Each Kindness

This is a quote from one of my favorite books, Each Kindness, by Jacqueline Woodson.

I read that book after reading Have You Filled a Bucket Today? by Carol McCloud.  (Ask your child about that book.  It's the basis for rule #4 in our class: Be a bucket filler.)  I try to promote bucket filling and kindness every year with my students.

If you've never read Each Kindness before, you should.  This book pulls at my heartstrings! In the story, Maya is a new student at a school. She tries to become friends with the students in her class but they are mean to her. She eventually switched schools. After she left, the teacher did a lesson with the students comparing the ripples of a pebble in water to the effects of being kind to others. One of the girls Maya had tried to become friends with was sad she wasn't nice back to her. Their teacher said, "Each kindness makes the world a little better."

After that I did the heart lesson. 

I cut out a beautiful magenta heart. The students loved it. I told them to pretend that was their heart. I said, "Watch what happens to your heart when people say mean things to you." I said some things they have heard before like, "I don't like you," "You're not my friend," "I don't like your shoes!" Each time I said something mean, I crumpled up the heart. Every time I've done this lesson, the students are in SHOCK at what happens to the heart. I then say, "We can make things better by saying things like 'I'm sorry,' or 'I do like your sweater,' or 'Will you play with me tomorrow?' " As I said those things, I slowly unfolded the heart. I said, "We can say things that make things better, but our hearts will never forget, just like the crinkles in our paper heart."  I hung the paper in our classroom to serve as a reminder.

 

My final kindness lesson involved a tube of toothpaste.

I explained to the students to think of the tube as our mouths and the toothpaste as the words that come out of our mouths. I repeated some of the mean things I said earlier, and as I did, I squeezed the toothpaste out of the tube. I asked the students if they thought we could get the toothpaste back in the tube. Some said yes, others said no. We tried using a fork, but we were not successful. 

I said, "Our words are like the toothpaste, once they come out of our mouths, we can not put them back. We can't take back what we said."

The point of all of the lessons hit home with them today.  It was extremely powerful.

I hope you all have a great weekend!
Thanks for stopping by!

~Stacey~

Deskless Classroom 2018 Update

 

Image from here. 

Three years ago, I went deskless!  I removed all but three desks and two tables from my classroom, and introduced flexible seating to my students.  I wrote a blog post about it a month later.  Now that more time has passed, I wanted to write another blog post about it.

First things first:  I 100% stand by my decision to do this in the first place!  It has been the most wonderful experience ever!  I told my principal that I never want to have desks in my room again! 

 

You can see *most of* my classroom from this angle.   You can view the rest of my classroom here.

When I first made the switch, I only had puzzle pieces and seat cushions, which I received from Kaplan:

 

I still have those, but I've added more items!

 

I bought these additional puzzle pieces from a Facebook Online Yard Sale.

 There are multiple bathmats (from Freecycle) and three yoga mats (from Five Below,) in this crate.

I have six wobble stools (hokki stools,) at my guided reading table. These are also from Kaplan.

 

Here are more seat cushions - this time from Lakeshore Learning.

If my students are working on the floor, they can choose to use clipboards (which I've had forever and honestly don't remember where I go them from,) and these cute lap desks which are from Staples Advantage.

 

They can also choose to use privacy shields.

The students keep their supplies in these buckets.

Although this year, I opted for pencil boxes which I purchased on sale at Target!

 

As a result of my classroom environment, I've become even more aware of dirt and germs, and I take steps to prevent the spread of germs in my classroom.

Students must wipe their feet on my welcome mat when they arrive in the morning, and after they return from lunch / recess.  

On snowy / muddy days, they take off their shoes, and use napkins to get any extra dirt off the bottom of their shoes.

I purchased a mini broom set so we sweep as needed throughout the day.  The students LOVE to take responsibility for that!  I just recently purchased a Swiffer to use as well.  (The students will not be using it.) 

