Freebie and a Sale!

In honor of Black Friday (and a bunch of time to lay on the couch with my computer!), I am having a sale on my Teachers Pay Teacher store.  Everything is 20% off until Monday, November 28th at midnight.   I just added Memory game (or flash cards) flash cards for the first 220 Dolch sight words.  Just click here for a FREE sample (the first 25 words):

Free Sample of first 25 Dolch Word Memory Game

I am thankful!

I am so blessed! There are many things that I am thankful for this year. I have an amazing and close-knit family. I love teaching and feel like this is a calling- I just don't know what else I would do! I've been reading a lot about gratitude and thank God for every day that I am alive.  Inspired by the fun blog: What the Teacher Wants, I've made a list as we enter this long weekend of family and thanks.

1. What are you thankful for in your classroom?

    My books!  I've been working hard at collecting and purchasing 

    "just right" leveled books, as well as quality picture/story books 

    for my students to enjoy.

2. What person are you most thankful for?
     I am SO THANKFUL for my sweet husband, Matt.  We 
     celebrated our 15th anniversary this past October.  I am 
     amazed  that he stuck around me and my crazy- it must be 
     LOVE!  Matt understands my dedication to my school family 
     and even cuts out laminated card stock games while watching 
    sports on the weekends :)

3. What 3 blogs are you most thankful for?
    I have been inspired by so many amazing teachers in the last 6 
    months.  I was in a panic when I made the decision to move to  
    1st grade.  Without the blog world, I'd be lost!  Here are a few 
    of my favorites:


4. What guilty pleasure are you most thankful for? 
    I love my Kindle and enjoy reading trashy vampire romance  

    novels.  At least on my Kindle no one will see the cover and 

    make fun of me!  Do I understand that this is mind candy?  Yes!  

    However, I do read a lot of professional books and popular 

    novels too.  This is my escape when family and work gets 

    overwhelming..... and it keeps me from eating sour cream n' 

    cheddar Ruffles!

5. What are you most thankful for?
    I am most thankful that I have been blessed with a wonderful    

    family.  My parents, brother, sweet sisters-in-law, my brother-

    in-law, grandparents and extended family (I see them all too 

    regularly!) have made my life better and love my children as 

    much as I do.  Praise God for the gift of my family!

Readers & Writers Workshop Organization

I have a confession to make... I'm an organizational freak!  I love me some organizational forms!  My teaching partners have called me a geek (but they enjoy the benefits!).  The main reason I stay organized is because I have a terrible memory and usually too many balls in the air (professionally and personally).  I find that if I am organized, nothing gets missed and my students benefit.  I can be a more effective teacher if I know the child's specific needs and am able to recall what I have already taught them and what they are still working on as a reader or writer.

This past week, I spent a lot of time analyzing my system and thinking about how I can be more effective in my practice during writers and readers workshop, as well as keeping up with guided reading times.  I came up with a few new forms and modified some older ones that I had been using to keep track of student progress and planning.  I also put them all in a binder, instead of my clipboard that always seem to have pages falling off.  As always, just having the forms, does not mean we will all use them..... my personal goal is to ALWAYS use them as a way to help my kiddos succeed and love reading and writing.

Following some advice from a friend, I am posting them on TeachersPayTeachers.  However, the first 3 people to comment on this post will get it for free!  Just give your email address :)  I will also have it on sale at TPT until Monday night (11/14/11) for $1.

Teachers Pay Teachers page

Stability ball chairs

For the past 3 years, my students have been sitting on yoga balls, instead of chairs.  I got rid of all of the chairs in my room except for by our computer stations.  Why would I make this move?  What are the benefits?

In my second year of teaching kindergarten, I had a class of 18 boys and 6 girls.  Yikes!  They were a BUSY bunch and I needed to incorporate even more movement into our day.  That was also the year that I has a student with ASD in my room.  I attended many special education trainings and professional development on movement in the classroom (also the topic of my Master's thesis).  I met a teacher in our county that has been using yoga balls in her room for chairs and had incorporated yoga breaks throughout her day.  This was it- a light bulb went on!  This was my solution.  Unfortunately, I couldn't secure funds in time to benefit my class that year, however the special education department gave me a grant to purchase a class set, based on my research.  I studied the work of Eric Jensen along with many others.  Through his research, I also found the support for recess and movement breaks benefiting learning and achievement.  Here are links to some research references and a Jensen article that is user friendly (for us non-brain scientists!).

Reference list for Play & Movement (download file - the Google view looks weird, but the file is good)

Jensen article link

Recess document link

There are 3 main purposes for using the ball chairs and incorporating movement into the classroom:

1. Movement increases blood flow to the brain, which is better for brain function (and learning!).
2. Movement helps children "get the wiggles out" which aides their natural need to move.  This helps them focus by expending the excess energy they build up throughout the day.
3. Sitting on a stability ball supports and builds their core mucles.  Pediatritians are finding that children in the last 10 years are suffering from poor core strength due to the pratices that are used while they are infants and small children (swings, back to sleep, car seats/ carriers, strollers, activity rings).  They are not developing the same strength as previous generations.  This also helps develop large motor muscles, which support small motor muscles (think writing and hand strength).

The following year, I introduced them to my kindergartners right away, beginning with a safety lesson and creating a list of procedures.  Here is the list we made this year with first graders this year  (similar each year- not by chance!).

The changes in my classroom were noticeable within the month!  They had more stamina during work times and their negative behaviors were reduced (getting up, playing around, etc.).  I have recieved so much positive feedback from students and parents.  I also get parent requests for my class because they believe in the theory and want this for their child. 

 

My current 1st grade room- one of the rare times
that the balls are neat! Front of the room.

The back of our room.

At night, we put the ball on the table using clear frisbees. 
These are my old tables.

In my old room, a shot of student working at

                                       literacy stations.

There are a few drawbacks... I cannot use chair pockets for storage, guest teachers get sea sick when teaching a room off bouncing kids, and the balls seem to escape out our door at times.  Other than that- I LOVE them.  I wouldn't give them up unless I was forced to :) 

Here is a news report done on our classroomtwo years ago:

Fox 2 News Report on Kindergarten Class  

Let me know if you have tried similar alternative seating solutions!