Purposeful Play: Kids Learn Through PLAY! STEM at its finest.

Looking for some STRUCTURED purposeful play?

Learning Resources has you covered.

I have used this great STEM activity with primary grades...and with my own 3-year old. (It is meant for ages 5+ but younger kiddos can have success with some support.)

Kids are tasked with designing and building a playground. They can build something completely creative and unique, or they can use the challenge cards that provide some scaffolding to design the elements pictured.

It's so much fun!

My kiddo loves building a structure (her words) and then taking the little fake plastic people it comes with to test out the sturdiness of her structure.

So, if you are looking for a quality and engaging STEM activity, check out Learning Resources for their Playground Design kit!

Whole Class Journals

Have you tried using whole class journal prompts?

It's really a lot of fun, and a great way to get kids reading AND writing!

In my classroom, I use plain old cheap composition books. To save laminating time, I printed the whole class journal prompts, and then just used packing tape to "laminate" them to the journal covers. It has literally lasted like 5 years. Yes, I keep the same journals and continue to use them.

When I am teaching small groups during ELA, kids have lots of literacy options. One is to work on writing. This might be to continue a writing project we started in Writing, or free write, or use these whole class journals. They choose the journal they are interested in responding in based on the prompt. Now this is where it gets fun. Some kids flip right to a blank page and start writing. They can choose to put their name/date or not. (I mean, I know everyone's handwriting, so it's fine!) BUT more often than not, I notice kids becoming absorbed in reading some of their classmates' responses that came before them. What a fun way to get to know each other better and launch some meaningful conversations later on!

Another fun surprise? Have family members, principals, and other teachers write entries in your class journals!

Click here to download a FREE whole class journal prompts resource!

Black Out Poetry

Have you tried Black Out Poetry?

My favorite way to use Black Out Poetry is as a culminating activity after reading a novel with a class. You can copy pages of the book (I like copying the beginnings of chapters because then the chapter title can serve as the poem's title) and give kids the option of which pages they use for their poetry. The choosing part is really fun because it reminds them what the book was about! They start talking, reminiscing, and it all comes back to them!

Start with pencil.

Very important!

Kids use a pencil to circle the words they want to use in their poem, understanding that this might be a different kind of poetry than they are used to!

Once the poem is done in pencil, kids are each given a marker (I like Sharpie because it is nice and dark). They circle those words that are in their poem and then add designs to "BLACK OUT" the rest of the poem. My examples below show that you do not need to color the entire page, just enough so that the words you chose stand out.

So, there you have it!

Black out poetry.

Easy, free, fast, engaging!

Read 20 Minutes a Day, EVERYDAY! Collaborative Classroom can help!

How do you instill a love of reading into your kiddos?

Start early.

Read with your child every day.

Model being a reader so your kids know it is important to you.

Provide a variety of texts and opportunities to explore books.

Create a rich literacy environment at home and in your classroom.

As a classroom teacher, I dedicated about half of the room space to my enormous classroom library, and no matter the grade I taught, I always brought every single book with me to the new classroom I was setting up. You never know what book will strike the fancy or meet the needs of a student - I wanted kids to have every book at their finger tips. And it showed everyone who walked into my classroom that I believed reading was important and worthwhile.

Now, many of us have seen this infographic:

How do you get kids to love reading?

Our new ELA program is masterfully engaging kids in reading every day.

In the past, our reading programs did not provide for a sustainable chunk of time every day for reading independently - I had to build that in myself. That meant giving up time somewhere else in my schedule to get every kid reading in a quiet and focused environment for a set amount of time to build stamina, foster a love of literacy, and give me the opportunity to conference with them individually. IT WAS WORTH IT TO ME.

Now, I am in several classrooms for our IDR time - Individualized Daily Reading. Our ELA program, Collaborative Classroom, sets goals for kids to read a certain about of time, uninterrupted, each day, while the teacher conferences with individuals. It's basically my dream - administration putting this structured reading time into the schedule. And the kids LOVE it. They're beginning to love reading, which will positively impact them in every other subject area. As well as in life, because isn't that our goal? To develop life long learners?

If you're look for Collaborative Classroom resources, check these out by clicking here!

THE NUGGET!

I'm telling you - the Nugget has been, HANDS DOWN, the best Christmas gift I have ever bought for my kids, who were 1 and 3 when we first got it.

It is purposeful play at its finest. Open-ended play - I am always surprised by how the kids use this Nugget! It can be a couch. It can be a fort. A book nook. A slide. A ship and the floor is water. A bridge, a bed, a foot rest, and so much more!

I originally wanted a Nugget for my classroom. I have seen so many teachers with Nuggets as a part of their classroom library and love it. Now that I am an instructional coach and interventionist, I don't have kids in my room as much, so there wasn't a need. But at home? Yes. BIG NEED!

So, if you are looking for an addition to your classroom library or something to entertain your own kiddos for hours on end, look no further! The Nugget is seriously where it's at!

STEM for Kids: Magnatiles/Picasso Tiles

Whether I am teaching in my classroom or teaching my toddlers at home, I try to think of ways to incorporate STEM. (Science Technology Engineering Math)

I was gifted a set of Magnatiles a few years ago and since then have continued to add to my collection! (Not just name brands, but the knock off brands, too! They work just as well and all of those magnetic tiles are compatible.)

What can you teach with magnetic tiles?

- free play encourages perseverance, dealing with frustration, and problem-solving

- colors

- counting

- presenting engineering challenges

- vocabulary development (structures, foundation, sturdy, etc.)

- put them on the window on a sunny day or in a dark room with a flash light to talk about light refracting

- the possibilities are ENDLESS!

In the classroom, many teachers use magnetic tiles as a piece of their STEM bins.

Check out my little ones beginning their engineering journeys below!

If magnetic tiles are out of your budget, but you have Lego building pieces laying around, like my husband, who has totes of them from his childhood, check out some Lego STEM Challenges for all ages here.

BROWNIE POINTS: Part of your classroom management system

Yep, brownie points have been part of my classroom management system for YEARS.

Do I want kids to be intrinsically motivated? YES. But do they need some guidance getting there sometimes? YES.

We heavily rely on Brownie Points in the beginning of the year. Praise, praise, praise. Reward, reward, reward. You're telling your kiddos what your expectations are and when they meet or surpass those expectations, THEY KNOW IT.

I use Brownie Points as a motivator in my classroom. When the ENTIRE class does something (following expectations during Daily Five, serving a role models during an assembly, wowing me on an assignment, etc.) the ENTIRE class earns a brownie point. (We work hard at COLLABORATION and TEAMWORK and COMMUNITY. Kids help each other succeed because they know that is how to get Brownie Points, but eventually we are just helping each other because it is the right and decent thing to do.)

Once we fill in the Brownie Points pan, we earn a mystery reward. Now, there are a lot of mystery rewards in my pocket. I learned very quickly that kids only wanted one. To watch a movie and eat lunch in the classroom. Yep. Something that was FREE FOR ME and did not take away any instructional time. Um, yes, please!

So, if you are feeling stressed and looking for an addition to your classroom management system, these are freebies that I found online! Try Brownie Points today. :)