Leaving Trails and Markers

"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail."

        Ralph Waldo Emerson

As the New Year has gotten past the first fifteen days I feel some days are blazing new paths. There was regression after the long winter break and it has nearly taken seven school days to get us back to the level we were before the break. It would have been frustrating had I not seen some parts of what had been learned laying along the student's "neuro path."

While there were weeds of television, over growth from video games, and clutter from lack of structure and routine, we were able to see the seeds or sprouts from lessons prior to the break. Once we saw that they were there it wasn't a matter of re-teaching, but promoting growth. Some needing more nourishing and tenderness than others, but the challenge was to help the student to see that they could remember. They did understand the concepts and ideas we had learned and discussed in September, October, November and December. They did know, they just needed to de-clutter all that had happened during the break and pull just a little harder from the brain. The excitement when they realized they hadn't really forgotten was worth all  of the effort.

We could have just done some re-teaching of the goals and objectives and considered it done. But having discovered that deep down they really did remember, they really did grasp the concepts and we just needed to help them pull the weeds and clean up the garden to get it back to full function generated that "success" emotion we all needed to have during this cold, wintry, time in January.

Now we are on track and we are leaving markers along the way in preparation for the upcoming two-week Spring Break. These markers are songs, limericks, or other ways of allowing the students to recall the lessons quickly and by just starting the marker.. they will finish it. I have even employed a picture of my basset hound, "Agent Gibbs" with a call-out giving a rhyme of the day about our lesson. (They have been quoting him at lunch, so I know it's working.)

I am encouraged as move from now to Spring Break that we will not have the same level of regression that from the cold dark winter. Spring shall break forth and we will leave a trail from which we can all recall that which we've learned along the way!

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Links for studying ABC's

ABC Links I Love My ABC's - from Kinderkorner ABC Activities - activities and theme links for each letter of the alphabet ABC Ideas - ideas (with photos) for each letter at Little Giraffes Alphabet Review - from Teachers.nett Printable Alphabet Worksheets - free from Beginning Reading Alphabet Coloring Book - free printables from Alphabet Soup Alphabet Coloring Pages - from Crafts for Kids Chicka Chicka Boom Boom ABC Bingo Cards- free printables from Mrs. Bottom's K Class Chicka Chicka Boom Boom - from A to Z Teacher Stuff Chicka Chicka Boom Boom - lesson from Webbing Into  Literacy Chicka Chicka Boom Boom - from Teaching is a Work of  Heart Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Printables - free from Making Learning Fun Multiple Alphabet Crafts for Each Letter - from the Best Kids Booksite Printable Alphabet Materials - from First School Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Printables - from DLTK Mini ABC Books - free printables from DLTK ABC Printables - from ABC Teach Letter and Rhyme a Day - inside Hubbard's Cupboard Nursery Rhyme Links Nursery Rhyme Rhyme Printables - from First School Words to Nursery Rhymes -inside Hubbard's Cupboard Kindergarten Rhyme Time - activities for a family night - inside Hubbard's Cupboard Nursery Rhyme Coloring Sheets - printables from Henderson Police Department Nursery Rhymes: Tales to Live By - What can we learn from our favorite nursery rhymes? Stories From Rainbows Edge - In depth questions for nursery rhymes, printable nursery rhyme puzzles, etc.

10 ways to differentiate learning…

The blogger "What Ed Said" has provided 10 Ways to Differentiate in the classroom.... It is a great list for everyone who wants to be proactive for student learning to read...


"Once upon a time in the olden days, the teacher stood out front and taught the whole class the same material in the same way. Everyone was expected to do the same tasks, some passed and some failed and were labelled ever after. The focus was on teaching, not on learning. One size was supposed to fit all and if you learned in a different way, too bad for you.

Time passed and it turned out that everyone didn’t learn in the same way after all. The teacher realised that learners have different needs, interests and abilities. Differentiated instruction was invented. The teacher prepared different tasks for each group in her class and preparation now took a whole lot longer. The needs of the learner were being better catered for, but the teacher was up all night."

10 ways to differentiate learning…Read the list here. 

22 Learning Ideas from Edutopia...

Originated by Trisha Riche' who is a kindergarten inclusion teacher at R. L. Brown Elementary in Jacksonville, FL. The grade-level chair at her school, Trisha was selected as one of the top ten most innovative educators in the country for The Great American Teach Off. Written 12/14/2011 in blog from Edutopia!

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Suggested Activities: The Game of Learning

For the first six activities, seat your students in a circle and introduce a ball or something else they can pass easily between them.

