Teaching about Giving Thanks

Giving thanks isn't just an idea for Thanksgiving. It's not a one day thing. Being Thankful should be a part of your everyday life, especially if you are a Bucket Filler! I loved talking about this in my class today for thoughtful thursday (theme of the day during ELD pullout).

As you might remember from a recent halloween post, I've been having a hard time figuring out how to talk about the holidays (all of them) when I have a few students in my class who don't celebrate for religious reasons. Whenever I bring up a topic related to a holiday or celebration, my little ones will chime in that they can't do that. Well...today I was very proud of how I handled talking about Thanksgiving!

You see,  I've been reading a book for transition between cleaning up and when the kids come back from ELD, and I find myself continuing to gravitate towards my collection of holiday related stories. I try to read them and not have much personal dialogue on the topic, but today I found a great way (and the courage!) to talk about how thanksgiving isn't just meant to be a one day thing. It's about being thankful for everything you have and showing that in your actions (hence, Thoughtful)

I borrowed this lovely book from my teammate and was able to talk to the kids about how being a person who gives thanks is a great way to fill other people's buckets because we are showing them how much we love and care for them. Yes, the story talked about thanksgiving the holiday, but that was not the main topic. I loved the illustrations in this book and how it got the kids talking about all of the things that they are thankful for.

We did "I am thankful for ___" writing too. I loved these :) I'll have to post some pics soon! One cutie said he was "thankful for Jesus and all of the presents he gets from Him." haha. He's sort of getting the picture ;) He then said "Jesus is SO BIG! Bigger than anyone!" which prompted another little guy to say he was "big, too!" The rebuttal from little guy #1 was precious. :) "No way! He's bigger than all of us!"

I love when they talk about Jesus, even if I can't chime in other than to say how much I loved that thought. :)

Today I am thankful for books that give honor to a holiday while showing how it can practically relate to the lives of our children. I am also thankful for my teammates wonderful collection of books :) 

And of course I'm thankful for all of you in blogland and that I have a place to share my silly teaching stories! 

What are you thankful for?

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Great end to a great week!

I am LOVING that I can look back on this first full week and LOVE what I'm seeing! Sure, life is crazy busy and no not every child has been an angel, but it has been overall-awesome! Here is the highlights :) (some non school related)

• My niece and nephew had their joint birthday party last sunday. I <3 them more than words!!

• We had our first SL2 (church plant) KidsRock meeting at the new house! Only 3 weeks to the launch and things are looking great! (but...how did I manage to sign myself up to make the blog for KidsRock, too? Oi) This is the view from the living room! wow!

• Our new rug came!! Finally I don't have to call it the invisible rug and can actually begin teaching again! haha

• And my favorite of all...I have so many bucket fillers in my room! oh my gosh, they are soo sweet! One little girl continues to show me a heart made with her hands (bucket filled!) Another little girl constantly shows me I love you in sign (any dipping from other kids is gone!) a 3rd little boy keeps commenting on how full my bucket must be and my personal favorite is a little girl who literally over 10 times today told me with growing enthusiasm and vocabulary that I am the "bestest teacher in the whole wide world" and modeled this with her arms stretched wide. My bucket is literally running over! I need to remember all of this love when I am feeling drained. Because there is nothing like kindergartners to fill you right back up with love!

Happy Friday Bloggy Friends!

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New class of bucket fillers?

**Repost** Check out the Lesson Plan Diva's behavior management linky party for more great ideas on how to document behaviors!

Well, I am finally feeling like I can sit down for a minute and update you all on my classroom. We started tuesday, right after labor day, and jumped right into a new year of kindergarten! The kiddos are cute but very young (a lot of later 2006 birthdays!) and I always seem to forget how little they are when they come. I've got a really sweet group of kids who have been doing such a good job at learning how to be successful in school (maybe this is due in part to 2 of my little girls coming from my mother in laws amazing preschool?!) I love them and and am so excited to get expectations and behaviors down so we can begin our typical daily schedule!
Right now we are going over a lot of positive behavior supports with my "stick" program (Thank you Mrs. Sneaker for this awesome tool!) and it is working wonderfully for most of my class. Each child starts with 3 sticks and they lose a stick if they are not following directions or acting out. Eventually this will be a weekly system where at the end of the week if they have a stick left they earn extra playtime.
 However, the first day of implementing this I had 2 kiddos lose their sticks right away (1 with impulse control issues that are developmental and another whom I think it is his lack of structure in the past) I complained to Mrs. Sneaker that I had no clue how it was going to be an incentive for them if they had already lost their sticks. Mrs. Sneaker said she is doing it as a daily system right now (genius! :) ) and at the end of the day students who have all their sticks get a sticker. I began that today and it is working much better! The first little guy lost all his sticks and had a meltdown, but I was able to talk to him about how it doesn't mean I am mad at him or he is in trouble, it's just a way for us to practice remembering to follow the rules. After school I talked to his dad, who was really receptive and on board with it, and we agreed that we will continue to practice and work on one thing at a time. Tomorrow it will be raising his hand to talk. We'll see how behaviors are tomorrow :)

I had a bit of a frustrating moment today when my class was talking when we were repeating a cleanup transition that hadn't gone well. so of course, I needed to take a deep breath, and made them put their heads down. I just hate doing that and kind of wish I hadn't. but I needed them to know I was serious. After this couple of minutes and explaining how I felt, I scrapped our original art project and instead read "Have you filled a bucket today". I felt like the kids really needed this illustration of how I was feeling when they had to put their heads down, and I love the book so much. The kids were so sweet after reading the book and shared ways to help keep a bucket full. One kid said he could reach inside his brain and fill his own bucket. haha. A little reminder that we only fill our bucket by being kind and helping others or when people do the same for us was needed. :) Such a sweet little guy though!

Then, after my kids left, I was talking to Mrs. Sneaker and our other team member who told us about a clear bucket she found at michaels and used as an illustration for her own bucket in class. every time the class or a child does something to fill her bucket she puts in a cube. Well of course, I had to copy her (haha) and ran right to Michaels when I left to buy the bucket. I can't wait to share this with the class tomorrow! :)

my new bucket! :)

What do you think?

Oh ya, and then I went to weight watchers and weighed in for the first time in almost a month. Down 1 lb. That filled my bucket :) hahahaha

How is your start going? Any behavior issues? What are you doing??

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