Fair Play

Fair Play is a great theme because it is a perfect opportunity for the kids to reflect on their own actions.  It is a theme that all students are familiar with and can "see" when someone is playing fair and not playing fair.  We discuss all the different places of our lives where fair play comes into light (in the classroom, cafeteria, at home, playground).  I like to frequently bring up the point that kids practice fair play the most when an adult is not watching them.  I repeat that a lot hoping the kids realize that it really up to them how they choose to act towards others.

To take a math approach we decided to attend a kindergarten/first grade recess and tally all the times that we saw students playing unfair and the next day we tallied all the times were observed them playing fair.  The kids loved being scientists and later in the week we shared the results with the k/1 classroom and offered advice on how to play fair.  It was so much fun!

Nate challenged us to think of way we showed fair play in the last week.  To share that challenge we used a drawing app to draw those situations.  Kids love an opportunity to draw on the ipad and a few came up with a great idea to put those together to create a Fair Play ebook.  We are still currently working on the final drawing to get closer to publishing it!  Some of the current drafts are attached.

Common Core Standards:

  CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.2.MD.D.10
Draw a picture graph and a bar graph (with single-unit scale) to represent a data set with up to four categories. Solve simple put-together, take-apart, and compare problems1using information presented in a bar graph.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.2.7
Participate in shared research and writing projects (e.g., read a number of books on a single topic to produce a report; record science observations).

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.2.8
Recall information from experiences or gather information from provided sources to answer a question.