Teachers on Holiday Break!

Welcome to BREAK!  U did it!  Teachers bring so much joy to their students during the holiday season.  When I walked down the halls this week,  I saw carefully planned holiday bulletin boards displaying your student's smiling faces & their artwork.  As I visited your rooms, I saw elves, crafts, holiday stories and treats.  Teachers dressed as reindeer & even Santa made a visit.  

I just wanted to take a moment and say- THANK YOU!  What you do in a normal week for students is amazing, what you do the week before Christmas is ABOVE and BEYOND. 

If anyone scoffs at your holiday break time, I want you to share this video from Haley Cuffman with them.   

If you decide to do a little shopping over break don't forget about these discounts just for TEACHERS!
Thank you Static Parade for putting them together!

Ideas for relaxing over break!
1. Make homemade hot cocoa and snuggle up with a good book! Click image for a recipe from Living Well!

2. Make a chunky hand knitted blanket for you or as a gift!  From Instructable.com

3. Start the 30 Day Yoga Journey with Adriene!  

Sign up for 30 days of FREE YOGA!

4. Download the CALM app!

5. Random Acts of Kindness

6. Read some new BLOGS!

7. Check out FREE Events around Mooresville! 

8. Binge watch a new series on Netflix!  Click the image to read a list of must-see shows!

9. Create a self-care box for the NEW YEAR!  Click below to check out some ideas from Anatoli Wellness!

10. Just hug a family member or a friend-its good for your body & mind!  Click the image to read more from The Healthy!

Enjoy your much-deserved break!  See you in 2020!

Working Memory

Let's head back into the world of Executive Function! 

Grab this FREE poster from Pathways 2 Success!

This week on the blog, I wanted to share some activities that support Working Memory. 

What is Working Memory?
Working memory is a cognitive system with a limited capacity that is responsible for temporarily holding information available for processing. Working memory is important for reasoning and the guidance of decision-making and behavior.

Check out this blogpost from The OT Workshop!

Check out this TedTalk by Peter Dolittle, How your "working memory" makes sense of the world. 

Working Memory Tips & Games

Check out this blogpost from Meraki Lane, it is filled with tips and games to support working memory. 

I love this activity for supporting working memory from Ms Gardenia!  Having students recreate patterns that are flashed on an iPad screen.  This would be a simple activity to do with the smartboard in the classroom.

Here is a freebie from Teachers Pay Teachers!  It is a playoff of the oldie but goodie Simon Says.  

Monster Says-Thank you Samantha B!

You can totally get some math in along with working memory! Thank you Games for Gains!

Handwriting and the Brain

Handwriting and the brain...some say handwriting is a lost art. If handwriting is a lost art,  we are losing a valuable skill that is GOOD for our BRAINS!

Handwriting does more for us than just allow us to communicate with each other.  Handwriting fully engages your brain by using motor skills.  Cursive handwriting especially stimulates both sides of your brain because of the loopy strokes-crossing the midline!

Check out this video on Brain Balancing exercises to support reading and writing!  This is a perfect brain break or just add it to your writing center for a warm-up!

This video is AMAZING!  It talks about motor memory and the brain using lazy eights.  The really neat part is the connection to how the lazy eights support lowercase letter formation! 

 I love this article from Red Booth about the benefits of handwriting and memory!  Click below to visit the site and read. 

Knowing this information now, getting pencils into our kiddo's hands as often as possible is super important for the transfer of new information in the brain.  

Mini-lessons and large group reading of text are great opportunities to get pencils into your student's hands.  

• Bring wipe boards to the carpet to have them record their visualizations.
• Provide double-entry journals for students to record their thinking.
• Provide graphic organizers for students to record their thinking.
• Pose open-ended questions during the story for students to write short answers to and then turn and talk with a partner.

Center time is another fantastic time for students to write. Add this music to your classroom center time to activate your student's brains to 100%.  I listened to this while writing this and it was amazing how focused I felt!  

• Authentic Writing can be as simple as journal writing or provide prompts for students to write about. 
• Making lists
• Graphic Organizers
• Beginning research projects
• Writing Letters

Independent Reading time is also a perfect place to add in writing.   

• Provide post-it notes for students to record their thinking. 
• Add graphic organizers
• Use questions from the F & P Prompting Guide for students to answer. 
• Provide students with reading journals
• Ask students to create a sales ad for their book (Persuasive Writing)

Discover Words is also a perfect place for students to extend their words in narrative stories or use their vocabulary in sentences. 

Don't forget our handwriting binder that can be used during enhancement or during a center. It is located on the PVES Info Site under Enhancement Resources. 

My big take away from this post is students are doing MORE than just writing when they pick up a pencil.  They are activating their brain and we all know when a brain has activated the transfer of new information to the hippocampus is faster and stronger!