Free Ideas For Sale - (Plus a Download, Too!)

Heidi at the New HeidiSongs Office in San Dimas, CA

As you can see in the photo above, this has been an exciting summer for us!  We have opened an actual HeidiSongs office.  So for the very first time, we have four walls (other than our home!) to run the business out of, and even a couple of friends to help out!  Above you can see a picture of me, Heidi, in front of the door.  I feel so very blessed to be a part of God's plan in this, and so very fortunate that my husband Greg wants to run this business for me.  Because if he didn't, I'd be truly lost- and I mean that sincerely.

Also new, I am now on Twitter!  So if you like to tweet along with me, you can follow me on Twitter@heidisongs.com.

And now down to the business of blogging!  One thing that I always love to do is look around at the exhibits at conferences, especially the larger ones where there is a good selection of new materials out for browsing.  Who would have thought that there would be so many good ideas out there, just free for the taking?  All you need to do is just start walking around the exhibits and look around.  There are always seem to be a bunch of things out there for sale that you could obviously make quite easily yourself, often for practically nothing!

 Another thing that I also love to do at home is browse educational catalogs, just for fun.  I wind up with lots of great ideas just from looking at those, too!  I look at them every morning as I eat my breakfast, and in the summer sometimes at lunch too, if I am at home.  So here is my line up of ideas.  I hope that you find in here something worth keeping!

1.  Spelling Sticks
Spelling Sticks is one of those ideas that I found at I Teach K a couple of weeks ago.  All they did was print letters on some tongue depressors and let the children make words that way.  They do sell a stand to put the sticks in, but I couldn’t say that the stand looked absolutely essential to the activity.  The stands are also sold separately for $3.50 each, but it seems to me that if you just turned over a Styrofoam egg carton and cut a few slices in it, you would have a stand for free.  One thing that I noticed about the letters is that they were not printed very well on the sticks; the printing was a bit too light and I thought it might even be a little too light for the kids to read well.  So this activity might even turn out better if you make your own sticks with a fine tipped permanent marker.   Obviously, given that it is summer time, I haven't had a chance to try this out.  But if I were to use this in the classroom, I would have them build the words while singing the sight word songs, just as I do with the letter magnets or white boards sometimes.

2.  How to Get Free Grid Clips
They always give away a few free samples of these wonderful Grid Clips when the StikkiWorks Exhibit Booth comes to conferences!  And that is always nice!  (Every time I go to a conference, I pick up a couple more!)  These are those gadgets that help you easily hang projects from the ceiling of your classroom without trying to use pins or staples, etc.  They also gave me a discount code to share also:  it is SDELV71120.  This will give you a 20% discount at checkout until 10/31/11.  I don’t know if it will work on everything on their website or not, but I guess it is worth a try, right?

Here is another thing to consider, though, as a way to get a supply of Grid Clips free!  Last year,  when I was getting my hair cut at HairMasters I noticed that they had their Christmas decorations hanging from the ceiling with Grid Clips.  I wondered whether they were going to throw away those beautiful cardboard snowflakes at the end of the season, so I asked if I could have them when they were done with them, if possible.  I was told that I could indeed have them.  When I stopped by to pick them up, I was given both the decorations AND the Grid Clips- free!  So just be aware that sometimes stores like this will give this sort of thing away- especially franchises.  Now when they gave it to me, everything was a big, giant, tangled MESS, but I gave the pile of strings and snowflakes to a parent volunteer who managed to untangle most of it. Then we cut off the strings that were impossible to untangle and replaced them.

Incidentally, the StikkiWorks exhibit booth also had this wonderful machine on display that will both fold and staple your papers into a booklet in one step in just seconds.  It’s called the BookletMate Booklet Maker.  It’s not a purchase that a teacher would make, but if a principal wanted to encourage teachers to have children make books or do journaling in the classroom, this would be a great thing to have in the staff workroom.  It retails for $799.00.  This weekend, I am posting a video on my Facebook page of how quickly it works.  I was drooling over it, for sure!

3.  Woodsy Words (AKA Pick Up Sticks With Words on Them)
Here is an idea that I found in the Smilemakers.com catalog: 
Woodsy Words:  “It’s Pick Up Sticks with a Reading Twist”

How to play:
1.    Hold all of the sticks in one hand and let them fall onto a flat surface.
2.    Look for a single stick you can extract without moving any of the other sticks.
3.    Read the word printed on the stick (“flower,” “recycle,” “beach,” etc.) and then select another stick.
4.    Continue play until you bump another stick or get stuck on a word.
5.   The player with the most sticks at the end of the game wins! Put them back and start again or try to use all your words in a sentence!

Now it just seems to me that you could easily make this game yourself with tongue depressors or popsicle sticks and use only the words that you want to use.  Otherwise, you are stuck having your kids practice whatever words the manufacturer has selected.  Plus, they look like they were written on very small sticks, so this might be too hard for little eyes to read.  But I like the idea of using tongue depressors!  I think I might give this one a try! 
I was thinking that I might make it a letter identification game rather than a reading game, and prompt the kids by singing the alphabet songs if they get stuck on a letter.

4.  Toppletree Game
This is another idea that I got just from looking at the Smilemakers.com catalog!  Actually, when I looked at it, I thought I was looking at a clothespin game.  Upon closer inspection, I discovered that the branches of the tree really just snap or screw on; I can’t quite tell from the picture.  But the idea that I got just from looking at it and assuming it they were clothespins was a good one, I think!  Just give the kids each a small plastic basket or bin, and some clothespins inside it.  Ask the entire group a question, and have the entire group answer it.  Each time they answer it to your satisfaction, allow them all to take one clothespin and clip it to the side of the basket.  (You could do it one person at time, but I think that it is better to keep them all actively involved.)  Eventually, they will have to clip one clothespin onto another onto another and another, creating a clothespin “tree” with branches.  If they do not keep it perfectly balanced, it will fall.  The first person’s tree to fall will be the loser.  I think that if I were the teacher, I would laugh, have them try to stand it back up and keep on playing.  Naturally, it being summer and all, I haven’t had a chance to try this game out and get the “bugs” out of it, but I think the idea of clipping one clothespin onto another each time the children answer a question is a good one because it will strengthen their fine motor skills as they play, and it will be fun. 
For variations on the game, you could also have them read color words or sing the Color Word Songs and have them try to find specifically colored clothes pins to clip on to their tree.  I have found lots of colored clothespins at our local Dollar Tree store, so I think that a good supply of the pins wouldn’t be expensive.  I think that this would be a nice, easy game for an aide or a volunteer to manage, as well.


