Puzzle Fun #2 - Months of the Year and Meet Tula

 

Puzzle Fun #1:    

Months of the Year

 I noticed that many of my colleagues are beginning to prepare for their August start.  Some are asking lots of questions about how to do calendar in primary.  In my experience, the calendar has a lot to offer in great learning.
The calendar is a real life math and measurement tool with history and diversity and a variety of topics to cover.  I remark that for 30 years there has always some little gaffer that answers "What day is it today?" with "February."  It's a sign that children need to work on their concepts of time.  Despite our new technology and how we calendar, the concepts are still relevant today.  So, what do I teach with the calendar?

-history of the calendar-different calendars-holidays and traditions around the world-seasons-Equator and the International Date Line-days of the week-months of the year-years-how many days of the week-how many months in a year-how many weeks in a month-how many days in a month-how many weeks in a year-how many days in  a year-patterns-how many hours in a day-pm and am-elapsed time on the calendar (i.e., What would the date be exactly one week ago?)-planning and tracking-how to use a paper calendar/electronic calendar with pros and cons-counting and place value (100th day of school)-even numbers and odd numbers-skip counting-weather and temperature patterns-number lines and negative numbers...
I have a hard time, I must admit, covering it all in a year and I often use the students to help guide me based on what's important and where they are at.  For example, different classes throughout my career have been interested in:-time zones-moon cycles-important dates in history-current events To say that I can do a lot with the calendar is an understatement but it is perhaps here where I warn you of the monotony and boredom that can occur with doing the calendar every morning.  The kiddos that get it lose interest in the daily repetition and the kiddos that are struggling tune out if there isn't a motivator or "hook" as Dave Burgess calls it.This is where I introduce you to Tula.  She was a later addition to the Magic Backyard for a unit that I did on countries around the world.  She was the world traveller and wrote us letters everyday about her adventures.  Over the years, she has developed into a staple character in the Magic Backyard.

This is Tula (actually she's "Esther, the Wonder Pig" but I borrowed her photos and renamed her for my purposes).  Tula is a lady pig that lives in the Magic Backyard.  She always tells the children that she never got to go to school because they didn't have one but she's trying to learn those skills now.  She is obviously funny and quirky and keeps the kiddos laughing at her and then at themselves in healthy ways.

Tula has evolved to be my calendar hook.  She writes the morning message with a whole ton of spelling, grammar, punctuation... errors (depending on what I am focussing on), she shares news, encourages the kiddos when they are struggling with something, and she challenges them to accept that learning is a process of making mistakes and learning from them.  In addition, she sets up the calendar each morning inaccurately and the children have a great deal of fun looking for her mistakes and correcting them.  As with the letter, Tula makes clever mistakes to address what we are learning about, focussing on, or requires review.  

My morning calendar time is loud!  You can hear laughter and team work and excitement and learning!  Honestly, it is one of my favourite times of the day and the children seem to love it too!  I never hear a kiddo say, "Calendar, again?!"

I do hear them postulating on what Tula has learned or is still making mistakes on.  I receive letters to her about her learning that demonstrate empathy and understanding of someone who is just learning.  When Tula takes a break for a day or two, as she sometimes does, I hear lots of questions about where she is and when she will be back!

Tip #8:  Creating Your Own Cast of CharactersAdding staple characters to your own Magic Backyard is an excellent way to keep kiddos engaged and build a community around you!  Tula teaches so much about character development while working on academic skills because of the character traits that I have assigned her.  It doesn't take much.  Later on, you will meet Dr. X and my new character for this year, Geraldina.  When you create a new character, think about something in terms of character development or SEL that you want to build in your students.  Choose a funny character through photographs, costumes that you put on, puppets... and build a character sketch of them.  What and how will they interact with your students?  Don't worry!  Characters can evolve over time and morph as you see fit.  If a character is not working or needed with one group of kiddos, send them on an adventure for the year and use characters that do suit your group.  I often think the children learn lessons better when they don't know their learning.  I don't have to do much with "making mistakes as a part of learning" because Tula does that all year long and because as the children learn to empathize and work with her, they often learn to accept their own mistakes as well!  It's a much bigger lesson, if you ask me!IMPORTANT NOTE:  Remember to consider equity when you are choosing characters!  I often use animals and objects to demonstrate certain qualities in order not to build bias.  When I do use costumes and more human characters, I choose them specifically.  With Dr. X for example, I chose an independent quirky female to teach and learn about math, science, engineering... because I wanted to ensure that the girls saw a role model in those areas since traditionally math (in particular) is a hard sell for girls.  For reasons of equity, it is important to carefully consider your new characters before introducing them and vet them against bias and stereotyping in order to ensure that they are building up what we think is important!

Magic Story: Jake O'Shawnasey (Stephen Cosgrove)

 

"Believe in yourself.  You are braver than you think, more talented than you know, and capable of more than you can imagine."

Roy T. Bennett

Author, Accountant, Chairman of the Ohio Republican Party

St. Louis School, Ohio, U.S.A.

