Grow Writing Love by Writing Letters... and a Funny!

Here's a quick post to tell you about a resource that is particularly useful now. We all have our official writing units to teach, dictated by Common Core or State Standards– opinion, information and narrative writing. I get the importance of those, but that certainly is not the only kind of writing kids enjoy learning about, so we take little bends in the road to incorporate other kinds of writing. One of those is letter writing. I put together a resource to help you expand letter writing into a mini-unit.

With Valentines coming up it's a great time to write to parents, grandparents, far away friends and friends at school. The pack comes with some anchor charts, stationery, and teaching ideas. Freshen up your writing center with these new materials and penny stamps and see the kids write with new vigor to a specific audience. For only two bucks, you'll get more than your money's worth. 

I'm hoping to launch my own letter writing unit next week, pulling out the classroom mailbox which will stay up for the rest of the year. In addition to leaving materials in my writing center after the mini-unit is done in probably just a week, I'm going to begin Friendly Friday Letter Writing. Friendly Friday letter writing means everyone will pull a name out of a hat, or a popsicle stick out of the name jar, and then "secretly" write to that person... well, as secretly as five year olds can do anything. snort. Then we will do quick delivery of our letters, and let instant fun and warm feelings ensue. 

This little postcard stationery works great for a Friendly Friday quick write! It's part of the pack. 

Friendly Friday letter writing is one of our Hygge Hour activities... pronounced, Hoo-guh, by the way. Don't know about Hygge? Then you should click here to check it out! 

To get to the Let's Write to Someone pack click on either of the pictures above. While you're at my store, check out all the FREEBIES. I have more resources for free than resources for sale. snort. One of my list paper freebies has been downloaded more than 3,800 times! It always cracks me up... and warms my heart... to see my resources downloaded many thousand times over. Love. Also love it when people leave product comments, which they don't do near often enough! hint.

You can see a post with more ways to use the Let's Write to Someone pack by clicking HERE. 

Hope your kiddos enjoy letter writing as much as I know my kidpeople will. Click on the photos above to find the pack. 

And now for a quick grin!

Just today, as I opened my mouth to answer the same question for the fourth time, a pipsqueak piped up, and with a roll of her eyes interjected, "Do not say that to Mrs. Wright AGAIN! She is going to get frus-ter-a-ted!"

It cracked. me. up. Who says five year olds can't get another's perspective, feel empathy, or find themselves just a little bit frus-ter-a-ted with their spacey peers, too! 

Want to catch some more Funny Kid Stories? Click on the Funny Kid Friday tab at the top of the page under my heading. Everybody needs a little funny kid story now and then. It's what keeps teachers going!

Thanks for stopping by! See you next time!

Safer Tool for Pokey Pinning Pages!

Lookee, lookee, lookee, I've got something to Show and Tell! See what I stumbled upon! A new, safer, pokey pin tool! More like a pokey pin pen, though it doesn't start out as such. In the hands of teachers and students they become a great pinning page tool, one that is much safer than the push pins which are usually used.

First of all, you need to know what pokey pin activities are. Sometimes they are called poke-a-page or pinning pages, as well as pokey pins. They are printables of pictures, words, or numbers, drawn with a dotted line. Kids usually use a push pin to poke a hole in each dot, creating a pretty cool image of micro dots of light when the paper is placed on a window– sort of like a constellation in the night sky. It is a satisfying sensory experience to poke those holes, and it provides great practice for fine muscle control, too.

Here is a pinning page from From the Pond. There is a link below.

The problem for me was that I worried about my kiddos using push pins. I have EXCELLENT classroom behaviors 100% of the time... well, 90%... well... most of the time. But even the most responsible kids in the most well run classroom can get a bit mad annoyed with each other from time to time, and all it would take would be one little impulsive swipe with a push pin in hand and Yowee! A lot of damage could be done to people and things. So only on very rare and highly supervised occasions have we done pokey pin sheets... until NOW!

They look like pens but they have tips like this–

See those little balls on the tips? They are much blunter than push pins tips, yet they go right through the paper. And they have nice handles, too– it's like holding a regular pen. You can even put a pencil grip on it for your kiddos who need it.