5.  Read Aloud Charts- Free Download!
I finally finished creating a set of Read Aloud Charts!  However, I am only going to give away the August and September charts for you right now to get you started.  The entire set were quite a lot of work as far as the illustrations are concerned, so once we get our website updated, the rest of the set will go up for sale as a download for those that would like to purchase the rest of them.  Enjoy!

Lesson Planning for Group Rotations, How to Write Your Own AR Test, and More Free Downloads!

Heidi at Last Week's K Conference in Las Vegas

It was wonderful to be back home again this week, but I do feel the pressure of summer coming to a close!  Soon it will be time to go back to school, and all of this delicious freedom will end!  But for now, I am just trying to get a bunch of things finished so I can try to enjoy what’s left of that wonderful summer feeling.  This week, I’ve been working on a new presentation on using technology in the Kindergarten classroom.  So if you have any great ideas or apps that you would like to share with me, I would love it if you would leave a note on my HeidiSongs Facebook page or a comment on this blog!  Keep in mind, though, that I do NOT have an interactive white board!  So my presentation will be on using other types of technology, such as iPads, iPods, the internet, and Power Point.  I will be giving this presentation for the first time at SDE's Kinder and Pre-K Conference in Atlantic City in New Jersey on February 23- 24, 2012.  Thanks!



1.  This question was emailed to me this week, and I thought that I would include both the question and answer in my blog, just in case there are others with the same thoughts.




Question:
"How do you make the lesson plans to work in groups? For example, do you give your lesson at the beginning and then send them to their groups? What I do, is follow the Houghton Mifflin guides. For Mondays, I would introduce the new alpha-friend and read the story. Then I would have them go into thier tables and have one group work with me on the practice worksheet for the Alphafriend and the other work on the story worksheet.  Then on Tuesday I do the same guideline that H.M. gives but I don't find or can't seem to get more groups going on so I can have more activities for them. So, how can I mix it up like you do?" 

Answer: 
For my reading/language arts table, here is my general weekly routine:

Mondays:  We do guided reading with the Houghton Mifflin books provided by the school, and also supplemental books that I have in my collection, mostly from the Scholastic Book Club that I have collected with Bonus Points over the years.

Tuesdays:  Phonemic Awareness/phonics activities (Example:  we practice blending sounds orally for CVC words and also practice segmenting those sounds (taking them apart) for the words we are going to need to read.  Then we practice sounding out those words in print. We also practice reading our sight words. Then we practice writing those CVC words on white boards if there is time, but usually there isn't!)

Wednesdays:  Guided writing practice.  We write a sentence of my choice.  Normally, I give them a "sentence structure" that they must follow, and then they complete the sentence.  Example:  "I see the ____."  Then the child chooses a themed word from my pocket chart, such as a word about farm animals or Halloween, etc.  For more on this see my blog entry on May 16, 2009. 

Thursdays:  Either sight word practice or more writing that is creative rather than structured, so the kids would get to write what they want, but with assistance.  I do this more during the second half of the year.  Last year, I gave them a lot of little blank books and let them work on them during this time.  They started them on Wednesdays, and finished them on Thursdays.  Depending on the level of the group, some children received more guidance during this time and others received less.  Naturally, my lowest group wound up with more of a structured writing experience during this time, but I tried to get them to tell me what they wanted to write about and agree upon it as a group.  Then I led them through it as if it were a guided writing lesson rather than an a time for assisted independent writing, because they were all so low that I knew they would just sit there and do nothing if I didn't.  This group was filled with children with those late birthdays, most of them having turned five somewhere from September to November  So it was a pretty tall order for them anyway!

Making Playdough Letters with Book Buddies

Fridays:  We go to the library and then do book buddies on Friday mornings, so they read with their
buddies and then usually do a creative art project with them.  Sometimes, we even do a rotation with our Book Buddies!  the buddies go from table to table with the Kindergartners, giving them one-on-one help with each activity.  However, each rotation in this case lasts only about ten minutes.  After that, I do a whole group lesson with my class, such as guided drawing, or writing the sight words as the DVD plays, or one of the whole group activities from my blog entries last July and August, 2010. 

You also asked if I give my lesson at the beginning and then send them to groups.  Yes, that is what I do.  Our groups start at 9:00, (or at least that is what I shoot for!)  Sometimes, I run a little late, of course!  School starts at 8:15.  So after taking roll and doing the flag salute and calendar, etc., I have about 25 minutes to give what I call "Mini-lessons" on what they will be doing at each table.  This is important, because I want them to fully understand what I expect at each place.  In between times, when they get restless, we stand up and sing a song or two to make sure that they are able to keep sitting and paying attention, because 45 minutes is WAY too long for Kindergartners to sit!!! 

This is what do I before groups start:

1.  I fully demonstrate the art project that they will be doing, from beginning to end.  Even as they are seated, the kids sing color songs along with me as I demonstrate cutting and pasting each item.  Then I stand everyone up and sing some songs with them to get them moving before I give my next Mini-Lesson or instructions for the next thing.

2.  I tell them what they will be doing at my Language Arts table.  If necessary, I might preview the guided reading books for the whole class, or introduce a new word family on a pocket chart with the CVC cards and have the kids match the pictures to the words whole group.  If we are going to do a writing lesson, then I will demonstrate writing the sentence on my white board easel for the class whole group, and call on children to help me find the sight words that we need to write on the wall.  I have the child point to them as I copy them, just to show the children what I would do if I can't remember what the letters in the word look like.  I keep the rest of the class involved while they do this by having them sing the sight word songs as that child goes to find that word.  When I am all done with the lesson, I erase the sentence, because they are not allowed to copy it.  They have to use "their own brains" to write it, not mine.  Again, if they are restless, we stand up and sing a song or two to get their wiggles out before going on to the next Mini-Lesson.  Ideally, this would be a spelling song or language arts song related to the lesson I just gave.

