A collaborative blog by Pre K and Kindergarten specialists. Child growth and development, information, free printables.
Eppstein Uhen Architects (EUA) has created a fresh and functional design for the renovation of Franklin High School located in Franklin, Wisconsin. Franklin School District wanted […]
Completed in 2014 in Salisbury, United States. Images by Robert Benson . Indian Mountain School (IMS) is a PreK-9 independent boarding school located on a 600-acre campus in Lakeville, Connecticut, serving 186 students. As...
Social Thinking Activities that Help Children Express Emotions and Recognize How Others Are Feeling. Develop whole body listening and social awareness.
Image 3 of 22 from gallery of School in Vorarlberg / AO Architekten. Photograph by Adolf Bereuter
As Spring Break approaches, I find that my fifth graders are in need of some reminders as to what it means to be kind to each other. In general, they are sweet kids, but at times the words they use and actions they take, particularly on the playground, aren't the kindest. Our read aloud for the month is Wonder by RJ Palacio so the theme of kindness fit right into our room. It just so happens that a new book, We're All Wonders by RJ Palacio, a picture book intended for younger readers to access the story, came out this week as well. So the timing was perfect. (the two links above are my affiliate links and will take you to Amazon to buy the books.) I began by asking the students what kindness is. We brainstormed a list of ideas and created an anchor chart. Then I read the picture book to the students. Because we had just finished Wonder, they were so excited to read this new version. When we finished, I asked the kids to think of all the ways, in both the picture book and the novel, that people were not very kind to Auggie (the main character). The kids were able to fill our entire circle map in no time. It was easy to recall how people would scream in his face, recoiling at the way he looked. They remembered the names Auggie was called and the no-touching game that was played. The instantly told me about all the awful things that happened to him. I then asked the kids to brainstorm ways that, if they were in the novel with Auggie, they could be kinder to him. Again, they had no problem thinking of ways they could be kind to Auggie. Next, I asked the students to think about their own real life. I asked them to reflect upon how they personally treat others and how they personally could make better choices when speaking to others. Here is where things got a little challenging. You see, when students are talking about fictional characters, or reading news stories about OTHER kids they don't know being treated unfairly or unkindly, they know exactly what they would do if they were there. Because they aren't there. They know they never will be there. But when confronted with their own lives, and real possibilities for what they would have to do to step in or change situations, it is a bit harder for them. So I asked them to brainstorm 15 different ways they PERSONALLY could show kindness to our classmates. (I drew a lot of inspiration for this next part from Study All Knight's FREE Kindness unit, which you can grab here.) The students then used tempra paint and painted 15 (or so) rainbow sunshine rays. They also drew their own Wonder-Inspired portrait. (I have previously done this before, but had them focus on precepts and writing....if you would like to do that, click here. It is one of my fav lessons too!) The students then glued their Wonder portraits into the middle of the rays, used Sharpie to outline and write the 15 ways they could show real kindness in their lives (one way per ray) and were done. They came out amazing. (See the picture at the top of the post!) What is better though, is that the past two days, my students are actively trying to be kinder to each other. They are watching their words. I have seen people purposefully go up to those who tend to wander during group time and invite them into the group. I have seen students smile at others just a bit more. It truly has been a Wonder. Right now, for a limited time, Amazon has the book available for $3.99!!! Snag up to 4 copies at that price. Use my affiliate link here to get your copy ASAP before they are all gone!! SaveSave
If you are a regular reader here, you can probably guess why fall is one of my favorite seasons. I just adore how pumpkins lend them...
