Keep On Keeping On

I was nearing my breaking point, and I knew it. It had been over a week since we went into hiding from this invisible virus that is spreading like wildfire. We left the house very seldom to get things we needed or to exercise. We kindly declined social gathering invites and basically hunkered down. 

I was glued to the TV newscasts, in horror at what I was seeing and hearing about all the death around the world, lack of toilet paper and other essentials, and the level of contagiousness this virus had. Something had to give.

I was a ball of nerves, fearful for my little asthmatic, and thinking about all the what-ifs that could possibly go wrong with each and every member of my family facing this with uncertainty about the future. 

I couldn't make myself do much, I sat or walked around in a daze so worried about all the things on my mind, but telling myself to have faith, trust, not to worry. But as much as I told myself that it would all be OK, my doubt would creep in, nearly drowning me in the process. 

Monday of week two, I headed to the school. We met as teachers, keeping our distance as much as possible and talking about what this whole distance learning think should look like. 
I decided I needed to give all this worry a rest. To let it go. To face the fact that my worry, my fear, my irrationalness in all this was transferring to my own daughter, keeping her up at night wondering if she or the people she loved would survive this pandemic. Hearing her words, "I wish I could die and come back when all this is over" hung around my shoulders weighing me down with helplessness. It was a turning point, watching her struggle. I knew I had to muster some normalcy for her...for us both. Be strong for the two of us. Quit watching the news so much, it was quite frankly scaring her as much as it was scaring me.

I determined that I would wake up. Read, play, draw, and have fun just being with my babies. I would take time to slow down, enjoy this moment we've been given, and really take time for my kids. 

We drew on sidewalks (and watched how if affected others walking by...the best), baked, did art projects, played board games, and enjoyed each other. I went to bed on time, and slept the best I have in days...with no tossing or turning for hours. I even slept in. And you know what? The Earth went on without me worrying about it. And I woke up happier and refreshed. 

I know worry may creep in again, but I'm ready to push it down. I will treasure these days as a gift that I have been given and spend time loving on my family and doing things that I don't normally get to do in the hustle and bustle of real life. 

Next week we will begin teaching online and also doing homeschool. That will be a new challenge, but for now everyone is excited about learning from home and this new adventure. So, here's to today's adventures, tomorrow's adventures, and to the future! Cause it's gonna be O.K. 

Art to Keep Your Kiddos Creative

If you are like me, you are always trying to find ways to keep your kiddos from getting bored at home. I love having activities that they can choose to do and also time for them to just be creative. But with this whole COVID-19 thing going around, spring break is no longer just a staycation, it is a homecation. We're just not leaving home to do the fun activities around town this year and we are minimizing our time with friends who live nearby too. It's only been three days and with no end in site, I've heard, "I'm bored" more times than I care to admit. 

So I was especially relieved to see that some of my favorite people around the web were offering free art activities especially for kids and maybe you have already stumbled across them as well, but just in case, here goes.

Cassie Stephens is an amazing art teacher in Tennessee. She is super creative and fun and always has projects that I love. I have "copied" many of her assignments for use in my own classroom and they have always been a hit among the students...and parents.  

This week, she is offering a robot-themed art class everyday. And she is making it super simple so that people can use the things they have around the house with them. We have already completed her first activity and are ready for activity number two. Here's a picture of us at work. 

It is something that you can do right along side your kids. We enjoyed doing this together. You can find her first class here and her second one over here. 

Also, if you LOVE the Piggie and Gerald books as much as we do, author and illustrator Mo Willems is also offering classes that roll out each day at lunchtime. Check those out here and here.  

Extending the Break

Last week something crazy happened in schools all around the country and if you are a teacher, I am sure you already know what I'm talking about. Schools have closed their doors for weeks, months, or even the rest of the year. But what does this mean for teachers, students, and families?

In my school, we have been told that after spring break, which is this week, we will be out for another week. I teach at a private school, but we follow the county that we are in. As of right now, they are taking two weeks, including spring break.

After a week of spring break, we are to make a plan for online work for the students for the remainder of the time we are out. We are figuring out what that looks like. There will be internet programs to use, of course. I have seen a lot of teachers posting freebies for teachers to print out for their students who will be out of school and I am joining the bandwagon.

In my master's degree program, I studied outdoor education, which to some may seem like glorified recess, but that's not it at all. In our culture, so many children do not connect with nature or go outside much at all. Children these days have what some are calling "nature deficit disorder." Many children are even scared of being in nature. My program is something that can help to combat this trend. It teaches students about nature across the curriculum. This is not just something for recess. You can teach science, reading, writing, social studies, and yes, even math using outdoor education strategies. I encourage you to learn more about it. You can even find the book about Nature Deficit Disorder on Amazon.

