New Adventure, New Blog

I left a little piece of my heart in Kindergarten back in 2013, but my teaching adventures have continued! I now own and operate my own home-based preschool, and love the flexibility that teaching at home has given me to spend so much time learning and playing with my amazing son. You can read about my new teaching and learning adventures over at my new blog:

handheartlearning.blogspot.com

Book Love: Do You Know Which Ones Will Grow?

Title: Do You Know Which Ones Will Grow?
Author: Susan A. Shea
Illustrator: Tom Slaughter
Why I Love This Book: This book is a fun, and humorous, way of talking about living and non-living things with young children. Written in question format with rhyming text, the pages include a lift-the-flap feature to reveal the rhymes, making it that much more engaging and interactive. I love that it uses questions to approach the concept, because that allows them to think and develop their reasoning skills.  Finally, the paintings used for the illustrations are brightly colored and simply delightful. This book is a great match for kids in preschool-first grade, as they are developing their understanding of things in the world.

Seasons

Is it really April?

I don't even know where the last 4 months have gone. 

I've been as busy as ever in my classroom, enjoying this time with my 24 little learning wonders. We have been exploring the world through science and writing and math and social studies. We have been changing through it all- learning and growing with each new discovery, just as the seasons have continued to move forward and change. And much like the cycle of the seasons, our journey together is coming to an end, and new learning adventures will begin. It's always a bitter-sweet time, to see one season end and another begin. 

This is one of the Season Trees we made for our school Arts Night.

I have also been looking towards a new season in my personal life as well. This summer I will be welcoming my own little learning wonder into the world. I am so excited to become a mom, and to help this little one learn and grow and develop. I'm sure it is going to be a great, life-long learning adventure.

This year has gone by way too quickly, but I'm hoping to still share some of our classroom adventures before it is over. It has been a wonderful year!

An Amazing Gift

So...it's December and this time of year always feels a little crazy in the classroom. While the kids get excited about all the extra holiday festivities and activities, I'll admit that I have found myself feeling a little stressed and worn out. But I received a surprise this week that made me feel so appreciated and supported. It seriously made my whole year.

After I finished teaching on Monday, I went to go check my box before I tackled my huge list of things to do for the coming week. To my surprise, I found a wrapped gift sitting there with my name on it. I took it back to my classroom, and read the note that was attached. The note itself blew me away and brought tears to my eyes. An anonymous donor expressed their gratitude for the work that I do, and wanted to help provide something for my classroom. I was in shock when I opened the box and saw what was inside.

4 iPod Shuffles

Sometime last year, I expressed a desire on my blog to try and create a listening center that was more independent, and thought that iPod Shuffles would be a great way to go because they would be very easy for the kids to manage on their own. Even though I knew it would be a long-shot, I asked around to see if anybody had any kind of independent listening devices that they would be willing to donate. After receiving a minimal response and knowing that other things that were more pressing in my budget, I kind of gave up on the idea of making this a reality in my classroom.

Until now.

I hope that whoever decided to give in such a generous way knows that I am so grateful for their support! I was so touched, and still feel amazed at the kind and thoughtful generosity of this person. I am also SO excited to put these to good use in the classroom, and I've been getting them ready to introduce them to the kids when we get back from Winter break. They will be a perfect addition to our Daily Five/Reading Workshop time, and a valuable resource in our room. Thank you so much--whoever you are!

After the tragic events that recently occurred among children and teachers in Connecticut, I am even more grateful for this act of kindness, and all others that I have received as a teacher. Although there are people in the world who make horrible, evil choices, I have to believe that there are more people in this world who do what they can- big or small- to help others and make it a better place. More than ever I am inspired to bring an attitude of caring and goodness to my own students. I hope that we can all cultivate a spirit of giving, love, kindness, and compassion in our small circles of the world, this holiday season and always.

Book Love: Can I Play Too?

Title: Can I Play Too?

