General Ization!

Well, it’s that time of year.  My students have transformed into Generalization Gurus!  Every spring, General Ization comes to visit our school and completes his reconnaissance mission.  He stopped by last week for a little generalizing fun!

My kiddos had a lot of fun speculating about what he would have observed while he hid in the bushes with binoculars watching them at recess for a week.  (I realize that that is a borderline creepy when I put it that way, but fortunately General Ization is a hero and a pretty stellar guy!  Hakuna Matata!) 

As part of our Generalization Guru activities, my students also participated in a gallery walk around the classroom. They wrote generalizations about various kid-friendly topics.  🙂  This is a great formative piece for me to be able to see what they know or don’t know… and it also allows my students to get up and move around while still being highly engaged in learning activities.  It’s a win-win situation for sure!

Are you looking for a meaningful way to end this year
and begin another? Consider setting your current students up as mentors
and allowing them to share their wisdom with your next class with a Survival Guide! Surely, the newbies will appreciate the advice of
their older, wiser mentors. It just might help ease their first day
jitters too!  I recently updated my file, and now it is looking SO fresh and fun!  As you can see, the file on the right was looking a little dated.  It’s pretty now, and I am ready to launch this lesson tomorrow!  I love having my students write “survival tips” to incoming students about third grade, and I love the words of encouragement that are always passed down from one kid to another.  Tomorrow cannot come quickly enough!