Learning during the Holidays

I have always been interested in how teachers incorporate (or not at all) holidays into their classrooms. Public schools are full of diversity and not all children celebrate specific holidays such as Christmas or Halloween, so crafts and activities need to be respectful of this. I recently read an article that talked about the joy that holidays can bring to a classroom, but only when done correctly. Not all children get to celebrate the holidays in their home due to financial strains, so celebrating in the classroom is a great way to allow all children to celebrate. By decorating and engaging in activities, children can build a community within their classroom. These are five of the ideas I came across:

1. Sing Carols: Instead of singing classic Christmas carols, they can be adapted. For example, the 12 days of Christmas can be altered to be the 12 days of school, in which each day is dedicated to something silly/educational/fun that a student or teacher has said before.

2. Cook Together: Cooking is a great way to enhance teamwork and collaboration in the classroom. Reading the recipe helps build comprehension and measurements allows children to work on their math skills. Children often love cooking, especially when they can eat their work after and not all children get the opportunity to do this at home.

3. Learn About Other Cultures: School classrooms are full of diversity and children are likely to have different cultures and religious beliefs. The winter months have several different cultural celebrations that students should be aware of. Lessons and activities can be adapted and structured around these cultural celebrations to encourage children to be respectful of their classmates.

4. Help Students Give: Organizing a food drive, collecting food/supplies for animal shelters, or sending handmade cards to nursing homes are thoughtful ways to help children be grateful during the holidays. Young children have difficulty understanding that not everyone has the financial stability to elaborately celebrate the holidays. Helping out and providing cheer to others is a great way to help children become aware of their communities and how to help those in need.

5. Exchange Gifts: Instead of exchanging presents, children can exchange their favorite books. Most students have at least one book, but for those who do not, there are always books that can be set aside in the classroom for this exchange. Children do not feel pressured to purchase and give a gift, but instead encourage each other to read!


http://www.onelessheadache.blogspot.com/2012/11/celebrating-holidays-in-your-classroom.html

Wishing you a Bright Holiday!

Happy holidays! During this time of year, students are busy making gifts to bring home to their parents or to decorate their home. I love this idea because I think its bright and a perfect expression of an elementary student's daily routine and colorful personality. Using a round foam piece, a piece of felt is glued to the foam and then the crayons are glued onto the felt. Every student has a box of crayons in school, so there are minimal supplies needed. The flowers can be made or purchased, or if desired, a different school object can be placed instead of the flowers. Overall, this craft helps children practice their cutting and gluing skills, which are fine motor skills, while having fun. This creative idea is respectful of diversity in regards to different cultures and religions that honor different holidays. This wreath is simply a colorful decoration that any family can display!

Creativity in Learning Disabilities

I recently researched information regarding children diagnosed with ADHD, focusing on their abilities and characteristics. The main characteristics of ADHD (inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsive) are highly correlated with creativity. Because I've been studying creativity in a class this semester and I am working towards becoming a teacher, this information was very useful. Creativity is also correlated with defocused attention and cognitive dishinibition. Because children with ADHD have a natural ability to defocus their attention, they tend to be highly creative. Children with ADHD are able to generate original and unique ideas that can be useful in problem-solving or classroom activities. I am a firm believer in cooperative learning, especially in elementary education, so I was pleased to learn how children with disabilities can contribute to general education students' learning! While researching I came across a study that grouped two general education students with a child diagnosed with ADHD. Once grouped, the children needed to build a contraption that would allow them to drop an egg from six feet and have the egg land safely, without breaking. Groups that had children with ADHD in them were more successful than groups with only general education children. This egg experiment then reminded me of a project I made in elementary school. While in school, I had to build a leprechaun trap that would allow a leprechaun to enter and then be trapped inside some type of building. This was a great project for children to use their creativity. Done individually, children with ADHD may excel, but if completed in diverse groups, all types of learners would benefit. Simple, engaging projects such as these were great examples of cooperative learning that aid in the development of a child's creativity!

