First Day of School Plans

I am very detailed oriented, so when I am learning something new, I appreciate as many details about what I am learning as possible.  With this in mind and figuring that there are others like me, I decided that instead of just giving you an outline of what I would be doing on the first day of school, I would post my actual day one lesson plans, copied directly from Curriculum Engine (our computer based lesson plan program).  I realize that some of it will not be applicable, but I hope that you will find it as helpful.

Day One Lesson Plan

9:00-10:45 (Stop to pick up breakfast and eat when called down to the lunchroom.)
    *Class Yes
      Please look at me.  My name is Miss Ray, and I am so happy that you are here.  When I say class, you say       yes, fold your hands in a listening position, and look at me with laser eyes.  Practice.
    *Introduce and practice rule one
     Rule one is follow directions quickly.  When I say rule one, you say follow directions quickly.  Let's try that          again, but be fast.  Give rule one commands:  Look up.  Look down.  Raise one hand.  (Faster.)  Raise              both hands. We have rule one so that we will have a fun organized classroom.   
    *Introduce the Scoreboard
     We are going to play a very fun game called Scoreboard, and all you have to do to win is keep the                      scorekeeper happy.  I am the scorekeeper.  When I put a mark under the smiley face, that means that you        are following a rule and making the scorekeeper, me, happy.  When you see me making the mark, you will          clap your hands together quickly and say Oh yea.  Let's practice.  Practice.  When you are doing something        that makes me, the scorekeeper, unhappy, you will receive a mark under the frownie face.  When you see me      making the mark, you will quickly shrug your shoulders and groan.  Practice.  Next practice rule one using          the scoreboard.  Stand Up.  Too slow.  Groan.  Sit down.  Still to slow.  Groan.  Look at your partner.  Oh           yeah!  etc.
    *Play the Name Game
     1.  Emphasize how quickly everyone must respond.
     2. When I point at you, quickly say your name.
     3.  No matter how the child responds, say, "Louder please."
     4.  If a child is shy, skip him/her.
     5.  After pointing to a few kids, say to the class, "Repeat after me."  Point to these students one at a time.              Say each name and have the class repeat the name.  If you forget a name, simply say to the class, "Who          is this?"  They will tell you.
​     6.  Continue this pattern with the remainder of the class.One minute fun burst:  Practice Rule one using different voices.  Teacher leads.
    *Heavy Duty Practice of Rule One Using 3-peats:

• red folders
• ​folders away
• pencils out
• pencils up
• pencils away
• bodies and chairs
• seats
• line 

10:45-10:50  Take students on a bathroom break using the procedures for line just learned.

10:55-11:10  Introduce "Silent Mirror" and "Mirror Off" by having students copy teacher's movements using big gestures and stopping when the teacher says, "Mirrors Off".  One minute fun burst:  Students take turns mirroring each other.  Peanut butters begin.  (Students will learn who peanut butters are and who jellies are.)  Then use "Silent Mirror" to introduce procedures for bathroom, water, and tissue.  

11:10-11:20  Prepare for lunch  
11:120-11:50  Lunch

11:50-12:35  Intro. "Teach Okay" to review rule one and introduce rules two and three.
Step One:  "When I clap twice, you clap twice;"  Do.
                 "When I clap twice and say teach, you clap twice and say okay."  Do.
*Repeat until all students follow smoothly and quickly.  Use scoreboard.
Step Two:  Repeat above, but add full body turn.  Practice until all students follow smoothly and quickly.  Use scoreboard.
Step Three:  "I want you when you turn to your neighbor to use big gestures and repeat rule one over and over, until I call you back with class.
* Do this step over and over until all students follow smoothly, use a full body turn, and big gestures.

Intro. rule two using non-examples:  Ask a student to blurt out while you are talking.  Congratulate him! Great blurting!  Then say, “Class, let’s do that again. But this time when Jack interrupts me, I’ll say Rule 2 and you exclaim, making the hand motion, ‘Raise your hand for permission to speak!” 
Students practice rule two using "Teach Okay".

