Monday Encouragement to Teachers

Occasionally the year feels like it is being moved along by elderly turtles. On Mondays that are especially tough (like the week of standardized testing), I like to send out Monday Encouragement emails to the teachers at my three schools. This is the one from this week.

Let It Go: Teacher Style 

(to the tune of “Let it Go” from Frozen)

The sun glows bright out the windows today

not a rainstorm to be seen.

My students are barely quiet,

They’ve forgotten I’m the queen.

Energy is raging like a swirling storm inside,

they can’t keep it in, heaven knows I’ve tried.

“Don’t touch that thing!” --  “Just let it be!”

“Be the good girls and boys I know you used to be!”

Conceal, don’t scream, don’t let them know….

Well, now they know…

Six more weeks, six more weeks --

Until the school year is no more.

Six more weeks, six more weeks --

Turn away and drink some more Coke.

I don’t care what they’re going to say

Let the students rage on…

Their energy never bothered me anyway

Bulletin boards

Part of my job is to create bulletin boards at my three schools. These boards are meant to reflect the characteristic of peace or something to do with our lesson themes. Below are three examples. Sorry for the blurry quality -- I took the pictures with my phone.

Kindness: Being a Bucket-Filler

One of my big topics each year is kindness. Treating each other with kindness is a great way to make friends and solve problems before they start. A lesson that was a real winner was a lesson I did about being Bucket-Fillers.

I read a book to each class to start off the lesson:

• Have You Filled a Bucket Today? by Carol McCloud (K-1st)
• How Full Is Your Bucket? (For Kids) by Tom Rath and Mary Reckmeyer (2nd-4th)

Then we did a bucket filling game. I did the game Minute-to-Win-It style. I had a bucket (on which I drew a smiley face), a stopwatch, and about 20 wads of paper made out of colorful copy paper or construction paper. The object of the game was to toss as many paper wads into the bucket as possible in the minute. Then, for each paper wad that made it into the bucket, the class had to give an idea of something kind they could do to fill someone's bucket. They could choose an idea for bucket filling at school, home, or in the community. 

This lesson was such a hit that I had students asking to repeat it for later lessons. 

Books I love for different topics

Peace
Priscilla McDoodleNut DoodleMcMae Asks Why? by Janet Mary Sinke
Peace Week in Miss Fox's Class by Eileen Spinelli
The Peace Book by Todd Parr (K-1)
If Kids Ran the World by Leo and Diane Dillon
How Full is Your Bucket for Kids by Tom Rath and Mary Reckmeyer
Have You Filled a Bucket Today? by Carol McCloud

Kindness/Helping Others
Ordinary Mary's Extraordinary Deed by Emily Pearson
Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson
Kindness is Cooler, Mrs. Ruler by Margery Cuyler
The Can Man by Laura E. Williams
Those Shoes by Maribeth Boelts
Princess Kim and the Too Much Truth by Maryann Cocca-Leffler

Self-Esteem
I'm Special, I'm Me! by Ann Meek
The Junkyard Wonders by Patricia Polacco
Crazy Hair Day by Barney Saltzberg
I Like Myself! by Karen Beaumont
The Name Jar by Yangsook Choi
Spaghetti in a Hot Dog Bun by Maria Dismondy
Not Your Typical Dragon by Dan Bar-el
Spoon by Amy Krouse Rosenthal
Stand Tall, Molly Lou Melon by Patty Lovell
Zilly: A Modern-Day Fable by Kelly Parks Snider
The Hippo-Not-Amus by Tony and Jan Payne
A Bad Case of the Stripes by David Shannon

Personality
Lacey Walker, NonStop Talker by Christianne Jones
The Invisible Boy by Trudy Ludwig
Pearl Barley and Charlie Parsley by Aaron Blabey
Chester's Way by Kevin Henkes

Bullying/Mean Behavior
Llama Llama and the Bully Goat by Anna Dwedney
The Band-Aid Chicken by Becky Rangel Henton
The Juice Box Bully by Bob Sornson and Maria Dismondy
Howard B. Wigglebottom Learns about Bullies by Howard Binkow and Susan F. Cornelison
Bullies Never Win by Margery Cuyler
Don't Laugh at Me by Steve Seskin and Allen Shamblin
Unlovable by Dan Yaccarino
Marlene, Marlene, Queen of Mean by Jane Lynch, Laura Embry and A.E. Mikesell
The Recess Queen by Alexis O'Neill and Laura Huliska-Beith
Sorry! by Trudy Ludwig
Just Kidding by Trudy Ludwig
Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes

Anger
How do Dinosaurs Say "I'm Mad"? by Jane Yolen and Mark Teague
Soda Pop Head by Julia Cook
Zach Gets Frustrated by William Mulcahy
Howard B. Wigglebottom Learns It's Okay to Back Away by Howard Binkow
The Grouchies by Debbie Wagenbach

