Friendly Letter Writing

This week I worked subbed kindergarten and we began talking about writing friendly letters so I made this fancy dancy anchor chart to begin talking about the parts of a letter.

I know some of the parts are difficult to read but it includes and labels the Date, Greeting, Body, and Closing. I also points to the parts that need to have capital letters and commas. I also took this time to introduce them to the word indent. Throw in some writing vocab.

But I also taught second grade this week

When doing this one the first thing I changed is I realized I forgot to label the Signature as separate from the closing. I again labeled the parts that need capitalization and commas as well as indent. I also wrote out what each part means to help get into the vocab a bit more.

Date- the date the letter was written

Greeting- Usually starts with Dear followed by the recipient's name and a comma

Body - The main message of the letter

Closing- The place to tell who wrote the letter. You can use Sincerely, From, or Love followed by a comma

Signature- The place the writer signs their name

Since this was an example of a thank you note, the parts you see underlines are labeled "opening question" and "the reason you are thanking the person".

Check In, Chew Out

I'm really excited this week, I have been asked to be a Check In, Check Out person at the school I work at.

I know. I'll explain.

Check In, Check Out is a program in our building where students who are struggling with behavior meet in the morning with an adult in the building (who isn't their teacher), and discuss some personal behavior goals for the day. Their teachers and special teachers give them points for how well they did on that goal during different points in the day (math, science, special, etc.).

The reason I am excited is because I kind of feel honored that my coworker feel that I would be appropriate to work more closely with a student and work on their behavior.

One of the things her teacher and I have recently noticed is she has some oral sensory needs. She is a second grader and she often has her hands in her mouth, is blowing spit bubbles or chewing on things like pencils but really anything she can get her hands on. Her teacher has been giving her gum and straws to chew which has been helping her to focus more on getting work done but those are more temporary solutions. I was looking around pinterest

aka teacher heaven

and found this website. They sell oral sensory items such as chewers that go on the tops of pencils and "chewlery" which are necklaces and bracelets that are made to be chewed on. They even come in different toughness levels for mild, moderate to severe chewers. I'd like to purchase one for her and see how it works.

I hope that I can do a good job as her Check In, Check Out person. I have been informally working with other students in the building on their behavior so it feels good to be trusted to do it more formally.

Dance, Dance!

Check out my symbaloo page for some fun dance brain breaks. I'll keep updating it with what my students like to dance to!

I love to let my kids get up and move after long stretches of work. Keep the juices flowing to the brain!

Brighter Days

There is a little girl in second grade who sometimes lashes out or just shuts down when she doesn't get her way. The kids at my school are given free breakfast everyday so while she was eating her breakfast the teacher noticed she was also eating other food that was intended for snack later in the day. She went over to her and asked her to put the extra food away for snack later and she flipped out. She clutched the food to her chest and said someone on the bus told her she could eat it for breakfast. (She said a name but I don't know if she was referring to an adult or a child or even an imaginary friend who knows??). Anyway the teacher had to move on to teaching the class. We ignored this student for a while, then she sat under a table nibbling the food and still clutching it. I tried to intervene to no avail. I later tried again. I've been working on the way that I address negative behavior and instead of getting angry and making threats to send them to the principal or the AP or lunch detention or whatever, I'm trying to turn a negative into a positive (I've been doing yoga). So I got down to her level and in a calm quiet voice I asked her to tell me what she was upset about. She repeated the story about someone on the bus telling her she could eat the food for breakfast. I reminded her that 'whoever' may have said that but at school her teacher is in charge and she had the choice to either throw her food away or put it away for snack. I reminded her that she could show me that she is ready for third grade and be a leader and make a better decision. She stayed stubborn for about another minute but then got up and let me help her clean up her snack and throw away her breakfast garbage. The main reason I'm telling this story is because later she held her hand out to me and I didn't know what she was doing. She said "It's a high five" I said ok and high fived her then she said "It's to thank you for helping me." My heart filled up with pride and joy in her and myself. For a child to let someone help them when they're upset and then acknowledge them for helping them overcome that challenge? That's a huge accomplishment for her as a person and me as a teacher.

Expository Writing: How-To activity

I gave a lesson this week while I was subbing second grad about expository writing. They had a bit of background knowledge about the topic and before we got to this activity we did an activity on the smartboard where each child moved a picture into the its sequential spot such as the steps to build a snowman or the steps to plant a flower or bake a pie. They also talked about the reason they put each picture in each spot to practice explaining their reasoning. I then showed the students and achor chart of a how to that I did on brushing teeth.

We also talked about using sequence words (first, then, next, last or finally), The next step was having all the student write on a post it note something they knew how to do and could explain in four steps.

Which I then transferred to another chart so they could see all of their ideas better,

They then wrote their steps to whatever their skill was on lined paper. After we edited and revised it together, they wrote a neater copy on a worksheet and drew colored pictures to accompany their steps.

I didn't get to the next step before it was time for the regular teacher to return but the intended next step was to turn their steps into a small book. I made a sample from my skill of brushing teeth.

There you have it!

What I Like About You

When I was applying to college a few years ago you know how they ask you about your whole life and your extracurricular activities. At the time I felt like I had a hard time coming up with a lot of things but being back around children who are involved in activities and discovering their talents reminds me of all of the things I have done in my life when I was younger and talents I have explored.

• I used to double dutch
• I used to be an awesome hula hooper
• I was involved in African dancing
• I used to be in chorus (but I knew I could not sing and left eventually)
• I was in band from 4th grade through high school graduation (the flute is my first love) I accomplished a lot with the flute because I was good at it and loved it but unfortunately since I didn't want to make it my career I didn't have time for it after high school
• I played the piano since 7th grade and it is absolutely my second love, the same situation happened with me not playing after high school, well I guess that's not 100% true. I may have let it slip at my job that I play and I've been asked to play the chorus accompaniment for my kiddies at the school I work at, Also I have a song I used to play for NYSSMA tattoo'd around my leg so yea... there's that
• I was on the step team in high school. Loved it

My point is being a teacher can make one be reflective in many ways. :)

Midnight Snack

Time for a little middle of the night posting. I'm back to working and going to school full time and man is it stressful. My workload this semester seems a lot more than last semester. Luckily my professors are being a bit lenient with be... unfortunately it is because I've been sick for 2 weeks and been to the hospital and the doctor and have multiple ailments at the moment. I'm afraid of letting my assignments pile up while I'm sick which is stressing me out even more.

On a brighter note

I'm still enjoying being a building sub. A little more each day actually. The kids in the building are getting to know me a little more, they run up and give me hugs in the hallway, some are excited when I'm going to be their teacher for the day it's nice. I even had one kid come visit me during the school day during a break his teacher allowed him to have from class. (students who get frustrated and shut down are allowed a short break from class once or twice a day) and he chose to spend his coming to see me. Mind you this is a child with real anger issues which are sometimes directed at me.

On a sadder note

I'm starting to know about some of the not so great home lives of some of my students. CPS has been called to the school for one, some are filthy almost every day, some are late to school all the time, some are changing schools every few months, some have very inattentive parents at home and are literally crying out for them to spend time with them. I even had 2 suspended for bringing a weapon on the bus recently and one... well I don't want to put everyone's dirty laundry out there but lets just say there's a lot more. Of course I would never put a name to these incidences. These things really hurt my heart, mostly because I can't do anything to change them. I feel like I shouldn't step in because I am a sub but I get the feeling there isn't much the full time teachers can do either. And believe me the school I work at works very hard to support the families of it's students.