When I was a young girl, I took to reading.  Even though I reversed letters, scrambled letters in words, and had some general difficulties due to a learning difference (Dyslexia), I loved stories and was captivated by language.  My brother, on the other hand, fell out of love with reading in a heck of hurry when he started school.  He disliked intensely reading aloud to others and found that reading aloud was difficult.  Much to his dismay and the frustration of my parents who were reticent to drill and kill my brother in phonics at home, his teachers sent home copious worksheets and homework practice and drills to help him become a reader.  My parents, both phenomenal teachers, bought my brother books of all kinds, read to him about things that interested him and immersed him in games about language.  It wasn't until we went on a summer trip to Eastern Canada that my parents figured it out.  We were each given a book of our choice to read along the way with the promise to read a little each day.  My brother chose a book, that my parents were concerned was too difficult for his reading level, about whales.  On one of the first few days of our trip, my brother closed the book and announced that he had finished it.  My parents were skeptical so they started a conversation about what my brother had read.  They asked him general and specific questions with increasing complexity.  He answered them all confidently, right down to the nitty gritty details.  It was then that my parents understood that my brother was actually an excellent reader - just not aloud.  Throughout his young life, they continued to get him books and help him choose books that he would love.  Some of his favourites were the Choose Your Own Adventure novels and the books by Stephen Cosgrove.  I have kept his whole collection of Stephen Cosgrove books because I loved sharing them together with him.  I am also happy to tell you that my brother continues to be an avid reader today although I have never heard him read aloud.  

Terrain (Level of Difficulty):💖

Kit List:

• "Jake O'Shawnasey" by: Stephen Cosgrove  in the Magic Story bag
•  Magic Story Bag
•  feathers (perferably green) in the Magic Story bag
•  some construction paper/bristol board of a variety of colours (9"X12")
• markers, crayons, pencil crayons...
• magazines, glue, scissors
• ribbons or string

The Map:

                                                     

 This is a Magic Story that I have been doing for 37 years!  It is a favourite of mine and often a favourite of the kiddos I have shared it with!  It is light and funny.  It has a good adventure and a fabulous ending.  

I do this story with the children early in September (the beginning of the year for me).  The ultimate message from the story is that you can do many things if you believe in yourself.  I like the message for early in the year because I work a lot on productive struggle with my grade 2 kiddos.  I think that the building of confidence is an essential first step to learning to build skills for productive struggle.

It is important to note that I never ever tell children that wanting to or believing in yourself will allow them to do anything they want to do.  I use the example that in my life, I have loved to run.  I have done a lot of running and I dreamed of winning some big races.  However, my genetics have me in a shorter, middle sized frame with large breasts which are not conducive to being a champion runner.  I have a trophy from grade 4 when I beat Catherine Bond (who later became a representative of Canada's olympic team in decathalon) which is just a funny reminder of my very short successful running career.  Sometimes, our skills and gifts don't lend themselves to something that we'd like to do.  It doesn't mean we shouldn't try but it does mean we need to have realistic expectations and focus our attention in areas where we can excel and be successful.  This conversation is also a nice segue to why working in a team is so important.  We have all have different gifts and talents.

The gift for the children from this book is a green feather.  I tell the children that Jake is giving them a feather to remind them to believe in themselves.  Because this is often one of the first fiction stories where the main character gives them the gift, I explain how when I go to the Magic Backyard, I get instructions from the character.  There are always a whole lot of questions, challenges and ideas about the Magic Backyard.  Get ready to sell it!  

There isn't much to this lesson and sometimes it is okay to just enjoy the story for the sake if the story but it is a nice story to match with an activity I was shown many moons ago.  The children make paper kites.  I use just the 9"X12" construction paper or bristol board.  The children put their names on it and decorate it with pictures that they draw or cut and paste of their favourite things.  If you can hang them from the ceiling, do that!  It is so attractive!  We can't due to fire safety regulations so I hang them on a bulletin board.  I attach a coloured ribbon or string to the bottom of the kite.  While the kites are nice and I like to let the children choose their favourite colours, it is the tail of the kite that I think is more important with this story.  I have a pocket of slips of paper where the children can access them .  At first, I ask the children to write 3 things that they are really confident about or things they like about themselves.  I tape those to the ribbon.  As the year progresses, they can add more slips of paper to their tails and they can add slips of paper to the tails of the other children's kites or mine.  At the end of the year, the children have a memory kite to bring home.  The children really like it and the tails can get really long!  When that happens I drape the tail or take some of the slips and glue them to the back of the kite.  

Tip #7:  No Green Feathers:  In the past few years, I have had a great deal of difficulty finding green feathers.  I have used other colours of feathers and more natural ones.  In these cases, I explain to the children that Jake is not losing as many feathers anymore so he went around the Cliffs of County Cort to find feathers for the children.

Adventure Recipe:  Looking for a quick organization of the lesson?  Check out this resource to help you plan your Magic Story time.

• Magic Story Plan