How You Can Inspire Thankfulness in Your Kids Part 2
Recently, I wrote a post about thankfulness and how to inspire it in your students. You can see this post here. I called this their “Thankfulness Project”. Students were to write down three things they were thankful for each day. After that they were to write down one act of kindness they did each day. After about a month, I took up their journals and read what they had written. This was not for a grade, but I rewarded the students who had done most or all of the work. The parents were aware of the project as well. One of the journals that I read really touched my heart. It is pictured below. Make sure to read the very bottom sentence.
I pulled this child aside after I read her journal and asked her what she meant when she wrote, “This totally made me rethink my whole life”. She explained, “Because I didn’t realize I had so much to be thankful for.” WOW! This speaks volumes.
I Wish You the Merriest Christmas Ever!
To all my followers and visitors alike:
I wish you the Merriest Christmas Ever from this Christmas moose compliments of Teaching in the Tongas ! 🙂
Need a Cheap and Easy Book Character Costume?
In case you are needing a quick costume for book character day or for Halloween, you can try this. Now this is a bit of a stretch on the definition of “character” but everyone was impressed with the creativity. All you need is:
*a few pipe cleaners
*purple balloons
*green pipe cleaners
*purple masking tape or hot glue if you don’t care about ruining your sweatshirt
Now, I could have filled up my sweatshirt with way more balloons, but the balloons make it a bit hard to maneuver, so I didn’t fill the sweatshirt up completely. I put the sweatshirt on after I arrived at school so that I had a shirt underneath. This way I could move during the rest of the day. As you can imagine, the younger kids especially enjoyed touching the balloons as we had our school parade! I hope this sparks an idea for your last minute costume! 🙂
Have You Ever Needed a Number Line That Counts Past 1,000?
By request I made this number line which counts from 900 to 1,200 to hang on your classroom wall. This number line spans almost 11 feet. There are matching base ten blocks for every increment of 25, but the number line has lines for every increment of one. This is a great visual tool for those students who struggle to comprehend the transition between hundreds and thousands. You can see this tool pictured below. Stop by my TPT store to pick one up.
Register to Win the $10 Gift Card for the TPT Sale!
Make sure to take this opportunity to register to win this $10 TPT gift card for the Cyber Monday and Tuesday Sale on TPT!
To win, all you have to do is comment my teacherblogspot Facebook page with an item you find most appealing to use the $10 gift card on from my store. I will choose someone who commented at random on Monday evening at 8 p.m. CST.
How You Can Inspire Thankfulness in Your Students!
This year I wanted to spur my kids on to be more thankful, so I did this… I really didn’t do this just because it was Thanksgiving time but because I wanted them to appreciate what they have all the time.
First, I read my students a true story about kids living in Africa who were orphaned and lived in a garbage dump. They ran after a garbage truck to get scraps of food for survival. One of the kids living in the dump had their baby sister killed by wild jackals. They had no one to help them–no parents or guardians of any sort. I read this story from a newsletter I receive from a Christian missionary. You can read more about him if you click the link above. I of course had to leave the Christian stuff out because I work in a public school, but the story still is impactful for kids to appreciate what we have.
Second, I showed my students a video about a man who was about to die because he had ALS. His mission was to spread as much kindness as he could before he died. I really made them think about how they wanted to be remembered. Did they want to be remembered for how kind they were or for how badly they treated others. This video is here. The video really touched the kids hearts.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYSc-WGenAw[/embedyt]
After we discussed both of these things, I told them they would be getting a little journal. For the next four weeks the kids mission was to write down things they were thankful for each day and one kind thing that they did each day. The students were really excited to get their journals, but I made them wait one class period before I gave them the journals. I also informed parents before they received them so that parents knew what was expected of their children.
I bought these journals for 88 cents in a 3 pack at Wal-mart which makes them about 29 cents each. The notebooks are about 3 x 4 inches. You can also get some at the Dollar Tree for…..you guessed it!…. a dollar, which makes them about 33 cents each. In my opinion the ones at Wal-Mart are better looking because they are solid colored.