3.  I give a short Mini-Lesson on what they will do at the math table.  Especially if it is a brand new or relatively new concept, I will spend some time demonstrating it with manipulatives.  I prefer magnetic manipulatives that I can place on my white board easel, but if not, I can use my document camera.  My aide will give this lesson with the children at this table.  If necessary, I can go over it again after lunch with them whole group.  And once again, if they are getting restless, I stand them up to sing a song and get those wiggles out if they are restless- preferably a math related song!

4.  I tell them what they will do at the independent center, although sometimes there is a parent volunteer there, if I am lucky- so it winds up being supervised rather than independent.  For more on this, see that blog entry on July 1, 2011. 
Usually, I will have skipped at least one of those movement breaks listed above (especially if the lesson was very short and the movement break was unnecessary), so they will need to stand up and sing a song again or at least jump up and down ten times, etc.,  to get those wiggles out before beginning the group rotation. 

As far as lesson plans are concerned, you will probably not find the activities that you need in the Houghton Mifflin manual.  But then, I am a person that gave up on searching through teacher's manuals long ago!  It seems that they rarely tell me something that I couldn't have figured out on my own in less time, and then the management of the activity is an issue.    When I plan activities, I go to my plastic drawers and look the drawer marked for the skill that I want to teach.  That has all of the activities that I have already prepared inside of it, ready to go.  Then, all I have to do is pull one out and throw it on the table.  But if you are a new teacher or are new to the grade level, you probably don't have a bunch of prepared activities!  Maybe the best thing to do is to go through your HM materials and group them by skill.  Only pull out the ones that look manageable to you,  and file them either in plastic drawers, such as I described in the blog entry on September 10, 2010 or in a file cabinet, or in boxes of some sort.  Label the boxes by skill.  Then, if you know you need to work on a certain skill, go to that box and see what you have.  Pull one thing out, and go for it!  That should make planning MUCH easier for you.  There is also a pacing guide that tells you week by week what I study in my Kindergarten classroom for each subject.  Perhaps you can download that and then try to follow along with it as far as the skills are concerned, and that might help you in your planning.


2.  How to Write Your Own Accelerated Reader Test
I don’t know how many of you actually do Accelerated Reader in Kindergarten, but at my school, this is required of all of us, no matter what the grade level.  I don’t mind telling you that I was pretty darned irritated when I heard of this new rule, considering that I felt that we already had enough to do.  Not only that, one forth of our Kindergarten students here in California don’t even turn five until December!  It’s the RARE four year old that can read; it’s even rarer to find one that reads with good comprehension and enjoys taking computerized tests on a book!  However, we have been allowed to take it slowly and ease them into it little by little.  I started by giving them AR tests on their guided reading books that they learn to read each Monday.  That way, I only needed to manage giving one test per reading group per week.  Yes, it had to be done individually, but luckily, I had volunteers that could take care of most of that.  Plus, I really only tested the children that could actually read, and so far my administration has not objected.  So I plan on continuing this way!  And I have to say that most of the children really got “into” taking and passing these tests, surprisingly enough!  My class read more than 60,000 words last year, and passed most of the AR tests and averaged about 85-100% in comprehension.
In any case, I had heard that it was possible to write your own AR test, that could be added to your school’s system.  I needed to learn how to do this so that I could use the same books for AR as I was using for guided reading, and therefore kill two birds with one stone.  (Many of the books that I have purchased in sets from Scholastic are currently not AR books.) So, I have written up the instructions for you, and you can download them here, just in case you are interested.  It’s a great thing to know how to do- but much better to do it over the summer when you have a little extra time.  It does take about 20-25 minutes per test to complete.


3.  Sight Word Dice Game
Last week at the I Teach K! Conference, I mentioned that I would be sharing this game on my blog soon, and so here it is!  To download this game, just click here.  I have included in the download a blank version, and a version that already has some sight words filled in.  To use the blank version, you will probably have to write the words in by hand, or type up the words you want, print them out, and glue them in.
To play the game:
Each child rolls the die in turn and reads the word that comes up.  He then writes it in the column under that word.  The first child to fill up one entire column is the winner of the game!  To make the game last longer, you can tell the children that the first person to fill two columns will be the winner.  Have fun!


4.  Wandering Word Wall
Again, last week at the Kindergarten conference in Las Vegas, I mentioned that I use this “Wandering Word Wall” with my class.  I had thought that it was already a free download on my website, but after looking again, I guess it is not!  So I am uploading it here now for you.  My students use it for journaling when they are all spread out throughout the room and cannot necessarily see the word wall from where they are seated.  One word of caution, though:  you will need to teach them how to use it and what it is, or it will just become a “tent” and a barrier to play with rather than a useful word wall as you intended!  To create it, just download the word  wall and glue it onto a file folder for each child.  Then laminate it.  I made two copies for each child, and put one three-hole punched copy into their binders so that they could have a word wall at home as well.  I do collect them at the end of the year, so that I don’t have to reinvent them again the following year.

Highlights from the I Teach K! National Kindergarten Conference!

Presenters Kathy Griffin, Heidi, Kim Adsit, Kent Johnson
(CEO of Highlights, the company that owns SDE) and Melissa Leach

Well, the big week finally arrived, and it was wonderful!  My sessions were packed out, and some even had about 250 people in them!  It was very exciting for me to speak to and meet so many wonderful people from all over the world.  I feel so blessed to have been invited to come and be a part of this amazing event!  SDE had, at final count, 1,500 Kindergarten teachers in attendance.  They were also running two other conferences concurrently at the same venue:  their Differentiated Instruction Conference, and their Singapore Math Conference.  So between all three of these events, they had a grand total of 6,000 teachers all together at the same time.  This meant that the Exhibit Hall was a VERY busy place, and the Venetian and Palazzo Hotels were, too.  Of course, there were all of their regular tourists and visitors in the casinos, shops, and restaurants as usual, so you can probably imagine how difficult it was to simply walk through the shopping area at lunch time! 
   

