Happy New Year!

We have just finished our mid year testing, and I feel like planning for a New Year can finally begin...maybe.  As I was busily writing lesson plans for the new year the other day, I felt a strong need to stop and take a look back instead of immediately jumping forward.  Pausing to ponder...I seem to want to do that a lot lately.  In the blink of an eye, my boys have turned into teenagers.  Oh how I now want to slow down time and savor every moment, but it seems that I have spent the last 16 years frantically checking off developmental milestones and anxiously fretting about what is next.  When did I stop to look back and pause to ponder?

I recently wrote the following newsletter entry to my parents out of my need to pause.
 
Before we jump to the year ahead, take a few minutes to look back and celebrate all that your child has accomplished since the first day of kindergarten.  It is almost hard to remember that first big day of school.  Consider how your child has grown in the areas of independence, confidence, and responsibility.  Smile at the thought of your child learning how to become a wise friend.  Be amazed at how your child has learned so much more than the ABC’s and 123’s.  Treasure these thoughts and this time in the life of your child.  Look forward with a thankful heart to the new year ahead of us.  Happy New Year!

Join me in this new year to find time to pause and ponder our many blessings.
"But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart."  Luke 2:19

 

      

Teeny Tiny Treasures, too

Click here for more information.

I can't get enough of Teeny Tiny Treasures.  Once we finish our Teeny Tiny Alphabet Treasures, we begin our Teeny Tiny Word Family Treasures.  Place magnetic letters (onsets) and a rime label in a small mint tin or other small container.  Students build words in the word family and record the words in their Teeny Tiny Treasures booklet.  

Labels for the boxes, rime labels, anchor pictures, word family lists, and two sizes of booklets are available for purchase.  Click on the TpT button or the link under the picture for more information.  

Don't want to purchase?  These are easy to make!

1. Choose the word families that you would like to use.
2. Type the rime labels.  I used Comic Sans and size 100 font.
3. Collect the magnetic letters for the word family and place in the tin.  About 10-12 letters fit in the tin.
4. Make a booklet for each student.
5. Place in a literacy center.
6. Challenge students to use 1 or more words in a sentence.

Booklet (Quarter Page)

• Cut construction paper cover 4 1/2 X 12
• Fold in half (4 1/2 X 6), but open flat
• Cut 2 pieces of copy paper in half 4 1/4 X 11.  Fold in half, but open flat.  Counting front to back, this will give you a 16 page book.  3 pages of copy paper will give you a 24 page book.
• Stack open pages and cover together.  Staple with long arm stapler in the spine on the fold.

Teeny Tiny Treasures

Teeny Tiny Treasures
Click here to find out more!

Good things do come in small packages!  Collect small objects from around your classroom or home that begin with each letter of the alphabet.  Place the teeny tiny treasures by letter in a small mint tin or other small container.  (I use Altoid tins.)  Students draw and label the treasures in their Teeny Tiny Treasures booklet.  These tiny trinkets provide big practice opportunities for initial sounds and hearing/recording sounds in words.

I would love to have 26 tins.  However, I decided that if I waited until I collected all 26, I would never get started.  You can do this activity with only one tin.  Students complete one letter per week in a literacy center.  At the end of the week, replace the old objects with the next letter's objects.  If you have more tins and less time to complete the entire alphabet, have your students complete more than one letter per week.

I think that I had just as much fun finding tiny objects to put into the boxes as the kids have had discovering what is inside of each box.  Once you start looking around, you will be amazed at what you can find.  I tried to find at least 5 objects for each letter.  Here are a few ideas of additional places to look to get you started:  office supplies, $1 bins at stores, garage sales, food labels, party favors, seasonal items, tiny erasers, stickers, miniature doll accessories, and collections of plastic animals.  Photos of kids in your class are especially terrific treasures.  The photo company that takes our school pictures provides teachers with several small pictures of each child.  These are the perfect size for the box.  

