Make it Your Own

Make it Your Own

        Children are faced with new things all the time. We give them new information to learn and new activities to complete daily in school. Each year students have to go into a new classroom with a new teacher and new peers then they learn new information and complete new activities. Teaching children to learn to adjust and cope with change will make them more successful and productive students. The book A House for Hermit Crab by Eric Carle is a resource for talking about change with young children. 

        In the story a hermit crab outgrows his shell and has to find a new shell for his home. The new shell is plain so the hermit crab goes about and decorates his shell with other creatures from the sea. After a while hermit crab again has outgrown his shell and needs to move into a larger one. At the same time a smaller hermit crab has outgrown his shell and is looking for a larger one. So hermit crab gives his decorated shell to the smaller hermit crab but makes him promise to be good to his friends on his shell. This story is perfect for children nearing the end of a school year because they are like hermit crab. They have outgrown their current classroom and its time for a new one. A new class room that might seem a little plain at first but in time they will learn many new things and grow into their new room! 

    

         

Learning to Try Something New

Learning to Try Something New

          Many times we have to do things that we don't like to do. Children are the same way. They often don't like going to school for the first time, but often after a little time has past they learn that they actually like school, especially as a young child. They get to come and play with their friends and do fun activities. So something that they originally didn't like becomes something that they enjoy. Their are many different books that help children learn about going to school but it is always great to find new and creative ways to introduce and teach children the same lesson and how they can apply it to different aspects of their life. A new book that I recently ran across called Lazybones by Claire Messer is a great addition to teaching children to try new things.

           In Lazybones, the dog Robert hates to go for a walk. When it is time to go for a walk Robert hides from his owners in different places around the house so people call him Lazybones. The truth is that Robert isn't lazy he just doesn't like going for a walk because when his owner stops to talk to people no one talks to him and other dogs growl at him. Students can relate to this because they have had to stand somewhere while their parents talk to other adults when they see people that they know. At the end of the story Robert meets another dog who finally talks to him and they begin to play hide and seek. Robert finally realizes that he actually loves going for walks he just had to give it a chance and meet the right dogs that would want to play with him. 

         We can all learn from Robert that sometimes we just need to give something new a chance. Students can do this too. I often have to find creative ways to encourage some of my students to try certain new things like new foods at lunch time or new activities during active time when it rains and we need to stay inside. Lazybones can help them to take a chance and try something new to see if they may actually decide that they like it. 

Making a Mistake

Making a Mistake

          No one likes to make a mistake, but they inevitably happen to us all. As adults we need to be careful how we handle mistakes in front of children. They see everything and take note of so much more than we realize. I make mistakes all the time in front of my students, but I try to teach them that mistakes happen and we shouldn't get upset when they happen but instead we should learn from them. Stickley Makes a Mistake A Frog's Guide to Trying Again by Brenda S. Miles is a great resource to help children learn about making mistakes and what to do after they happen.

           Stickley Makes a Mistake is about a young frog names Stickley who hates to make mistakes. When Stickley makes a mistake he does not want to try again because he wants to be perfect. Stickley's grandpa however teaches him that it is ok to make mistakes you just have to stick with it and try again. Grandpa also teaches Stickley that it is ok to ask for help if you need it. The book shows Stickley make several mistakes but he learns from them and doesn't let them hold him back. 

         

          My assistant teacher and I are constantly cleaning up spilled milk, wiping crayon and marker marks off the tables, and cleaning up after a million other messes daily because we try to teach our students to be independent and take care of their own needs and when preschool students learn to do things themselves they can make a mess. What my assistant and I try to be mindful of when cleaning up these messes is how we react to the situation. Our students are watching what we do to learn how to deal with mistakes. 

          When a student spills milk and then immediately try's to hand me the milk carton to finish opening it for them. I am doing them no favors by getting upset over spilled milk and then completing the task for them, but when I show them that it is ok if we spill milk we just clean it up and try again. If students need help I will help them when they try again. So if a student needs help opening their milk, I can take my own milk carton and model the correct way to open it by showing them the arrows on the top that show where to open it, then pushing the edges back and pinching the top to pull it open. Not only have I just taught a lesson on how to open milk, but I have helped a student to learn that its ok to make mistakes and then to try something again. Hopefully the next time that the student comes to a roadblock or mistake they will learn that it is ok to try and if they fail to try again!