Heidi and Brenda Planck

Despite all of the crowds and busyness, I was fortunate enough to spend some time with a few great people while I was there!  I did get to have lunch with some HeidiSongs Facebook Friends both on Monday and on Wednesday, and that was a lot of fun! I got to chat for a few minutes with some great SDE presenters, including Kim Adsit, Kathy Griffin, Melissa Leach, Lori Elliott, Shari Sloane. And I got to hear a few of them speak, too!  Below are the highlights of what I learned this week.  Also, if you were in my session on “Sing and Spell:  Fun Songs for More Sight Words” at the conference this week, you can download an updated copy of the handout here.  Thanks for your patience on that!  If you are interested in viewing the CD/DVD that goes along with that handout, click here. 
1.  Google Earth:  A Tool for KINDERGARTEN?
    When I went to this session, it was truly ONLY because I kept hearing that Lori Elliot was a wonderful presenter with great ideas, and that I should listen to her speak and buy her book, called Teach Like a Techie.  And her session on Google Earth was the only one open for me to go to see her at the time slot that I had available.  Before I walked in, I REALLY couldn’t visualize how Google Earth could possibly be a good tool for Kindergarten.  Well, two minutes after I walked into her session, I could see that I was wrong.  Despite the fact that I missed the first fifteen minutes, I immediately caught on to the “meat and potatoes” of what she was saying:  Google Earth is a tool that you can use to show children real places in the world that are relevant to them, and then from there, show them other places in the world that are different.  (You definitely would need a projector and internet access in your classroom to make this work, though!)  And yes, I DID buy her book, and I can’t WAIT to read it!

    In order to study the community, Lori said that she would start by showing the children their school and then zoom out.  First the school, then the neighborhood.  Here’s Johnny’s house, and Jose’s house, and Isabella’s house.  Here’s the grocery store.  This is our town.  This is our state.  This is our country.  This is our continent.  This is our Earth, etc. 
    If you were reading a book with the children, (any book at all!), you could then pull up real pictures of the city that the author was talking about.  For example, if you are reading Make Way for Ducklings, then you could show the children Boston and the Boston Commons park that the ducks walk through, etc.   If you were reading Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, you could pull up an island with coconut trees, etc.  This is a neat application I had not thought about, and it reminds me a lot of watching an episode of Reading Rainbow!  There is also a website called Google Lit Trips that has some neat “tours” already mapped out for some books.  That means that a teacher already did the work for you and found the places on Google Earth that go along with each book on their list.  All you have to do is download the file and click on it, and the kids will be able to look at the real places from the stories that they have on their list.  The problem is that their list is currently pretty short.  I only recognized one K-5 book on it so far:  Make Way for Ducklings, by Robert McCloskey.  However, it is currently a free service, which is great!  Click on the link to take a look at the Google Earth tour of the book.
Some other neat applications of Google Earth in Kindergarten might be:
1.  Use the ruler tool to find out how far away a students house or field trip location is.
2.  Show the children the real Plymouth Rock when you study Thanksgiving.
3.  Show the children the real Lincoln Memorial when you study coins.
4.  Show the children the real places where zoo animals live, such as Africa or Asia.
5.  Preview where you are going on a field trip.
6.  Welcome a new child to your class by finding out where that child used to live and taking a look.  Say good-bye to a child who is moving by taking a look at where he or she is going.
7.  Use the tool bar to place a “pin” down on any location that you want to save, and you can go back to it as often as you like.  You can even change the icon (picture) that you use for the pin to something else.  You can insert pictures of other things and use them as pins, too, such as a picture of Flat Stanley and where he went. 
8.  And here is my favorite application off Google Earth:  one of my HeidiSongs Facebook friends that I met at the conference, Debbie Eiss, suggested that Google Earth might be a great tool to find out if kids really live where the parents say they live!  Simply type in the address that is listed on the child’s contact information and pull up a picture of the residence.  Then ask the child, “Is this your house?”  If the child says, “No, that’s my Grandma’s house!” or something along those lines, then you’ll know that an investigation is in order!  I LOVE it!!!

2.  iPods as a Learning Center?  (It could happen!)
   I went to another session by Catie Bushman on using iPods in the classroom, called “iTunes, iPods, and Apps. Oh, My!”  Part of it was simply an explanation of how to create a playlist in iTunes and how to sync your iPod to it, which I already knew how to do.  However, I had never considered having a set of iPods in the classroom with games on them for the children to play with; this was a totally new idea for me and one that intrigued me!  In the presenter’s opinion, iPods are better for four and five year olds than iPads because the size is more appropriate for their little hands.  She suggested downloading eight different apps and then making an iPod app choice board.  Each child would have a list of games with a little icon (picture) on it, and he or she would be responsible for checking off each game after playing it.  She said that if you made a check-off sheet such as this and had a set of iPods for them to use as a center, it could keep them busy for many weeks!  I certainly liked this idea, although I didn’t know where I would be able to get my hands on the eight Touch iPods that would be necessary for one group of my 28 students to use at the same time.  But then one of the my Facebook Friends that I met for lunch, (I think it was Brenda Planck,) later mentioned that perhaps parents in the class may have old iPods that they are no longer using that they would be willing to donate to the class.  In any case, the presenter pointed out that if you have one iPod, one ipad, and one computer in your classroom, you really have three computer work stations that your children could use.  That really opened my mind up to some new possibilities that I had never considered before!
    Two of the presenter’s favorite apps mentioned in this session were:  iWriteWords, and anything produced by Duck Duck Moose.  I tried the iWriteWords app, because there was a free version and I had my iphone with me.  It was pretty fun, and I think that the kids would enjoy it!  Catie suggested that in order to train the children to use the devices and apps, you begin in small groups that are supervised, and then release them to work independently.  She said that there are usually settings in most iPods and computers that you will want to set, such as “No purchasing apps with your stored credit card,” etc.  You can turn off internet browsing, the camera, and any other things that you do not want your students to get into.  In order to turn them back on, the child would need your password.  

3.  Wiring the Kindergarten Brain for Reading
Another presentation that I attended was presented by Marilee Sprenger, who is a very prolific author on brain research and it’s applications in the classroom.  I have always wanted to hear her speak, because I have read a few of her books and found them very interesting!  Unfortunately, I only caught the last half of her session due to the need to drop off a box of products in the exhibit hall at that time.  But what I did hear was very interesting, especially this “Physical Checklist for Readers.”  Marilee says that most children that can read can also do the following physical activities:

1.  Turn around two times, and then stop quickly without falling down (indicating that they have good balance.)  Then do it again the other direction!
2.  Jump two times on one foot, and then stop.  Then do it again with the other foot.
3.  Stand on one foot for two seconds with the eyes closed. 
4.  Skip.

