MAXIMIZING THE POTENTIAL OF CHILDREN

WHAT WOULD OUR WORLD BE LIKE IF EVERY CHILD WERE GUIDED IN WAYS TO HELP THEM MAXIMIZE THEIR FULL POTENTIAL?

Notice I didn't mention striving for any kind of academic standards.  It is my experience and the experience of many that young people who are "successful" in the broadest definition of that word, are successful in school.  Academic success, while important, should be seen as an important by product.

So what should we focus on with children we teach?  I bet you already know… intuitively.  I'll mention just some of the intangibles that build strong young minds and hearts.

• Affirming yourself
• Affirming others

• Trusting yourself
• Trusting others

• Risking for Meaningful Growth

There's more of course!

• Loving yourself
• Loving others

• Solving your own problems

• Social Emotional Development

• Creating an internal desire to explore, discover and yes, learn!

What happens if adults are treated with this same sense of discovery and a desire to maximize their own potential.  Enjoy this video that describes a creative team at a church that my colleague Corey Ferrugia of MyTown Music and I led with all of the above in mind.

In addition to academic success, what happens to children when they are led in this manner?  Enjoy the following video which highlights children/youth ages 4 - 19.

We need to remember why we chose the profession of teaching in the first place.  While letters, numbers, scientific thinking and many other academic areas are critically important, it is how we share this information that can form life long learners who become self-motivated to strive for their potential.  We can and need to create autonomy in our youngest generation.  This means we need to think about how often we use the following:

• Open ended questions
• Time enough for a response to be shared
• Authentic Dialogue
• Paying attention to what a child does and says and letting that inform how we interact with them
• Building a sense of authentic community in our classrooms
• Sharing all of the above with parents

No easy task, but well worth it.  Have a wonderful Holiday Season!
Enrique

Stuff Your Stockings with Sweetness!

Hi!  I'm Jenny Spencer and I blog over at Ignite Learning!  I am SUPER excited to be sharing with you here at Prek and K Sharing!  Debbie told me to start by introducing myself to you, so I'll start with that and then we'll get to the good stuff!  I've got a SUPER SWEET idea that you can use in your classroom or home to help you focus on kindness this Christmas!

I am the mommy to two amazing redheads and a teacher who has spent the last 18 years teaching children with special needs.  Most of my career was spent in Preschool or Kindergarten.  I love the early childhood years!  I say it's because I'm just a big kid and I get as excited about learning, exploring, and getting messy as the kids do!  I left the classroom at the end of last school year to pursue my career as a trainer, coach and blogger!  I am a Conscious Discipline Certified Instructor and spend the majority of my time teaching adults new strategies for classroom management and social emotional learning.  I am intrigued by the kids that present some of the most challenging behaviors.  My hope is that I can share ideas and information that will help you see how to use music, movement, art, and really great books to help you address the needs of even the most difficult child and ignite their passion for learning.

I told you I had a SUPER SWEET idea in store for you today, so why delay any longer!?!  This bulletin board idea will get you and all your little ones hooked on looking for kindness for sure!  The title of your board could be "Kindness is Super Sweet"  or "Stuffing our Stockings with Sweetness".

Have small groups of children marble paint some candy canes.  Start by printing out this candy cane printable.  I like to use old paper box lids to contain the mess.  You can use marbles OR I like to use some cheap little jingle bells so the kids can sing along as they paint!  The main thing is to have something that rolls!  Mix a little bit of peppermint extract into some red or green paint and put a glump of it on the edge of the paper as shown.

Let the kids work with a partner to roll the bell back and forth to add the stripes to the candy cane.  Cut out the candy canes and use them around the edges of your bulletin board.

Bring in some real candy canes along with some type of sour candy.  Allow the children the opportunity to taste the difference between sweet and sour.  Lead a discussion about how our behavior can also be sweet and sour.  List some of the things we do that are sour (hurtful) along with some of the things we do that are sweet (helpful).  Help children discover which one they want more of in their classroom.  Hopefully everyone agrees that SWEETNESS is best!  Give them lots and lots of ideas of how to be helpful.  Maybe you could even role play some helpful acts and take photos to post around the classroom and along the edges of your bulletin board!

Now comes the good part!  Cut out a WHOLE bunch of little candy canes.  You could use this printable or make up your own!  Whenever someone does a kind act you slap one of those candy canes up on the board and say the following to the child.  "You ________, so __________.  That was super sweet (or helpful, kind, caring, generous, you get the idea)" 

 



Here are a few examples:

"You pushed in your chair, so everyone could walk past.  That was helpful!"

"You picked up the trash, so our classroom would be clean.  That was thoughtful!"

"You hung up her coat, so she could find it.  That was super sweet!"

 

Here's a little poster to help you remember the words to use.  You could post this right up there on the bulletin board to help everyone remember!  Before you know it, everyone will be oozing with sugary sweet behavior! 

