Teachers Pay Teachers

Teachers are known for reinventing the wheel. There are teacher supply stores, ready-made products and resources, books full of photocopiables, free printables online, and yet we spend hours making our own resources from scratch. I'm as guilty as the next teacher. In fact, I'll even admit that I like making my own resources. It drives Mr. West nuts, especially when I spend time on the weekend creating things for my class!

Well, it turns out I'm not the only one who likes to spend their downtime doing teacher-y things. Teachers Pay Teachers is a site where teachers can post their personally-made resources for other teachers to download either for free or for a price. Some of the stuff on there can be pretty useful, and I've recently set up an account of my own to share my handiwork.

There are quite a few languages represented in my class, so I recently made up multilingual Days of the Week posters. You can download your own free set here. The languages depicted are Lithuanian, Polish, Russian, Chinese, Bengali, Urdu, and English.

Displays: Their place in the learning process

To every teacher's dismay (or excitement), displays and bulletin boards are a necessary evil in the life of the classroom. Personally, I enjoy creating displays in my class - as long as I have the time! Through my internet travels, I've come across all kinds of displays and educator's ideas of what they should convey and how. I've happened across a lot of American teaching blogs which seem to put a lot of thought and effort into their bulletin boards and classrooms in terms of the theme:

colour scheme:

and all the tiny details to make the displays bright, cute, and fun.

There's even a website dedicated to bulletin board ideas! Great, right? I used to think so, and still do like some of those ideas (like keeping to colour scheme of backing paper consistent), but the more I looked at these ideas and gathered "inspiration", the more I thought, "Wait! Where are the kids in all this?" How were they involved in the creation of these displays? Did they get to make decisions on what the theme of the room was? Did they get to decide that all the walls were to be purple? or green? or pink? How are those pom pom things from the ceiling adding to their learning, other than, maybe, seeing how many chairs they'd have to stack before they could hit it with their hands (that's active learning, right?)? I bet that wasn't the intention when you spent all that time hanging them from the ceiling. Or did the kids help you hang them? Did they help you make them? Probably not.

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My theory is, a classroom belongs to the children, not the teacher. Yes, it's my classroom because I teach in there, but my kids spend just as much time in there as I do, and they have to have ownership over the room. Why? Because they are the ones who are learning, not me. I believe if they walk into a ready-made classroom with a pirate theme, they will "oooh" and "aaah" for the first five minutes, and then it will all become a part of the background. White noise for the eyes. You may like it, but the kids were not involved in it's creation in any way. Would you have someone else come into your home and decorate to their liking? You would feel like a stranger in your own home. You would have no ownership over the stranger-decorated room. In fact, you may even be less likely to take proper care of the room.

I put my theory to the test in my own classroom, and allowed the children to have more input in what goes on the walls, even to the point of creating their own resources, like number lines, and alphabet flashcards. How many times does a child see "A is for apple" on a flashcard in their lifetime and say, "wow! That really helped me learn!" But I digress... Let's get back to the displays, and I will explain why I believe children should be involved in classroom displays through a journey of one of our creations.

About a month and a half ago, we were learning about the rainbow, the names of colours, and even coming up with more exciting names for colours (mauve is a new favourite). Over the course of about a week and a half, we painted in different ways, and as we talked about what we were doing, I recorded things the kids said as they worked. I took photos of the kids working as well.

Purple paint with sand mixed in made for an interesting talking point.

Driving painty cars across paper was a speedy exercise, and we even learned that red can also be called "rouge" or "scarlet."

Mixing colours to make secondary colours created lots of talk and learning opportunities. We also learned "olive" and "jade" as other words for green. We even had a discussion about our favourite veggies.

We used cotton buds to paint orange (or "peach" when we mixed in white to make it lighter).

Having really explored all the colours through colour-mixing, discussions, and different ways of painting, the children were able to come to a deeper understanding of colour and their names. I was able to photograph the children in their tasks, and record some of their conversation. Using these things, we were able to create a display of the rainbow that included their work, photos of them working, and speech bubbles of what they said when they were working:

I could have easily printed off or bought some ready-made resources and made something like this:

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which, to be fair, has some great talking points and can easily be referred to when teaching (and that website does have some great ideas for art!), but would it not be far more engaging for the children to help create a display like that? Put their own work of warm and cool colours up on the wall instead of a generic ready-made print outs, and they are far more likely to remember what cool colours are!