The big question here is balance and the development of the corpus callosum, which is the part of the brain that transfers information from one side of the brain to the other.  If the children have developed this part of the brain and can do these physical activities, then they are also more likely to be able to learn to read.  If they cannot, then it is more likely that they will be struggling readers.  She said that this explains why one study showed that struggling readers that were given extra physical activity outperformed those struggling readers that were given extra tutoring at the end of one year.  Now take THAT to your principals that want you to eliminate recess and/or PE!!!  And I say, once they are back inside, how about combining that physical activity with your reading lesson, as we do in the Sing and Spell DVD’s?  Some of those songs do a lot of jumping, like the “About” song on Sing and Spell Vol. 5.  The “Very” song from Sing and Spell Vol. 4 DVD has lots of spinning.  And in the “On” song from Sing and Spell Vol. 1, we freeze and hold one foot in the air.  And these are just the songs that I can think of, just off the top of my head!  I guess I’ll have to work on including some skipping my next DVD, won’t I? 
Marilee also mentioned that we are now teaching the second generation of what she calls “Car Seat Babies.”  “Car Seat Babies” is the term she uses to describe children that have been left in car seats for many hours, long after they have left the automobile due to seats that are designed to be taken into grocery stores, restaurants, and clipped into strollers, etc.  She said that the problem is that many of the seats force the head into one single position and do not allow the child to turn his head towards any sound to check out what is happening.  After a while, they give up and tune everything out.  This leads to muscle issues and attention difficulties.  And I have to say that I would agree that this is probably a big issue, since leaving a baby that appears to be content in a seat is probably going to be the easiest thing for most parents.  And I still see children all the time riding around in strollers who are FAR too old to be pushed around in places like malls and amusement parks.  Even children of five, six, seven years old or older are getting pushed around like babies when they are entirely capable of walking.  I realize that the children are probably tired, but I imagine that the adults are, too.  Why not just rest a bit and then keep walking?  What are their parents thinking of?  I don’t mean to be judgmental, but once my children outgrew the stroller, we gave it away and never considered giving them an opportunity to ride when they could walk.  


4.  Recognizing Red Flags for Common Learning Challenges

This next session that I attended was presented by Kathy Griffin,  whom I had not had the opportunity to meet until this week.  She is a wonderfully nice person and a dynamic presenter!  Unfortunately, the acoustics in the room that she was in were not the greatest and there was a weird echo near the back where I was sitting, so there was much information that I missed. 

    Kathy Griffin has a unique perspective on teaching children with learning disabilities because she has a child with one herself, so she sees it all differently.  She said that her daughter’s Kindergarten teacher made a real effort to include her, and it made all the difference!  My favorite quote from Kathy was this:  “A challenging behavior by any other name is still... a challenging behavior.”  I believe that this means that it really doesn’t matter what name you give a child’s disability; what you still have to deal with is the behavior itself.  And much of what causes challenging behavior in young children is stress.  Kathy says that “Stress in the Young Child = A Behavior Response.”   This makes sense, especially when they cannot verbalize what is wrong, so they act up instead.  So the best thing to do when you have a child who is making life miserable in the classroom is find out what is causing the child stress and see what you can do to eliminate or reduce the stress.  However, one stressor these days that we can’t do much about is crowded classrooms.  When children with special needs are forced to share their personal space with many other children, and it gets more and more noisy, then you can expect those children’s behavior problems to likely increase as their stress level goes up.  She said that this is especially true of children with Sensory Processing Disorders or Sensory Integration Disorders.  (These terms are often used interchangeably.)  Children with this disorder often operate on a high stress level, “hyper reactive” or over-reactive type of state.  Their fright-fight-flight response is always ready to go.  They are ultra sensitive to light, textures, sounds, smells, tastes, and movements.  If you would like to know more about what it feels like to be a child with this disorder, go to http://www.sensory-processing-disorder.com/ and you can find out exactly what it feels like.  Kathy said that children with these proprioceptive difficulties often:
    - enjoy “play” falling or crashing
    - seem accident prone
    - use toys for sensory input
    - have trouble staying put

Kathy went on to state the red flags for simple reading difficulties, which were more predictable for me.  These were:
    - late talkers
    - children with articulation errors
    - trouble with rhyming or phonemic awareness, etc.

Kathy also suggested that, as adults, we have already figured out ways to help ourselves pay attention, such as doodling, tapping our feet, wiggling our toes or fingers, twiddling our thumbs, etc.  She said that teaching children to do some of these behaviors when they need them is a good idea.  She also gave a great website for some “social stories” that can help teach children the desired behaviors.  

Heidi at the Wynn Hotel

    I hope you enjoyed these highlights from the I Teach K! National Kindergarten Conference!  I also hope that they bring me back to present there next year, but there are no guarantees, even though my sessions were full to bursting with participants!  Last year, I was not invited even though my sessions always went well in the past.  If you have plans to attend next year and would like to see me present, I would love it if you would email SDE and let them know that you would like them to bring me back again.  They DO keep track of and listen to these requests.  It is going to be in Las Vegas again at the Venetian/Palazzo Hotels, on July 9-12, 2012.  Thanks, I appreciate it!

More Questions and Answers About Our Centers Rotation- And a Free Download!

