RSS Feed

Category Archives: Uncategorized

Self Esteem – the Mental Health of Teens

I had the opportunity today to talk to the grade eight class about self esteem.

Here is part of the handout I created.

When I did the first session I had a student hold a mason jar of water to show that our problems get heavier over time if we don’t deal with them.  I also broke a ceramic jar and had a student glue it back together to show the cracks in our lives and how light can shine through.  Today while I talked I had a student assemble a ‘Vision Board’ for the class.  It was a lot of concepts to throw at the students in a short amount of time and I was so passionate I was hoarse afterwards!  Hopefully the students will find some concepts to help them through emotional struggles.  I tried to stress that integrity is the values and standards we find most important and then sticking to those standards.  Our worth and self esteem does not have to be measured by culture’s standards but by the standards we have set by our values.

Christ's Light in Jars of Clay

 

It’s A Washing Machine!

It’s A Washing Machine!

img_3468

Sight Word Shirt goes in …. (flips over) and comes out clean!   

Instructions to make one are  HERE.

  
 

Sight Words

Hanging’ up the laundry …

Life Skills

Starting some life skills classes: microwave cooking.

Warm chocolate cake + Good conversation + Snow falling outside my window = GREAT DAY

#igetpaidforthis?

  

Modified History

Modified History

My student made the game from the Fur Traders book in the Robert Livesey History Series. These books are full of activities.  Neat activities. 

Also pictured is a Donna Ward book that keeps it simple and provides short reading passages with questions.

  
   

Indoor Recess

A rainy day and an indoor recess provides us an opportunity to try out the lift!

20150929-175118.jpg

20150929-175124.jpg

Cursive App

This is my attempt to generalize a skill. ‘Generalize’ is when a learned skill is used in different situations. In this case I worry that improving cursive on an iPad does not necessarily translate to the ability to do neater cursive on paper. Here is my solution. The app is Intro to Cursive from Montessorium. The student traces a letter with a stylus on the iPad then must write the same letter on a cue card. This seems to be far less overwhelming then simply giving the student a cursive worksheet (although I am hoping we can work up to that). Keep generalization in mind when teaching a new skill.

20150928-205021.jpg

It’s Been a Busy Summer

From this :          photo        photo 3

 

To this:                  IMG_0146 IMG_0144

IMG_0147

 

So excited to see what this year has in store!

Early Intervention with Initial Sounds

I thought it would be great to let these “little guys” move while they practice the initial sounds of words.  This idea is adapted from one of the many free activities at The Florida Center for Reading Research.  Great stuff at that site.

 

photo (8) photo (9)

Deck the Halls with Lots of Sight Words

20141202-152435.jpg

This was a cooperative project with my small group of kindergarteners. Each part of the chain has one of their sight words on it. The idea came from Pinterest of course! (Sorry, the Pinterest link did not take me to a website).

%d bloggers like this: