CARES Introduction

During the first week of school, I introduced each of the CARES social skills.  Each day we learned about one or two by reading a picture book and then discussing how we could use that skill in our classroom.  After reading each picture book, the kids gave their ideas about what cooperation, for example, would look like, sound like, and feel like in the classroom.  These ideas were posted on an anchor chart along with the cover of the book we read together.

I have seen such a difference in the way that my students treat each other and work together this year, and I believe a big part of that change is a result of these intentional conversations.  I have been able to refer back to our lessons and discuss the social skills, as necessary, throughout the month.  Before starting group activities, we talk about which social skills we will need to be successful.  When we had a rough afternoon and students were saying hurtful things to each other, we stopped and talked about empathy again.  They truly understand what each of these words means and are starting to change their behavior as a result. 

Hopes and Dreams

My class did this great project involving hopes and dreams and classroom rules. After reading all the books I previously listed the students each got a flower to write their dream for First Grade on. The students wrote their hope in the middle of the flower and we put them up on the wall. They will check back after the first quarter to see if they accomplished their hope. They will have the opportunity to write another hope for First Grade and put it on top of their previous one. They will repeat this every quarter. We also wrote our classroom rules on the flower pot. We generated our rules together and wrote them on the flower pot which is front and center in our classroom. The students took an oath to follow the rules and then they signed the flower pot. The students loved this project and we refer back to it often!
We did another project that was what they hoped to be when they grow up (it went along with the book The Dot). The students enjoyed being creative and also it was another great time to talk about setting long term hopes and dreams for themselves!