Lighten up

Throughout a typical day, there are always children who need constant reminders to remain in their seat, focus, work together, use "inside voices", and so on. Instead of punishing these children for the little quirks that make them unique, or repeatedly speaking to them, this is a great way to contribute to the entire classroom. Every time a child is spoken to for misbehaving or performing one of the above mentioned behaviors, they simply would pick a piece of paper from this jar. Inside of the jar, on each slip of paper, is a different task that they would need to complete before the end of the day. Each slip of paper contains a task regarding performing a polite duty within the classroom, such as handing back papers for the teacher, complimenting a classmate, helping another student clean up, and so forth. Because the child is not actually being punished, simply helping out and contributing to the environment of the classroom, the entire class learns to help each other out. Instead of always yelling at a student for small disruptions (especially ones that some students have difficulty controlling), this idea allows them to chose from this jar of deeds which helps them remember what behaviors they did that were undesired and shape positive behaviors. All together I think this is a positive way to help children learn manners, be polite, and build a positive classroom environment that encourages learning for all.

Fingerprint Stories

This is a great writing prompt for children to use when writing stories. They can learn about bibliographies or simply creative writing skills using this technique. The children would each place their thumb on an ink pad and transfer their fingerprint onto a piece of paper. Because a child's fingerprint will be too small to use as a guide for the writing, the fingerprint on the paper can be scanned and enlarged. The new enlarged fingerprint can then either be used directly or placed underneath another sheet of paper for the children to use as a guide. From there, they would create a story, either about themselves or a creative writing piece, and write following the grooves and curves of the fingerprint. In the end, the story would be just as unique as each individual child's fingerprint.

Look Inside

Perfect gift/scrapbook idea for children to express their creativity. Trace the silhouette of the child on white paper, cut it out, and glue it onto black paper. From there, the student can collage! Decorated with anything from magazines, to wrappers, pictures of their family, friends, pets, school awards, etc. The students get to explore their creative side and express their hobbies and feelings through collage. This idea can be done at any age and might be interesting to be done at different grades to later look at the variation in creativity over the academic lifespan. 

Counting pumpkins

 In spirit of Halloween, the students carved pumpkins! They were divided into groups and each group was provided with a pumpkin. Once the pumpkin was opened, the students had to take out all of the seeds and count them. Most students are consistent when counting by 1's, but when asked to count by 5's or 10's, some struggle. For those that are consistent, they are able to help their classmates, but as a group the students have to place the seeds in piles of five or ten, depending on the number assigned to them. Once all the seeds are divided into the piles, the students have to work together to count the total number of seeds in their pumpkin, counting either by 5's or 10's. This is a great way for students to work as a team while working on their math skills. For students who are consistent, it is great review, and for those who struggle it is an easy, non-pressured way of learning. The students are then able to carve the pumpkins and display them for Halloween!

 

Fingerprint Unity

October is National Bully Prevention and Awareness month. Children are the victims of bullying nearly every day. Both in school, in the home, and in the community of peers, children suffer from acts and words that are hurtful and harm their self-esteem. Children who are bullied at school are fearful of the school community and do not feel safe attending school. This should not happen. Schools are a place where children should always feel safe and welcomed, regardless of age, gender, race, or culture. In support of Bully Prevention and Awareness, this idea can be used in the classroom to make a pact against bullying. A lesson can be constructed around bullying and incorporate this activity. On a piece of paper with a large tree on it, each student would put their fingerprint on the tree. The fingerprints could be a variety of colors and placed on the branches to mimic leaves. Upon placing their fingerprint on the tree, the students would be told that by doing so, they would be agreeing to make a pact against bullying. Forming together and creating a friendship tree, the students would gain a sense of unity. The completed tree could be framed and placed in the classroom, where students will always be reminded to refrain from bullying and stay united as friends.

Creativity beyond sight

“Most people see what is, and never see what can be.”
Albert Einstein

In the book, Creativity 101 by James C. Kaufman, he explains different levels of creativity that people can have. Of the four levels, one of them is called "mini-c" which is your beginning level of creativity. In the classroom, children normally present this "mini-c" level of creativity, yet if their expressions are put forth in a way that is interpreted as distracting or not useful, it is often discouraged. Because creativity may develop out of context, the classroom should be an environment or domain that welcomes creative thoughts and expressions. Children should never be discouraged from presenting ideas, even if they appear bizarre because discouraging creativity may alter the expression of children. It can never be determined whether or not a child's idea may later become a new invention or a new approach to art, music, singing, etc. so these "mini-c" moments need to be credited. When there is time permitting during the day, in between lessons or during recess or snack, children should be encouraged to explore their thoughts and let them wander. During this time especially, teachers should allow children to have defocused attention, which might create these "mini-c" ideas. 

