SEL Resources

Hi All! I hope you all had a much needed and relaxing day off.  This school year has been more than a challenge with academics and data.  We need to be looking at our students in all areas.  That includes their social emotional learning, in fact, that needs to be a top priority.  Without it, the academic stuff will never stick.  

I know we have breakfast in the classroom and our busses are late but I encourage you to work to get as much morning meeting time in with your kiddos.  They NEED that time. 

You do not have to wait until every students is done eating before you start morning meeting.  They can also join in when they get in from the buses.  They need time to share and connect with you and each other every morning.  School is a safe place for so many of our students.   

This week on the blog, I thought I would share some resources for Social Emotional Learning.  

What is Social Emotional learning?  It is the ability to understand & manage emotions, set and achieve goals, feel and show empathy for others & build relationships. All of these skills can be supported in the classroom through morning meeting, books, games, and social stories. 

We know our students will hear about the events that happened at the high school and we need to be prepared to listen and support them as they go through this difficult time.  

I know we have been using our SEL Slides this year but I wanted to share some more resources to help support you! 

I love this video and how it explains the importance of SEL in school, work and life!

Think about your class and your past classes.  Look over this poster.  Many of the "behaviors" that we see in our classrooms stem from poor Social Emotional Skills. 

Don't forget that we have tons of social stories pre recorded on our Park View Info site!  

Identifying the behavior and finding the social emotional skill/story that supports it will allow you to plan out a systematic way to address the behavior and provide support to the student. 

Love this list of SEL books!  There are so many good ones to add to your morning meeting or interactive read aloud! Click the image to head to Nourishing my Scholar and read about each of the books.  

During your morning meetings, don't forget about those morning check ins!   Here is a simple way to check in with your kiddos from Playful in Primary!

The Pathway to Success is filled with 25 ways to support social emotional learning in your classroom!!!!  So many goodies!  Love the journaling, the breathing cards & the focus on positive self talk. Click the image! 

Spend some time watching this video and making connections to executive function. Listening to these kiddos is sooooo powerful! Edutopia did it again! 

For those of you that participated in our Conscious Discipline book study,  I love the Brain Smart Start!  The focus on being safe and disengaging stress through breathing is so powerful! 

Setting up a safe spot in your classroom can be super helpful to students struggling with Social Emotional Learning.  I love how this post has a goal of leading the students back to the class. 

So, as you begin to think about plans for next week, be sure that you are thinking about SEL and what you can do to support all our students.  Thank you in advance for everything that you do and will do for our students!  

Opinion Writing

Hi All!  Happy November!   I can't believe we are already a week into the month. I know we have had discussions in PLC this past week about writing and how we can get some explicit instruction in the writing process. 

I thought it would be helpful to provide you with some resources to support writing in the classroom for Opinion Writing! 

Kinder: Shared Writing: Create a list of ways in which a family member takes care of them or they care of a family member.  

Create a big book with one page per child.  Each child finishes the sentence that you wrote on the page. “I like to ___ with my family(or family member). The child illustrates the page and write the word to fill in the blank.

First: W.1 Opinion: In your opinion what makes you special and unique?

Second: W.1 Opinion:  Write an opinion piece about  a component of this text set.

Third: W.1 Opinion: After reading the books in this text set, write an opinion piece telling which book is your favorite and why.

Resources for Opinion Writing!

Begin by introducing Fact or Opinion

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Once students have an understanding of what an opinion is they can begin to develop writing ideas that support their opinions about different topics. 

I LOVE these videos all about opinion writing!  These will be super helpful in breaking down the process for students. 

This anchor chart is helpful in allowing students to see the structure required for this type of writing. 

Sheets & Prompts to practice with!

  

This blogpost is filled with text that help to teach opinion writing through picture books. Head over to We Are Teachers to see their list too! 

Be sure to grab the FREE sheets that go along with this one! 

Love this text too especially because it is on EPIC Books!

Your kiddos will be totally engaged in this writing activity!

Hope these resources are helpful!  Know that during your content block, you can teach to this writing genre but center it around a topic related to Science or Social Studies. 

Teaching Gratitude

I can't BELIVE it is November!!!!!  When I was thinking about what I wanted to blog about this week GRATITUDE kept popping into my head.  First, I am so grateful for all of you and what you have done for our students & each other this school year. It hasn't been easy but we have made it this far supporting each other! 