In light of COVID-19 and being out of school, I would like to offer a free resource for getting your child out into the sunshine, which by the way has been proven to kill bacteria and help reduce the time or even chances of being sick. This resource has two different nature journaling pages. One is designed for early elementary and includes a spot for drawing and prompts for writing about the nature a child sees outside. The other page is taken from one of my nature journaling resources. It is designed for older students to allow them a place for drawing their observations as well as a place for writing about them. I hope you enjoy using this resource. You can find it here.  

Partner Multiplication Game for Third and Fourth Grade: Race to the Moon

Partner multiplication games are such a fun way to get in extra practice of the dreaded process of learning those times tables. I love to create little games that make the learning fun. When I introduced this game, one of my fourth graders announced to me (in front of the whole class), "You always make the BEST games!" I'm not gonna lie, that made my teacher heart very happy. I want my students to LOVE learning and to have fun doing it. 

This partner multiplication game is called Race to the Moon. It is tested and tried by my very own class. They loved it (I'm sure the little spaceships have a lot to do with that fact). 

The reason why I love to use partner multiplication games vs. small group games is that:

1. It is so much quieter. Partners can sit close together and talk softly so I am not interrupted by noise while teaching another math group.

2. I also love that partner multiplication games are so quick and easy to play. Seriously, the directions are simple and the game does not take long at all. 

3. Another reason is that students get more practice than if they had to wait their turn for a whole group. 

If you'd like to try out a partner multiplication game like this one, check it out by clicking on the link right here.

Read Across America Journal

What are you doing for Read Across America Day? I think a reading marathon would be just the thing! Imagine engaging in reading and reading activities for one hundred minutes or more. Sound difficult? It's not. Check out this fun and free pirate themed journal that you can use to make this a reality. I've done many reading marathon's in the past and they are always great. You can literally use any book or books. You can read or have the students read on their own, the sky's the limit! Simply print the color or black and white version, staple, and go!

Click here if you want to snag this resource!

The History Behind Holiday Traditions: Thanksgiving

I love learning the history behind holiday traditions. I love sharing that passion for the history behind holiday traditions with my students even more. Once the craziness of Halloween is past, we enter the biggest holiday season of the year. First, there’s Thanksgiving and then comes Christmas and New Years back to back to back. With those holidays come so many fun and meaningful traditions. I. Love. Them.

We started off the season by exploring the book, Balloons Over Broadway, one of my all-time favorites for learning the history of holiday traditions. This book follows Tony Sarg from early childhood through the time in his life when he starts creating for Macy’s department store. First he was hired to create displays in windows. Then he began working on creating a parade to bring some of the traditions of the immigrants to New York City. It outlines his love for puppets and how his ideas for the Macy’s Parade came from his love of puppetry. It. Is. Perfect. There’s so much to discuss. Love the link to immigrants too and their traditions and how those traditions bring new and rich traditions to our world.

After reading the book, we had a ton of fun stretching out our learning to really dig into the history of the parade and the events that led up to it. One of the activities we did was to create these cute Macy’s Wondertown display booklets. On the front cover, students created their own design for a holiday window in Macy’s department store. Afterwards, they read about how Tony started with the windows and how that led him to creating other things for Macy, including the Macy’s Parade as we know it.

Last year, my family went to the Museum for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta and I was just so inspired by the puppets and the history there. I knew I wanted to find a way to bring puppets into my classroom. When I really sat down with the book, Balloons Over Broadway, I knew I had found the link. Tony also loved puppets and especially marionette puppets. I created a short page on the history of marionettes and then the students created their own little marionette-style puppet that was inspired by the book. They were so absolutely excited…and continue to be excited over them.

We also learned about the steps that Tony used to create the balloons for the Macy’s parade. We created our own designs for a Macy’s day balloon. My students loved all of these activities. It all came together so nicely.

Another book we read was called Thanksgiving in the Whitehouse. This book explored the tradition of pardoning turkeys. I also loved that this book had so much that could be used for exploring character. It was based on events of the lives of Abe Lincoln and his son Tad when they were living in the White House. The themes I picked out were compassion and perseverance, perfect for any classroom for sure. I also loved that it told about Tad and his determination to save the Thanksgiving turkey that he fell in love with and wanted to keep as a pet. In the end, Abe Lincoln decided to pardon Jack, the Thanksgiving turkey from Thanksgiving dinner.

