This week, we spent some time talking about "erupting" like a volcano when we have something important to say. We read this book My Mouth is a Volcano. We also read Interrupting Chicken, a book about the same topic, only portrayed in a humorous way. On Thursday, we learned about another Unthinkinable in the Superflex program named Body Snatcher. Body Snatcher makes people walk away or turn away from a group or a conversation. We practiced ways to defeat Body Snatcher. We learned how to take hints from our eyes--if they are looking at something else, Body Snatcher may be in our brain. We also learned to use referencing self talk like "Where should my body be?" The kids' favorite strategy to defeat Body Snatcher was to use "laser shoulders" and keep them pointed at the group or the speaker. We also had some game time to balance out of the assessments we have been doing. Enjoy the weather this weekend!
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We began our week with some follow up activities about Habit #6--Synergize. We watched some videos of commercials and some clips of movies we love and discussed how the characters were synergizing, or working together, and what they accomplished together. We also read/watched Seven Blind Mice and discussed how they synergized to solve a problem. On Tuesday, we read My Mouth is a Volcano, a book about "erupting" when other people are talking. Later in the week, we read Squirrel's New Year's Resolution and made these beautiful pictures about making a plan vs. wishing for things to happen. We enjoyed a game day to synergize and have fun together. I have included some of the videos we watched so that you can watch and discuss them at home if you would like. Have a great weekend! We're almost out of weeks in our year! Synergizing videos: Happy Mother's Day Moms! I hope your families spoil you this weekend! We had a busy week at school! I spent Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at 5th grade camp at Camp Ohiyesa in Holly. We had a great time playing in the rain, sun and wind! Mrs. S. (one of our beloved guest teachers) did a great job holding down the fort, along with our amazing staff! This week, in social skills groups, we did some projects for Mother's Day. Hopefully you received and enjoyed those crafts as they came home! The third and fourth grade students also learned about Habit #6, Synergize and spent some time working together to complete some tasks and games. On Friday, they enjoyed a game day to sharpen our saws and our social skills. Next week, we will continue to move forward with our spring assessments, as well as more social skills opportunities. Have a wonderful weekend in this beautiful weather! This week, we spent a lot of time talking about Sharpening the Saw. We had our Sharpen the Saw day on Wednesday and the children were able to choose activities to sign up for. We were excited to host "Yoga with Owen". He did a great job leading a group of students through deep breathing and yoga poses. Other students signed up for Legos, Board Games and Drawing classes. This week, we also discussed that sharpening the saw isn't just playing. We talked about balancing our Body, Mind, Heart and Soul. The children created a chart (similar to the one in the picture, although that's from the Franklin Covey website) and listed activities they could do for each area of their life. We rounded out the week with a game day and the beginning of our Mother's Day crafts. As we get into assessment season (the entire month of May), students will be assessed in many areas and some of our instructional or social skills time may have to be devoted to completing these tests. We will do our best to "balance" our day! Happy Earth Day! We had some fun this week celebrating Earth Day (Tuesday) and identifying things that are helpful to the earth and things that are harmful to the earth. We also spent some time this week talking about Habit #7, Sharpen the Saw! We have a teacher cadet--a high school student who is interested in being a special ed teacher--that joins us 4 mornings a week. She used our 7 Habits of Happy Kids book to create a lesson about sharpening the saw. Our third grade group was lucky enough to have been taught the lesson by her! The other children had to endure it from me. :) We talked about the importance of balancing our lives. The book talks about taking care of your brain (reading), your body (riding bikes), your heart (playing with friends) and your soul (listening to music and watching clouds). I summarized it as "work a little, play a little, rest a little". The timing is perfect because next Wednesday, the whole school is celebrating with a "Sharpen the Saw Day". We are taking an hour to do something fun that we enjoy. Ms. McQuillan and I are hosting a yoga session--taught by one of our students! We are excited for this activity and it was nice to spend some time talking to the students about balancing our lives in preparation for the event! Have an awesome weekend! Welcome back! I hope everyone had a nice spring break! We spent some time on Monday discussing our breaks--including asking questions to one another. We also reviewed Rock Brain and talked about strategies to defeat him! Then, we met a new Unthinkable--Brain Eater! (No, this