Holiday Stress at School

 

School Stress During the Holiday Season

We love the holidays! But it is also a time when we do more. We do more at home to prepare for the holidays and we do more at school.

The music teacher prepares specific grade levels for a Holiday Music Program. The kids will need to spend some class time practicing beyond the regular music class time. The art teacher has each grade level create special art projects. You have your students making holiday gifts for their parents. All this creates an additional exciting atmosphere throughout the school for both teachers and students.

Hectic Schedule

Some school districts have parent conferences sometime in November through December. This is a disruption to your schedule. Then there is the Music Program to attend taking time away from your day. Your class must attend the Art Project Display. So much going on! Oh well, just reconcile yourself to the fact your daily routine will not be the same.

Frame of Mind    

Due to the reason that it’s the holiday season, the school atmosphere will be filled with vibrant energy. Take it in and be a part of that energy. Go with the flow!

Be Extra Patient

Parents can be more demanding during this time. Carefully listen to their concerns, acknowledge that you hear them, and let them know you will do what you can.

The students will pick up on the extra energy going around. Review your classroom expectations and rules to help remind them.

Staff members will also be feeling stressed. Share some kind words with them. They will appreciate it.

Most of all, extend your patience with yourself. You are dealing with all these things. Be kind to yourself!

Be Kind to Yourself

Plan for all the extra holiday activities. Manage the shorter times with activities that can be done before and after whole school programs.

Have alternate activities for the students who don’t celebrate the holidays.

Learn to say No. Limit your commitments, you don’t have to volunteer to do more than you are prepared to do.

Pace yourself. Give yourself extra quiet time, prayer time, meditation, prep time, nap time, time for a walk, etcetera,

Gift Giving

Stay on budget. Decide who you want to give gifts to. You don’t have to be Santa to everyone! I usually gave gifts to the school secretary, the custodians, and the lunch ladies. You give so much of yourself to your students that you don’t need to also give each of them a gift.

Reach Out to Your Support

Give a phone call to your bestie. Text a coworker. Talk to a family member. Pull your spouse into it. You don’t have to do this by yourself.

But best of all, ENJOY THE HOLIDAYS!

Happy holidays!

Debbie – Froggy About Teaching

Writing About Christmas

 

Writing About Christmas

Is it okay to have our students write about Christmas? Is Christmas not a favorite holiday for many people? Friends and family gather during this time. We decorate our homes inside and out with holiday decorations. Special foods and desserts are being made for celebrating. Dinners, parties, and festive celebrations happen. These are such memorable times!

To take advantage of all this, I have created a writing resource, Christmas Writing Prompts are made to spur creativity in a short amount of time. A picture with labels will help to get the writing process going. The prompt will provide direction to their responses and ask them to think about what the holiday means.

Amped Up Learning

TPT

Anchor Charts

As part of this product, there are two anchor charts that can be used as instructional tools before assigning a writing prompt.

Writing Rubric Anchor Chart

This can be projected onto a board. Then each line can be read and explained.

Read the prompt (This can be read to or with students).

Observe the picture (Students can share out loud, in a               group, or with a buddy).

Connect the prompt to the picture (Students can share out loud, in a group, or with a buddy).

Use capital letters at the beginning of a sentence and on names.

Use punctuation marks.

Write in complete sentences. (Either point out what makes this sentence model a complete sentence. Or have your students discuss with a buddy or small group.)

Writing Sample

This Writing Sample is a great way to show your students what a prompt is, how to observe the picture, and how to respond to the prompt.

After going over both the Writing Rubric and the Writing Sample, then your students should be ready to begin a week of fun writing!

Assignments

The writing pages have been differentiated into three versions. There are five pages of each set. Print the pages, front and back, starting with the cover page. There are two cover pages to choose from.

You can introduce this unit by presenting the two anchor charts to your students. Make sure to display the anchor chart in a location where they can refer to them. On the first day, go over the Word Bank. Then students can work on each page for the next 5 days. You can choose which writing version to assign to each student depending on their writing level.

When they have completed the writing assignments, as they work on each page, they can go to the Word Bank and check off the words they encountered on each writing page. In the end, students can add drawings to the cover page and color it. Then you can display their work on your bulletin board.

Differentiation

A sentence frame is provided for your emergent writers who need more writing structure. Sentence Starters are available for your transitional writers that need just some writing structure. Your fluent writers, get a writing prompt. A whole week of different writing prompts is included for each stage of writing.

