Minds in Bloom

End of the Year Freebies

2012-05-22T11:50:00.000-07:00

I know many of you are already out for summer, but for those of you still teaching, here are a few fun freebies to use with your students.

Here are 20 fun Would You Rather Questions that all have to do with the end of the school year or summer. Use as discussion starters or writing prompts!

This ABC nature walk would work well on a field trip to a natural area, or as a summertime activity for scout groups, summer camp, or even just for fun with your own children.

Now that testing is over, try these fun Creative and Critical Thinking Activities. They will make sure that your student's brains don't go to sleep at the end of the year.

And finally, for the younger set, here is a graphic recipe for making a single serving of baggie ice cream. This could be used in a mini-unit about ice cream (write poems, make up flavors, do math story problems etc.) or would be fun for scout and camp groups.

Wishing you a wonderful last few days (or weeks) and a delightful summer break!

FREE Interpreting Remainders Handout and Posters

2012-05-19T17:46:00.000-07:00

Division is the trickiest of the four basic operations. Word problems are also quite difficult for many students. Throw in interpreting remainders and you have a Trifecta of Confusion in Elementary Mathland. That is unfortunate, because interpreting remainders is an important skill, and it is also part of the Common Core Standards.

The trick to interpreting remainders is to really understand the problem and what is needed for the answer. It also helps to realize that there are only three choices:

Round it (add one more to the answer so that there are no leftovers)
Drop it (ignore the remainder - it is not part of the answer at all)
Share it (divide the remainder evenly and report it is as a fraction or decimal)

You can help your students to fully understand these choices and how to apply them with this free set of interpreting remainders posters and handout.

If you want more practice with this concept, you may also want to purchase this set of Division with Remainders Task Cards.

20 Teacher End of the Year Reflection Questions

2012-05-14T12:01:00.000-07:00

Last week, I posted 20 End of the Year Reflection Questions for Students. This week, the focus is on teachers. Here are 20 questions to ask yourself about your school year. Some of these would also make good discussion questions for a staff debriefing or for student teachers/interns.

What are some things you accomplished this year that you are proud of?

What is something you tried in your classroom this year for the first time? How did it go?

What is something you found particularly frustrating this year?

Which student in your class do you think showed the most improvement? Why do you think this student did so well?

What is something you would change about this year if you could?

What is one way that you grew professionally this year?

Who amongst your colleagues was the most helpful to you?

What has caused you the most stress this year?

When was a time this year when you felt joyful and/or inspired about the work that you do?

What do you hope your students remember most about you as a teacher?

In what ways were you helpful to your colleagues this year?

What was the most valuable thing you learned this year?

What was the biggest mistake you made this year? How can you avoid making the same mistake in the future?

What is something you did this year that went better than you thought it would?

What part of the school day is your favorite? Why?

What were your biggest organizational challenges this year?

Who was your most challenging student? Why?

In what ways did you change the lives of your students this year?

Pretend that you get to set your own salary for this past year based on the job that you did. How much do you feel that you earned (the number you come up with should be in no way based on your current salary - rather, come up with a number that truly reflects how you should be compensated for your work this year)?

Knowing what you know now, would you still choose to be a teacher if you could go back in time and make the choice again? If the answer is "no," is there a way for you to choose a different path now?

Want to share your reflections or have more to add? Please comment!

Identifying and Helping Students with Sensory Integration Issues

2012-05-09T10:16:00.002-07:00

Guest blogger, Loren Shlaes is a registered pediatric occupational therapist and regular contributor to the special needs blog at Pediastaff (where this post is also being published). This is the final post in a series from Loren about how to help students who may be challenged with attention, sensory, or other issues be successful in the classroom. Most likely, you have at least a few students with these challenges every year, but even if you don't, the information in these posts are relevant to all teachers.

PediaStaff on Pinterest!

This is the last post in the series and I want to thank Rachel and her fantastic website, Minds in Bloom, for giving me the opportunity to share what occupational therapy has to offer the children who are struggling in their classrooms. Thanks also to Heidi at Pediastaff, who suggested the collaboration.

For this last post, I want to help teachers identify who in their classrooms could use some extra assistance from a sensory integration therapist and give them some suggestions for what they can do to help. Very often people don't know about occupational therapy and how it can help, so I am starting by defining who we are and what we do.

What is Sensory Integration/Occupational Therapy?
Occupational therapy assists people who for various reasons cannot meet their responsibilities and are not functioning at their highest potential. A child who is not succeeding in school and can’t meet the grownup's expectations falls into this category.

Sensory integration based occupational therapy can be very helpful to a child who is struggling in the classroom by strengthening his body, correcting delays in his neurological maturation, improving the way his senses take in and respond to his environment, and helping him become more emotionally flexible. School based therapists also work on helping the child with his hand eye and fine motor coordination, handwriting, social skills, and anything else a child needs to succeed in the classroom.

What Does Sensory integration Mean?
Sensory integration refers to the ability to take in, perceive, and act on sensory information in an accurate way. Our behavior is based on our perceptions of the world around us. If a child cannot correctly perceive and interpret what goes on around him, or if his balance is off and his coordination is poor, his behavior and actions are going to reflect that.

Children who could benefit from sensory integration therapy are notable for being unable to meet the expectations of the grownups. They are “out of synch” in the classroom.An “out of synch” child may have some of these issues:
Can’t maintain focus in a noisy classroom
Can’t sit still
Has a hard time internalizing and following the unspoken expectations and routines of the classroom and acts as if every day is the first day of school
Has continual difficulty controlling impulses
Lashes out when others come into his personal space
Refuses to interact with classroom materials such as paint, chalk, clay or glue
Has difficulty transitioning between activities
Is emotionally rigid, can’t roll with the punches, needs to be in control, has difficulty socializing in an age appropriate way
Has a tough time modulating behavior; can go from zero to 60 in a second; his responses are often not appropriate to the situation
Slumps over his desk; rubs his eyes; his handwriting is painful, illegible, and slow, with a poor grasp; he may use too much force and break his pencil frequently; he has difficulty organizing his work on the page
Appears to not understand what is said to him; can’t pick out teacher’s voice over other noise in classroom; can’t recall or follow long strings of instructions
Is easily distractible; looks up at every ambient sound or movement and then has a hard time refocusing
Is clumsy, trips and falls frequently, holds onto the handrail and uses step to step gait pattern on the stairs, can’t do what the other children do in gym or on the playground
Behaves in unexpected or inappropriate ways in noisy or chaotic environment
Is frequently tuned out, not present
Requires constant redirection and guidance from adults; takes up more than his fair share of attention
Does not like to play in groups, mostly chooses to play alone
Sits with a frozen expression in class, especially when it’s noisy
Is obviously bright but can’t get his work done on time; poorly organized
Does not have a flexible attention span; he is either unable to focus at all, or he is so hyper-focused that he is in his own world
Has a short attention span, poor frustration tolerance, is unable to self soothe or self regulate in an age appropriate manner
Is anxious, needs constant reassurance, seems lost and can’t follow directions.

If you have a child who is struggling in your classroom with any of these issues, a referral for an occupational therapy evaluation is in order.

How Can I Help a Child With Sensory Issues?
Here are some easy things you can do to help a child who is struggling:

Children who are easily distracted do best when they are sitting with their backs covered. Providing a child who is bothered by people walking by with a chair tucked into a corner can lower anxiety levels and allow the child to focus.

Children who are very sensitive to noise don’t do well in noisy classrooms. Some things that might help: providing him with a quiet corner to do his work, providing him with earplugs that dampen but don’t block out sound, allowing headphones that play soft music or cancel noise during busy times, providing the child with something to chew (chewing dampens sound by activating the muscles that protect the eardrums).

A child with visual issues needs to sit close to the board and would probably have an easier time reading with his work placed vertically in front of him. This reduces visual distortion and helps the child sit more easily by allowing him to keep his head upright. An inexpensive slant board can be rigged up by taping together several old fashioned ring binders.

Gum, candy, and fidget toys may be the bane of a teacher’s existence, but for a child who has a hard time sitting still or staying alert, they are a necessity. Chewing is grounding, calming, and organizing. Sucking pulls the eyes in close together which makes it easier to see close work. Sucking on a strongly flavored candy like a Warhead or a Tearjerker is especially arousing and alerting.

An object to manipulate, and busy hands makes sitting still infinitely easier, which anyone who has made a chain of paper clips, folded a gum wrapper into an origami shape, doodled a cartoon, or systematically torn the label off of a soda bottle during a long meeting knows only too well.

