Tell Me What You Think!

Do any of you have this book?

I can't remember where I first saw it or heard about it, but I put it on one of my many To Do lists for when I get back to Oregon.  It's not as if I feel like I don't know how to begin the school year, but I always enjoy a good back to school book for encouragement, inspiration, and ideas. I'm wondering if it's good and worth tracking down or purchasing. If you've read it, I would love to hear what you thought of it!!

When I student taught, I worked with a teacher in PA who had been through Responsive Classroom training and we incorporated a daily morning meeting into our schedule. I read The Morning Meeting book back then, but I know that I simply do not have time for that within the very limited 140 minutes that I will have with my kiddos. I wish I did because I LOVED it and I don't think I have ever worked with a group of kids who got along as well as they did since then. I am on the lookout for some strategies to get a great classroom community going,  and I know that investing time to develop that at the beginning of the year is important, but I am worried about the time needed to maintain those great connective lessons and experience that help the kids feel like a true community.

What do you like to do to create a sense of community in your classroom?

Books to be Excited About!

Mrs. Mimi (you all know Mrs. Mimi, right!?) recently posted about a giveaway that she is doing with Little Pickle Press for one of their books which I just discovered are totally amazing.

Check them out!

Love it!

 

 

 

 Love it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Love it!

I seriously want them all! I entered her giveaway and my fingers are crossed that I win a free copy of What Does It Mean To Be Present, but I am pretty sure I am gonna buy one, two, or possibly even all three of these great books. In addition to the giveaway Mrs. Mimi's post says that Little Pickle Press has created a special coupon code [FLOWERS] for teachers to purchase any two of their books for $29.95 (normally they are 16.95 each).

What I like about GLOBAL==> I really want to encourage my students to be open to differences and to appreciate other cultures/countries/languages/traditions. I always appreciate a good book that can help teach those attitudes. Description from Little Pickle Press...In this whimsically-drawn and thoughtfully-told story, 4 to 7 year old children learn what it means to be global by visiting the pyramids, eating sushi, celebrating Kwanzaa, and learning how to say "hello" in Swahili. The book is a conversation starter for parents and educators to teach children about the goodness in exploring, appreciating, and respecting other children's traditions, religions, and values the world over.

What I like about GREEN==> Oregon is all about sustainable resources and protecting our environment and after living in Germany for a year, I am definitely more aware of recycling (we recycle and sort 5 different ways!). So many of us go through life without a conscious awareness of how we are abusing our world and this is a great lesson to teach early on. Description from Little Pickle Press...What Does It Mean To Be Green? is a colorful, whimsical picture book that explores how children can help to protect the earth's natural resources each and every day. This colorful, insightful story, demystifies for children what it means to be green by helping them to view everyday tasks through an environmentally-friendly lens. The book empowers children to do whatever they can to protect the earth's precious resources. Don't be surprised if they start coming up with suggestions of their own for you!

What I like about PRESENT==> It sounds like this book does a great job teaching students how to truly be present when they are at school and to really appreciate life.  Description from Little Pickle Press...This refreshing, vibrant picture book engages all of the senses to demonstrate the myriad of ways a child can seize the moment. The story sparks meaningful discussions about the important gift of appreciation, giving children and adults alike the opportunity to live more fully and richly.

I am excited to have discovered not only these interesting books but also a great company whose goal is,  "helping parents and educators cultivate conscious, responsible little people by stimulating explorations of the meaningful topics of their generation through a variety of media, technologies, and techniques."

Which one is your fav?

Head on over to Mrs. Mimi's blog so you can enter to win one!

Sneaker Teacher on Twitter

Typically my blog posts are long because I take the time to put together a lot of information and thoroughly describe books/resources/classroom stories. Sometimes though, I just want to share a website or say a quick shout out to some teaching related awesomeness.

Soooo.....

I just created a new twitter account [ @SneakerTeacher ] so I can quickly post great web resources that I come across. Not only will posting links help me keep track of what I have found, but maybe you guys will enjoy it too! I have a personal twitter account that I don't use too often, but this one will be entirely dedicated to teacher stuff. Click on the icon in the right hand column if you want to follow!

Organizational Bliss

Oh boy...

Today I came across an amazingly wonderful treasure called Littlest Learners. The author who is a 3rd grade teacher and mommy of three created what she calls the Ultimate Teacher Organizational Tool (UTOT) using ThistleGirl Design Graphics which I think are just about the cutest education themed graphics out there. LOVE THEM!

