Five for Friday July 1

I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday. Happy July 1st! Happy Anniversary to my wonderful  parents!  Thank you for hosting, Kacey! 

       

It was my first week of summer vacation!  AHHHH!  My two sweet friends (who also teach with me) and I went out to lunch to celebrate on Monday- our first official summer day.  We EACH got one of these special messages delivered to our table from a little sweetheart who was also out having lunch with her family.  What a great way to start the summer!

Have you read this article?  Oh my goodness- you will love it.  New teacher, "old" teacher, not a teacher... it's wonderful.  Here is the overview:

If you plant a marigold beside most any garden vegetable, that vegetable will grow big and strong and healthy, protected and encouraged by its marigold. Marigolds exist in our schools as well – encouraging, supporting and nurturing growing teachers on their way to maturity. If you can find at least one marigold in your school and stay close to them, you will grow. Find more than one and you will positively thrive.

While seeking out your marigolds, you’ll need to take note of the walnut trees. Successful gardeners avoid planting vegetables anywhere near walnut trees, which give off a toxic substance that can inhibit growth, wilt, and ultimately kill nearby vegetable plants. And sadly, if your school is like most, walnut trees will be abundant. 

Her description of "walnut tree variations" is SPOT ON.  I think this article would be great for all teachers to read at the start of every new year.

My husband is a Superintendent of the school district next to mine.  Every  year, I just love his graduation speeches.  This year I begged him to let me share it.  He didn't want me to share his speech- even though it's awesome...  but I can share a couple parts that I especially loved.  Because it's my blog. And it's not the whole speech.  And he doesn't read this. So, #3,4, and 5 are parts of his speech.

Basically, he was tying in all the changes happening in our world today- and encouraging the graduates to hold on to what's real.


In general, people tend to have a natural love-hate relationship with change.  For the most part, we want things to remain the same, yet at the same time, we want things to be better. In 1998, Kodak had 170,000 employees and sold 85% of all the photo paper in the world.  Within a few years, and before these students started kindergarten, Kodak's primary business model had disappeared, and the company went bankrupt.  Who would have thought back in 1998, the year most of these graduates were born, that most of us would never take pictures on rolls of film again?

In a few years, we will see autonomous cars that will change the way we drive, or don't drive.  There will be a medical app on your phone that will scan your retina for illness and disease more accurately than your doctor.  There's already  an app that can scan your feet and order you the perfect fitting pair of sneakers produced on a 3-D printer.  And your phone will be able to analyze a person's body language, their face, and their voice, and tell you if you're being lied to. 

As evolving technologies continue to change our lives, it is important that we remember our values, our priorities, and the "things" that really matter in life. John Naisbitt said, "The most exciting breakthrough of the 21st century will not occur because of technology, but because of a deepening understanding of what it means to be human." 

                                     

Just recently, I read about a poetry contest that I found very interesting.  Third prize was a solid silver replica of a rose.  Second prize was a solid gold rose.  First prize was a single, real, long-stemmed, red rose.  How poetic for a poetry contest.  How interesting from a values standpoint, that a real rose, a beautiful marvel of nature, would be first prize above both silver and gold.  (Everyone got a red rose with their diploma. )

At this point, I want to ask you to play along for just a moment.  Suspend everything you know for one minute and let yourself imagine that the stars come out at night, only once every hundred years. Once a century.  One night in a lifetime, if you are lucky.  We would certainly plan for years to stay up all night.  There would be world-wide celebrations, festivals, and parties.  All over the planet we would collectively marvel at the beauty, the mystery, and the majesty of the stars.

But, since the stars come out most nights, we might, occasionally, make a passing comment for conversation, that, "the stars are bright tonight."

As humans, we have a natural tendency to take things for granted, like the stars, like our friends and families, like our freedoms, and even the gift of education.

So tonight, Graduates, as you receive the diploma you have earned over the last 13 years, remember the piece of paper, the diploma, is NOT first prize.  Tonight it may be silver.  It may be gold.  But the real first prize are the experiences you have had, the friends and memories you have made, the love and support of your  families, and most importantly, the person you have become along the way.  Don't take these gifts for granted tonight or any night.  Because, the "things" in life that really matter, aren't really "things" at all.  

Have a wonderful weekend! Thank you for stopping by!

Oh my STARS and Lots of Freebies!

I couldn't decide between "Oh my STARS" or "Learning with the Stars," for the title.

It's sort of bad when you can't even make a decision on the title of a post! I have so many ideas to share, I just want to get "star"ted.  (wow... sorry.)

We have been working on "ar" words- and it was time to review the letters "Ss" and "Tt" so... It's the perfect time for stars!

First, I'll start by telling you that my  kids love this Pirates Say AR song!