I send a little ziploc bag of toys to school at the beginning of every school year for the teacher to hand out to my little friends when appropriate. Stretchy frogs, Bucky Balls, and miniature transformer toys are excellent for discreetly keeping hands busy and minds alert. If none of those things are available, there are always drinking straws and paper clips.

If there is room in your classroom, a large cardboard box, like the kind a washing machine comes in, can be a very handy place for any child who is overwhelmed by the busyness and noise in the classroom to regroup. Put a few cushions in there and leave the flaps on so the child can have some privacy when he needs it. No following him in there and forcing him to do his lessons while he’s hiding; let him come out when he’s ready.

Many children with visual issues can’t copy from the board, so an email home with the assignments would be helpful, or he can be assigned a buddy who can make sure he’s copied everything down correctly.

A Final Thought

In order for children to feel safe and secure and to trust the grownups, they have to know that the grownups are strong, wise, and can keep them safe. Don’t be afraid to have high standards, clear expectations, and strong boundaries in your classroom. Your children will love you for it.

If you have been following this series (or even if this is the first post you have read) we would love to hear your thoughts in a comment!

Want to read more from Loren? Here are the other posts in this series:

Post 1: Why children need to move and what we can do to help

Post 2: Good Sitting = Good Learning

Post 3: Why Kids Need Recess and PE for Academic Success

Post 4: Teach Your Students the Right Way to Write

Post 5: Why Some Children Pay Better Attention than Others

Post 6: Indentifying and Helping Students with Sensory Integration Issues

Loren Shlaes is a pediatric occupational therapist who specializes in sensory integration, handwriting remediation and school related issues. She is also a manual therapist and a certified teacher of the Alexander Technique. Her informative site won the "favorite resource for therapists" poll conducted by yourtherapysource.com. Her writing has been featured on Parents.com, and she is a regular contributor to the special needs blog at Pediastaff. She is in private practice in Manhattan.

Minds in Bloom would also like to thankPediaStaff for collaborating with Loren to make this series possible. PediaStaff places pediatric therapists in schools, clinic, and hospitals throughout the country. In addition to their highly informative blog, they also have a huge Pinterest presence with over a hundred boards pertaining to education, child rearing, special needs, and various kinds of therapies. This post can also be viewed on the PediaStaff Blog.

20 End of the Year Reflection Questions

2012-05-07T14:53:00.000-07:00

Here are 20 questions to help you and your students reflect on the school year. You could use these informally for discussion when you have a few minutes or for a more personal reflection experience, take a few of your favorites to use for a survey or as writing/journal prompts. There is also a list of reflection questions for teachers here.

What is something we did this year that you think you will remember for the rest of your life?

What is something you accomplished this year that you are proud of?

What was the nicest thing someone in our class did for you this year?

What was the most challenging part of this year for you?

Where is your favorite place in our classroom (or school)? Why?

If you could change one thing that happened this year, what would it be?

What are three things you did this year to help your classmates?

What are the three most important things you learned this year?

What is something that was hard for you at the start of the year, but is easy now?

In what area do you feel you made your biggest improvements?

What is your favorite part of the day in our class? Why?

What is something you taught your teacher or classmates this year?

Of the books you read this year, which was your favorite? Why?

What was the best piece of writing that you did this year? Why do you think it is your best?

What person at our school has made the biggest impact in your life this year? Why?

What is something the teacher could have done to make this year better?

What are six adjectives that best describe this school year?

Knowing what you know now, if you could write a letter to yourself that would travel back in time so that you would receive it at the start of the school year, what advice would you give your younger self?

When you consider the rest of your life, what percentage of what you learned this year do you think will be useful to you?

What advice would you give students who will be in this class next year?

Looking for more open-ended questions to ask your students? You can find 200 of them in easy-to-use card format right here.

Have more to add? Please share with a comment!

Cooperative Math Problem Solving

2012-05-04T08:12:00.000-07:00

Today I am trading blogs with Laura Candler of Corkboard Connections! You can read her insightful post about cooperative math problem solving right here and then hop on over to Corkboard Connections to read my post about Task Cards.

Cooperative learning can transform a classroom, but it does take a bit of trial and error to be successful. When I was first trained , I used cooperative learning every day, in every subject, and my students and I were having a terrific time! But then came the big state test! Oops! I discovered that as a result of working together all the time, my students lacked confidence in their ability to work on their own. It was an eye-opening experience for me, and I had to step back and reevaluate my teaching methods.

I realized that the missing piece of the puzzle was providing time for students to work alone before working with a partner. This step was especially critical in math because the process of struggling with a problem and trying different strategies can lead to new insights and understandings. If we ask students to immediately turn and talk to a partner, we’re depriving them of the chance to figure it out on their own.

To address this need, I developed the Cooperative Problem Solving (CPS) strategy, which has four important steps. If you use CPS more than once on a given day, it occurs in a cycle like the one shown above. You can download this visual from Teaching Resources if you want to use it with your class.

Steps of Cooperative Problem Solving

Teacher Presents the Problem - Display a math problem on the board, hand out a worksheet, or ask students to turn to a problem in the math book. Read the problem aloud or ask them to read it silently. You’ll find free Daily Math Puzzler worksheets on my Problem Solving page that would work well for this activity.
Students Work Alone - Ask students to work the problem alone, preferably on dry-erase boards so they can easily erase their work and try different strategies. They turn their boards face down when they have a preliminary answer or you tell them that time is up.
Students Work Together - Students compare and discuss answers with a partner or with a team. I generally prefer partner work in math, but if the problem is really challenging, I allow the entire team to talk it over and work it out together. If students realize that their answer was wrong, they may change it, but they must show the work to go with their new solution. They don't all have to agree, but each person should be prepared to explain his or her answer.
Class Discusses Solutions - Reveal the answer to the class and call on students to share how they solved the problem. Instead of focusing on a single "right" way, challenge your class to come up with as many ways to solve it as possible. Allow different students to hold up their dry erase boards or place them under a document camera as they explain their solutions. If students are required to record an answer in a journal or on a worksheet, allow time to do this now, without talking to anyone.

Independent Assessments

Even if your students record the answers on a worksheet, the answers are not a true assessment of their skills. You still need to assign independent math problems on a regular basis. Doing so holds students accountable, not only for completing the work, but for learning the skill.

For more problem-solving strategies and information, read my blog post on this topic on Corkboard Connections. You'll find a link there to a free webinar on Daily Math Problem Solving. You might also consider attending my summer workshop, The Dynamic Duo: Putting the Punch in Math Instruction, because I teach the CPS model in depth in that session.

Do you use cooperative learning in your math class? What are your favorite strategies? Do you think it's possible to do too much cooperative learning? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Laura Candler is the creator of the Teaching Resources website and the author of the Corkboard Connections blog. She's written over a dozen print books and ebooks for educators including Mastering Math Facts, Math Stations for Middle Grades, and the Daily Math Puzzler series.

Why Some Children Pay Better Attention Than Others

2012-05-02T09:52:00.000-07:00

Guest blogger, Loren Shlaes is a registered pediatric occupational therapist and regular contributor to the special needs blog at Pediastaff (where this post is also being published). This is the fifth in a series of post from Loren about how to help students who may be challenged with attention, sensory, or other issues be successful in the classroom. Most likely, you have at least a few students with these challenges every year, but even if you don't, the information in these posts are relevant to all teachers.

PediaStaff on Pinterest!

Even though this example Loren uses is set in a kindergarten classroom, the information in the post applies to all grades and will really help you to better understand what is happening in your classroom.

Scene: A typical kindergarten classroom. Children are working independently and in small groups. The room is busy and noisy. Scents from the cafeteria are wafting up because it’s close to lunch time. Now let’s focus in on three children as they go about their school day:

Child A walks aimlessly around the perimeter of the room. He is occasionally instructed to pick an activity from the shelves and get started on it, or to join other students as they work at one of the small tables coloring and cutting. He picks up a random item and attempts to comply, but as soon as the teacher’s back is turned, he resumes wandering.

Child B has chosen as his activity a picture book. He is sequestered in the corner, turning the pages, and does not appear to be aware of anything around him. When the teacher calls the children to attention by clapping her hands sharply, he doesn’t look up.

Child C is sitting at one of the tables working on a puzzle with several of his classmates. While they figure out where to put the pieces, they chat about what they did over the weekend and compare various sports figures. When the teacher comes over to the table to check on their progress, they look up briefly, nod when she tells them they have a few more minutes before lunch, then get right back to work. When the puzzle is completed, child C sweeps it into the box, gets up, and puts it on the shelf. He then gathers up his lunchbox and his catcher’s mitt in preparation for recess.

Of the three children in this scenario, which one do you think will have the most chance of succeeding in school?

