Teaching Elementary and Beyond

Tips to help teach your child to put on their shoes independently.

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Many children are determined to become big kids by practicing to get their shoes on independently.

Most kids don’t care if they are on the proper side. They just that they get the shoes on successfully!

Here are some tips to help you on their journey to success.

1. Mark the Insides.  

If they have trouble remembering which side goes on which foot, add a little dot or stickers to the inside of the sole to help them remember that they like to be friends and they go together.

2. Mark the Dominant Side. 

If they know which side is their dominant side, for instance, which hand they eat their fork with, put a star on that shoe. It is a great reminder!

3. Comfort Level. 

Practice putting shoes on the correct feet (Does it feel comfortable?

Is there a big ‘V’ when you put your feet together? If so, it means that your shoes need to be changed. Put the big toe of the shoes together, so there is no ‘V’).

4. Master taking shoes off before getting them on. 

5: Watch out for the tongue. 

Make sure that your child holds onto the tongue of the shoe so it does not slide to the toe of the shoe and make it impossible for them to get on.

6. Develop a reward system. 

Reward each incremental step of learning with a small reward of your choice (sticker, cookie etc.).

At first, acknowledge each time they successfully get their shoes off. Then move onto getting their shoes on and finally ensuring that they are safe and secure on their feet!

7. Have a child show your child how to do it. 

Kids are the experts. They have most recently learned how to tie their shoes and they often are better teachers to their peers than we are as adults! Kids motivate each other in a positive way.

8. Keep practicing. 

It will take a long time to master independence. Start early with simple skills!

9. Stop helping. 

Sometimes in our busy rush of life, we stop the learning process. Many times kids need to learn simply by being forced to learn. Slow down, don’t rush your child and give them the freedom to learn at their own pace.

Chicks In Our Classroom!

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We started the idea of having chicks in our classroom from a friend who has done this several years in her classroom.

She had an incubator that wasn’t in use and we decided to give it a try.

We got the eggs in the middle of May. Having chicks requires 21 dedicated days to rotate the eggs three times a day, and if you can get the participation of your custodial to help out for an early flip and/or late night rotation of the eggs.

Even though it wasn’t much of an engaging activity in our classroom, we usually had one or two kids engaged, wondering and watching what was happening inside the eggs.

Our first day we saw this crack just before we went home. The next day we were excited to come to school with the lovely addition of two chicks who had hatched in the night!
  
We had the lucky opportunity of being able to have a data projector project the hatching of an egg during our school hours. It was captivating for all of our students.

Although it can be a small process, the egg we watched hatch was helped by the other chicks who had already been hatched as they smelled the food and were hungry.

It was a fascinating experience!

  
The chicks were squished inside the incubator! 

We originally had a dog cage prepared with chicken wire around it for the chicks to live in.

We ended up visiting a local farm and learned from them to just use a large sized rubbermaid bin. It was much easier to clean out, transport to and from school (when required as we had one chick who needed extra support to learn how to walk), and helped reduce the footprint of space used in our classroom.

All of our parents kept telling us how thrilled they were that their children were able to enjoy this experience. 
It was all they could talk about when they came home at night. I will admit, it was the best way to end the school year. There never was a day that the children were not excited to come back to school. 
Many kids were upset that they couldn’t come if they ever were sick for a day. 
Sometimes the end of the year can drag on for children and even us adults. Not this year! We timed it that we were able to send the chicks to a farm with only four days left of school. 
Even after they left, they were still the most engaged in learning I have experienced in my teaching career. Which I know was a direct result in their interest in the chicks. This is an experience I would love to do again, if possible! 

Reading Objects to Teach 1:1 Correspondence

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Being able to read with 1:1 correspondence is a developmental progression which I always teach through play.

Quick and easy. 

I am sure you have many tricks up your sleeve about how to teach 1:1 correspondence (also known as tracking) but I thought I would share what I have found to be very effective in my classroom!

The Basics

Children must know that one object is one thing before they can understand that one word is a word.

This is such a basic yet important skill.

Before students can read or even have the ability to count objects they need to be able to have 1:1 correspondence.

Making it Fun

I set out four random toys that have nothing to do with each other (pencil, crayon, truck and a car) or that easily contrast each other (crayons of various colors) which the child can easily label or identify.

