Tag: elementary

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Falling into Traditions by Reading

There are so many opportunities to create and carry on family traditions during the holidays. We don’t have to create traditions that are a huge production— sometimes a quiet night at home with people you love is the best way to spend your time. Have you ever considered making books or reading part of your holiday traditions? There’s not much that is better than finding a cozy corner in your house, curling up with a soft blanket, and reading some good books, and Fall time is the perfect time to cozy up with your family and read some fun books together! 

To get you started, I’ve selected a few books about Fall that will get you in the spirit of Autumn!

It’s Fall! by Linda Glaser with cut-paper illustrations by Susan Swan

This darling book follows a little boy as he explores and experiences Fall, learning about all the things that happen during this time of year. He notices the leaves changing colors, the animals starting to get ready to hibernate, the leaves falling, and the temperatures cooling. They plant bulbs in their yard in preparation for next Spring, snd he plays in the piles of leaves that have fallen off the trees. 

The illustrations in this book are phenomenal— they were all created out of paper then photographed for the book. 

Sammy in the Fall by Anita Bijsterbosch

Sammy is a curious little tiger who loves going on adventures with his stuffed horse, Hob. Together, they do all sorts of fun Fall activities, like picking apples, raking leaves and jumping into the piles, collecting acorns, doing crafts, and playing in the rain. 

The illustrations are adorable and the story is fun and engaging for younger kids.

The Roll-Away Pumpkin by Junia Wonders and illustrated by Daniela Volpari

Marla Little finds herself in quite a predicament: her giant pumpkin has started to roll away, and she can’t catch it. As she runs behind it, trying to stop it from rolling any farther, she exclaims, “Diddle-dee-doo! Oh, what shall I do?” She follows her pumpkin through town, and with every place her pumpkin rolls by, she gathers a new towns person to help her stop the pumpkin. Soon, the baker, the butcher, the farmer, the milk man, and the parade marchers are all running after the roll-away pumpkin with Marla. The pumpkin starts to get close to where some people are trying to cook a feast for the townspeople. Acting quickly, Marla flips a giant cauldron onto its side just in time for her giant pumpkin to roll right into it, where it stays until it is made into a delicious soup for all the people.

This story is a fun one to read with little kids, and is easy to get them involved in it with the repetition of Marla exclaiming “Diddle-dee-doo! Oh what shall I do?” every time she adds a new person to her pumpkin rescue efforts.

Full of Fall by April Pulley Sayre

This book features photographs of all the beauties that Fall holds. It highlights the rich, vibrant colors of the changing leaves, describes the sounds and sights of the leaves falling from the trees, and what happens to the leaves as they fall, dry up, and begin to decompose. The photographs capture the textures of nature during this time of year, and show just how beautiful and wonderful Fall is.

Apples and Robins by Lucie Félix

This book is so unique! Rather than traditional illustrations to tell the story, the author uses shapes cut out in the middle of the pages to form pictures. This format helps readers to see that everything around them is made up of shapes, put together to form new shapes and objects. The story is very simple, telling about picking apples and building a bird house for the robin. A storm comes and blows the leaves, apples, and birdhouse out of the tree, and again, uses shapes to rebuild the birdhouse. 

This book was so fun to read. The cut out shapes made it engaging and fun to follow!

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Reading is truly one of the best ways to connect with people around you— especially younger kids. It’s a great way to build language skills as well as build relationships and establish traditions. I hope you take some time soon to pick up a good book and share it with someone you care about! 

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Counting Practice, but Make it Fun

Learning to count is an essential skill for kids to learn, so why not make it fun?! Last November, I created and shared a printable Thanksgiving themed I-Spy page. You can find it here. Since last year’s page was only in color, I thought I’d share a black and white I-Spy printable this year! 

These I-Spy/ Find and Count pages are great for early finishers, class parties, fun math activities, or even as a game. Parents can also print them for their kids for long car rides, waiting rooms, quiet time, or to be used to keep kids entertained while the turkey is cooking! 

**Printable is free, but is intended for classroom or home/personal use only. It is not to be sold, reposted, or claimed as your own.**

Thanksgiving Find & CountDownload
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The Wild World of Dress Up Days

School dress up days— the bane of every parent’s existence. These days range from super simple (I see you, Crazy Sock Day) to wildly outrageous (Dress Like Your Favorite Book Character Day I’m looking at you!). The students love them, the teachers tolerate them, and the parents could do without one more thing to add to the calendar. 

Why even have special dress up days? Will crazy hair day teach kids to stay drug free? Probably not. Will they remember the dress up days when they are adults? Again, probably not (unless it was extra cool and memorable). So if they don’t really serve any sort of educational purpose, why have them? 

I think the easy answer to that is that dress up days are fun. They bring a silly, creative element to a normal school day, and students thrive on fun and creative. In addition to that, there is usually a “punny” saying that is made up to help students make a connection between the dress up day and the lesson/theme for the day— such as “Team Drug Free!— wear your favorite team’s color or gear!”

