I hope you're all taking time for yourself during this busy holiday season. With winter programs and Christmas presents from the class and for your own families, it's easy for the stress to build up. I'm providing some links here to encourage you to take 5 minutes and just breathe. Relax. It's ok. They'll also be on the homepage in my Links section.
This one's fantastic for finding free ways to destress instead of eating your feelings like one teacher I know (hey, I really needed that latte!).
Lifehacker self-care
And here are a few if you feel overwhelmed and need to talk or just want some self-help links:
7CupsofTea is a free chat service with lots of great resources
BetterHelp has some wonderful links and if you feel like you want professional help, you can either set up a chat with a therapist through them or have them find one in your area.
Speaking of building. How often have you started a study based on what the children were doing? We were all set to start Clothing, figuring the cold weather would spark their curiosity about coats and warmer clothing. But then, one child started drawing a house. And then another. And then another. And then one child decided to make a house out of craft sticks. So my co-teacher and I looked at each other and said, "We need to start a Buildings study!"
So we brought out the hot glue gun and we didn't put it up the whole week, as children were inspired by each other to create their own houses. One child made a rollercoaster house and a few of them worked on their projects over several days.
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| Look at that gravity-defying chimney! Imagine if we'd just said it couldn't be done. |
It was a great opportunity to incorporate other higher functions like planning, as we asked the children to draw what they wanted to build while they were waiting. One child's ended up looking very similar to what he drew and he even made sure to include the round window. Problem-solving, planning, creativity, fine motor skills, this project had it all. And it was entirely child-based! I love those!
By the way, Building is a great way to talk about perseverence with students. Teach them that anything that falls down can be built up again.
We did our usual KWL chart to start the week and gain an idea of children's knowledge. As children asked questions throughout the week, we added to it. To learn more about our process, you can read this post.
In the Blocks center, we added some tools. The children loved building with the blocks and pretending to hammer, sand, and drill.
On Friday, we started reviewing the week and adding to our KWL chart when all of a sudden, we hear, "SNOW!" I know it's not a big deal to northerners, but in NC, we get excited over every inch. This is also earlier than we usually see it, which is about February or March. So we brought out the Snow activities.
The children's favorite was acting out 5 Little Snowmen. They independently continued it this week and passed the snowmen to each other.
"One little snowman all alone,
One little snowman made of snow."
In the sensory table, we brought out instant snow! If you've never seen it before, it starts out as white powder. Water starts a chemical reaction that makes the snow grow and get cold! We had to make a waitlist for it. More name writing practice!
We also had a great discussion about where the snow came from and what we could build with it. We didn't get quite enough to build our own snowmen, but it was nice while it lasted.
This week we're busy getting the parents' gifts together and hopefully it won't be another 2 months before my next post (sorry!)
Happy Teaching!
--Amy
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