DIRECTED DRAWING VIDEOS
Using Directed Drawing videos is a fun new way to practice drawing with your students! It saves a lot of teacher time by being no-prep – just give students some paper and pencils, press PLAY, and students draw along with the video! You can pause whenever you like, and replay the video at the end. It also makes a fun independent activity if you have access to smaller devices during center time or for early finishers. As with [Read More…]
Directed Drawing Videos – Reindeer
Do your students love directed drawing? Mine do!
Read all about how I use directed drawing and writing prompts, and even directed drawing VIDEOS with my class!
DIRECTED DRAWING VIDEOS
Using Directed Drawing videos is a fun new way to practice drawing with your students! It saves a lot of teacher time by being no-prep – just give students some paper and pencils, press PLAY, and students draw along with the video! You can pause whenever you like, and replay the video at [Read More…]
Seasonal STEM with Partner Plays
My students LOVE doing STEM Challenges. We began the year working on Fairy Tale Challenges from THIS resource, and it was a big hit!
Now, we have added more fun by adding SEASONAL STEM projects!
SANTA STEM
The first ones we tried were all about Santa!
Each challenge is introduced with a partner play. This means we can integrate some literacy skills into the lessons. I have found that using partner plays give the STEM challenges context, and makes the building task much more [Read More…]
Christmas Kindness Around The World
I strive to make my classroom a place where students feel safe, appreciated and respected just as they are.
My classroom banner says simply: “Be Kind. Work Hard.”
These ideas are reinforced all year long, but there are some special ways that we spread kindness in December for Christmas.
RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS
Each year we take the month of December to really focus on Random Acts of Kindness and caring for each other. If possible, I enjoy getting families involved. A few years ago [Read More…]
Christmas Kindness
Teaching about kindness and acceptance seems more important than ever, especially at Christmas.
Here’s a fun and FREE activity to share with your class or children.
It’s very easy: just cut out and assemble the two pieces of Santa’s loooooong beard.
Students give Santa a trim each day – after completing the act of kindness written in each section.
Choose the version you want: PDF or EDITABLE PowerPoint file (add your own acts of kindness to each section).
Some ideas for use:
*Print the black and white version for students [Read More…]
Social Emotional Learning in the Primary Classroom
SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING
Years ago I would get some disapproving looks when I mentioned how much classroom time I dedicate to social emotional learning. “What about the curriculum! You’ll never get through it all if you don’t start right away!”
But I did get through it all, sometimes with time to spare. Why? I found that if we solidified expectations for kindness, inclusion and self-management early, and spent a LOT less time on disruptions through the year. Plus, we were shaping future citizens; it’s not [Read More…]
Books That Teach Friendship and Social Skills
Our class spends a LOT of time learning social skills, problem solving, friendship and conflict resolution. This helps to create a peaceful environment where learning can thrive, and we do not have to spend the majority of our time solving interpersonal conflicts. We use interactive lessons from The Kindness Classroom SEL curriculum, along with many of the books listed below to reinforce concepts.
Click on any cover to see details of the story.
Llama Llama Time To Share by Anna Dewdney
Franklin Plays the [Read More…]
Teaching Empathy and Kindness: A Book List
Welcome to the Social Skills Ideas Bank!
The Social Skills Idea Bank is a series of related posts, each dedicated to sharing strategies for teaching a particular social skill.
As teachers, our strength lies in sharing our ideas, experiences and strategies!
This is a growing list, and you are invited to contribute in the comments section. We hope you will, because there’s nothing like a good idea shared between teachers to make our jobs easier.
This post is about books you can use to teach empathy [Read More…]
Top Children’s Books To Teach About Emotions
A large part of my curriculum is purposely spent exploring emotions with my students. We explore what they are called, what causes them, and how to handle them appropriately in the classroom. The big idea is that emotions are all okay, but how we react to our emotions is worth some thought.
There is also a large part of my teaching week dedicated to unplanned teaching of social skills and emotions. These are during the conflicts that arise daily during any [Read More…]
Writing Workshop : Setting Up For Success!
Do you do writing workshop with your students?
My program has evolved over the last 23 years, and now it runs smoothly – although I can’t help but add new ideas each year!
Long before I expect students to write stories, we spend a lot of time discussing stories.
For example, every time we read a story, we …
*name the author and illustrator
*find words to describe the characters and talk about who they might remind us of
*talk about the plot and if we’ve ever [Read More…]
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