day, but it absolutely not necessary.  I will be giving more than enough time in class for students to complete all research and to work on/complete a final project.  If you are interested in helping your child even more outside of school for this project, using the public library as a resource is a great way to help students find materials and explore their topic.


Something else I am very excited about is a new project I'm working on. I have created a Donors Choose project and it was accepted! Donors Choose is an organization that help teachers receive donations for classroom improvement.  My project is focused on flexible seating and adding more seating to my classroom - exercise balls, stability cushions, stools, and floor pillows.  If you are interested, click the link below and take a look at my page.  Any donations would be wonderful and greatly appreciated.  If you are willing/able, please consider helping out to enhance our learning environment.  Use code LIFTOFF and Donors Choose will match your donation.

http://www.donorschoose.org/project/flexible-seating/1854765/?rf=page-siteshare-2016-01-proposal-teacher_3418180

Thanks for taking the time to check out our classroom blog! Stop back to learn more about how our inquiry research project is going! 

Welcome 2016!

Hello 2016! 

Can you believe it?! 2016 is here and know I'm ready for it.  I have a lot of fun things planned for my students and am excited to see them continue to grow and develop into strong leaders during the second half of the school year (semester two starts January 18). 

I have added the newsletter below to our classroom newsletter tab. Take a look for new information, classroom updates, and dates to remember. 

We are starting a new 50 point challenge tomorrow.  The last round (40 points because of our lessened number of December school days) went quite well.  There were only a handful of students that did not reach the goal, but the majority of our class continued to display leadership skills and followed expectations all the way up until they left me at 3:16 for Winter Break.  I was incredibly impressed.  Be on the look out for a note home about the reward chosen by those who completed the challenge with success.

Word Choice

Yesterday...voice. Today...word choice.

We spent a good deal of time after lunch today discussing word choice in our memoirs.  This is not the first time students were taught about word choice, we spent a lot of time exploring and using strong word choice in our adventure stories.

This round though, whew! They nailed it.  I saw thesauruses out all over, resources shared among tables, and pink highlighter filling rough draft pages.

Our mini-lesson was on the floor the last two days, close together, where they can truly focus on what I'm doing. We usually meet at my "blue carpet" in the back of the room where there is a bit more space, but this worked just as well, if not better.  I love feeling the closeness of us when I teach like this.  I plan to do it more often for Writing. 

Modeling what strong word choice looks like in my own personal memoir I'm writing along with my 5th graders.  They enjoy hearing my personal stories and like that I apply the skill they are learning to the writing piece I am working on.  

You'll notice the notebook on the floor.  That is my mentor "Mini-Lesson Notebook". I use notebook inserts for all of my literacy lessons. Here are the three inserts for Voice, Word Choice, and Message (we will hunt for Message on Monday)

Students are expected to have their Mini-Lesson Notebooks out whenever they are working on a writing piece. Keeping the notebooks purposeful and teaching students how to use them as a tool for learning has greatly enhanced my students' writing skills. 

Students at work today... I'm so proud of their stamina and attention to detail. 

As you can see, I'm loving this Memoir writing unit, and writing in general right now.  We are having fun, learning a lot, and displaying great writing ability.

Voice, Word Choice and Message

In Writer's Workshop, we are working on developing a few of the 6 traits of writing that we are scored on multiple times per year as well as on the report cards.

For our Memoir writing piece, we are focusing on Voice, Word Choice, and Message.  There are three areas that greatly enhance the interest of our stories and add great detail.

We are breaking these three skills apart and focusing on one per day this week. We are done with the first draft of our Memoirs (5 paragraphs total) and are now going through them, hunting for each skill.

Today we hunted for Voice.  When I first taught the 5th graders about Voice, I used the song "You've Got a Friend".  We listened to three versions of the song and discussed the differences we noticed in each.  The way we thought the singer was feeling and how they sang is voice! This lesson went better than I could have hoped for.  Every student was focused and listening to the singer so carefully. The image below are the words that came to mind when students were listening.

The 5th graders did a fantastic job noticing the voice in the songs and were able to then understand what voice means for their own writing.

We took time today to go through our Memoir drafts and highlight all of the voice in their pieces. They were given a hand out that states voice is noticed through a writers use of; dialogue, inner thought, and font style.

WOW! I was impressed by all the voice student's found in their drafts.  (Photos to come)



My 5th graders are looking forward to hunting for word choice and message this week.