Kindness in the classroom

A Kind Classroom

Encouraging students to demonstrate kindness in the classroom can help build a positive, thriving learning environment. We suggest that the most important influence on a positive classroom community, is for you to model kindness within the classroom and school. When children see kindness in action, especially from the adults around them, it will provide a natural platform from which a whole range of positive behaviors will grow. 

3 easy way to encourage a kind classroom

We have 3 ideas that you can implement right away to get your kind classroom underway!

1. Acknowledge kind acts when you see them - if you see your students doing kind things or saying kind things to their peers - let them know you think it is wonderful
2. Read books about kindness - All Are Welcome by Alexandra Penfold is one of our current favorites. After reading the books, ask students to discuss how kindness was shown in the story.
3. Give students actionable ideas with kind brain breaks - here students can carry out an act of kindness in a structured classroom routine - this will particularly help some of your students who are challenged with social situations

Kind Brain Breaks - Sunshine Sticks

We have a printable resource that will provide you with a routine for structured kind brain breaks. We call them Sunshine Sticks.

Print, laminate and add the happy suns to a craft stick. Whenever you have a few spare minutes, choose a student to pick a stick and read the kindness prompt - e.g. 'give your friend a high five'.

We've included 16 sunshine sticks as well as a plain copy for you to invent your own prompts.

When students have done the act of kindness - be sure to label and encourage more of their positive behavior - you've just shown kindness to a friend. You can do this more through the week too!

Hop over to our store if you would like to create some Sunshine Sticks for your classroom.

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Classroom Management, social skills

Spring Flower Artwork

We have a lovely and fast-to-prep art project for spring to share with you today. It perfectly accompanies a reading of The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle. Have you read it? We think your little ones will love it as much as we do.

Teaching points for this literature based art lesson:

• read this before you introduce the art project
• tell the students the title and ask if they know the author/illustrator and some other titles he has written
• tell them that Eric Carle uses collage to create his illustrations, that he cuts different pieces of paper into different shapes and creates a picture out of it
• tell them to look carefully at the illustrations as you read the text
• suggest that good readers ask questions before and as they read and to note that Eric commences the story with 2 main questions

Will it be able to keep up with the others?

And where are they all going?

• ask your students to consider these questions as the story progresses and to monitor how the answers are revealed
• point to the little seed illustration on each page
• encourage students to make a connection to the little seed - have you ever felt like you can't keep up?
• as the story progresses ask students to recall and retell the reasons why some larger seeds have left the group to monitor their comprehension (good readers pause and check for understanding, monitor and ask themselves questions)
• perhaps you will find that the page with the bird is a pivotal place in the story where students may begin to sense that being a small seed is actually a fortunate stroke of luck
• as the autumn winds reappear and the new seeds are released, help students recognize that the plant life cycle is starting once more
• ask students to briefly retell how the story unfolded 
• ask if your students noticed that Eric Carle revealed page by page, the fortuity of each seed - ask them to recall some of the elements or plot twists that revealed these 
• ask students to suggest some themes that emerge through the text - seasons, nature, life, cycles, growth, being last, small-but-mighty, feeling insignificant, chance

Spring Flower art lesson

1. Introduce the students to the idea of creating their own artwork to reflect their reading of the story. 
2. Recall characteristics of the illustrations in the text - imperfect, energetic, expressive and colorful. 
3. Discuss the techniques used by the illustrator - cutting and tearing paper, layering and arranging shapes. Point these out with example on pages throughout the text. 
4. Show the students some examples that you have pre-made and talk about unique ideas and expression. Point out and define each element you have included - soil, stems, leaves, petals, sun, clouds, seeds on the wind
5. Let students tear paper scraps to create their spring flower art project. 

• provide tubs of roughly torn paper scraps - keep these in sorted containers permanently in your store room or resource collection for future projects
• teach students to return all scraps to the tubs for others to use and to conserve supplies

teach students to tear paper shapes

• demonstrate poor tearing (ripping - what not to do) - fingers wide apart and far away from one another on the page - no control of the shape being torn
• demonstrate controlled tearing - pointer finger and thumb together, 2 hands close to the area that needs to be torn 
• demonstrate how to turn the paper slowly and make small tears to create a shape
• reveal the 'pinch and pull' tear to make tiny shapes like seeds
• be aware that some students may find tearing daunting and assist them where necessary

If time permits, encourage students to talk and share their work with the class. Students may like to appraise each others artworks with short verbal notes of appreciation - e.g. I like how you have contrasted the orange and blue on this flower

We love this book and how it has the potential to encourage students who may be feeling small and insignificant at times. As well as gorgeous art projects to decorate your learning space, you may also like to print and display an encouraging classroom poster - From a small seed a mighty trunk may grow.