They are actually manicurists' tools. I think they use them to marbleize polish on nails and place little gems. Don't even ask me how I stumbled upon them. I'm not a glamour nail kinda girl– I get a pedi two or three times a year, but my shopping does take me on mysterious, meandering paths sometimes.

We use them at the table with a carpet square underneath like this.

Or on our tummies on the floor carpet like this.

Our school OT says the tummy style provides particularly good fine muscle practice. And it provides a nice movement break as well. The kids really like doing pokey pins this way.

Usually the directions for doing pinning pages say to use two pieces of paper– one with the image copied on it, and then a black piece of construction paper, paper clipped under the first. The holes of light do show up better on the window when the paper is dark. I can't stand wasting two pieces of paper, however, so sometimes I just copy the pinning picture on a regular piece of white or colored paper.

Do you know about colored paper place mats? They are colored on one side and white on the other. They have all sorts of uses for teachers... like when you do folded paper projects. They are bigger than 8.5 x 11, but when you trim them down to standard copy paper size they will go through the copier. I can copy the pinning image on the white side, and then when it is done the kids can turn it over to have black. Also, the copier ink even shows up on the dark side, so you can run it that way as well. I've used both black and dark blue with great success. With their scalloped edges I have also used them to mat kids artwork. They come in 100 page packages for about five dollars at stores like Gorden Food Service. They are useful to have around just so you can experiment with a new type of paper.

Paper placemats that are colored on one side and white on the other are
another useful type of paper to have around the classroom.

It was a very gray, cloudy day when I had the camera out, so I took this picture on our light table. You can sort of get the idea what pinning pages are all about. The "go" didn't come out too well in the picture, but they look better on a window.




And here is some more REALLY good news– these tools are quite inexpensive. Over time they have fluctuated in price on Amazon from $2 to $5 for the set. I stopped by our local beauty supply store to see if they carried similar tools, and they carry what seems to be the very same item. They cost about ten dollars though, considerably more than on Amazon. If you are in a big hurry then maybe shopping local would be a good idea, but otherwise, click on the Amazon affiliate paid link below to see them.

Pokey pin downloadables are available on TPT, of course. I especially like Mel's from From the Pond and Krissy's from Mrs. Miner's Monkey Business. You can find them by clicking below.

I hope you find these new tools useful and you and your students have lots of fun and learning with pinning pages. I would really appreciate it if you'd Pin this idea for me! I think other teachers would be especially happy to find pokey pin pens.

Now be sure to check out all the other fun Show and Tells on Forever in Fifth Grade's Linky Party. Thanks Stephanie!

Thanks for stopping by!  See you next time!

No More Pencils! Sooo Many Tips!

This is a post I've been meaning to write for some time now. I'm going to tell you WHY I don't use pencils in my classroom, WHAT I use instead, and HOW I make it all work. I'm also going to tell you why I value a very special new pencil sharpener... you'll see that pencil alternatives AND good pencil sharpeners go together later. Through all of this I will give many tips, both big and small, about writing tools in the classroom. I share my five points through the Five for Friday linky.

1.  THE WHYS

I don't use pencils in my classroom. I literally own about six standard pencils and I am the only one who uses them, and then only for recording assessments. There are several reasons why my students don't use pencils:
1. The sharpening of pencils is a PAIN... yes, I know all the systems to make sharpening easier, but I still don't think the various hassles are worth the time and effort on my part or my students'.
2. Pencils are difficult to write with. It takes considerable effort and strength to make a mark on paper with a pencil. I want my kiddos thinking about writing letters, writing words, and putting their thoughts on the page, not thinking about making the tool work.
3. I want to see my students' mistakes. Teachers glean a lot of insight into kids' thinking when we see the mistakes they make, like what their emerging skills are. And I don't want them working away at rubbing off or smearing their answers with the eraser. More wasted effort.
4. I find chewed on pencils with missing erasers depressing. Yes, that's my truth... maybe I had a bad experience with pencils growing up. When I see a pencil with a missing eraser I immediately pitch it in the trash.

2.  THE WHATS 

So I bet you're wondering what I use instead. I have two main writing tool alternatives.

