Celebrate the Small Moments

I found myself getting very frustrated with the behavior in my class this week.

I felt like we were back to day 1- not listening, not following directions, and doing a lotttt of talking.

I'm sure part of it had to do with the fact that I was sick and lost my voice so just talking was exhausting- and then trying to talk over 19 kids is even more tiring.

But then admist my frustration I started thinking about something I teach my kids everyday.

In our writing we are working on telling the stories of the "small moments" in our life. We really focus in on that one exciting thing that happened or that very one moment in a day rather than a loooong run on story about an entire trip to Disney World.

I realized that I need to start focusing on the "small moments" in my classroom. I need to start celebrating the little things they do that are great rather than perseverate on the moments when they are talking or not following directions.

I think reminding myself that in 4th grade when a child FINALLY made a lowercase 't' in the middle of the word, or finding a vocabulary word in their independent reading, or going to band practice for the first time, are the small moments that mean the most to them and that I need to acknowledge.

Making a goal to celebrate at least one small moment everyday! It is going to make them and I much happier!

-Tales of a 4th Grade Nothing

When Life Gives You Lemons....Make Lemonade!

It is amazing how a simple idea or fun activity can have the most meaning to the kids in your class.

Our principal started the "Principal's Principles" this week and each week there is a different theme/topic/character building trait that she discusses during morning announcements and we are expected to follow it up with a 5-10 minute discussion with the students. We were given a whole binder with discussion starters to follow along with.

This week we kicked it off with Having a Positive Attitude. I, personally, was pretty excited about this topic....so I took these discussions pretty seriously.

On Thursday we talked about the quote "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade." However, it wasn't enough just to talk about it...we actually made lemonade!

(NOTE: If you want to get your kids excited about something- make lemonade!)

We decided that every time someone in my class had a negative attitude we would add more lemons (to make it more sour) and every time someone had a positive attitude we would add more sugar (to make it more sweet)....at the end of the day we'd try our lemonade and we would be able to see how our day went.

I can't even explain how excited and motivated my kids were to have sweet lemonade at the end of the day. And lucky for me I had Open House the same night and our parents got to try our "Positive Attitude Lemonade" so they could 'taste' how our day went!

I have to say....I started with a very 'lemon' Monday and ended the week with lots of lemonade!

-Tales of a 4th Grade Nothing