Author: Mo Willems

Why I Love This Book: I love Mo Willems' books. His comic and simple approach just really connects with younger kids. My Kindergarten students go crazy over this particular book. They seriously laugh their heads off, and beg me to read it again. I love that it is so engaging to them, but that it also lends itself to a great discussion about friendship and problem solving. 

I am thankful for...

...my amazing class of Kindergarten kids! They are so fun.

Last week they wrote about what they are thankful for, and we turned their work into a place mat for Thanksgiving. They turned out so cute! I always love open-ended activities like this that allow them to share a little bit of their heart.

Thanksgiving dinner, the alphabet, Barbie, and my teacher :)

Ice Cream, turkey, car, family

Prophets, Jesus, myself, reindeer

My Mom, food, my football, my soccer ball

 Happy Thanksgiving!

The Pumpkin Experiment Continues...

Well, our pumpkin sprouts just keep growing...

 But the pumpkin just keeps getting more and more rotten...

Some sprouts have even started growing through the pumpkin skin!

So we decided to give our sprouts a new home, and continue to watch their growth. We planted the entire pumpkin inside a  pot. I'm not sure how long we can keep it growing inside the pot and inside our classroom, but it will be another fun experiment to find out!

Here are some fun Science Journal entries about our pumpkin experiment.

The Pumpkin Experiment

So I guess I've been having a little too much fun in my classroom to think about blogging lately, and I feel pretty good about that. It's been a really great year so far. There's something about the second time around that makes it feel so much easier.

This is a little experiment that we tried in my classroom as we were talking about plants in the fall. I had seen this idea floating around the internet in several different places, and decided to give it a try.

After we talked about the life cycle of a pumpkin, we opened up my pumpkin to take a look at all the seeds and meat inside. I asked my class to make a prediction (or a hypothesis) about whether or not the seeds inside the pumpkin could grow if we just added dirt and water. Most of my class was pretty skeptical, and thought that the seeds would not grow inside the pumpkin. I'll admit, I was unsure myself of how successful this experiment would be.

But we came back after a long weekend to a fun surprise...

Pumpkin sprouts! The class was ecstatic- they were so excited. Every day this week they run over to check on it first thing in the morning to see how much taller the sprouts are getting.

The pumpkin itself is getting pretty rotten, so I don't know how much longer I'll let the sprouts grow in my classroom. But it has been fun for everyone to watch it grow this week!

Behavior Tools: Motivators Part 1

Developing impulse control and patience can be difficult for young children. When they want something, they usually want it NOW. That is definitely something to keep in mind when working with kids, because most often the kids who struggle with appropriate behavior are especially impulsive, and have difficulty delaying gratification.  Just think about how hard it is for these kids to wait before eating a marshmallow...

The kids in this video were motivated by the promise of receiving a second marshmallow, if they waited to eat the first one. Most kids were successful, some faltered a little bit, and one or two simply could not wait at all. In the same way, a classroom full of students will have similar dynamics: most of them have the basic skills that they need to behave successfully, even if they might make mistakes every once in awhile. But there will always be a small percentage of kids who need additional behavior support, and one reason for that might be exactly what is illustrated in this video: some kids can't wait and control their impulses.

This knowledge should guide the way that we implement positive reinforcement, motivators, and rewards with young children, especially in a classroom. For the majority of a class, working to earn a big class reward over a period of time will be mostly effective. But that kind of motivator doesn't work for that small percentage of kids that need more behavioral support- the delay of gratification is too long and therefore their motivation to control their impulses for such a reward is very small.

Although it can be a bit time consuming in a classroom, these students can greatly benefit from personalized motivators or interventions that have shorter intervals with small rewards that eventually build up to a big reward. Next time, I will share some motivation ideas that I am trying in my classroom this year that exemplify this concept. (I am looking at this idea from a classroom standpoint, but this idea can also be applied to helping an individual child at home!)

