Monstrously Amazing Writers

 Happy Sunday!

I love this time of year and all the fun bulletin boards that you can create with your students! 

My team and I recently changed the boards in our hallway to fit the month of October and we tied it into writing which made it even more fun. Our theme was based around monsters and descriptive writing. Each student got to choose from a selection of pieces to create a monster. Then they colored it any way they wanted. Once they had built and designed their monster we used a graphic organizer to write out our descriptions of the monsters. We used a spooky adjective sheet to help us make the descriptions even more fun to write. At the end of it all they wrote out their final draft on monster paper and attached their monster. We hung all the monsters and monster descriptions on our bulletin boards. They look amazing and we are so happy we did this project. You can see some examples below. 

If you are interested in this activity click here to purchase the packet we used from Second Grade Smiles. She provides everything you need in this packet and makes it super easy to create this fun and adorable monster writing activity. 

Happy Monster Writing!

Ashley

Distance Learning in the Home

 As a teacher I thought that teaching my own child from home would be easy. Boy was I wrong!! Trying to navigate through her live sessions, my live sessions, her computer assignments, my teacher meetings, setting up my lessons, and the list goes on, has proven to be incredibly challenging. My husband has returned to working outside our home, so my daughter and I have to be ruthlessly organized in order to make this craziness work. 

We started our year off with an at home schedule that follows our live sessions and allows each of us the time we need on the computer get the day to day stuff done for school for both of us. We color coded it so she can see when her favorite parts of the day are coming up and when she has to be focused and working hard. All of her quiet or independent activities coincide with all of my live sessions or meetings. This way she has an activity to keep her occupied that does not require my assistance and I know that I can focus on my meetings with students and staff without interruption. So far it is working really well for us. 

Her favorite time of day is Creative Time. This is when she does all kids of STEM or building activities. Some of them I prep the night before for her to use and others are from her Kiwi Crate kits. If you haven't heard of those yet, I encourage you to check them out. They have been a lifesaver for us during quarantine. You can check them out here. I am not sponsored by them. I am just a parent who really loves their product. The activities that we prep for her include legos and STEM activities from Brooke Brown's amazing collection of STEM products. With legos we pull her lego bins out and give her a step by step direction sheet of something to create. These you can find on the Lego website. Then she has to create a second item from her own imagination that could go with whatever we asked her to build. 

This schedule is keeping me sane and my little one busy while we are learning and teaching from home. I encourage you to come up with a schedule for your family as well. It will help keep you organized and help children transition back to school a little easier. 

Ashley

First Week of School with Distance Learning

 I did it! I actually survived the first week of school with a new group of students that I only get to see through a computer screen. I felt so many emotions while navigating this experience that I sometimes felt like I was on a roller coaster ride. I think it will continue to feel that way for awhile longer as our district just made the decision to continue to with online learning for an unspecified amount of time. Even with this wild ride of emotions and continual changes I will still give this new group of kiddos my all and I will share with you how I teach my new kiddos through my computer screen.

Every year that I have been a teacher I have always spent the first week of school doing fun getting to know you activities, going over rules and procedures, and doing activities that will help us build a strong classroom community. I did not want to give that up so I searched for ways to still make that happen, but digitally. I found a variety of activities, resources, and tools that were a great help to me that I will share with you in hopes that it will help you in your first week of digital teaching. 

We are required to go live with our students twice a day at this time so I split my activities between those two time periods. I began with introductions. Before our first meeting I had typed my students names into a spinning wheel. I presented my screen so my new students could watch it spin and see who it landed on each time. They loved it and couldn't wait for it to land on them so they could introduce themselves and tell us something fun they did over the summer and what they were excited about this school year. You can click here to find the website with the wheel we used. 

                                

As a second grade team we also found a cute digital All About Me activity that the kids create and then share if they choose. We are still working on those but they are turning out so cute and we are learning so much about our kids. We got the activity from the amazing Amy Lemons and Katie King. It is a free resource that goes along with the story Our Class is a Family. You can find the resource here.                     

                              

Along with Our Class is a Family, I read several of my other favorite beginning of the year stories. I started with First Day Jitters on day 1. On day 2 we read The Invisible Boy and on day 3 we read Yoko. 

That is how we spent our first three days of our digital school year. We have many plans for this week that I will share with you soon. Remember we can do this!

Ashley

Pre-K Math and Phonics Summer Review

Hi!

As I write this post my sweet preschooler is asleep after a weekend full of fun. I can't believe that she will be in kindergarten in just a few short weeks, which is surprising since I have been thinking about it for the last few months.

When I do think on this change there are a lot of thoughts that go through my head as a parent, but I was most surprised by the ones that came in as a teacher. As a teacher I noticed that the expectations of what preschoolers are supposed to know by the end of preschool is very different from what is expected for them to know as they walk into kindergarten on day one. What made it even more interesting as we were looking at schools was that the expectations between private, charter, and public were all different. We eventually decided on the charter school that I will be teaching at next year and that led to the actual reason for this blog post.

I created a summer review packet for my daughter that was specific to the skills that I saw charter and private schools requesting knowledge of and public school teachers hoping their students had exposure to before walking through their doors. I did this so that my daughter could walk into her classroom calmly and not become overwhelmed by all the expectations. I wanted her to enjoy kindergarten and not feel stressed or anxious so below you will see and hear about some of the pieces that are in this packet.

 There are 44 days worth of activities in this packet that cover number writing and identification, letter writing and identification, shape recognition, color recognition, cutting skills, direction following, patterns, basic bar graph building, reading, and coloring. I used a variety of activities to ensure that it would capture my daughters attention and help her learn and grow.