Intro. rule three using non examples:  Ask a student to leave his seat without permission.  Great job of breaking the rule. Jack leaves his seat again, you call out Rule 3, and the kids exclaim, “Raise your hand for permission to leave your seat!’ 
Students practice rule three using "Teach Okay".
One minute fun burst:  Students practice rules one, two, and three with partner using silly voices.

12:35-1:25  Specials:  Art (While students are at specials, teacher will assign student numbers.)

1:25-1:55  Introduce students to Super Speed Math.  
One minute fun burst:  Use "Teach Okay" to practice the first three rules with your partner, using the silliest voices that you can.

1:55-2:55  Show Oral Writing posters (Question, Answer, Adders, Concluder).  Question:  What was the best part of today?  Students use "Teach Okay" and "Tag Team Switch" to answer.  Emphasize that questions must be answered in complete sentences.  Intro. gesture for complete sentences, along with the capital and period Brainies, and model what this would look like using the following posted sentence frame:  The best part about today was ______________________.  Students use "Teach Okay" and "Tag Team Switch" to answer.   Ask a couple of students to share introducing at this time the procedure for sharing:  Call on student and gesture toward him/her.  Other students gesture towards student and does 3-peat of students name.  Selected student stands and says, "class."  The class answers, "yes."  The selected student then shares his/her sentence and sits down.  Teacher leads class in a "ten finger wooh" for the student.  Students take out writing notebooks.  Students write their sentence in their notebooks with a focus on neatness.  (Point out the writing board where the label neatness is displayed.)  Teacher walks around and does red/green writing, focusing only on neatness.  Teacher introduces adders.  Use the same procedures for adders that were just used with the answer.  When students share their adders, teacher models walking fingers down arm.  If an adder is off topic, teacher falls off mountain and says, "Off topic."  Note:  If time is short, students will only share adders orally, but will not record in notebooks.  f students do a good job with their oral writing, draw one line of the Wacky Star Fun Button, but do not explain it.
One minute fun burst:  Using magic mirrors teacher calls out a gesture or Brainie learned today, and students must show that gesture/Brainie.  (Mirror, Tag Team Switch, capital, period, complete sentence please, adder, rules one-three)

2:55-3:16  End of day procedures:  Introduce "Circle Walk" for students to pick up their backpacks.  Collect any supplies at that time that students have in backpacks.  Explain green folders (anything inside green folders goes home).  Teach procedure for stacking chairs.  Assign students their permanent number.  When they line up to go home, they are to line up in number order.  Explain to students that from now on, they will always line up in this order.

                  

Room Decorations

I have been hard at work all week decorating my room.  My students do not arrive for two more weeks, but I like to set up early, so that I have time to relax before the year begins.  Below are pictures with brief captions.  The only thing that I do not have up yet is my homework thermometer.  It was ordered and has not  yet arrived.

This is my language arts and math pics board.

This is one of my whiteboards in the front of my room.  Since I will be playing Prove It each day, I decided to create an area to record student answers, along with effort points, answer points, and penalty points.  You will also notice my Wacky Star Fun Button, a place to keep track of Mind Soccer minutes, and oral writing reminders.  By the side of the board are posters that will be used during Mind Soccer.

This is my Genius Ladder.  I decided to place my stop light transition words on the side of the ladder, so that my students will have easy access to them.

Here is my scoreboard with rule one above it.  At the bottom of the scoreboard is an area for Beat the Clock, and a space for the Guff Counter, if I need it.

I decided to create a board with all of the Brain Toys.  

Here is my Super Improvers Board and classroom rules.

I call this my Brainies Board.  I was originally going to create a tree map, but I did not have the space.  I created this board for me as much as I did for the kids.  If I forget one of the gestures, all I have to do is peek at the board.  Having all of the Brainies posted will also be helpful when we play Competition Brainies.

Here is a view of my classroom from the back.

This is the wall by the classroom door.  The black bulletin board you see next to the language arts pic board is my writing skill focus board, which will be used in conjunction with red/green writing.  Right now the only skill listed is neat handwriting.  I will add skills to the board as they are introduced.  

I hope that you enjoyed this mini-tour of my classroom.  Be sure to check back next week.  I will be posting my complete day one lesson plans.