This week is “Healthy Choices Week” at my kids’ school, and boy were they excited for the week to start! I started to grumble and mumble about it as soon as I saw the email in my inbox. My feelings changed, though, when I opened the email to find that the dress up days were incredibly easy— still fun— but easy enough that we didn’t need to do any extra planning or creating, and easy enough that little thought or effort has been required of my thinking skills… and that’s a win in my book!  

I appreciate when the school staff doesn’t go too overboard with these kinds of days. It truly makes my mornings easier! This week’s dress up days include:

Drug Prevention Monday: Be “RED”y to say no to drugs— wear red

Tasty Tuesday: Add colorful fruits and veggies to your diet— wear the color of your favorite fruit of veggie

Workout Wednesday: Get up and move— wear your favorite workout clothes

Online Safety Thursday: “Hats off to online safety!” — wear your favorite hat

Get Good Sleep Friday: Help your body grow by getting enough sleep— wear your pajamas

These kind of dress up days involve the kinds of things my kids wish they could wear to school more often, especially the hats and pajamas! It makes it easier for them to want to participate when it’s stuff they already have, actually want to wear, and doesn’t cause them any extra attention. There are many students who don’t enjoy participating in dress up days when they involve them going beyond their comfort zones and doing wacky and crazy things. 

While dress up days don’t typically serve an “educational” purpose, they do give something fun for students to look forward to and provide them an opportunity to get involved in a school wide community. They may not be for everyone, but that’s ok! What’s your take on dress up days?

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Thanksgiving Word Activities

Turkey Day is just a couple of weeks away, and I can hardly believe it! The days leading up to holiday breaks are often filled with excitement— which is fun, but also sometimes translates into extra energy for the kids and extra exhaustion for the teachers (and parents!). Holiday themed activities are always a fun way to engage your students and attempt to wrangle the chaos a bit during those days. 

I’ve created a couple of fun word activities you’re welcome to use. These are geared more for upper elementary, but can definitely be used for kids of other ages if they are able to do them! Below you will find a downloadable word scramble as well as a Thanksgiving word making activity. 

Print them off and use as a sanity saver on those crazy days, as an activity for the car ride to Thanksgiving dinner, or print them off for the kids to work on while the turkey cooks on Thanksgiving Day! However you choose to use them, have fun!

**Printables are free to download, but may not be sold, reposted, or claimed as your own. For classroom and personal home use only.**

Thanksgiving Word ActivitiesDownload
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Veterans Day Remembrance

Today is Veterans Day in the United States. It’s a day we pause to honor and pay tribute to the brave men and women who have so diligently served our country and sacrificed so much for the citizens of our nation. Because I have family members who have served in the military, and a husband who works with veterans suffering from service connected disabilities, I understand the levity of this day, and have always done my best to think about and honor military members, past and present. 

We can do our part to honor service members by talking about them, their bravery, and their service. Were it not for our brave service men and women, we would not be able to enjoy the freedoms we enjoy. Our lives would be much different than they are. In order to ensure that our military continues to receive the honor and thanks they deserve, we must teach our children and our students to respect and honor this day. 

This can look like many different things, but all are appreciated by those being honored. Some ideas include:

  • Writing thank you letters to soldiers who are currently deployed
  • Writing thank you letters to veterans who are no longer actively serving
  • Create a video montage with students expressing their gratitude
  • Visiting with retired veterans and listening to their stories
  • Schools can hold an assembly to show pictures of, share memories of, and even hear from service members
  • Talking to our students about the profound impact that members of our military have made

Every year, I would have my students take some time to make a card or write a letter that would be sent to a soldier currently deployed. It always amazed me how much thought they would put into the words they wrote. There were even a few years we got some letters back, and it made the students so happy! There are many organizations who will collect letters and send them for you— a simple Google search will usually guide you in the right direction.

Not every student fully understood the magnitude of what soldiers do for us. Others, however, did, as they had a parent actively serving in the military. But regardless of their depth of understanding, they did know that soldier are important and that they ought to be honored and remembered, and that’s a lesson I hope they have carried with them as they have grown into adulthood. 

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One Size Fits Most Doesn’t Work in the Classroom

Last week, while getting my kids ready for school, I checked my weather app to see what the day was going to look like. I was shocked to see that it was a mere 30 degrees Fahrenheit outside, and that it wasn’t going to get warmer than the high 40s during the day. I wasn’t prepared for such low temperatures quite yet, so I sent my husband down to dig out our winter bin. In a frenzy, we began digging through the bin, searching for the appropriate sizes of coats and gloves we would need to keep our kids warm. We were soon met with a pile of gloves of varying sizes and colors. The tags on each glove were ominously labeled with the ever so (not so) precise “one size fits most” sizing. All the gloves were youth sized, yet they were all different sizes, but all labeled that they would fit most kids. The problem with that sizing? My ten year old’s hands are much larger than my four and five year old’s hands. So no, one size didn’t fit most, and it left some of my kids with floppy-fingered or stretched to the max gloves. 

At least they had something on their hands, though, right? I guess.