Child A could not focus in the noise and chaos of the classroom and so could not engage in goal oriented behavior.

Child B was able to concentrate on his solitary activity, but only by completely shutting out everything around him to the extent that he was not able to hear the teacher when she called the class back to order.

Child C demonstrated the highest level of attention. Despite the noise and chaos in the room, he was easily able to do several high level tasks at once while retaining a conscious awareness of everything else that was going on around him, filtering out what was not relevant to him and responding appropriately when it was.

This type of attention is called joint or flexible attention. It is the ability to concentrate on some things to the relative exclusion of others. The ability to maintain sufficient alertness and arousal to be available for learning and to attend to what is important and filter out what is not while shifting between several tasks at once is a complex, high level skill.

What is required for a child to be able to sit for long periods, work in a noisy atmosphere, curb impulses, and focus on challenging tasks?

A strong, stable body that supports him effortlessly against gravity.

Good vision. Many children have undetected visual issues. A child who rubs his eyes, can’t copy from the board, slumps down over his work, habitually sits at his desk with his head resting on his hand and turned to the side, reverses letters after the age of seven, flinches when a ball is tossed to him, has a short attention span for tabletop activities, and is resistant to doing written work may be having difficulty with close vision.

Adequate nutrition. Why is it that people know very well that putting second rate fuel in their cars will cause them to run badly, but then routinely feed their children bad food? Second rate fuel in a child’s body will have exactly the same effect. It will cause him to function poorly. A child cannot be at his best on a diet of salty, sugary, chemical laden, highly processed food. Fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and lean proteins provide the nutrition necessary for the body’s ability to support learning, and to grow and develop. Sugary breakfast cereals, artificial juice drinks, frozen pizza, and toaster waffles do not.

A classroom of children who have breakfasted on Froot Loops, been fed a midmorning snack of blue gummi bears and Hawaiian Punch, and then eaten chicken nuggets and fries for lunch, are not being provided with the necessary fuel to focus, attend, solve problems, and curb their impulses. Healthy snacks, and nutritious breakfasts and lunches, along with frequent drinks of water, are essential to the child’s ability to learn.

Good respiration. Shallow breathers and children who are chronically stuffy and have a hard time concentrating because their brains are starved for oxygen.

Sufficient exercise, to develop and strengthen their nervous systems and promote healthy digestion and elimination, and for the manufacture of neurotransmitters that support learning.

Efficient, reliable sensory processing. Sensory processing refers to the way the nervous system takes in and perceives environmental information gathered by the senses. If the child’s nervous system does not adequately filter and discriminate, he is going to have difficulty maintaining his focus because everything is bothering or distracting him. If his nervous system is misinterpreting what is happening around him, his behavior is going to reflect that.

A child who habitually wanders around when it’s noisy, tunes everything out, slumps at his desk, and can’t keep up because he can’t pay attention, is living in a body that does not support learning.

Want to read more from Loren? Here are the other posts in this series:

Post 1: Why children need to move and what we can do to help

Post 2: Good Sitting = Good Learning

Post 3: Why Kids Need Recess and PE for Academic Success

Post 4: Teach Your Students the Right Way to Write

Post 5: Why Some Children Pay Better Attention than Others

Post 6: Indentifying and Helping Students with Sensory Integration Issues

Did you learn something new from Loren? Do you have ideas to add? Please comment.

Teacher Appreciation Jackpot!

2012-05-01T12:00:00.000-07:00

The Jackpot has come to an end and the product below has been returned to its regular price of $5.00. Big thanks to everyone who participated. I hope you were able to download many great products to use with your students....and most of all, I hope you feel appreciated!

The Jackpot may be over, but the Teacher Appreciation Sale continues through Tuesday! Use coupon code TAD12 at checkout to get 10 percent off of everything you purchase.My entire store 20% off which means a total savings of 28% off for you (I know it seems like it should be 30% but it isn't for some reason I don't quite understand)! You might want to look at all those freebies you got and consider purchasing more from the seller's who created the ones you really love while the prices are low.

First, I am in total awe of all of you. Your dedication to your students and to your profession is outstanding. The amount of work you are required to do is ridiculous, and sadly, the amount of appreciation (and compensation) you get is not nearly enough.

That is why I am so very pleased to be part of the Teacher Appreciation Jackpot! There are over 130 TpT sellers/bloggers involved and we are all giving away a product from our stores worth $3 to $8 on Sunday, May 6!

Because so many bloggers are participating, this event will be divided into three grade level groups. Each of those smaller events is being coordinated by one blogger as shown below (I will be participating in the grade 3-6 Jackpot):

PK - Grade 2 - April McNair on A Modern Teacher
Grades 3 - 6 - Laura Candler on Corkboard Connections
Grades 7 - 12 - Adrianne Meldrum on The Tutor House

Below are all of the grade 3-6 bloggers who are participating in the amazing giveaway! Be sure and come back here on Sunday to pick up my freebie (and I promise, it is a good one!), then hop around to all these other great blogs and pick up their freebies too. While you are there, don't forget to check out their blogs and maybe even become a follower!

In addition to this amazing Jackpot, TeachersPayTeachers is having a site-wide sale! Use coupon code TAD12 to get 10 percent off of everything you purchase from Sunday, May 6 through Tuesday, May 8. I will be marking everything in my store 20% off which means a total savings of 28% off for you (I know it seems like it should be 30% but it isn't for some reason I don't quite understand)! If you have things on your wishlist, this will be a great time to purchase them!

~~~~~~~It's Jackpot Day!~~~~~~

My free product is a mini-bundle of three of my best selling sets of Reading Strategy Task Cards: Author's Purpose, Connections, and Summarize It! This bundle is normally priced at $5.00.

Not sure how to use Task Cards with your students? Find lots of ideas (and some freebies too!) at Totally Task Cards.

If you like what you see, please consider following this blog and/or my TpT Store.

Download Your Reading Strategy Task Cards Here

~~~~~~Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!~~~~~~

Attention Signal Ideas!

2012-04-28T20:14:00.002-07:00

Awhile back I asked my facebook followers to share their favorite Attention Signals. They were, of course, awesome and shared a bunch of them. There are so many really great ideas, that I decided to post them here for more teachers to see. I hope you find something you can use with your students!

I like "eyes up" and the students repeat it back to you!
-Kristin Spade

When I say, "Class, class," the kids respond, "Yes, yes?" However I say it, they have to say it back the same way. High-pitched, sing-song, zombie voice, in a rap, whatever. I mix it up every day to keep it interesting! (from Whole Brain Teaching)
-Dallas Anne Thomspon

I use aboriginal clapping sticks and play a rhythm that they have to repeat.
-Kristie Griffiths

‎"3-2-1" or I use a timer
- Danielle Miller

Whole Brain Teaching www.wholebrainteaching.com has some great strategies. Google "Class Yes" for some ideas I use often via WBT.
-Karen Keaton

I clap a pattern and the students repeat the clap back to me.
- Wolfelicious

I say "Freeze, Please!" and everyone has to put their hand up, be silent, and give our quiet signal (school abbreviation "AACL" in sign language)
- Teresa Brown

I got this idea after reading the Chugga Chugga Choo Choo book-I say, "Chugga Chugga" and the class says "Choo Choo". Then I say, "Whistle Blowing", and they say "Whoo-Whooo".
- Erika Hansing Gentry

I have a word for the day or week. When they hear it they know attention to me. The word matches a holiday or something w are learning, ie groundhog, butterfly.
- Bethany Thornton

I have heard a teacher say "apple" and the kids freeze and say "sauce". I have also used "1, 2, 3...eyes on me!" The kids would respond with "1, 2...eyes on you!"
- Rachael N. Duke

One that works at my school is saying "Match me" while patting your head, then "match me" while tapping your ears, then "match me" while placing a finger over your lips in silence. Our P.E. teacher uses it all the time, and the kids love it.
- Bessie Dietrich Goggins

I say "hands on top" and students put their hand on their head and say "that means stop" or I say "peanut butter" and they say " jelly" then we all clap our hands together and say "sandwich".
- Amy Angle-Greiner

I use lots of different ones...
clapping patterns that they have to repeat back to me
the whole brain class~yes response that has already been mentioned
I use pairs of things that go together...I say peanut butter they say jam etc,
I say 1,2,3 eyes on me and they reply 1,2 eyes on you
I say look like a scholar and they clap their hands twice and fold them on their desk, sit still and look at me.
I ask them to show me the fab five and they stop talking, sit still, cross their hands, look at me, and listen.
We have talked about what good listening looks like and sounds like...so I will ask them to show me now what good listening looks like and sounds like.
- Karen Dunning

