Growing Together: A Blogger Mentoring Program

Over the past year, I have really enjoyed sharing ideas from my classroom and home on this blog.  It has been an amazing learning experience!  The "Blog World" has so much to offer.  I really want to know more about how to create a blog that is as beneficial as possible to the public while being easy to navigate and enjoyable too!  When I arrived on Facebook today, I saw this opportunity from "One Artsy Mamma" to participate in a blogger mentoring program.  It will last for about 3 months and is an online course with all kinds of support.  I'm really looking forward to all it has to offer and can't wait!

If you're interested, take a peek! 

                                                          http://www.oneartsymama.com/

Bedtime Routines

Do you ever find yourself depleted of energy and patience at bedtime? I'm sure I'm not alone in my efforts to just stay calm until they lay their sweet little heads down for the night!
I have found it very helpful over the years to add little rituals and routines to bedtime. When it seems that bedtime is falling apart, I can shape things up pretty quickly by adding some structure. Through the use of a visual routine board i can give my children just what they need:safety through pictures and predictability! Imagine it as a "to do list" for kids. Since my daughter is older now, she helped me create a routine board at the beginning of the school year. Using my phone, she went through the house taking pictures of all the steps in her bedtime routine. I simply printed them out, laminated, added some Velcro and we were good to go!

Once we finish with the bedtime routine, we take some time to connect through loving rituals. Dr. Becky Bailey's "I Love You Rituals" have really helped me be more intentional about connecting with my kiddos at bedtime.

Recently, I told my daughter to be thinking about what ritual she wanted to do when I tucked her in bed that night. She told me she wanted to make up a new one. I was delighted and couldn't wait to see what she came up with!  Here is the little poem she made up and pictures of she and I doing the ritual together. 

The next time you find yourself at the end of the day just barely hanging on the the end of your rope, maybe you can try a fun little connecting ritual with your child.  It may be just what you need so you can both go to bed and rest a little bit easier!

"Gingerbread Goodnight Ritual"

Gingerbread, gingerbread
Tucked in bed.
Now lay down your sweet little head.

See the pictures below for step by step motions!

A Harvest of Helping Hands

Last week we had a little homework project that turned out to be a great lesson in helpfulness! Each child was asked to go home and trace one of the hands of every family member. They used some colorful construction paper I gave them. After each hand was traced and cut out, their parents helped them write one thing each family member does to be helpful. They brought the helping hands back to school the next day to share. What a fun way to encourage helpfulness! It was a great opportunity to build oral language and literacy skills too! We arranged the hands into a wreath and added a pretty bow for a nice display in the hallway!

Sharing is SOUP-ER

In our Shining Star School Family we continue to plan activities that encourage kindness.  This week we are enjoying the story of Stone Soup.  We are focusing specifically on the skill of sharing.  The props in the picture above are from a Mailbox Magazine (2002).  A cute little song accompanied this activity called "Sing a Song of Sharing".  The song is sung to the tune of "The More We Get Together" and goes like this:

"The more we share with our friends, with our friends, with out friends.
The more we share with our friends, the happier we'll be.
With (say 4 children's names as you continue singing).
The more we share with our friends, the happier we'll be."

As we sang the song, we passed a small stone around the circle.  When we got to the children's names we would say the names of the children who were holding the stone at that time.  They would then come up and select a vegetable to add to the soup pot.  We continued this way until everyone had a turn.

Next, I introduced our "Sharing Project".  I took an old soup can and made up a new lable that reflected our goal to demonstrate sharing.  I couldn't resist adding special ingredients as well as nutrition facts.  :)

I explained to the Shining Stars that we have lots of opportunities to practice sharing throughout our time in preschool.  We discussed lots of examples and acted out opportunities to share.  We will also take pictures to post around the room of children sharing.  Every time a teacher sees children sharing we will add a stone to the soup can.  Our goal not to see how quickly we can fill the can with stones.  Rather, our goal is to encourage kindness.  When the can is full we will celebrate sharing with a special snack for the whole School Family!