Behavior Tools is a series about understanding and managing behavior with young children. The more we understand children and their behavior, the better we are able to teach them how to make good choices and build a solid foundation of self worth and confidence. There is no one-size-fits-all answer to helping a child learn appropriate behavior, which is why we need a lot of different tools and strategies to draw upon when we work with young children. 

Kindergarten Super Hero

B (for boy) at recess: Can I go change?
Me: Change? Do you need to go to the bathroom? (Thinking, please don't say you had an accident)
B: No. I need to change into my Spiderman costume. I'm really Peter Parker.
Me: Oh, is it in your backpack?
B: No.
Me: Well, you could pretend to change then.
B: I can't do that! Then the kids will know I'm Spiderman!!
Me: Oh, right. Why didn't I think of that...so, maybe you could change behind the corner so they can't see you?
B: Yeah, I could do that.

B runs off making super hero noises, and returns as Spiderman, ready to defend our Kindergarten playground.

I think I'm a lucky teacher to have a super hero in my class. He later asked if I would change his nametag to say Peter Parker, since that is his real name. Sadly, I had to say no to that one.

But I have the feeling this won't be the last super hero encounter I have this year. My class is really boy heavy...as in there is basically a 3:1 boy/girl ratio. I have the feeling there might be more super heroes waiting to reveal themselves. I can already tell it is going to be a fun- and energetic- year!

Back to School Busy-ness

We are officially one week into this new school year and I am exhausted!
These past two weeks have been so busy with meetings, prep work, parent nights, and of course, teaching.
I have been working full-time hours even though I am a part-time teacher, and my to-do list still feels endless.

But I am so excited for this year. My class is already a lot of fun.

We started off the year with some of my favorite books:

and I'm planning to try out some new favorites during the next few weeks:

To help the kids explore the school a little bit during the first week, my Kindergarten team does a fun treasure hunt activity using this book:

(My team mate has been using this idea for a few years...
I'm sure it came from somewhere, but I'm not sure where.)

After reading the book, we tell the kids that we brought some cookies for them to celebrate their first week of Kindergarten, but when we go to pull them out, we find a note from The Mouse in its place explaining that he stole our cookies. So we follow the clues to different places around the school until we find them in the Principal's office. The Principal is so great to meet all the kids and play along with our little game. 

The kids love this because its a treasure hunt and they get cookies at the end.

 I love it because it is a great way to introduce how we walk in the hall...(we need to walk quietly so we don't scare the mouse away!) Plus, it doesn't hurt to earn some brownie points from the kiddos because I brought them cookies. :) 

Other than that we have been learning and practicing our rules and routines again and again and again. 

I keep reminding myself that all of the repetition is going to pay off eventually! 

Back to Kindergarten

I've been back in my classroom this last week, 

putting up bulletin boards and assessing incoming Kindergartners. 

My cute family came to help in my classroom. Thanks guys. 

Summer has been great, but I'm excited to start another year in Kindergarten.

Only about a week and a half before school starts up again!

Behavior Tools: Toddler Aggression

Toddlers have little bodies and BIG emotions, that they don't know how to manage yet. 

That can make for a pretty dynamic combination. 

They are beginning to assert their independence, while needing attention and love to validate their sense of self. They are learning new things and growing at such a rapid rate, that sometimes we might assume that they "know better" when it comes to behavior. 

Yet, in any given moment, even if you have told them not to, they can explode into behaviors that are outwardly aggressive. Temper tantrums, hitting, biting, throwing, kicking...these are all things that can hurt other people and really drain parents and care-takers. 

Such behaviors usually stem from an inability to cope with and control the big emotions they are feeling- positive or negative. And although they may know that you get upset when they do something like that, developmentally they do not have the impulse control or the ability to truly understand how their actions can hurt and affect others.  

Helping toddlers to learn to manage their emotions and control their body's response takes time, patience, and consistency. There are a lot of great ideas and strategies explored in the articles I've included at the end of this post. I'm going to offer some general guidelines. 