For more ideas on teaching kindness using the Elf on the Shelf, check out this post over on my blog!  Happy Holidays!  Hope it's SUPER SWEET!

These ideas are based on the concepts from Conscious Discipline by Dr. Becky Bailey.  For more information check out the website at:  www.consciousdiscipline.com.


 

December and Rigor

Hello!  This is Terri from KinderKapers and it's December!  Yea!! or are dreading the time between now and vacation?  The kids are so squirrely this time of year and even an elf in the classroom doesn't help (very much).  I say if you can't beat them....join them.  Use the trappings of the season to engage students and to increase rigor.

Take a simple activity such as making paper chains....okay, simple for us, but not so simple for all.  And you start with fine motor practice.  Most kids can make paper chains for hours.  Now ask them to make their chain with a particular pattern.  Today we made abab chains, tomorrow it will be abc, and Thursday is aabb.  Are you ready for one more challenge....let's up the rigor.  Now tell your students that you want the chains to be a certain length (today it was 10 links long).  Then they must tell you how many of each color do they need to make that pattern.  Only then I let them get their colors.  Simple.  Rigorous.  I have holiday decorations in my room.  Win, Win, Win. 

I you want to read more about how it went last year...you can read about it here.

What else can we use you ask?  How about Jingle bells?  I like to start with a little kinetic fun.  Put some jingle bells in a stocking and can your students feel how many bells are inside?  5 seemed to be the magic number.  Most of my students could count correctly with five and under.  If I put in more than five, their accuracy went down with each increase.  Rigor.  Any time a students needs to stop and think...that is rigorous.

Can I use jingle bells for anything else?  YES!  How about a game of missing addend.  I take some jingle bells...then have my students count them.  Next they hide their eyes and I hide some under a cup.  When they open their eyes they must figure out how many are under the cup.  Rigor comes in two ways.  First, start with a number you know they will be successful with, then up that number.  Any time you add paper and pencil it adds another dimension to the task and increases the rigor.  I made some recording sheets to go with this activity.  I am giving them away here.  Merry Christmas!

The Christmas isles and dollar spots are filled with things that will excite your students.  I have a little package of presents already wrapped and shiny.  I put numbered tags on them and now I have a center for ordering numbers.  I found a bag of mini erasers at a craft store and now I can use them to scoop and count, graph, or make patterns.  I can use them to talk about more and less or make up story problems.  The possibilities are endless and I would love to hear what you have found.

So don't go crazy this holiday season...embrace the craziness, have fun, use all the excitement to keep your kiddos learning.

WELCOME December: Crafts & Creativity

DECEMBER! It's already DECEMBER!!!

It seems like we've just barely pushed our chairs back from the Thanksgiving table of gratitude and now the calendar announces December. How is that even possible? Are you scratching your head? Or is it spinning? Let the official countdown begin. 

I'm headed to the airport to zip up to Atlanta momentarily. I get to give the opening keynote for the SDE conference for PreK & Kindergarten teachers. So today's sharing will be a visual buffet of ideas, with links to their sources. Now that our blog is our third December -- we have oodles of ideas already catalogued here. 

Let's get started with a couple of classic Santas. STARS!

Gather up your cotton batting, cotton balls and all things COTTON! 

Here's a winter-alternative possibility. 
Open-ended. 
Process art. 
Marble running paint, creates the snow globe appearance.

Got paper plates? 
Here's another classic! 
Easy-peasy. 
No matter what the age of your peeps. 

I have a RoundUP of over 20+ Christmas and December themed Bulletin Boards 
over on my own "Rainbows Within Reach" blog. 

There are quite a few ideas that will serve as inspiration for these few short weeks ahead. 



Now let me go back through some of our incredible, earlier December articles around here. 
This one is just as classic today as it was when it first appeared. 

{Click the pictures below to go to the earlier articles} 

Dr. Danny Brassell offered ways to keep reading through the holidays. 

Need all the info to build your own Lego-table? 
Here's the link to everything you need to know! 
{click the pic} 

I tell you my head has been spinning. 
Last month was the ultimate month for me professionally. 

I had a school visit in Virginia...... 
where EVERY student in attendance received a copy of my picture book, "Tall Giraffe." 

If you're looking for an entree for your Non-Fiction studies, 
or if you need a gazillion giraffe arts ideas, 
you'll want to click the pic to go over to my blog. 

NAEYC was incredible. 
So incredible, I forgot to take very many pictures. 
Here's a couple as they relate to our authors here at the collaborative! 

Moi, Mimi Chenfeld, Deborah and Lisa Ooey-Gooey Murphy

Moi, Jenny Spencer (newest contributor here) and Miss Carole -- from the 16th of every month

Have you been to the Frog Street Press' summer EVENT? SPLASH!!!

Would you be a dear and help spread the cheer? 

Every pin from this article will help circulate it to a broader audience 

and we are so grateful!

THANK YOU. 

Have an amazing December!