This printable from our Cute Classroom Posters collection is free for you today and over in our TPT store

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Art Ideas for Kids, Books, Spring

Vowel Team Activities + Posters

Today I want to show you a printable resource from our collection that will help you explain, display and reinforce long vowel sounds in your classroom. 

We have linked vowel teams together into Sound Pals to show students how the different spelling patterns can make the same sound!

Teach one group at a time

Introduce long vowel spelling patterns after single sounds, consonant blends and consonant digraphs. 

We suggest spending a week focusing on one group at a time. The other posters can be left up for reference and review, however bring one poster forward to study.

Use the poster to:

• introduce the sound - point to the letters and say the sound
• explain the different spelling patterns making the same sound - e.g. ai, ay and a-e all making the long a sound
• display as an anchor chart when playing a sorting or word matching game

We've included the following vowel teams:

• er/ur/ir
• ou/ow
• ee/ea/y
• ie/igh/y
• ai/ay/a-e
• oa/oe/o-o/ow
• ue/ew/u-e

Included with our posters are:

• word cards for sorting
• cut and paste worksheets

Your students can record some of the words they sort, by cutting and pasting words into the correct group. Encourage students to make and write these groups of words in their word work book.

Your students will love having the Sound Pals help them to understand long vowel spelling pattern variation. Take a peek over in our TpT store if you would like to purchase this resource to support your teaching.

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Long Vowels, Phonics

Robot Finger Play

 

We have a new finger play for you today. Finger plays, or action rhymes are perfect for the early years classroom as you can meaningfully incorporate so much essential learning into short transition times and lesson breaks. 

Students will enjoy and learn from:

• a fun language/talking experience
• learning to communicate with their teacher and peers
• a chance to refocus and transition to the next learning phase
• moving their body
• coordinating movement with words
• hearing and reciting rhyme
• linking the rhyming text with word - reading

Encouraging positive behavior 

I have integrated some expectation cues in the text to help you use this as not only a lesson break but a way to encourage positive behavior.  

When you say Robot where - students may be unfocused or not in the learning space - as you say Robot here - it will encourage them to come and be with you and the class.

As you say Robot top and encourage your students to reach up high, you will give them to chance to join with the group and then as you say Robot stop, it will remind them to stop anything inappropriate, especially if you make an encouraging, happy glance their way. 

Robot best and Robot rest reminds your learners they can be their best self and to finish with their arms and/or hands in a folded or neutral position ready for focused learning. 

We would love to share the printable finger play with you today in Google Drive: Robot Square Action Rhyme. 

Also, in our store you can find a more comprehensive pack that includes literacy, reading and tracing activities too!

Over in the Premium Coloring Club we have added a new robot coloring page. 

Find more ideas to integrate with a shared reading of this rhyming text over on the website!

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Finger Play

Alphabet Find and Trace

Your little learners will have so much fun going on a letter hunt on each page of our Find and Trace Worksheets. 

How to complete our alphabet worksheets:

• tell students the focus letter name and sound
• ask students to say the focus letter name or sound
• ask students to trace the large letter with their finger
• give them verbal cues for tracing - e.g. start at the dot, go around, back up to the top and down

• ask students to tap with their finger, all the focus letters they can see
• tell students to say the letter name or sound, as they tap each picture
• ask them to now trace all the pictures that show the correct letter name
• tell them to trace carefully and to try and stay on the line

• after tracing the pictures, your students may like to color the pictures too

You can find a page for each letter of the alphabet in our pack over in the TPT store HERE

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Alphabet, Kindergarten, Tracing

Ten Frame Number Play

Invite your little ones to play and learn numbers to ten with our fun activity cards! You can help transition them to a more structured and abstract understanding of numbers with ten frames. They will learn to visualize a clear set and begin to develop more advanced counting strategies as they organize quantities.