Learning Who You are

    Learning Who You Are

          Learning who you are can be something of great value. There are many books that teach children about learning who they are and celebrating differences, but one book that does this that I recently came across and really enjoyed was called It's Not Easy Being a Bunny by Madilyn Sadler. It's Not Easy Being a Bunny is a very sweet and funny story about a bunny who doesn't want to be a bunny and is perfect for the small children that are in my Head Start class. I am using it for a virtual teaching lesson for my class and think that my students will really enjoy it. 

         The book features a bunny named P.J. Funnybunny. My students are going to love that name; I can hear their sweet giggles in my head as I think about reading them this story. In the story P.J. Funnybunny doesn't want to be a bunny so he decides that he isn't going to be a bunny anymore and goes of to become a different animal. The only problem is P.J. Funnybunny decides that he doesn't like being that animal either. So after trying to be many different animals P.J. Funnybunny decides that maybe he likes being a bunny after all. 

         I plan to read this book to my students and then ask them about P.J. Funnybunny trying to be other animals to get them thinking. Why did he not like being a bear? Would you want to hibernate all winter? Then I would ask them what they would want to be if they could be anything? Would you be yourself or would you choose to be something else? Then I want them to draw a picture of themselves or what they would want to be. I will share my own drawing of myself being a teacher to show them that I would still want to be myself! 

Spring into Learning!

Spring into Learning!

         With the Coronavirus pandemic teaching has become more complicated. I have been doing my best to find fun and interesting ways to teach my students virtually, which is easier said than done for a group of three and four year old children. At such a young age I worry about my students getting too much screen time and not enough time playing and learning through other activities, but as I have reached out to my students and their parents over the past few weeks, I have learned that a lot of my students have been able to spend a great deal of time outside playing! 
          I am so glad that we have had some nice weather lately and my students have been able to spend time outdoors playing with chalk, bubbles, and just getting to run. To make the most their outdoor time I have been trying to incorporate some outdoor time activities and even some outdoor time of my own! 

          I post videos of myself reading books for my students to view three to four times a week. Recently I have taken to reading them outside. I hope that by seeing their teacher outside they will be encouraged to get outdoors as well. I have also been trying to find books that I can read that will encourage outside time and activities on pretty days. One of my most recent books was Little Blue Truck's Springtime. 

         This book is great for my student's age group. I am able to encourage them to count the different things that Little Blue Truck sees on his drive. This book also has great talking points for spring. I am able to ask my students things like: what is spring, what happens in spring, what are things you normally see in spring, what are some things you are seeing outside now? The activity that I decided to have my students do with this book is an outdoor scavenger hunt! 

           I am able to use one book as the jumping off point for an entire day's lesson! My students can make binoculars so that they can go on a scavenger hunt in their backyards. Parents can ask them to find things that will help their child practice and learn colors, numbers, and directions. For example a parent might ask the child to find an object that is round, blue, and beside the tree. This might be something like a ball. Any objects could be used. But this incorporates many great skills for the students after they listen to the book of the day! 

Travel with Books!

Travel with Books!

     As a teacher I want to expose my students to as much of the world as I can. The problem is that I have a limited number of resources. I only have so much money in my budget to purchase resources and the even greater resource, I only have so much time in a day to teach. I would love to be able to take all of my students to the zoo, and the aquarium, and the Museum of Natural History, and Mount Rushmore, and the Grand Canyon, and so many more places, but I can't. First because where I teach is in a small town and we have none of these places. I also have a limited budget that won't allow for that much travel. I can however help my students learn about and experience different places through books! A really creative way to do this is by using the book Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown.

     Several years ago I received a letter in the mail from my youngest niece, Charley. The letter explained that Charley's kindergarten class had just read a book called Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown. In the book Stanley gets flattened by a bulletin board that fell on him and because Stanley wanted to travel Charley decided to send him to me to have some adventures and take some pictures and then I just needed to send him back, but not to worry he would be fine traveling in an envelope in the mail. Charley's class was going to keep track on a map of all the places that Stanley was going to. 

     At the time I lived a few hours away in another state. It really wasn't too far, but for kindergarteners I'm sure it was still exciting. So I took a picture that my niece had colored of Stanley and went to a few places around where I lived and took a few pictures of Stanley and myself. I mailed it all back and didn't think much more about it at the time. I was recently at a local library looking through some books and happened to come across the book Flatt Stanley. What a great way to expose children to different things in different parts of the world! 