Respond calmly

How we react to situations of stress and anger gives them a model of what to do. If we respond with yelling and violence, then they will learn those behaviors. A big reaction also gives them a lot of attention, which need may have been why they acted out in the first place. That attention supports the negative behavior. Responding in a calm, but firm way shows that we can handle our emotions and they can too.

Redirection and Natural Consequences

Have a plan for how you will redirect them after an incident, and what natural consequences can help them to learn. Consistency is the key here, as repetition helps them to learn new skills and builds their trust in your guidance and direction. A natural consequence can be as simple as removing the child from a situation or losing a toy for a few minutes. They don't need to be big to make a difference. 

Short and Sweet

It is important for children to learn why behaviors are not appropriate, but toddlers will not respond to a long lecture- especially in that moment when they are consumed by their feelings. (Are you very receptive to instruction and correction when you are upset about something?) Consistently using the same, short statement in response to a behavior, with a consequence, can be effective and powerful. 

Teaching Time

Giving toddlers a chance to learn about behavior and feelings can go a long way as they grow and develop. Remember, the time to teach these things is not during or immediately after a big emotional outburst. Pretend play is one of the most important ways that children explore feelings and social situations. This can be a great opportunity to model how to identify and react to your emotions. Age appropriate literature can also offer a backdrop for learning about these things. 

Keep it Positive
Toddlers live in a world of "no" and "don't." Making an effort to notice positive behavior, and to focus on what they can and should do will help make the world seem a little less restrictive and frustrating. It will also reinforce their learning of positive skills and behaviors. They are also at a tender stage of development because they are learning to feel either shame or confidence for who they are. If there is no love and positive direction to counteract the negative, then they will only learn to feel shame. But as we respond to them with patience and consistency, helping them to learn the boundaries through consequences, teaching, and positive support, their foundation of self-worth will be much more confident.


Resources:
Hitting, Biting, and Pushing? from Practical Parenting
Aggressive Toddler Behavior: What to Do from What to Expect
Understanding and Responding to Children Who Bite from NAEYC for Families
6 Peaceful Solutions for Hitting and Anger from Simple Kids
Toddlers and Challenging Behavior from Zero to Three
Helping Young Children Channel Their Aggression from Zero to Three

P.S. I recently stumbled upon this blog that gives a more humorous perspective on the life of a toddler. Enjoy! :)


Behavior Tools is a series about understanding and managing behavior with young children. The more we understand children and their behavior, the better we are able to teach them how to make good choices and build a solid foundation of self worth and confidence. There is no one-size-fits-all answer to helping a child learn appropriate behavior, which is why we need a lot of different tools and strategies to draw upon when we work with young children. 

I Can!

One of my favorite things to focus on in my classroom is helping kids to think more positively about themselves and their abilities.

I get so sad when I hear kids say "I can't do it."
And sadly, I hear negativity like that all too often.

One way that I talk about this with my students is through using learning goals. Although most have been to preschool, Kindergartners are experiencing a more structured school environment for the first time. As such, part of my job is to teach them how to learn and be a student in that environment. I use 5 "I Can" statements that are a part of what I call "High-Five Learning."  To be High-Five Learners in my classroom, we work on these things:

1. I can try hard things.

2. I can stick to my work.

3. I can make mistakes count.

4. I can help others. 

5. I can celebrate my learning.

I like to use I Can language with rules and other objectives as well to help replace negative thinking with an I Can attitude.

I love using literature to show them examples of developing an I Can attitude. 

This book, Bobbie Dazzler, is one of my favorites. We read this book at the end of the year, and then made I Can books as a way to celebrate our learning, and ourselves!

The results were so great. 

As a new year is fast approaching, I'm reminding myself to have an I Can attitude as I think about everything I need to do and accomplish. I'm looking forward to another great year of learning wonders!

Book Love: What is a Scientist?

Title: What is a Scientist?