Through the creation of our display, I was able to engage with the children and assess their learning and progress. Once everything was on the wall, the children loved going up to it and finding their photo (kids are vain, they like to see themselves in print! Use it to your advantage!). They were reminded of the activities we did, and I have even overheard them using our "new" colour words! The display is a reminder of their learning experience, and they are able to revisit it whenever they wish. Since they were involved in the creation of the display, they take more notice of it, and it is less likely to become "part of the background."

For more ideas on child-created spaces, check out:

ABC Does... - the scrapbook approach
ABC Does... - personalising the learning environment
ABC Does... - personalised teaching displays

Early Number

Yesterday, I went to the Early Number Conference in Aberdeen. It was made up of a Keynote Speaker who introduced the Numeracy program their Council uses (SEAL - Stages of Early Arithmetical Learning), and four different workshops focusing on Addition & Subtraction, Multiplication & Division, Number Sequences, and Number Structure. Basically, SEAL is Maths Recovery which is implemented into everyday Maths so that Maths Recovery is not needed later down the road. It strives to give the child a full understanding of Number and how numbers are connected before moving onto bigger and more difficult concepts within Numeracy.

Although a little lacking in the hands-on department (teachers like to play, too!), the workshops offered practical ideas to take back to the classroom (as well as a long list of things I want my school to buy!). Here are a few that I gleaned from the Number Sequence workshop:

1. Counting together, but starting/stopping at irregular numbers (e.g. "let's count together starting at 5 and ending at 15. 5, 6, 7 ...). The idea is for children to become familiar with forward number word sequences outside of rote counting, so they have a deeper understanding of the sequences.

2. Counting with a sand timer: Have children take turns counting for the duration of the sand timer (starting at irregular numbers depending on child's ability). Children like a little competition.

3. Puppets. Like it or not, kids listen more intently to puppets than any teacher I've known. Get the puppet to tell the kids where they will start counting today. Put the number in the puppet's mouth.

4. Pendulum. Attach a tennis ball to a piece of string. Swing the ball back and forth, counting every time the ball hits your hand.

5. Treasure Box Game. Stick a number on the top of a box. Count up to that number by passing the box round the circle with each child saying the next number in the sequence. The child who has the box when you reach the number on the top of the box, gets to open the box. On the inside of the lid, there will be a new number to put on the top of the box for a new round. To end the game, pop a sticker in the box for the "winner." Extension: ask the children to choose a number to start at instead of 1. You could end up counting up or down.

6. Number Fans. Call out a number. Children have to find the number first on their fan.

7. Give each child a number flash card. They must sequence themselves.

8. Number clothing to put up on a washing line to sequence. Take one out and have children figure out which number is missing.

9. Hundred Square. Start out with a blank hundred square, have a child choose a number card and figure out where it should go on the square. Keep this as an on-going activity over the course of a week or longer.

10. Smiley Face Game. Lay out number cards face down on the floor. Have children choose one at a time and sequence the numbers as they go. Have one number out of the deck and replaced with a smiley face. If they choose the smiley face, they are out.

11. What's Behind the Wall. Work out what number is behind the wall (paper) by moving the paper behind the wall up slowly to reveal of portion of the number. Children are to guess what the number is by looking at the bit of the number that is showing. This reinforces recognition of numerals.

Happy Counting!

Free Resources - Take 'em where you can get 'em

Last year, I discovered a site called Freecycle, where you can post items that you're getting rid of, post messages of items you're looking for, and people will contact you through the site. And the best part of it all is, it's free!

Recently, I posted a message asking if anyone had a computer keyboard they were looking to get rid of. Why, you ask? I saw this little tidbit through Pinterest:

This is the explanation from the author of "3rd Grade's a Hoot:" "I just took an old keyboard and fancied it up with cutesy stickers. They "type" their words. I get a kick out of watching them do this. Some of my girls take it so seriously and act like they are at the office."

Now, I realize that my wee nursery kids don't quite have the grasp of reading, writing, or letters for that matter, but this idea was just too good to pass up (and I got FIVE free keyboards through Freecycle!). I started thinking about how I could use this idea, but gear it towards my little ones. Some suggestions from friends were to take the keys off the keyboard to use as letter blocks, or to use them to practice username and password for the computer. That's a little advanced for my lot, but some of them WOULD be interested in typing their names (and may even be able to do it!). Most of them, however, would just like to tap away on the keyboard for the sensory impact of it.

