Change Your Words, Change Your Mindset

I hope everyone had a great first or second week back to school. I just finished my first week back and let me tell you, I was so tired Friday night...I think I was in bed by 7:30! We had such a busy week but I was so happy to see my students. They really are the best and make my job so much easier!

Today I wanted to share with you something we did this week that I am super proud of! 

Our focus this week was changing our mindset!

First, we had a conversation about the difference between a fixed mindset and a growth mindset. We watched this awesome video and talked about it after. 

link

Next, I showed them a list of words and we had a discussion about their meanings. I don't know about you,  but my students LOVE to talk and this was a perfect opportunity for them:)

I put each word on a poster, and students had about 15 minutes of quiet time to walk around and write what that word meant to them! 

This was not my original idea, I found it from Heidi over at Create, Dream, Explore!

Here's a look at the around the classroom activity!

After students were done, we talked and shared. Their responses were amazing! 

The next day, we had a quick recap of what the differences is between a fixed mindset vs growth mindset. We did this on TodaysMeet! You can view our conversation here!

After we "talked about the differences, I gave them some fixed statements. I would type in the fixed statement and they would type in what they would do to make it a growth statement!

The last part of this activity was an art piece. I have each student a head! I instructed them to draw, doodle, write, color, anything they wanted to show how they were going to change their fixed mindset to a growth mindset in 2017. The results were amazing!

I am so impressed with my students work! I don't think I ever want to change my door!

After many requests, the art piece and "Change your words, Change your mindset" posters are now in my TpT shop for $1! 

How do you get your students to change their mindset? I'd love to hear it!

Have a great week!

Valentine's Day Project

Happy 2017! 

I hope you all are having a great start to your year! So far, the past 6 days have been great and I just know this year is going to be amazing! 

I wanted to share something with you today that is a super amazing idea for Valentine's Day! I have been doing it for 6 years and every year the kids just love it! I begin right away after winter break to give students enough time to get started!

Click HERE to read my blog post from a few years ago. There's also a link in there to another blog post I did awhile back. I am doing things a little different this year so you will want to keep on reading:)

I bring you, the Valentine's Day Compliment Project!

How this project works:

Each student's name is placed in the Valentine envelope!

I will pull a name out each day and write it on the pink chalk board.

This person gets to wear the heart Emoji on their lanyard.

For homework that night, students will write a thoughtful compliment about that person. When they have their own name, I still have students write a compliment about themselves. Most of the time, this is the hardest one to do! 

I used to have students hand write it, but this year I made a Google Doc for my students to use nightly. If students can't get to their Drive for some reason, they can write it on lined paper and type it in their doc first thing in the morning. 

After all students and myself had their name pulled out, I will print out the compliments, organize them by student and we will begin the fun part!

Each student will pull another student's name out of a bucket. So let's say George pulls out Bailey's name. George will take all of Bailey's compliments and create a poster for Bailey. Over the years, I have had parents bring in fun materials to decorate the posters. 

(this was from a few years ago)

I will be sending a note home again the first day back next week asking for all sorts of fun decorating materials. 

BUT, this year instead of a poster, I am going to use the blank books I bought a few years ago (I can't believe I never used them) from Target's Dollar Spot. I am super excited about this change and I think my students will like it too! 

We take almost the whole day to focus on creating these posters! The students really put time, effort, and love into their designs. 

When everyone is done, we have snacks, drinks, and present each other with their posters. So George would get up and present Bailey with her poster. 

Every.single.year this has been a huge hit in my classroom. I apologize to my last years class for not doing it. I really wish I did! IMHO...this is WAY better than getting those paper Valentine Cards!

My super cute second grade girls from 13/14

I have the girl on the left with the green tank top this year again in 5th! I also had her in 3rd;)

My awesome 3rd grade class from 12/13! I sure miss them all!

I promise you, if you do this project, you won't regret it! 

I have made two files for you to download for free!

A PDF with parent notes, student compliment handouts, and examples. I also added an editable PowerPoint so you can make the note fit for your classroom needs! 

Click HERE to download it via Google Drive!

Thanks for sticking around while I haven't been blogging or creating. I really do appreciate and love you all! You are amazing!