A Tribute to Sandy Hook Elementary School Students and Staff



Twas' 11 days before Christmas, around 9:38,
When 20 beautiful children stormed through heaven's gate.

Their smiles were contagious, their laughter filled the air,
They could hardly believe all the beauty they saw there!

They were filled with such joy, they didn't know what to say.
They remembered nothing of what had happened earlier that day.

"Where are we?" asked a little girl, as quiet as a mouse. 
"This is heaven." declared a small boy. "We're spending Christmas at God's house."

When what to their wondering eyes did appear, 
But Jesus, their savior, the children gathered near.

He looked at them and smiled, and they smiled just the same. 
Then He opened His arms and He called them by name.

And in that moment was joy, that only heaven can bring!
Those children all flew into the arms of their King!

And as they lingered in the warmth of His embrace, 
One small girl turned and looked at Jesus' face.

And as if He could read all the questions she had,
 He gently whispered to her, "I'll take care of mom and dad."

Then He looked down on earth at the world far below,
He saw all of the hurt, the sorrow, and woe.

Then He closed His eyes and He outstretched His hand,
"Let My power and presence re-enter this land!"

"May this country be delivered from the hands of fools!" 
"I'm taking back my nation. I'm taking back my schools!"

Then He and the children stood up without a sound. 
"Come now my children, let me show you around."

Excitement filled the space, some skipped and some ran,
All displaying enthusiasm that only a small child can.

And I heard Him proclaim as He walked out of sight, 
"In the midst of this darkness, I AM STILL THE LIGHT."

Written by Cameo Smith of Mt. Wolf, PA.






This beautiful poem and drawing was forwarded to me by my wonderful Mother-in-Law, Barbara Butkus.  I have no idea who the author, Cameo Smith is, or how to contact him, but I am assuming that he meant this beautiful message to be shared.

The tragic events of the past week have left me shaken and a bit uneasy for the future of the children and teachers in our schools all over the nation.  My heart is broken for the families that have had the unthinkable happen to them, and my prayers are with you every day as you walk the long road to healing.  May God be with you and comfort you every step of the way.




Below are links and resources that were forwarded to me in an email by the California Kindergarten Association.  I thought that they might be helpful to some of you.

Direct contributions may be sent to:
Sandy Hook School Support Fund
C/O Newtown Savings Bank
39 Main Street, Newtown CT 06470

Newtown Youth and Family Services, a nonprofit mental health clinic, that provides emergency counseling for families.  All donations made to the organization will benefit those affected.  https://newtown.uwwesternct.org/

Newtown Parent Connection, a nonprofit that addresses issues of substance abuse and offers bereavement group counseling. 
http://www.newtownparentconnection.org/




(The following was printed in the December 15th issue of the Sacramento Bee.)

Here are some online sites by educators that offer advice and support that may be helpful to discuss the shooting with children.
Responding to Tragedy:  Information from Sacramento City Unified.  www.scusd.edu/responding-tragedy
Talking to Your Kids About Violence:  Tips from the National Association of School Psychologists.  http://www.wjusd.org/parents
Resources for coping with tragedy.  www.cde.ca.gov/ls/ss/cp/tragedy.asp
Coping with School Violence.  www.PTA.org/SchoolViolence

-----------------
Please join me next week as I return to my normal posts with educational ideas for Pre-K, Kindergarten, and First Grade teachers.  Thank you!
Heidi
www.heidisongs.com


Popular posts from this blog

How to Help Children That Have a Hard Time Learning the Alphabet

Image
Is your child (or student) having a hard time learning the alphabet?  Are those letters just not "sticking?" Does your child seem to know a letter one day, and then forgets it the next day- or even just a few minutes later? In this post, I will share my most recently developed techniques for helping kids learn and remember the alphabet. Check Vision- Thoroughly! During the past 30 years as a teacher, I have tried many things for all of the different types of learners that I’ve had. One thing that I would highly suggest is that you have your child's eyes checked, just in case you have not yet done that. I know that most schools have their school nurses do this, but I would suggest that a nurse is really not an optometrist, nor is he/she an ophthalmologist. I wrote about one little guy with vision issues in my post, Tips for Teaching the Alphabet to Struggling Learners . In that post, I shared that I had been teaching one child that had had such a difficul...
Read more

Combining Holiday Traditions Around the World & STEM!

