Have you ever thought of the importance of extracurricular activities?

Becoming a coach or faculty advisor is a great way to build rapport with students and provide a creative outlet for them to feel comfortable and accepted at school.

If your school doesn't offer these kinds of activities, START one!

It is amazing what kids can do when they really want to do something -

Ideas for Activities

Drama/Theater club

Dance club/team

Pick up, jam band/music

Poetry/Writing/Philosophy

Sponsor a Talent Show
Painting/Sculpting/Photography

 

Readers Theater Part II

STAY TUNED FOR A PDF THAT INCLUDES A READER'S THEATER LESSON PLAN AND REFLECTION! 

Readers Theater Part I

Reader's Theater is an incredible strategy to improve student fluency as well as 21st century skills for innovation, creativity, and collaboration.  The video below is a 2nd grade teacher implementing reader's theater in his classroom.  His energy is contagious.

 

Please take my poll

 

If you could choose one element of the creative arts into your classroom routine - which would it be?

 

There are SO MANY to choose from

Comment on this post to tell me WHY you made your choice or HOW you intend to use it

 

Logic can get you from A to B.  Imagination will get you everywhere.  - Albert Einstein

FUN with HEXAGLEXAGONS! Origami in your Math Lesson!

Check out the videos to the left, Hexaflexagons and Hexaglexgons 2. 

These are my absolute FAVORITE math lessons to do with some of my older students. 

The mathematical phenomena, the hexaflexagon, originally discovered by British student Arthur H. Stone, became a Youtube sensation in October of 2012.  A high school math student, intrigued by the flexagon theory, decided that introducing hexaflexagons to the world of social media was a necessary and worthwhile cause.  Gratefully, she did so in a creative, animated way that transfers and engages younger students. 
As outlined in the Common Core Standards, students are required to understand that geometric figures can be analyzed and classified based on their properties, such as having parallel sides, perpendicular sides, particular angle measures, and symmetry.’  This area of focus requires students to deepen their understanding of two dimensional objects and their properties through building, drawing, and analyzing two dimensional shapes – translated for the day’s lesson: mathematical origami introduced through social media technology (CCSS, 4.G). 

If it works for your academic timeline - capitalize on National Hexaflexagon Month! (October) 

I was privileged enough to watch this lesson in person in a fourth grade classroom to kick-off the geometry unit. During an afternoon math lesson, the students watched the first of the two video series.  Students had pre-traced and cut strips to properly fold their hexaflexagon.  They were instructed to watch the entire video before folding.  Using the Elmo projector, the classroom teacher folded her strip into a flexible and colorful hexaflexagon as the students followed at their desks.

This lesson was a success in three key ways: student engagement, skills and standards application, and social learning.  Students were excited to consider their math class a kickoff party and the creativity of the lesson drew them in from the beginning.  Students were applying geometric properties and concepts to their hexaflexagon folding and were utilizing proper mathematical language.  The folding proved to be a challenging and tedious task.  If one fold of the shape was off, the flexagon would not work.  I was able to assist students at their desks while the classroom teacher provided class wide assistance with the Elmo.  However, there were still students who became frustrated.  I decided to take advantage of the frustration as a ‘natural part of the process,’ and the few students who succeeded understood the mystery behind the theory, not just the art lesson, and were fascinated.  I tried to use these students who had succeeded to remodel their process for peers who were struggling, partnering students of different levels to work collaboratively.  Despite the slight frustration, students insisted on bringing their hexaflexagons to recess, excited to share their mathematical magic with their friends. 

Check out this website for more ideas to incorporate the ancient, beautiful art of origami into your math lessons 

Welcome!

This is my blog! My first post!
I have always been a kid at heart - probably because I work with kids all day long.  However, I think a lot of it has to do with a personality quirk.  I would prefer to run around a soccer field and read Frog and Toad are Friends all day to ever, EVER sitting in a cubicle.  I'll even take the sniffly noses, the tantrums and tattling and the INCESSANT questions. 

'Miss Lauren - when is recess again? When are we going to library? Am I getting picked up today? What's for lunch - am I having hot lunch? Did my mom pack me a lunch? Are we having outdoor recess? Why does Myles get to go with Miss Beth and play on the IPADS WHY CAN'T I GO!?!?'

It's awesome. I promise.

The best part, really and truly, is when you get to engage students in your passions, and what truly makes you tick.  For me, that was always the arts.  Drama club and jazz band made high school that much more tolerable, and I'm definitely sure that my parents still have art projects from my elementary days stored away for safekeeping and sentiment.   

The goal of this blog is to infuse more creative arts into the current Common Core classroom.  Today, too many requirements are placed on students and teachers, and I think we are severely lacking color in our classes.  Feel free to comment and share YOUR ideas for bringing creativity into your classroom and what worked and didn't work for you :-) ENJOY!