Happy Summer, everyone! It's always such a great feeling to rest and reflect after the school year is over. This summer, my sister and I have discovered such a fun way to do just that- and I couldn't wait to share it with you, because it's a great idea for the classroom, too. (Of course- doesn't that happen with everything you do- your mind instantly goes to, "How could I use this in the classroom?!")
The latest trend in our area has been painting rocks. Basically, people have fun painting rocks, hiding them, and waiting for other people to find them and be happy!
We have two groups locally since we are close to two counties- Broome County Rocks! and Tioga County Rocks! Each group has a Facebook page where people upload pictures of rocks they paint and/or find, and then relocate for someone else to find. We write, "Post to Broome County Rocks," on the back of our rocks, so people know where the rock is from.
We figure we don't have fun things like seashells to find in Upstate NY- we may as well paint rocks for people to find!
It's addicting. And relaxing. And just makes me smile.
We painted, watched my sister's dog sleep by us, and watched the rain outside. It was my perfect summer afternoon.
Some rocks people paint are simple- and some are little masterpieces! Some are quilt rocks where someone starts a "square," hides it, and then the person who finds it completes another square, hides it, and keeps the quilt going.
Here are some rocks my sister and I painted:
It's so much fun to check the site and see if someone found one of your rocks. We might be a little addicted...
Hiding them is so much fun! We drove around like we were on a mission! We can leave some as we walk, but we wanted to spread the rocks around a bit. We left some outside restaurants, on benches, on playgrounds, and outside of a church. They are fun to leave by hospitals and nursing homes, too, hoping to bring a smile to someone's day.
We MAY have seen a post on the site from a mom of a student I had in class a couple years ago, who was looking and looking to find his first rock, and was so excited. And we MAY have hidden a rock or two on the steps to his house. We may have...
I thought this would be such a great character education lesson for a classroom or an entire school. Kindness Rocks! There are several Kindness Rocks programs around, which I found as I was writing this post, and which I just love. This one is from Crafts Unleashed.
This one is in Cape Cod.
Children love to paint rocks. You can print pictures from Google Images or Pinterest to find sample rocks that would be simple for the children to recreate. Just type in "painted rocks" and you will see more than you know what to do with. You can spray a protective coating on the rocks after they are painted. And... they are good to go! I think it would be fun to send the rock and a note home to each family, so they could hide the rock as a Random Act of Kindness. This would spread the rocks out a little better. You can put an email address on back to notify if the rock is found, or just know you've made someone's day and not put anything on the back of the rock.
I thought these would be fun for the kids to make.
OR you can keep the beauty at your school, like students from Sharon Elementary School in Newburgh, IN. They painted rocks inspired by the book Only One You, by Linda Kranz, and made a beautiful stone pathway outside the school entrance. I just love this.
The beautiful part is that every rock is special- no matter how it is painted. And even more beautiful is seeing the smiles and reading the sweet stories that go with the rocks that are found.
I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday. Thank you for hosting, Kacey!
These are going to be some quick tips for the week. Tip number one, let your kids read in front of a mirror! I wish I had LOTS more mirrors in my classroom because my children love to read like teachers in front of the mirror, which means a LOT of really great fluency and expressive practice with their reading!. (And a lot of looking at themselves, which is really fun too...).
I use these Reading Strategies in my classroom:
My children really need practice noticing and remembering to read the chunks as chunks. I made these worksheets that I turned into a little packet so that we can practice circling chunks and reading the words correctly. If you would like a copy, just click on the picture below!
I realized that the children LOVE Lips the Fish and are great at getting their mouth ready for that first sound in a word... but that's not enough! They can't just say that sound over and over.
SO this week, I taught the kids that Lips the Fish says that first sound, but then, swims right through the rest of the sounds. They totally got it! They say it to me, now, all the time. "We have to swim through it!" WIN!!!
Here is a little chart we work on each morning. I call different children up to find chunks in the words each day, just to keep think thinking about those chunks.
This is a free prezi I made for practice chunking.
Could I have said the word "chunk" one more time?!?!
We are working on writing first and last names now. A quick fun center for the children is to prepare a paper for each child with his/her first last name on top. I just wrote each child's name and made copies so I have lots for whenever I need a quick activity.
I'm showing it below with only the first name, but we are now working on both names. Put out all different writing tools for your child to use to practice writing, writing, writing... colored pencils, thin markers, smelly markers, pens, glitter crayons, special pencils... anything! They can use any and all to write, write, write! Offer and give a sticker prize for neatness and trying your best-and you are good to go! OR who can write their name the most times the neatest? Add a clipboard and let them go ANYWHERE in the room, and it's even better.
Some days, I just put out my white pencils, glitter white crayons, and white crayons and have them practice writing on black paper. Something just a little different can make a big difference.
Here's a simple, fun idea for February love. Cut a pocket out from an old pair of jeans. Fill it with some plastic hearts (I bought a packet from The Dollar Tree). After reading A Pocket Full of Kisses, give each child a heart to remember to be kind. You could fill it with Hershey Kisses, too, if you want!
