Peaceful Playground and Pedallers

Written by Tim Craig, PE Teacher

Last year,  we were fortunate enough to receive a grant that allowed us to brighten up our playground with the Peaceful Playground system. Peaceful playground is a system that helps eliminate many problems that are caused on the blacktop. Many of you volunteered your time to come and help paint the new games/ letters and numbers which include Ball Hopscotch, Hopscotch, Four Square, a Number Line, the Alphabet, and Shapes around the basketball court.  

One of the games that I have been using to help resolve simple problems, such as who gets to go next when playing Four Square, is rock paper scissors and whoever wins gets to go next. This helps children learn how to wait for their turn patiently. With the different games and activities painted around the playground, hopefully we will not encounter the problem of long lines, but if they do, remind them to use rock paper scissors to solve who gets to go next.  (If you would like to show your students a video of how to play copies of the Peaceful Playground the DVD will be in the Library) 

The use of our new pedallers in classrooms are great to use a reward for students who do the right thing.  You can also use them for those children who just have difficulty sitting still in your classroom. Sometimes students just need to be moving all of the time, even in the classroom.  In the gym, I have found them very beneficial, especially when I have students who have injuries and are unable to participate in gym, they are able to sit out and pedal away for the duration of class.  This way they are still moving and raising their heart rate while in gym class.  Since the students love them so much, I also use them as rewards. Everyday I have students ask me if they can get on the pedaller. Keeping the students moving and active in classrooms is important and in some cases it even helps the students stay on task. If you would like to see the pedallers in action, peek in Ms. McCord’s room while she uses 6-8 in her room, or Ms. Andrews who utilizes the pedallers to help keep her students on task. 

Text Annotations and Text Coding

A key strategy for supporting students with close reading is utilizing text annotation and text coding. Adding text coding to student reading can raise comprehension up another notch. This strategy asks teachers to model the strategy for students, show the students a set of codes, and let students practice them. After this practice, students can create some of their own codes. 

Lyon has a system of text codes that are to be used at grades K-2, 3-5, and 6-8. All classrooms are expected to utilize these symbols:

Even lower elementary grade teachers can use the strategy by thinking aloud, modeling, and thinking  students through how to utilize text coding until they become ready to practice the strategy independently. 

How to Implement It:

1. Introduce text codes to students (Use required school symbols). 

2. Demonstrate coding by modeling with a text as a whole class. 3. Kids try coding in pairs or with guided practice led by teacher. 4. Monitor student progress in pairs or groups as they code texts. 5. Pairs discuss text codes and their use of the strategy. 6. Share with the whole class and practice independently. 

Take a look at several sample anchor charts from classrooms below. Be sure to have an anchor chart in your classroom to model and share the strategies with students. 

Student Work Expectations and Exemplars

One of the most important strategies for teachers to implement in their classroom is posting student work with high-quality feedback for improvement. This is an instructional non-negotiable for both Lyon Academy, and SLPS. Page 39 of the Faculty and Staff handbook outlines the expectations for posting student work. The following comes directly from the handbook:

1.  Bulletin boards should remain current, maintained for attractiveness, reflect unit themes, slogans, academic program focus, and informational display of student work.

2. Completed bulletin boards should have scoring mechanisms (scoring guide, grading scale, etc.) and the required SLPS Project Description sheet posted.

3. Posted student work should be standards-aligned, reflect higher-order thinking skills (DOK 3 & 4), and be process-oriented. Exit slips, fill in the blank/multiple choice worksheets, coloring pages, or student notes should not be posted.

4. Bulletin boards should be updated as requested by administration according to the deadlines provided to staff at the beginning of the year.

The following links are for important documents to assist teachers with student work. Download these forms as needed. 

SLPS Project Description Sheet
Student Work Analysis Protocol
Lyon Academy Student Work Feedback Form

Here are a number of excellent postings from around the building that can be used as exemplars for the next student work deadline in September. 

Ms. Pocost's students created ecosystems and presented them in the form of an Instagram post. 

Ms. Smith's students captured their learning from A Long Walk to Water in the form of a foldable. 

Ms. Andrews differentiated her assignment for students to achieve the same learning outcome. 

Ms. Cychowski's students created graphs and charts to model representations of data. 

In Pre-K, Ms. Walker had students create pictures to describe their experiences of the first day of school. 

Ms. Richardson asked students to create a story from looking a at a picture and created a simple check-minus, check, check-plus rubric. 

Ms. Salmo gave students an opportunity for them to practice their learning from their most recent Making Meaning Vocabulary unit. 

Ms. Wolfenden's students practiced making text-to-self connections with their IDR books. 

Ms. Kempf's students used a creative graphic organizer to show what they did over the summer.