Scenario:

Looking for another way to build relationships with your students, gather information and generate curiosity and engagement before a lesson? Check these three ideas to stimulate thinking, wondering and questioning as students enter the classroom.

Try These

Build relationships and gather information:

• As your students arrive in the morning or after recess and lunch meet and greet them at the door. This is an easy and effective way to continue to build relationships with your students.

After the greeting:

• Ask a question relating to your current focus in Mathematics, Literacy or Inquiry.
• Stand at the door with a written question for students to answer as they enter the classroom. e.g. What is the first section of a recount called? What number comes before/after? Name one Habit of the Mind, What does perspective mean?

Generate curiosity and questioning before a lesson

As students come in the door, hand out slips of paper with a piece of information or a word that is relevant to the next lesson. These become the triggers for your class discussion.

Stimulate engagement and wondering

Provide a selection of students with an object that links with your next lesson. Eg Dice, numbers, counters – for Maths, a picture or photo of something that links with your Inquiry topic, something weird and way out that for students to write about or a set of instructions between two.

The greeting time becomes a time for raising curiosity, creating different thinking and doing something different to engage the students.

Outcomes:

• Students are interested and excited to see what will happen next.
• Relationships between you and your students grow
• Students receive a burst of endorphins when you praise the knowledge they have shared as they came in the door.
• You will feel pleased to see and hear the outcomes achieved by doing something different and interesting.