Available for purchase are two sizes of booklets for students to record treasures for each letter.  Click on the TpT button or follow the link under the picture of the Teeny Tiny Treasure C box for more information.  However, you can easily make your own booklets for free!

Tiniest Booklet (Quarter page booklet)

• Cut construction paper cover 4 1/2 X 12
• Fold in half (4 1/2 X 6), but open flat
• Cut 4 pieces of copy paper in half 4 1/4 X 11.  Fold in half, but open flat.
• Stack open pages and cover together.  Staple with long arm stapler in the spine of the fold.

(This booklet makes enough pages to add ch, sh, th, and wh at the end.)

 

Booklet (Half page booklet)

• Cut construction paper cover 9 X 12
• Fold in half (9 X 6), but open flat
• Fold 7 pieces of copy paper in half, but open flat.
• Stack open pages and cover together.  Staple with long arm stapler in the spine of the fold.

Do you teach Pre-K?  You might also consider a teeny tiny color collection.  Use a larger booklet for students to record or draw the treasures.

Counting Collections

Big smiles, bright eyes, oohs and aahs, tons of math talk, everyone engaged... 

Wouldn't you love that reaction everyday in your math lesson?  The counting collections are back and boy do we have a conglomeration!  We have had the pure pleasure of investigating our treasures for the first time and the monumental task of beginning to sort our bounty. 

The process took much longer than I had planned.  We began by looking at our brainstorm list and labeling empty Ziploc bags with items from the list.  We spaced the labeled bags out on the floor with an example of what would go in the bag. 

Math partners then worked together to sort their bags.  They talked about how their collections were the same or different.  They placed like items together and counted how many items were in each category.  After the partners were satisfied with their groupings, they began to add their sorted groups to the labeled class bags.

Of course, not everything fit neatly into a category.  We have a very large pile of "I'm not quite sure what to do with this."  However, we will have to tackle that pile another day.

Wow!  I found this in my Draft folder from October!  Where has the time gone?  I obviously need to give an update of all that we are currently doing with our Counting Collections!

Counting Collections

The collection countdown has begun!  We are in the process of collecting items to make our class counting collections.  We began by brainstorming ideas of tiny trinkets that students can find around their house and inspecting my collection.
 

First, we brainstormed a list of possibilities.

Armed with a parent note and baggie, the kids are super excited to head home to start their quest.  I can't wait to see what treasures they dig up.  Items brought to school will then be grouped together to form counting collections.  Eventually, these family generated conglomerations will become an integral part of our math curriculum.  Let the fun begin!    

Sight Word Books

Click here to find Color Word Mini Booklets



I use these mini booklets at the beginning of the year as a literacy center.  Extend learning by having students highlight sight words and color words, label pictures, or add sentences to blank pages.  Each book introduces a new sight word and text pattern.  They are a great addition to book boxes, but are also a great resource for independent reading practice at home. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sweet Dreams?

Yes, I officially have two weeks left of vacation, but my mind has already begun to drift back to the endless mental "To Do Lists" that I neatly tucked away in my school brain back in June.  At the end of each summer, I never realize that I am thinking about school, but my dreams tell a different story.  My sweet dreams become teacher nightmares.  In the past, I have had dreams about chaos in my classroom -- especially children not coming out from under tables or someone running across the tops of tables.  Countless dreams have involved waking up at 9:37 on a school morning, forgetting to go to school, or losing track of 22 kids.  I have already had the dream where I take the day off, forget to call in a sub, and then spend the rest of the dream convincing myself that nobody will ever notice that I'm not there.  All of the dreams have the same effect.  I wake up with a jolt and immediately ask myself, "Did this really happen?...COULD this really happen?"  In my sleepy state, I usually decide that I need to stay awake making a plan of action, just in case.  I then decide to add the intricate details to my mental "To Do List."  The same list that includes an entry that reminds me to ENJOY EVERY MINUTE OF THE SUMMER.