This week we talked a lot about feelings and emotions. Our artist this week was Rembrandt, who fit right in to our discussions- so I am combining both of these topics into this post. When we study an artist, we look at samples of his/her work, discuss a "defining feature" of the work, and make a project to remember the artist. First, I introduced Rembrandt by showing the children some of his paintings. He painted lots of faces and expressions. Here is a picture of the "Rembrandt" part of my Discovering Great Artists Prezi. It shows how Rembrandt used shading and expressions in his paintings. My Prezi is free at my TPT store. It features 11 different artists. Once the children saw how Rembrandt drew lots of faces, we talked about the different expressions on faces and what they mean. We read several books about feelings and emotions. Here are some of my favorites... I love On Monday When It Rained, by Cherryl Kachenmeister and Tom Berthiaume. It is very relatable for my kids, and it gives them a chance to predict the emotion that is being described and to act out the emotions on each page. We had a LOT of fun with How Are You Peeling? by Saxton Freymann and Joost Elffers. The children loved the pictures of the different foods with attitudes- and I loved the opportunity to teach lots of vocabulary words like blue, grumpy, timid, secure, amused, bold, ashamed, and embarrassed. I always like Today I Feel Silly by Jamie Lee Curtis. I found some great TPT Freebies to share with you! Carrie Manchester has a wonderful activity called How Does David Feel? free at her TPT store. I found a great Understanding Emotions Game that was free from Let's Talk Speech Language Pathology's TPT store. It has cards with different situations on them which encourage discussions about what specific emotions mean and look like. There are also cards that describe the emotions. While I was looking for different ideas for emotions, I found these free Anger Choice Cards from Mrs. Kilby. They give the students lots of positive ideas to try if they feel angry. They would be great to use for a class discussion- and to have out as a reminder for the children (or adults...). Jenna Rayburn has a cute St. Patrick's Day Feelings Activity. This would be great for chit-chat times or turn and talks, as well as class discussions or writing ideas. Lanie's Little Learners has a free My Feelings Book at her TPT store. LissxO has a cute My Feelings Book, too! After we have had a great lesson on emotions, we draw our own. First, we do a shared drawing lesson to practice how we would draw different emotions. I have the kids make the expressions to go with the emotions and look at each other. We notice what characteristics stand out to us the most. For example, the big smile for happy, the big frown and maybe tears for sad, the closed eyes for sleepy, the big open eyes and mouth for afraid and surprised, the angry eyebrows for mad, and the half closed eyes for sick. I found this worksheet at Notes from a First Grade Classroom. Kamil's Feelings has a different version of the worksheet that would be fun to use, too. You could have the children make a book with a different emotion on each page, and then write why the person felt that way. Here are some examples of my children's work- Apparently, you don't want to make this one MAD... Another project the children love to do is to look at themselves in mirrors and practice drawing their different expressions, similar to the way Rembrandt painted many different expressive faces. I found these magnetic locker mirrors at the end of summer at the Dollar Store. I also use some small stand up mirrors and even the housekeeping dress-up mirror and table for the children to study their expressions as they draw themselves. The beginnings of a great surprised portrait... I had out my Ed Emberley's Drawing Book of Faces for Free Choice time. I have several of his books and the children love to use them. Teacher Vision has a free, simple facial expressions chart that is fun to have out as a guide or to use as a feelings lesson before you have the children draw their expressions. My children love how just changing the eyebrows makes such a difference in the expression! I hope that YOU have a week full of smiles and happiness! Thank you for stopping by!
I'm linking up for TBA's Follow the yellow brick road linky party! Crystal at Kreative in Kinder is the wonderful host of this path! I was finally invited to be a contributor of Classroom Freebies Too (long awaited woot woot!) and am SO stinkin' excited to be a part of such a wonderful resource!! I've been working on my Back-to-school unit and wanted to include a cafeteria expectations craftivity! I found a wonderful new resource for clip art - and it's completely free! The only stipulation is.. you can't sell products with the clip art, but you can post them on websites and share them as freebies! Woot woot! Go check out Discovery Education Clip art! Here is the craftivity I'm sharing with you - let me know if you grab it! I love hearing from you! {click on the picture to take you there!}
(This is a pre-blog project so I'm sorry there aren't as many pictures as my other projects. You'll still get the idea. You are all very sma...
Feelings Eggs There are so many fun ways to teach about feelings. In play therapy, I love to try creative interventions that are...
I saw this gorgeous mirror at a dollar store so i thought id use it in an activity based around a favourite book "Funny Face" by Nikola Smee. It is a lovely book that talks about a story of little boy who had his ball stolen by a bear and his emotions that of course end in him playing with the bear happily. I colour photocopied the faces pages that have faces/emotions on them and laminated. As i read the book to Tara i asked her to find the card that matched the story and then show me the face in the mirror.. Sad Face... Cross Face... Frightened Face... Happy Face... It was lovely to see her amazed by her faces and i think even adults need to look in the mirror to see what emotion they are portraying to others. It takes more muscles to frown than it does to smile!!!! .
