Educating Children of Migrant Families
A while back, I had the opportunity to watch the PBS documentary, Class of '27. It is a beautiful documentary that details early educators working with children in unique circumstances and highlighting the importance of education in the lives of these children. I highly recommend watching the documentary, and I've linked to the video below. After watching the documentary I had the opportunity to have a conversation with Maria Mottaghian and Aimee Brown from the Oregon Child Development Coalition who were featured in the segment of the documentary called Fields of Promise. They generously shared their expertise in working with migrant families and children. I had some trouble with the audio, so I wrote out a full transcription of the interview--what they had to say was just that good!
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Some of My Students Still Aren't Getting it!
These are words that are often heard after the First Semester of School comes to an end. So what can we do with those students who are still not getting it? Most likely it is time to back-up in the teaching continuum and become more purposeful and strategic; targeting students at their level along the path to independent reading.
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Ten Early Learning Games to Build Fluency
Practice early learning skills and have kids begging for more! My students can't get enough of these fast-paced, fun games.
This set of ten fun, fast-paced learning games features five early learning skills that are strategically linked to Common Core Standards.
A special algorithm allows for a match to be made every time!
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The Virtue of Gratitude and Young Children
Teaching young children the art of gratitude can be difficult, especially when children are naturally egocentric, but nurturing this character trait will certainly pay off.
According to Dr. Robert A. Emmons of the University of California, genuine gratitude is the key to living a happy and fulfilling life. Dr. Emmons has found through his studies that practicing gratitude can increase happiness level by around 25%. He also mentions that gratitude increases creativity and productivity.
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Developing Fine Motor Skills Through Play
The hand is our most important tool. We use our hands in almost every activity we engage in throughout the day, therefore, hand muscle development, or fine motor development, is crucial to the school success of young children.
Fine motor skills are developed as children use their hands to interact with the environment. In the past, children were strengthening hand, wrist, and arm muscles as part of the family chores that were necessary to survival, during hours of endless play in the outdoors, or by playing with tangible building toys. But in today’s technological world, the development of those important muscles can be missed.
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Building Fluency in Young Children
Fluency is a skill that can be and should be taught. In 1997, The National Reading Panel which included guru Marilyn Jagar Adams stated, “... [F]luency is the ability to recognize words easily with greater speed, accuracy and expression...children gain fluency by practicing.
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A Free Election Theme Game
Enjoy this free game, Race to the Capital! To play, students will read alphabet letter sounds as a precursor to decoding words. And for kiddos who are ready, they can use this for decoding practice.
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Growth Mindset for Young Children
It is so important for our students to have a growth mindset in order to accomplish their learning goals! We've put together a packet of activities that you can use all year long in order to encourage children to learn that they can be successful and that learning depends on hard work and persistence. The packet is available here or at Teachers Pay Teachers.
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Teaching Kindergartners to Blend the Play Way
The systematic teaching of all phonological awareness skills is imperative to ensure a students’ future reading success. Daily, intentional instruction of, and more importantly, the “playing with" individual sounds in a meaningful way will build cognitive clarity as students experience how sounds work together to form words.
A child’s future reading success is directly linked to his/her understanding of phonological awareness skills. Consequently, daily intentional, strategic teaching of those skills must exist in the kindergarten classroom. The best way to teach these skills? Well the play way of course!
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Stomp Rockets
My grandkids love Stomp Rockets! They are great for teaching STEM skills, such as cause and effect and trial and error, and very fun! In order to launch the rocket, kids jump on the plastic box, forcing air through the blue tube, and launching the rocket into the sky. There is a stand that comes with the rocket, but it's not very sturdy. Fortunately, the kids enjoy holding the rocket while they launch it (unfortunately, that makes it easier to point the rockets at each other).
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Halloween Theme Learning & FREE Halloween Songs
I love the simple Halloween songs of my childhood! I have continually shared these songs with my kindergartners year after year; always with the same reactions -- Kids love them. Following are the jpgs that you need to print as posters, and the mp3 you will need to sing the tunes with your classroom. These songs and more are part of our Halloween Thematic Unit. This unit also includes the piano scores.
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Communicating With Parents
When it comes to communicating with parents and engaging families, I have yet to find anything as easy to use and all inclusive as Kyambu. Here are a few things that Kaymbu will do for you and your classroom. Classrooms of any grade level!
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Make a Spiderweb Sensory Tunnel
Here's a fun activity for you, via my grandkids. Grab a large cardboard box and have your kids or students decorate the outside of it with pictures of spiders. Then glue or tape to the inside roof of the tunnel as many black threads as you have patience for. In a darkened room, the black threads will be difficult to see, and it will feel like crawling through a spiderweb infested tunnel to the little ones that dare to crawl inside!
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Firemen and other Community Helpers
October is Fire Prevention Month! Whether you visit a fire station, have firemen come to your school, or show a video about fire safety, make sure you address these simple points with your students:
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21 Costume Ideas for Teachers
Trying to figure out how to dress for your school's Halloween or fall celebration? How about one of these storybook themed costumes? They're sure to be a hit with your students!
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Preparing for Fall Parent Teacher Conference in Kindergarten
Are you getting ready for your FALL Parent Teacher Conferences in Kindergarten? You will love this easy form that will make reporting to parents practical, authentic and a breeze! You will be organized and ready to discuss student progress with all of the data right at your fingertips!
Bonus! This packet includes our Fall Homework Intervention Packets in both English and Spanish. Send these packets home with parents to offer additional support for their child's academic learning.
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Twelve Steps to Parent Reporting
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Election Day Activites
Election season is here, and this one in particular will be getting a lot of attention in the media. Help your young learners understand the process by using great literature selections to help as you plan a thematic election unit.
To get you in the mood for thematic planning, check out our podcast interview with Mary Parry, author of Sadie McGrady, episode #24.
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Helping Young Children Become Writers
Young children can write and this writing should occur daily in the early childhood classroom. In fact, most students will write before they read! “Over the school year, students’ writing develops…with increasing levels of sophistication of vocabulary, syntax, and stylistic features” (Bailey & Heritage, 2008, p. 159).
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