To set up a ten frame number play center

• print the ten frame kid activity mats on card or paper
• laminate the activity mats
• provide play dough (we have a recipe here if you want to make some)
• set up a play based learning table
• let your little ones make numbers and talk about them
• they will roll balls of dough and count them into the frame
• encourage and support your students' learning by asking questions that encourage them to talk and count 
• if you notice students having difficulty counting, show them how to slowly tap each ball of dough and align it with a verbal count, so they develop 1:1 correspondence
• challenge them with questions like - how many more to make 10?
• help your students develop dough rolling skills - show them appropriate size pieces, how to roll between two palms or palm-to-table

How to set up a play based learning table

• provide an activity that strikes a balance between a clear learning goal and open ended or creative choice and expression
• focus on hands-on activities that integrate your learning content with a little creative expression and fine motor development
• provide time to explain the learning goal to students ahead of time - on a Monday works well and tell the whole class at the same time
• provide space for a small group of students only - perhaps rotating the students each day so the whole class has a turn of each activity
• have all the equipment in ready access for students - here the cards and dough are set out for students with extra in the middle of the play space
• balance practicality and safety with opportunity for students to demonstrate initiative and responsibility - e.g. here the activity can be set up on the table in readiness for students to help with your timetable structure, but students are responsible for packing up and clearing the table at the end of the session
• demonstrate expected behavior and safety considerations for equipment e.g. keeping play dough on the table, how to pack it up
• teach students what you expect - e.g. stay at your activity table until a bell rings
• where possible allow for a shared language experience (choose a few students to share what they have done at their play learning table and recount some of their experience) at the conclusion - although at times tedious for the teacher, significant language and communication gains can be experienced by your little learners

The activity mats in this post are included with other resources in a learning pack we offer in our TpT store. It includes:

• Posters / Flip Cards
• Fun Play Dough Cards
• Ten Frame Number Workbook

Find out more about our Ten Frame Kids Fun Pack on a past blog post HERE

To find the activity mats, hop over to our TpT store:

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play dough, Ten Frames

Robot Feelings

We recently discovered the beautiful book: The Robot Who Couldn't Cry by Karen Hodgson, Illustrated by Madalina Dina. Instantly I knew it would be perfect for an exploration of feelings with K-2 learners. 

I like:

• the text length - a decent enough length to explore text but not so long as you will lose your class' attention
• that is has a good balance of familiar and new vocabulary
• that it presents some complex ideas in a child-friendly way

The text tells the story of Rusty who is a sad robot. His good friend Delilah suggests that to feel better he should have a good cry. The trouble is - he can't. Robots can't cry. The text gives a good description of how Rusty's body feels:

A strange wobbly feeling welled up inside Rusty. His antennae stood up on end and his bolts began to tingle until he thought that he might burst. 

Here you can pause and teach a lesson about noticing the physical responses your students may have to certain situations. You can help them explore various strategies that are age appropriate and talk about trusted people in their lives. They can draw a picture of who makes up their trust support network, who they can ask to help when they are feeling like Rusty.

Some teaching points

Some other areas for discussion or exploration after or during a reading of this text include:

• Asking for help at school - who do you ask, when, how (practice the actual words your students could say when they need to ask for help as some children will not be confident with this)
• From his friends, Rusty gets many ideas - what do you do when you're sad, what other things could you try?
• Trying new things - Rusty has to try new ways to find some cheer - can you think of a time when you enjoyed something unexpectedly? Does trying new things sometimes upset you?
• Robots can cry as long as they don't try. What does this mean? How does it compare with the beginning of the text: Robots can't cry. Talk about growth mindset and the power of yet. As well as 'yet' talk about different pathways to achievement. 
• Talk about how different we all are - different things make us sad and different things cheer us up. The characters in the story all suggest different strategies for Rusty but they are all doing one similar thing - trying to be helpful. How can you help friends at school?
• Talk about the unexpected ending - laughing made Rusty cry! 

When you're sad at school

Ask students to help you make a practical list of things they can do when they are sad at school or home. This list will vary greatly on your school and community setting and also the grade you teach. Accept lots of different ideas and encourage students to feel comfortable in what makes sense for them.

