Valentine's Day Riddle Book

With Valentine’s Day right around the corner, I wanted to share an activity that my students love!  Valentine Riddle Books are fun, cute and challenge children to be “thinkers”.  Title a BIG Book “Who’s in my heart”?  Add all of the children’s pages.  Directions and free blackline masters are included for creating one.  The idea comes from my Riddle Books packet.

 

Valentine's Day Riddle Book

Please share with a page or two your children create and feel free to share this idea!

Monthly "Home" Work Calendars

Monthly “Home”Work Calendars provide activities that connect school learning with their home environments. The calendars are based upon different levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy of thinking skills. While some days children will use list, count, and find from the lowest level of thinking (the “knowledge” category) other days will require them to plan, create and rate from the highest levels of thinking, “synthesis and evaluation”. I have included activities for each of the 6 Thinking Levels. The calendar can provide parents with ideas on the types of activities that they can be doing with their children to connect learning between school and their lives.

Calendars include opportunities to build skills in math, language, speaking, reading, writing, science, social studies and many other valuable skills that bring learning to life for children. Many activities require parent involvement that will lead to better communication skills. Don’t miss this opportunity to provide the homework families often request with valuable activities that you know allow children to enjoy and experience learning in a natural environment. Children can complete any box on the calendar for any day which will give children choices and build motivation. You, as the teacher, can decide how many boxes a week or month you would like students to complete. Show our children that homework can be fun!

In addition to the calendar I have supplied thoughts and research on the topic of homework. The CCSS, along with 21st Century Skills move us in the direction of teaching children to learn and to become independent learners. I hope this will help as you connect home school with “home”work.

November "Home" Work Calendar

 

December "Home" Work Calendar

 

Teaching Tip #3 - Talking Stick

Cure the call out with this easy tip

Teaching Tip #2 - Sound Spoon

Easily add a phonemic awareness activity to your daily schedule that kids will love.

Teaching Tip #1 - Expert Book

Classroom management tip to allow teachers to spend more time with individuals and small groups.

Primary Research Packets

The Common Core Standards, along with 21st Century Skills require that children are more active in their own learning. There are frequent references made to students learning to conduct research projects at various grade levels. Some grades add “with guidance and support” but each grade is challenged with developing lessons that incorporate “gathering information”, “project-based questions”, “using multiple sources for relevant information” and “sort and present information learned”. Children are naturally inquisitive and educators should grasp that opportunity for learning by developing “short research projects that build knowledge about a topic”.

The primary research packets were developed to aid children in “learning to learn” and is based upon Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. You may choose to use one page, several pages or the entire packet to meet the needs of the children in your class. Challenge your high learners with the entire packet or support lower level learners with basic skills by utilizing just a few of the pages. The research packets can be used by the entire class as a shared project, by a small collaborative group or each child in your class could complete the packet individually.

The following packets are now available on Teachers Pay Teachers:

Pumpkin Research

Apple Research

Common Core Standards

Sitting in a restaurant in Normal, IL at 10 pm contemplating Common Core Standards and the development of a report card. My day was spent with a district that has created a Kindergarten, First and as of today, a pilot second grade report card that aligns with the new standards. As educators we must spend time reflecting on the quanity and quality of what we choose to state on the reporting tool. It needs to be teacher and parent friendly. Thoughts?

Halloween I Have Who Has Cards

Just in time for Halloween - Halloween I Have Who Has Cards. Find them on http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Donna-Whyte-16/


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Homework?

As an education consultant, a question that has been asked of me many, many times is: What are your feelings on homework? This is a topic so dear to my heart that I thought it should be the first one that I posted on TheSmartieBlog. I have often said that my feelings and beliefs on the topic are personal. A side of my thoughts is driven from being a mom of two teenage children who have had many "versions" of homework over the years; the other side is driven by being a teacher of young children. I often hear that homework is to reinforce concepts and/or to "bring a family together" to work with a child. My thoughts are this: Most of the research that I have read state that "homework helps starting at about 4th grade". This is a time that they seem better able to seek out assistance before completing assignments that they don't understand.

There are children who get assistance (at times, too much assistance) with their homework. The parents sit with the child and go through each assignment. It often seems to be the same children whose parents are involved with many aspects of their lives. They don't need me to send homework to bring them together. They do it because they have a commitment to their children. If I don't send homework...I tend to think that they will still spend time with their children...chances are doing things that bring them closer and make them smile. Then there are the children who struggle through with little or no assistance. At times, these children complete the assignment but in fact, they do it incorrectly. What we as educators should realize is that this reinforces the "wrong way". In terms of reinforcing the concepts, what we find is the children who need that reinforcement most are the ones that get it least. They are in homes where parents don't help or are in homes where parents "can't". This can be for a variety of reasons. Parents work second shift, single parents are overwhelmed or so many of our parents are not sure "how" to help. Perhaps due to a language barrier but also can be due to lack of knowledge on how to help. Then there are families that just "don't spend time together"...I tend to doubt that my sending homework home can or will change that.

My children had all the assistance they needed. It seemed at times that it was just busy work and they would robotically go through the steps. I am not sure that a lot of real learning occurs during this. It seemed that 95% of the time we just needed "to get it done". I resented the time it took from our family. From a personal standpoint I never like to bring work home. I do, but I don't like it and I am an adult. If you have already put in a number of working hours....it seems to me that you should then have "family time" or at the very least some "down time" at home. In my utopia world I want kids to go home and "be kids". Get some fresh air, play with the other kids in neighborhood, etc. I know that the reality is that many go home to empty houses and play video games. Accepting that which is beyond our control is hard, the truth is that WE don't get to decide what they do when they get home. It sure seems that struggling with homework shouldn't be a priority for these kids.

Harris Cooper, Ph.D., a psychology professor at the University of Missouri, has reviewed more than 100 studies on the effectiveness of homework. In general, he has found that the benefits of doing homework seem to depend on the student’s grade level. In high school, students who regularly do homework outperform those who do not, as measured by standardized tests and grades. In middle school, homework is half as effective, and in elementary school it has NO apparent measurable effect on achievement. Now I have not conducted any research studies on the topic...but I tend to believe that as the child's grade (age) increase that their ability to "do it themselves" also increases, as does their responsibility for "learning". Learning good study habits is, without a doubt, a wonderful habit to acquire. I just don't see how giving it to Kindergarten, First and Second Graders benefits them in a way that outweighs the "burden". A great article to read: Does Homework Help? A Review of Research

If your school district or grade level has made a commitment to giving homework then perhaps looking over the research would help to decide "how much" is appropriate. The National Education Association along with the national PTA suggests adding 10 minutes of homework per night incrementally with each grade level, as a general rule of thumb. Thus, a first-grader gets a total of 10 minutes, a second-grader 20 minutes, a third-grader 30 minutes, and so on, not to exceed two hours per night total in high school.
Note: K gets none.

I have shared the following books with parents and teachers, perhaps one will help you discover what homework means to the children you teach.The End of Homework: How Homework Disrupts Families, Overburdens Children, and Limits Learning by Etta Kralovec, John Buell The Battle Over Homework: Common Ground for Administrators, Teachers, and Parents by Harris M. Cooper

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