One is Crayola Classic skinny markers– no I don't use "Washable" ones because the ink comes right off the paper making a bigger mess of hands than the classics. And classic markers wash out of clothes and off of hands just fine. I have yet to figure out why any teacher prefers washable. I buy my markers at Target when they go on sale for a buck a box. And yes, I buy a lot... like fifty boxes. Plus some fat ones for drawing. Significant budget goes to Crayola markers, but not to worry, you'll see I save money later in the post.

Our other pencil alternative is retractable pens, or "clickers" as we call them. Yes, the kids will click them at the beginning of the year, and one or two curious little engineers with inquiring minds will take them apart to see how they work– I put some out just for that purpose. However, with regular daily use, multiple times a day, the novelty of the clicker pen very quickly wears off.

My absolute favorite student pens are the Staples medium point 1.0 mm retractable pens with a comfort grip. The barrels of these clickers are generously sized and the soft grip makes them comfortable to hold. This pack of fifty pens includes three colors– black, blue, and red, and the bin costs just $11.99. $11.99 for fifty pens means the price per pen is just TWENTY FOUR cents!

The Dixon Ticonderoga #2 soft pencil, in the 72 bulk size is $12 on sale. That amounts to seventeen cents per pencil. And how long will those pencils last... you'll have to tell me because I don't use them. With all the lead dulling, tip breaking, and repeated grinding to get a point, I'm betting that box of 72 won't last too long in the classroom... to say nothing of the annoyance factor.  

How long did my bin of 50 clicker pens last?? Come on. Ask me. You know you want to know. I still had some left when I packed up the classroom from the bin I bought TWO falls ago. YEP. We got two years use from them. The ink in those pens lasts a long time. I'll buy another bin this year, but really, six dollars a year for pens is a very good thing for a teacher's budget. 

I invest more money in the Crayola markers, even though they are just ten cents a piece when on sale. The marker ink does not last as long because it dries out quicker, and the kids do occasionally use them to draw with as well as write. I let the kids write with markers for the first month of the school year and then we officially switch to clickers. They still get to write with markers sometimes, but I am careful to distinguish that skinny markers are for writing and fat markers are for drawing. It just makes the skinnies last that much longer. And they always get to draw with fat markers or crayons when they are writing with clickers. 

3.  One more WHAT

I would be remiss if I did not say that we also use skinny dry erase markers on clear eraseable envelopes. The best deal I've found is on Amazon– the fine tip Expo markers are about seven dollars for a box of twelve. I've found Lakeshore and the dollar store brands at good prices, too, and they work just as well. No matter the brand, make sure you get the fine point as the wide felt chisel tip gets smashed in when little hands use them. (The tips can be pulled out with needle nose pliers, but that is a hassle.) 

We use the C-line Stitched Shop Ticket Holders– I believe these were the original dry erase envelopes although there are various brands in use in classrooms these days. You simply slip whatever activity sheet you want the kids to be writing on into the sleeve. The kids fill out the sheet, then erase the sleeve so the next student can use it. This method really cuts down on the number of copies you need to make. 

And here's an extra tip– on Amazon the neon colored ones are ten for $13, while the black stitched ones come in a box of 25 for $23. You do the math. And the residue from the dry erase ink will not show up as much on the black edged ones as it does on the neon, so they look nicer with less cleaning. I know the neon ones are cuter, but for the money, and the reduced dirt, I say go for the black.

   

4.  SOME HOWS 

Okay, there are a couple of HOWs that I need to answer. First of all, with no erasers, how do kids correct their mistakes? Well, we use what I fondly refer to as the baseball method– three strikes and it's out. We learn how to draw one line through the middle of the letter or word, then one strike across the top, and one across the bottom. Yes, I know we as adults know that one strike will do it, but the little guys just don't think it is "fixed" enough with only one line. To take away their tendency to scribble and completely obliterate mistakes, wasting ink and making holes in paper, I came up with the baseball method. With three strikes, the kiddos feel they have thoroughly identified and marked out the mistake.... and the baseball metaphor gives me another quick teachable moment (usually half the class does not know how baseball is played), and it makes it fun.