Red/Green Writing

If you are looking for a good and an easy place to get started with the WBT writing program, I would highly suggest red/green writing.  I had an opportunity to try this technique out at the end of last year, and I was amazed by my students' enthusiasm over it and the difference that it made in their writing.  To get started all you need is a green and a red pen.  Assign students a ten minute quick write.  Make the topic open ended so that students can not claim to be finished.  Announce the focus skill/s that you will be looking for.  At the beginning of the year start with neatness.  Then, every one or two weeks, add an additional skill that you will be looking for.  Students are responsible for both the previous skills and the new one.  As students are writing walk around with your pens.  Place a green dot next to an example of something the student did right.  For example, a word that is written very neatly, a capital at the beginning of a sentence, or an end mark used correctly.  Place a red dot next to an error, but do not say anything.  You want the student to correct the error on his/her own.  I found that my students knew exactly what they had done wrong as soon as I made the mark, because they knew which focus skill/s I was checking for.  My class hated getting red marks.  As a result, they were much more careful when they wrote.  They would get so excited when they had all green marks on their papers.  If you want to know more about red/green writing you can go to the Whole Brain Teaching website and watch video 531.

I have given a lot of thought to what I want red/green writing to look like next year.  I used the WBT proofreading list as a starting point and created my own proofreading list, upon which I have placed the focus skills in the order that I will be introducing them during red/green writing time.  This is the list that my students will be using to do Paperclip Proofreading.  In Paperclip Proofreading, each student is given a paper clip that they clip beside their writing rules.  Each rule has a proofreading task in parenthesis next to it.  When students complete the task, they move their clips to the next rule.  As a teacher you can tell immediately which error a student is looking for, based upon where the paper clip is at.  It is also an easy way to tell which students are following directions.  Just watch their gestures.  On the WBT website there is a great free down load called Whole Brain Writing.  There you will find additional information on Paperclip Proofreading, as well as other components of the writing program.  Below is my proofreading checklist:

Writing Rules and Proofreading Checklist 1.      Your paper is not wrinkled or torn.  Your writing is neat and very easy for your     teacher to read.  (Smooth your hand over your paper.) 2.      Every sentence must begin with a capital letter.  (Press one finger on each               capitalized word that begins a sentence.) 3.      Every sentence must end with a period, question mark, or exclamation point.        (Flick the end mark at the end of every sentence.) 4.      No two words are squashed together.  (Place the side of your finger between         two words that look too close together.) 5.      No sentence is shorter than 5 words or longer than 12 words.  (Use your fingers     to count the words in each sentence.) 6.      No sentence begins with the word “And”.  (Put your thumb under the first           word of every sentence to be sure it is not “And”.) 7.       No sentence has more than one “and”.  (Flick every “and” and make sure that           no sentence has more than one.)  8.     Two sentences in a row never start with the same word.  (Using two different              fingers, point at pairs of sentences to be sure they start with different words.)  9.     No words are missing.  My writing makes sense.  (Point at each word and read          it quietly out loud.) 10.    Every word is spelled correctly.  (lightly underline any word you think may be            spelled incorrectly, and look for the correct spelling.) I am going to create a small rectangular bulletin board on one of my walls.  It will be titled "Focus Skills".  On it I will post each focus skill as the students are responsible for it.  They will be introduced in the order that they are on the proofreading list.  So at the beginning of the year, the only one that I will have up will be neatness.  Around the board I am going to post, possibly in speech bubbles, sentence frames for the red/green writing topics that I will be giving my students.  As the year progresses, this will give them a number of ideas to choose from.  After I have gotten through the third focus skill, I am going to introduce them to the proofreading checklist.  They will each keep one on their desk during red/green writing.  If they receive a red mark, they will place a tally next to that item on the list.  To make it less confusing, I don't think I will give them the complete list.  I will only have on the list those focus skills that I am editing for.  Every so often I will give the students a red and a green pen to try doing their own red/green writing.  The students will also use the list for Paperclip Proofreading, not just with their red/green writing, but with other writing as well.