I say, "Hey! Hey! Listen up! Listen up!" and the students who hear me repeat the chant. If the students didn't hear me say it then they usually hear the other students say it. I then say it again and the students repeat again. The class knows that this means to freeze and listen. It works very well. I've used it during assemblies and it gets the attention of all the students...mine or not.
- Jodi Ruiz

I count down "5-4-3-2-1" while holding up my hand and counting down with my fingers. I start loud on 5 and lower my voice as students start listening. I can vary the speed based on how quickly I need their attention.
- Caitlin Varley

Teacher:Macaroni and cheese students: everybody freeze
Teacher: chicka chicka students: boom boom
Teacher: red robinnnn students: yummmm
Teacher: ba da ba ba ba students: I'm lovin it
Teacher: ready to rock students: ready to roll
Just to name a few. I make sure and set clear expectations that they have to freeze and put their eyes on me for further directions. The kids love it and it works like a charm!
- Meghan Kroupa

Many of these above plus:
ringing a bell and they freeze;
a sing-song echo, "Stop, look and listen!" they repeat;
doing actions while saying, "If you're listening to me, touch your nose" (ear, etc);
action combinations (e.g. touch one hand...See more
- Melissa Lord

I use a lot of the ones above, mostly the whole brain teaching "Class, class / yes, yes".. But my students' favorite is probably when I say "Tootsie Roll, Lollipop" and they say, "We've been talking now let's stop." It took a little practice but my fourth graders love it!
- Meghan Rackley

I scream QUIET! YOU'RE DRIVING ME CRAZY!...only kidding. One more idea: At school assemblies-our principal shouts out BELUGA! AND the students clap their hands and arc them out (like a whale's water spout) while saying Pssshhhh!
-Erika Hansing Gentry

One that's funny for a one time use is...All the smart people look at me. :) An adult did that once at a presentation...all the good looking people look at me.
-Susan Graham

Got more to add? Please tell us with a comment!

Get Those Kids Moving Link Up!

2012-04-26T06:47:00.004-07:00

Are your students having trouble sitting still? Are the they restless or maybe having trouble staying awake for a whole lesson? It can often be challenging to keep students' attention during this time of year, which is why I am having this link up.

Recently, Minds in Bloom has featured several posts about getting kids moving during the day. These posts will tell you why it is important and give you some great ideas about how to incorporate movement into your day:

I know this is a hot topic, because with more than 20,000 page views each, these have been some of my most popular posts. So, I thought it would be fun to see what ideas other bloggers have for incorporating movement into the school day. If you would like to link up, please follow these guidelines:

Link up any blog post (new or older) that incorporates movement into learning. Please do not link up posts that are primarily promotional for paid products (freebies are fine!)

In the "Name" field, use the name of the post.

Please include a linkback to this post either in text format or by using the Move to Learn button above (just copy and paste it into your post and add the link).

Teach Your Students the Right Way to Write

2012-04-25T09:11:00.000-07:00

Guest blogger, Loren Shlaes is a registered pediatric occupational therapist and regular contributor to the special needs blog at Pediastaff (where this post is also being published). This is the fourth in a series of post from Loren about how to help students who may be challenged with attention, sensory, or other issues be successful in the classroom. Most likely, you have at least a few students with these challenges every year, but even if you don't, the information in these posts are relevant to all teachers.

PediaStaff on Pinterest!

Did you know that those fat pencils and crayons actually don't help your students to learn to write? I didn't! I learned so much from reading this post and I know you will too!

When to Begin Handwriting
The ability to write is one of the very highest levels of human achievement. Learning to write requires a great degree of fine motor control and visual motor coordination, along with sufficient attention span and frustration tolerance. Forcing a child to learn to write before these underlying skills are solidly in place is counterproductive.

In New York City, where I practice, children are expected to be able to write at the age of four. In my clinical opinion, this is two full years before they are developmentally ready, and does more harm than good. If a child does not yet have the internal strength and stability to perform such a high level task, in order to comply with the grownups demands, he is going to have to manufacture it by straining and contorting his body in a very unnatural way. This sets him up for a lifetime of poor posture and bad habits.

Why Formally Teach Handwriting?

Pretty much the entire point of an academic education is to enable a child to represent his ability to solve problems and to express his ideas easily and fluently in writing, yet the current educational trends seem to be drifting farther and farther away from actually teaching the child how to do so. In order to be able to write articulately and effortlessly, you have to have internalized the rules and mechanics of writing so that they are completely automatic. Consider what this entails:

· how to correctly hold the pencil

· how to precisely form each individual letter

· how to spell words correctly

· understanding what constitutes a coherent, grammatical sentence

· understanding correct punctuation.

· understanding how to organize your work on the page.

Handwriting, across the lifespan, is a necessary daily skill and a direct reflection of who we are, and don’t let anyone tell you anything different. Children who cannot write easily and legibly struggle in school.

Want to give your pupils the very best start to their academic lives, give them confidence in themselves as scholars, and provide them the tools they need to succeed? Teach them legible, rapid penmanship, so that they can write down their thoughts and do their schoolwork quickly and easily, and enable them to represent themselves and their abilities to their best advantage.

In order for a child to be able to write well, he must be formally taught how to do it. If the child is left to guess for himself how to write letters, the chances of him being able to write fast enough to keep up with his thoughts and to stay legible are poor.

The only way to write both neatly and quickly are to start all of the letters from the top and to have the hand traveling in the same direction. If the child starts his letters from the bottom, or his hand is moving from right to left or he is taking many extra strokes, he can only write neatly if he writes very slowly. When he speeds up, his writing falls apart. So he can either write neatly or legibly, but not both at the same time. Teach him the correct habits of letter formation and you’ve gone a long way to make sure that no one will ever have to force him to redo his homework because no one can read it.

If a child is required to produce written work while he is still struggling to remember how the individual letters are supposed to look or which way to turn the tail on the J, his mind will be so taken up with the mechanics of getting the letters down that he won’t have much mental energy left to formulate or express his ideas. Wait until all the letters are formally taught and the children’s writing is automatic in nature before requiring them to write compositions or keep a journal.

Give Your Students a Great Start By Learning How To Teach Handwriting

If you don’t know how to teach handwriting, I highly recommend that you attend the one day “Handwriting Without Tears” class. If you go to their website, you can either find a class coming to your area, or, better yet, hire one of their instructors to come to your school or district and teach all of you. You will have all the tools you need to become a first rate handwriting instructor. The teaching materials were developed by an occupational therapist who had a special needs son of her own. Her methods are superb and get great results.

Handwriting Readiness Begins With the Ability to Hold a Pencil Correctly

How a child holds his pencil is critical to his comfort while writing for long periods and to his ability to control the strokes. The most comfortable, efficient grasp is called a dynamic tripod. The thumb is bent, the forefinger and middle finger form an open ring, the arm and wrist stay still, and the fingers move in and out of the palm.

Being able to hold and use the pencil this way depends on the strength and stability of the trunk. A strong, sturdy body provides the necessary foundation of support for the refined, controlled movements of the hands and fingers (this is one of the reasons it is so critical for children to exercise and to move their bodieswhen they are young; it develops the necessary internal balance and stability required for the fine motor coordination in the hands and eyes).

Teach the children how to hold a pencil correctly by having them curl up the last three fingers into the palm, pick up the pencil between the thumb and finger with the point facing up, twirl the pencil back into the thumb space with point down, then allow the middle finger to come rest behind. Do this several times a day until it becomes automatic in nature

Preschool and kindergarten teachers can assist with acquiring good pencil grasp patterns by getting rid of all of the markers, fat crayons, giant paintbrushes, and sidewalk chalk, substituting them with one inch nubs of chalk and crayons, and cracking off the handles of the paintbrushes. This way the children are forced to hold all of the drawing, painting, and writing materials in a strong, open pinch. Don’t worry if they can’t manage them very well at first. Developing that strong pinch is far preferable in the long term than the child being able to draw you a nice picture with a fist around a fat crayon in the short term.

Standing at easels to paint and draw strengthens and stabilizes the shoulders, elbows, and wrists. Old fashioned chalk boards are an excellent way to practice letters and draw pictures. The chalk provides plenty of traction, nobody minds broken chalk, and erasing the board in big sweeps is a great activity for little bodies.

Playing with Play-Doh and modeling clay is a wonderful way to strengthen little hands and fingers. I also recommend that the children do lacing, beading, and make craft projects to train their hands and eyes to work together.

Help Children Keep Their Writing Organized by Giving Them Good Writing Paper

Small children have not yet developed the internal structure that allows them to organize their handwriting without lines to guide them, so providing them with lined paper is best.

One problem with conventional dotted paper is that it’s too busy. There are so many lines that the child doesn't know which ones to follow, and so he ignores all of them. The other problem is that the lines are often larger than the child’s finger excursion, so he is having to strain to make his letters as big as the paper is requiring. Blank paper doesn't help the child organize his work.

I like the plain double lined paper utilized in the Handwriting Without Tears program. The child writes his letters within the double lines, which teaches correct sizing and keeps his work very neat and organized.

Want to read more from Loren? Here are the other posts in this series:

Post 1: Why children need to move and what we can do to help

Post 2: Good Sitting = Good Learning

Post 3: Why Kids Need Recess and PE for Academic Success

Post 4: Teach Your Students the Right Way to Write

Post 5: Why Some Children Pay Better Attention than Others

Post 6: Indentifying and Helping Students with Sensory Integration Issues

Did you learn something new from Loren? Do you have ideas to add? Please comment.

Traveling Task Cards: A Fun Game for Multiple Choice Task Cards!

2012-04-21T20:40:00.000-07:00

This game is perfect for the whole class and is great for this time of year because your students will be moving most of the time.

Here is what you need:

One set of multiple choice task cards with enough cards so that each student can have one card.
Prize globes, plastic eggs, snack-sized storage container, or other fun container.
Signs for the answer choices (A, B, C etc.)

Here is how to set it up:

Designate a different section of the room for each answer choice and place a sign there as a reminder. These will the the Answer Stations.
Put one task card in each container.

Here is how to play:

Distribute containers with cards inside.
Have students chant: 5-4-3-2-1...Open for some Task Card Fun!
Each student opens his or her task card, reads it silently and walks to the correct Answer Station.
At the Answer Station, students trade cards with one other student to see if the other student agrees with their answer. Make sure students know it is okay to change Answer Stations at this point if they need to.
Have students sit down, give a thumbs-up or do some other action to signify that they are ready to begin the next round.

To Begin a New Round

Students put their cards back into the containers.
Students leave the Answer Stations and mill about the room, swapping containers with other students. Each student should swap several times.
Teacher rings a bell, or gives some other signal. Students freeze where ever they are and once again chant: 5-4-3-2-1...Open for some Task Card Fun!
Game continues until kids start to get repeat cards or you run out of time.

If you want to add some excitement to the game, have students move differently during the milling time between rounds. For example, they could: hop on one foot, take only baby steps, walk backwards, crawl, pretend they are frightened etc.

If you are looking for more ideas about how to use task cards, check out Totally Task Cards, a website devoted to these amazing teaching tools.

A small confession: I have not tried this game in a classroom. I came up with it today while lying in the sun on my back porch. If you try it with your students, I would love for you to comment and tell me how it went!

Common Core Standards Widget

2012-04-19T22:28:00.001-07:00

Check out this amazing Common Core Widget! I know I will be using it often! You can get it for your site just by using the link below (it's free)! Special thanks to Brian Hopkins at Hopkin's Hoppin' Happenings for posting it on his blog.

Why Kids Need Recess and PE for Academic Success

2012-04-17T18:16:00.000-07:00

Guest blogger, Loren Shlaes is a registered pediatric occupational therapist and regular contributor to the special needs blog at Pediastaff (where this post is also being published). This is the third in a series of post from Loren about how to help students who may be challenged with attention, sensory, or other issues be successful in the classroom. Most likely, you have at least a few students with these challenges every year, but even if you don't, the information in these posts are relevant to all teachers.

PediaStaff on Pinterest!

I am SO excited about this post! Loren tells us exactly why why physical activity really is critical for learning! If you teach at one of those schools that is cutting recess and PE, try showing this to your principal!

Recess and Physical Education are Crucial to Academic Success

Movement is what activates the brain and drives development forward. For this reason, recess is just as important, if not more important, than anything else in the curriculum. Movement is essential to learning. For the first six years of a child's life, his knowledge is based almost entirely on his physical interactions with his environment. His understanding of the world is based on his understanding of himself and his body in relation to gravity. Children need to move in order to develop and refine their balance, coordination, visual motor integration, endurance, and core strength, all of which directly affect their ability to function in school. According to Jean Ayres, the occupation therapist who developed sensory integration therapy, if the brain develops the capacity to perceive, remember, and motor plan, this ability can be applied to towards mastery of all academic and other tasks, regardless of the specific contact.

In other words, preventing a small child from moving and forcing him to sit still for hours on end every day impedes his neurological development, interferes with his health, and impairs his ability to attend and learn.

Exercise and fresh air improve respiration and circulation, which supplies nutrients and oxygen to the brain, making it possible to concentrate. Exercise also increases the body's levels of serotonin and dopamine. The importance of having a sufficient supply of these two neurotransmitters during class time cannot be overstated, since they directly affect the ability to function in school and to learn by allowing for cognitive and emotional flexibility and improving sustained attention to task, impulse control, and memory.

If your district has decided that recess and PE are unnecessary, how can you mobilize your colleagues and the PTA to have them reinstated? Many studies have shown regular exercise boosts students’ IQ’s, and improves report cards and test scores.

Research has also shown that when children have their recess before they eat lunch, they eat more and do better in their classes during the afternoon.

Unfortunately many children are no longer going outside to play at all anymore, spending most of their down time after school and on weekends sitting in front of screens. Parents must be educated on the importance of making sure children run around and play outside every single day. When I can convince parents to take their little couch potatoes to the park on the weekends, they are inevitably thrilled and surprised by how well the children sleep on Sunday night, and how cheerful and easy to manage they are on Monday morning.

Never Cancel Recess!

If you are having serious discipline problems in your classroom, and you are canceling recess as a consequence, you must find a different way to handle it. Your students are acting out because they need to move more, not less! The classrooms that I have visited over the years that have had the worst discipline problems are the ones in which the teachers either consistently overestimated the amount of time they could reasonably expect the children to sit still, or punished their students by keeping them in during recess.

Want to read more from Loren? Here are the other posts in this series:

Post 1: Why children need to move and what we can do to help

Post 2: Good Sitting = Good Learning

Post 3: Why Kids Need Recess and PE for Academic Success

Post 4: Teach Your Students the Right Way to Write

Post 5: Why Some Children Pay Better Attention than Others

Post 6: Indentifying and Helping Students with Sensory Integration Issues

Did you learn something new from Loren? Do you have ideas to add? Please comment.

20 Ways to Keep Your Students' Attention

2012-04-17T11:35:00.001-07:00

As the end of the year approaches, it can be more and more challenging to keep your students' attention. Brain Breaks are important, but there are plenty of things you can do within a lesson to keep kids from day dreaming...or worse yet, nodding off. Here are some ideas:

Desk Switch: Students have ten seconds (count down from ten) to find another desk to sit in that is in a different part of the room than his or her normal desk. Students stay in that desk for the rest of the lesson. Why? Two reasons, first switching desks gets them up and moving. Second, sitting in a different place in the classroom will give them a different perspective and wake up their brains a bit.

Position Switch: Have students turn their chairs around and sit straddling the chair with their hands resting on the back (girls in dresses can sit side-saddle). While good sitting is important, a few minutes of sitting differently can keep kids alert. Another idea is to let kids sit on their desks with their feet on their chairs (which they will love!)

Wander as you teach. If you don't need to be glued to the board, then wander throughout the classroom. Most kids will track you, which will keep them alert, and if you see someone having trouble focusing, you can stand right next to him or her for a quick perk-up.

Give each child a small ball of play dough to fidget with if you are doing a lecture-type lesson.

Throw students a foam ball when calling on them to answer a question.

Randomly and frequently ask students to repeat what you just said.

Choose a fun word, such as "Shazam!" or "Bazinga!" Every time you say the word, students must use both hands to hit the tops of their desks two times and then clap two times. Say the word several times throughout the lesson. It will wake everyone up!

If you have experience in theater, improv, or just like to have a little fun, teach a small portion of the lesson with an accent or imitating someone famous.

With younger students, teach with a puppet or give a voice to a stuffed animal.

Throw in a joke every now and then.

Use student volunteers. Any time you can call a few kids up to the front to be part of a demonstration, do it. It can be as simple as having them hold up signs (rather than displaying the same information on the document camera) or writing an answer on the board. Better yet just call on students to help rather than asking for volunteers.

If a lot of kids look sleepy, stop talking and write a simple command on the board such as: "Put both hands on your head." The silence should alert day dreamers that something is going on. Follow up with two more written commands. Make the last one something with sound just in case a few kids haven't caught on, such as, "Clap three times." Continue with your lesson.