Resources

This writing resource is available in my store, Froggy About Teaching both on Amped Up Learning and Teachers Pay Teachers.

If you need some reasons for allowing your students to write about the holidays then read Why Holidays are Great for Writers.

Continue the Christmas theme with this writing resource, Santa Letter Activities. To see what is included in this resource read, Writing Santa a Letter.

I am so happy to continue making these resources for you and your students. Look at my other Christmas-themed resources, on Amped Up Learning and Teachers Pay Teachers.

Happy Holidays!

Debbie – Froggy About Teaching

Planning Your Class Halloween Party

 

Planning Fall/Halloween Parties

Planning your Fall/Halloween party is a great way to have a successful fun time!

Organize the Party

Decide on a time that your party will start. You know that parents will want to be present. Tell them the time the party begins so they know exactly when to be there. Post a sign outside your door so that they know what time they can come into your classroom.

                 

  

Involve the Parents

Ask the parents for help. It is amazing what they will do to help. They can help prepare materials for that day, printing, copying, cutting, etc. You can also ask them to bring certain snacks.

                                           

Since parents will be at the party, put them to work. Start your party by having a parent read a fall or Halloween-themed book to the kids. Decide if you want the kids to listen to the story from their desks/tables or on the carpet near the reader.

Fall-Halloween Themed Activities

Plan some fun Fall-Halloween-themed activities for the kids to do at their tables/desks that parents can do with them. A parent can pass out the activities. For a great resource with some fun activities take a look at Halloween Activity Pack, by Happy Hive Homeschooling!

Have a place where the goodies can be sorted into bags or plates. You can use grocery bags or store-bought bags. Ask some parents to do the goodie sorting and other parents to pass them out to the students.

Create a Party Timeline

To have things move smoothly have a timeline. When it’s time to transition to the next activity you can keep things moving by announcing the next activity.

2:30-2:35 Welcome Parents into the classroom and direct them where to go.

2:35-2:42 Storytime-Have students go to the carpet while parents stay at the tables, for the story. This time frame includes the transition to and from the desks and carpet.

2:42-3:00 Fall-Halloween themed activities

3:00-3-20 Pass out and partake of the goodies

3:20 Thank the Parents and ask them to wait outside for their children. Clean up, throw away, and pass out leftover goodies to the kids that brought them.

3:28 Line up and do a Fall-Halloween chant while waiting for the school bell to ring.

If you want any DIY Halloween Party Ideas for the Classroom, here are some great ideas!

If you would like to receive classroom freebies, you can sign up to receive the Froggy Newsletter. I send out 2-3 newsletters a month with a variety of freebies. This month, subscribed teachers received editable Halloween Party letters and Halloween Party signs. I hope you sign up!

May you and your kids have a fun and well-organized Fall-Halloween Party!

Debbie - Froggy About Teaching

Halloween Themed Writing Picture Prompts

 

Halloween Writing Picture Prompts

Don’t you just love the festive “fun-ness” of Halloween? Your kids get to dress up. It is as much fun helping your kids decide how to dress up as it is for them to get dressed up.

What an engaging way to get your students writing using the Halloween theme! We know what fun it can be! The kids know what fun it can be! But we tend to guilt ourselves as teachers. We want to use resources with a serious theme because they will learn it that way. But we also want to engage them in what they are learning. Using holiday-themed resources can be a fun, surprising, and appealing way to get them to learn or practice what they have learned.

This teaching resource, Halloween Writing Picture Prompts will do just that. This resource is geared toward Kindergarten and First-grade students, and young writers. We know that our students come to us at the beginning of the school year with different abilities to write. Some kids will be emergent writers while others will be a little more experienced or more comfortable with the writing process. This writing product has been differentiated to address those very issues.

There are several parts to this resource. I will break it down for you.

Oral Sentence Starters

Some of our young students come to us with a limited language or speak in common phrases. Regardless of this, all our students need to be exposed to a more formal academic language. 

So, I provided Oral Sentence Starters to introduce each writing page. Each one will begin with a focus, then the sentence starter will be said out loud or written on the board. Students will complete that oral sentence starter with a partner or table mates. Then some of the students can share their complete sentences out loud (if students need help saying the sentence correctly, that would be the time to do it) and be a model for the other students. Then all of them would be hearing different responses to the same sentence starter.

 

Differentiated

There are seven writing prompts. Each prompt has been created in three versions to differentiate for the different abilities of your students, emergent writers, transitional writers, and fluent writers.