Heidi and Kimmie at La Verne's Independence Day Parade

Roynon School's "Float" and the Kids

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday weekend, and that ALL of you are now finally enjoying your summer break!  It has been incredibly hot and steamy here in sunny Southern California; in fact, it seems a lot like a sauna outside! It’s not usually this humid, so it feels pretty miserable at the moment, unfortunately. Of course, our town’s local Fourth of July parade went on and was as big a hit as it always is!  This was the first year that my school,”Roynon,” actually had a float and an entry, so that was exciting!  The theme was “Racing to Read,” and the 90 children that participated all brought their favorite book to show the crowd, which was cute!  Some rode in the trailer float, and many more rode their bikes.  Parent volunteers walked along the side of the road and passed out candy to children that came out to watch the parade.  And me, my 20 year old daughter Kimmie who is a Kindergarten aide at my school, and some others helped carry the “Roynon” sign the headed up our entry.  Although it was INCREDIBLY HOT, and we had to walk nearly three miles,

Parade Participant Honest Abe

it was still great fun!  I got to see lots of my students from this past year and other years as well.  A couple of them looked like they were about to have a heart attack from seeing me “out of context,” and were jumping up and down and screaming, “Mrs. Butkus, Mrs. Butkus!!!!!!!”  Kimmie and I were in laughing our heads off at their silliness and excitement.  It really was cute, and I have to say- it sure feels GREAT!  Teaching just doesn’t get any better than that.
I even got to meet and get my picture taken with a local "Abe Lincoln Presenter" named Robert Broski, whose picture you see at the right.  He told me that he does school assemblies and presentations at libraries and things like that.  His favorite question from children is, "Hey.... aren't you dead?"  :)

Next week is the National I Teach K! conference in Las Vegas, Nevada!  I am soooo excited; it’s like going to a great, big, four day Kindergarten teacher party!  I am looking forward to a fun and educational week in Las Vegas!  (Well, okay;  I’m mostly I’m just looking forward to the FUN part!)  I am planning on leaving on Sunday and staying until the whole thing is over on Thursday, and then driving home on Friday.   I’m hoping to connect with my fellow presenters, meet some new friends from all over the place, and put some real-life faces to names from the internet world!  If you are going to be there and would like a chance to “meet and greet” over lunch, my and the HeidiSongs Facebook “group” have decided to meet for lunch at the entrance to the Crystal Springs Booth in the exhibit hall on Monday at the beginning of the lunch hour.  We’ll wait about ten minutes or so, and then make our way over to the concessions and eat lunch together while we chat and get to know each other in person!  Sounds like fun to me!  Everyone is welcome, so come on down!  (Okay, don’t get TOO excited; we’re all buying our own food, LOL!)  But I think it will be a fun way to get to meet some people, especially for those of us who might be attending the conference alone and would like to meet some friends. The downloadable I Teach K! catalog is available here.

Now back to business!  The questions and answers below are posted in response to some questions that arose after last week’s blog post on my center rotation.  The person that asked the questions left them as comments on the blog, and after I answered them, I thought that with a little bit of clarification, they might be good general blog entries rather than just comments on the blog that few might think to read.  I hope that the questions and answers are helpful to you!


Question:  It sounds like all of your class rotates through to the teacher table each day. Does each rotation last 15 minutes?

Puzzles are a nice, easy center!

Answer:  Yes, they do go to the teacher table every day.  And actually, each rotation lasts about 20 minutes, with about 4-5 minutes passing time in between. As I said, this works for me due to the presence of my aide three hours a day and the volunteers that I have. All of these people know that if the children in their group finish up or lose attention, they are to direct them to another activity that I have indicated. It's usually a puzzle or a book, but often it could be:
- looking at the chicks
- watching the tadpoles or insects
- playing with the Number Pattern Blocks or the Alphabet Pattern Blocks - doing a puzzle, or playing with a selected manipulative that I have put out, etc.

Alphabet Pattern Blocks

I rotate in and out the things that each table group can do when they are done to keep them fresh. Also, it has to be something that they can do very near to the center that they were at. I prefer that they keep that activity right at the same table where they were working before, because I find that the troubles come when they leave their group and form a new, independent "cluster" on the floor somewhere and wind up getting rowdy or something. They will stay under control (usually!) as long as they are right there with the adult. If there is nobody there with that group at that table, then they definitely have to stay there when they are done. 

Number Pattern Blocks

Usually, all they may do when they are finished will usually be simply read a book at the table. I don't want them to rush through their activities so that they can goof off together on the floor somewhere alone where I can't see them very well, like behind the cubbies! And the more attractive that I make the "go-to" activity when they are done, then the more likely it is that they will rush through the activity to get to it. And that was never the point, was it?


Question:  I'm really seeking to improve the structure of my centers this fall.  I will be going from a half-day program to a full day one.  I hope to have groups in the morning and groups in the afternoon.  I will have an aide for most of the day--but no volunteers that I can count on to supervise a center on a regular basis.  Do you think I could make your system work with 2 centers really being independent?  With RTI requirements, I need to meet with some students every day.  Do you meet with every group each day that you do centers?

Math Center Table

Answer:  Yes, I meet with every group, every day.  However, occasionally there are times when it is not possible, such as if there is an assembly or some kind of special event.  In that case, we may do just two centers on one day and the other two centers the next day.  OR, we may just do a two station rotation on that one day.  That means that we will have them do the same art project at two centers, and the same language arts activity at two centers (one group would be with me, and one group would be with my aide.)  That way, we don’t need to worry about “messing up” the next day’s schedule and we are done our rotation on time to go to the special event.  In this case, I would catch up on the math lesson later in the day.

Art Table Center

I believe that the key to getting to every group, every day, is timing the rotation so that you definitely make it, and then planning your other activities so that the rest of the class isn’t going crazy while you pull those groups!  Getting them into a routine that works for you is essential.  It’s important to train your class to do what you want them to do, and count on this “training period” taking more than one day!  In Kindergarten, it usually takes a couple of weeks before I feel confident that the children understand the routine and the procedures for my group rotation.  But I have to say that my primary goals for these first couple of weeks are not necessary academic; they are procedural!  The most important thing I am doing during the first couple of weeks of school is getting the children into a routine that allows me to teach them in small groups without constant interruptions.  Equally important is that they learn how to act in a whole group situation; that is, to sit and listen without blurting out comments, and to follow directions, etc.  When you focus on these things being your primary goal, it kind of takes the pressure off for the academics, I think.  I just keep reminding myself:  “I only need to teach them how to just “be” in school properly right now.  Nothing else matters much; the rest will come.” 

