A New Year of Inspiration

It's New Years Eve and I've really been reflecting on 2015; what was great, good and what needs to take a turn in 2016.

In May when I finished the final testing on my students from last school year, I had a student who made the greatest improvement of my career.  It was exhilarating and I was so proud of his accomplishments.  What felt even better is that he was proud of himself and has continued this school year making great gains and loving to read and learn at home (Another plus is I got to be close to his parents and have continued to touch base with them.  I love when that happens!)

I took the summer to really rejuvenate myself and have set up boundaries this school year so that I'm leaving at a decent time and taking time for myself in the evenings so I am not stressing myself out as much as in the past.  I've also started this blog- I love sharing ideas and different tips I've learned so that help other educators or readers that work with young minds.

As I think about next year, I really want to start blogging more regularly.  I have a goal to finish big projects I've started in my room and get a new behavior system up and running in the next couple weeks.

A very dear friend gave me this wonderful book for Christmas:  The 52 List Project by Moorea Seal.  It's a book to help guide an inspire your life.  I plan on making this a weekly session where I take time for myself to go through the book and see where this book helps me end up at the end of 2016.

Cheers to getting inspired and living your best life yet!  

Keep things simple but change it up for the holidays!

I'm a teacher that likes to keep routine.  I want to change things up for the holidays, but still keep things as calm as possible before the excitement of the holidays takes over and the kids are crazy.  :)  

Here are some ideas for keeping centers in order but adding some merry to them:  

-  Making Words:  use a holiday word and have the kids come up with as many words as they can from that word or phrase.  Example:  holiday or holiday cheer; words made:  day, dial, deer etc.

-  Comprehension:  reading passages that relate to different celebrations or activities this time of year.  Reading A-Z and some TPT accounts have ready-made books/passages you can use! Chose, print and done!

-  Writing:  Chose a picture of kids decorating a tree or playing dreidel.  Students have to create a story 4-6 sentences long with that picture.  

-Poetry:  Pick poems that incorporate the holiday season.  I have activities like a cut and past "Who Is It? (Santa) page that we add to our day and making a foldable book.  

-  Holiday Scoot:  Scoot games are really popular right now with many being available on TPT.  I've printed off 3 that are related to the standards I'm covering and will change them out each week this month.  Sellers have added holiday pictures :)  

-Holiday music in the background:  I pop on Pandora and type in Christmas music- walaa!  Instant holiday feel and the music is calm so the kids feel "homey" and continue to work hard.  

So far, I have noticed that the kids are enjoying the center activities and our routine is still intact.  The week before our break is a little nutty with outside the room activities so we change things up that week as far as turning center time into whole class activities or seat work to complete parent gifts etc.  As long as the kids are engaged- it works!  

Happy Holidays,