If you are working with ELL students, make sure it is something they already know the name of so they are not focusing on processing the name of the object.

Students should only be focusing on pointing to an object as they name it.

Introduction & Diagnostic Assessment

While sitting across the table from my student, I place the 4 objects on the table in front with approximately 12″ gaps between them. I ask them to identify what they see to assess what they naturally do on their own.

Most students will do this without touching the objects. Sometimes you will come across a child who will point at the object while identifying it. Either way, praise them. If they are successful the first time I tell them that they may already be experts at the game we are about to play!

“Reading Objects” Lesson

When we start the lesson I tell my students that they are reading and describe how it is exactly how we read words.

“We read from left to right, touch the object we are “reading” and identify what it is.”

Now, correctly model how to identify each object while pointing at each object with 1:1 correspondence. Making sure you are modelling for them the left to right progression to support their basic reading development (which likely will backwards for you).

Next have them do exactly what you just show them and practice repeating this until they have mastered this skill. This is the point where you need to be actively enthusiastic about their correct answers to gain their “buy in” of the activity. 

Repetition To Reinforce The Skill

Some students may need to practice this 4 to 5 times a day, for multiple days, until they can do this independently.

Once they can identify the objects, repeat this skill by moving the objects so that they are a few inches closer. If they can transfer their tracking skills in this new situation continue shrinking the space between the objects in small increments, until the objects are essentially a “finger space” away from each other which will represent the space between two words.

I’ll play this with the targeted students a couple times for a couple days, only if needed. Some students will only need to do this activity twice to retain the concept! Obviously, there are students who will need to have this skill reinforced multiple times for them to retain it!

The next step: Introducing words

From here, I introduce simple guided reading books or sight word books which have dots under the letters to reinforce the 1:1 correspondence.

I do not focus whatsoever on any other reading skill or strategy.

The dots help students develop the concept that they need to “bounce” their fingers like a ball from word to word (aka, from one dot to the next) instead of sliding their fingers under the words or placing their fingers in random locations. There are a variety of different books or resources you can get to help support this skill!

If you are interested in what I use in my class you can check these!

     

Movement & Dance Song List

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Young children need movement, and a lot of it!

Dance is great to burn off extra energy and to help them focus.

We use dance as a transition activity to help accommodate slower students and motivate them to finish an activity quickly to join in on the fun!

Our Favorite Dancing Songs!

{In no particular order}

A Pirate You Shall Be We had a pirate inquiry and this song engaged our students the most as a result!
I Like To Move It Just Dance version with kids
I Like To Move It (Original) from the Madagascar Movie
The Gummy Bear Song
Despicable Me
Shake It Off
I’m Gonna Catch You (rhyming song)
Five Little Monkeys (always good for a giggle from the kids!)
The Fox (What Does the Fox Say?)
What Makes You BeautifulIf You’re A Kid Great Series to learn to follow directions
If You’re a Kid (Halloween Remix) If You’re a Kid (Earth Day Remix) Not extremely engaging but great to introduce ways to help save the earth!
We Are The Dinosaurs Antelopes Loves Cantalopes by Splash ‘N Boots
Can you feel the rhythym on the street? by Splash ‘N Boots (Unfortunately, I cannot find an online link to this song but it is well worth it to find your own version somewhere)
Shoes by Splash ‘N Boots


Helpful Tip: I created a YouTube “Dance” favorites list within my own YouTube account and we can now always quickly access these videos to play on our data projector.

My hope is that you can find some great new songs from this list! They are tried and true in our class.

Our Interactive Learning Pit: Developing a Growth Mindset

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The concept of the Learning Pit is something that many elementary children find difficult to comprehend without simple visuals.

The concept of the learning pit was developed by Carol Dweck, a world renowned researcher on motivation, and it supports growth mindset learning. (To learn a bit more about her research click here).

This visual need inspired us to use an interactive learning pit which students feel safe using in our class.

It is small.

We use it on a magnetic cookie sheet because it is can be easily reused by many students.

It also allows students to manipulative the characters, who have quotes and emotions describing their feelings and thought process, so that we can have discussions about the learning process.

We have even used real photos of the students so that they can place themselves onto the pit to help them understand where they are in the learning journey. They really get a kick out of it!

Introduction of the “pit”

In order to introduce the pit, we acted out a puppet play with Cookie Monster and his friend Betty.