Image
Have you ever thought about combining your social studies topics with science or STEM projects?  Well, that is what I have been trying to do this year, and in this post I am going to tell you about a few of the ideas I have for December!  We won't have time to do them all, but I wanted to just throw them out there so that if any of you want to try them, you'll have time to make it happen. Sound interesting?  Read on to find out more! It turns out that giving STEM projects "a theme" really isn't that hard; it's really a matter of thinking creatively as you plan them and giving them a different name than you might have otherwise.   So this is my method.  I start browsing around on Pinterest and online to see if I can find a fun STEM project that catches my eye. I search under terms related to that holiday or event.  For example, for December I searched under STEM or science and then added some keywords like tree, sled, snow, candle, etc.   ...
Read more

Getting Control of a Very Difficult Class: TAKE TWO

Image
Have you ever had a class that just tried your patience day after day? Have you ever felt like you could walk away from teaching forever tomorrow, and be fine with it?  This is a repost of a piece that I wrote several years ago when I was teaching Kindergarten.  I'm now in second grade, and finding that I have many of the same problems!  Since I actually went back and read my own post again, I thought I would post it here for you again, too, with a few of my updated comments inserted in italics.  Hope it's helpful! This is the original post. ********** This year, I have one of the most challenging classes I have ever had. I am still working on training them to do what I want them to do, but I know that in the end, I will win! Meanwhile, we are spending a LOT of time on classroom management, modeling routines and procedures often. Here is a list of some classroom management tips and techniques that I have used successfully in Kindergarten, but I think that they...
Read more

Teaching Kids to WRITE the Numbers! – FREE Number Poems!

Image
Teaching children to write the numbers  correctly can be very frustrating for early childhood teachers! Also, attempting to GRADE their writing can be equally TRICKY! What does a number written correctly look like, versus one that is not?  In this post, I am going to tell you how I teach my students to write the numbers. I’ve posted some examples of student work showing numbers that look correct and some that are not, in my opinion.  I explain under the photos why certain numbers “would pass” or not.  I also have some FREE number formation poems to share with you, plus a FREE download of a parent guide that explains what those correctly formed numbers should look like- and the incorrect ones! So it seems that every year, getting the children to write those numbers can be something like pulling teeth: it comes slowly, and getting them to just “CARE” seems to be half the battle!  Perhaps the reason for this is that we know that the m...
Read more

20 Hands-On Ways to Build a Sight Word, (And Research to Back it Up!)

Image
Today I am pleased to share TWENTY great ideas for building the sight words to help kids learn them in a hands-on way!  Making sight words (AKA high frequency words) in lots of different ways allows kids to choose their best learning modality and really take charge of their own learning. I'm super excited about this way of teaching, and I hope you will be, too! When my teammate and I do this, we focus on just ONE of the trickier sight words per week and have the kids BUILD JUST THAT ONE WORD over and over again in many ways.   If there happens to be a parent volunteer at that center, they are to ask the children to spell it and tell what the word is often. This is what our Sight Word Building Table looks like.  We put out a variety of choices, and the children can change seats each time they finish to keep building the word.  If there happens to be a volunteer, she ask them what word they are working on and to spell it, and will hand them a differen...
Read more

An EASY Critical Thinking Game for K/1 Kids!