Wear bright colored clothing. If you want to keep their attention, you should be the most interesting thing in the room.

Have students explain something they just learned in partners.

Require a response from everyone, rather than calling on one student by using individual white boards, or having students signal yes or no with sign-language.

Teach outside. This of course, could have the opposite effect with students being even more distracted, but on a beautiful day it could be a nice break for everyone to sit under a tree a tree with a clip board rather inside at a desk.

Animate those PowerPoints! If you don't have time or know how to do it yourself, you could probably find a helpful upper-grade student who could add some animation to a PowerPoint that already has the content.

Require students to take notes. Every so often, have them do a quick, related sketch in the margins. For example, if you are learning about Abraham Lincoln, give them 30 seconds to draw log cabin in the corner of the paper.

Throw in a higher level thinking question that is related to the lesson (but not part of your objective) and have a quick discussion. For example, if you are learning proper ways to use a comma, ask the students which punctuation mark they think is the most important and why. Questions like these are also fun to put at the bottom of a worksheet and have students answer on the back.

Let students know at the start of the lesson that they will need to write down three things they learned as their "ticket out the door."

This post was written in response to the Five-Star Blogger Challenge posted on The Organized Classroom Blog. Take a peek at the link up there to see more great Five-Star Blogs!

Did you get a new idea? Have one to add? Please let us know with a comment!

7 FREE Creative and Critical Thinking Activities

2012-04-15T13:26:00.000-07:00

Looking for some fun after-testing activities? Try these seven ready-to-use printables! This is actually a mini-sampler as each activity has been pulled from one of my other critical and creative thinking skills products. They all work fine as stand-alone activities and will give you a taste of some other great activities available in my TpT store.

Download yours for free right here!

Totally Task Cards Giveaway

2012-04-13T15:45:00.000-07:00

This Giveaway closed on April 18. Congratulations to these 60 Winners!

Winners were contacted by email and each given the prize of one set of Questioning Task Cards. I know there were only supposed to be 25 winners, but so many people entered that I increased the number of winners to 60. Thank you to EVERYONE who entered. I really appreciate you visiting Totally Task Cards and also the many, many positive comments you left.

Last week I launched Totally Task Cards; a website devoted to task cards! In order to celebrate the launch, I am giving away 25 sets of my new Reading Strategy Questioning Task Cards.

To enter, just do the two things below:

Check out Totally Task Cards.
Fill out this form.

One entry per person. Winners will be selected at random and announced by first name right here on Wednesday, April 18. Task Cards will be sent to the winners the same day.

For those of you who love to take pictures, I would love to have a few more for the website. If I use yours I will give you $10 of products from my TpT store as a small thank you. I will, of course, block out the students' faces before publishing. Please send pictures to reallyrachel@gmail.com.

Advice from the OT: Why Good Sitting = Good Learning

2012-04-11T02:06:00.000-07:00

Minds in Bloom is once again honored to welcome guest blogger Loren Shlaes, a registered pediatric occupational therapist and regular contributor to the special needs blog at Pediastaff (where this post is also being published). This is the second in a series of post from Loren about how to help students who may be challenged with attention, sensory, or other issues be successful in the classroom. Most likely, you have at least a few students with these challenges every year, but even if you don't, the information in these posts are relevant to all teachers.

PediaStaff on Pinterest!

This second post is all about why is is so very important that children sit properly. It turns out there is much more to sitting than I had ever imagined!

Posture is Critical to Learning and Attention

If you walked into your office and saw that the top of your desk was so high that it came up to your chin, and your chair was so tall that your legs were dangling, you would immediately go to human resources and demand that it be fixed. Sitting in such ill fitting furniture would prevent you from being able to work. You wouldn’t be comfortable, you couldn’t rest your arms on your desk or your feet on the floor, and you couldn’t really see your computer or your books and papers. But I walk into classrooms all the time and see exactly that: children sitting with the tops of their work surfaces level with their chins, and their feet not touching the floor.

If children are expected to sit still and pay attention for long periods, the furniture they sit in absolutely must fit! Please, make sure that the table heights in your classroom are about at the height of the bottoms of the children’s ribcages. When they are sitting, shoulders should be relaxed and forearms should be resting comfortably, with elbows bent at a 90 degree angle, on the tops of desks. Chairs should allow feet to sit flatly and firmly on the floor with hips, knees, and ankles bent at 90 degrees.

Tips For Helping Children Sit Up Straight

Sitting still, although it looks easy, is a complex, high level skill. The ability to extend the body effortlessly against gravity, curb impulses, filter out distractions, and focus on a challenging task for long periods of time depends on a high degree of neurological maturity and physical strength and stability.

If a child’s trunk and spine are weak, and he is struggling just to sit up or to sit still, he is using his mental and physical resources in order to comply with the grownups’ demands, and not channeling them into learning his lessons.

There are several things we can do in school to help children maintain good posture and alignment, which will support the work of their hands, eyes, ears, and brains for learning:

Frequent movement breaks Movement fires the nerve in the inner ear that tells the muscles to extend strongly against gravity, and the brain to alert itself to the environment.
Make sure the children’s feet are resting flat on the floor There is a mechanism that sends a postural signal to the spine to extend upward when there is pressure on the bottom of the feet.
Teach children to make sure that their sitting bones are pointing straight down while they are in their chairs. Do you know where your sitting bones are? Put your hand between yourself and the chair, and feel the large, pointy bone in your pelvis that protrudes downwards. When the feet are firmly touching the floor and the sitting bones are pointing directly downwards in the chair, a strong postural signal is sent up the spine.

Unfortunately, many school chairs are designed and constructed so that the chairs are easy to stack and store, rather than with the children’s comfort and posture as a first priority. It is actually difficult to sit in these chairs correctly. Sometimes an easy fix to this is to stick a couple of paperback books under the chair’s hind legs.

You can have the children do some simple postural/alerting exercises before they begin doing handwriting by having them stomp their feet on the floor, lift their arms above their heads,out to the sides, push and pull, then shrug their shoulders up as high as they can, pull them back, and drop.

Managing Circle Time

Many children have a hard time with circle time. Sitting on the floor for extended periods is difficult. Sitting in such close proximity to others without furniture to define personal space can feel threatening. Being forced to sit “criss cross applesauce” for more than a few minutes can be painful, and promotes bad posture. Children often do better sitting on their heels, or lying on their bellies with their elbows propped up, than with their legs crossed in front of them.

Don't let children W sit

If you see a child sitting with his legs straight in front of him and his arms propped up behind him, he is expending so much energy just to stay upright that he has little left over to attend to the lesson. He is sitting that way because his back isn’t strong enough to hold him up. W sitting is harmful to the joints and impedes the child’s development, and should be discouraged. Give the child a chair or have him lie on his belly or sit on his heels instead.

If there are a variety of seating options for circle time, like regular chairs, meditation cushions, and floor chairs like the Nada Chair, the children can choose what will work best for them. For a child who really can’t manage circle time, sitting next to a grown up, a little away from the other children, with his back supported, and a little fidget toy, or even a little activity like lacing or bead stringing to keep his hands busy, is best.

Circle time should be kept short and focused. If you find yourself continually reprimanding the class for not being able to sit still during circle time, it is time to move.

For more valuable information about managing circle time, please see this post on Loren's blog. If you have a student who really struggles during circle time you may also want to check out, Why Can't My Child Behave During Circle Time?

Be sure to check out last week's Advice from the O.T. about why children struggle to sit still.

Want to read more from Loren? Here are the other posts in this series:

Post 1: Why children need to move and what we can do to help

Post 2: Good Sitting = Good Learning

Post 3: Why Kids Need Recess and PE for Academic Success

Post 4: Teach Your Students the Right Way to Write

Post 5: Why Some Children Pay Better Attention than Others

Post 6: Indentifying and Helping Students with Sensory Integration Issues

Did you learn something new from Loren? Do you have ideas to add? Please comment.

FREE: 8 Reading Response Posters!

2012-04-10T09:13:00.001-07:00

Use these bright and colorful, free reading strategy posters for centers or classroom decor.

Posters included:

Author's Purpose (using the PIE acronym)
Summarize It (Using a SUM acronym that I created)
Connecting (Text to self, Text to Text, Text to World)
Compare and Contrast
Inference
Questioning
Visualizing
Predicting

UK/AU spellings are included at the end of the document.

These will also go well with several of my reading strategy task card sets.

This post is part of the linky party at The Cornerstone, lots of great freebies there, take a peek!