The "key" to success

Writing prompts are always difficult for children, especially when giving the task to think of an idea and create a story. Even as a college student, this is a difficult task. Students sit there pondering what they should write about and often try to produce a piece of work that is thought to be what the teacher wants. Instead of encouraging children to step back and let their mind wander until an idea comes to them, we too often focus on getting the work done. In class one day, we were given a blank sheet of paper and asked to draw a picture. Of course, no one knew what to draw until our professor created a story that we listened to and then left us to put on paper what we "saw" in our minds. This is a great way to create writing prompts for students, especially when introducing creative writing or story-telling lessons. To accommodate for an elementary level, students would receive a piece of white paper with a blank keyhole, similar to the picture. The teacher would then tell a story to the students and drop the story off by the children looking through the keyhole. The stories could be centered around a certain topic or simply fantasy. This allows the children's minds to wander. The children would then draw what they saw on the other side of the keyhole and use it as a reference for creating their own short stories.

*Special thanks to Dr. Specht!!

Tattling is always better when it's told to the President

I once did fieldwork in an inner-city preschool, full of eager, energetic young children. These children came from diverse backgrounds, families, and living arrangements, yet this made my experience that much better. These children always had something new to bring to the classroom and I always anticipated hearing what they had to say. In a classroom full of 30 three and four year old children, the noise level was mainly created by the constant tattling. Because the tattling became so repetitive and was often typical, "he said, she said" tattles, the teacher had to come up with an idea to control this problem. Instead of telling the children that their tattles were not important, she hung up a picture of the President on a wall in the back of the classroom. Every time the children had to tattle on someone for saying or doing something inappropriate, they had to tell their tattle to the President. When children forgot this rule, she reminded them that what they were telling her was just too important to not share with the President. So there stood children, talking to the "President", telling them their small problems. To me, this was creative. The teacher had to control this problem and now encouraged children to think through what they were telling the President. The children didn't want to just tell him any little tattle, they now had to think what was worth tattling on others for. This idea made children aware of their thoughts and their impressions of others in the classroom. Through this solution, not only did the children develop their cognitive thinking, they became aware of who the President was and that he holds a very important position.

Does everyone have their pencils?

Think of how many times throughout the school day you look for a pencil, use a pencil, or hear a teacher say, "Take out a pencil....Pencils down". Now imagine collecting a pencil for every time one was incorporated into your day. With all of the pencils you collect, you could make this interesting piece of art! As shown here, the pencils can be arranged in a "starburst"-like fashion with a mirror placed in the center. To get in the theme of fall, students could attach different leaves to the pencils and then place a picture of themselves playing outside in the the leaves, on a hike, etc. This is an easy, yet creative way to use classroom supplies to make artwork. Students could bring this home and hang it as a wreath on their doors, as could the teacher, to always keep a learning atmosphere lingering!

Unusual Uses for a Paperclip

I just had to share this because of the activity we did in class the other day. To test our own creativity, we completed the Unusual Uses test for a paperclip. As everyone knows and has once experienced in their school days, binders always break, fall apart, get stuffed too full, etc. This use for a paperclip is perfect! Teachers always have paperclips, a hole puncher, and rubber bands laying around inside their desk, so what better way to put them to use, instead of throwing them away? Students are able to create this "binder" all on their own, simply by punching holes in their papers, stringing a rubber band through the holes and onto a paperclip. Not only does this conservative idea make a binder, it also helps kids build their fine-motor skills by  making them use the pincer grasp!

The power of puzzles

 

With the beginning of a new school year comes many firsts for children. They meet new friends, build their social circle, discover new abilities and of course, learn. But before students of any age can comfortably open up to new people and classroom ideas, they need to be accustomed to their surroundings. The "puzzle piece classroom" is an intriguing way for students to express their emotions and personality without simply speaking in front of the class and introducing themselves. This idea can be used as an "ice-breaker" or as I find more useful, as a way to instill the idea of teamwork within the class. This idea can be incorporated into any age classroom and encourages self expression and exploration of classmates. Each student is given a puzzle piece that they are able to design any way they desire. Each piece represents a member of the classroom, their ideas, interests, culture, and hobbies. As a whole, the class must assemble the puzzle. They learn to work as a team from the very beginning and quickly realize that without a single piece to the puzzle, it cannot be completed. The same concept applies to the classroom; without a student, the classroom cannot flourish or proceed together.