Over in our free Coloring Club we have shared a robot page where students can draw different faces on each robot. This may provide a way for students to identify different feelings and emotions and think about how we express them. You may like to facilitate a discussion on how our feelings are normal and we learn over time how to manage them.

If you are not in our Coloring Club you may like to get more info and read about how to join over on the website - it is very simple and just requires you to sign up with your email.

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Books, social skills

Counting to 10

Learning to count sets of objects is essential for our kindergarten and preschool friends. Providing practice with real objects - counters, tokens and place value blocks should always be central to your lessons and activities. 

Our new collection of fast prep worksheets will help you take a practical step towards helping your learners develop a more abstract understanding of numbers and counting - seeing groups of objects represented pictorially and recording the total with a numeral.

Students will:

• count each set of pictures
• tap or color each picture as they count to show 1:1 correspondence 
• determine the total of the set - recognizing that the last number they say represents the quantity of the set
• match the number name to a numeral - e.g. if they say four, they identify 4
• color the number circle in to demonstrate their counting or write the numeral

Included:

• work book cover 'My counting book'
• 10 activity pages where students count and locate the number to color
• the same 10 activity pages, with space included for students to write the numeral instead of coloring it

Our designs are perfect for early years learners, they are:

• clear, consistent and uncluttered
• feature an engaging balance of visual appeal and essential skills
• fast to prep

Create a counting work book

Staple the cover we have provided onto a selection of pages to create a work booklet for your students. A work book helps you set up an independednt routine for stduents. For example, each morning of the week you can teach them to collect their book, take a seat at their desk and complete one page. Encourage them to color the pictures in after their counting - this will provide for essesional fine motor skills and help create stamina in their work habits too.

This new pack of worksheets is over in our TpT store today.

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numbers to ten

Frog Number Games

Our Frog Number Games pack provides you with so many options for teaching numbers to 10. It includes 4 printable teaching resources and will help your students:

• learn numerals to 10, 
• read number words to 10
• subitize dot patterns 0-10.

We also have a coordinating pack of Froggy Number Posters for display in the classroom that will introduce your students to tally marks.

Together with the posters, the four game activities are perfect for working with small groups.

Each packet includes detailed instructions, a follow-up worksheet and cover page (to organize your resources and equipment).

Flies for Froggy

This packet includes game mats and cards to help you implement 4 different activity variations. Students will count-out groups of files to match the numbers.

Froggy Bingo

Students recognize numerals, number words and dot patterns 0-10. 6 game boards and 33 caller cards

The Green Team

Students will match numerals, number words and dot patterns 0-10.

Frog Match

Students will match numbers, number words and dot pattern cards to make frogs.

We are confident that our fun frog focus will add engagement and fun to essential number work and activities in your math program - enjoy!

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frogs, numbers to ten

Apple and Worm Finger Play

Apple Crunch is a new action finger play I have written for you! I love finger plays for preschool and kindergarten because:

• children are instantly engaged
• they encourage communication skills - looking at the teacher speaking, listening, speaking, participating with the group
• they integrate language and vocabulary skills
• they can be extended into reading and writing activities
• they help with classroom behavior management
• they settle and refocus busy learners
• they help to transition students from one activity to the next with a little active brain break
• students can integrate movement, language and communication

Blackline version

• print this as a take-home activity
• encourage students to 'read' it to their family
• students can color the picture

Find a printable copy of the finger play at the bottom of this post!

Apple and Worm Craft

• over in our TpT store you can find a printable apple paper craft to accompany this finger play too
• 3 versions - complete, one page and traditional template format are included

• our printable paper crafts often come with writing paper so you can extend learning into a literacy activity
• students can write a story about a worm and apple
• students can write their own poem, action play or verse about an apple and worm

• the craft has simple clear lines to cut for early scissor practice and practical assembly

Find it over in our TPT store: Apple and Worm Craft

If you are a member of our Premium Coloring Club you may have noticed a fun coloring page added to the library last week - this one would be perfect to use alongside the finger play.

We would love to share a printable poster page of this new finger rhyme with you today, you can print it to help your class learn the words, or project it onto your digital learning tool. Students can track the words as they learn the rhyme and practice lots of early reading skills!

Find it in google drive here: Free printable Apple Crunch Finger Play printable

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Apples, Finger Play