We Are Dancers!

We have been doing some great dancing in our classroom!  Using the GoNoodle app and the BrightLink® projector in our classroom, generously donated by our PAC a few years ago, we have been including dance/movement in our daily physical activity.  Students were inspired by Mrs. Glavas/Ms. Rudolph’s class who went up to dance at our school assembly. We will be going up as well to challenge the rest of the school!  Here is a short clip of them dancing to their favorite dance song, How Long.

Cherry Blossoms

As cherry trees are bursting with pink and white blooms all over the city, the kindergarten students created their own cherry blossom paintings.  To add a fluffy texture to our paintings, we used cotton balls, held by clothespins, to paint the cherry blossoms.

First, we painted our backgrounds and trees.

Then, we used cotton balls to add the cherry blossoms.  We used darker pink colors first, and then used the lighter pinks on top. Some students chose to add white cherry blossoms as well.

Come see our hallway bulletin board!

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RULER and the Importance of Emotions

The RULER program has become an integral part of our social and emotional learning.  As we are always trying to find better ways to help our children solve conflicts, we hope that teaching these skills can help them to better understand and manage their emotions.  This is what RULER stands for:

Since the beginning of the school year, we have been discussing feelings and emotion words. Students are learning how to label their emotions.  As a class, we voted on the words that we felt were important to us.  They were able to narrow them down to three words that they felt were most important to them.

Using these three words, we created our classroom charter.  Our statement reads:

“We want to feel safe, peaceful, and included.”

Students also drew pictures about their feeling words.  Here are three examples.

 

In conflict situations, I often relate back to our classroom charter. If someone forgets to clean up a mess on the floor, I would ask if this was a “safe” thing to do.  Students would say that someone could slip on the mess, fall and hurt themselves.

By increasing our students’ social skills and emotional intelligence, we can build a classroom culture that encourages positive relationships.  For more information on RULER, here is their website:  http://ei.yale.edu/ruler/