Teacher Book Club: Fall & Winter

I have been a reading machine lately, it is a very relaxing gesture to unwind from a crazy busy day at work. I recently picked up a few books that I have been dying to read. As a teacher, I find it exciting to read about different cultures, languages and world views. 

Dangerous Refuge Elizabeth Lowell

A gripping murder mystery ending in romance. This novel was a great read and kept me on my toes. With entertaining sass, Lowell intertwines danger, deception and edge as she writes about the mysterious death of a small town rancher. With the ranchers nephew coming to settle his belongings, a local woman waltzes in to show him exactly who is uncle was and how he reminds her of the man he is supposed to be.

www.elizabethlowell.com

 

The Magnolia Story Chip and Joanna Gaines w/ Mark Dagostino

An elegant biography written by husband and wife team Chip and Joanna Gaines. The story is a wonderful reflection of their personal journey in marriage, children, family, starting their businesses, and growing into the hit T.V. show known as Fixer Upper. With their faith in the Lord and support of one another, their dedication for following their dreams comes alive in this novel. With hilarious interjections from Chip, Joanna playful writes about their story of becoming entrepreneurs and designers.

www.thomasnelson.com

Two by Two Nicholas Sparks

A beautifully written story about a man’s journey from a put-together life (a great job, a beautiful wife, and a young daughter) to becoming a single dad raising his daughter alone, starting his own business and overcoming the absence of a wife who left him) Nicholas Sparks once again delivers with a a tale that pulls at your heartstrings. #20YearsofSparks

www.nicholassparks.com

 

Uninvited Lysa TerKeurst

I simple twist on the “self-help” book that inspires and encourages all who read it. A daily inspirational read about overcoming loss and rejected that looks deep into your spiritual soul with biblical gut-wrenching honesty. A wonderful read about personal battle with abandonment and how rejection can poison the soul. From New York Times bestselling author Lysa TerKeurst “reminds us we are destined for a love that can never be diminished…” (back cover review)

 www.LysaTerKeurst.com

Absences and Art Education

I first want to start off by apologizing to all my blog readers out there, I am sorry for being MIA that last few months. Several of you have emailed about new Teachers Pay Teachers products and when they will be posted online. I will answer all those questions shortly, but first I wanted to explain my absence.

I recently switched school’s this year and am now teaching at a private school. I went from teaching Early Childhood to a much larger school that includes Pre-K 3 all the way up to 8th. The last few months, I have been a fish out of water trying to work out my scheduling, planning, lesson plans, and course work, so blogging has taken a massive back seat to my new role.

I am also adjusting to new curriculum, as I go from teaching all core subjects to teaching a specialty class----wait for it…. ART!

I have never been a very artistic person, however I took several art history classes in college and absolutely LOVED every one of them.

When, I was first assigned to teach art, my principal was very energetic and one hundred percent supportive (Did I mention, our teaching team rocks?) She has really given me the freedom to be creative with lesson plans and projects, that I have learned more about teaching in the last 3 months than I did in all my education classes in preparation to becoming a teacher.

So, the research began. I knew the basic artists (Michelangelo, Da Vinci, Matisse, van Gogh, Monet, etc.) along with the elements and principles of design, but how can I teach a Biblical World View ---we are a Christian based private school---perspective and incorporate it into the core of my art curriculum?

What were the curriculum results?

A massive series of art packets which dives into the basic elements and principles of art, art history, works of art, and individual artists viewpoints. Each of these art packets will be available for purchase in my TpT store starting in December. Each unit packet includes a pdf overview with teacher notes, a project based activity for grades Kindergarten to eighth, and a unit review sheet, take home projects, printable tests, quizzes and more!

Each packet will also be included in a BUNDLE in January for a discounted price, so you can save BIG! Take a look at all the packets below:

Elements of Art Packets:

($17.50) Art Elements and Principles Bundle will include: Color, Shape, Lines, Forms, Texture, Value, and Space packets-each priced at $3 individually. All packets have a pdf file with teacher notes and presentation slides for the classroom, an art project for grades Kindergarten through Middle School (8th), quizzes, tests, and Art Interactive Notebook (AIN) worksheets.

