Lessons for April

K and 1st- Fairness

We are talking about our character education word "fairness" this month.
We started by reading one of my favorite books It's Not Fair.

As a follow up we used this super cool activity from www.teach-a-roo.blogspot.com 

The kids had to cut a pizza in a "fair" way for 5 people. It was awesome to see them problem solve. 
When we were done we did a fairness coloring sheet.

2nd Grade- Choices and Consequences

We started by reading If You Give A Dog A Donut or If You Give A Cat A Cupcake.

 

We talked about cause and effect. Then we did a venn diagram about consequences and punishments. We had a great discussion. To finish up we played a Plicker or Kahoot game based on Win Or Lose It's How You Choose.

 3rd grade- Test Taking

We started by watching a Brain Pop Test Taking Skills video and taking the quiz.

Visit TPT for the test taking version.

Then we completed "teat taking" gold pot activity by the amazing Savvy School Counselor. Get yours here: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/School-Counselors-March-Activity-Pack-Savvy-School-Counselor-1110842

As a final follow up we drew comic strips about testing perseverance.

You can get your comics in my Three Ninja Pig activity packet for testing and perseverance.

4th grade- Stress Management

Last month we did this super fun lesson using the book It's Tough To Lose Your Balloon. You can get my lesson plan here. 

This month we connected our silver lining lesson to stress management. We read Silly Billy making predications, observations, and wonders along the way.

At the end we used examples from the book and our personal life to fill out the frustration triangle by Free Spirit Publishing. The name it could be a frustration or worry. If they got done early we drew our own worry doll on the back. 

5th Grade- Careers and The Future

We got excited about our lesson by watching Kid President talking about being an inventor.

Then we read one of my favorite new books What Do You Do With An Idea?

At the end of the story we brainstormed and share our own big ideas.

Instead of asking them what they wanted to be when they grew up we discussed:
* what problem they wanted to solve? (some shared they wanted to cure diseases that had afflicted family members, others wanted computers to do homework for them, some wanted to improve our enviornment)

* what was their big idea? (I encouraged it to be based on the problem they wanted to solve).

 *what did they need to learn in order to solve that problem or make their big idea a reality (what subjects did they need to study, what areas did they need to learn more about, etc.)?

Their ideas were remarkable!

We did it on a 2 sided work sheet. One side asked for big ideas and the other what problem they were solving and what they needed to learn.

This one was a food dispenser for homeless animals.

A brain chip so you could study while you sleep.

Better ways to block inappropriate websites.

Ways to stop games when on the Kindle, so you could read or play, but not both!

Follow up with this amazing Ted Ed video: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/richard-st-john-8-traits-of-successful-people