Author: Barbara Lehn

Why I Love This Book: I used this book with my Kindergartners last year to introduce what it means to be a scientist. I love the way that the author breaks science down into very simple concepts. For example, "a scientist is a person who asks questions and finds different ways to answer them" or a "scientist learns from her senses." Each of the simple statements could be used as the foundation for a lesson on their own, and all of them could be used in an anchor chart to refer to during scientific exploration. The photographs might feel a little dated now (the book was printed in 1999), but they still offer young readers a sense of connection with the kids in the book. The book also helped me as a teacher to break down the subject of science into meaningful components. This is a great book for the classroom, but it could also open the door for scientific conversation and exploration at home! 

Pete the Cat Love

I LOVE children's literature. If I had a lot of money, it would be very easy for me to spend it buying books. But, I'm a teacher, so I don't have a lot of money. I almost always look for books at thrift stores, where I can get a lot more for my buck.

This summer, I had some extra gift money, and decided to splurge.....on Pete the Cat.

Pete the Cat is really trendy right now among teachers, and for a long time I resisted the urge to jump on the bandwagon. But as I wrote about on this Book Love post, one day the music teacher used the book with my kids during music time and they were so engaged it was ridiculous...and I was singing and laughing right along with them. I was hooked.

 I love Pete the Cat.

As part of building my Pete the Cat collection, I decided to get the stuffed toy as well. One reading incentive I'm going to try this year is having the students earn the chance to read with a "reading buddy" like Pete the Cat during Read to Self. I have a few other toy characters from books that I will use, but I have the feeling Pete will be pretty popular.

Behavior Tools: Understanding Behavior

Merriam-Webster dictionary defines behavior as "the manner of conducting oneself."

Simply put, behavior is what we say or do in any given situation. 

And what we do or say is always influenced by something else. We do what we do for a reason. 

Think about that for a second. Everything we do or say, we do for a reason. 

Sometimes those reasons are obvious...

I eat because I'm hungry. 

I tie my shoe so it won't fall off when I'm walking.

I wear a jacket so I won't get as cold.

Sometimes those reasons are not as clear...like when we say something mean to a friend when we are feeling hurt or angry or defensive. 

The point is, there is always something behind the way we choose to behave, and that is just as true for kids as it is for adults. 

Understanding the why behind a child's behavior can help us to behave more appropriately in response. The why or function of a behavior can typically be generalized into two categories. We do things because we want to obtain something tangible (i.e. attention, validation, item) or we do it to avoid or escape something (i.e. avoid shame, attention, punishment, etc.)

As adults, we have had a lot of experience and practice with behaving in certain ways to either get what we want or avoid things we don't want. Even still, we make mistakes and don't always make the best choice.

The thing with kids is that they haven't had those years of experience and practice to always know what the best choice of behavior is in any given situation. As such, they are constantly trying out different behaviors to see what works and what doesn't. If a behavior gets the result they are looking for, then they are very likely to continue using that behavior to get what they want- even if it is considered inappropriate by adult standards. 

That's where the importance of teaching comes in. We can't expect kids just to know how best to behave- even if we've told them or punished them for a certain undesirable behavior. So often I hear the phrase: "They know better." I'm sure I've even used this phrase before. But the truth is, if they are still using a negative behavior to get what they want, then they really don't know better. And that's probably because we haven't given them the right kind of teaching and practice to learn a better behavior. 

For me, understanding the why of behavior helps me to be more patient with teaching appropriate behavior. When I understand that B (for a boy) is really shy and gets anxiety in whole group situations, I recognize that his behaviors of laying down on the rug and poking other kids is a way for him to escape the anxiety that he feels. Perhaps then, instead of being offended that he is not paying attention to my lesson and constantly nagging him to sit up and keep his hands to himself, I can focus on teaching him strategies to participate appropriately and deal with his anxiety, while also doing what I can to make him more comfortable in that situation. It completely changes the way I handle the situation, which is the only thing I have control over anyways. 

