Wednesday, January 11, 2012

How To Make This Teacher's Heart Happy...

I know it sounds so cliche, but truly, my favorite thing about teaching is seeing that "light bulb" go off and watching a kid realize they understand something... I love those moments! It is amazing to watch someone know they have acquired knowledge and it makes me so proud to have helped one of my kiddos get to that point.

But another thing that makes this teacher's heart so happy is when I get to see that my kiddos know stuff when they aren't trying to show me they know it. Take today for example. I have this AMAZING writing table in my room (thanks Donor's Choose!) and a long piece of paper runs across the top of it. Usually that paper just becomes something fun to draw on during free choice. It's actually an art table, but we love it as our writing area.

Anyway, today one of my girlies was writing on it during "work on writing" at Daily Five. I was intrigued, but didn't want to interfere in her work. So, afterwards I went to see what she had been doing, and this is what I found:
A complete kid-made-kid-initiated web of things that are magnetic... and the starting of a list of magnetic and non-magnetic items!

I was so excited!

So, this teacher had a happy heart today!

This morning, we did TONS of magnet stuff including making these after we tested these (and many many many other) different items with our own magnets. You can get the pattern for it by clicking HERE and going to a previous blog post.
I totally didn't give them enough time to just explore with all of my magnet goodies and paid the price they asked me about it all day. So tomorrow we will be making my magnet flippy book and will definitely spend some time just having fun with all of my magnet stuff. I do have some really powerful magnets and they LOVED feeling them repel one another! And one of my girls figured out that she could put a magnet under the table, move it, and it would make a little magnetic ball on top of the table move too. That was super exciting for us!

All-in-all, it was a successful Wednesday. I'm excited about tomorrow as I finished AIMS Web testing my 2nd graders today and will start my firsties tomorrow. I can't WAIT to see how much they've grown on that assessment! My 2nd graders had great results! BUT tomorrow night you will be hearing this girl doing the snow dance in hopes of a free day off on Friday... Boom Boom for Snow!

11 comments:

  1. I love those moments too! We reviewed cause and effect this week and one of my friends created her own cause and effect organizer to use during read to self. Loved it! :)
    Lisa
    Stories From Second

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love it when my kids will make a thinking map during D5 of a concept we learned in science or social studies...too cute :)

    Lisa :)
    Made In The Shade In Second Grade

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh I love that little magnet mobile!! So cute!

    ReplyDelete
  4. These moments are the best! I love giving free whiteboard time ~ I always get to see their interpretation of something I've done on the board. Thanks for sharing :)
    I'm your newest follower!

    Randi @ Teach It With Class
    My TPT Store
    My Facebook Page

    ReplyDelete
  5. I love your magnet mobile, too!! Thanks for sharing!

    Rebecca
    Teaching First

    ReplyDelete
  6. I live in Michigan too! I know you aren't the only one who will be doing the snow dance and wearing their PJ's inside out tomorrow night:)!

    Ashley
    Live2Learn

    ReplyDelete
  7. I love the magnet mobile but most of all I LOVE that you are getting to see the hard work paying off when a kiddo internalizes something you have taught them! Wahoo for your kiddos and you! I'll say some snowy prayers for you!

    Heather
    Heather'sHeart

    ReplyDelete
  8. This is great and I love the magnet activity!

    ReplyDelete
  9. We made the same magnet earlier in the year. I even blogged about it! Hope your kiddos enjoyed it as much as ours!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Mrs. Richardson- your picture was the place I got the idea on Pinterest! :) I have you a shout out in the first post I did before we did the project... you can check it out HERE if you'd like!

    My kiddos have gone ga-ga for magnets and they loved the activity. Thanks for the idea!

    :)
    Christina

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...