My tip for storing the clicker pens is to teach the kiddos to click the pen "closed" so the ink doesn't mark up the bottom of the caddy. This way the retracted ballpoint end points down and the ink stays at the tip ready to write for the next day. They get it. It works really well.

Another suggestion– I put both the black and blue pens out for writing right from the get-go, right after the first month of school which we spend writing with skinny markers. A choice of black or blue is good and eases them away from the full rainbow of choices. I save the red pens for the revision writing unit to use for editing. I'll add here, for any remaining skeptics, that when I went to Teachers College for a week of Lucy Calkins training, the kindergarten team recommended writing with skinny markers at the beginning of the year, too. They were not too fond of pencils for the same reasons I give here. I felt somewhat justified in my uncommon rejection of classroom pencils.

The HOW of how I store the dry erase pens includes several not-so-obvious tips, too. I stumbled upon this tray while looking for a pen holder of certain specifications. I wanted one that would hold a table group's worth of pens and leave the marker caps in plain view, so we could go hunting immediately for any that turned up missing.

This black tray (also available in blue) comes from IKEA. It is supposed to be for making long skinny ice cubes for water bottles. However, if you turn it over it holds five dry erase markers really well. It you leave it right side up there are six slots, and that's good if you have six kids at a table. I go to the trouble of labeling these markers, one for each kiddo– it leads to much more responsible use. I put colored binder clips on the trays to distinguish which table group the pens belong to– no type of sticker or tape would adhere to the rubbery plastic. And a bonus, they stack really well. The whole system is a good one for us.


5.  And now...

I have a pencil sharpener to recommend. Yes. You read that right. After a whole post on how I DO NOT use pencils, I have cause to talk about a pencil sharpener. You see, although we don't use regular #2 pencils in class, we do draw with colored pencils. I like the brands that have softer leads as they seem to hold more pigment. My favorite brand for special projects is Faber-Castell, and for everyday use we use Crayola, the best of the common school pencils, I think. The problem is that colored pencils need to be sharpened quite regularly. AND another problem is that they shouldn't be sharpened in an electric pencil sharpener– something to do with extra wear on the blades and motor.

Chances are if you read any blogs you already know that this really neat-o pencil sharpener from Classroom Friendly Supplies is all the rage. The sharpener holds the pencil in such a way that it feeds the pencil in just the right amount for a sharp tip, with no over-sharpening. The kiddos only need to crank the handle. It comes in groovy colors to coordinate with any classroom decor. It is surprisingly quiet, too. And the price is very reasonable at only $24.99, or if you go in with teacher friends and buy three, each one is just $17.99.

When I heard Classroom Friendly Supplies was looking for blog reviews, I immediately thought of a REAL pencil sharpener challenge for them. heh, heh, heh. (evil laugh) I emailed the company and asked how their groovy sharpener did with COLORED pencils.

Their response was a true one: "Colored pencils are the kryptonite of most sharpeners!" They rose to the challenge though, and sent me one, free of charge, to test it out.

My honest recommendation: It worked great! The kids figured out how to let it hold the pencil, it went in as promised and came out with a sharp point without being ground to bits. All this was as promised.

How many kids does it take to sharpen pencils? snort.

When customer support emailed their response to my question about colored pencils they added that it might be best to have the kids only partially sharpen colored pencils. When the tip of a colored pencil gets very sharp the tip is more likely to jam, they said. I don't know if it jams when you sharpen it all the way, because I modified the directions for sharpening our colored pencils for another reason. Drawing and coloring with colored pencils is better if there is a lot of lead exposed, but with a slightly rounded tip, not a sharp point. So I told the kidpeople to load the pencil into the sharpener then give it three turns of the crank. They were also instructed to only sharpen when the leads were about gone. When the pencil went into the sharpener in this dull state, three turns of the handle put a perfectly rounded tip on the pencil.

See the little cuties counting the turns of the handle
on their fingers. hee. 

Another little colored pencil sharpening tip is to sharpen both ends of the pencil. That way drawing can happen for twice as long before a sharpening is needed. You can't really see the pencils in the cup to see that this is usually the case.

