A Gift Worth 25,200

I would LOVE to give you a gift worth $25,200....or just give it to you in cold, hard cash. Can I hear a CHA CHING! =)

There are movie stars that probably spend that much on a dress. Who knows what some athletes drop that kind of money for...?????

A warm, fuzzy teacher response would be how teaching is so much more rewarding than any gift of that value.

I am sure we all hit the Dollar Tree when we buy little gift for our kiddos' Christmas presents. But did you realize you give your kiddos a gift worth that value EVERYDAY????

Each day we have 25,200 seconds with our kiddos.

I know we all think and know that there is not enough time in the day to do everything that is expected of us. I know it is a daily...heck, a hourly race...to keep up in the curriculum.

I often feel like I am Cinderella before the Fairy Godmother comes when I visit other blogs. Everything always seems so magical. I know I do lots of fun and creative lessons with my kiddos but my days are still filled with booger picking, booty scratchin', Lucy Goosey, tootin' and giggling little kiddos.

Kiddos who ask you 10 minutes after lunch Have we been to lunch yet?

Kiddos who tell you they have a question but then tell you a story about their daddy when he drinks too much beer.

Kiddos who start rolling around on the rug when you are reading your favorite story in your best character voices.

Kiddos who go to work on the wonderful craftivity you worked so hard to create and pre-cut the templates for and.....they turn it into an Edward Scissorhands disaster.

I visit these wonderful and inspiring teaching blog written by amazing women who must be like Snow White because when they open their mouths they must enchant their children and have forest animals flocking to hear their magical voice.

I realize though that my kiddos will always love the lessons when we have visitors like Stretchy Snake, Pete the Cat, Chester Raccoon, Lips the Fish, the Letter Snatcher, and very soon Mr. Gobbles the rescued turkey who lives with Santa at the North Pole.

But am I creating and sharing with them the moments that let them know how much I care???

Am I giving them a few minutes to let them be the 6 and 7 year olds that we seem to forget that they are when we try and meet benchmark after benchmark and master standard after standard???

I realize that it will be in those 25,200 seconds that I teach a child about being patient, helpful, kind, and forgiving because how I react to what they do and say will be a lesson on how they can respond to others when they are faced with a similar situation.

I always try and remember the Conscious Discipline thought about being the person I want others to become.

It is in just a few of those 25,200 seconds that the reaction I make can cause a ripple effect that leads to a tsunami or a tiny pebble that barely skims the water. My words can and do make a huge difference.

When there is arguing, fussing, lying, shoving and defiance, what good does it do anyone if I immediately react by snapping at a child or fussing at them because of all the fussing?

It is in those few seconds before we open our mouths that have the greatest impact on whatever the situation is.

One of my favorite parts of Conscious Discipline is that it teaches children the tools they need to become problem solvers but the most valuable part is without a doubt the lesson it teaches me about how to help my children.

I want for the 25,200 seconds I have with my kiddos to be as productive as possible. I want them to be full of fun and engaging lessons. I want them to help my kiddos be the best 1st graders they can be.

I want them to help build a school family of helpful, kind, and patient individuals.

I want them to be little moments where I laugh with my kiddos and act silly.

I want them to be full of hugs and smiles

I want them to be little gifts to each child that let them know I care about them....even when they forget and are booger picking, fussy, Lucy Goosey Firsties.

It is in our gift of 25,200 seconds that a difference can be made Because of YOU.

This song always helps me to remember that what I want in my classroom I have to give....as well as to stop and think of others and the struggles they might be facing.

On to some turkey fun....

I love *freebies*. =)

Here is a fun activity I recently added to my TpT store.

Mr. Turkey is so scared. He is afraid he will soon be someone’s Thanksgiving dinner. As he tries to talk, he gets so nervous that he is never able to finish saying the words. All of the words he says are missing the final sound. Help him find the missing sounds on the feathers he has lost.

This is a fun activity that your kiddos will love. It is perfect for Word Study and as part of your Thanksgiving unit. A fun song and story help engage your children as they listen for the missing final sound in a word.

It is on sale right now.

Click here to go check it out! =)

I would love for you to leave me a heart note.

What gift can you give in those 25,200 seconds?

From My Heart to Yours,

A Visit from Chester

I feel as if I have been too tired to even think about blogging. I was afraid if I actually stopped that I would fall asleep right then. Going through the first week of Boot Camp building your School Family is draining on my mouth. By the end of the day I feel as if I have met my word limit for the day. =)

Squawkers has really been watching and keeping his parrot eyes on us last week.

He sent us another package with shaving cream to practice writing letters, color words and word wall words. In the package, he also sent marshmallows for a lesson on using our marshmallow toes and marshmallow voices. Squawkers also told us a new friend would be visiting. This friend LOVES to sleep during the day. We brainstormed a list of animals that are awake during the night.

FYI: Be prepared for learning interesting information about what some of your babies see and hear during the night.

When we returned from lunch on Friday. the book of The Kissing Hand was on the rug. At the end of the book Chester left a note sending us on a Scavenger Hunt around the school. As we traveled around the school, we practiced using directions to tell us which way to go next. The last Scavenger Hunt clue led us back to the classroom where Chester had left us a package. We even spotted HIM!!!!!

In the package was a recipe. We had to follow the recipe telling us to add a certain amount of what was inside each bag (I am sorry for no pictures of the bag and the recipe). After following the recipe, Our School Family realized we had made Chester! =)

Aren't those so stinkin' adorable??!!????

the ingredients are:

*a rice cake

*icing

*apricots for the ears

*prunes for the mask

*purple grapes for the eyes and nose

*a banana slice for the mouth

Chester also left brain workout activities to help the Smarties in Our School Family exercise their brains. Here is one of the activities.