Behavior Tools is a series about understanding and managing behavior with young children. The more we understand children and their behavior, the better we are able to teach them how to make good choices and build a solid foundation of self worth and confidence. There is no one-size-fits-all answer to helping a child learn appropriate behavior, which is why we need a lot of different tools and strategies to draw upon when we work with young children. 

Behavior Tools: The Toolbox

Building Your Toolbox

Building positive relationships is the foundation for teaching, and should be applied with every child, regardless of their behavioral abilities. Beyond that, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to teaching appropriate behavior.

That is why you need a behavior toolbox. 

You need to have a lot of different kinds of tools and strategies to use with children, because every child is different, and their needs and abilities will change as they continue to grow. That is one reason that building a positive relationship with kids is so important, because knowing their personality, interests, and needs can help you to decide what tools will be most effective and necessary for them. 

There are basically 3 types of tools that you will need. Just like a hammer serves a different purpose than chainsaw, these tools have different functions but all of them have the goal of helping kids to be successful.

1. Preventative Tools

These are the tools that help to prevent misbehavior. These tools are basically the things that adults have control over, such as environment and scheduling. Most kids will be very responsive to these kinds of strategies. 

2. Supportive Tools

These are the teaching tools. We cannot expect kids just to know how to behave in different settings or how to manage their emotions. We also can't expect that just telling them what to do or punishing them is going to teach them the appropriate behavior. For example, spanking a child may temporarily stop the behavior from occurring, but it does not teach them how to behave correctly. (Spanking also teaches a child to do things out of fear, rather than to do things because it makes them feel good inside...but that is a whole different can of worms.) We need to explicitly teach children how to follow our expectations and give them opportunities to practice being successful within those guidelines. 

3. Corrective Tools

In my opinion, these tools build upon supportive tools because they continue to teach appropriate behavior, while also providing consistent consequences. In the education world, we call these tools interventions, and they are really only necessary for a small percentage of the children we work with. These tools are used in response to consistent misbehavior, after preventative and supportive tools have been put in place. 

Learning about these different kinds of tools was empowering to me as a teacher, because it helped me to realize that while I ultimately have no control over how a student chooses to behave, there are many things that I can control and change to help that child be more successful. I am always anxious to learn more about child behavior and teaching strategies, because it gives me more tools to draw upon as I work in an environment that is often unpredictable due to the diversity of students I encounter. In later posts I will discuss some of the individual strategies that I have found to be successful within these categories.

**One last additional note: As a teacher or a parent, you have to find tools that work for you! This past year, I began the year convinced that I wanted to use a certain strategy, because I watched another teacher use it so successfully. But when I tried to put it into practice, I just could not make it work and it bombed because it did not feel authentic to me. Just like children are going to be more receptive to strategies that fit their needs, we are also going to be more effective with using strategies that fit with our abilities, personalities and belief systems.



Behavior Tools is a series about understanding and managing behavior with young children. The more we understand children and their behavior, the better we are able to teach them how to make good choices and build a solid foundation of self worth and confidence. There is no one-size-fits-all answer to helping a child learn appropriate behavior, which is why we need a lot of different tools and strategies to draw upon when we work with young children. 

Book Love: Stars

Title: Stars

Author: Mary Lyn Ray

Illustrator: Marla Frazee

Why I Love This Book: I think I was drawn to this book because I find stars fascinating, and the night sky is such a great backdrop for imagination. This book goes beyond the stars that you see in the sky however, and is a beautiful look at nature in general. Hands down, my favorite part of this book is the illustrations. They are enchantingly beautiful. The text is very simply, but also thought-provoking, which gives it the opportunity to be a meaningful read for a variety of ages. I just love the deeper message of finding light in the darkness: "A star is how you know it's almost night. As soon as you see one, there's another and another. And the dark that comes doesn't feel so dark."

Side Note: My husband and I recently went camping down in Southern Utah, and we enjoyed taking some night photography. There really is something so awesome and beautiful about a sky full of stars!