Language Arts Table

I can remember one year not too long ago, I had such an incredibly difficult class that I realized I was a good two weeks behind my pacing guide due to the fact that I was having to go OVER and OVER the rules and procedures to make them work.  It was totally discouraging and frustrating, but classes like that “happen” from time to time, and we just have to roll with the punches and do our best.  If you are a brand new teacher, just start praying NOW that you don’t get that terribly difficult group right off the bat!  It’s much easier to know what is really “normal” and then get slammed with that “off” group of kids, then continually second-guess your own abilities all year long and wonder if this is really all your fault.
As far as making the rotation work without regular volunteers, it is certainly not as easy, but it can be done.  I have done it many times!  At my school, there are five K teachers, and there are always days when some of us have no volunteers at all. We learn to get by. There are years when we have volunteers maybe two days per week and never any on the others. And the days that we do have them, there is only one person, not two.

An Easy Art Center Activity

When we have years like this, we plan accordingly.  The art projects are MUCH simpler. The children learn to set up the art project for the next person, too. That is part of their responsibility and something we train them to do at the beginning of the year.  Both the teacher and the aide know that one of us will get a little less done each day due to the need to stop a bit earlier and help them finish up if necessary and get ready for the next group. Usually, at the fourth independent table, the teachers with fewer volunteers do what they refer to as "Mini-centers." So when they get to that station, the children split up and go to individual mini-stations. Two of them might go to a listening center, two to a computer center, and two might go to Sing and Spell Puzzles, Velcro Books, do a Sight Word Splat (see below for more info on that!), or a science center, and so on. Their names are posted at each mini-center and rotated each day, so they know where to go. We put hooks on the wall or at the table, and that is where we hang a sign with each child’s name.  The kids find their names and go to that center.  They go with a partner, and they are divided up so that two kids that are "bad news together" are never sent to the same mini-center together. That usually works out fine.  

Sight Word Splat Mini-Center

Not surprisingly, there are always a couple of children that are always “lost,” and never seem to know where to go.  I try to assign these children a buddy that is a bit more aware of the procedures, etc., and ask that child to take the lost one with him.  That usually works!
I would highly recommend this type of center rotation if you lack volunteers but do have an aide. That way, you can let them do some art independently, then do mini-centers independently, and then you can do reading groups, and your aide can do math. You can always switch back and forth with reading and math as you wish. I almost always do reading and let my aide do the math, but then might do some more whole group math lessons in the afternoon (or in the morning before groups start) to make sure that my kids are getting some math instruction from me. It helps a lot!

The Original Sight Word Splat Frame

More Sight Word Splat Frames!
This summer, a teacher friend of mine is tutoring her granddaughter, who was actually in my class last year!  We were brainstorming some more ways to help her little sweetie remember the word “what,” which was "deviling" her in particular.  My friend had her watching the DVD for Sing and Spell Vol. 2, which has the “What” song on it, and also asked her granddaughter to sing her the song many times “to teach it to Grandma.”  I also suggested that she take the child outside and have her write it several times with sidewalk chalk, and maybe build the word with playdough, which always seems to help kids remember pretty well. 

A New Sight Word Splat Frame

In addition, I made up some different versions of the “Sight Word Splat” that she enjoyed coloring last year.  This is a picture of her working on them at home, and I am sharing these new masters with you today as a free download!  They are blank, so you can write the word of your choice into them and have the children trace around them next year when you have the need. 
If you remember from reading about this activity in a previous blog post, the children trace around and around a sight word many times with markers.  (It’s really just a large scale version of sight word rainbow writing.) We used highlighters to make it fun, and then later we got out some scented markers too, just for fun!  But the thing they loved the most were definitely the bright highlighters!  I’m going to watch for them when the school supplies go on sale in August.  And last year, I got my "smelly markers" free with a rebate from Office Depot when they went on sale, too.  I'll certainly be watching for that deal again!

Homework for the First Week of School!
I am experimenting with using Microsoft Word on my Mac, which is something I have really NEVER done before.  My goal is to be able to upload documents on my blog or on my website that you could actually edit easily if you use a PC and use Word, as so many people seem to do.  So today I am posting my homework sheet for the first week of school as a free download.  I am hoping that many of you will be able to download, open, and edit it on your own computers easily.  So this is a test!  If it works or doesn't work for you, I would love it if you could let me know with a comment on the blog or on my HeidiSongs Facebook page.  If it doesn't work, I don't know if we will be able to get it fixed or not, so there are no promises here, because I'm a Mac, not a PC!  (And I LOVE my Mac, and I wouldn't have it any other way!)

Questions and Answers

This week it’s been back to normal, and back to work at home on different projects!  I’ve been focusing on creating a new presentation that I will be giving for the first time at SDE’s Arkansas Kindergarten Conference on December 2, 2011.  Since the handout is due this week, the presentation itself must also be mostly finished, so I have been having some fun working on that.  In order to accomplish this task, I have been going through all of my picture and blog files, and trying to pull into one single computer folder all of my guided drawing activities that I have.  Boy, there’s a LOT of them!  Actually, I am very pleased with the way it is coming out; I think that this session will really be a FUN one!  I am going to have the participants drawing along with me, and then I’ll be showing them pictures of the children's work.  I did a little bit of guided drawing in my “Singable Books to Make and Read” session at the SDE Minnesota K Conference last week, and it was great fun!

The participants were all giggles as they drew David Shannon’s “No, David!” character along with me.  (I think they were teasing each other on how their drawings were coming out, but that only made the session a little bit more fun!)  In any case, I had a wonderful time with it, and Ithink they did, too!  By the way, you can find the directions for the “No, David” guided drawing activity here.  You can also write the words “Guided Drawing” into the “Search This Blog” box at the bottom right hand side of the screen, and find gobs of other guided drawing activities!  As I create more, I’ll be posting them on this blog.  The kids sure do enjoy them!

And here’s some news that’s pretty neat:  my blog has been nominated for Really Good Stuff's 2011 Really Good Classroom Blog Contest!   How cool is that?  I have no idea who nominated me, but to whomever it was, thanks!  I don’t have a clue what you get if you win, but I guess I’ll take it!  I love that website, and get a lot of my supplies there.  You can vote for my blog from now until July 7th by clicking on the button that says, “Vote for your favorite entry.”  Then find the K-4 entries, and you’ll see four columns of blogs that were nominated.  My blog is in the fourth column from the left at the top, called Heidisongs Resource. (I don’t know why they didn’t alphabetize them!!!!!) 

