Posts

Posted on

Beat Spring Fever: Bring the Outdoors Inside

Spring fever is hitting hard in our town, school is out in three weeks and everyone is ready for summer vacation. One of my favorite ways to combat spring fever is to bring the outdoors inside. Flowers are blooming and the weather is nice, so naturally we gravitate toward the growth. Instead of suppressing this, why not embrace it? Here are a few ways to bring the outdoors in: 

Photo by RDNE Stock project: https://www.pexels.com/photo/a-classroom-without-student-8500643/

Plant something: Have each student plant their own vegetables or flowers to grow in the classroom, or have several classroom plants that students help care for. Our kindergarten planted six different plants in cardboard egg cartons. Once they started popping through the soil, they were sent home to be planted. These individual sections can be cut apart from each other and planted directly into the ground for continued growth. 

Open the windows: This may or may not work in your particular classroom. But if you’re able, slide open the curtains, open up the windows, and let the sunshine and fresh air fill your room! 

Add potted plants: Large, potted plants that grow in your home or classroom year-round can be pulled from the corners and brought out to more loved places in the classroom. Near your reading nook would be a great place! 

Photo by Madison Inouye: https://www.pexels.com/photo/photo-of-potted-houseplants-2894950/

Create a rock garden: Are children just predisposed to collect rocks like it’s their full-time job? Or just my kids? Put that skill to use! Find an area in your classroom to create a rock garden. Paint rocks for the rock garden if the time and space allow you to! 

Hatch a Butterfly: There are different programs and companies you can go through online to order a butterfly hatching kit. How exciting is it for students to watch the process of a caterpillar turning into a butterfly right before their eyes?! 

Create bug habitats: Research the best habitat for a specific bug and work together to create an ideal habitat for them to live in your classroom. 

Paint bug rocks: Another way to utilize those never-ending rocks is to paint them to look like bugs and add these rock pets to your classroom. 

Make a dirt sensory bin: If sensory bins are a part of your classroom, consider adding a sensory bin full of dirt, rocks, and small shovels. Sand can also work as well. 

What have you done in your classroom to bring the outdoors inside? 

Posted on

Scholarship Reminder: Specific Goals!

A requirement on our scholarship application is to write out your goals for your project. The application states: “Your goal(s) should be specific and reasonable, considering both short-term and long-term. If you have multiple goals, type each one on a new bullet point.”

And when we say specific, we really do mean specific. This plays off of our post from last week about telling us your story. If you’re telling us about your specific goals, it’s telling us more about your overall project. Here are a few examples: 

Short-term goal: Plant flowers in our city park. Long-term goal: Attract more bees  

Revamped to more specific: 

Short-term goals:
-Reach out to our town’s local nursery and ask them for locally grown wildflower donations.
-Raise money to purchase additional local wildflowers
-Plan a day to gather the community so that we can work together to plant the wildflowers

Long-term goals:
– Help upkeep the wildflowers by weeding and watering when needed
– Attract more bees, butterflies, and other insects to our area
– Help local gardens and farms benefit from the higher number of bees in the area with the addition of wildflower beds

Can you see how much more information these specific goals give us and how deeper of a picture it paints when they are written in detail instead of in a general sense? 

Our email is also always open to any questions you may have or guidance needed during the process.

You can see more about the scholarship requirements by downloading our checklist here.

For more information on the scholarship, head here.

For our 2023 final submission link, head here.

Posted on

Inclusive Mother’s Day Picture Books #BookLove

Celebrating Mother’s Day in schools is not as it was in the 80s and 90s or even in the early 2000s when we read picture books about how excellent mothers are and made a cute craft to send home specifically to moms.

Families come in so many different shapes and sizes today, which is exciting and amazing! It may mean during these holidays with your littles, more conversations can and will come up about everyone’s specific family dynamic. And I’ve always believed that reading picture books can be a great way to learn and start up conversations! So here are some books you may want to include in your reading time.

To celebrate moms in different cultures: Mommy’s Khimar by Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow

For students that have two dads instead of a mom: Stella Brings the Family by Miriam B. Schiffer

For a large variety of different family dynamics: A Family is a Family is a Family by Sarah O’Leary and Love Makes a Family by Sophie Beer

A book to celebrate ALL moms! All Moms by Sarah Kate Ellis and Kristen Ellis- Henderson

Posted on

Scholarship Reminder! We Want to Hear Your Story

We want to hear your story. No really, we do! If you’re writing up your scholarship application and feel like you’re typing too much, I want you to know that you most likely aren’t typing enough. 

In order to choose a scholarship winner we have to know everything we can about your project, it has to come alive for us and your story needs to be told through your words, video, and photos. The more details you give us, the more we can see what your project is, what it’s done for your community, and most importantly, what it means to you. 

When reading applications, we can tell which students completed the checklist to qualify for the scholarship to help their community in some way, and the students really took time out of their lives to serve, help, and literally build a better community. If your passion is in your project, let that show in your application! Tell us why it’s personally important to you and how it’s impacted your life, as well as your peers and community members. 

We want to hear it all, we really do. Tell us your story! 

Our email is also always open to any questions you may have or guidance needed during the process.

You can see more about the scholarship requirements by downloading our checklist here.