($5 each, or a growing bundle starting at $18) Individual Artists Packets will include: Artists Biography, Art Interactive Notebook (AIN) worksheets based on each artists, examples of their works, an art project for grades Kindergarten through Middle School (8th), quizzes and tests with answer keys. Some artists packets also include a separate take home project for upper elementary and middle school grades.

My Erin Condren Teacher Planner

Hello fellow bloggers! I apologize for my unexpected absence the last few weeks. I had some medical issues that left me hospitalized for 3 days and in bed for a few days afterwards. Needless to say, our summer TpT posting schedule and blog writing came to a quick HALT! However, I did get my new Erin Condren Teacher Planner in the mail a few weeks ago and have diligently been working on “sprucing” it up from the comfort of my bed. I absolutely love the layout that this planner provides and since I have a pretty busy schedule next year, with teaching K-1, Elementary Art for K-5 and am Yearbook editor, I needed a place to ORGANIZE everything. Step One:  I wanted to create personalized dates to my lessons area because our school “specials” alternate days, so I needed to make sure that the days that I teach art are highlighted each week with a special symbol or color.

Step Two: I want to customize the all about me area, making a few quick labels using the same colors from throughout the planner (obsessed with these bright and playful colors that Erin used). I needed this area to stand out so that if my planner ever gets lost, it is easily notable to where it can be returned to. Step Three: I made cute clipart stickers to add to the calendar area of my planner. I purchased a few sets from Krista Wallden from Creative Clips, mainly her snapshot ones to use in the header part of each month. (see photo below)Step Four: As I mentioned before, since my schedule is going to be crazy hectic next year, I will be using this planner for ALL of my scheduling---including personal stuff like doctors appointments, hair appointments, billing, and more. I wanted to include a payday schedule built into the calendar, but didn’t necessarily want to write out each month what days were are getting paid. These corner “payday” tabs worked great because they only take up a small portion of each box and I don’t need them every week so these are perfect.

Step Five: Above, I stated how I purchased clipart and made stickers for the header part of my monthly calendar section. One helpful tip is to print your clipart onto Avery White Sticker Paper and then simply trim around, peel, and stick to the page. I also did this for the payday stickers as well, but printed them on transparent sticker sheets, in case they overlapped any of the calendar boxes.

Step Six: For the last step in sprucing up my Erin Condren Teacher Planner, was to add all the holidays and school events into the calendar section. I also printed these onto white sticker sheets and just placed them in the boxes.

So. . . all I have left to do is the “week number” labels in the lesson area and add some washi-tape to the ends of my pages to separate the quarter periods and I will be good to go.

Not sure if I am going to be writing my lesson plans out or using a template to type them and paste them for each day. I think I will wait to see if we need to include our standards in our weekly plans or just in an overview monthly format.

How do you customize your Erin Condren Planner?

Summer Bundle Savings 2016

Summer is officially in full swing and this Southern girl is enjoying my relaxing morning routines. Waking up, grabbing some coffee, reading a few chapters in my book, enjoying some quiet time with the house to myself. . . and creating NEW products for my TpT store.

I am really trying to spend my summer building my TpT portfolio! This past teaching year, let’s just say. . . it has been one for the books! With those challenges and hurdles, I began thinking about the products that I already have in my store, how can I create new products that allow my students to build a better growth mindset AND help bring a more positive classroom atmosphere.

The answer---are you ready for this? More engaging activities for more students with less prep as possible! I want to be able to ENJOY teaching without the stress of trying to make every interactive workbook look perfect (what teacher isn’t a perfectionists!)

Introducing---(drum roll PLEASE) Summer Bundle Savings. Now I know this isn’t a new concept for teachers anywhere, but for this blondie, I'm hopping on the band wagon for a little boost before the hustle of BTS 2016. We will be launching ONE new bundle a week until August 1st! Along the way, there will be Dollar Deals and a ton of great blog posts for Back to School organization tips. Here is a sneak peak of one of the AWESOME bundles that we will be posting (schedule of release dates below)

Brag Tag Bundle $20. Color and Black & White Packages Sold individually for $15 each so YOU SAVE $10 when you buy the BUNDLE this summer!