DVD’s vs. CD’s:  Which are better?
Question:  “I don’t know if I should get a CD or a DVD.  What is the difference?  Which is best in the classroom?”
Answer:  I use both, but from what I hear, most people that have a player and a good TV, a projector and screen, a Smart Board or other type of interactive white board are usually happier with a DVD.  This is because they can easily show the movements on the screen, and the kids can follow along nicely as a whole group.  They can even see the “target word” on the screen and read the lyrics as they scroll along, too!  It’s a nice set-up, and it is multisensory, so it should help children with many different learning styles.

With all the HeidiSongs DVD’s, you can start at the main menu and then decide if you want it to play the whole thing through by using your remote and selecting “Play,” or you can select a specific song to hear by selecting “Single Songs” instead.  If you select “Single Songs,” you see get a song list.  By selecting the song you want, you can skip straight to that song quickly without losing your class while you try to find the “Word of the Day” that you are trying to teach.
 

The main advantage to using a CD is that CD’s are quick and easy to use, especially if you use an iPod or other digital music player. You don’t have to spend much time navigating through a DVD menu to find your song; you just advance your CD to the correct number as it is listed on the back of the CD case.  The disadvantage, of course, is that you will need to either make up your own movements for the songs, or download my movements from the website, take the time to figure out what they mean, and practice them a little bit before you introduce the song to your class.  The other option would be to buy both the CD and the DVD, and then use the DVD to teach yourself the movements at home, for example.  Then when you are comfortable with them and you have them memorized, teach the song at school with the CD.  This of course costs more, but takes less time.  Some teachers use the DVD in class to introduce the song, and once it seems that the children have it, they switch to the CD version to save time.  These are all good ways to go about it; you just have to find the one that works for you!

Also remember, CD’s will only play music (sound files), and will play in any standard CD player like a portable "boom box", deck in a Car, or a computer.  If your computer will play other audio CD’s, it should also play our CD’s. (One exception is our Primary Plays like the Gingerbread Man.  This CD will have additional files stored in the first track as an "Enhanced CD", which you can pull off with your computer, but will play the music files as well.)

DVD's have both music and video (like the video samples you see on our website), and will play in any standard DVD player, including your computer.  If you are not sure if your computer will play a DVD, just pop one in and try it. Some older computers might need to have some player software installed to use a DVD, so you might have to check with your district's Tech Support to help if it does not play. However, you cannot put a DVD into a CD player and expect to push “play” and hear sound coming out as you would with a CD.  It's a basic format issue, so that is not going to work. 

Velcro Books:  Storage, Organization, and Weekly Routines
Question: “I have been making the velcro books to go with your sight word videos and was wondering how you stored these and what system you use with the kids in the classroom.  Do you have the books organized by volume or in alphabetical order?  Do you you have them out and available for kids to use all the time?  Do you use crates or some other system?  Do you number them in anyway?  Do you have the sight word pages from the workbook in with the velcro books?  Just wondering the best way to set thiese up in the classroom so I am sure to use them.”

Answer: I store the Velcro Books by the CD that they go with, but that works for me because I can easily recall which words go with which CD.  They are in plastic tubs and are labeled.  The children are only allowed to use them when I get them out as a center, because I find that when I leave them out continuously they tend to lose interest and they cease to stay "special."  Also, we lose more pieces that way.  I prefer to put them away at the end of the day or the couple of days that we have used them.  Then I make sure that all of the pieces are there, and then put them away.  I do not number them, but I know of others who swear by that and do recommend it.  I do not put the sight word workbook pages out with them, because we do them separately.

I do have a routine each week that I follow to make sure that I use the supplies, and I am outlining it below.  There are always exceptions, and other things that I like to “throw in there” just for fun, (like seasonal games that I talk about and give away on my blog) but this is my basic plan for the independent center table in my room.  In other words, this is what the children are doing while I am pulling small reading groups. 

Group One:  One group of children does a reading group with me.

Group Two:  This group is with my aide doing a math lesson.  Yes, I have an aide for THREE hours a day!  Before you get too jealous, remember that I have 28 students.  :(

Group Three:  Another group is at the art table doing an art activity, and is usually also with a volunteer.  Yes, we are usually quite BLESSED at my school to have a wonderful group of volunteers and culture of parental support; many parents just seem to plan on and expect to be involved in the school as volunteers.  I LOVE having them there!  (It took a while for me to get used to “being watched” when I was a new teacher, because I felt like I was teaching in a fish bowl and constantly being evaluated.  But now I really do love it!)

Group Four:  One group of children does these independent activities together at my “yellow table.”  Or, they sit down on the floor near that table to work whatever I’ve given them.  OR, for that day only, their “yellow table” activity may be going outside for a Motor Development PE activity with a volunteer.  Read below how I rotate the kids through the activities.

Here is my weekly schedule for my independent center.  (At least this is how it worked out last year!)
*  On Mondays, they play bingo, either CVC, ABC, number bingo, etc.  One of my volunteers runs this center.  If one of my Monday volunteers did not show up, I defaulted to “Plan B.”  Read below for Plan B!

*  On Tuesdays, they do one of the cloze activity Sing and Spell Worksheets, and then they practice writing their sight words and CVC words with a volunteer.
*  On Wednesdays, they do Motor Development outside with a parent volunteer every other week, and on the off weeks, they do the Velcro Books or Sight Word String Ups. 
*  On Thursdays, they do the Sing and Spell Puzzles, one of my "Bang" style games with a volunteer, or one of the Mini Sing Along Songbooks.  (My volunteer help on Wednesdays and Thursdays was sporadic last year, so what we did really depended on whether or not I had help.)  Again, If one of my volunteers did not show up, I defaulted to “Plan B.”  Read below for Plan B!
*  On Fridays, we have Book Buddies, so we don't do centers on those days.  Or, if we do centers, our Book Buddies are going from center to center and doing the activities right along with us!  That is REALLY fun, and the older kids really love it!  

Plan B:  Of course, I always also have a “Plan B!”   If a volunteer doesn’t come for some reason, I can always give the children one of the manipulatives that I have in the room, such as puzzles, magnets, plastic animals, playdough, etc.  I also keep a stack of easy, “throw-away” types of coloring pages and worksheets that I can give the kids, just to keep them busy if I need to do so in a pinch.