Today was Sorting Day in our class! On this day the class is divided into their group or "house". This idea is inspired by the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling. This is something that I have done at the beginning of every school year. Throughout the year the students will be competing against each other to see which house can collect the most house points. These points can be earned by exhibiting outstanding behavior, receiving a perfect grade on a test, or by any other behavior that I believe merits house points. As these points can be given for good behavior, they can also be taken away. (To see more about awarding and taking away house points, see my classroom protocol page). At the end of each nine weeks, the house who has the most points will receive some sort of reward. The house points restart after each nine weeks to give the other houses a chance to win.
As a class, we have been reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling. Yesterday, we read the chapter where the students at Hogwarts were put into their houses. So, today the students' names were called and they came up one by one and sat in my chair. They then drew a slip of paper out of a bucket that had which house they were in. Their house name was announced and that student went over to join their other housemates. When a student's house name was called out, the rest of the class clapped and cheered as they joined their new house. After this the students played a few group activities to get to know everyone in their house. They started with a game called "Two truths and a lie." The students loved this game! Some of the students were very good at tricking their peers. Next, we played a game where the students had to work as a group to sort and match vocabulary words that we introduced yesterday to their definitions. This was the first opportunity to earn house points. The first house to correctly match all the terms would earn five house points. I enjoyed seeing all of the teamwork that went on during this game. The final activity was for the groups to create a poster for their house. I gave each group a piece of white poster board and provided crayons, markers, colored pencils, etc. Each house's poster was put up around the classroom. We will continue to work in these groups throughout the year. I was very pleased at how well the students worked together. They were very kind and considerate of one another, and they each made sure that the other members felt included. I look forward to more group activities in the future!
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AuthorMs. Hosey ~ 3rd grade teacher at _____ Elementary ArchivesCategories |