Measuring, Compliments, and Tooth Fairy

Recently in math class the students have been learning about measuring in centimeters. When we begin a new lesson, we begin with the foundational knowledge and build from there. After discussing and learning with centimeter cubes we then moved to rulers, a standard unit of measurement. While studying about the standard units of measurement the class also learned about non-standard units of measurement, because who always has a ruler with them when they need to measure an item? The class learned that you can use almost anything to measure, but you have to make sure your tool is the same. For example, when we measured with paper clips the children had to make sure they had all of the same size paper clips to get a precise measurement.They enjoyed using the paperclips to measure different items. Using a pipe cleaner to determine the size of a bracelet that was needed caught their attention, too!  Math can be so fun if you are constrained to a desk with only paper and pencil.

Every year we have a visit from the tooth fairy, which has been lovely. The younger students especially love this tradition, but this year was slightly different. To help educate the older children and give them new material, the tooth visit included how to take care of your teeth and why it is so important. She also taught the children about how much sugar is in products they consume daily. Reinforcing how important it is to get the “sugar bugs” off of your teeth!

Valentine’s Day is a time to celebrate love and those you care about. To help the students focus on the sharing love and kindness part of Valentine’s Day I had each student decorate each other's goodie bags. The only requirement was that the children could only write compliments on the bags. This is a great activity for several reasons. This helps teach the children how to genuinely compliment someone else. I told them they had to make the compliments specific to the individual. To prove my point, I asked them how meaningful it would be if I wrote the same compliment on every one of their bags. They all agreed that wouldn’t mean very much to the person receiving the compliment because I said it to everyone. It took them a while, which was wonderful because that meant they were really thinking about what they were writing on all of the bags, but each child wrote a personal compliment to all of the children in the class. The bags were covered in kind words from each classmate, it is one of my favorite activities. Another positive from the activity is that it lifts up all of the children. Students who may not receive much attention from their peers now have a bag full of positive notes. It shows how powerful words are. It is a tradition I will continue to do for as long as I teach. 

Have a blessed day!

Claire Gordon