Monday Mood Lifter #2

For those of you that are off today, enjoy a nice relaxing day.  If you are teaching, here's something to lift your spirits:

Snowmen At Night

So, this is our first FUN FRIDAY post.   Every Friday we will post something fun!  It may be a video, game, or activity.  We hope you will enjoy it!

This is one of my favorite winter books!  I read it to my class today and then I gave them black and white construction paper to create their own snowmen.  We also used fun things like sparkle pieces, pom poms, google eyes, and foam pieces.  My students loved this!  They even enjoyed writing about what their snowmen did at night.

These are some pictures of the creative process going on.  Wait until you see the final products.:)

What fun things have you done with this book?  We would love for you to share!

We hope you will visit us next Friday for "Fun Friday"

Monday Mood Lifter #1

Here is an inspirational quote to start your teaching week right:

"Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement, nothing can be done without hope and confidence." -- Helen Keller

How do you inspire hope and confidence in your classroom?

How do you encourage your friends?

These are samples of what my students did with "January Word Activities."  I was so proud of what they wrote for the bonus question of how they would encourage their friends.  I think they are "Quality Students."

Classroom "Store": Hands on Learning

From Brittany~

My aftercare kids came up with a fantastic idea this month.  We turned our room into a Target.  Our Target has a Starbuck's in addition to a cash register.  We spent 45 minutes brainstorming what the children want in their Target store.  We talked about the different items inside the store and vocabulary that is centered on retail.  Kids learned the words "retail," "product," "employee," and "policy."

 The kids used our wooden blocks to create products for their store.  They wrapped them in butcher paper and drew products on them.  They also took additional paper and made price tags.

The best part of this project was the "Employee Checklist" we made.  We brainstormed responsibilities for the kids and they have fun performing them as part of the dramatic play.  We "reshelve," clean floors, and do other productive tasks.

"Quality Students"

The word for today from our January Word Calendar was "quality."  One of my students that I had the pleasure of having last year in kindergarten got all excited when she saw the word.  She said," I remember when we made a big book about quality students last year."  Other students commented that quality was from our song called 'Quality Students."   They were excited to see it on their January calendar.  It was a good time to remind them how we need to remember to act like quality students all the time.

  My student went over to our books and picked up the book and showed other students her page, and she started showing some of the other pages and calling kids over that had a page from last year. and then the kids asked if we could do a big book this year about "Quality Students."   I was surprised to see the students wanting to do this again.  The little girl said that this book could show them as quality students in first grade.  Yes, we definitely will do this!   

How many of you have gotten the opportunity to loop up with some of your students and what benefits have you seen in doing that?

January Word of the Day

I was so happy to see how having a word a day from our January Calendar had such an awesome response today.  The word was "habits" I did a little demonstration on how to show bad habits and how to show good habits.  The children laughed and we had a great discussion about good work habits.  The best part was when students started showing me their examples of good habits.

"Look, Mrs. Beckner, I have finished my math and now I am reading."  "I am showing good habits."
"I am working quietly."
"I am staying in my seat."

It is so great to see how focusing on a word for the day can have such a great response!

Please share what you do to get your students to show good work habits.