A Free Valentine’s Day Printable

Valentine’s Day is coming up, which means class parties for all ages are coming up, too!

Does anyone else dread trying to plan an activity to do with your class on a sugar-high day? Or is it just me? Whether you’re a teacher, para, or class parent, here’s a fun, cute, FREE printable that you can use in your classroom or send home with students! It’s also a great addition to libraries and school offices for handouts.

The word search is on the easier side, so ideal for those younger to mid-grades. There is also a color version and black & white version for ease of printing.

Feel free to print out what you need and share this free resource with friends as well. Tell us below in the comments how it went with your students!

Photo by Pragyan Bezbaruah: https://www.pexels.com/photo/child-holding-a-pencil-in-a-classroom-1725149/

All-Day vs. Half-Day Kindergarten: The Pros and Cons

In the states of Utah and Idaho, many schools are making the shift from half-day kindergarten to all-day kindergarten. Why is this? Does this have to do with the push to get kids academically advanced at a young age? Is it because studies are showing it’s better? Some families currently have the option to choose if they want their child in half-day or all-day kindergarten. Here are some of the pros and cons of both. Some are pulled from research, some are my own opinion, and some are the opinions of close friends who have recently put their children through either full or half-day kindergarten. 

Half day kindergarten: 

Pros:
More time at home with family (if applicable).
Less time at a desk and more time playing at home or daycare.
A transition year to full-day school.
Typically smaller classes.
A better schedule for kids who are not emotionally ready to be away from home all day.

Cons:
It Can be hard to manage childcare because of the pick-up/drop-off times in the middle of the day.
Academics can be pushed harder and faster because of the shorter amount of time in school.
Not enough time for social interaction for some kids.

Full day kindergarten: 

Pros:
A consistent schedule can be helpful for some students.
Childcare arrangements are easier for working parents.
More time in the day for academics, so recess and free time are more likely to happen.

Cons:
Can be a long day for students to be at school all day.
Can be a hard transition to do full-day school at a young age.  
Typically larger class sizes.
Can be hard for kids that are not emotionally ready to be away from home all day.

In my opinion, I’m team all-day kindergarten. Which surprised me, I didn’t think I would be! But the consistency of the schedule, the extra time for recess and free time in their day, and how well my daughter seemed to transition to all-day school made it an easy win for us. And in my opinion, they have to make the transition to all-day school at some point and the transition is hard, no matter the age. However, each situation isn’t and won’t be the same for each family and child.

It was also interesting to me to see insights from families that live in a culture where both parents work versus having a stay-at-home parent. When both parents are working full time, they comment that the year their kindergartener had half-day school was harder on the child and the family because the child was used to being in daycare full time and the half-day kindergarten threw off their schedule for a year.

Families with at least one stay-at-home parent commented that the transition to all-day kindergarten was harder for both the parent and the child. However, they also said that the transition to first grade was seamless and fairly easy after a year of full-day kindergarten.

Remember that if you are currently trying to choose between full-day and half-day kindergarten, you’re making a decision for your child and your whole family. It needs to be a mutual benefit for everyone involved. And whatever decision you make- it’s the right one. There’s no “one size fits all” in the academic world and whether you choose full-day or half-day kindergarten, you will find situations that you don’t love and you will find situations where your child is thriving.

What are your thoughts on all-day vs half-day kinder?

If you want to read deeper research on the topic, this research paper is an interesting read.

From Scholarship Winner to Beloved Community Award Winner

When choosing a scholarship winner, we are always looking for projects that have ways in place to impact communities for years to come, not just once. So it excites us when we see our scholarship winners continue to do amazing things with what they are working on, long after the scholarship money has been awarded. 

A 2023 scholarship winner, Gitanjali Rao, has recently let us know that she is being awarded today with a Beloved Community Award for Technological Innovation for the same work that she submitted for her scholarship application. 

“The Beloved Community Awards is one of the marquee events of The King Center’s week-long annual King holiday experience. The awards recognize national and international individuals and organizations that exemplify excellence in leadership, pursuit of social justice, and commitment to creating the Beloved Community in the tradition of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mrs. Coretta Scott King.” –www.handsonatlanta.org

Gitanjali is an amazing student who is always working hard and finding more ways to serve, learn, and research. We are so proud of her and all of her amazing achievements! A big congratulations to you today, Gitanjali!

Is The Student Uncomfortable, Or Are We?

My daughter has spent a lot of time at the dentist this year. Most recently, she was in there to have a tooth pulled because she had what the dentist calls a “shark tooth.” This means she has a baby tooth that hasn’t fallen out, but her adult tooth is growing in behind the still intact baby tooth. 

We were back in the office about a month later with another shark tooth. Before even considering pulling it, the dentist talked with me about it first. 

“Is she more uncomfortable with it, or are you?” 

I did some deep thinking over the past month and tried to remember how often she had complained about it hurting or being uncomfortable. Never… the answer was never. She never told me it was hurting her or that she didn’t like it, she couldn’t have cared less if her baby tooth was still in there, despite her adult tooth almost fully grown in. 