With regards to germs, Lysol spray and Clorox wipes are my best friends.  Honestly, I should probably invest in those companies!  I spray my whole room with Lysol at the end of the day - after the students have left.  I wipe down my computer keyboards, tables, desks, the doorknob, and sink daily.  I clean my seat cushions weekly.  During cold / flu season, they might get cleaned 2-3 times a week.

To read more about flexible seating and what the research says, check out the links below:

1.  From Kindergarten Smorgasboard.

2.  From Top Dog Teaching.

3.  From Edutopia.

If you have any questions about flexible seating, feel free to ask away in the comments section!

Thanks for stopping by!
~Stacey~

Classroom Tour 2018-2019

Quote from here.

It's time for back to school!  This is year number 14 for me! I can't believe it!

I want to give you all a tour of my room!  You can check out the video tour here.

Here is the picture tour with links when possible.

 

I got the idea for this bulletin board from Pinterest. I actually have more students than I lead you to believe on my bulletin board!

 This is outside of my door.  The top quote is from a book called Each Kindness.  I love to read it at the start of the year.  The letter, I found on Pinterest - which led to this link.  Last year's class LOVED reading it every single day!

 Door decorations (and all the tropical decorations you'll see in my room,) are from Oriental Trading.

 This whiteboard came from the Target Dollar Spot.  (Thanks Target!) 

 

One big view of my classroom! I have a deskless classroom which you can read about here.

 

The item my hall passes are hanging on came from Target.

 

My book corner.

 

My microfiber carpets came from Dormco. They are machine washable!

 

Rest of book corner and some of my flexible seating.

 

My puzzles.

 

 

My hanging bookshelf.  Underneath it are the hooks for backpacks and coats.

 

Storage for papers, centers, and small group items.

 

My desk and my reading group table.  The light blue bins came from Dollar Tree.  My awesome glitter pencil cup came from this website.

 

Sink area.

 

 

Door to my closet.

 

Computer area along with my Caps corner.  If you don't know, the last two years, my students created hockey movies.  Here is movie #1, and movie #2.

 

Calendar and more flexible seating.

 

Whiteboard, clipboards, and the shelves where they keep their folders and pencil boxes.

 

Promethean board and my stage.  The step says, "Step Up To Your Dreams."

 

My growth mindset board.  I bought these off of Teachers Pay Teachers.

 

Bins are from Target.  One set of binders are their data notebooks, one set is for their journal writing, and one set is the guided reading books from Deedee Wills and Deanna Jump.

 

Small group table.

 

Word wall and other storage areas.

Thanks for stopping by!  I hope everyone has a wonderful school year! :-)
~Stacey~

Center Rotations

Hello everyone!
My name is Stacey Lynch and I’ve been teaching for thirteen years now.  For several years I was good about meeting with my reading groups, but not so good with center rotations.

Then I entered the “Pinterest and TPT” world and my teaching life completely changed! 

I was able to view what other wonderful educators were doing for their center rotations.  Taking bits and pieces from what I read, I put together a well-run and successful reading rotation schedule for my first graders! 

Center 1: Meet with me
Center 2: Seat work
Center 3: Fun center
Center 4: Meet with co-teacher
Center 5: Journal writing

Let’s break this down!

Center 1:  Meet with me
We do a number of activities when they meet with me.  We read books on their level of course, but the other activities depend on the needs of the particular group.  Sometimes we’ll do regular reading / writing activities, a Science or Social Studies activity, phonics or sight word activities, some of their unfinished work, etc...  I’ll even teach them some of the center games they will have access to.

It took me some time to remember that it’s okay if I don’t accomplish everything I wanted to with my groups that day.  There is always the next day! I’d rather take my time teaching / helping them with the concept so they understand it instead of rushing through and have them not understand.  There are still times I have to remind myself of this.

Center 2: Seat Work:
Generally, this is reserved for chunk work and sight word work.  There are occasions where they will also start / finish assignments related to what they did when they met with me.

Center 3: Fun Center:
Fun center changes every day! 

Mondays:  TPT center and / or computer center – I have found incredibly wonderful language arts related centers on TPT!  I use MANY of them for this center - games related to sight words, contractions, compound words, forming sentences, and much, much more! 