20 Three-Minute Brain Breaks

2012-04-08T10:19:00.001-07:00

Wednesday's guest post about why kids need to move from pediatric occupational therapist Loren Shlaes was so popular that I decided to follow it up with a list of Brain Breaks you can use with your students. These are great to use anytime your students are feeling restless and are struggling to pay attention. Most of these will only take a few minutes, and then you can get back to the lesson with your students ready to focus on the lesson at hand.

5-4-3-2-1. In this simple game, students stand up and the teacher (or leader) has them do five different movements in descending order. For example the teacher would say: "Do fivejumping jacks, spin around four times, hop on one foot threetimes, walk all the way around the classroom two times, give your neighbor one high-five (pausing in between each task for students to do it).

Trading Places Have students stand behind their pushed-in chairs. Call out a trait and everyone who has that trait must change places with someone else (students who do not have the trait stay where they are). Examples: "Everyone with curly hair." "Everyone who ate cereal for breakfast." Everyone who is wearing stripes."

Six Spots Number six spots around your room from 1-6. Have students each go to a spot of their choice. Choose a student to roll a die (if you can make a big one out of foam, it adds to the fun). All the students at the number rolled must go back to their seats. Students that are left go to a new spot and the die is rolled again. Continue until only a few students are left.

Mingle, Mingle, Group! In this game students mill about the classroom saying, "mingle, mingle, mingle" in soft voices until the teacher says "Groups of 5," at which point the students must quickly group themselves into groups with the correct number of people. Students who are left over must do three jumping jacks before the next round starts. The teacher can call out any number for the group size. You can also add rules such as: as soon as a group is complete, all members must sit down in a line.

Dance Party! Put on some rockin' music and dance! If you can make the room semi-dark and have a black light or other special effect, your kids will love it!

Freeze Dance! Similar to Dance Party except that every so often the music stops and students must freeze and hold the position they are in until the music begins again.

Name Moves Students stand behind their chairs. In turn, each student says his or her name accompanied by a special movement. For example a student might say, "Kayla!" while dramatically dropping to one knee and doing Jazz Hands. After the student does his or her move, the rest of the class says the students name in unison and imitates the move. Then it is the next student's turn.

Keep it Up: Students must keep a beach ball from hitting the ground. Add two or three balls to make it even more fun.

Simon Says An oldie but a goody!

Movement Songs Sing a song with whole-body movements such as, Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes, Father Abraham, Toe-Knee Chest-Nut, Shake Your Sillies Out (Raffie), Grand Old Duke of York, My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean etc.

Recorded Movement Songs Older students might enjoy a simple Zumba routine, YMCA, or the Macarena. Littler ones will love Sesame Street's A Very Simple Dance to Do.

Animal Pretend Younger children will enjoy pretending to be various animals (or even objects such as lawn mowers or airplanes). Call out a few in sequence.

Would You Rather Ask a would you rather question and have students show their choice by moving to one end of the room or the other. Have a few kids share why. Here are 20 free Would You Rather Questions to get you started.

Find it Fast Call out a color or other trait (something round, something made of wood), and students must find an object in the room that fits the trait and get to it quickly.

Physical Challenges Challenge students to do something physically difficult such as standing on one foot with arms extended or this one: grab your nose with left hand and grab your left earlobe with your right hand,then quickly switch so that your right hand is on your nose and your left hand is grabbing your right earlobe. Yoga poses could also be a good variation.

Plates Give each student a paper plate. Students must walk around the room balancing the plates on their heads. If a student drops his or her plate, the student must freeze until another student picks it up and places it back on the student's head (while keep his or her own plate in place, of course).

Line Up! Have students line up using a specific criteria such as age (use day and month, not just year), height, alphabetically by middle name, hair length, etc.

Limbo All you need is a long stick and a pair of kids to hold it. Music is nice too.

Human Knot Divide students into groups of about eight students. Have students each grab right hands with someone who is not directly next to them. Then do the same with left hands. The challenge is to untangle and become a circle without releasing hands.

Jump Skip Counting Have students count by twos, fives, tens etc. while jumping with each count. You could also practice spelling words this way.

Please note that I did not come up with all of these out of my own head. Here are some of the sources I used:

Michigan Department of Education: Brain Breaks (great resource!)
Pro Teacher: Quick Brain Breaks
I Want to Teach Forever: Teachers Share Their Best Brain Breaks and Contest Winners

Here is a nine-minute video about how to manage Brain Breaks in your classroom. Good ideas on how to quickly transition and group students. Try searching Brain Breaks on YouTube for ideas and dance routines you can use with your students.

For more terrific Brain Breaks, check out Energizing Brain Breaks

by David Sladkey

What works in your classroom? Please comment with your ideas!

Advice from the OT: Why it's so hard for children to sit still and what you can do about it

2012-04-03T14:51:00.000-07:00

Minds in Bloom is so very honored to welcome guest blogger Loren Shlaes, a registered pediatric occupational therapist and regular contributor to the special needs blog at Pediastaff (who were instrumental in making this series possible). This is the first in a series of post from Loren about how to help students who may be challenged with attention, sensory, or other issues be successful in the classroom. Most likely, you have at least a few students with these challenges every year, but even if you don't, the information in these posts are relevant to all teachers.

Visit PediaStaff on Pinterest!

This first post focuses on something that most teachers struggle with around this time of the year...helping students to pay attention! I learned a great deal from this article, and I am sure you will too!

If You Want Children to Sit Still, You Have to Let Them Move
Children need to move their bodies in order to be able to stay focused and to learn. A good thing to remember is that a nerve in the inner ear, called the vestibular nerve, serves to tell the body how upright, aroused, and present to be in direct response to movement. The only way to activate the vestibular nerve so that it can do its job is to move.

Normally, a small amount of movement, like a quick stretch and turn of the head, will make the nerve fire and talk to the muscles. When children are fidgeting and finding it difficult to stay still, they are unconsciously attempting to activate that nerve in the inner ear to improve their ability to sit up and focus.

Are Your Students in the Just Right State or in a Sensory Needs State?

When we are forced to sit still for long periods, we are either in one of two states: the just right state, meaning that our bodies can support our ability to stay present by remaining effortlessly aroused and upright, or in a sensory needs state, which means that we cannot attend because our bodies need something to help our brains stay alert and ready to learn. The just right state doesn't last long when we are forced to sit without moving, unless what is happening in the room is highly interesting and engages our full attention. Attention spans in young children are quite short. Most of the time, they require constant movement and novelty to stay engaged.

Some children don’t have responsive vestibular nerves. If a child has had a series of ear infections, for example, and has had tubes placed in his ears, his vestibular nerve may not fire with just a little bit of movement. His vestibular system requires a great deal more intensity before it will respond and tell his muscles to sit up. This child will have an especially hard time sitting for long periods without being allowed to get up.

How Can I Keep My Classroom Alert and Focused?

Think of movement as quick bursts of brain fuel, and try to top off your students’ tanks frequently. Transitions should always be accompanied by some sort of structured movement activity as a class. Perhaps a quick “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes” with the accompanying gestures, or put on some rhythmic music and lead the class in a round of old fashioned calisthenics, like pushups, toe touches, or jumping jacks. Accompany this with a drink of water and the children will be able to stay much more alert and in the right physical state for learning. You’ll feel pretty good, yourself!

If you teach the children to recognize when their attention is flagging and they need to do something for themselves in order to stay present, they will have the tools to recognize when they drifting out of the just right state and into the sensory needs zone. They can then employ a discreet sensory tool to get themselves back.

Here are some suggestions for things that students can do at their seats to help them pay attention:

play with a fidget toy
suck a hard candy
stretch
squeeze and relax all of your muscles
rub your hands on your legs
give yourself a big hug
quietly blow out all of your breath and hold it, then let the next breath come rushing in.
For a child who needs to chew to stay grounded, a few inches of clear plastic fish tank tubing on the end of his pencil is easy and discreet. This can be easily and inexpensively purchased in a pet store or hardware store. If the child doesn't like the flavor, you can soak it in vanilla extract for a day or two.

Here is an easy way to make a great fidget toy: take a good, thick balloon, and, using a funnel, put some cornstarch and a big squirt of glue inside. Knot it up and massage it until the cornstarch and glue are mixed.

If the child requires more intensity than what he can get from sitting in his seat, he can get up and get a drink of water, or do an errand for the teacher (Carrying a box of books to the principal’s office is great exercise).

Disc-O-Sit cushions are another very nice way for a child to be able to sit still at his desk and wiggle around at the same time. Making a few cushions available for anyone who wants them will allow the children who really need them to gravitate towards them without feeling singled out.