We had a little extra time at the end of our lesson to play musical instruments.  Don't you love it when natural events allow you an opportunity to reinforce a lesson you just taught!?!  Well, I went to pass out the triangles to all the children in my group and realized I would be one short.  Instead of doing all the thinking for the children, I let the natural events take their course.  I passed out all the triangles and one child didn't get a triangle.  Almost immediately a little girl turned to that boy and said, "I'll share with you!"  Then she held the triangle and gave him the stick so he could play it!  All week long our classroom has been filled with children (and teachers) looking for opportunities to share!

To help us extend our learning about sharing and Stone Soup we have invited all of the parents to come in next week for a Thanksgiving Celebration in our School Family.  Each family has been asked to bring some type of fruit to share.  We are going to share fruit salad instead of Stone Soup.  The children will sing some songs for the parents and then we will complete a special craft as a family.  Our families will also be bringing donations for our school-wide food drive so we can continue to demonstrate to the children the power of sharing and making a difference!





How do YOU Teach Helpfulness?

One thing I love about Conscious Discipline is the fact that it isn't another curriculum add-on.  Rather, it consists of skills you can teach children throughout the day in many different ways.  Over the years, I have found many rich lessons to help teach Conscious Discipline skills right in the midst of a favorite story, movie, or other activity! 

In our Shining Star School Family we have been focusing on what it means to be helpful.  We have been reading stories and noticing the helpful acts of those around us.  We have taken photos of children "caught in the act" of being helpful.  Those photos are used to make class books, posters, and routine books that will encourage helpfulness in all children.  I am often surprised at how often even a child who is five-years-old doesn't know what it means to "be helpful".  We are expecting children to do something they really don't know how to do!  That's why we take every opportunity we can to encourage it in our classroom! 

This time of year, as we talk about topics such as families, food, and where we live, one of my all time favorite tales to share with children is "The Three Billy Goats Gruff".

Preschoolers are captivated by the various personalities of the characters in the story. (I also think they love the way Ms. Jenny changes her voice for each character)   They jump at the opportunity to act out the story using various props and taking their turn at being each character.  This year, I jumped for joy when I found the most recent publication of this favorite tale.  This new favorite is titled "The Three Billy Goats Fluff". 



Oh my goodness!  It is absolutely adorable and so very useful in our pursuit to teach the Shining Stars about helpfulness, problem solving, and emotional regulation!  The author brilliantly puts a positive twist on this old tale!    We followed our reading of Paul Galdone's version of the tale with this new version.  The children were familiar with how rude the original troll was and how the billy goats used a very hurtful plan to "handle" the troll.  In "Billy Goats Fluff" we learned that with a little problem solving help from their Safekeeper (mom) the billy goats could help the Troll AND find a way to quietly cross the bridge to the grassy hill. 

To help illustrate the contrast between the two stories we acted out the "trip trapping" of hooves across the bridge using wooden blocks.  We listeded to the blocks on our wooden bridge first without socks.  Then we listened to the blocks cross the bridge with fuzzy socks on them.  They were so quiet!  The children loved making predictions about how the "hooves" would sound.  We also used various musical instruments to further impress the difference between loud and quiet.  This activity was a great opportunity for us to learn how our voices/noises we make affect those around us. 


You'll have to read the whole story to find out more, but one of my favorite lessons from the story is when the first billy goat Fluff feels scared and runs home to Mommy.  After reading this portion of the story, we paused to relate this experience to our Feeling Buddies.  The message of the Feeling Buddy, Scared, is "find a safekeeper".  So we pulled out our Feeling Buddy, Scared, and remembered that message and how helpful it was for the billy goat.  With the help of their Safekeeper (mom) the goats were able to come up with a plan that allowed them to eat grass and help the Troll enjoy his "vacation" under the bridge.

This is a sample of what the Feeling Buddies Self-Regulation Center looks like from Conscious Discipline.  It is magical to see how well the children relate to the Feeling Buddies as they are learning how to befriend their feelings.  I plan to post more about using the Feeling Buddies in the classroom later this year!  You might like to check it out at www.consciousdiscipline.com under the product tab.