HeidiSongs Teaching Resource

What can you do to help children learn to listen to a lesson without interrupting?  How can you give a lesson without allowing children to continually blurt out comments and chat with each other?  This is a question that is asked of me from time to time, and a scenario that my former student teachers and university field work students have often struggled with.  Today I will give you suggestions and ideas to help you train your students to listen quietly through a lesson, which should to allow you to teach with a minimum amount of interruptions!  Sometimes, getting your class to this point can be a lot of work, but it is certainly worth the effort. Here is a recent question regarding classroom interruptions, etc., and the answer that I wrote for her.   I hope you will find it helpful! “We’ve been loving using your materials since last school year. Maika is officially in Kindergarten this year and I still homeschool him.  We are in a co-op once a week and I often have a h

Every now and then, people ask me to post my schedule for full day or half day Kindergarten.  I also get questions about our schedule for easing Kindergartners into the full day.  So for those that are interested, I have posted my schedules for half day, extended day, and full day Kindergarten.  Of course, there are interruptions here and there on certain days when we go to the library or the computer lab, but the basics are below. And by the way, our new Classroom Management Songs DVD is DONE!  But more on that next week.  If you would like to see some video clips from it, please click here .   ***UPDATE SEPT 29*** Our Classroom Management DVD has been updated! The same great songs with NEW animation! The video below is from the new DVD! Easing Children Into the Full Day Some of you may remember that my school district employs the wonderful practice of “easing” our little ones into the full day of school. This means that we transition the children gently from a hal

Doing guided reading with emergent readers (children that are not yet really reading) is not hard once you have a few tricks up your sleeve.  I have always done guided reading groups in Kindergarten, whether or not my students were able to actually "read" in the technical sense.  There are many vital skills that emergent readers can learn from a lesson in guided reading, too!  You are probably already doing many of these things with your students already, and just didn't know that these things could actually fall under the umbrella of a guided reading lesson. The first thing to do is to find a set of books that are predictable and easy to read, and use those for your lesson.   What you really want your students to do is to go through the motions of being readers, even though they are really just pretending. Many of these books can be printed off the internet without purchasing a thing, just like the one in the picture below.  You can download that one here. This

Do you have an iPad in your classroom?  Are you wondering how you can make use of it when there is only one device for all of your students to share?  Well, never fear, I have tons of ideas for you right here, and a "Rules for the iPad" free download, too!  And for those of you that may be new to my blog, this post focuses on using the iPad in the young children's classroom, such as Pre-K, Kindergarten, First Grade, etc. Before you get started using the iPad in any manner, make your expectations on how to use the device clear.  Here are my rules for the iPad. Rules for the iPad: Carry the iPad with two hands. Sit down while using the iPad. Hold the iPad from the base, not the cover. No banging, slamming, or hitting the iPad. Share nicely and stop when your turn is over. I made a poster for the rules with picture cues to help the children, and I am sharing it with you here today!  Click here to download it in two sizes; one is 8.5 x 11″ and the other is po