Romans 15:13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.
I know I have to finish blogging about Carl Jung’s learning styles, but I thought I would pause with a teaching idea before the holiday break. I will finish the other within the next several weeks.
I follow Becky at http://www.cleanmama.net; she is currently blogging about her new series Simplify the Season. She has great ideas and it gave me inspiration to share one of my “simplify” moments. It has been my goal over the last few years to live smaller and simpler; so I have been reducing the “stuff” collected over our twenty-eight year marriage.
In one of my recent teaching years I reduced the number of my snowman collection! I decided to do a “musical chairs-grab bag” gift for my students; I chose 26 of my snowmen and put them in paper bags, while the kids were at lunch I placed one bag on each desk. Upon their return, I explained that there was a snowman gift for each one of them from my collection; I also add a little story about them as snowmen are my favorite and I always look for unique ones. I let them know they were getting a part of my unique collection.
I asked them to stand at any desk they wanted and if they chose a bag right away they needed to move away from the desks as we circled them with music. Some chose a bag immediately and others played the game. When the music stopped they could pick the bag in front of them or continue playing. Each round became smaller as they circled the room. Once all the bags were selected, they opened them together to reveal a snowman.
At this point, I added one more element; I told them that they could do a two-minute exchange if they so chose. I turned on the music once again to give them time to view the chosen snowmen. Once the music stopped they could return to their desk or exchange. Only one exchange happened as one was ceramic and the other plush and those two students wanted opposite of what they had picked.
The snowman gift was done on the day before our Christmas break. I believe when I do this activity again, I will have them write a narrative in January about the journey of their snowman. Now to write the objectives and rubric…..!
Merry Christmas!
Blessings to you and yours,
Tammy
Ambrosia's Attic 