This bundle includes over 100 color and black & white tags ranging from all subjects and includes holidays, school events, etc. Each tag comes with high quality clip art from Creative Clips by Krista Wallden. Brag Tags are a wonderful behavior management tool for elementary classrooms and is a great alternative to treasure box or materialistic rewards! Students take pride in earning reward badges to display on their back packs or bags to and from school.

Some of the themed tags included are:

• Language: Super Speller (Boy & Girl versions), Star Speller, Fabulous Fluency, Sweet Work, Dynamite Work, Writing Wizard, Super Cool Cursive, Perfect Pre-Write, Writer’s Workshop
• Reading: Book Worm, Best Buddy Readers, Really Cool Reader
• Math: Marvelous Math, A+, 100%, Arr-Some Job
• Character: Bee-ing A Friend, Magnificent Manners, Mr. Exceptional, Miss Exceptional, My Teacher is Proud of Me, Helping Hand
• School Events: Fire Safety, Lost a Tooth, Happy Birthday, Perfect Picture Day, 1st Day of School, Last Day of School, 1st Quarter Fabulous, Super 2nd Quarter, Third Quarter Terrific, Fourth Quarter Fantastic
• Holidays: Back to School, Give Thanks, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Hugs & Kisses, Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Easter, Summer Break

Dealing with Inappropriate Behavior

We have a special guest post by Amanda Scalise of Mrs. Scalise’s Pieces on how to deal with inappropriate behavior in the classroom.

Being a mother of two preschoolers and through numerous hours in the classroom as a school volunteer, substitute and student teacher, I have heard my fair share of children using inappropriate language. I’d have to say name calling is the number one offender in the classrooms I have been in. Students can become very frustrated with others or with a situation, and a majority of the time their number one outlet is to fire back with inappropriate language. Sure, on occasion you’ll have a few students who throw a full fledge temper tantrum, flailing, screaming and all but, we will focus on the name calling piece for now.

Finding appropriate ways for children to express themselves must be explicitly taught. In my experience I have found that teaching empathy and teaching specific strategies for when students are extremely upset are two key ways to do this, and the younger this is taught, the better!

Teaching empathy is NOT a one and done lesson. Using children’s picture books is a great way to start. One specific children’s picture book I love to use to explicitly teach empathy is Stand in my Shoes by Bob Sornson, Ph.D.. This book discusses what empathy is when the main character, Emily, inconsiderately barges into her sister’s room while she is trying to study. Emily then puts to practice what she learns about empathy by helping others around her by taking their feeling into consideration. This story is perfect for any age level and would make for an interesting conversation. While this story doesn’t specifically discuss name calling it can be used to discuss how it feels when someone calls other students names or says mean things to hurt their feelings.

Another FANTASTIC children’s book to teach empathy and kindness is How Full is Your Bucket? For Kids by Tom Rath and Mary Reckmeyer. This book really provides children with specific examples on how to practice kindness and how our actions affect others. This book would be a great to incorporate into classroom activities and even into a classroom management plan. Have students create a bucket as a class, or even their own individual buckets, and then provide them with specific scenarios and examples to determine if the scenario is bucket filling…or bucket dipping. Discussing how your students can be bucket fillers and ways they are being bucket dippers would also help develop that sense of empathy that needs explicit teaching. Incorporating activities, such as this would really provide a great visual for children and having them create their own buckets will really help them make a personal connection.

Teaching empathy is not the only way to combat using inappropriate language in the classroom. Generally, students are name calling for a reason, and determining that reason is very important! Some students name call for attention, but others name call or use inappropriate language because they are hurt and frustrated and want another student or even the teacher to hurt too. This is when teaching “cool down” strategies comes in handy. Let’s be honest, even adults say things they don’t mean out of anger and kids cannot be expected to behave any differently, especially if they haven’t been taught appropriate ways to express themselves.