Emotions (other than anger)
My Friend is Sad by Mo Willems
Shy Spaghetti and Excited Eggs by Marc Nemiroff and Jane Annuziata
Today I Feel Silly and Other Moods that Make My Day by Jamie Lee Curtis

Gossip/Rumors
Trouble Talk by Trudy Ludwig
The Secret Olivia Told Me by N. Joy
Mr. Peabody's Apples by Madonna

Manners
Bear Says Thanks by Karma Wilson and Jane Chapman
Manners Mash-Up by a variety of authors
Do Unto Otters by Laurie Keller
The Way I Act by Steve Metzger
The Berenstain Bears Forget Their Manners by Stan and Jan Berenstain

Self-Control
Personal Space Camp by Julia Cook
What if Everybody Did That? by Ellen Javernick
Mrs. Gorski, I Think I have the Wiggle Fidgets by Barbara Esham
Interrupting Chicken by David Ezra Stein
It's Hard to be a Verb! by Julia Cook
The Worst Day of My Life Ever! by Julia Cook

Honesty/Truthfulness
Tell the Truth, B.B. Wolf by Judy Sierra
Princess K.I.M. and the Lie that Grew by Maryann Cocca Leffler
Edward Fudwupper Fibbed Big by Berkeley Breathed

Friendship
The Adventures of Beekle the Unimaginary Friend by Dan Santat
You Will Be My Friend by Peter Brown
Have Fun, Molly Lou Melon by Patty Lovell
Huggapotamus by Steve Metzger
The Worst Best Friend by Alexis O'Neill
How to Lose All Your Friends by Nancy Carlson

Righting Wrongs
The Signmaker's Assistant by Tedd Arnold
The Busy Beaver by Nicholas Oldland
Zach Apologizes by William Mulcahy

International Day of Peace -- September 21st

Each year on or around September 21, my school district takes part in the International Day of Peace. Our art teachers create an art piece reflecting peace (this year it was a variety of different styles of peace symbol, past years included a Pinwheels for Peace project). Classroom teachers talk about it during the week leading up to the 21st and I do a lesson focused entirely on this important international date.

This year I used a fantastically clever book called Priscilla McDoodleNut Doodle McMae Asks Why? by Janet Mary Sinke. This story shows to warring kings who are fighting over which color of hair was superior. Priscilla, the heroine of the story, had the courage to ask "why?" and it led to changes in her nation.

I challenge the students each year that they, too, can change the world. The rest of the lesson focuses on the Random Acts of Kindness challenge they will take up as a way to celebrate Peace Week. There are many ideas for this on the web, including the website: https://www.randomactsofkindness.org/

I challenged students to spread kindness as a family activity. Here is the sheet I sent home:

Personality

Personality is one of my favorite things to teach. When I was growing up, I thought there was something wrong with me because I didn't like all the things the popular kids had to do to be popular. I wasn't outgoing and I certainly didn't want to constantly surround myself with people. It wasn't until college that I found out my personality is what drove my behavior all those years before. Instead of being "wrong", I just had a different personality type than those social butterflies at school. Since then, I have been a sort of personality crusader.

I like to do a lesson on personality as part of my self-esteem curriculum. I don't teach this lesson every year, but I like to make sure that I teach it at least once in each student's career.

This year I used three books to teach about personality differences:

• Lacey Walker, Non-Stop Talker by Christianne Jones (Lucy is an EXTROVERT)
• The Invisible Boy by Trudy Ludwig (Brian is an INTROVERT)
• Pearl Barley and Charlie Parsley by Aaron Blabey (Pearl is an EXTROVERT and Charlie is an INTROVERT)

The students were very captivated by these three stories. The illustrations are fantastic in all three books, which helps.

After reading the first two stories, I usually have the students respond with which characters were most similar to themselves. Most classes were split pretty evenly between extroverts and introverts. I spent some time discussing how the two personality types were different. 

Once students have an idea of their own personality, we discussed how both types of people are necessary. I ended the lesson with Blabey's tale to help students see that the two friends each had great things to offer -- that one personality wasn't better or worse than the other...just different.

I finished with a coloring sheet called "My Personality Coloring Sheet". I instructed students to only color those things that were true for them.

Peace-Makers and Peace-Breakers

Lots of my teaching ideas come from Pinterest. This lesson borrowed a lesson I found online and I modified it for my setting.

I started out with chart paper or white board (depending on the classroom) and had the students brainstorm things that would break the peace (name calling, hurting others on purpose, leaving people out, not playing by the rules, cutting in line, not taking turns) and things that would build peace (sharing, kind words, helping others, letting someone else go first, playing fair).

After brainstorming a good list, we talked about how good school feels when everyone feels safe and welcome -- and that to make that happen it takes 100% of the people building peace.

To finish out the lesson I read the book The Brand New Kid by Katie Couric and then we did a coloring sheet about peace.