She explained how to create this super cute organize everything binder in several posts. Check out her introduction to the project here! As soon as I saw the cute pages I had to order the set. If you want it too, you can get it here. You get all of her super cute designed pages for $3.00. Yes, that's right....three dollars! That is a deal if I ever saw one. Once you order, you receive the pdf files within 24 hours. I am so pumped to get my hands on all of this adorableness!!!!

She has posted some step by step directions and I am not sure if I tracked them all down, but the UTOT is mentioned in her posts here, here, and here with suggestions of how to put it together and of course you can do with it what you like because the cute pages are enough to inspire any teacher into organizational action! This seems like such a great way to get everything in order for the year. I might even color code the pages to go with my two different class sections.

I have always loved the Thistle Girl Designs every time I have come across them (like on the Busy Teacher's Cafe site) and I was so thrilled to see so many different organizing tools with these cute cute images. yay!

::big smiles up in here!::

I anticipate some major binder envy when I go back to school...

Literacy Bags

Ever since I came across the cute little Literacy Bag online that went along with The Kissing Hand, I have had Literacy Bags on the mind. I started brainstorming ways I could incorporate some themed bags into my classroom and ways that I might be able to get parents involved. Since I will have such a short time during each session with my students, I definitely want to encourage reading and other educational and literacy activities at home as well as family involvement in the students' learning. When I searched around on the web for information pertaining to Literacy Bags, there were quite a few teacher's sites that provided information on how they use them and examples of themed bags. Some great theme ideas that I am excited to try out are:

• a birthday bag for students to take home on their birthday which could include some birthday stories (one of my personal favorites...Benny Bakes a Cake that my mom read to me when I was little) and perhaps the counting cakes from Lakeshore in addition to an activity where students can draw/write/dictate about how they celebrate their birthdays.

• a lost tooth bag that students can take home when they lose a tooth which could include some stories about lost teeth, a tooth fairy doll, a tooth pillow, and an activity where students can draw/write/dictate about how/when/where their tooth fell out.

• a frog bag with some books from the Froggy series, a Frog & Toad book, some non-fiction books about frogs, the lily pad frog toss game from Lakeshore to practice matching numbers, and maybe some plastic frogs with an activity to sort or describe them. 

Other theme ideas==>

• dinosaurs
• shapes
• ABC's
• transportation
• families
• colors
• all about me
• five senses
• earth and environment
• bugs
• holiday/seasonal

great for bugs bag!

I was thinking about how spendy this process could be so I decided to look into creating another project proposal from Donors Choose. I took a look at Lakeshore since that is one of my favorite teacher resources and  I discovered that they offer lots of themed learning libraries in many of the themes listed above. I started adding some to my cart and I am in the process of creating the proposal. I will add additional activities that go with each theme and probably purchase some plain canvas bags that can be written or painted on. I definitely want each bag to include several books and also some math and/or literacy activities/games. I also want to provide a writing/drawing/dictation activity where students can add their ideas to some sort of collective work that gets added to each time a child takes home the bag. Instructions and a list of materials would need to be included as well.

I would love to get parents involved in this process and I came up with a few ideas. I could gather some supplies and have parents come after school and help me decorate the bags and put them together. I could also share the Literacy Bag idea in a letter to parents and put it out there that if they are interested in a donating one to the class so they could pick a theme and purchase a few books and/or related activities. I would not at all want to put pressure on parents to pay for something like this, yet I do think there might be parents who would love to help the classroom in that way.  I was also thinking that it would be a great way for families to have an outlet for sharing what makes their family unique. If they come from a different culture or country, maybe they would be interested in putting together some materials to share that with other kids about that country/culture. Maybe parents could help with theme bags related to their jobs or they could help their child with a theme bag related to particular interest. I don't think this necessarily requires a big cost. We could have  a classroom camera for taking photos of certain activities/jobs or whatever theme they chose and they could even write information instead of including books. If they were to select an interesting theme I could take it from there and include some books and additional educational games or activities.

I know I can't possibly create enough bags for every child to be able to take one home at the same time, but some would be for special occasions and typically several kids don't share the same birthday or lose a tooth on the very same day. The theme bags could be used with a type of lotto system or I could pull popsicle sticks out every Friday to see who gets to take a bag home for the weekend. I came across a great letter that a teacher had written describing the Literacy Bag system and she had the parents choose whether or not they wanted to participate. Then she also explained that they would be responsible for all materials and replacing anything that got lost or damaged. Additionally she made the rule that if a child were to not return the bag by the designated return date on two occasions, they would no longer be able to participate. I saved her letter because I think it would definitely be important to have a specific procedure outlined for parents with clear expectations.