We popped on to YouTube to see a video showing our current president granting a presidential pardon to a turkey and talked about how this is a fun Thanksgiving tradition that happens every year. After the video, I gave each child a preprinted turkey. They had to disguise their turkey for the Thanksgiving feast so that it could not be recognized as a turkey. We took it a step farther and had each student think about the reasons their turkeys should be “pardoned” from Thanksgiving dinner. They were suppose to really be creative and have powerful reasons as to why their turkeys should be saved.

Once the students were done with their reasons, they were told that they needed to turn those reasons into a persuasive essay that they would be reading in court before the judge. Their job was to persuade the judge (me dressed in my graduation gown) that their turkey deserved a pardon. The class really took this seriously. It was the right real-world link for this activity. The students were very nervous when it was time to take the stand before the judge and fight for their turkeys. It was priceless.

One of my highlights where when one of my students, who passionately spoke about why her turkey should be saved looked at me and said, “Besides, aren’t you a vegetarian?” Why yes, yes I am. It was perfect. I even had a student come back a day later to ask if we could do another type of persuasive writing that we could bring before the “judge”. If they are asking for more, I count that as a definite win, friends.

The last book we read about Thanksgiving traditions was called The Woman Who Saved Thanksgiving. This was again a great book for teaching character….filled with drive and determination. It is the true story of author, Sarah Hale who wanted to try to save Thanksgiving. It was disappearing and was not even celebrated by the entire country. She wanted to create an official day for the holiday and wanted the entire country to come together one day to celebrate thankfulness. She literally took up her pen and wrote letter after letter…thousands of them to lawmakers and president after president. It took her 38 years to FINALLY have Thanksgiving proclaimed as a national holiday….but she did it. We now have both her and Abe Lincoln to thank for the holiday. And by the way, she is the author who also wrote none other than, Mary had a Little Lamb.

I decided to launch a new series on Teachers Pay Teachers to help me celebrate the holidays in a way that I love best, through the lens of learning the history behind the holiday traditions. All of the activities listed above and more are in my History Behind the Holiday packs. If you are interested, you can click on the pictures below to be taken to my TPT store. 

Classroom Transformation: Wild Kratts

I've been wanting to do this classroom transformation since September when educators around the world were challenged by the Rock Your School movement. It was extremely difficult to hold off on this for a few extra weeks, but personally I was unable to make it happen until today. (Long story of moving schools, selling and buying a house and having to be out of my house for showings and inspections and all the things that come with that....and also commuting between 45 minutes to an hour each way. But all that is about to end when we officially move within 15 minutes of work in a few weeks.) Anyway, It happened today and my students LOVED it! They stayed on task so well. 

I decided I wanted to do something different for my classroom transformation, but I just could not decide what. I thought about my science curriculum unit and it was animal adaptations. That's when an idea hit me. I wanted to create a Wild Kratts theme! I just love that show and so do my kids. It is perfect since it is all about animals. I decided to focus on five different animals that students could encounter any day in the area where we live.

Day one was all about worms.

Day two will be all about fireflies.

Day three will focus on bats.

Day four we will learn about opossums.

Day five will be about skunks.

Today we learned about the creature powers (adaptations) of worms. First, we learned how worms secrete a special fluid that is released through the skin. We learned how the fluid made it easier for worms to slide through tunnels and through dirt and gravel without getting hurt. After learning about this special adaptation, we made our own slime in groups, following a recipe. 

Afterwards, students were excited and ready to do some more. We moved on to a close reading activity. It was all about worms. Students were given six problems. Each problem listed two truths and one lie. Students had to read through their paper that told them all about worms. They had to highlight the truths to prove that those were not the lie. Once they found the two truths, they circled the lie and had to check it. There were flip check cards around the room for self-checking. After getting an answer right, students came to me to get one of the supplies for making dirt dessert, only they had no idea what the items were for, because I did not tell them. Most students were able to figure it out. I gave them these items in this order.

1. a cup

2. a spoon

3. an Oreo cookie in a ziplock (this is when most students figured it out)

4. a gummy worm

5. another gummy worm

6. a pudding cup

Once everyone in class was able to earn all their supplies, we worked through the steps to making dirt dessert. Students are going to use that knowledge to create a flip writing assignment that shows the steps to creating dirt dessert.

Of course we ran out of time to complete everything, but I'm totally O.K. with that. There's always tomorrow. I always overplan.

At the end of the day, my principal said she was wondering why my class was so noisy at the beginning of the day. But then my daughter, who is in her class, had told that I had done a Wild Kratts transformation. Love the excitement when kids realize it's going to be a great day.