Depending on how bad the situation has gotten in the classroom determines what strategy I use. I have had recess incidents that have ended in a whole class uproar. This is when heads down, lights off comes in handy. Students take a few minutes to relax and calm down with their heads down and the lights off. Then we can use a class meeting approach and allow the students to express how they feel. It is important that each student involved has a chance to be heard even if they are the first offender. I have found that guiding students using sentence stems such as “I did _________ because I felt ________” really avoids the blame game. Other cool down strategies that may be helpful are, teaching students to remove themselves from a frustrating situation, counting to five, and even singing a song such as “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star”. These provide a distraction from how they are feeling and allow them to calm down just enough to make a smarter choice. Teaching peer mediating techniques is also a great strategy to use and allows students to take ownership of their own problems. Peer mediating can be used in primary classrooms as long as it is explicitly taught.

There are numerous strategies and tips on how inappropriate language in the classroom can be addressed, these are just a few I have used in some of my own experiences. The behavior should definitely be addressed, but I also think it is important to know your students and practice empathy as a teacher and try and understand what their little minds are going through. Thanks for reading!

You can check out Amanda’s blog at

Parts of a Flower Poster & Coloring Activity

Although summer is quickly approaching and students are getting excited for the end of school we have been covering some spring themes like, flowers, insects, and gardening!

The key to some of our science lesson plans are for the students to be able to identify parts of a flower and to be knowledgeable of the life cycle of plants.

For our independent science study, we created this simple flower part packet which includes a colored poster and black & white coloring sheet. We wanted to stick to the basics and only included the four main parts of a flower: flower, stem, leaves, and roots.

Real-Life Connection Activity: We included real-life plant pictures in our science center. We took photos of flowers, printed them out and laminated them for longer durability. We put all the pictures in a basket with dry-erase markers. This allowed the students to explore the parts of a flower on their own. They were able to look at the colored poster and circle the different parts on each flower photo.

THINK Series Pat 3: Forward Thinking

Intentional thinking is a skill that most of us do not even realize we use on a daily basis. Teachers put up a bulletin board, however they probably had to prep an activity, collect a colorful border, and design a catchy title---using forward thinking to create an exciting showcase for the parents and students.

As teachers, we have to teach our students these skills to help them set appropriate goals. We have to teach them how to set their goal and the tool or strategies they will need to reach those goals.

As a primary teacher, my co-teacher and I are constantly reflecting on activities and ideas that we do, to decide what worked well and what lessons we should change or build upon. We ask our students daily questions of what, why, and how to allow them to make purposeful decisions and brainstorm forward thinking.

Our latest theme was outer space and our goal was to have each student learn what space is and recognize certain elements that are associated with outer space, like: astronauts, planets, rockets, and stars. We put together the “My Planet” take home project.

We wanted the student to use their intentional thinking by wondering:

What kind of planet am I going to make? What kind of people will live on my planet?

How am I going to design my planet? How am I going to incorporate materials?

Why am I creating a planet that has these items? Why am I creating a planet only for (pets, superheroes, people, planets, etc.)

Lesson Materials:

• One small styro-foam ball, one for each student in your class
• Printable My Planet poem, included in our Dollar Deals on TpT

Lesson Directions: (These are also included in the packet)

• Send home the styro-foam ball, a copy of the My Planet poem, and directions with each student. Be sure to write in your due date on the direction sheet.
• Once, each student has turned in their planet, prepare for large group discussion.

Note: The My Planet poem provided in our packet includes forward thinking questions like “What is the name of your planet?” and “Who can live on your planet?”

We had a ton of students who were VERY creative in their planet building and My Planet creative writing piece.

Large Group Discussion: We set up our large group time as a show-and-tell activity. Each student stood up in front of the class and shared their planet. They talked about how they created their planet, information about their planet like: what is the planet’s name, who lives there, what things can you do on the planet, etc. We had wonderful class involvement and interaction which lead to some higher level thinking questions.

For example: One student decided he was going to create a planet specifically for super heroes to live on. They would fight crime and save the people on the other planets. In return, another student asked, “Well how do the superheroes get from planet Earth to their home?” Then, the topic of rockets and spaceships came up which lead to a discussion about space travel.

For an extension activity, we designed our own rockets and flew them outside on the school playground.

