Thursday, September 10, 2015

Kindness Matters!

Today we read the book, Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson. This book tells us that we need to be kind to one another no matter what their circumstances may be. To demonstrate this concept, the teacher in the book invites each student to drop a small stone in a bowl of water and say one kind thing they have done. The stone represents kindness and the ripple shows how kindness spreads. 

As a class we decided to do the same! I brought in a plastic bowl and a plastic container for the little stones. I set it out on a table in our room. When a Team Morley member does something kind, they can drop a little stone into the water bowl. Today we took turns putting a stone in the bowl and saying what we did to be kind. Each Kindness has taught us how each little thing we do goes out, like a ripple, into the world. I can't wait to see all of the kindness fill the bowl and our learning community :)

Kindness Matters! 






Wednesday, September 9, 2015

STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math)


2nd day of school and our first STEM challenge of the year! I plan on regularly having STEM challenges and adding different elements to them as the year progresses. Love how these challenges initiate student creativity and critical thinking!

STEM challenges give every child the opportunity to be a successful contributor in the problem-solving process. In addition to our Team Morley 5 B’s expectations, we can now add 5 E’s that go along with our STEM challenges. They are: Explain, Explore, Engage, Elaborate, and Evaluate. Looking forward to sprinkling in the arts too :)