1. "I know a word"
You can begin this skills game by saying, "I know a word that starts with the same sound you hear at the beginning of butterfly." Students will raise their hands, and you choose one to tell you a word the starts with "B." Once they tell you the word, toss them the ball. They choose someone else to tell them another word that begins with that letter, passing the ball to the student who gets it right. As the game continues, change the letter every so often. Play until everyone has had a turn. You can use this game for beginning sounds, ending sounds, middle sounds etc.

2. Rhyme time
Say, "I need a word that rhymes with cat." Pass the ball to someone once they give you a correct rhyming word. Keep changing the starting word and continue the game until all kids have gone.

3. Practice counting
You can have your class practice counting by twos, fives and tens. Pass the ball clockwise or counterclockwise, with the student who receives it saying the number that comes next. For example, you say, "We are going to count by fives. Five!" The person next to you says "ten," the next one says "fifteen," and so on.

4. Spelling review
For older kids, you can pass the ball and go through your spelling words one letter at a time. For example, you say, "We're going to spell the word their, as in 'This is their ball.'" The first person says "T," the second person says "H," the third person says "E," and so on. If one says the wrong letter, the next person says correct letter and fixes the mistake.

5. "I need a synonym"
This is a great vocabulary building exercise. You can use the ball or a pair of flyswatters, depending on the age of your students. You say, "I need a synonym for mad." Choose someone to give you another word that means the same thing, such as angry, furious andenraged. For older kids, you can put a list of synonyms on the board and divide the class into two teams. Have one person from each team come up and compete. Whoever slaps the board with the flyswatter and says the correct synonym wins a point for their team. In the end all of your students win a better vocabulary.

6. Reinforce other skills
What other subjects are you teaching? You could adapt these games to fit pretty much anything. "I need a name of an explorer." "I need you to name one of the phases of matter." "I need to know one of the reasons for the Civil War." Be creative!

7. Roll dice to have your students answer story questions.
"What is the plot of the story?" you might ask them. "What is the setting?" You can introduce more reflective questions such as, "Why did this character do what he or she did?" and "What was the author's purpose?" You can write these questions on cards or purchase them fromreallygoodstuff.com.

8. Sight Word Slap Game
Write your sight words on the board. Separate your class into two random teams. Let one person from each team step forward and hold a fly swatter. Call out one of the sight words. The first one to slap the correct sight word gets a point for their team. Continue until everyone has gone. This is great for helping sight word recognition.
Suggested Activities: The Artsy Side of Creative

9. Use different voices or accents when reading stories to the class.

10. Dress in costumes of storybook characters to leave a lasting impression, or let students dress up as characters to retell stories.

11. Turn your room into the environment of what you are learning about. When the class is learning about fairy tales, turn your classroom into a castle. When you're learning about animals, turn your classroom into a jungle.

12. Create class songs about topics they need to know, or use the music of singers like Hap Palmer and Jack Hartman. You might also borrow songs and games from coworkers. Songs are catchy, and children learn quickly from them.
Creative Science

13. When teaching about the properties of friction, use KS2 for interactive projects you can do in small groups or as a class using a smart board. You might ask your students slide down the hallway first in their socks, then barefoot, and have them journal about the different amounts of friction.

14. When teaching phases of matter, drop some food coloring into beakers of cold and warm water and note the difference. Then pour the contents of one beaker in a bag and put it in the freezer. The next day, compare the liquid bag with the solid chunk of ice and note differences.

15. Use the ice from the above activity and talk about gravity. Stand on a chair and discuss what will happen if you drop the ice, and if it matters which way you drop it. Let your students predict the possible outcomes. Incorporate Your Students' Favorite Things

16. Survey your students at the beginning of the year. Get to know them and what they like. Then make a point of using their names, favorite foods, games, books, etc. in word problems, writing exercises, shared reading and many other activities. People do better and learn more when working with things they like. As adults we know that we don't want to do something if it's not fun. The same goes for kids.

Creative time savers

17. Have your students rely on each other as resources. For each table, pick a team leader to try answering his or her classmates' questions before they come to you for help.

18. Pair your higher achievers with lower achievers to study sight words, letters or other skills.

19. Put them into literature circles to discuss books.

20. Have them read one another's writing to check for completion or suggest ideas before they come see you.

21. Use the Leap Frog Tag reading system. You can plug it into the computer to get student scores on activities, which will provide guidelines for what you need to work on. This is a great way to collect data!

22. Have a "math problem of the day" journal to review skills in which your students scored low on assessments. Put the problem on the board and have them copy it into their journals at the beginning of the day. You can take a minute or two after they have completed it to review the problem with the class. Check notebooks later for understanding.

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