Shame, Shame, Shame...Playing Catch Up

Yes, I feel horrible....I've been MIA for a few days trying to play mental catch-up. I think I lost. So...TAKE TWO!

This school year has taken off! Our school is really focusing on "getting to know" our students, nail down procedures and expectations, THEN dive into our curriculum. So far-so good! We have read books, "played games", interviewed classmates, taken part in scavenger hunts...wash, rinse, repeat. :) Some of my   our favorite activities so far has to be our unit on the No, David !  series by David Shannon!  Scrolling through Pinterest, I noticed the cutest ideas, so I clicked and clicked again until I landed at The First Grade Parade and then to Mrs. Lee's Kinder Kids! Those ladies are great--super creative and WITH it!
So here is what I did! We read David Goes to School  and No, David! We discussed behaviors from the stories that would be "Peace Maker" behaviors and "Peace Breaker" behaviors. We "elbow-to-knee"/partnered share behaviors that we sometimes displayed and charted them as well!

Next, I found a Peace Maker Promise, from the same lovely lady above, The First Grade Parade, laminated it and invited each child to sign it!

Well, we loved David so much that we kept right on learning with him! We created a class book with "peace maker" and "peace breaker" behaviors as well as role played using David masks. I drew a David  puppet template and I must say, adding brads to the puppets, sealed the CUTENESS! Next we added speech bubble, practiced our handwriting :), and added how we are "peace makers" in our daily activities. I was very impressed with some of the answers the children gave! 

Our David Masks used in role playing 

David puppets! brass brads make everything better :)

They were so honest with their writing :) "I am a Peace Maker when I..."

Alright, I'm gonna switch it up for a moment. Since I missed my Technology Tuesday, I am going to add it today. :) So, I know when we hear "technology", we think "New Age'ish" like "iPad", "computer", "SMART Board". (I know I do....) But with my tid bit for tonight, we are going 'back to the future'. Follow me now.... kids these days LOVE the 'new age' right now hot devices. But they are also fascinated with  ah, hmmm OLD things, like Walk-mans and ::gasp:: cassette tapes! That's right. My listening center contains walk-mans and books on TAPE! They love it. At the beginning of the year (and a few times as needed), I walk the little ones through my listening station procedures. Each book is in a nice ziploc bag with headphones, and pre-loaded walkmans. My "technology" is color coded. The students learn that they should choose a bag from the "ready" bucket, place the head phones and press the GREEN button. If the book finishes or the station time is over, they press the YELLOW (fast forward) button, put all items in the bag and place the bag in the "NOT READY" bucket (where I go back and flip the tape and place the bag in the "Ready" bucket!) There are usually five different books in my station so I only have to switch them out about once a month! This year, I hope to have some of my little ones record themselves for books in the listening station.

labeled with colored folder labels that are but to fit! 

 TA-DA!  My Technology Tuesday Treasure on Wednesday!  Perfect lesson on how everything that is old is soon new again.... Enjoy The Journey! :)