     So I checked FLatt Stanley out from the library to share with my class. Unfortunately we dismissed from school because of the COVID-19 pandemic, so I haven't had the opportunity to share this activity with them yet, but I know that they are going to love it when we finally get to go back to school! I am going to have parents give names and addresses for family members or friends who live in different places that would participate and send Flatt Stanley back to us. We will be able to use this to talk about different places all across the country and maybe even the world depending on where we get the chance to send our Flatt Stanley's.

     I hope to be able to find some additional information about certain areas or even books for a few of the places our Stanley's will be traveling to. That way when we get a Flatt Stanley back we can take a look at the pictures and read about Stanley's adventure as well as read a book to learn more about that particular place. 

     Sometimes as teachers we just have to find creative ways to expose our students to new things and places. Hopefully this will be an experience that all of my students really enjoy and learn from.

 

Different but the Same

Different but the Same

           As a new Head Start teacher I am always on the look out for new and creative ways to teach my students. I love finding a way to teach and show them things from different points of view so that their young minds can understand. With school currently out for COVID - 19 I have had a lot of time to research and find new materials. One of my latest finds was the book Two Eggs, Please. by author

Sarah Weeks. This book is perfect for my class! It is so simple and my students will easily be able to grasp the lesson on diversity that this book offers.

          Two Eggs, Please. is a cute book featuring different animals who come into a café all ordering two eggs but they order them cooked different ways. One wants eggs scrambled, one wants them fried, another wants them hard boiled, and one animal even wants them raw! As new animals come in to order eggs all the customers think about how that is different. In the end of course they are all eggs, so this is a great way for children to understand how sometimes things can be different but still the same just like people.

           If I have learned one thing about my students this year it is that they love to list things! We always start our day with a question and when I ask a question that requires them to list multiple things they get so involved! I love that this book will allow for us to create multiple lessons and multiple questions. To really get the most out of this book the day we read it I plan to bring two eggs, one white and one brown, for my students to pass around and see. I am going to have my students describe the two eggs. We can talk about their color, shape, texture, size, etc. listing all the ways that the two eggs are different. Then I am going to take the two eggs and crack them into a bowl and ask the students to look at the two eggs again and describe them. I will ask them which egg was the white egg and which was the brown egg? Now that they have been cracked open you can see that they are really the same; leading to our discussion of how sometimes things or even people can look different but we are all the same!
         The next day my students will be able to take what they have learned from the previous day and our lesson from Two Eggs, Please and apply that to people. I will ask them to list the ways that people can be different from one another, tall, short, blonde, brunette, white, black, blue eyed, brown eyed, etc. We can think talk about diversity and all the ways that people can be different but the same.

Make Reading Fun!

Make Reading Fun!

As a Head Start teacher, my absolute favorite thing to do during the day is read to my students, however getting all 17 of my students engaged in the reading at the same time for the short amount of time that it takes to finish a book takes some strategy. In my previous blog I gave tips to boost your child's interest in reading, and my final tip was to make reading fun! When I wrote that blog I wanted to really expand on how to make reading fun, but I have so much to say about making reading fun that I thought it deserved its own blog. So here it is! How to make reading fun for not just your child but for you as well. 

Would you want to watch a movie where the actors just read their lines in a monotone voice and just walked around acting their parts out with no enthusiasm? No, of course not! You want to hear the emotion in the actors voice, you want to see the action as they run for their lives, and you want to feel all the emotional ups and downs on the roller coaster ride through the plot. Now all you have to do is put that into your reading!

Now, you probably think that I'm crazy. How do you take all that emotion and put it into reading a children's book? I have some simple tips and tricks that will not just make reading fun for your child but also for you.

First, when reading to your child have fun yourself. Let lose and just enjoy the time with your child. Don't rush through the reading so that you can get to the next thing on your list. Reading time shouldn't be a chore to be checked off your to do list. It needs to be valuable time where you and your child can bond. Your children will enjoy their time reading with you if they can tell that you enjoy it too.

Another way to make reading fun is to use different voices or tones of voice for different characters. If a grumpy old man is talking use a stern grumpy voice. If the character is a mom talking to her baby use a sweet loving voice. It doesn't have to be perfect. Just let lose and have fun. 

