Quick Ways to TEACH about the EARTH in SCHOOL

You probably don't know this, but I'm a tree hugger.  Yes, I confess, I care about the earth.  

Each child creates a page for a book
Ways Kids Can Save the Earth

In my classroom of third graders the curriculum doesn't take into account the importance of teaching about the environment and conservation.  Over the years, I've figured out ways to weave it into our daily routine so kids get exposed and I can still get the environmental message out.

Here's a list to start you out:

• Plants and animals in the classroom - the kids rotate with their tribe to take care of the plants and critters.  It helps the room feel more like a home and the kids can have nature around them.  Our district has put limits of the types of animals so I have an African aquatic frog and guppies that are adopted from the 1st grade classrooms after their life cycles unit.
• Compost any fruits or veggies kids bring in for snack.  Each child has a "Fresh and Healthy" snack they bring in for the rest of the class.  Many days we compost banana peels, apple cores or orange peels.
• Community Circle questions with an environmental twist - we do a brief community circle where each child is given the chance to respond to a question or prompt.  Many times you can weave conservation or environment into your prompts.  For instance, last week one question was, "What kind of plant would you like to grow in a garden?"  Another one was, "If you could help an endangered animal, what one would you help?"  Also I've asked, "What is your favorite habitat?"
• Hang posters with environmental or conservation messages.  Recycling was TAUGHT when I first started teaching because it was such a new thing.  Now we just assume kids know what to do...but they don't.
• Encourage keeping a pencil as long as possible, it saves trees!!!
• Grow a Mother's Day present - have the kids each plant a few marigold seeds in a cup about 6 weeks before the big day.  Set them in something that catches water by the window.  Make sure they don't dry out.  Transplant into a hand painted terracotta pot.  They learn about nature and their mom's, grandma's or other special person in their life will be so pleased.

There are so many things that are easy to do in our busy classrooms that will stay with kids for a lifetime!

Collaborative Math Problems

Have you every had one of those days when all the stars align and a bit of magic seems to take place? I'm still feelin' that good feelin' from math today.  Can you believe it, math, 3 days before spring break, having that kind of a feel?  It came together with our "Tribes" working to solve some math problems.

I gathered all the kids together and explained the process.  First they would work with a partner to solve problems with real environmental statistics.  They needed to persevere!!!  Of course they would have a "life line" - the other members of their tribe if they were STUCK.  Once they finished their 1st three problems, it was time for the whole tribe to compare.  If they all had the same answers, cool, put it on a Post-It Note and stick it up by the big problem.  If their answers were different it was time to figure out if it was one answer or if both could work.

When I sent them off to work, it was true COMMUNITY.  The kids were focused, helping each other and figuring out some problems with meaning.  When the partners finished they looked over each others and posted their answers.  Once all the problems were posted on the big problems it was time to see if the whole class could agree to the same answers or defend the different ones.

The class looked over the final results and had DEFENDED their results!!

This is where the magic started to happen.  There's no way I could have planned this out more perfectly.  There were two of the six problems the class didn't agree on the answers.  After just a minute or so, the first one was figured out.  The next one was much more interesting.  The problem involved the amount of garbage a person throws out in a day.  The first part everyone in the class agreed was how much someone would throw out in a week.  The next part out of 5 tribes there were 4 answers.  I wanted to know how much would be thrown out in a month.  4 pounds per day and the answers were 102, 120, 112 and 124.  As we discussed, each tribe proved their thinking and all answers made since except the 102 that was a calculation error.  The kids learned that different answers can make sense and the are able to disagree in such an AWESOME way.

Division: Are they really learning it?

On Friday I pulled the kids together to reflect on their thoughts about division.  I asked them to explain what division is...?  With dismay I realized that they didn't have much of a handle on this even though we've been working on multiplication and division for the past few week.  As we continued to discuss and delve into the meaning, my Tribes training came back to me shouting, "REFLECTION!"

You can design deep questions and explorations, but without the reflection that helps to bring together kids thinking, who knows what they'll get out of it.  Lately, I've been working with small groups and juggling lots of different targets, and time has been scarce.  We haven't taken time to come together to share our learning.  If they are really not getting the point of the lesson, why do it? I am using this as a reminder to myself to take time for reflecting on our learning.   I need to make sure kids are able to explain their thinking and voice their confusions.  Reflection is an amazing way to bring the thinking and learning together as a group.

Sharing Published Informational Text Books

Today was the big day, our informational texts were finally published and ready to share with others.  I'm sure there are other teachers out there like me, but it seems there is never enough time in a day or organizational systems to keep me on track with everything I need to do.  When a project finally comes together and the finishing touches are in place, I get to check something off the list.  My third graders were feeling the same.  Each and every child had gone beyond what they have ever done as writers.  They were proud of their books and anxious to read the books of their friends, as well as share with their second grade buddies.

These are the final product based on our informational text unit.  Specially bound with cool duct tape, the kids were able to choose from a variety of colorful designs.

A sample cover page by a child in my class.  She considered herself an expert in the area of Autism.  Once she chose the topic, her writing came to life.  She even took on extra work at home.  The puzzle on her cover signifies the bases of her book.

When kids share their writing with a real audience they discover the reason for writing a piece that interests others.  I saw one of my strugglers, changing the word gose to goes on his published piece before his buddy showed up to read his work.  Other children felt the pleasure of kids giving appreciations for work well done.  With this informational text project, the class discovered how the layout of a page can help the reader to understand their message.

The kids even started to talk more about non-fiction features while reading non-fiction and organizational text structures.  When you hear one child comment to another, "Look this is comparing and contrasting..." you know the  lessons are taking hold and kids are making real world connections.

Now that's what I'm talking about...Digging into Learning!!!!

Wonder if Anyone will Read This

Well today is the big day, I'm finally jumping into the world of blogging.  I've read and gathered ideas from blogs for a long time and feel others may be able to use a few of my ideas, learn from my mistakes and share in those rare perfect days.

Currently I'm a 3rd grade teacher who's taught 2nd and 4th grades as well.  Looping is my preferred state of being.  Working with the same group of kids and families for 2 years is amazing.  When we get into the 2nd year of the loop, the class is off and running during the first week.

The name of my blog, Digging into Learning, is the heart of my classroom and how I operate as a teacher.  The mind of a child is amazing to open up to real thinking.  At times kids struggle and get to a point of feeling they can't and are awestruck when they find they can do it.  We just finished a long month of writing informational text in different structures.  This is pretty challenging work for third grade kids, probably most adults.  It was crunch time and all the kids were feeling the stress of a deadline.  One of my more needy girls was feeling like she just couldn't finish and struggled through the cause and effect piece. Rather than help her write each sentence, I've suggested she look at some of the anchor charts around the room, think through what ideas she wants her reader to get out of her piece, think through all she had learned about the structure and to trust herself.

The next day we were putting together our published pieces and she came up to me.  This girl who struggled so much informed me, "Ya know, during this unit it was REALLY hard, but ya know what?  I'm really proud of myself for doing this."  Moments like this are why we do, what we do.

Joy