Speaking of kindness, February is not only a month of love, but of kindness. February 17 is National Random Acts of Kindness Day! Did you know that? Well, my sweet friend Dr. Jean Feldman reminded me, and so we put together this little packet for your classroom if you'd like to use it. You can have your children draw and write different acts of kindness they do for others. You can collect acts of kindness that you do as a class. You can use it any way you want! This first cover is blank because I like to add a photo of my class underneath the title before I laminate it for a classroom book. Click HERE if you'd like a copy.
These are some awards you can print out for children to reward kind acts. You can use these any and every day!
You can make this into a little classroom poster as a reminder!
Thank you for stopping by. Have a wonderful weekend!
I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday. Thank you for hosting, Kacey!
We worked on letter J last week. I always love introducing the children to Jillian Jiggs. It's such a fun book. My wonderful aunt was a school librarian and introduced me to Jillian Jiggs when I first started teaching!
The kids love to see that somebody else has a room that looks like it was lived in by pigs!
After we read, we draw and label a map of our own bedroom. First, I have the children write a sentence focusing on using neat printing, spaces, and hearing all the sounds. I model "My room is _________." "My" and "is" are sight words. We hear the "r" then the two "oo's" (like they've heard in BOO all last month!) and "m" at the end of the word. They can choose anything to write at the end- the color of their room, if it's clean or messy, big or small...
Sometimes I love focusing on one sentence. It is so telling for me- and a great, quick assessment to show who is taking on spacing, sight words, and hearing sounds. For the children who really aren't writing much at all, one sentence is perfect to write with me. They are so proud to accomplish it- and they really get to see how it looks when they write a sentence and read it back, pointing to each word.
We worked together on the sentence on the bottom after he write the top by himself. He kept rereading it after we were done.
"My room is clean."
By the way, I know the trend now is to NOT ever write on the children's papers to show what it says, however, after the kids are done writing, sometimes I do write on the very bottom what it says so 1. I remember when we are talking about it and 2. Parents know what it says because the kids forget more times than not.
The writing came in handy with this activity because one mom wrote and thanked me for writing what it was supposed to say, because when she first tried to read it, she thought it said, "My mom is trans." When it ACTUALLY it said, "My room is trains." So... She felt better. And we both laughed.
Next Friday (November 13) is World Kindness Day. This week, we read Kindness is Cooler, Mrs. Ruler, by Margery Cuyler.
In the book, Miss Ruler's class keeps track of kind deeds on a bulletin board. The children do so many good deeds, like clearing the table after dinner and helping other people, and soon they have 100 acts of kindness.
After we read the story, we watched Life Vest's Kindness Boomerang "One Day" video. This is always a favorite every year (for me, too).
Next week, we are going to make our Kindness Boomerang Board.The children share their acts of kindness, and we keep track on the board. It's so important to remind the children how even small acts of kindness make such a huge difference to people.
Here is our board we made in class a couple years ago. If one "act of kindness" piggybacked on another, I put them beside each other. We talked about how boomerangs come back to you when you throw them, just like the kind things you do for others comes back to you, because it makes you feel good inside!
The board is a great visual for the children, and boy, do you see some acts of kindness happening! They come in first thing in the morning with lots of good news!
I made a Power of One Prezi and put together some of my favorite sayings and pictures about what one person can do. It's free my TPT Store if you'd like it .
Do you want a magic way to have your students practice writing their name 17 or 18 times in about half an hour- and to LOVE doing it? Well, here you go!
I am not kidding. I almost felt guilty-like it wasn't school-enough- because the kids had so much fun.
Last year, I made everyone one of these homemade fabulous clipboards and opened some new skinny markers for the occasion. My thinking was that if they were all sad looking and homemade, there would be no arguing about who got what. They all thought these were "cool," because they didn't know any better. This year I found some more clipboards at the dollar store, and now I have enough for everyone. We use them quite a bit for write the room and other activities we do on the rug.
After we read this story about being a friend (one of my favorites...),
I explained that each person would have a clipboard, paper, and marker. Our job was to go around to each person, and ask each friend to sign our paper as we signed our friend's paper. We would only be writing our own name every time, once on each paper. We would collect all of our friends' names. I modeled this with a few children. I said, "Would you please sign my paper, and I will sign yours?" We switched boards, signed, and moved to another child.
They could write anywhere they wanted, with any color marker they chose. That was enough joy for the entire day. I wish I had taped the entire lesson. They were so sweet and polite asking each other for names. Of course they love to have your name on their paper, too. (And I sort of felt like a celebrity when they were each excited to have me write my name for them. It doesn't take much to make me happy...)
Jessica is another great story to talk about friendships, and discuss how important it is to have friends and be good friends.
If you want a copy of the simple "I like" sheet, just click the picture below. You can use any recording sheet for this activity.
Reading at home with children is such a huge benefit and important part of a child's reading success, but sometimes we forget that parents don't always know what we're focusing on or looking for as they read with their child. I made this handout for parents and am going to give it to them at our conferences. I labeled the praise points, "Wonderful," and the questions for parents to ask, "Wondering." These ideas help parents remember to praise, praise, praise and encourage their child as they read together at home, as well as provide questions to help parents take their child deeper into the text and beyond the text. I thought you might like to use it with your students' parents, too. Just click the picture below if you would like a copy! Enjoy!