Who doesn't love a little action! Have fun and act out parts of the story as you read. It doesn't have to be anything big or dramatic. Little movements like turning your head and looking around if a character is looking for something, scrunching up your face like you are thinking about something, or motioning no by waving your hand back and forth, can all create a little fun and excitement for your children. 

A fun way to get your children involved with the reading is to have them help you. This is really simple for books that have repeating or rhyming lines. For example, if you are reading a book like Pete the Cat I love my White Shoes where Pete the cat sings the same song about loving his shoes each time he steps in something that changes the color of his shoes. You can have your child help you sing the song and even pause when its time for a new color and ask "What color are Pete's shoes now? Right! There red now!" Then keep singing the song in the book. 

 

7 Tips to Boost your Young Child's Interest in Books and Reading

Tips to Boost your Young Child's Interest in Books and Reading

As a Head Start teacher working with a class of three and four year old students, I have found that reading books can often become a very tedious task. Under our curriculum I am expected to read my students three books  at different times throughout the day, every day. When I first began I thought this was great! As a bookworm myself I knew that story time would be my favorite part of the day, but I learned very quickly that a majority of my students did not share my enthusiasm. Some days my students would be fairly engaged in the book and I could finish the reading before they lost complete interest. Other days I couldn't even finish telling my students the title of the book before they completely lost interest and began creating complete chaos! 

The time of day that I so looked forward was a complete disaster! I honestly was a little heart broken. My students did not enjoy their reading time and I was at a loss. What was I doing wrong? I like to think of myself as a pretty good book reader. I loved getting to read to other classes when I was observing in other class rooms and the students seemed so engaged then. What was different with my class? I would try to read through our book quickly before they could completely lose their interest and reading became impossible, but my book loving heart just could not take it. I needed to find a way to get my students to love books and reading. 

So I began testing out different ways to get my students engaged with books. I will point out that I was hired in for this position in February so my students had all adjusted to the routine of our class before I became their teacher. I learned very quickly that my class of students was not used to reading. Before I came they often did not read their books for the day, and the books that they did read were the same books they had been reading all year! No wonder they were so disinterested. I would often reread books myself but reading the same 25-30 books for 5-6 months in a row would get boring even to me! 

The first thing I did was switch out the books that were available in our class library for other books that had been in storage. This immediately made a difference. Students began to show more interest in our books and even began to use their free time to explore the books available. After switching out our class books I tried out many different strategies over several weeks and was finally able to get my class to a point that they enjoyed our reading time and often would demand that I read a book again and again! Even our class library which was basically for decoration before began to get used on a daily basis during their free time. Inspiring a love for books at this young age has really continued to inspire me to find new and creative ways to get children inspired to read! 

Here are some helpful tips that I that will get your child interested in books and reading at home:

• Read Often! 

• Implement reading as part of your daily routine at home. Find times that work best for you and your family depending on the age and schedules of your children. This might mean reading as part of an after bath and before bed routine or maybe a calming moment before an afternoon nap. 

• Read books that interest your child

•  Children will be more inclined to listen to/read a book that they find interesting. You wouldn't want to read a book about a topic that is of no interest to you. Neither do your children. Find books that will peek their interest. 

• Give your child a choice

•  Ask which book would they like to read today? Take your child to your local library and let them decide which books they would like to check out. Giving children a choice in the books that they read will make them more inclined to engage with the book. 

• Consider readabilitly

• Unless you are a doctor or an medical student you likely would not be reading a medical text book, and if you did you would probably have a lot difficulty reading the text because you would find a lot of words and phrases that you are not familiar with. Likewise as an adult you likely don't want to read a kindergarten level book unless reading to children. So consider the level that your child is at when selecting books for them. You don't want to select books that are too hard for them to understand just like you don't want to select books that are overly simple and uninteresting. 

•  Don't overly pressure your child

• You don't want reading to become a chore. You want reading to be a fun and engaging activity. If need be introduce reading at different times in different ways until you find what engages your child. Also know that it is ok to not finish a book. I have started reading many books that I never finished because I lost interest. Don't feel like you have to make your child finish a book. If they aren't engaged stop reading and do something else. 

• Make reading FUN!!

• Get your child engaged in reading. Ask them questions as you read, use different voices for different characters, act out parts of the story. Have fun! If you are having fun as you read your child is more likely to enjoy it too!