Want to read more from Loren? Here are the other posts in this series:

Post 1: Why children need to move and what we can do to help

Post 2: Good Sitting = Good Learning

Post 3: Why Kids Need Recess and PE for Academic Success

Post 4: Teach Your Students the Right Way to Write

Post 5: Why Some Children Pay Better Attention than Others

Post 6: Indentifying and Helping Students with Sensory Integration Issues

Minds in Bloom would also like to thank PediaStaff for collaborating with Loren to make this series possible. PediaStaff places pediatric therapists in schools, clinic, and hospitals throughout the country. In addition to their highly informative blog, they also have a huge Pinterest presence with over a hundred boards pertaining to education, child rearing, special needs, and various kinds of therapies.

How do you handle wiggly kids? We would love to hear your comments and ideas!

12 Activities with Plastic Eggs

2012-04-01T09:06:00.000-07:00

Journal Prompts

Write a journal prompts on small slips of paper and put each one in an egg. Have each student pick an egg and write about what ever prompt he or she gets. Create your own, or print off some of these 200 prompts terrific writing prompts.

Math Line Up

Write a different math problem on small slips of paper and put one in each egg. Make sure each answer is different. Have each student pick an egg and solve his or her problem and write it on a personal whiteboard or a piece of paper. Then the students must form a line from the smallest answer to the largest. This would be particularly challenging using fractions. The game can be played again simply by having the students return their math problems to their eggs and redistributing the eggs.

Synonym Search

Write synonyms on different slips of paper. The synonyms can be in pairs or you could use several synonyms (for example, big, huge, gigantic, vast, enormous etc.). Each student takes an egg and draws a picture to represent his or her synonym. Then students walk around the room holding their pictures. The challenge is for the students to use their pictures to find their matching synonyms. No talking allowed. Here is a good synonym resource. This could also be done with antonyms.

Task Card Egg Hunt

Print Task Cards on regular printer paper so that you can fold them up. Put one in each egg and hide like a regular hunt. Students first hunt for eggs, then write or discuss answers for the cards inside the eggs that they found. This would be great in small groups for discussion. Hide the eggs again for a new game!

Getting to Know You

Have each student write down one interesting fact about him or herself that is not widely known and put it in an egg. Redistribute the eggs and either have each student try to find the person whose fact he or she has, or have students take turns reading the facts out loud and guessing who the person who wrote it is. This last one is probably better in a smaller group.

The Great Egg Rolling Experiment

In small groups or pairs, experiment rolling eggs down an inclined plane. What happens if you put something (or several things) inside the egg? Hypothesize about what might happen. Test the hypothesis. Draw conclusions. Compare results between groups.

What's Inside?

Have each student bring an egg home and fill it with exactly ten of the same small objects (beans, paperclips, pennies etc.). The objects must make a noise when the egg is shaken. Group the students into pairs and have each one guess what is in his or her partner's egg by shaking it and by asking yes or no questions. When everyone is done, discuss what kinds of questions worked the best. Give everyone a different partner and try the game again. This would make a fun introduction to inference.

Counting Change

Put a different number of coins in each egg and have each student pick an egg. In the first round, each student counts his or her change. In the second round each student finds a partner and they add their change together to get one total. In the third round, each pair of students finds another pair and the four students add their change together to get one total. Continue combining groups and change until the entire class has added its change together to make one total - the teacher may need to facilitate the last round or two. Here are more Math Activities.

Egg Story

In small groups, have students decorate the eggs to make them into characters in a story (or part of a story) you are reading. Glue a craft stick to the back of each one Then have students use the eggs like puppets to act out the story. Older students love this. Here are some other ways to respond to Literature.

Math Matching Center

Write a different math problem on the outside of twelve eggs with a Sharpie. Write the answer to each problem in the cup parts of an egg carton. Students match each egg to its answer.

Egg Weighing Center

Fill six different color eggs with different amounts of pennies or other objects so they will all weigh different amounts. The student lines each egg up from lightest to heaviest, first by picking up each egg and guessing, and then using a scale to check his or her guesses. Use a recording sheet with six empty eggs to record guesses.

Egg Book Project

For this project, each student uses twelve eggs to represent different parts of a book. The student may put a small object in the egg or a picture to represent a character, setting, important object, or idea. The student decorates an egg carton to go with the book (being sure to include the title of the book and the author). You could also have the students each write a few sentences about the contents of each egg - what it is and why it is important to the story. Here are 15 More Terrific Book Projects.

Bonus:
Two of my awesome teacher friends have freebies using plastic eggs. Check out Sally at Elementary Matters for her Egg-cellent Freebie and Teachers Pay Teachers for Easter Egg Showdown by Laura Candler!

3 Free Game Boards!

2012-03-29T10:04:00.001-07:00

Lately, several teachers have asked for ideas for different ways to use Task Cards. I am working on a project to address that question more fully, but in the meantime, I created these three game boards that you can use for reinforcing skills in almost any subject. Each game includes student instructions along with the game board. Just glue them into file folders, add task cards or flashcards, and markers and you are ready to go!

Fly to Finish is great for pairs or small groups. Students must first answer a question from a card before rolling the dice to take their turn.

Race to the Moon can be played with as many as eight students. Everyone answers each question at the same time on individual white boards, so there is no waiting for turns. Even better, there can be more than one winner!

Trading Places is similar to Chinese Checkers. You will need a lot of flashcards or task cards for this one since each player takes many turns. This would be good for reviewing basic math facts with flashcards or foreign language vocabulary words.

I hope you can use these free game boards! If you have other creative ways that you use task cards, please comment and tell us about them.

April Fools Day Writing Activity

2012-03-27T21:57:00.001-07:00

Free Spring Giveaway for Followers

2012-03-24T00:40:00.000-07:00

This giveaway has been completed. Thanks to all 652 of you who participated and got this pack for free! If you missed the giveaway but would still like the Spring Creative and Critical Thinking Packet, you can purchase it for just $3.50 on Teachers Pay Teachers.

Welcome to Minds in Bloom! If you are new, I hope you will take a look around.

I am doing this giveaway because I want to say thank you to my amazing followers and hopefully gather a few more. I created this twelve-page Spring Packet especially for this giveaway.

The Basics

Follow me in the at least two of the four ways listed below and get this set of Twelve Creative and Critical Thinking Printables for free!

What you do:
Choose at least two ways to follow from below. If you want to follow in more than two ways, that would be stunning, but you only need two to get the freebie.

Follow (Join) Minds in Bloom by using the link on the right sidebar.

Follow Rachel Lynette on Teachers Pay Teachers here.

Follow (Like) Rachel Lynette on facebook here.

Once you have followed, fill out this simple form to tell me what you did.

What you get:

My sincere thanks and this set of 12 Spring Creative and Critical Thinking Printables, which you will receive in your email box within 24 hours of filling out the form.

Important Stuff

This giveaway is valid until midnight Pacific time, Wednesday, March 28, 2012 and is open to all teachers, para-educators, homeschoolers, tutors, and anyone else who works with children. If you have already done the four things above, please fill out the form and consider this to be a small token of my thanks for your ongoing support.

More details for those who are interested

If you a frequent visitor to Minds in Bloom then you know that I very rarely ask readers to follow me in any way whatsoever. I am not a fan of frequent contests and self-promotion. I believe that if I offer useful content and worthwhile freebies, people will follow. This has resulted in steady growth, which is great. However, every so often, it is nice to give things a little push, which is why I am requiring folks to follow instead of just giving the product away outright, which is what I usually do with my freebies.

Why should I follow you in four different places?

I chose these four because each one is important in its own way. Even though you only need to follow in two ways for the freebie, I believe you will benefit from following in all four.

The Minds in Bloom Newsletter comes right to your email about once a month. In addition to teaching tips and a few product notifications, there is almost always a freebie and sometimes it is one offered exclusively to newsletter subscribers.

The Mindsin Bloom blog is where I post actual actual articles with all kinds of teaching ideas, tips, strategies, etc. with a focus on higher level thinking skills. I post freebies here too. It is super important to me that Minds in Bloom offer you, as a teacher or parent, real value, which is why I rarely host contest or write posts that are essentially ads for my own products.

Facebook is for quick announcements, links to freebies (both mine and other's), flash sales and freebies, and other information and links you might find useful or amusing. We have a nice little community there - come join us!

TeachersPay Teachers is where I sell teaching products and post freebies. If you follow me there, you will get an email notification every time I post something new, whether it is a free product or one for purchase. This is a great way to make sure you don't miss anything.

If you really love to follow, I am also quite active on Pinterest and I do have Twitter and Google+ accounts which I may someday become inspired to do something with.

That is pretty much it! Remember, you must the form in order to get the free product. Please share this post, I am hoping to give away hundreds, maybe even thousands of these!