Prove It

I have spent the last couple of days reviewing how to play "Prove It" and thinking about what it will look like in my classroom next year.  In a nutshell, "Prove It" is testing strategy practice in a game format that kids love.  It should be played for twenty minutes each day, with ten minutes being spent on language arts and ten minutes on math.  All you need are individual whiteboards for each of your students.  The game actually has two levels two it.  In 1.0 the focus is on students being able to explain how to solve a problem.  In 2.0 the emphasis switches to proving why one answer choice is correct and the others are incorrect.  As part of the game, students are taught specific testing strategies which they will use when demonstrating how to solve a problem or in offering proof.  For example, students are taught that there are only three types of language arts questions that they will ever be asked:  Answer Now (It is not necessary to go back and look at the passage.), Find and Compare (They are to compare their answer to a part of the passage.), and Read Again (They must reread the whole passage.)  The game in its entirety, along with the strategies is explained by Coach B. in webcast 506.  You can find it by going to www.wholebrainteaching.com and looking under goodies, followed by wbt tv.

I would like to share with you the notes that I made for myself regarding implementation of "Prove It" for next year.  I do have some experience with this game, because I did have the opportunity to play 1.0 with my students at the end of last year.  However, I did not have the opportunity to teach all of the strategies or introduce the game the way that I would have liked to; therefore, what you are about to read will definitely be a work in progress.  It is my tentative plan with notes to myself on how to implement "Prove It".  I am prepared to modify it as needed throughout the school year.  If any of you experienced Whole Brain teachers have any suggestions for me, I would really appreciate it.  After all, everything I am doing this year is definitely a work in progress.

Prove It 1.0

1.  Place question on the Elmo along with four answer choices.  Cover the answers.  Remind students that the key to testing is figuring out how to solve the problems.  

2.  Give students one to two minutes, depending on the problem, to "Solo Solve".  (Students will work independently to solve the problem, using their whiteboards to show their work.)  Students will then be given one to two minutes to "Partner Solve".  (Using "Teach Okay" students will turn to their partners and explain how they solved the problem.)

*Key Point:  If a student finishes early during "Solo Solve", he is to teach his tennis shoe how he got the correct answer.  Also, do not wait on slower students.  The goal would be for them to show their work on their whiteboards, but if they are not able to, this would be a goal for the Super Improvers Wall.

3.  Reveal the answer choices, which are labeled A, B, C, and D.  (I have chosen to wait until after students have solved the problem to reveal the answer choices, because I want the students to focus on the process, and not just choose an answer.  If this doesn't work the way that I hope, I will reveal the answer choices when I show the problem.)  Students write the letter of their answer choice on their whiteboard, and place turn them "boards to chest".

4.  I will then say, "Eyes shut.  Count of three, show me.  1, 2, 3."  Students will then, keeping their eyes shut, flip their boards around revealing their answers.  On the whiteboard I will have written the letters A, B, C, and D.  I will draw a line above each letter indicating the approximate number of students who chose each answer.  I will not be counting.  It is all an estimate.  For example, if the majority of the class chose "A" and only a few chose "B", I would draw a long line above "A" and a very short line above "B".  If nobody chose "C" or "D" I would leave them blank.  I would then call "Eyes Open," and students will open their eyes and look at the results.  This usually results in a lot of cheering or groaning.

5.  Points are then awarded by me in the following three categories:  effort, answers, and penalties.  One to three points per question can be awarded for effort and answers, but this is all at my discretion, and there should be no real rhyme or reason as to how I go about awarding the points.  For effort I am looking at how hard the students worked alone and with each other to find the correct answer.  For answer, I am looking at how much of the class got the problem right.  Penalty is the only category in which negative points are awarded.  If students got off task, lost focus, or argued, one penalty point would be awarded for each offense.  Remember, there is only one rule:  Keep the ref happy, and I am the ref!

6.  Keep a record on the board of all points earned during the week.  On Friday students will receive one additional second of Mind Soccer for every point earned.