Cookie Monster had 12 cookies and Betty had none.

But she was extremely hungry.

Cookie Monster had to “go through the pit” in order to learn how to share.  The children picked the emotions that Cookie Monster had (frustrated, sad and happy) and also identified that Betty helped learn. He was not alone. This is the learning journey that the class agreed upon that Cookie Monster took in this situation:

This pretend scenario allowed the children to understand the learning pit in an age appropriate way. It helped them make connections to play situations when their own learning occurs.

Because it is not personal, it allows them to process the journey in a fun and interactive way.

We then put the puppets and cookies out as a learning activity.

It was busy all day as the children acted out new ways which Cookie Monster could learn to share his cookies with Betty.  We have used two great Sesame Street video’s to help them learn about Growth Mindset.

They are really great for engaging young children!

Janelle Monae – Power of Yet

Bruno Mars: Don’t Give Up 

Every learning journey is different. We each experience different emotions throughout the pit process. Adults and children do not experience all of the emotions shown in the picture shown but I included them all just to show you the variety of emotions we talk about. 
With our Kindergarten aged students usually we find the students have two to four different emotions that they can easily identify. 
The children love showing off their learning journey so others can see.
 

Many children need to be explicitly taught how they can help others in their learning.

For some, this comes naturally. We focus on four simple strategies  In order to help them understand this, we use the visuals below to help students learn that we learn from each other.

Once we have come out of the learning pit, we can help pull others through and out of the pit.

“We can work together.”

“Thank you for helping me.”

“I can help you.”

“Let me help you.”

Other visuals with quotes we use to support learning:

“Good Learners go into the pit.” & “I cannot do this… yet!”

I love how these simple and clear visuals help the non-readers and English Language Learners in our class. It helps them see that the strategies we use to learn do allow for us to learn from others! the simple wording helps them realize that they can help others in their own way. Even when “we” are not experts yet.

If you are interested in using the resource I use with my class, check this out:
In order to make this product small, I printed four of the .pdf pages (from the Extra Small file included) onto one page so that it would be easily used on our small cookie sheet. I then glued it onto shirt board for stability, added mac tac so that it would last and put a magnet on the back. 
What other resources do you use to help teach your students about the Learning Pit? 
I’d love to gather more ideas from you!
The following is a similar activity but for junior students. Click on the image to check it out!

Communicating With Parents: Remind

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I have found that the best form of communication with parents in my classroom has been the app called Remind.

It is simple, easy and secure.

This is especially important for me as most of my children are bused and I do not have the chance to communicate with parents before and after school like I have been able to do at previous schools.

 Why use it?

Children in young grades have difficulty retaining what they have learned during the day.

I personally have two have older children (16 & 13 years of age) and I had always wished I was able to have a glimpse into their day as they were horrible at communicating to me at the end of the school day. As a result, sharing our learning with parents is extremely important to me.

Families can choose which way they want to receive the communication. They have the options of getting the app for their phone, receiving messages as texts or receiving them as emails.

I currently have 96% of my parents participating. This is great considering there are always parents who choose not to read the mail from the school regardless of how it is sent home!

When the day is done, I am able to send home “snap shots” of what we have learned and this allows for parents to have conversations with their kids about what they learned about. I am able to send home photos of work, provocations and presentations so that parents feel like they are a part of our classroom culture. This is a huge bonus for me.

Many times parents have listened to the stories from their kids and wondered, “What do they mean?” or “What are they talking about?” Then, later that day they will open their app, read the message that we posted about and realize, “Wow! They did learn about ___ today!” and can take their previous conversation to the next level.

Several parents have had their children move on to other grades and almost insisted that their new teacher get Remind to keep them in the loop about what is going on in their class. During parent/teacher interviews all the parents in our class state that they appreciate the communication. Several rave on a regular (weekly) basis that they love receiving the messages to encourage communication with their children. 

Like Twitter, it only allows for short communication, which is fast and convenient for me.

It is exclusively controlled by me, except for parents leaving, so I have the reassurance of privacy.

I have the choice to allow for conversations to flow. I personally have disabled this option as I respect my privacy for time with my family and choose to keep communication with parents limited at school.  Click here to read a blog post of how Remind can replace planners in your classroom!

Documentation

I always make sure to document all my communication with my parents.

