Gratitude Journals

I LOVE using Gratitude Journals! I try to do it even for myself, I write down something every day that I'm grateful for. I love reading through old lists to see how much life has changed.

Usually in class, we just write about what we are thankful for today. But sometimes I give them more directed prompts. This time I asked them to write about what they are grateful for that they cannot see. It was a tough one for many of them. Some students wrote something like a book and when I asked "can't you see a book?" they would say "well, I'll hide it so you can't see it". They just couldn't wrap their heads around what I was asking them.

These were some answers I was very impressed by:

Reflection and the Interview Process

I have been working at my current school for 13 years. I have grown so much-I look at even my blog posts from when I started writing them and can see a very different voice has evolved. I will be forever grateful for my amazing mentors and leadership over the years that have shaped me into the teacher I am today. It was a very difficult decision for me to make, but I have been searching for a new school to be my new home.

When I first approached this whole process I was a little nervous. I have been on hiring committees before and actually relished asking those tough questions. Now I would be on the other side of that table! As I am wading through the process I actually like it. I feel like it's a great way to reflect on my practice and my contributions to my campus. If I was an administrator I think I would interview all my staff at the end of the year. :) 

I decided to create a digital portfolio and a brochure-so I had to highlight what I was most proud of. I have literally tens of thousands of pictures from my classroom. I printed my brochure through Vistaprint and it came out really cool! Was not very expensive either for the number I needed. I also had prints made of snapshots from both Twitter and Seesaw to show an overview of what I've shared with peers and with parents over the past year.

I haven't been asked any really tough questions yet. What was your biggest challenge? How will you contribute to our campus? How do you teach phonics? What would my principal say about you if I called her for a reference (that one made me giggle a little inside-she would probably use words I shouldn't repeat in an interview :). The hardest part for me is that I'm a very honest, genuine person. I want to make sure that I will be a good fit for them as much as they are for me. 

I haven't made a decision yet. I plan to make this my school for the next 10-20 years so I have to make sure it's right. There's a school where the principal really wants me, that's a nice feeling, to be wanted. It's a tough population but I know I could make a difference there. I could do my book clubs and Student Council groups that are so important to me. I know I will end up where I'm meant to be.

Mysterious Egg Stories

Although I believe in letting students write what they would like to write about during our Writer's Workshop, I also think it's important to give them opportunities to write from a prompt. We read several books about mysterious eggs and then I asked them to write their own story. 

It begins with "One day I was walking in the woods and found an egg....".

I picked it up, put my ear close to it. It cracked a kick, pop pop.

Books To Use For An Egg Unit

The egg unit is one of my favorites to do all year! Eggs are such an extraordinary thing-strong enough to protect a growing baby, fragile enough for that baby to break through when it's ready. We balance books on an egg to show how strong it is. We pass one around to use our senses and describe it. And we read several different books about the topic. My favorite are books about when something unexpected hatches from the egg.

The title says it all. A short, fun book about a duck and his Odd Egg with a bit of a surprise ending.

I LOVE this book! Duck and Goose both basically lay a custody grab for the little on inside this ëgg". Only they end up striking up a friendship through their disagreement.

 This is an almost wordless book about friendship despite what kind of egg you come out of.

A non-fiction book about all the different kinds of eggs out there. My students were so impressed with how big and how small eggs can be. They were making connections with this one for days.

My all-time favorite egg book! It's such a fun book to read.

Similes and the Chicken-Chasing Queen of Lamar County

One of my favorite books, chock full of similes is:

So we discuss what similes are and see if we can identify them as we read the story. Then I asked the students to make self-portraits and write a simile to describe themselves. Now the one downside to teaching your students to be creative all the time is that it is impossible to turn it off. So even though I asked them to really draw themselves how they looked, the pics came out with a little bit of creative license taken.

I am shiny like the sun.

Spicing Up Your Morning Message with Rigor

Morning message is a staple among many early childhood classrooms. It can be a great way to get those cogs working at the beginning of the day. Many teachers include sentences that you can read together, identifying rhyming words or punctuation. I am going to give you some suggestions of ways you can include some higher level activities as well.

This is what my morning message looks like.

1) Venn diagrams: I choose 2 topics every day to compare and contrast. Some times it goes along with what we are studying. Sometimes I use 2 students or 2 staff members. Here are some examples:

2. Analogies:

Forgive the handwriting-I'm a lefty and the farther down the chart I go the harder it is for me to write legibly. :) 

What kinds of things do you include in your morning message?