Note:  In the beginning of the school year all of my language arts questions will be "Answer Now".  In approximately late October students will be introduced to "Read and Compare" and "Read Again" questions in the following way:

1.  Begin by having students identify the type of question that it is.  They will not be solving.  They will only be focusing on how to solve (HTS) by reading questions and identifying the question type.  For example, on their whiteboards under HTS, students would write Find and Compare.  Do this for a couple of weeks with multiple examples.

2.  After students are able to identify the question type, focus on teaching strategies to solve, based on the question type.  I would teach each question type separately.  Students will have already had a lot of experience with "Answer Now" questions, since that is what I will begin the year with.  They would now be ready for "Read and Compare".  For "Read and Compare" students must underline their proof.  This is easy to do, because the answers to these types of questions are always right there in the text.  They can also be referred to as "In the Text" questions.  For "Read Again" questions, teach students to break the passage down into sections, read each section, and "Talk About It".  I teach my students to draw lines between each section and number them.  If they are able to talk about the section, they are able to continue reading.  If they can not talk about it, they must go back and read that section over again.  For this type of question students will not find proof, but they will find clues.  That is because the answer is not usually written down.  These can also be referred to as "In My Head" questions.  To distinguish between proof and clues, I will have students double underline the clues.

3.  Sometime around Christmas break, I will mix up the three types of questions.  Under HTS on their whiteboards students must be able to identify both the question type and the strategy that they used to answer the question.  Students will have copies of the passages, so that they can actually show their strategy (underlining etc.).

Prove It 2.0

I would introduce 2.0 whenever I felt my students are ready, but my goal would be early February.  This game is played much like 1.0, but the focus switches to proving why an answer is right or wrong.  Students will write the letters A, B, C, and D on their boards.  During "Solo Prove It" the goal would be for all students to have something written by each letter (Proof as to why the answer is right or proof as to why it is wrong.)  During "Partner Prove It" the students would explain their thinking to their partners.  The rest of the game would remain the same.  The Super Improver Wall could once again be used to motivate students to record proof on their whiteboards.

*Key Point:  Spend time teaching the students the differences between strong proof and weak proof.

I am very excited about giving this model a try next year.  I will keep you posted on how it goes and any changes that I have to make.   

Mind Soccer

Mind Soccer is a review game that kids love.  It is usually played on Friday afternoons as a reward for behavior, homework, or working hard in "Prove It", the WBT test prep game.  If you are not familiar with Mind Soccer, there is a great free download available at wholebrainteaching.com.  I can't wait until next year, when I will have the opportunity to play it for the first time.  The key to success in Mind Soccer is being prepared in advanced with a list of questions.  Since the game is so fast paced, it is important that the teacher is ready to rapidly fire out the questions.  There is no time to come up with them in the moment.  Therefore, I started a list this summer and have been adding to it as I think of questions.  I will continue to add to the list throughout the year, but these are the questions that I am starting with.  I hope that you find them helpful.