So here are the rules I gave the kids:
- You must write three things you are thankful for each day.
- The items you are thankful for cannot repeat.
- For example, if today you say I am thankful for my momma, my daddy, and my dog, on another day you can’t say I’m thankful for my momma, my bicycle, and my brother because momma repeats.
- If you lose it, you buy yourself another one. I will not replace your journal.
- Underneath the line you are to write one kind thing you did that day.
- This can be anything kind. It doesn’t have to be extravagant. Their act of kindness can be just picking up a scrap of trash or giving someone a compliment.
- The act of kindness cannot repeat on a different day either.
Some kids ask what happens if they miss a day. I tell them not to worry but that they can go back and add something if they miss a day. They must continue with their thankfulness project (notebook) even on weekends and vacations. There will be a little incentive for them if they complete the project–namely Dollar Tree Christmas prizes.
I hope this idea inspires you to instill thankfulness in your own students! Happy Thanksgiving season!
Adding & Subtracting Ten(s)–1st Grade Skill or Intervention?
There are certain skills that if not learned early in math will be a detriment throughout a student’s entire math career. Learning to add ten or subtract ten is one of these skills. In later elementary grades, if the simplistic skill of adding and subtracting ten is not learned students will struggle with other math concepts.
For these reasons, I believe that is why this product is one of the best sellers in my shop. The skill of adding or subtracting ten is visually taught through patterns on the hundreds chart. I have newly revised this product to include answer keys, new borders, and new fonts. If you are looking for a product to teach your students to add or subtract ten— a skill they will need for their entire school career, look no further.
A Discovering Patterns worksheet with the hundreds chart and Mental Math Fluency Check are included in this packet for each of the following:
*Adding 10 to a One-Digit Number
*Adding 10 to Multiples of 10
*Subtracting 10 from Multiples of 10
*Adding 10 within 100
*Subtracting 10 within 100
*Adding Multiples of 10 within 100
*Subtracting Multiples of 10 within 100
Answer keys are also included.
Are You Using Addition Flashcards Effectively?
I recently created a video showing you how to use Addition Flashcards effectively. There are many ways to do this effectively using patterns. In the video I show you two of these patterns you can use to teach addition math facts. This video is a result of a parent teacher conference of which I was a part. During the conference the classroom teacher told the parent to use flashcards by having the child make a stack of the ones she knew and the ones she didn’t know. Because of this, I realize many people aren’t aware of how flashcards can be used with patterns to alleviate the rote memorization. Using patterns allows students a way to relate their learning to prior knowledge. Therefore student learning becomes more than just memorizing facts. To learn more watch below…
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SDyhc9kdiU[/embedyt]
The flashcards in this video came from this math packet below:
Do This Experiment if Your Kids Are Name Calling {Giveaway}
So, I had this idea a couple of years ago. It started with the curiosity of the experiment Dr. Emoto had about water and snowflakes. In case you don’t know Dr. Emoto spoke different words to water and then froze it. After freezing the water, he saw the water form different structures and shapes. The kind words made beautiful snowflakes while the bad words made the water form in less desirable shapes. I showed this to my students first.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=au4qx_l8KEU[/embedyt]
Then I saw where someone had recreated this experiment with rice and water. I decided to try this at home one summer where I could speak to the jars without interruption for 30 days. When I was at home, I chose 3 equal sized jars and put one cup of dry rice in each. Then I poured one cup of water on top of the rice in each of the three jars. On one jar I labeled LOVE, one I labeled HATE, and on the third jar I wrote nothing. Then I spoke to the jars for 30 days. I said, ” I love you” to the love jar and “I hate you” to the jar labeled hate. I did nothing to the jar labeled with nothing. After 30 days I opened the jars. I was in total suspense. When I opened the jars, they all stunk really badly, but they all had distinctly different smells. They all grew mold. Interestingly, the jar that was ignored grew more mold than the jar that was labeled hate.