Sometimes I will have computer center.  The problem is I only have one student computer.  In the past I’ve had the students use that computer, my school tablet, and a laptop from the media center for this rotation.  They love it!

Tuesdays:  Listening center –Listening centers should be utilized more, especially in the younger grades.  Not only is it important for students to be read to, they really enjoy it!

My very first Donors Choose project was to request books on cd for my listening center.  I made sure to get a variety of books – classic favorites, seasonal, and biographies. I am so grateful that this was funded!  

My students look forward to listening to and following along with the stories.  After listening to the story, they complete a short assignment, usually writing about the story elements, writing their favorite part, or listing some facts from the book.

Wednesdays: Puzzle center – I spent three summers as part of an organization that tutors upcoming third graders who are struggling with reading.  There were several parts to their day.  (Half day.)  One of those parts was puzzle center.  My boss talked about how important puzzles are since it helps with both visual and organizational skills, along with developing hand-eye coordination.  She always taught students how to separate the pieces – outside pieces vs inside pieces.  She wanted the students to put together the border first, and then focus on the inside.

I have carried this with me into my own classroom.  My students LOVE putting the puzzles together!  As an added bonus, they learn how to COLLABORATE!

Thursdays:  Same as Monday.

Fridays: Art center – Kids need time to be kids!  They need time to be creative! They do what they want to do *as long as they are on task and they are safe!*  I have a bin full of paper that students can use for art center.  They can draw, cut, glue, fold, color, etc…They bring their supplies over and have a BLAST!  Every once in a while, I will put out a template for them to work on, but for the most part, it’s a free for all!

Center 4: Meet with my co-teacher:
I am incredibly lucky to have an administration that believes in the power of co-teaching.  The ESOL teachers, Academic Support Specialists, Reading Specialist, and many of the paraeducators, plug into our classroom for an hour or two each day. 

Depending on who my co-teacher is, I’ve had them do different things when they meet with their groups.  I’ve given some a list of indicators we cover each week / marking period and they use that to guide their instruction.  I had one co-teacher a few years ago who is a science geek and therefore mainly focused on science.  Another year, my co-teacher worked on sight words, blends, reading comprehension, and putting words together. This past year, my co-teacher focused on Words Their Way.

Center 5:  Journal writing:
My students write every day.  I start off the year with them copying words into their journals:  color words, number words, seasonal words, etc…When printing out their lists, I use the font that has the lines on it so the students can see where their letters should go.  For my “fast finishers,” I have them illustrate those words.

After a few weeks of writing those words, I’ll give them some sentence starters.  “My favorite color is….. I like it because…….”  I include a word bank for them and pictures for the words when possible.

Following that is a general topic.  Write about what you did over the weekend.  OR Imagine we could go on a field trip anywhere.  Where would you want to go?  What would you want to do?  Why would you want to go there?  I try to have a word bank when possible.

For each level of “journaling,” I have reminders:
1.  Start your sentence with a capital letter.
2.  End your sentence with a period.
3.  Leave a finger space in between your words.
4.  You must have at least 5 sentences.  ** (This one changes again, depending on the topic and what my writers are capable of.*)

I’ve been known to throw in other reminders and I always go over the reminders with them before we start our rotations.

Some people ask me why I have journal writing as my last center.  It’s not really my last center, it’s just the last center they go to before meeting with me. :-)  When it’s time to switch, they bring their journal with them to my table and we take a few minutes to go over their writing. 

What about reading center?   

While reading center is not one of my regular rotations, I use it when 1) My co-teacher might have been pulled for the morning.   2) I’m giving them a break from writing center.  3) I will use this in lieu of one of the *fun centers.*

That’s it!  My co-teacher and I meet with four groups every day.  I will start the next day with the group I didn’t get to.  Rotating centers every 18-20 minutes allows me to get through four centers each morning.  Between rotations two and three is a brain break...usually a Just Dance Kids video.  My students are able to transition with ease and focus with this setup.

I hope you find this helpful!
~Stacey~