To view this content, you must be a member of Ben's Patreon at $10 or more
Already a qualifying Patreon member? Refresh to access this content.
To view this content, you must be a member of Ben’s Patreon at $10 or more Unlock with PatreonAlready a qualifying Patreon member? Refresh to
To view this content, you must be a member of Ben’s Patreon at $10 or more Unlock with PatreonAlready a qualifying Patreon member? Refresh to
To view this content, you must be a member of Ben’s Patreon at $10 or more Unlock with PatreonAlready a qualifying Patreon member? Refresh to
To view this content, you must be a member of Ben’s Patreon at $10 or more Unlock with PatreonAlready a qualifying Patreon member? Refresh to
Subscribe to be a patron and get additional posts by Ben, along with live-streams, and monthly patron meetings!
Also each month, you will get a special coupon code to save 20% on any product once a month.
3 thoughts on “Catharina Greenberg on Elementary CI”
Thanks to Ben And Catharina for posting/pulling all of Catharina’s wonderful insights, reflections and practices into one post. I find it so incredibly rich – I will print it out and re-read again & again, experimenting with new ideas.
It’s true that classroom management is a completely different beast with the very young, and these kids can’t be held accountable for behavior they can’t yet manage. So we have to avoid the triggers as best we can and drink a patience shake.
Lil kids wear their sensory needs on their sleeves – in any given class you may observe humming, singing, tapping, kicking, twiddling, diddling, fiddling, crouching atop their chair (yikes!), playing with a neighbor’s hair, dancing, stretching, poking fingers into mouth/ears, picking scabs (HUGELY POPULAR!), touching MY shoes at the rug, and of course, the ubiquitous nose picking. (The list goes on!!!)
They (like all of us) are ruled by their energy level and it’s quite obvious when they’re spent. I see my 1st graders at the end of the day, which is always a challenge. Luring them into a compelling scene, story, game or activity from the get-go is key!! Luckily, they LOOOOVE routine, so adding new beginning and end of class songs, chants, exercises, TPR sequences, etc. is great.
I would love it if Catharina were to detail a class including her go-to, hit lessons. Even better, see it somehow in action. This is a selfish request. I want to improve my elementary instruction. I realize such a request asks too much.
Alright, I’ve gone back to the basics for elementary: TPR and TPR + Storytelling.
I also thought this 2-activity sequence would make a good warm-up for my middle schoolers. Of all grades, the 8th graders actually got the most into it! We had some hilarious TPR leading up to the story. I’m definitely going to ride the TPR and TPRStorytelling wave as far as it takes me 🙂 I’m attaching the link to the story (in English), along with the requisite language and some notes.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/17eqQnQjua3POgNA_pUDQP4yc0bZZ9CM7hTdFJ1QKYjY/edit?usp=sharing