For more information on the scholarship, head here.

For our 2023 final submission link, head here.

Posted on

Teacher Appreciation Week: Gift Ideas That Teachers Really Want

It’s that time of the year again, teacher appreciation week! You know, the one where they receive a new mug and countless candies that they will never finish? 

We all know that it’s well-meaning and so, so kind of parents and community members to think of teachers! But here is a little guidance (and a free printable!) that might help with gift-giving ideas this teacher appreciation week. 

Courtney Jones (@support_a_teach) on Twitter asked teachers what they really want for teacher appreciation week, it’s interesting to hear what they have to say. The most common answers I saw were handwritten notes from students or parents, gift cards, and classroom supplies. 

Another great way to figure out what teachers want is… to ask! Ask them directly what they want. It can be a little daunting as both the one asking and the one answering, but there are clever ways you can get around this. 

  • If your student is old enough, have them quiz their teacher on favorite drinks, stores, needed classroom supplies, etc.! It’ll be fun detective work for them and it’s a great bonding experience for them. 
  • If your student can write, have them write a little quiz for their teacher to take and send back. If they can’t write yet, write or type it out yourself and send it to school with your student. 
  • Email or text the teacher! This gives them time to think it over and respond. 

When all else fails or resources are thin, taking some time out of your day to write a little note or have your child draw a picture will be more than enough. 

Here is a week of gift ideas with printables you can send with your student to school each day: 

Monday: Target Gift Card: “Thank you for keeping me on TARGET this school year”

Tuesday: Fresh Flowers “Thank you for helping me BLOOM”

Wednesday: Dry Erase Markers “You really help us hit the MARK”

Thursday: Hand Soap “HANDS DOWN the best teacher around”

Friday: Clorox Wipes “You really help us SHINE”

You can send one for each day of the week or just one gift for the whole week. Any and all effort put in will be noticed and appreciated by teachers. 

Printables below are available for FREE download:

Teacher-AppreciationDownload
Posted on

Our Town Has a Little Free Library Now!

Our little town of 3,000 people recently had a BIG upgrade. No, not a new stoplight! It’s even better than a stoplight. We are now the proud owners of a little, free library in the park! I told you it was better than a stoplight. 

A high school senior in our area found a need and filled it. Our school demographics here are over 60% low-income and on free and reduced lunch, which can mean limited monetary resources for things like… books. 

My family spent an afternoon in the park where I was able to sit and observe each of the kids and families in the park interact with the little, free library. Most were acting out of curiosity, but all of them took a book out at some point and read at least a few pages- even the teenagers! 

It made my heart happy that we have such an amazing resource here in our town, somewhere we can all come together and bond over literature. 

I also loved that during our outdoor adventure at the park, we were able to pull out a book and read for a bit without having to bring one of our own. 

My family did our part by donating a few books to the little free library after it had been up and running for a few months and needed a good refresh of books.

Benefits of little, free libraries: 

  • Promotes literature in all ages, especially in younger kids
  • Promotes a sense of community and unity
  • Is a great place to donate books
  • Is a great resource to find new books you may not have discovered before 

Does your town have a little free library? Do you take advantage of it? 

Posted on

Is Undivided Attention Still the Best Practice in School?

We were deep in the trenches of distance learning with my daughter this winter when my 3-year-old decided to join in and learn right along with her. It was fun having him interact and adapt the lessons to his level. It was the first day we started reading Charlotte’s Web out loud together and almost immediately when he was required to sit still and listen to the book, he started bouncing off the walls. I urged him to sit down and listen, but that was met with him fidgeting with the pencils and crayons, and paper in front of him. 

To be honest, it was driving me mad! I know that everything I was feeling was straight from the social norms that I had in school and required as a teacher. However, times have changed! We’ve learned so much about the human brain and body and it’s a fact that sitting still with undivided attention is not the best way to learn for every single kid. 

The first day he fidgeted and messed with everything in front of him, it drove me crazy. I continued to tell him to stop, to sit down, and to listen. It was a fight until he finally just left the table altogether. 

The next day I was somewhat more prepared and allowed some Lego building while I read. It helped so much but didn’t completely keep him captivated and listening. 

In the days following, I adjusted my own expectations and emotions as he moved and jumped and crashed all around us as I read. It was hard for me to come to terms with him acting this way when I wanted him to listen. But the kicker was this, he was listening because I was allowing him to act this way. 

I was allowing his body to move freely and do what he needed to do best in order to listen. 

I also reflected on the times as a student when I would doodle during a lecture and I would take in more information by keeping my hands busy with a mindless activity instead of having my mind wander when I wasn’t allowed to doodle or fidget in some way. 

The way we learn is incredible and so vastly different among different personality types and students. It’s unfair to assume that just because we are not “distracted” and our eyes are looking directly at the teacher, we are taking in information and retaining what is being taught. 

It was interesting to see the difference in how much my son knew about the book based on what he was doing while I was reading. In the beginning, when I would dictate what he did during the reading time, he didn’t seem to retain much information Later on in the book when he was free to move and play as needed, he was able to tell me more about what was happening and knew who each of the characters was, even the smaller, less significant characters. 

It’s 2023- moving is listening. 

Photo by Pixabay via Pexels