This week, I think I'm just going to put some of the keyboards out and see what happens! Kids are clever and creative. They may think up something completely different, but just as engaging.

Colour Song Writing

Lately, my kids have been completely enthralled with music, instruments, and singing. They've created stages to perform songs, recorded themselves playing instruments, and sang at the top of their lungs.

Today, we used the old water-in-jars trick to create our own tunes, but with an extra twist. We added food colouring to the jars so each was a different colour.

Next, each child got a card with circles on it. They "composed" a song by colouring in the circles according to the colour of the water in the jar they wanted to "play."

When they were finished, they played their song!

We used a recordable photo album to record our songs. We took photos of ourselves playing our songs so we could put them in the photo album with our recorded songs.

Our song cards, photos, and album are now on display just outside the classroom for others to see and listen to.

This project was pretty successful. Both boys and girls were interested in taking part, even for just a few short minutes. My class is mostly boys, so I'm often trying to figure out ways to get them to do mark making and art projects. Since they've been so interested in music lately, I thought this would be a great way to get a crayon in their hand, while engaging their interest in music. The recordable album was a big hit too. They loved listening to their song (and in some cases, their voices as well!). They thought it was pretty funny to hear themselves; some were convinced it wasn't them because it didn't quite sound right. All in all, Colour Song Writing was a loud, colourful, and engaging activity!

I've Got A Lovely Bunch of Coconuts

Mrs. C brought in a coconut this week, and what a great learning experience it was! Unusual fruits and veggies are a great stimulus for dialogue and exploration, and you get to have a wee bite of something new!

First, we shook the coconut to find out what we could hear, and we guessed what was inside:

Some of their ideas:
-milk
-water
-juice
-nothing

Next, we inspected the coconut to figure out how we could open it:

L said the three darker spots on the coconut looked like a face, and suggested we stab it. Good idea! With help, we poked a hole through one of the dark weak spots at the top of coconut. Then, we shook all the liquid out into a cup. K was right about the milk!

We passed the cup around so we could have a wee sniff. According to S, it smells "disgusting."

L, on the other hand, absolutely loved the smell of the milk, and asked multiple times if he could drink it. After getting permission to have only one sip so that others could have a try, he gulped it all back in one fell swoop. That was the end of our coconut milk!

Good thing we still had all the coconut "meat" to get to! We came up with ideas of how we could break open the coconut. Eventually, we wrapped it in a towel and gave it some big whacks with a pair of heavy pliers (I couldn't find the hammer!).

When that didn't quite work, Mrs. C popped the coconut into a shopping bag, waltzed outside and swung the bag against the wall. Voila! Worked like a charm. We cut up the coconut meat into little bits to try and touched the shell to see what it felt like inside (I didn't get any pictures of this, because we were too busy eating coconut!). Not everyone wanted to try it, but L and Y made up for the rest of them! Y said he likes to suck on it to get all the sugar out. Interesting tactic!

Next week, I'll be bringing in some other interesting fruit to try. Any suggestions?

Exploration

Kids are naturally curious. Give them a box, they'll open it; give them playdough, they'll squish it, roll it, smell it (taste it!). They want to know how many sponges they can fit in a measuring cup. They want to know what it sounds like when they pop a balloon. This natural curiosity is something any good teacher will tap into to provide meaningful and engaging learning experiences. As frustrating, or loud, or messy as it may be, these experiences will help shape children's ideas about their world, how they affect that world, and where they fit into it all. I have to remind myself of that every time one of my little guys paints his hands and splatters paint all over the classroom, or takes a bucket of water and pours it into the sand tray. They are not doing these things to be defiant, but to explore their world to make sense of it. My kids have only been on this earth for 3 or 4 years. That's it. To them, everything is new and exciting.

These two girls are inspecting our white carnations. We spent some time smelling them, cutting them, and putting them in water the other day. According to M, they smell pretty. According to A, they smell like green grass. The kids were talking about how the flowers were white, but that they'd seen purple and yellow flowers outside (yes, flowers are blooming in bonnie Scotland already!). We decided to make our flowers change colour by putting food colouring into the water! Nothing has happened yet, but we're hoping that the flowers will have had plenty of time to soak up the colour over the weekend!