We frequently see a similar problem in education. So often, we deliver instruction and curriculum that is sized as “one size fits all”, when really, it doesn’t fit all in the same way. Our instruction may fit “most” and might serve the middle ground of our classroom, but there will always be students who don’t fit into that middle ground. Teachers will encounter students who are accelerated learners, needing more of a challenge than their peers. On the other end of the spectrum, teachers will have students who find the material too challenging and sometimes inaccessible entirely. It creates a tricky situation.

As teachers, we have the responsibility to see that all of our students are making progress, regardless of their intellectual abilities. And if a student is not making the progress that would be expected, the best practice would be to get that student placed in the most appropriate learning environment with the kind of help they might need.

With upwards of 40 students in a classroom for some teachers, what do you do for those students who don’t fit into the “most” category of your curriculum sizing? Making 40 different assignments wouldn’t be realistic, and you certainly can’t just leave them behind— the repercussions of such an action would be frustrating and discouraging for the students who get left behind. 

When we are faced with situations like this, we have to think back to our college days when we were learning all about differentiation and accommodation. We’ve got to pull that mental file out of the back of our minds, dust it off, and figure out ways to best serve our students. 

How we do that looks different for each student that needs different instruction. One student might need a reduced number of questions on a test. Another might need questions worded differently and more simply. One might need more rigorous work, requiring a higher level of thinking. Some students may need an assignment that is completely different than the rest of the class, but still assesses the same learning goals. 

I recall a time during my first year of teaching when I had a student who had just moved to the United States. Her knowledge and understanding of the English language was very limited. She most certainly did not fit into the “most” category. When it came time to do a class novel study, rather than expecting her to be able to read and understand the novel in English, I was able to find the novel in her native language, and give her assignment that had been translated into her language. This way, she was able to still participate and learn the concepts we were focusing on, but it was accessible to her and what she needed. 

Another time comes to mind later in my teaching career when I had a student who was very much academically ahead of her peers. Unfortunately, her schedule didn’t work out to have her placed in my accelerated class. Rather than have her get bored with what I was teaching her class period, I assigned her what I was teaching to the accelerated class. Again, she still was able to participate and learn what I needed her to, but it was at her level and gave her the appropriate amount of challenge. 

If a student was on an IEP and had specific goals about test accommodations or differentiation, I would often reduce the number of questions they had to answer so that the test didn’t feel so overwhelming. Sometimes I would eliminate questions on assignments or rewrite them in a simpler way to help my struggling students to be able to access the information more easily.

These things didn’t take a lot of extra time for me to do, but they made a world of difference to the students who needed the help. Some of my other students would see these accommodations being made and would complain to me that “it wasn’t fair” to the rest of the class. At that point, I would remind them of the quote I had hanging in the back of my room that said, “Fair isn’t everyone getting the same thing. Fair is everyone getting what they need to succeed.” They would usually stop complaining at that point and would move on, realizing that their complaining wasn’t going to get them anywhere. 

Providing all students with a chance to succeed is our job as teachers. We aren’t there to make students feel like failures. We’re not there to make their lives frustrating and miserable. Our goal is to create a learning environment that is welcoming, safe, and one that leads to success. As you plan your next lesson, unit, assignment, or test, take a minute to think about who in your class doesn’t fit into the “most” category, and see what you can do to help them feel more successful in your classroom. I promise it will be worth your time, energy, and thought. 

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Create A Space for Gratitude

November is here, and that means Thanksgiving is coming! I’ve always loved this month for several reasons— the cooler weather, the yummy Thanksgiving meal, and time with friends and family. While all of those things are awesome in and of themselves, I think my favorite thing about November is the extra focus on gratitude. Sure, I am thankful all year round, but I love the extra emphasis on it during the days leading up to Thanksgiving. 

I know not all families celebrate Thanksgiving, and that’s okay! But regardless of how or if you celebrate Turkey Day, I think we all can agree that it is good to be grateful. As teachers, we can help students understand what it means to be grateful and how to show our gratitude for someone or something. When we teach young children to acknowledge the things they are thankful for, they begin to more easily see the good things in their lives, which leads to better attitudes and more optimistic outlooks. 

So as we begin this month of giving thanks, I encourage you to find ways to work mini gratitude lessons into your curriculum. It’s helpful for students to write down the things they are grateful for and to post them in the room for all to see. This helps create a sense of community as students begin to see that others in the room are grateful for similar things as they are, and also to help others find gratitude in things they may not have previously thought of. One way to do this is to create a “gratitude space” in your classroom. You can do this by devoting a wall or bulletin board to thankful thoughts, creating a large tree trunk that students can add leaves to, or by making a line of gratitude thoughts that follows the perimeter of your room. I’ve included a free resource you can print out and use in your classroom. Print the page on different “fall” colors and cut out the leaves. Each day leading up to Thanksgiving break, have students write something they are thankful for that day and hang it up in the designated spot in your classroom. 

Everyone will love watching the gratitude space fill up with positive things, and students will begin to recognize things in their lives that they are thankful for. Happy November!

**This free printable resource is intended for personal or classroom use only. It is not to be sold, reposted, or claimed as your own.**

Thankful Leaves-2Download