 

Emergent Writers

These young writers are students who are at the very basics of writing. They may be drawing pictures, random letters, and numbers for words or sentences, and still not have the concept of a sentence.

Version A for Emergent Writers

This version provides lots of support for these students with traceable sentence stems and where they can complete the sentences.

Transitional Writers

These young writers are a little further along in their understanding of what a word and a sentence are. They may be attempting to sound out words and attempting to write groups of words as sentences.

Version B for Transitional Writers

This version provides some support with the traceable sentence starters which have limited words and fewer of them-sentence starters.

 

Fluent Writers

These students are where you want your students to be. They understand what a sentence is. They are writing a mix of both words they are sounding out and words they now know how to spell, including the use of sight words.

Version C for Fluent Writers

Students who are ready for this version are ready to label the pictures on their own, to respond to the prompt with their own words and sentences.

Halloween Pictures

The Halloween pictures that have been included as a part of this writing set are not the scary kind but the common fun side of Halloween. It’s for the kids to enjoy and just have fun doing an activity that can be challenging for these young writers.

You can find this resource on Amped Up Learning and Teachers Pay Teachers.

Have a happy October with your students and enjoy the festive, cooler time this month brings to us.

Debbie – Froggy About Teaching 

National Hispanic Heritage Month and Your ESL Students

 

Hispanic Heritage Month is a time for recognizing and celebrating your Hispanic students. Honoring and allowing them to take pride in the histories, cultures, and language of those students whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central and South America is a great way to build up these kids. 

Many of us have students that are or had been ESL students. Even if they never receive this label, many students have a different language in their home from the one at school. I will begin by sharing my own experience.

This is some history of how Hispanic Heritage Month came about. ‘The observation started in 1968 as Hispanic Heritage Week under President Lyndon Johnson and was expanded by President Ronald Reagan in 1988 to cover a 30-day period starting on September 15 and ending on October 15. It was enacted into law on August 17, 1988, on the approval of Public Law 100-402.’ The United States Census Bureau

I was born and raised in El Paso, Texas. Through my grandmothers, I am a second-generation American. Through my grandfathers, I am a third-generation American.

While growing up and attending school, I was referred to as a Hispanic, which I resented because “Hispanic” implied that I was from a Spanish-speaking country. So, I called myself an American of Mexican descent or Mexican American.

Even though my parents and grandparents taught us to love and appreciate our bi-culturalism and our bi-linguicism. It was difficult to maintain that when at school we were expected to perform academically in English like the monolingual English speakers.

All of this swayed my siblings and me to relinquish our first language, Spanish. My parents didn’t fight it because they expected us to excel in school.

All our students learning English as a second language have all gone through some degree of this language loss. It is our job as their teacher to recognize this and help them appreciate who they are, encourage them to maintain their home language, and encourage their parents to speak to them in their first language. Parents speaking to their children in the first language will not hurt your students. Instead, it will make them stronger language learners because they will be getting the basic foundations in the language they already know. This will help them expand their first language and learn the second language.

Please just keep in mind that part of the value that our Latin students bring to our classrooms is who they are.

I will continue this subject that is near to my heart. Thank you for continuing to follow me on this journey.

Debbie - Froggy About Teaching

Return to School Covid Safe

 

Return to School Covid Safe

Covid 19 is a pandemic that has affected every single one of us. The approaches to this disease have changed as time has passed. Our schools, our classrooms, and our students have been affected by how we have dealt with this disease. There have been significant disruptions to school due to the Coronavirus. We went from schools being closed to teaching virtually, going back to in-person teaching, quarantining because of our students being exposed, more cancelations, more virtual teaching, wearing masks, not requiring masks, and so on. Such confusing times!

New Norm

Because the Pandemic is now a part of our everyday life, teachers and students alike need to take precautions in order to not spread this virus.

Students need to learn how to Be Safe and Stay Safe while they are at school.

I have created a PowerPoint Slide Show-video to help your students understand the new “norm” that has come about because of the Covid 19 virus, as well as giving a basic explanation of its history.

Available on Amped Up Learning

Available on TPT

This is a teaching resource that can be used with primary students.

It is divided into four sections.

• A description of the illness.

Different ways Covid makes us sick.

• Ways to keep from getting the Covid germs.

  

  What we can do to avoid Covid germs.

• 
  
• Ways to greet school friends and stay Covid Safe.

• 

  Greeting school friends safely.

