Building a better team!

We had another great week on the Wizards team!  As you will read below, our focus was on team building and we also began Language Arts and Math classes.  We previously had a "glitch" in our daily schedule that we were finally able to rectify. The change actually benefits our students so we are thankful we were able to find a very positive solution.  We will start using our new schedule on Tuesday and we'll share it with you next week. Also, we made changes to our "homeroom" groups that will go into effect on Tuesday as well.  Ideally, these "homeroom" groups will remain flexible and will meet with both Ms. Anderman and Ms. Michael for arrival and morning meeting on a rotational basis.  That way, both core teachers will spend equal amounts of time with students.  The students know that both our schedule and homeroom groups will be different when they arrive Tuesday. 

Teambuilding

Last week our focus was continuing to learn about each other, making connections, and reacquainting ourselves with school life.  This week we begin our year-long process of building our Wizards team so that we can learn together while feeling safe, supported, and valued.  Each day, we did team-building activities that enabled us to reflect on what qualities and behaviors we need to create a successful team.  

Students were challenged to find a path through this grid by communicating, supporting each other, and learning from each others' mistakes.

Communication and compromise were both really important when we challenged students to stack cups using one rubber band with four strings attached.

Students played "Biggest Fan" where they became the fan of the winner of each rock, paper, scissor match until only one winner was left.  It's loud and chaotic as students cheer but always a fun energy boost!

"Crossing the Galaxy" Look at that celebration of success:) 

LOTS of communication and patience were needed for this one. 

We debriefed all of team building activities and looked for themes for what makes a successful team.

Next, we reviewed our Wizard's Constitution from last year to see what changes should be made.  Our constitution still needs some editing and a final vote to ratify.

 

Inside Out - Emotions & Identity

This week we watched the movie Inside Out.  This was a wonderful springboard into a conversation about the role emotions play in our lives.  This movie is also about one's identity. Students created their own Islands of Personality (similar to that of the character in the movie.)  This project enabled students to identify not only what shapes them into who they are but it also allowed them to make connections with their peers! 

Students illustrating their own Islands of Personality

Math and Literacy Intervention

During "WIN" (What I Need) Block on Tuesday our interventionists Mr. Spaulding and Ms. Delay paid a visit to Wizards and we played Strengths Bingo. Students had to find other classmates who exhibited the strengths listed on the bingo board.  It was a great way to introduce our support staff to students as we did not have intervention support last year. They also let a nice conversation around strategies for making improvements in our perceived weak areas. Small groups of students will meet with our interventionists throughout the year to work on skills identified by core teachers as areas of need. 

As always, we focus on kindness...

After one of our read alouds last week about including others and being kind, students created quotes about kindness. 

Core Classes

This week we began two of our core classes, math and language arts.  We will begin our first science unit this coming Wednesday.  It is an interdisciplinary math/science unit that culminates with students building a solar collector.  More curriculum updates will be forthcoming, but this was a jam-packed post already! 

In math class, students problem solved to find the longest path through a rectangle.  Next, students shared their thinking, participated in a class discussion, and looked for patterns so they could make generalizations about the longest path through any sized rectangle.