Toddler Activities - Nature Walk with our SENSES

With my little one around, I have taken a big break from the classroom. However, the teaching hasn't stopped :) I am excited to start posting play based activities for parents and teachers of toddler aged children.

My 21 month old has really shown an interest in the sounds, smells and tastes around her. Today we went on a nature walk around the yard using our senses.

What you'll need:

• Jar with a lid
• Small journal
• Pen
• Magnify glass for extra fun :)
• Paper
• Glue

We got our things, pen and journal in toddler's hand, and mommy with the jar. Singing to the tune of "Going on a bear hunt", we (mommy) started singing "We're going on a nature walk, what will we find".

As soon as we stepped out of the house the birds were singing. I prompted my little one with "listen" and "what do you hear".  She shouted out, "bird"!  So we both drew a bird in our journal. As we would walk, I would prompt her with what do you hear, see, feel, smell or taste. The things we could feel we would collect in our jar.

Smelling mint

The nature walk ended in some blackberry bushes while we used our favorite toddler sense of TASTE! Mommy also got stung by a bee. Very exciting ending.

Eating berries

We completed the activity by making a collage from the collectables in our jar. I was a bit hesitant to bring out the paint because my toddler is notorious for ingesting art supplies. It was a hit and nothing went in the mouth!

The Crayon Box that Talked

"The Crayon Box that Talked" is a great book to read aloud at the end of Black History Month to celebrate the concept of diversity. 

In my classroom I have each student decorate a gift box where they list a character trait that is their unique gift to the class. You can find the full lesson plan from the Teaching Tolerance website listed below.

http://www.tolerance.org/exchange/what-can-we-learn-box-crayons

Lucy Calkins Writing Workshop - Realistic Fiction

Teaching students to write realistic fiction can be fun and so entertaining. To start the unit, I give each student a picture of a character to name. Then I have the students brainstorm the characters hobbies, likes, dislikes and even family life. Finally, we discuss how an interesting story always has the character face a problem. After a few days of writing, we discuss how we can make our stories more powerful with a strong solution. 

Each writing day starts with a mini-lesson from Lucy Calkin's Common Core and Writing Workshop Curriculum where I teach and model the expected learning outcome. 

Celebrating Martin Luther King Jr.

There are so many wonderful ways to celebrate MLK in the classroom. First, I like to read aloud Martin's Big Words to my students so they can have an understanding of who MLK was. After the read aloud we discuss his dream for the world and how he achieved it. Then I read We Dream of A World to the students and we brainstorm as a class, our dreams for the world. This is a great activity for students of all ages, I've done it with students as young as first grade. The discussion and end project leave me in tears year after year. My first year teaching I created a podcast with the students work and shared it at the school's MLK assembly.

MLK Podcast-We Dream of a World

If you can't locate the book Martin's Big Words, you can click on the link below for the book on video.
TeacherTube

Celebrating Black History Month

Black History Month is right around the corner. This is an important time for teachers and parents to discuss the topic of race with their children. Children are never too young to hear about the African-American Civil Rights era, and the best way to do this is through picture books. Here are just a few of my favorites:

Class Meetings

Class meetings have been part of my weekly lesson plans since my first year teaching. In the beginning, I started with 1 hour meetings once a week. They were productive, but too long and I knew they could be better. After taking a course in Positive Discipline, I was able to have two 30 minute meetings twice a week. These meetings were productive and effective. Class issues and individual problems were addressed, solved, and goals were set for the following week. I have included charts that i've used as visual prompts and a lesson plan/structure for class meetings adapted from Jane Nelsen, author of the Positive Discipline. 

Class Meeting Lesson Plan

Problem Solving: The Wheel of Choice

Tattling can get out of hand in any classroom and problem solving can take up plenty of teaching time. Taking the extra hour out of your day to introduce the Wheel of Choice to your students, will save you hours in your week and help tremendously with classroom management. This is a great activity for the beginning of the year in classrooms and can be adapted to work in the home too. It will also teach your students the life skill of problem solving independently, and will build one's self-esteem.

Click on the wheel of choice for the full lesson plan.