  
  
  
• Basic history of Covid.

• 

  Covid history.

  
  

There are questions at the end that can be used with your student to review the information that is presented, and it is the opportunity to discuss the why and how of all the changes that have come about due to the Pandemic.

The Pandemic is now a part of our reality, and this PowerPoint presentation is an opportunity to review and discuss it.

I have put the slide show and the video into a zip file. You have the choices to use the slide show, narrate and guide your students through each frame yourself, or you can use the narrated video and show it to your students. You will need to use a speaker.

This teaching resource has been updated to reflect 2022 CDC recommendations. If you would like to see their recommendations, go to CDC Covid 19.

I hope you and your students stay Covid Safe!

Debbie-Froggy About Teaching

#covid19 #covidsafestudents 

Topic-Based Journal Writing

                 
I am in the process of creating a set of topic-based Daily Journal Writing resources for Kindergarten and 1st-grade students. I’ve just completed one about Car Wash.

On Amped Up Learning

On Teachers Pay Teachers

Do you use daily writing journals with your students? How can writing in a journal format help your kids become writers? Should journal writing be evaluated? If I let them write using a journal, do I need to formally teach Writing? The answer to that last question is a definite “Yes”!

Now that I have set that straight, let’s move back to talking about journal writing. Journal writing is a great way to supplement your writing lessons.

This resource has been created with the standards in mind.

Common Core Standards-based.

Writing a label

Write about a picture

Stating an opinion

Make a list

Daily Writing Journal resources by Froggy About Teaching have the teacher in mind with a topic information page for each writing page the teacher can use to build the background.

topic info for each writing page

Daily Writing Journal resources by Froggy About Teaching have certain goals for your students.

• use sight words in each sentence

• refer to the alphabet strip to sound out words

• vowels and consonants are separated to visually see the difference

• label the picture

• use the picture to write about it

• word bank with nouns and vowels that can be used in their writing response

• independent prompt response

• writing checklist

These details are geared towards making this a safe writing space for your students to expand their writing, making this a quick assignment, strengthening their writing skills by making this a daily writing activity, and saving you time by making this resource a "printable."  To see more about this resource take a look at this video.

I hope your school year is one of making connections with your students and having students eager to learn!

If you would like to receive my newsletter - click on, The Froggy Newsletter. I send it out 2-3 times a month with teaching ideas, information on new and updated resources, and freebies.

Debbie - Froggy About Teaching

Getting Young Learners Writing Daily

Themed Journal Writing

 Tips for Effective Daily Writing

Writing is one of the most important skills that teachers tackle with their students. Writing is something we do every day. It becomes an automatic skill. We don’t give it a thought. Our young writers are not at this stage. There are so many things they are trying to understand and make sense of. Such as using sight words and inventive spelling. We want them to use sight words that have words that are not decodable and yet we want them spelled correctly. We want them to sound out CVC words and spell them by sound.

So, as educators, we want to provide the time that our students need to gain mastery of their writing. They need both structured writing and informal writing time. Both types of writing can be provided by using journals. Read these tips to help you do this effectively!

When Can We Find the Time to Write?

Students are fortunate if they are given a daily writing time where they can practice what they are learning and apply the skills they have been learning. There are so many aspects to writing especially for young writers such as directionality, punctuation, spacing, writing complete sentences, etc.

Then there is the question of when to provide the time.

First thing in the school day, it can be part of the morning work. This is a great way to get them going and into school mode.

After lunch, they come into the classroom all energized from their lunch recess. They can pull their writing journals out, settle down and spend some quiet time writing.

At the end of the day, can also be a good choice. Students know that the day is at an end, and many of them get fussy not wanting to do more schoolwork. This is a perfect way to bring the school day to a close.

After a special occasion, event, or a speaker, can also be a time to write down their thoughts.

 

Providing Writing Journals

So, what do I give to my students to use for this daily writing time? You will need to provide these for your students. There are so many ways to make journals, Easy Handmade Journals for Kids, gives some great ideas on how to make these.

Journal Writing

Journal writing is one of the best ways to get kids writing!

Earlier I referred to formal and informal writing. The same applies to writing daily in a journal.

Informal Journal Writing - the purpose for this type of writing is different. It does not need to be graded. This is a time for stress-free writing and getting into the routine of writing. They can share what they have written with a buddy. The teacher/homeschool mom can randomly look at what they have written and make positive comments on that page.