For reading we try to read a total of twenty minutes throughout each day. If all our reading times add up to twenty minutes then she gets to color in an object on one of the sheets. Each time she fills up a sheet she gets to pick a special treat or small toy as a reward. 

For alphabet practice I created pages that require her to trace and write, sort, cut and paste, color, and follow a path.

For math I created sheets that required her to trace and write, count, color, build, sort, and order. The variety will help build her ability to identify the numbers and manipulate them. There are also different ways to use some of the sheets which I show you below. The more options you have the better the chance of you holding the attention of your preschooler.

When I have her write her numbers or letters, I have her use an eraser to put space between her numbers and letters. This way she is still practice but only having to 3 or 4 on each line which is less tiresome. We also use crayons and markers for coloring because it gives her options. For the ten frames I give her the choice of stickers, crayons, markers, or painting with a Q-tip. We also use paint for several other math sheets that you will see below.

The things I have shared are a few of the different activities you can find in the summer packet I created for my daughter. If you are interested in using this for your little one this summer you can find it here. If you have any questions feel free to ask it in the comments. 

Have a wonderful evening and fantastic summer!

Ashley

Build Your Own Bingo Boards (holiday edition)

Do you love BINGO? Do your kids love BINGO?

My sweet girl loves BINGO. Maybe it is the fact that she gets a piece of candy at the end of each game she wins or she just really loves the game. We play it a lot in my house but I wanted to make it a little bit more than a game for her. She is a preschooler and needs practice with fine motor skills.  I wanted something where she could cut, color, and write as well as play her favorite game. I also wanted her and the students I will eventually use this with to be able to personalize their board for the game. This is where the build your own Bingo Boards comes in.

Since I use this at home and plan on using it in my classroom as well I tried to make it as simple as possible to prep. I started with pre-made game boards. There are 5x5, 4x4, and 3x3 boards that are black and white. All the boards have a space at the top for students to write their names and the name of the Bingo game they are playing.

Then the pages go by holiday and each holiday has the same pieces just with different images corresponding to that holiday. I am using the St. Patrick's Day game boards in this post as an example since that holiday is just days away.

I created pieces that can be cut and glued onto the game boards in each of the three game board sizes. These pieces come in black and white so that the kids can color if they choose or you can print the pieces in color. There are also pieces in color and black and white for you to use as call pieces for the game. Examples of these items are in the images below. I like to use the black and white call sheet as my base and I place the color call pieces on top to show what I have called and what I have left. You can use it however it works best for you. Examples of these items are in the images below.

In this packet are pieces for Back to School, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentine's Day, and St. Patrick's Day. Within the next few weeks I will be adding Easter and Summer Fun to the packet.

I hope you enjoy!

Ashley

St. Patrick's Day History

Did you know that St. Patrick's Day is a day of remembrance for the Patron Saint of Ireland?

Many people do not know this about St. Patrick's Day. Our country has become so good at partying in our green on this day that we have forgotten that it came about for a reason. This is why this is one of my favorite units to teach: The History of St. Patrick's Day.

I love utilizing vocabulary in all the units I teach, so there are vocabulary cards, flip flaps for interactive notebooks, and a match page to have practice with key words that are a part of this unit.

There are also two different ways to read about the life of St. Patrick. There is a short story page that I use when I teach this unit whole class and then there is a mini reader that I use for small groups. Each tell the life of St. Patrick and how he is the reason for the day day of remembrance on March 17th. We also use the interesting facts page to discuss some of the different elements of the holiday.

Since students are usually pretty interested in learning about St. Patrick, we have a little fun and talk about 6 different legends that are connected with him. It gives us all a good giggle to see what kind of stories have been connected to St. Patrick. There is a interactive notebook activity that goes along with this discussion. If you do not use interactive notebooks in your classroom than you could always have them glue these on separate sheets of paper.

Once we have talked about St. Patrick, I post one of the write the room activities. Which one I choose depends on the level that will suit  my students the best. One is less challenging than the other.

 At the end of the unit we make one or both of the clover mini projects. I work at a christian school so I am able to complete the project on the Holy Trinity with them. If you are at a public school than you could complete the 4 leaf clover activity which talks about faith, hope, love, and luck. There is a poem to attach to the back of each clover. 

This is just a glimpse of what we use to talk about the real reason for St. Patrick's Day. If you have any questions let me know : )

Ashley

Working on Goals

Happy New Year!!

I hope you all had a wonderful end to 2018 and are feeling ready for all the adventures that 2019 will bring.

So one of my goals for this year is to actually cook three or more meals a week and be healthier. My little family and I tend to let schedules and activities overwhelm our food choices and that leads to unhealthy eating. I really want to change this and get us all on the right track for 2019.

I know that if I don't write things down then I end up waiting until the last minute and we go with the fastest (usually unhealthiest) option. To keep me accountable I sat down today and created a calendar template where I will input what the meal for the day is going to be. This will help me with shopping for the week and keep me from trying to figure something out at the last minute. I blocked off two days a week for leftovers. On one of those days we have swim practice which goes late and the other we usually are with family in the evening so we only need food for lunches. There is also nothing planned for this week because we already have special plans for all but one of those days. Below you will see our meal plan for the month of January.

I am posting this here to hold myself accountable for sticking to this plan and to share with anyone who may want to do something similar in this new year.

So here is to the new year and making it a healthier and more balanced year : )

Ashley