Needless to say, the pencil sharpener was a GREAT hit in class, both with the kiddos and with me. I will be using it over in the art area for years to come. I can heartily recommend the Classroom Friendly Pencil Sharpener because if it can do tricky colored pencils so well, it can certainly do any regular pencils that you might stubbornly continue to use after reading this post. snort!

You can find the sharpener by clicking on the icon below.

Whew, thanks for staying with me through this rather long post. I hope I gave you food for thought! I have been asked several times to explain how I get away without using pencils and I hope this explained it. I encourage you to share your thoughts and ask questions in the comment section below. I also ask you to PIN! PIN! PIN! if you found some ideas worth remembering and sharing. I would be thrilled to see it shared on Instagram, too. I hope you'll try going pencil-less this year. I swear, you'll never go back.

Now scootch on back to Five for Friday. So many good things are out in the blog-o-sphere. Thanks, Doodle Bugs Teaching for your ever wonderful linky!

See you next time! By the way, next time is going to be Monday, and it will be a tutorial on a new photo app I've discovered. Don't miss it.

P.S. If you haven't already, quick click on the pic below and enter to win a $100 TPT gift certificate. You can have up to twenty chances and you'll also find twenty freebies of various kinds if you go through the blog hop. My freebie is a writing packet from my TPT store, but HURRY! The giveaway and freebies end Friday night! 

Pin 3 and MORE

Hi again. I tell you when it comes to me and blogging it's either hot or cold, feast or famine, flood or draught. At the moment it's a hot feast flood– I think this is my third post in a row with more coming in the not too distant future. Today I have several things to share that are MOSTLY about my top favorite Pins for May. However, there are a couple other things ya gotta know about.

First of all, CONGRATULATIONS to Zayda from Magically in First for winning my giveaway of Secrets of the Vegetable Garden. She loves teaching science and is going to use this neat shine-through book to introduce her plants unit. Her firsties are gonna love it. Way to go Zayda. Read about the book here.

Second, I am participating in another big ol' giveaway with some fellow bloggers. You can win one of two fifty dollar TPT gift certificates. Wouldn't you have a great little shopping spree with that!

Just sign up here. You can have twenty three chances!

Teacher Appreciation Week
​

Here's who's in the giveaway with me. Check out their blogs by clicking below.





​

Kovescence of the Mind

123 teach - Brittany Kiser

Michele Luck's Social Studies

Momma with a Teaching Mission

Mrs. Beattie's Classroom

Stephanie Rye - Forever in Fifth Grade

Embellished Education

Classroom Action with Ms.Jackson

The Education Diva

Patty Rutenbar at 2nd in Line

Miss Johnston's Journey

Believe to Achieve by Anne Rozell

Cait's Cool School

Smart Teaching

KidpeopleClassroom.com

Adventures in the Mitten

Inspired Owl's Corner

Teaching Superkids

Pawsitively Teaching

Second Grade Estrellas

​And NOW check out these three pins!

Okay, so I couldn't make up my mind which KooKoo I liked the most, so I'm posting three of Koo Koo Kangaroo's movement videos as my first pin. These are our newest discovered vids– they have many– and our current favorites. Do you know KooKoo? If you don't, you should.

I mean come on... grown men who sing about their fanny packs! Hilarious. The kids like them, too. Their facial expressions are great and the music is very well done with a variety of styles. These goofballs really know kids.

I don't do Go Noodle, but I do collect movement videos on my Brain Break Pinterest Board. When we need to move, I just open this board and we choose the dance of the day. Love. We don't use this collection as much as we did in the mean winter months, but sometimes you only have five minutes to move and my Pinterest board is super handy for this. Click to see these guys and more faves. You might consider following just so you can get the variety of choices immediately.

My next Pin comes from Two Writing Teachers. I guess my mind is drifting toward next year. THIS year I had a good handful of kiddos for whom writing was very difficult. Both the physical aspect of putting pen to paper, and the recording of stories. I am doing early research for next year, looking for ways to scaffold better for my challenged kids. I LOVE teaching writing and I strive to be the best I can be. Check out this article, and while there, you'll see other posts in similar veins pop up. All kindergarten teachers have low kids and these ideas are valuable in helping us reach all our kiddos.

Consider following Two Writing Teachers, too. This group of blogger authors, considerably more than two now, share cutting edge thoughts on the teaching of writing, and they are pretty good writers themselves. I always find the posts worth my while.