I have found that keeping a well documented tracking of all communication really helps prevent miscommunication with parents. Click on the image to see the communication log that I use in my classroom!

Have you ever used Remind? Did you like it? Hate it? What do you use as your main source of communicating with families?

Beginning Our Growth Mindset Journey in Kindergarten

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Half of teaching kindergarten children about growth mindset is teaching it in a child centred way. The other half is educating parents so they can support their students growth.

In our class, we actually don’t use the term growth mindset very often but we are learning about it in our own, age appropriate way.

The Beginning

We began to talk to our students about mistakes.

We’ve reiterated that mistakes help us learn and we all make mistakes. So we are all learning!

One of our most popular sayings in our classroom is, “Mistakes makes our brains grow!” We use many different phrases that mean the same thing message.

Most recently, we have been using primary friendly posters to guide our thinking.

We use the following quotes to inspire students

Mistakes are beautiful. They are needed in order to learn. Everyone learns when they make mistakes.

I cannot do this… yet!
We’ve talked about how our mindset influences our thoughts. We can learn. We might not understand something now, but we will understand it eventually!

Believe in yourself!
Knowing that we can learn gives us a positive attitude. We can learn lots of things!

Simple, and child friendly. 

I was happily surprised when a small group of 6 girls gave our SERT (Special Education Resource Teacher) a tour of the classroom today. 

She sat down to play with the children and they decided to show of some of their reading skills around the room. They began by reading the “write the room” words they had posted around the room (this is a very popular activity in our classroom). Then they walked up to our new growth mindset posters. They read it to our SERT and then had a nice conversation with her letting her know what that meant. 

“Mistakes are beautiful!”

“Everybody learns and everyone makes mistakes. Even our teachers!”

“My mom makes mistakes. She is learning too!”

“I am learning when I don’t understand something!”

“I am learning when I make mistakes!”

These are just a small sampling of their understanding, but extremely meaningful nonetheless. A very noteworthy moment in my teaching career, for sure!
Slowly but surely, they are coming up to me and my teaching partner throughout the day and acknowledging their struggles. It is getting more frequent that we hear, “This is hard! That means I am learning!”
Here are some other posters we have recently added and discussed with our students:
If you are interested in the posters that we use in our class click on the image below. There are many included in this set and we use them as a reference regularly throughout our day.
How do you share with your students the concepts of growth mindset? I would love to hear from you!

Encouraging Unmotivated Kids to Clean

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Our class of 33 active students can make a tornado of a mess. We know it is worth it when kids are engaged, safe, active and learning.

The question is, how do you motivate kids to clean?

We started the beginning of the year with supporting the students at the end of each learning block. We would model tidying up and verbally encourage and praise the students who helped out. 

Honestly, we were either directing or doing most of the work and our little JK’s were doing more work than our SK students. It was frustrating.

 Some years I often need to rethink my bag of tricks for behavior management. We started to use Tidy Up King & Queen brag tag awards. The kids loved it and we rewarded students who we saw working hard, helping others or had been responsible for their own mess!


 Later we decided to switch up how we awarded students. 

Mystery Item

We picked a mystery item. 

It worked like a charm to get the class to clean up quicker than before. Hint: Never tell the kids it has been picked up or they stop working! 😉  

To motivate them I often will say, “I still see the mystery item. I wonder who will find it?” It works like a charm! As you can see in the picture below, I often have to photograph the student with the mystery item because they are so proud of finding it!

Multiple Winners

Want to hand out multiple at a time?  

This idea is perfect for instant recognition for appropriate behavior! We would write names of students participating on the board. If they stopped we would wipe their name off. Great instant feedback for students and they always look to see if their name is on the board! lol

When the room is clean, we come back to the carpet we handed out the reward(s). 

The children give a cheer for the winner when they get their award. The winner often is beaming with pride as they take their award to their backpack to share with families. Some students even carry it around for a while because it is a treasured prize for them. 

Parent Feedback

Has all been positive! Apparently, some of my students have a “wall of fame” where they collect the awards. The kids always tell mom and dad what the mystery item was or why they got their award and parents love being involved and knowing what is happening in the class!


We also help students less. This has allowed us to deal with behavior management and those trying to avoid cleaning instead of helping ourselves.

What is your tried and true motivation for student participation in cleaning up? I’d love to know what works for you!