Mind Soccer Questions

1.  What is a noun?

2.  What is a verb?

3.  What is a sentence?

4.  Show me the gesture for main idea.

5.  Give me an example of a setting.

6.  Give me a synonym for happy.

7.  Give me a synonym for said.

8.  Give me an antonym for cold?

9.  Give me an antonym for tall.

10.  Give me a word with a long "a".

11.  Give me a word in the "all" family.

12.  Give me a word with a long "e".

13.  Give me a word with a long "i".

14.  Give me a word with a long "o".

15.  Give me a word with a long "u".

16.  How many syllables are in the word elephant?

17.  How many syllables are in the word pentagon?

18.  Give me an example of a fact.

19.  Give me an example of an opinion.

20.  If you had two quarters, how much money would you have?

21.  If you had a quarter and your friend had two dimes, how much would the two of you have altogether?

22.  How many sides does a hexagon have?

23.  How many sides does a pentagon have?

24.  How many angles does a triangle have?

25.  What do you call the bottom number of a fraction?

26.  What do you call the top number of a fraction?

27.  Give me an example of a math problem that is a double.

28.  Name an odd number greater than ten.

29.  Name an even number greater than ten.

30.  How many inches are in a foot?

31.  What is 7+5?

32.  What is 4+4?

33.  What is 10-2?

34.  What is 14-4?

35.  Which of the 5 W's refers to the characters in a story?

36.  Which two of the 5 W's refer to the setting of a story?

37.  Give me an example of a noun.

38.  Give me an example of a proper noun.

39.  Give me an example of a verb.

40.  Show me the gesture for sentence.

41.  Name a shape that is a quadrilateral.

42.  How many tens are in one hundred?

43.  How many hundreds are in one thousand?

44.  Name a number that is greater than 115.

45.  Name a number that is less than 200.

46.  Name a math problem that equals 9.

47.  Name a compound word.

48.  Make a compound word that contains the word man.

49.  What number can you double to make 4.

50.  What number can you double to make 14?

51.  What number can you double to make 18?

52.  What number can you double to make 10?

53.  What number can you double to make 100?

54.  What number can you double to make 20?

55.  What number can you double to make 16?

56.  Name an adjective to describe the noun dog.

57.  Use the adjective sneaky in a sentence.

58.  Name any non-fiction text feature.

59.  What do you call the writing under photographs in non-fiction informational text.

60.  Which non-fiction text feature would tell me the page number that a chapter starts on.

61.  What is the plural of the word child?

62.  What is the plural of the word goose?

63.  What is the plural of the word man?

64.  What is the plural of the word woman?

65.  What is the plural of the word tooth?

66.  What is the plural of the word fish?

67.  What is the plural of the word wife?

68.  What is the plural of the word shelf?

69.  What is the plural of the word calf?

70.  What is the plural of the word knife?

71.  Spell the word "boxes".

72.  Spell the word "munches".

73.  3+___=5

74.  4+___=7

75.  3+1=___+2

76.  Give me a number bond for 7.

77.  Give me a number bond for 10.

78.  Give me a number bond for 5.

79.  Counting by 2's, what comes after 18?

80.  Counting by 2's, what comes after 12?

81.  Counting by 5's, what comes after 25?

82.  Counting by 5's, what comes after 50?

83.  Counting by 5's, what comes after 95?

84.  Counting by 10's, what comes after 60?

85.  Counting by 10's, what comes after 30?

86.  Counting by 10's, what comes after 90?

87.  How much is 13 tens?

88.  How much is 9 tens?

89.  How much is 20 tens?

90.  How much is 25 tens?

91.  Give me a number sentence that is equal to 9+8.

92.  Give me a number sentence that is equal to 9+2

93.  Miss Ray picked 11 red roses and 8 pink roses.  How many roses did she pick altogether?

94.  What do 30 and 1 make?

95.  What do 10 and 5 make

96.  What is 26+4?

97.  What is the base word in the word reheated?

98.  What is the prefix in the word unwanted?

99.  What is the suffix in the word quickly?

100.  When talking about "Author's Purpose", what do the letters stand for in the word "PIE"?

101.  Show me the gesture for "Flip the Sound".

102.  Show me the gesture for noun.

103.  Show me the gesture for verb.

104.  Show me the gesture for adjective.

105.  Show me the gesture for preposition.

106.  Name an inside character trait.

107.  Name an outside character trait.

108.  What does the prefix "pre" mean?

109.  What does the prefix "re" mean?

110.  What does the prefix "un" mean?

111.  Which suffix means that something happened in the past?

112.  Name a word that rhymes with tickle.

113.  Name a word that rhymes with honey.

114.  What is the past tense of drive?

115.  What is the past tense of grow?

116.  What is the past tense of teach?

117.  What is the past tense of make?

118.  In the word bacon, which syllable is open?

119.  In the word tiger, which syllable is closed?

120.  Is "re" an open or closed syllable?

I am also providing you with a link which will allow you to watch a group of elementary students playing Mind Soccer:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAD9pHMbvS8

"Flip the Sound" Language Arts Pic

The Power Pics Wall is a central component of Whole Brain Teaching.  Every language arts or math skill  taught to your students should have a Power Pic to go with it.  A Power Pic is a picture associated with the skill and a gesture that accompanies the picture.  On the Power Pic will also be a definition of the skill.  After introducing the skill as part of the WBT five step lesson plan, the Power Pic goes on either a math or a language arts wall.  The math wall should have a red border and the language arts wall should have a blue border.  Along the side and across the top of each board will be letters and numbers to create a grid system.  The walls are used as review boards, and the grid system makes it easier to find the Power Pics that you want to review.  Daily students will practice the gestures and repeat the definitions for the skills of your choice.  The great news is that many of the skills that you teach your students already have Power Pics created for them.  You can find them under free downloads on the WBT site.