So, how are YOU introducing forward thinking and intentional learning into your daily activities? We would love to hear how you used this packet in your classroom!

All About My Mom & A Special Dollar Deal

Throughout the school year, teachers help their students celebrate holidays of all kinds. Reminding the kids to be thankful for family and friends on Thanksgiving, teaching how Jesus was born to save us during the Christmas holiday, or to show someone kindness and love on Valentine’s day! However, my favorite holidays to celebrate in my classroom would  have to be Mother’s Day! (Sorry, dads!) As Mother’s Day approaches, we have a wonderful dictation writing poem packet for our April Dollar Deal…

Our school does Muffins with Mom and the students love it. We always have a wonderful turn out with tons of moms, grandmas, aunts, and sisters! Last year, we made cute Mother’s Day Superlative Awards to pass out to each mom, but THIS year we are incorporating our dictation and writing skills into a Mother’s Day poem.

In our All About My Mom packet, students will fill-in-the-blanks to answer questions about their mom. It is a wonderful dollar deal that you can use for a Muffins with Mom celebration or on display for a Mother’s Day themed bulletin board.

I even did a quick one for MY mom! I don’t know where I would be without her wisdom and guidance. She is not only my mom, she is truly one of my best friends!

As you can see, each poem comes in either color or black & white options. There are two fill-in-the-blank poems per sheet. We suggest, printing the colored version on white cardstock and you can use the B&W version two different ways. (1. Print the B&W version on white cardstock and little your students color or 2. Print the B&W version in different colored cardstock) Both ways are great! Click on product photo above to purchase on TpT

THINK Series Part 2: Enhancing Curiosity

Did you know that curious children are usually the students in your classroom that need to be challenged the most? Students who are consistently asking questions are probably more aware of their senses and surroundings than you think. So, how can you keep this curious child at ease and challenge them to discovery on their own?

Try This: Create an interest box or sensory bottles for your classroom. Not only are they wonderful learning tools for your science area, they allow children to explore and discover things on their own.

A child’s curiosity will only build as they grow, leading them to ask more questions about the things they are interested in. If a particular child is interested only in the study of bugs, guide them and ask questions like, “Can you tell me which bugs you would find in the dirt?” and “Can you tell me which bugs you would find in the grass?” This challenges the child to THINK about which bugs would be classified into groups. Challenge them to sort bugs by the number of legs or if the bug has wings! Enhancing their curiosity in a specific subject cause the child to repeat the activity until they are comfortable with exploring it on their own. This repetition in learning can build the student’s confidence, as their knowledge for the area of study grows.

If a child’s interest is concentrated, try connecting their interest to a book or activity. If you have a bug lover---connect it to an age appropriate book like Ten Wriggly, Wiggly, Caterpillars by: Debbie Tarbett, which introduces counting backwards from ten or Bob and Otto by: Robert O. Bruel, which highlights the differences in palindromes (caterpillars and worms). You can connect a child’s curiosity to an activity…for example, this bug magnetic puzzle from Melissa & Doug not only will interest a child who likes bugs, but will also work on their fine motor skills.

Creating An Artful Outdoors

I have never been a great “art” teacher, especially when it comes to creative art. Let’s face it- I never went to art school or painted a mural, so my expertise in that area is limited. However, every early elementary teacher needs to incorporate some type of art activity into their day. Since, it is so important that kids get time for gross motor play, we decided to combine the two together. My co-teacher this year is WONDERFUL at planning awesome art inspired activities that correlate with our theme each week. She really wanted to take a sensory/art project outside for the kids to do. We took paintbrushes, paint cups with red and purple shampoo paint and let the kids paint on the white easel paper. We taped it up and told them to go to town! They had a blast and we used the art to create cut out hearts for another project later in the week.  The positive benefits of taking art outside: It allows the children to express creative art. It gives the students the ability to touch, smell, walk, experience, and create in an environment that is considered to be “out-of-the box” learning. Hearing sounds of nature, feeling sunshine, and communicating with others allows less stress for the child and releases the “happy hormone,” (aka Serotonin). Taking art outside is highly beneficial for better classroom attitudes and overall community improvement. It promotes team building and gross motor skills.

