Managing Go Noodle in the Elementary Classroom

The Five "Rules" of Go Noodle 

in my Classroom

I found out about this wonderful and *free* resource for teachers to use in their classroom via Twitter and I have to say my students love it!

But I started to notice that some students were becoming a little too loud at times and that sometimes students had a negative attitude when an activity that they wanted wasn't chosen. 

With that said, the 5 rules of Go Noodle were born for my classroom!

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1. Students who choose to happily participate in the Go Noodles chosen by others will get a chance to pick their own for the class.

- This puts the onus completely on the students and gets rid of the negative attitudes when "girl" or "boy" activities are chosen.

2. The teacher gets to choose the minute length of each break.

-Sometimes we just need a quick energizer and other times our schedule will allow for a longer break. After students have been picked to choose a Go Noodle, they know to ask me how long our break is...this also motivates students to choose quickly so that they can enjoy the break time.

3. The teacher gets to choose when Go Noodle breaks happen in the classroom.

- I try to schedule at least 2 longer (5 minute) Go Noodle breaks each day and then 1-3 smaller throughout the day. Sometimes we fit all these in, but sometimes we have to settle for a more static brain break from another source.

4. Students who would like to have a Go Noodle break will keep their voices at a level 3 or lower.

- I have a voice level chart in my classroom where Level 3 is just above a whisper. We call this whole group voice. Anyone who raises their voice above this can not participate in our Go Noodle activity. This keeps things calmer and more focused for our classroom while respecting the fact that the classroom next door might not be taking a break when we are.

5. Have fun learning and moving with Go Noodle!

- Go Noodle has so many new activities for students to learn! I encourage my students to try out new videos and to really listen to the instructions that are given! And have fun! There's nothing wrong with singing to the songs! 

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How are you managing Go Noodle in your classroom?

Fitting In All The Pieces

So the start to this school year has been a little insane with scheduling!  Between whole class assessments and individual testing, it doesn't feel like I've had much time to really sit down with my students to get our math workshop going the way I would have liked to during September.  Needless to say, we have restarted "The First 14 Days of Math Workshop" because my teaching partners and I decided to start switching for the subject of math.  I love this because it gives me a new, fresh set of minds in which to explore math (and another chance to introduce math workshop!)

Today we actually meshed sessions 7 and 8 of "The First 14 Days of Math Workshop" together and it worked out very well. Over the weekend, I divided my students into partnerships and then combined two partnerships together to create groups of 4. I ended up having 6 groups in total.  This way students will have one person to work with during their partner math activities and a whole group to come to when we are completing assignments that have a limited number of tools or those which will require a group presentation at the end.

I prepped for the characteristics of a strong math partner lesson by printing out the enlarged completed puzzles onto cardstock, cutting out the pictures along their borders, and then further dividing them into 11-13 pieces. 

I then numbered the backs of each set of puzzle pieces (I ended up with 12 sets) and placed completed sets in their matching envelopes.  This prep made starting the partner math activity super easy and quick.

I shortened the actual mini-lesson (session 8) from the unit a little by simply asking for suggestions of ways to be a strong math partner without writing down these suggestions.  I then used my computer and projector (thank you technology!) to display the poster of the Characteristics of a Strong Math Partner for everyone as we went through each row.

Before I sent students off, I did open one of the sets and showed them some of the pieces to build excitement for the puzzles they were about to work with in partnerships!

Due to scheduling conflicts, we only had 40 minutes for our lesson, so I had to forfeit individual math conferring. I simply walked around to partnerships and narrated the characteristics of a strong math partner that I witnessed. I also had to let go of the independent math portion because I felt that the carpet summary of what a strong math partner looks and sounds like was more important for the beginning days of math workshop.

Overall, it was a very effective, fun, and quick lesson. We will continue to use these bookmarks and the poster to reinforce these characteristics.

How are you building strong math partnerships in your classroom?