Literacy Bags

I sent out a family survey the last day of school asking parents and family members to review the year. They had the opportunity to share their favorite things about the year and give suggestions on how to improve our program. I've been getting a few surveys back, and I'm looking forward to figuring out ways to address their concerns.

One parent asked for more parent involvement, particularly in the curriculum area. I sent out a fairly-detailed weekly newsletter, but I understand her desire to have a better understanding of how she could be helping her daughter. I've been thinking about this concern all day, and I've come up with a number of ways to include more. One way, I want to help parents help their children is by sending home literacy bags.

I'm not sure where I originally discovered literacy bags, but I know Reading Rockets has a ton of information about them; they have materials for bags on their site as well. Basically, literacy bags are bags of themed books and activities that children can take home and do with their families. Each literacy bag will contain:

• at least three books centered around the same theme
• a stuffed toy to match the theme
• a journal
• a list of activities the families can do together
• tips to help families read to the children.
  

I have a schedule worked out, and I hope to have six different literacy bags. Children will have the chance to take one home about once every month and a half. My hope with the literacy bags is to encourage families to read together. When parents and families share time to read, it helps young children find the fun in reading and realize its value.

Here is an example of what I hope my Amazing Apples Literacy Bag will look like:

• Apples for Everyone by Jill Esbaum

• Up, Up, Up! It’s Apple-Picking Time by Jody Fickles Shapiro

• Amelia Bedelia’s First Apple Pie by Herman Parish

• Apple-shaped Pillow
• Apple Journal - This will likely just be a notebook with an apple-decorated cover.
  
• Example activities
• Letter with Reading Tips

I'm super excited about this!

Hot Hot Hot + Kids + Tiny Classroom + VBS = One Stinky Mess

I helped out at a local Vacation Bible School this morning (and will be doing so for the rest of the week). It was a blast. I was volunteering in the craft room, where we made bags out of t-shirts and get well soon cards for hospital patients. A few of my preschoolers were there. One of the was so excited to see me. She kept saying, "Mrs. ________, I didn't know you were going to be here. Did you know I was going to be here?" She just couldn't believe that we both ended up at the same "school" on the same day.

In other news, it is hotter than hot here! Currently, it's 90 degrees. I mean, seriously?!?! We set record highs yesterday, with a high of 98 degrees, and I bet we did the same today. It's simply craziness. This has had an effect on Vacation Bible School too. As we all know, kids stink when they sweat. They just do. It's a documented fact. So....since we're doing crafts in the un-air conditioned basement of the church, we end up stuck in a small room with 30 sweating kids. It's brutal. They, the children, don't notice, of course. They just have fun doing whatever they are doing, and, for this, I am glad. Us adults, though, are quietly suffering in the stinky, sticky room.

I love it though!

This is something I can see myself volunteering for for many years to come. It is so much easier to deal with than CCD was this past year. The kids are moving around every 20 minutes, so there is no time for them to get bored. It's high-energy. It's messy. It's a blast.

Teaching Feelings

The class I took last night was awesome! I feel much more prepared to take the strategies I learned and use them in my classroom next year. It is fascinating to me how many behaviors we can lessen or eliminate simply by teaching children to identify their feelings.

One of the articles we read, written by Gail E. Joseph and Philip S. Strain from the University of Colorado, talked about the importance of teaching children to identify emotions not only in themselves but also in their classmates. A big part of doing this is having the vocabulary to name the feelings. In the article, they mentioned, "Partly because of an absence of feeling words they often interpret the behavior of others as intentionally hurtful and eventually act out in ways that invariably lead to social isolation and stigmatization." Simply introducing children to a wide variety of feelings vocabulary and giving them examples of what those feelings look like will help children deal with many difficult social situations. It's amazing to me that I thought this was all something kids just learn from experience... Next year, I will be a better teacher.

There are many ways to teach this vocabulary. Some of my favorites are:

• Read alouds - check out the widget below for some of the books we were given last night (for free!) that are all excellent for teaching vocabulary
• Games - anything from feelings dice to spinners to pass-the-hat type games in which children have to act out the emotion are perfect
• Identifying emotions as they naturally happen in the classroom
• Involving families

Check this website out for even more ideas. It's a phenomenal source. There are lesson plans, called Book Nooks, that go with certain books to help teach feelings vocabulary. Amazing!

We had a lot of time last night to discuss problems we have had with children in the past, and it was helpful to hear the advice my classmates had to offer. One classmate talked about a little guy she has who breaks down for, what appears to be, no reason all the time; he is just an emotional mess. We talked about how important it is going to be to teach this little guy to identify his feelings to help enable him to talk about them. He comes from a tough home life, and I am sure he is just aching for someone to love him. Hopefully, my classmate will be able to give him the interventions (especially love) he needs before he heads off to kindergarten in the fall.