For the skills that do not already have Power Pics created for them, you can easily create your own.  I would like to share with you a language art pic that I created for the decoding skill "Flip the Sound".  If students are having difficulty decoding a word, they can try the other sound that a letter makes.  For example, I tell my students that if a short vowel doesn't work, they should try a long vowel.  If you click on the link below, you can get a copy of this Power Pic.  You can also make changes to it, so that it becomes a template for other language arts Power Pics that you might want to create.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/en4rqnj4deo4ndz/language%20art%20pic%20flip%20the%20sound.pub?dl=0

The Brainy Game

I am very excited about the latest Whole Brain Teaching innovation from Coach B., the founder of Whole Brain Teaching.  It is Competition Brainies.  Brainies are concepts that all students need to know in critical thinking, grammar, and punctuation.  There is also a category of "special" Brainies.  Below is a list of the Brainies in each category:

Critical Thinking:  because, and, Also, For example, In conclusion, but however, If-then, Triple Whammy, detail adder, simile/metaphor 

Grammar:  independent clause, dependent clause, adjective, appositive, dependent/independent clause, independent/dependent clause

Punctuation:  capital, end marks, colon semi-colon, coma, indent, quotes, apostrophe

Specials:  Complete sentence please!, shallow, Help me!, change(s), topic sentence, deep, deep citation

There are also three very special Brainies that make up the Einstein Triangle.  They are compare, contrast, and connect 5W+H.

Each Brainie has both a gesture and a picture associated with it.  You can download a copy of all of the Brainies along with complete descriptions of each at www.wholebrainteaching.com.  Just go to the free downloads section and look for the Brainy Game.  

The Brainies form the foundation for oral writing in the classroom.  The concept behind oral writing is that if a child can speak it, he can write it.  So students are asked to write orally many times through out the day using these gestures.  Once they have learned and practiced these gestures through oral writing, they are ready to play the Brainy Game.  There are two levels to this game.  In the first level the teacher selects a topic and one or more Brainies.  Students work with a partner or partners to create as many oral sentences with  Brainy words and gestures as possible within one minute.  Students keep track with tally marks of the number of sentences that their team was able to create within one minute. The game is then played again, and students try to beat their score.

The second level of the game is called Coach B's Competition Brainies.  In this game the teacher provides students with an academic topic.  Students are given one minute to work with partners and plan how to use the highest scoring Brainies in an oral essay on the topic.  Within a three minute time limit, with a video camera recording the action, the teacher selects at random one student after another to use Mirror Words and speak a sentence in a triple whammy essay on the topic.  If a student needs help, he/she can call "Help me!"  The rest of the class will then call out ideas.  If a student makes an error, the teacher calls, "Your still cool!"  The student then fixes the error, calls "Help me!" or the teacher, if needed, can correct the error.  At the end of three minutes the class watches the video (instant replay) of the game and calculates their total score.  (Each Brainy has a point value attached to it.)  The class can then play again and try to beat their score on the same topic.

It is recommended that all students have a copy of the Brainies at their seat, and that during the Brainy Game, the Brainies are projected for all of the students to see.  I decided that since we will be using the Brainies on a daily basis during oral writing, I would create a bulletin board out of them.  I am trained in Thinking Maps, so I have decided to create a Tree Map of the Brainies with four branches:  critical thinking, grammar, punctuation, and special Brainies.  I have printed in color all of the Brainies to place under the appropriate branches.  I am also going to post their point values on small stars next to each Brainie.  When I have the bulletin board done and up, I will post a picture of it.

For more information click on the link below to watch a webcast that Coach B. recently did on the Brainy Game.

                                                                        http://livestre.am/4RjGb