Hmmm.... and three should be.... 

I've been using this super simple idea for my lowest reading group. Before they come over I write the sight words we're working on on slates with Expo marker. I hand them the slate and a Q-tip to "Trace-Erase" the words as a warm up. The novelty makes it fun to practice writing their words. Just one more teaching strategy in my ever growing collection. Next year I'll do some letter writing practice with Q-tips, too, as it's needed.

And because I JUST found this and want to do it THIS week for Mother's Day, I share it here.

I think this is the cutest dang Mother's Day card I've ever seen. Tips to make the photo come out right are included on Bren's blog.

Can you believe I have today off! It is voting day and our schools are polling places. So in an effort to stay away from potential gun toting voters, our district decided a month ago to close and label today as a "snow day." I am THRILLED with the day off, even as I am not thrilled with the reason.

My To-Do List:
Get tire fixed
Work on animation project I'm doing with the kiddos
Get ready for an all day field trip on Wednesday
Write lesson plans for three days I'm out next week
Meet some new students I'll have next year
Help my daughter who's home on semester break with a painting project
Have my mom up for dinner
And...
And...

Okay, so I have a week's worth to work into one day... I can do it... I'm a superhero-teacher-type...

Thanks so much for stopping by. Go check out some more Pin love by clicking below on the blog buttons. Heaps of thanks to Lisa and Marissa for their monthly Pick 3 Pin Linky. I love to party... linky party, that is!

If you'd like to post into this linky sponsored by Pawsitively Teaching, Just Reed, and Inspired Owl's Corner, you can! Just click on their buttons below for the guidelines and buttons.

See you next time!

An InLinkz Link-up

Five New Resources for the New Year

What better time to find new resources than at the beginning of the new year? Some will save you money, some will make you money, some are good to share with your own students. I think you'll find a couple of goodies today. Thanks Doodle Bugs Teaching for a favorite Five for Friday linky!

1.  The folks from SightWords.com asked me to check out their website, and share as I saw fit. Well, I checked it out, and I see a LOT fit... a perfect fit for preK thru first grade, ELL and special ed teachers. The site contains tons of FREE resources that help teach sight words, phonemic awareness, and counting. And it is fully EDITABLE– you can choose from Fry and Dolch lists, or create your own word lists. You'll find games, flash cards, videos, and reference charts– truly worth checking out. Click on their icon below. Oh, and did I mention– all the resources are free, with nothing to buy on the site. Whoot!

2.  Do you know about Ziggedy? If you don't, you want to pay attention here. It is an EASY fundraising site that raises money for you to spend on your classroom to help defray the out-of-pocket costs that teachers experience all the time. It's super simple– sign up your classroom, then send invites to your classroom parents, your own friends and family members. After that, every time they shop on-line, a percentage of their purchase amount goes into your classroom account. It costs you nothing, it costs them nothing, and it only takes a click through Ziggedy before they put items in their carts to send money your way. They can even get a button that pops up telling them when they are on a site that will donate to their cause. And there are many commonly used retailers who participate in the Ziggedy program– Best Buy, Sears, Macy's, Lowe's, Office Depot and Staples, Kohl's, Walmart, Walgreens, Groupon, even travel sites like Orbitz and Travelocity. Here are two videos that explain it from the teacher and parent perspective.

And




I have earned approximately $40 this quarter by signing up and having just a few of my classroom families, and my own friends and family members sign up.  I should note here that Ziggedy is not like DonorsChoose which asks your families and friends for direct donations. (That is a great site btw and I got a set of rekenreks for my classroom, though I didn't really like asking people for donations.) On Ziggedy, regular shopping that people do anyway brings in money to the classroom, with no one spending any extra. Why wouldn't anyone let their regular shopping bring in money to classrooms? Click below to go to my referral page to find out more. Whoot Whoot!

One last thing. I am always a little skeptical of things that seem too good to be true, so I did a little digging into Ziggedy. It gets high trust ratings from all the sources I checked. They have also been very responsive to any questions I've had.

