Socktober

Socktober was in full effect at our school this October!

Student's loved giving back this year and found the idea of collecting socks a bit silly and easy to do.

If you are unfamiliar with Socktober ...

check this out!!!

I LOVE Kid President!!!

He is a young boy who has a great spirit and motivates everyone to love life. 

This year was the second time we participated in Socktober and what a success it was. 

We donated to two local organizations in our neighborhood.

You just don't realize how in need many people are of something as tiny as socks. 

I love this project and think it will be our new philanthropic project for students to participate in each year. The concept of giving back and treating people with kindness is our focus through this project. 

As the end of the month approached fast I incorporated our math lesson on sorting into sorting and bagging the socks that needed to be delivered. My kids really enjoyed this!

This year our school adopted the Olweus Bully Prevention Program.

Each week we participate in lessons that teach students how to be friends with one another and recognize when someone is not being a good friend. We are trying to provide students with opportunities that help them recognize feelings and how to treat one another. 

In the month of October I added some resources to one of our lessons. 

We read the story Franklin's New Friend

As a group and then individually students brainstormed ways they could be a good friend!

I loved their enthusiasm and differentiated answers.

Worksheet here!

We also filled our cafeteria this year with hand prints stating ways we can help and be kind to others. 

For this unit I read How Full is your Bucket?

Students really began to understand that what we say to other another affects how they feel. 

Now we use terms like

 "That made my bucket empty when .... "

 "She/he made my bucket full when ....."

Check out this activity I borrowed from a fellow teacher .... 

She had these adorable skeleton projects displayed in the hallway and I thought they were just the cutest. 

So I adopted the idea and incorporated it into a lesson about movement. 

We read Shake dem Halloween Bones

a story all about a Halloween party and the characters dance the night away.

We talked about movement and discussed different ways we move and how our bones allow us to move. 

Students then made their own skeletons and I just love how they turned out. 

I am not gonna lie I was nervous about how Q-tips and wet glue would mix with these kiddos but WOW they rocked the activity and everything really turned out great.  

We also quickly fell in love with the GoNoodle Bones video

My GoNoodler of the day would frequently choose this video. 

Making ten is a tricky concept

We were working hard to discuss and learn beginning addition concepts.

I love using these little manipulatives during the Halloween season.

The concept was tricky and some of my kiddos picked it up fast. 

We started with a whole group lesson talking about the different ways to make 10 using a tens frame and then mini spiders and ghosts. 

Students then had an opportunity to work on this worksheet to show 10. 

Worksheet here!

In the future I would take more time in the whole group setting before I moved to the worksheet. The concept of coloring the tens frame in two different colors to show the number 10 was probably the hardest part. I would definitely recommend this activity for first grade and would love to do this again later in the year once the concept is more concrete. 

The holidays fly faster and faster each year .... now onto Thanksgiving!