This month, let's make it a conscious effort to model Gratitude for our students. One way to shake yourself out of a funk is to think about what you are THANKFUL FOR.   

This video says it all.  You all are doing more than you will ever know for our students but also for each other.  You are what makes Park View a special place.  Do we have bumps in the road?  Yes, but deep down our Patriot Family is one of a kind!  Kids know this too!

 Here is a book list of books that help teach Gratitude!  

Here are some videos that support Gratitude!

This book, The Gratitude Jar above is awesome!  The 2nd reason for the Gratitude Jar is spot on! 

This Google Slide Show activity would work perfectly with it!  Or have students create their own out of small jars!

Love these activity sheets to support Gratitude in your classroom!

 

 

*How fun is this Gratitude Journal?

Check out this blog all about Gratitude Rocks!

I love the idea of making a Gratitude Garden of all the rocks that the students create!

These Gratitude Pumpkins would be such great visuals for our students in the classroom! *Plus, you can probably get them for a great price or even FREE after Halloween! 

More great ideas to bring gratitude to your classroom!

This Gratitude Scavenger Hunt would be a great way to get the kiddos up and moving!

Here is a simple Gratitude Game!

Thank you again for all that you do! 

 

This past week in PLC we discussed adding in more nonfiction text to support out F & P text sets and our Science and Social Studies. This Quarter, we will be jumping into Text Feature and Text Structure so I thought touching back on this topic wold be helpful.  

 

One of my very favorite strategies that supports text features & structure is text mapping!  It is a visual way for students see how information is organized.  It allows them to see the flow of the text and reinforces vocabulary & text features.   

Text Mapping can be used to teach Reading Comprehension, Writing skills, Study Skills and Course Content. The text is presented on scrolls and the mapping that the students will do is explicit based off of teacher modeling. 

• The text will be shown as a whole.
• Students will have random access to all parts of the text all at once. 
• Student will use concrete, multi-sensory thinking skills to manage abstract thinking tasks 

Text mapping teaches students to be strategic thinkers and active readers through the following:

• Text mapping & the scrolls force students to move forced  They will walk back and forth along the length of the scrolled text.  Reading becomes a physical, as well as mental activity.  (I LOVE THIS!)
• The marking of the text can simply be done using pencils, pens, colored markers, highlighters, etc. This act forces students to physically interact with the text.  This process of marking forces students to think and to make decisions.

Tips: 

• Choose a text that connects to a fiction story from your mini-lessons. 
• Color code the text features.
• Allow them to record what they discovered. 
• Model, model, model!
• Display their work!

Here are some of my favorite videos:)  

This is a great blog about text mapping!

CHECK this OUT from the Creative Core!

Text mapping is such a fantastic way to get students reading closely with a text! 

Fall BREAK FUN!

Welcome to Fall Break!  I hope you all have some relaxing and fun activities planned!  You absolutely deserve every second of this break.  I am so very proud of the work you have done so far this school year and our students are going to GROW like crazy! 

BUT...this is your time now!  This post is for you!  Lots of ideas for relaxing and enjoying the Fall season!

Know that you are appreciated!  BIG Time!

So let's start with a craft!  I am totally making these!!!! How adorable would these be around your house???? Click the picture to find the directions. 

And a little self-care...A pumpkin face mask! Grab the recipe over at at Jenni Raincloud.  

Fall Family Bucket List!  I love all these ideas for fun with the whole family! Click it for a printable version. 

Or a bowl of warm SOUP!  This is a Schroeder Family Favorite!  It doesn't take many ingredients but it is sooo yummy with some cheese and bread! Lily has already made it for her roommates!  (I use half spicy and half regular sausage.) 

Watch a movie and grab some Scarecrow Crunch! 

Here is a list of October MOVIES! My kid's favorite was the Heffalump!  

This is a Fall Favorite in our neighborhood!  Boo your neighbors!!!!!! This blogpost tells you all about it!  We put a white grocery bag over the top of our mailbox and turn it into a ghost to show we have been booed!  Kids LOVE it and you can totally Boo and adult too! 

Heck, just spent some quiet time enjoying having no PLC, no papers to grade and NO ONE calling your name! I appreciate you!