This BINGO game is a great way to incorporate Feeling Faces into your lessons. The faces coordinate with my ASL Feeling Word Posters. Each face is labeled with the beginning letter to make identifying the feeling a little easier. Hints can be provided for each feeling and students can fill up the...
Find a range of printable people puppet templates online that can be used for various classroom activities like storytelling and role-playing or for fun parent-child craft projects..
As a former Communication Studies major in undergrad, I've noticed that my comm. background has heavily influenced my counseling and teaching style when working with my students. I try my best to teach them the importance and benefits of learning to communicate openly, honestly, and positively with each other. We spend a lot of time learning Heart Talk, but I was even more excited last week to teach them about Habit 5: Seek First To Understand, Then To Be Understood. I started my lessons in 1st grade with a review of the habits we'd learned so far right up to Habit 4 when we practice Heart Talk. The kiddos know now that they are supposed to use Heart Talk with people when they are feeling sad or mad or someone hurts their feelings. I told them that the next habit would help them listen to their friends if they ever did something that hurt someone's feelings (because we all make mistakes, but we are proactive people and we want to learn from our mistakes and make them better!) I told them they would be learning a new word--empathy--and that this habit would teach them how to listen with their hearts instead of just their ears. I read them the book How Do I Stand In Your Shoes by Susan Debell. This book is an EXCELLENT resource if you are trying to teach young children the meaning of empathy! The kids love it and are engaged throughout the entire book. At the end, there are some thoughtful questions you can ask to see what they learned about empathy and how to stand in someone's shoes. After processing the story with them, I planned to have them do a worksheet that they could fill out after interviewing a partner about something that happened to them over the weekend (good or bad). But, I just didn't have time for it because they go to related arts right after my lesson. Instead, I did a short version of emotion charades. I pretended to come into the room very sad and mopey (totally opposite of how excited I always am) and asked them to stand in my shoes to guess how I was feeling. Then, I reminded them of how having empathy was like listening with your heart, and I asked them what kinds of things they could do to help me feel better and to be kind to me if they knew I was sad. We practiced some more feelings: angry, embarrassed, scared and I was so proud at how well they all got it! This is one of my favorite lessons to teach and I was so happy with how well it fit in with Habit 5!
Help your preschooler learn to read with this simple and fun exercise. By reading the descriptions of each house, your child picks one of the houses.
CannonDesign and INVISION were tasked with the design for the Waukee Innovation and Learning Center located in Waukee, Iowa. The 250-student Waukee Innovation and Learning Center (WILC) is […]
Have you read any of Julia Cook’s books? She is one of my favorite authors. Two of my biggest pet peeves are when children blurt out and tattle. You should check out A Bad Case of Tattle Tongue and My Mouth is a Volcano. Both are excellent books that seem to really engage and educate children. If you have the books then I created some sheets that respond to the story. Click here to download. I am also quite proud of all the fun freebies I've found in blog land. I have printed tons of goodies, laminated, and hot glued them to the walls. The hot glue gun is my best friend these days!!! All of these are freebies I've found online. Be sure to click on their name and it will take you right to the free download. Thanks Randi Thanks Ginger! Thanks Marianne Thanks Kristen I also purchased the Target book covers. All I can say is AMAZING. My students love having a little spot for books or unfinished work. I also love the little white baskets for storing their writing journals. I can't wait to see your awesome projects! I sure do love Monday Made Its with Tara.
Pumpkin is the most popular craft for the harvest season, especially for Halloween. My pumpkin isn’t scary, it’s happy and cheerful. I hope...
Every kid loves a snow day! Get some practice with the seasons with this wintry worksheet. Circle each item you'd see on a winter day.
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I heard about Five In A Row a few years ago from another homeschool mom. I know she has used FIAR for the last 2-3 years, but now has a harder time finding the free resources since Homeschool Share reorganized their website and got rid of the B4FIAR and FIAR resource page.
Lately I have worked quite a bit with my elementary students to teach them about how to improve their Attention & Focus skills. I have focused on my 4th and 5th grade students – and th…
Kids do not yet have the skills to control their emotions and this is something to support for both their kindergarten readiness and life-skills learning.