Formal Journal Writing – the purpose of this type of writing is to provide structured writing. The kids can be given writing guidelines, a checklist, and a focus. Teachers can provide students with a prompt to respond to, or a writing practice sheet.

Any opportunity that young learners get to write is going to benefit them. Journal writing is an ideal way to give that opportunity! Even if they are not writing words or complete sentences, this journal writing time will give them the chance to attempt to write without the pressure of having to write perfectly. As time goes on, you will begin to see their random letters forming into words and the early formation of sentences.

If you are looking for a way to accomplish this structured writing daily, I have several types of writing resources that can be used as a daily writing journal for our young writers.

Themed Daily Writing Journal

These themed writing journals provide structure for your students. These practice sheets provide picture cues, prompts, the alphabet for inventive spelling, keywords for labeling the picture, a sentence starter, and open writing space. The goal of these activities is to strengthen their sentence writing.

Froggy About Teaching on AUL

Froggy About Teaching on TPT

Froggy About Teaching on AUL

Froggy About Teaching on TPT

It is so important for our students to get the opportunity to strengthen their writing skills. I hope I have provided you with some valuable ways to do just that.

Debbie - Froggy About Teaching on Amped Up Learning

        Froggy About Teaching on Teachers Pay Teachers

Writing Sentences with Sight Words

 

Our students need to learn sight words and improve their writing. Why not have them work on both skills?

Combining Sight Words with Sentence Writing

What do you think? This sounds like a good idea! If there were a teaching resource that did just this, would you use it? Our young learners need to learn to write complete sentences. At the same time, they need to learn sight words. Students need to regularly practice writing to get better at it. We also need them to know how to use a sight word in a sentence.

Color by Sight Word Sentences Bundle

I have created a teaching resource that combines these skills. Your students will get the opportunity to practice writing a sentence on a regular basis while using the Fry’s First 100 sight words. I have made 4 sets with 25 sight words on each set. There is one sight word used on each practice sheet. I have bundled up the four sets together and am offering them to you at a 20% discount year-round. You can read about the individual sets, Using Sight Words to Strengthen Sight Words.

Color by Sight Word Sentence Writing on Amped Up Learning

Color by Sight Word Sentences on Teachers Pay Teachers

There are fours parts to each practice sheet.

1. 1.  Color by Sight Word. Isolating the sight word. The students will be engaged in a 'color by sight word activity.' They will color the sight word in one color while coloring the space around in other colors. Several things will be happening with this activity. Students will see how many letters are in the sight word, as they color each letter, they will see the shape and size of the letters and identify what the letters are in that sight word.

1. 2.  Sight Word Sentence Trace. This sentence serves as a model of how the sight word can be used in a sentence. Since they will be tracing each word, they will be working on their penmanship.

Sentence Model Trace

1. 3.   Sight Word Unscramble. They will have a set of words that are placed out of order. Students will be solving the mystery sentence and placing the words in the correct order to write a complete sentence using the sight word.

1. 4.  Write Your Own Sight Word Sentence. After seeing the different aspects of that sight word, students will get to write their own sentences.

How to Use These Practice Sheets

You might be thinking there is no way some of my students can complete these worksheets.  Here is what you can do.

On the first day, using the first page, project it on the whiteboard. Go over each part of the practice sheet tell them what they will do, then model what they will need to do.

On the following day, pass out the same sheet from the day before (the one you used to model with). Project that same page on the whiteboard, point to each part, explain what they are to do, have them turn to a partner or neighbor to explain to each other what they will, do each part together (students-teacher).

I would continue to do the next few pages together until you think they are ready to complete the work independently. Some students may take a little longer completing this work independently, I would pair them up to work together.

Struggling Students

I know a concern we have with our K-1 students, especially at the beginning of the school year, is that they can barely write a word, much less a sentence. But if the kids don’t get the opportunity to practice writing and learning sight words, of course, they will not learn them. As they begin to attempt to write a sentence, it will not look like one. But as they continue to work on it, they do get better and soon you will recognize some of the words, and before you know it, they will be writing a complete sentence! It’s the same for the sight words, They need different opportunities to see the words, recognize them, and use them.

I am proud to be an educator creating teaching resources to share with you and hopefully ease some of your burdens. I create each teaching resource with love, experience, and knowledge.

Froggy About Teaching on Amped Up Learning

Froggy About Teaching on Teachers Pay Teachers

#sightwordactivities #teachingresource #teachingbundle #teacherlove @froggyaboutteaching