I would love for you to take a few minutes and leave me a heart note. Each one brings a smile to my heart.

From My Heart to Yours,

Can I Drive You Crazy? Conscious Discipline: Composure

You are driving me CRAZY!

Don't make me have to call your momma!

GO TO THE OFFICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think we have all had days and moments when we need a break from a kiddo. There might be times when you want to tell that student if they were your child what exactly would be happening. And we have all had a kiddo who is gifted in pushing our buttons.

Chapter 1 in Conscious Discipline is all about composure and remembering that "no one can make you angry without your permission". p. 25

I will admit that I have had moments when "Becky Bailey has left the building" and taken ALL of my composure with her. Even this past year, I dragged sweetly escorted one of my toots sweeties and plopped gently sat him down in my neighbor's room.

I then remembered that I "need to be the person that I want others to become". p. 25

But I also know that is not easy to do when you have a kiddo who is:

*walking around the room kicking chairs while everyone else is on the group rug

*running and shoving to get in line even when the child knows she is not the line leader

*yelling at the top of their lungs "YOU CAN'T MAKE ME!!!!"
*cutting his glue stick into teeny, tiny pieces

*calling other students names and then laughing at them

Here is a biggie to think about:

"Whomever you have placed in charge of your feelings, you have placed in control of you."  p. 28

This is when I try and remind myself over and over to have a Heart of Patience. God has placed each one of these babies in my room for a reason.

We all have an image in our mind about how we think a "good student" should behave and our expectations for them. But many of our kiddos come to school operating with a whole different set of rules. We become upset when they don't meet those expectations, especially after we have gone over them and over them again and again. We need to remember that the only person you can change is yourself.

Often when we start feeling stressed we start having trigger thoughts that make the situation seem 1,000 times worse. These thoughts often lead to blame but more importantly they keep us from really seeing the problem others are having. There are actually 3 different kinds of trigger thoughts: pp. 30-31

*assumed intent: The child is doing this to deliberately upset you.

*magnification: We are making and seeing the situation waayy worse than it really is

*labeling: We start using negative words to describe the child and/or his behavior

GUILTY
GUILTY
GUILTY

ME
ME
ME

BEEN THERE AND DONE THAT!!!!!

When you start having these trigger thoughts tell your brain to STOP and look beyond the child's behavior. Before you is a child who is crying out for help and love.

There are some activities in the book that are wonderful for helping you change these thoughts. The book also has another activity to help remove your "buttons" that the children push. If you have the book, be sure and do these before school starts.

Since keeping our composure helps create a safe classroom, Chapter 1 begins teaching the different breathing techniques. These are great for you and the kiddos to practice. You can grab the different icons here:

My favorites are the balloon and S.T.A.R.

Stop

Take a deep breath

And

Relax

As you STAR, tell yourself that you are safe. You are calm. And you can handle this. The only way you will help a child learn new tools to handle a situation is if you stay calm and patient. "Self control is an act of love and a moment-by-moment choice." p. 34

Here is a little poster to help remind you about staying calm and maintaining your composure.

I hope this helps get your mind ready for laying the foundation for Conscious Discipline in your classroom. The change starts with YOU. =)

I will try my best to blog very soon about how I start the year off with CD in my classroom. For those of you who have emailed me, I will get back to you this week. If you have any questions, please ask. I want my next few CD posts to be as helpful to you as I can make them. =)

Before I go, here is a little *freebie*. =)

I have been busy giving my classroom an Extreme Makeover! I am so excited to share pictures with you soon. =)

From My Heart to Yours,

*Freebie* Frenzy

I know there are teachers out there who have turned their minds off. They are able to step away from the computer, blogs, and Pinterest. They don't dream of clip art and fonts. They are not crazy enough to already be thinking of August....but that isn't me! =)

It is time to bring back some *freebies* in case you missed them the first time! These are some of our favorite activities that we do the first few weeks of school. Later some of them will go into our reading game basket.

Our reading game basket has word study games in it that the kiddos may play when they have finished all of their work. It is one of the things on our When I finish, I can... list.

My kiddos LOVED this game! It was one of the games we kept in the basket all year long.

Wild about Rhymes

Here is an I have...Who has... game with rhyming words because you can never practice that skill too much!

The next 2 activities are differentiation strategies that I learned as part of my G/T training. In these activities, the children hold cards and have to order themselves according to the game's directions to create a human timeline. They have to do it without any talking! Let me just tell you that right away you learn who the Mother Hen of the classroom will be. They love this activity and it is also great to use as a transition for lining up.

The first one is ordering numbers from 1-20 using 10 frames. The second one is putting words in abc order. The words are from Dr. Jean's Phon-ercise. We sing that song LOTS and LOTS and use those alphabet words for TONS of different activities.

Human Timeline- Dinosaurs

Human Timeline- abc order with Phon-ercise

I found these fun glasses at the Dollar Store and made this game to help know the difference between letters, words, and sentences.

In September, we give an assessment called the TPRI. One of the assessment tasks tests deleting the initial sound. Let me just hear a Help Me Jesus. An example would be, what would the word sold be without the /s/ sound? A typical answer would be monkey. We start working on this skill ASAP. Between this and teaching rhyming words I usually have a headache. =)

This game has helped so much! =)

Here is a *freebie* you can use all year! 

We start the first day of school learning our word wall words. We keep our cheers in a "Cheer" box! =)

These are just a few of the whole group activities we do. I'll be sharing more about how we will start the year off with The Kissing Hand and Pete the Cat....plus building Our School Family.

Don't forget to check out my awesome Pete Rocks giveaway!

hop over here to enter

I hope you enjoy these *freebies*. If you grab them, I would love for you to leave me a heart note.

From My Heart to Yours,