Image
Today I'm going to tell you about a fun and EASY game to help boost critical thinking skills in Kindergarten or First Graders!  I call it The Critical Thinking Comparison Game, because in it, the kids are simply comparing one thing to another and telling what they think are the similarities and differences between two objects.  Believe it or not, my first graders LOVE this game and often ask me if we can play it again!  I think they like it because the game makes them feel successful and "smart."  I have also played it with Kindergartners, and they enjoyed it, too! The Critical Thinking Comparison Game is really very easy to play!  All you need is a few questions like the ones below, and something for the children to color, just to keep them busy while they wait for a turn to talk.   ( I also used my Critical Thinking Comparison Cards as a visual aid, but you can certainly play it without them! ) Here is the type of question that I ask ...
Read more

Pete the Cat Saves Christmas Freebies and Book Review!

Image
Hello, and and happy holidays!  Here is my latest holiday offering for all of you fans of Pete the Cat.  I have THREE FREE DOWNLOADS for you! These include a color by number worksheet that is printable in two different levels, a word family worksheet, and a little “Pete’s Christmas” easy reader, too!  I hope you enjoy them, because they took some time to create. If you have not yet read this newest book in the Pete the Cat series, you will not be disappointed!  However, it’s not the usual Pete the Cat fare offered up by the author, Eric Litwin.  In my opinion, the previous Pete the Cat books were popular with young children probably for their simplicity, repetitive patterns, surprise endings, up-beat messages, and fun illustrations.  This Pete the Cat book is different, but equally good. The text of the book is written to mimic the Night Before Christmas poem by Clement C. Moore.  It includes only one short repetitive ref...
Read more

A Twist on the Headband Game!

Image
Here’s a fun, new, twist on the classic Headband Game that makes it reusable and adaptable to any subject and any level!  AND it gets the kids up and moving as they learn, so that’s an even greater bonus!!!!  This awesome idea was suggested by a participant in one of my workshops when I presented the Sight Word Headband Game and wondered aloud how to make this adaptable to kids in higher grades that learn their new words much more quickly.  So I tried it out myself, and voilá!  It worked out great!  My own class has done this now a few times and they LOVE it! So here is how it works; I’ll remind you of the my original version first.  With the original  Sight Word Headband Game , I wrote a word on a strip of paper and formed it into a headband.  The kids all put one on, and then walked around the room and wrote the words that they found on their friends’ heads next to their friends’ names on a sheet of paper. Now with this ...
Read more

Sounding Out and Making New Words with the New Sounds Fun Word Building Kit!

Image
  A child uses the Sounds Fun Word Building Kit to make a word and write it. I've been waiting a long time for this kit, and I am super excited to be able to share it with you now!  I put this project on my wonderful husbands (very long) "to do list" a few months ago, and it finally made its way to the top of the list.  So I now finally have my wonderful Sounds Fun Word Building Kit!   I'm only sorry that there is so little time left in the year to make use of it.   Children needed very little coaching to figure out that if they simply changed a beginning or ending sound, they could make an entirely new word with very little effort! The Sounds Fun Word Building Kit gives children a way to practice building, writing, sounding out, and reading words with the Sounds Fun Phonics spelling patterns.  To use the kit, all you need to do is make copies of the alphabet cards and the Sounds Fun Word Building Kit cards necessary for the word familie...
Read more

Teaching Phoneme Segmentation: Separating Sounds in Words (Freebies!)

Image
Teaching children to pick out all of the phonemes (or sounds) in a given word can be tricky!  This requires good listening skills and well developed phonemic awareness in general.  For some children, mastering phoneme segmentation can seem just about impossible!  Here are some teaching tips that have worked for me in the past. *  The best advice I can give is to practice segmenting words with a designated MOTION for a short time every single day with your whole class.  Even just one or two minutes per day will help! Look for suggested motions on this post. There is also a downloadable list of words to use, plus a homework sheet that you can download here. Here is where you can get another  word list for practicing words with two, three, and four phonemes. And here is another post with lists of words with four, five, or six phonemes. *  Give kids beads to slide down a pipe cleaner as they segment the wo...
Read more