Positive Reinforcement and Plants

Positive Reinforcement

It's the time of year where everyone is antsy.  It's the time of the year when the same old positives don't work so well.  So, it's the time in my class that the carnival comes to town.  Yes, the carnival!  

I use class dojo in my room to track behavior.  But the usual rewards for positives just don't seem to work by this time of year.  So, I have combined class dojo with my carnival games.  We're starting out with a target toss.  Every five dojo points, or when I give out a "target ticket" students get to throw a ball at the target.  If they hit the bulls eye, they get a prize from the prize box.  They love having the chance to just shoot at the target.

The balls have velcro attached and stick to the white, black and red parts of the target.

I also have some circus games I purchased from oriental trading that I'll use once this no longer works.  

Plants

When you find something as great as the Brassica Rapa plant, you just have to keep using it.  So, this is my third year teaching my students the life cycle of a plant.  We planted our seeds on Monday.  I'm happy to say they started sprouting on Wednesday and by today they were all sprouted! 

Starting to sprout on Wednesday--two days after planting.

How our plants look under their lights.

I'll try to update you on the plants as we go.  :)

Conferences, Compassion and Planning Ahead

Conferences are over!  Well, okay, I still have 3 more next week, but they're mostly over.  They went well and I hope I gave each family ideas that will help their child learn and grow.

I'm fairly new to following blogs, but when I saw this post by Crystal from Kreative In Kinder, I had to respond.  My class adopted a first grade class in Salyersville.  We spent a little time talking about how it would feel if that happened to our school.  Would you want people to focus on the tornado, or on making you feel better?  We talked about how it's sad that stuff was ruined, but stuff can be replaced.  I was very proud of the kind and thoughtful words my students used, and the great, cheerful pictures.

So, I'm going to attempt to put up pictures for the first time!  Here we go...

(I am sorry about the tornado.  I hope that the builders build a new school.)

(I'm sorry your class got destroyed.  I hope you feel better.)

(Look on the back)  (The back is the picture below)

(I'm sorry about the tornado.  I hope you feel better soon.)

This one is a huge run-on sentence.  We're working on punctuation.  Really, we are.  "I'm sorry that your building got destroyed and I'm sorry that your classroom got destroyed.  I hope everything gets better in Kentucky and I hope you're all okay.  I hope the building is fixed and your classroom with it and I hope you buy new stuff for your classroom.  I hope everything is okay and I hope you feel happy and I hope you get better and I'm sorry."

So, I got my first pictures in! 

Today was spent cleaning out my classroom and running around getting supplies.  In April my class will be planting the Wisconsin Fast Plant.  I did this last year with the help of the Red Butte Garden here in Salt Lake.  This year, I'm on my own, so I hope it works as well as last year.  I bought soil, vermiculite and fertilizer.    I still have the rest of the supplies from last year.

The fun thing about this particular plant is its life cycle is about 40 days.  The students watch every part of the plant's life.  They plant the seeds, watch them germinate and sprout, measure them as they grow, and then when the flowers bloom they get to pollinate the flowers, then watch seed pods grow, and finally harvest the seeds from the seed pods to be used the following year.  It's such a great hands-on scientific activity and I'm excited to start it, and nervous that the plants won't grow!

Here's a picture from last year.

Well, I rambled on a bit today.  Thanks for reading!

Joell