Silent Directions

I used to despise making crafts, foldables, and things like that with my students. I hated giving up the order and calm (haha) of the regular school day to have organized chaos. The kiddos were always so excited that most of them barely listened, or needed more help because they couldn't figure something out and it all just gave me a headache. I realized I needed to find a way to make this work since I couldn't easily give up making crafts teaching 2nd grade! 

Fast forward a few months - I started trying new ways to get the kiddos engaged like acting more things out and one day it hit me. Why not mime the directions? I now call this "Silent Directions". 

To make this work, you need to be consistent about giving directions silently. Do not back down on this, or it will not work! Then take on the role of a mime and have fun being silly while modeling how to do the foldable, craft, etc. Depending on how complicated the steps are I will model it more than once, and the kiddos are always really good about helping each other. I think they get really excited when they realized they followed directions, and can now give silent directions to a partner to show them what to do! 

P.S. - If I'm modeling this more than once I will usually use a different piece of paper and/or materials. There are always some students who are absent, or you know cannot follow directions if their lives depended on it and then you can either use it as a back up, or give it to them instead of having them make their own.

Now with Silent Directions we have our foldables done in 5 minutes or less, and everyone is ready to go and I don't have a headache. I recently did this with a craft so I could kill 2 birds with one stone: writing step by step directions and then following their own to make a snowflake. 

This whole lesson took place over the course of a few days. We talked about how to write step by step directions, practiced, and all that good stuff ahead of time. We made the step books one day, from following silent directions of course, and then decorated them. 

Day 2 - I modeled how to make the snowflake using silent directions while the students wrote the directions down. The only talking I did with this is to tell them when to move on from step 1 to step 2 to step 3, etc. The different steps are all on a different tab, and I encouraged them to draw models, too. Anything to help them remember how to make the snowflake, since I would not be helping them make the snowflake the following day.

We made the snowflakes the following day for 2 reasons:

1. I wanted them to forget how to make the snowflake so that they would have to follow the directions they wrote. (At the end of the unit I had them reflect on their directions and parts that helped or needed more details.)

2. Halfway through making the model snowflake I realized I didn't have enough beads to go around, so I had to go to the store that night. OOPS!

Day 3 - I gave the students the materials and let them follow the directions in their step book to make their own snowflake. I walked around while they made it, but I didn't help them. A lot of students asked me for help, but in this case I didn't help them.* I reminded them to read their own directions or ask a partner to borrow their directions.

This took a looooong time, a lot longer than I had anticipated. I planned for about 30 minutes, but it ended up taking about an hour from start to finish. I was really impressed with my kiddos - they were so helpful and kind to each other! I had one student who put the beads on in the wrong order, and I overheard another student say "That's okay. All snowflakes are unique and beautiful, and I think yours looks cool." Makes my teacher heart happy!

Next time you make something with your students give the silent directions a try! Let me know how it goes. Good luck!

*I did end up helping 2 students after the fact. There's always someone with some kind of disability or processing issue that will need some kind of help. #teachersunderstand

Summer School

Is it just me.. or do people who say that teachers get summer off just drive you CRAZY? I guess those are the same people who think that we only work until 3:30, never on weekends, and have a class full of insane obedient and crazy lovely children! Oh well.. what can you do?

The past two summers I have taught summer school for the gifted program in my school district, and I absolutely love it! The most students I had in my classes was 9.. NINE STUDENTS PEOPLE! What's not to love about that?

This summer I taught a science class and a computer class. It really is amazing what you can get done with a *single digit number* of students in your room. I taught the same science class last year, so it was much easier this year since I had already created most of the materials that I use. We do about one science experiment a day, and we record our information in a new foldable each time. Here are some of the fun foldables we have made with science.. Just FYI there's a ton of pics...Stick with me until the end, and you could find an EASY foldable to use with your kiddos next year!

Triorama

 

I really like using foldables like this one with groups because each person can create their own part of the foldable. They always turn out really well! Something about creating something 3D just gets the students engaged and working hard! This foldable went with the Dissolving Gummy Bear experiment. We had 4 solutions and 4 students in each group, so each student chose a solution, created a hypothesis, and described the results in words and pictures.

Diorama

This foldable went with the Egg Drop experiment. The students created their own egg drop containers out of recyclable materials, which basically was any random container I had at home. That part actually drove Matt crazy because I had to start saving the containers about a month in advance so we could have enough for each experiment. Soo.. here's a little shout out to Matt - Thanks for not throwing out the "trash"!! :) Anyways, back to the experiment.. We dropped the containers from various heights and tried to see who would have the best design. We had enough eggs to redo this experiment another day, and I had the students take another design and delete one item completely, switch a material with another, and add a new material to the design to improve it. This got them thinking since they only wanted to add to the designs and not remove anything. I wish I took pictures of their containers, but I guess I'll just have to remember to do that next year! 

 Flip Book

 

This foldable went with the dissolving egg shell experiment. Under each flap the students wrote about what was happening with the egg shell and drew a picture of the changes that took place. Super easy to create and use!

Trifolds

  

These foldables went with learning about the rock cycle and the water cycle. This one is really versatile and can be done on the fly! The students drew a creative image of the topic on the front cover, and the inside included note taking pages and written response questions as well. 

Mini Book

This foldable went with the "Don't Let it Melt!" experiment where we tried to prevent an ice cube from melting, which during the summer in Arizona is NOT easy to do! I thought that the ice cubes would be completely gone within 10 minutes at the most, but the students created such great designs that some ice cubes lasted almost an hour!!! I had to call it at 45 minutes since we were out of time, but there was a lot of ice cube left. I was really impressed! Inside the foldable the students wrote the materials they used in the design, their hypothesis, recorded the results throughout the experiment, and what they would do differently next time. They had such a great time with this experiment that we actually did it again, and improved other students designs!

Window Flip Book

This foldable went with the "Don't Let it Melt! Part 2". On the flaps the students wrote about their materials, why they chose those materials, their hypothesis, and what happened. The students wrote about "what happened" after the experiment was completed, and they took their data and wrote a paragraph about it.  On the back of the foldable the students recorded the data from the ice cube melting. Another easy foldable!

Window Flip Book - Version 2

This window flip book is similar to the one above, but slightly different to keep the kiddos interested in learning. This foldable went with the "How can a balloon inflate by itself"" experiment. The studetns wrote their hypothesis for how long it would take to inflate, what materials they thought they needed to use, what happened, and what they would do differently next time. Easy peasy!

Brown Bag Journal

The students had a brown bag science journal where they responded to daily journal questions, and if they needed additional space to write they could write in here, too.

Action Shots

My computer class focused on basics of Word and PowerPoint, and also how to properly research. The end goal was to research a nonfiction topic and give a presentation to the parents during our Open House the last day of classes. I was really surprised at some of the topics the students chose, and they were 100% engaged the whole time. It was music to my ears!

P.S. - I don't have any pictures from my computer class since I couldn't take pics of the kiddos giving the presentations and I didn't think pictures of kids working on computers is that exciting. So the pictures would have been boring.. but the class was informative and engaging!



What do you do with your summers since you don't do anything because you are off?