For our second lesson, we are working on our second skill for learning: focusing attention. We started out our lesson with a recap of last week's topic of listening. We reviewed our listening rules and discussed the student we had examined the picture of that wasn't listening in class.
Next, we warmed up our brains with a round of "My Turn, Your Turn," this time with harder movements to repeat. After our brain builder, we had our first visit from Puppy (one of my puppets I use with the students), and unfortunately he had forgotten the Listening Rules. First graders had to remind him of the listening rules by showing him the motions that went with each rule. We also listened to the "Be a Learner" song and did corresponding movements for the words "listen" and "eyes, ears, and brains."
For the remainder of our lesson, we discussed a picture of a student named Abraham who was in P.E. class. His P.E. teacher was explaining the rules to a new game, and Abraham wanted to make sure he learned what to do because the game looked fun. We talked about some things he could do to make sure he knew what to do and remembered how to play. Common answers were: listen, look at the teacher, follow the listening rules.
After we talked about what Abraham could do to learn, we learned about a special tool Abraham uses to pay attention called an attento-scope. This tool can be made by turning both hands into circles that go around our eyes to help us focus and block out distractions. We can activate our attento-scopes by saying messages quietly to ourselves like "focus, pay attention, and listen carefully." We spent the remainder of our lesson practicing activating our attento-scopes and using them to focus on specific items on the classroom. We finished our discussion by brainstorming times in school we could use our attento-scopes to help us learn. We decided we can use them anywhere, in the classroom, in specials, and even at home to be able to focus.