                  

Now for the stars of the show...

The Stars Will Still Shine is a sweet book by Cynthia Rylant .  It's sweet for the New Year- or a new school year!

Stars by Mary Lyn Ray and Marla Frazee is a beautiful, sweet book.

After we read this story, I focused on the part of the book where Mary Lyn Ray talks about how sometimes we feel shiny, and sometimes we don't feel shiny.  This is a great turn and talk- and then a great classroom discussion topic. 

I gave the children each a glow-in-the-dark star to keep by their beds, to help them remember that each of them shine in a very special way! Don't you remember how magical anything that glowed in the dark was is ? 

  

This is a fun little star activity that I found on Dr. Jean's blog. She shared it from the Highlands Florida K Team.  The kids were amazed! It actually worked (which was really nice...).  I practiced before I did it with the kids.  I learned that you have to have the toothpicks bent just right, pretty clean (without little splinters and without breaking). I did it on the projector on the Smart board.  (Does everybody call it an Elmo?  I wasn't sure. I think that is just what it's called. Right? Not just a 'pet name' that our school calls it.  It sort of makes me laugh every time I say it, thinking of the 'real' Elmo.)

Bend 5 toothpicks as shown. Put the points toward the center. 

Drop water in the middle and watch it turn into a star!



 

Of course I love to use Eric Carle's Draw Me a Star.

                                  

After I read this, we learned to draw stars.  Eric Carle has a "how-to" page in the back of his book.

I do copy this page on the side of an 11x17 paper with the other side blank, and have it out during free choice time with markers so the children can try making these stars.  They are a little trickier, so we don't start with them.  We start with some basic star drawing.

While Wearing High Heels shared a wonderful way to teach children to draw stars!

Start with a capital A with the horizontal line extended out on both sides.

Connect one end of that line to a opposite bottom point. 

Connect the other end to the other bottom point.

I also made this sheet for my class to practice stars with dot to dots. You can see it is pretty s.i.m.p.l.e.  The kids had fun with it!

 If you would like a copy of this paper (with a couple other star papers), just click the picture below!

It was fun to watch the children practice using dot to dots and the capital A method.  I now have an entire class of proud star-drawers.  And... stars on EVERYTHING. 

After some practice, the kids made their own star pictures. I took a picture of each of them pointing up, printed them, cut them out, and that was it!

You could have the children write what they would wish for if they saw a shooting star, to go along with this picture, if you wanted a writing activity.  We just had fun drawing stars this day. 

I found some great freebies at TPT that would be fun to use with a Star Unit or Star Day, for centers or other activities. 

Klever Kiddos made a cute Star Studded Alphabet Center.

Elementary Lesson Plans has a fun Shoot for the Stars Alphabet Game.

Angie Adez made a Twinkle, Twinkle Letter Star Game that is great for letter names, sounds, and fluency. 

Miss Kindergarten Love made some adorable Star Sight Words.

 

Live, Laugh, I Love Kindergarten has these great Rhyming Stars. I have a couple children who still just don't "get" rhyming. This will be great for them!

Kelli Wodrich made this Star Sentence Poster that I really like.

 I love this Counting and Writing 11-20 Stars activity from Michelle Stoker.

 

This is a fun Happy Stars Roll and Cover Game by Elizabeth Hodge.

 

Kids are fascinated with stars- drawing them and learning about them.  When my kids were little, we would camp outside in our yard and look for the constellations.  THEN- before all of today's technology, the technology we used was... glow-in-the-dark paint and flash lights!  I printed out the constellations we were learning about. The kids went over the stars with Q-tip dots of glow-in-the-dark paint.  I put the constellation papers in a bin with a flashlight turned on and a blanket covering the bin (so it didn't interfere with the darkness outside).  We would take out a paper and look for that constellation.  The kids really learned a lot about how each constellation looked by making it with paint.

Today- there are LOTS of great options for star gazing. Here are some apps that look great for kids, and got great reviews.

The Night Sky App

Go Sky Watch App

I liked this game online, too.

Astronomy For Kids Constellation Game

 

Anna, from The Imagination Tree shared an idea for black playdough with silver glitter that would be so much fun when studying space! The kids would LOVE it!

I am guessing they would get out the aliens (from Toy Story)  from our play area to play with this. My sweet friend Amy who teaches across the hall from me brought me these from Disney World for my classroom. They are always a favorite!

No Time For Flashcards made an adorable glow-in-the-dark star activity. I love this! You paint the paper with glow-in-the-dark paint, and let it dry.  Put on star stickers.  Paint over  the picture with black paint.  Then, peel off the stickers when the paint is almost (but not completely) dry. You can check out her post about  it if you click on the picture below.

I hope you found some fun new star ideas!