3.  Teachers and kids love picture books but Dragon and Captain is no ordinary picture book.

This picture book is a type of beginning graphic novel. Two boys, one who happens to love his dragon bathrobe and another who loves his three cornered hat, go off on an adventure that only they can see– except they let their young readers in on it, too. Writer Philip Allabach and illustrator Lucas Turnbloom do a great job of capturing the boys' imaginary world so that we see both their world of adventure and the ordinary world they live in. And they use all those great comic book devices to tell the story- speech bubbles, sound words, storyboard style with multiple pictures per page- anybody see a new mentor text here?? I have been saving this goodie until after break because this is the perfect book to not only teach about features of print but also a whole new genre. I think they're going to love it. AND the end papers are MAPS! I don't know about your kids, but every year my kids fall in love with maps and map making. This is going to be a hot feature of the book.

Anyone who reads regularly won't be surprised when I say this book is from Flashlight Press, one of my favorite small house publishers. I love all their stuff and have come to eagerly await those couple of new books they put out each year. Check. them. out.  And then go get your hands on a copy– I know our school librarian is going to be all over it as it fills a unique niche for kids who love comics. Great fun.  You can see my other book reviews for Flash Light Press by clicking on the "Books" label on my right side bar.

Click to see Flashlight Press books.

4. Coding, coding, coding. It's the wave of the future. I know very little about it, but as a teacher, even a kindergarten teacher, I feel a certain obligation to learn. In my learning process I heard about the site Code.org where there are various coding games you can play as you learn to code. My favorite– yes I played them– is the Star Wars game where you get to program for BB-8 and R2D2 to do various tasks... which help the rebel cause, of course. There is a video that explains a bit about coding and then it teaches you how to code using a block system. Great fun AND learning for you your students. It is recommended for kids six and up as there is some reading of directions. I shared this site with families to try, think it is a great site for kindergartners to go to with their big buddies from older grades, and also provides good challenge for my advanced students. There are many games on the site, including some that don't even need a computer. Check it out by clicking on the picture below.

5.  Weekend News is my last idea to share on this New Year's Day because it would be great to incorporate on your first day back from break. My kiddos don't do "bell work." I know as teachers we want kids to "get right to work" when they come in the door, but seat work at this time of the day for the first minutes in the door has never made sense to me. What adult do you know walks into the office, goes straight to their desk, and starts working on the day's tasks without first greeting and sharing with their co-workers? People need the connection with other people before they can put aside life's distractions and get to work. So I allow my kids to talk and share with each other– share about their time at home, their trip to school, and what's on their mind. I encourage conversation over good books, too, because our first work of the day is D.E.A.R time. Each day I have a different collection of books out-  DK Books for factual reading, words and letter books, puzzle and search books, kid magazines, our collection of current read alouds and, of course, our own book baggies of just right books. I see this part of our daily routine meeting ELA, language, and social-emotional goals.

We break from our D.E.A.R. routine once a week, however. On Mondays we are always full of weekend news to share, so when kids come in they grab a Weekend Chronicles sheet and share with their friends as they write and illustrate what they did over the weekend.

I went to see if my friends were home. They were playing outside so we built, made a fort.

I collect these after we do attendance and job board rotation and bring them to the carpet for meeting. As I flip through the stack of papers I ask each child if they have one thing to report from the weekend. Even kids who don't comment much in meetings usually take this opportunity for a sound bite. I might comment on a paper, or ask a follow up question as I flip through, but it is all kept very brief. Our reports go home so that another goal is accomplished– parents get to see what their child's most current writing efforts are. We use Lucy Calkins' writing workshop model– which I love– and we do other kinds of writing throughout our week, but I found that parents weren't seeing their child's "out of my head" writing, as one of my little guys calls it, often enough. This written sound bite lets parents see what kids can do, and comment and ask about the weekend they just spent together. Kids, parents, and I all love our weekend reports. It is one more way for us to write, talk, and connect in our busy days. Whoot! (I don't have this as a freebie because you need to name your own class reports- but the form is easy to make.)

Click on back to Kacey and see what Fives the rest of us are sharing on this new year's day.

Thanks so much for stopping by today. Let me know in comments if you found anything of special interest to you. I wish you and yours a truly remarkable 2016!