Elf on the Shelf Thoughts?

We have an Elf on the Shelf in our house. He is Mr. Elf. He comes after Thanksgiving to visit until Christmas Eve. When he arrives, he has some kind of family gift, like matching pajamas that we can all wear for a holiday photo op. (Yes, the kids are more likely to wear the matching jammies if they come from Mr. Elf, not Mommy.)

On December 12, Mr. Elf also delivers the twelve days of Christmas gifts. 12 presents under the tree. (Spoiler alert: they are all books. Always. Every year.)

The 12 days of Christmas serve a few purposes. We get new books! We get excited about these new books and read them A LOT!

Also, the kids get practice opening gifts. They are still little and need some practice before actual Christmas or we might be unwrapping gifts for days. So, we practice and learn some techniques.

To summarize, Mr. Elf is just a fun visitor from the North Pole. Bringing some early gifts and hiding around the house. He is not watching for Santa - he is just a friend from the North Pole who needs to go back on Christmas Eve to help Santa.

In my classroom, I had an elf one year. Again, the elf delivered some new books to the room and caused some chaos. It was fun to find him each day and naming him was a little graphing lesson. He did not become part of my classroom management system - he was just for fun. *I should add that 100% of my students that year celebrated Christmas and believed in Santa. Also, we researched holidays around the world, so we were exposed to all kinds of winter celebrations, not just Christmas.

I think the elf on the shelf is fun! It absolutely should not become a management tool you whip out to scare kids into being good around the crazy holidays. So, when you are thinking about using an elf in your classroom or home, be really mindful about HOW you are introducing it and HOW you are using it.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween with a throw back to Lucy and our pumpkins!

Now that I have two toddlers, carving pumpkins doesn't look the same. We do stickers. We do markers. We do not do knives. :)

Oh, and Halloween on a Monday? Bring me back to a weekend Halloween, please! Let's survive this week where kids and families will decide that a plastic baggie full of left over Halloween candy is a totally appropriate snack. Or breakfast. Or lunch.

My love for magnetic tiles continues...

Challenge: Build the tallest structure!

Challenge: Build a structure you can go inside!

Challenge: Build an igloo!

Challenge: Build a fort for yourself!

But, actually, I did not give my kiddos any challenge at all! That's the beauty of toys that foster creativity and use of your imagination. Sometimes there isn't a challenge. Sometimes you dump some toys, items, crafty supplies, etc. out on the floor and see where it takes them!

An important Reminder as the School Year Begins...

This was my classroom door a few years back. 

I love the message it sends my students. We're here for THEM. That means that they are important. It also means that we are all in this together - a student's job is to learn and a teacher's job is to provide opportunities for learning. We're really just guides to support students in discovering who they are meant to be.

One thing I struggled with early on is eliminating "guys" from my teaching vocabulary. I loves that I could use this door as my guide. I called the kids scientists during science. Readers during a read aloud. It makes sense - when you see a child as an author, they do, too!

So, as the year gets going, I know this is the tiring time. The time that you just want to get into the curriculum but also need to lay that solid foundation of rules, procedures, and routines. It's also a really nice time for you as the teacher to bond with your class and show them that they truly are your priority. Enjoy the getting to know you phase of the year. Sprinkle in some fun between practicing lining up! :)

Happy beginning of the school year to all!

Throwback! Classroom Seating Edition

Once upon a time, this was my classroom:

Do you see those low white seats? They are the popular IKEA bookcases, turned on their sides. Very sturdy! They lasted for 10+ years!

I made those cushions. Horrible. Did not last 10+ years. They are simply foam covered with fabric. They slid all over and kids pulled at the fabric, which I hot glued together. It did not work.

Fast forward...well, 10 years!

These are the same bookshelves. The EXACT same bookshelves. You can see there is wear at the bottom, where kid feet rested, but overall, still in amazing shape! Sturdy and functional and cute!

The biggest difference is the cushion. I got plywood, foam filler, batting, and covered all of that with the cute indoor/outdoor fabric. Then, I did not use a hot glue gun, my old best friend. Instead, I used a nail gun. Seriously, these things have held together!!!

Currently, they are in my basement at home, being used regularly by two toddlers, a dog, and a cat. But they were in multiple fourth grade classrooms, a third grade room, and a second grade room. They lasted through more classroom moves than I can count. They were the perfect meeting area for every mini lesson and classroom meeting I ever held. When I had to move classrooms, first I would place my benches for our meeting area, then I would figure out where my classroom library would go, and then everything else just fit in where it could because those two elements were top priority in my mind. 

Whether you are homeschooling, teaching in a classroom, or a mom looking for functional seating in the playroom, I highly recommend using the IKEA hack!

Happy First Day of School!

I love a good photo op!

As a classroom teacher, I was always creating photo opportunities for my kids, documenting our learning journey together. At the end of the school year, I would compile them into a video slideshow with music, and yes, tears. I took so many pictures that the slideshow was usually close to an hour long, or even longer, and would you believe that those kids sat them, mesmerized by their growth, how much fun we had, and just how far they had come? Oh yes. 

So, as the year begins, think about how you can make this year memorable and special for you students. I think that is just as important as the academics - no big SEL events, but weave SEL throughout your year by being supportive, listening, and providing opportunities for kids outside of academics. It's so important, and that time spent building a strong foundation through relationships will come back to positively impact academics and behaviors. After all, kids work hard and listen to adults who respect them and care for them. I mean, they just know.

THROW BACK: Genre Graphs in the Classroom!

This is a major THROW BACK!

I used to always have a genre graph in my classroom. Now, this was before the days of my school district having any kind of curriculum. I take that back. We technically had some boxed program, but I started using it and it wasn't meeting the needs of my students, so I asked my principal what my options were and she literally told me to teach the standards however I saw fit. So....I did my own thing!

Now, this genre graph helped me a lot. As we worked through texts in fourth grade, We would add the title and author on a sentence strip and put it on the graph above the genre it fit with. This was beneficial is a variety of ways:

1. We were working on graphing. Who doesn't love cross curricular displays?

2. We were reviewing the genres and discussing them as we placed each text.

3. We were practicing how to cite texts when we wrote them on the sentence strip. And yes, I had kids write them. Get those kids involved in your classroom displays!

4. It held me accountable. I have favorite genres. I have favorite texts. Does that mean I can teach just that genre all year. No. I need to hit them all at some point. So, when I saw my kids' scores on a benchmark and they were rocking nonfiction questions and then I realized we had read 13 nonfiction texts and only 2 fiction texts so far....well, that made sense. And it helped me adjust what I was doing.

*Also, those genre posters were a freebie. Just a plain old google search.