But it was making me uncomfortable, thus the reason why I had scheduled the appointment in the first place. 

In the end, we decided to leave the tooth, a good old “wait and watch.” To this day, we’re still waiting and watching and I’m doing my best not to show her my discomfort with her current state. It’s okay for me to be uncomfortable, but it’s not okay for me to push those emotions on her. 

Are there times in a classroom when we as parents and teachers push our discomfort on our kids in certain situations? 

Maybe with seating assignments. 

Maybe with how hard a test or assignment is. 

Are we pushing our uncomfortable feelings on them with their choice of clothes or food for the day? 

When their desk is messy and unorganized, is the student uncomfortable with it, or are we as teachers uncomfortable with it? 

What about how they treat their backpacks, water bottles, lunchboxes, etc? 

It really can be intriguing to think about and is a topic that makes your mind race a bit. 

What situations have you been more uncomfortable with the circumstances than your students have been? What coping mechanisms can we adopt to help us work through those emotions and feelings without affecting them? 

My #OneWord2024

Mary wrote about her experience with #OneWord each year, you can see all of her previous posts here: 

I’ve always felt that the #oneword movement was intriguing and worth pursuing, but never pushed myself beyond the observation aspect of the idea and into the action. This year, I’ve decided is my year. I’ve been pondering for a few weeks now what my #OneWord2024 should be, with Mary’s past posts guiding my way. 

Connect. 

It felt right for me for this year. 

Connect with my kids. With my spouse.

Connect with friends, old and new. 

Connect with community members. 

Connect with myself. 

Connect with my wants and needs.

Connect with the wants and needs of others. 

This year, I’ll be focusing my time and energy on connection instead of writing out my New Year’s resolutions. I can already tell it will be more productive and useful by using this method. 

What is your #OneWord2024? Still brainstorming? Here are a handful of ideas: 

A Post to be Proud Of

Writing previously about our most-read posts in 2023 had me reflecting on past posts I’ve written for HonorsGradU. I’ve been a writer on this blog since 2019, so with four years of blog posts floating around this website, I have plenty of work to sift through. So, as humble as possible, I’d like to share my top five favorite posts that I have written for this blog.

Helicopter Mom was one of the very first blog posts I ever wrote and still is one of my favorites. I think about this post often and remind myself of the topics I learned this day and I continue in motherhood and teaching. I also wrote Helicopter Mom Part II a few years later and felt like it was also a great reflection post for me.

A little background on this post… I initially had this post written in February 2020 and scheduled to post in March 2020. However, once the COVID shutdown started, I quickly realized that I needed to modify my original writings to better fit the situation. It ended up becoming our most-read post in 2020, and for good reason.

This isn’t necessarily a post, but a page on our blog that leads to several other pages. This page has been my pride and joy since I started it. Several times I have sent the link to this page to friends and family when they ask me questions about sensory bins and how or when to start them or when they want more information on play-based learning. It has been such a work in progress over the last several years and I am proud of that!

The story of Mr. Meyers is one that I find myself often thinking about. It’s a story about teachers and the influence and lessons they teach us, beyond just math, writing, and reading.

I had a group of friends over the other day and our discussion led to children’s activities and where to start. I ended up not only sending them my page on early childhood resources, but I also giving them several books and book recommendations on the subject. I truly belive that most of life’s problems can be solved by reading a book!

There have been many blog posts over the last several years, I could make this list much, much longer but I won’t gloat too much 😉

Do you have any favorite posts from HonorsGradU? Tell us in the comments!

A 2023 Recap From HonorsGradU

2023 was an incredible year for the HonorsGradU blog. We had some amazing posts and series that have rolled out on our website, not just this year but in years past. Let’s recap our most popular posts this year based on views.

Coming in at number one is our true colors personality testing and how to use it in the classroom. This series was just one of the few that we’ve done on personality testing for the classroom, but so far it has been our most popular. Some may feel that personality testing puts them into a box, but we feel that personality testing is just another way to learn more about ourselves and can be used as a tool to understand our circumstances and thinking process better.

Our second most popular post is a great article (and one of our originals from back in 2013!) giving tips and advice on graduation day. Graduation day is such a big day, it’s not a day you’ll want to miss important things, so small things like chapstick in your pocket can make a big difference.

The third most popular post this year was my initial post about late summer birthdays and deciding whether to red-shirt kids for kindergarten, or not. This initial post led to more and more through the years as I continued to go through this decision-making process with my two older kids.

Forever one of our most popular posts: Chemical vs. Physical Changes! It can be such a tricky topic to know, let alone teach, so Mary did a great breakdown for all of us to get it all straight.

My very first personality testing series was on the Myers-Briggs personality testing and is still one of my favorite subjects to talk about. It looks like it’s also one of everyone’s favorite topics to read about on the blog, too because it was our 5th most popular post for the year. Going down the MBTI rabbit hole is worth it, in my opinion.

I am excited to see what 2024 brings for HonorsGradU. We already have some great posts and series up our sleeve, but if there is something you’d like to see here, please let us know in the comments!