The negative downfalls of taking art outside: Let’s face it, paint of any kind whether you are sitting at a table or painting on easel---gets messy quick! If you don’t have washable paint or plastic fences that can easily be rinsed off with a hose, I would suggest maybe taking crayons and coloring books outside instead of paint. Another downfall, the paint has to dry somewhere, so if you have other classes that use the same playground or outdoor area that you do, you might want to clear it with them first. Our final product was a hit with the other students/staff and the parents loved seeing the kids pictures of them painting outside! What are some other fun lessons you have done outside with your class?

Teaching Cause and Effect

Understanding basic concepts of science are great building blocks for young children to want to seek out more knowledge. However, cause and effect priciples can be applied for more than just science. Asking open questions like “what you think will happen” is the best way to get the most out of any activity or experience. Many people make the mistake of “telling children” rather than letting them engage in thought and problem solving.

Here are a few simple activities that can be used outside of a science background to fully engage children in the concept of caue and effect.

Activity 1: Read the story of Goldilocks and the three bears. Ask some of the following questions:

Q1:What caused the chair to break?

A1: Goldilocks was too big for the baby bear chair, so it broke.

Q2: What caused baby bear to get mad when the bears came back home?

A2: Someone had ate his porridge, someone broke his chair, someone had slept in his bed.

These types of pointed questions can be applied to all types of stories including, Laura Numeroff’s "If You Give..." series of books (including If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, If You Take a Mouse to School, etc.). Even though each consequence or effect is more ridiculous than the next, these brilliantly illustrated books walk children step-by-step through cause and effect relationships, one sentence at a time.

Activity 2: Talk about classroom manners. Ask some of the following questions:

Q1: What would happen if we forget to push in our chairs when getting up from the table?

A1: Someone might trip and hurt themselves.

Q2: What might happen if we push a friend?

A2: Our friend might get hurt, we will hurt our friend’s feelings, our friends will not want to play with us anymore if we are not nice to each other.

Activity 3: (Science) Use regular household objects and ask if they will float on top or sink to the bottom of a glass or bowl of water. Use a clear container so kids can see it sink!

Q1: Will this object stink or float?

A1: Answers will vary based on the child’s prediction of what will happen.

Activity 4: (Dramatic Play/Role Playing) Allow the child to play with various cooking items, whether pretend or real.

Q1: What do you think will happen if we bake the cookies too long/too short?

A1: They might burn, the cookies will not be ready (cooked)

Q2: What if we made too many cookies and cannot eat them all? What should we do?

A2: The child might suggest that they share them with a sibling or friend. They may also state that if they were to eat all the cookies, they might have a tummy ache.

A New Year for C2C

We are starting off the New Year with new adverstising and some new social media outlets. You can find us now on Instagram by looking for our product hastags! For each new product we post, we will be including our store hashtag #cottagetoclassroom as well as a product hashtag like #c2c”productnamehere”.

Did you notice of Pinterest app in the right hand sidebar? You can now check out all our products on Pinterest and follow our boards to see what activities/products we find exciting.

For example, check out this NEW product we launched in January.

This color and count activity pack is great for beginning number recognition, number counting, and basic addition. This packet includes 4 black and white worksheets (2 per sheet) that are wonderful for early childhood teachers to use as homework practice, in a math portfolio, or in math centers. Get our #c2cwintercolorcount HERE

Check out these products we will be launching in February. This Valentine math activity pack is great for early childhood classrooms or as a review for lower elementary classes when talking about number bonds. This packet includes 8 black and white worksheets that cover number bonds practice/addition with dice, tally marks, and whole numbers from 1 to 12.  Answer Key is Included within the pack. Get our #c2cvalentinenumberbonds HERE. (Launched on TPT)

This packet will include 20 pages of worksheets (color or black and white options) that are common core aligned to help with math and literacy. The entire packet is in a Valentine theme and covers ten frame practice, number counting, cut and paste activities, letter matching, one-to-one correspondence, word building, and more. Answer Key included. Launching February 5th on TPT #c2cvalentinenoprep