growth mindset Archives - Whimsy Workshop Teaching

Social Emotional Learning Tips

May 27, 2018 by Whimsy Workshop Teaching Leave a Comment

Social Emotional Learning, or S.E.L., has always been a critical element of a successful classroom. However, it is being taught more explicitly in recent years. As primary teachers, we have probably already been doing many things to foster and encourage SEL in our classroom. Intuitively, we create a warm, inclusive environment. We help students to learn routines that are essential in a group learning environment. We help students to navigate peer conflict that may arise.

How can we go even even [Read More…]

Seasonal STEM with Partner Plays

November 13, 2017 by Whimsy Workshop Teaching Leave a Comment

My students LOVE doing STEM Challenges. We began the year working on Fairy Tale Challenges from THIS resource, and it was a big hit!
Now, we have added more fun by adding SEASONAL STEM projects!
SANTA STEM
The first ones we tried were all about Santa!

Each challenge is introduced with a partner play. This means we can integrate some literacy skills into the lessons. I have found that using partner plays give the STEM challenges context, and makes the building task much more [Read More…]

Social Emotional Learning in the Primary Classroom

October 25, 2017 by Whimsy Workshop Teaching 6 Comments

SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING
Years ago I would get some disapproving looks when I mentioned how much classroom time I dedicate to social emotional learning. “What about the curriculum! You’ll never get through it all if you don’t start right away!”
But I did get through it all, sometimes with time to spare. Why? I found that if we solidified expectations for kindness, inclusion and self-management early, and spent a LOT less time on disruptions through the year. Plus, we were shaping future citizens; it’s not [Read More…]

Books That Teach Friendship and Social Skills

September 17, 2017 by Whimsy Workshop Teaching Leave a Comment

Our class spends a LOT of time learning social skills, problem solving, friendship and conflict resolution. This helps to create a peaceful environment where learning can thrive, and we do not have to spend the majority of our time solving interpersonal conflicts. We use interactive lessons from The Kindness Classroom SEL curriculum, along with many of the books listed below to reinforce concepts.

Click on any cover to see details of the story.

Llama Llama Time To Share by Anna Dewdney

Franklin Plays the [Read More…]

Mystery STEM: A Stem Game With A Twist

July 30, 2017 by Whimsy Workshop Teaching 2 Comments

Our classroom embraced STEM challenges this year in a big way.
We explored all kind of building, integrated STEM with other subject areas, and worked in multi-age groups.
We worked both in and outside the classroom on our STEM challenges.
The confidence and enthusiasm of our little engineers soared!
And now we’re adding MYSTERY STEM to add even more fun and rigor!

HOW DOES IT WORK?
The concept is simple! The mystery is the challenge: students won’t know what they have to build, or what their [Read More…]

Teaching Social Skills: Growth Mindset Classroom

March 24, 2017 by Whimsy Workshop Teaching Leave a Comment

Welcome to the Social Skills Ideas Bank!

The Social Skills Idea Bank is a series of related posts, each dedicated to sharing strategies for teaching a particular social skill.
As teachers, our strength lies in sharing our ideas, experiences and strategies!
This is a growing list, and you are invited to contribute in the comments section. We hope you will, because there’s nothing like a good idea shared between teachers to make our jobs easier.
This post is about simple ways to guide students to growth [Read More…]

S.T.E.M. and Growth Mindset

September 13, 2016 by Whimsy Workshop Teaching 5 Comments

Here’s some real talk about my experience using STEM in the classroom.

When I am coordinating S.T.E.M. curriculum for grades 1-5, I observe many students exploring the STEM process who are truly engaged with hands-on learning.
For the most part, students LOVE it!
However…

Sometimes I also see students who are not yet comfortable with taking risks.
Some students are not emotionally equipped for dealing with the disappointment that arises when their great idea doesn’t quite work out the way they wanted.
Other students feel threatened by other students [Read More…]