is not a horror story about feasting on brains!) Brain Eater distracts people and makes them think about things that are "off topic". This includes looking at images or movies in your head. We talked about the strategies that we may use to defeat Brain Eater--these include: noticing when you are distracted and refocusing, using tools to keep your hands busy and removing things that distract you. We'll continue to talk about Brain Eater next week and practice staying focused. Have a great weekend! We spent a lot of time talking about Rock Brain this week. Rock Brain is an Unthinkable and he makes us get stuck on certain ideas or thoughts. We went back tthrough the story and identied where Rock Brain was taking over and the Superflex strategy that was recommended by Superflex. The strategy that Superflex said to use was "Do my homework first, so maybe mom will be happy and give me video game time later". The kids were amazed to find out that the advice was also Habit #3: Put first things first! It was so cool to see them come to this realization and help them understand that all of these habits and ideas work together! We also watched a video of the book Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus. The kids thought it was so funny because the bird eventually gets upset or "crazy". We talked about how having Rock Brain can make your brain and body feel out of control, just like the Pigeon's. I have attached the video so you can watch it with your kids (or read the book) and have them teach you about Rock Brain! Have an awesome spring break! This week, we began our new social skills curriculum--Superflex! This superhero-based curriculum helps students address challenging thoughts and behaviors. The hero, Superflex, is trying to save Social Town from The Unthinkables, a group of challenging characters that influence people's thinking. This week, we began to address Rock Brain. Rock Brain gets peoples' brains stuck on one thought instead of being flexible. Superflex saves the day with Superflexible strategies. The children are excited to learn about the different Unthinkables and we're looking forward to creating a Wanted Wall with the different challenging characters. This week, we also talked about Habit #3, Put First Things First, and discussed the importance of finishing our work BEFORE we play. We finished out the week with a game day to practice our social turn-taking. This week, talked about making friends and inviting others to play. We read You Will Be My Friend, a book about a pushy bear who demands that others play with her. In the end, Lucy learns that inviting people to play gently is a better way to go. We drew pictures about ways to invite other people to play with us. This week, we also reviewed the 3 As and the steps for taking responsibility for ourselves and our actions. We did some video modeling as we acted out ways to fix our mistakes and take responsibility for ourselves. The children loved being the stars of their own movies (on our classroom iPad) and watching themselves make good choices and right their "wrongs". We also spent time reading about Habit #2: Begin with the End in Mind. I related this back to wanting to make friends and also taking responsibility for ourselves by talking about setting goals for what we want to accomplish or have. This is a tough concept and we will continue to work on it. On Friday, we finished out the week with a game day. I love watching the kids put the social skills we've been working on to use as they navigate compromising on a game, taking turns, being patient, losing, etc. Not a bad way to end a busy week! Enjoy your weekend! In order to bring some holiday cheer to our week, we made rainbows (for St. Patrick's Day) that we called "The Colors of Us". Instead of the normal ROY G. BIV color scheme, these rainbows were pigmented with colors that answered specific questions about us (our favorite color, the color of our hair, etc.) We used these rainbows to then ask each other questions and answer in turn--creating reciprocal conversations. Since there was only one topic--color--we were always on topic! We had some fun and learned a lot about each other. This week, we also spent some group (and language arts time) on identifying our favorite, or nearly favorite book and citing reasons WHY we like it. This is a tough skill but the children persevered. We illustrated our picks and made a nice display to go outside our door for March is Reading Month! The final big concept we tackled this week was Taking Responsibility. We discussed that everyone makes mistakes and in turn, we all need to own up to those mistakes. I have found, that as a rule, we're really good at apologizing, but that we need some practice in acknowledging our behavior so that we may change it in the future (this is tough for ALL people--not just little people!) So I created the 3 As. This is that way I taught the children and you may find the language useful at home.
We had a nice week and made a lot of progress! I hope you have a great weekend and that this snow has moved on so we can get back to our regularly scheduled weeks!
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June 2017
Ann Reece
Ann Reece is the upper elementary teacher in the ASD program. Categories |