Now fast forward to a couple of years later. I did this with my class starting on the first day of school. This time I did the experiment a little differently and I recommend doing the experiment this way with your class if you decide to do this. I boiled 3 cups of white rice and measured out one cup for each of three equal sized jars and sealed them. I, again, labeled the jars, love, hate, and then just a blank jar. Each time the students would leave for the day, they would say “I love you” to the love jar and “I hate you” to the hate jar. Now to the blank jar, they were supposed to do nothing and say nothing. Every now and then a child would pick up the blank jar. I had it marked on the calendar for the day we would open the jars. We just finished the experiment this past Friday. This was the 30th day of us talking to the jars, but not the 30th day of the jars sitting. On days we were not at school, the jars just sat. I was a little worried that this would have a negative effect on the experiment, but it did not. (below the lids are ajar because this is the day we opened them)
Before we did the experiment, I had the students predict what would happen to each jar. None of them predicted what actually happened. I was also surprised about what happened.The rice DID NOT mold. About mid way through the 30 days the rice started to liquefy and become just white slush. The granules of rice were no longer visible. The consistency was more like oatmeal. When we opened the jars, they all stunk but not as bad as when I did the experiment at home. The love jar smelled like fermented bread. The hate jar smelled like fermented cheese and had more of a sour smell. In my opinion, the blank jar smelled the worst and also smelled fermented.
To make sure everyone had a chance to smell the jars without having their peers adverse reactions affect their experience, I had each student go smell the jars individually with their back turned to the class. The jars were set up in the back of the room. The children were busy working on another activity while I let each child go one by one to the back for jar observations. I instructed them before hand to not make any reactions to the class so that everyone had a fair chance to form their own opinion. I had the students write down the results of what the jars smelled like after they smelled them on the same paper that they had made their predictions 30 days earlier. Then I let them talk at their table groups about what they noticed. Later I pulled all the students to the carpet to discuss what they noticed and their thoughts. Of course, they wanted to talk about how it smelled like “poop”, “farts”, and the like! 🙂 When we got past what the jars smelled like, I asked the kids why they thought I had them do this. Some kids recognized the fact that their words changed the rice, and were in amazement about how this had happened. (below the jars from the back–I know the jars look like different amounts, but I measured each one the same)
I must mention a HUGE teacher moment happened during this. One of those moments that makes your job worth while :). I had a child come up to me after we had talked about how words affect people when you say mean things to them just like our words affected the rice positively or negatively. He said, “You know, I’ve been saying mean things to a someone in my class, and he’s here in this room right now. I said, “Do you feel like you need to apologize?” He shook his head saying yes. I said, “Well, you are welcome to step outside with him and apologize.” And, so he did!
Who would’ve thought that talking to rice would change the heart of a child?
Why Won’t My Students STOP TALKING??!!
What do you do when your students talk too much? I know it drives you insane! Is there a way to curb this behavior without taking away a privilege from everyone–moving clips, taking away Dojo Points etc.?
I’m going to share with you what works for me. First I start out the year with an anchor chart like the one pictured here.
I review each of the five items on the chart. I have students practice acting like each of the five expectations on the chart. For example, I have them read the expectations with me. When we read number three I have the students whisper in their teams. When we read number four I have them practice using low voices in teams. We talk about how students’ bodies look when students are using soft voices–how their bodies are close together. I even have children practice raising their hands to ask a question. We discuss how a child waits to be called on before making any noise, how students don’t get called on when making “ooh, ooh, monkey noises” etc.
Now, what happens if children are talking too loudly while working? After I have given them a warning or two about the class volume, I have found this to be a simple solution. “Students, you have been talking too loudly. Because of this, we are going to sit in absolute silence for one minute. If after one minute no one has made a sound, you will be able to talk again in low voices. During that minute if one person makes a sound–even a whisper–I will start the one minute over.”
I hold to what I said, and the noise magically lowers. Sometimes it seems that children just needed a break from their conversation and noise level to readjust their volume. I hope these tips help you. It is never too late in the year to establish your expectations. Don’t give up if you are struggling with a talkative class. 🙂