I can picture kids getting really excited to have a turn taking home the Literacy Bags and I am excited to share this idea with my new team and hopefully put it into action this year. It would be awesome if I could get some of the themed learning libraries and games through Donorschoose, but even if I can't, I can try to copy some of the activities they offer in a DIY fashion and I could even use library books and just continuously change what themes would be available for students to take. Also, even though getting the themed libraries from Lakeshore would be awesome, I do think that creating my own collections could be even more fun (more work, yet more fun!).

I think it would definitely take a lot of time to put these bags together, but I really hope I can make it work because I think it would be so much fun for my kiddos! I would hope that as long as I explained it and shared my expectations that the kids would know to take great care of the materials.

Check out these adorable bags that I came across!!

The website that this photo is from would not load and I am sad because I really want to know more about what this teacher did! The bags are super cute!!! This is exactly what I am picturing that I want to do.

I also came across these bags that can be purchased, but I would prefer making them/having parents help contribute to the process.

I'm excited!!!

What activity/idea are you going to try out this year that is making you excited!?

Do you think parents would be interested in being involved in this activity? Either enjoying the bags with their kids or helping to put the bags together?

Back to School Teacher Swap--The Kissing Hand

Today is the first installment of Jen's Back to School Teacher Swap over at Following the Footsteps which will take place every Friday in August. Don't worry if you are early or late...just share one of your back to school ideas and the more people that participate, the more great ideas we all have to choose from!!!

This year I am going to read The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn on the first day of school. I came across the idea for this book on a website with lots of back to school ideas (not sure which one!). As soon as I saw it, I remembered that I had gotten a copy through my Scholastic book orders last year, so I headed down to my storage space to try and dig it out. I was right that I have it, but it's in Spanish. No worries--I was still able to read it and appreciate the very cute and touching story about a little raccoon who is nervous about going to school for the very first time.

Chester Racoon (Mapache en español) does not want to go to school because he wants to stay home and play with his friends, play with his toys, read his books, and swing on his swings. He asks his mama if he can stay at home with her, but she explains to him that sometimes we have to do things we don't want to do and that Chester will discover new things at school once he goes, like new friends, new toys, new books, and new swings. She also cheers Chester up by telling him the secret of the kissing hand. She kisses Chester's hand and folds the kiss inside telling him that anytime he feels alone and needs a little love he can press his hand to his face and think Mama loves me.

This is such a sweet story touching on the emotions that kids might be feeling when they head to school for the first time. I think it's the perfect story to read for Kindergartners on their first day of school. It also reflects how parents might feel as they send their babies off for the first time.

I would really love to send something home with my welcome letter that relates to the story so kids can get excited for the story and bring something to share on the first day. It seems fitting to do an activity that involves a hand cutout or handprint, but I have not decided for sure what I want to do. I searched the book on google images to get the image above and lots of ideas popped up. (Try it!)'

I came across a site called Teaching Treasures which looks really cute. They have literacy bags for many different books which are adorable. I would definitely not pay their prices, but I would use their ideas to make my own! That's what teachers are especially good at, don't you think?!

A few cute things I saw...

 story magnets

flannel board sets

story bags

With good parental support, this would be a SUPER fun activity to have families complete. If they were given a book and a bag and asked to put together a story bag with different items, I think they could have a lot of fun with it. I am not sure if I could really make that happen, but I can dream, right? Then on certain days the kids could take home any bag besides the one they made and enjoy the story. Oh what fun that would be! I bet canvas bags like that are sold at Michaels and I already have lots of books....hmmm. Could it work?

I also found some other fun activities to do along with The Kissing Hand at this site. I like the idea of having a little hunt for Chester (and getting a cute stuffed raccoon to hide) by reading clues. There is also a little coloring book about the story, but unfortunately the links no longer work.

This site also shows an idea of what to put in a literacy bag about the story.

We are not allowed to provide treats that were made at home, but these sure at cute!

I was also thinking it could be cute to send a hand cutout home with the welcome letters and ask students to draw a picture of someone they love on the hand. Then when we read the story they can think about that person and getting a big kiss from them. Or maybe they could have their parents help them write a prediction on the hand...what is a kissing hand for? I am still working on that part of it because obviously I don't want to just read the story, I want to have some fun activities to go with it to make their first day of school super wonderful!

If you have any more ideas for The Kissing Hand do tell! I would love to hear if you have done this story before and what kids thought of it. Also, don't forget to post YOUR idea on Jen's blog!!!