Dare to Dream

What do you remember about your earliest years of school?  Stop for a moment, close your eyes, and think, what do you remember?

I remember walking home from school with my friend Susan, and the jam sandwiches her Nana made us every day.  I still love jam sandwiches!  I remember Douglas A. singing along with the Winnie the Pooh song at school.  I remember the blocks, dress ups, boxes of junk for creating with, and lots of recess time.  I remember Mrs. Potts, my first and second grade teacher, reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and the pants and hat she wore.  I remember we had lots of windows, and a big carpet on the floor, and I remember the school library, and the books we took home to read.

All the things I remember about my early learning years are fun things.  School was a fun place to go, full of marvelous, child appropriate things to do and see.  We learned our letters and sounds by singing fun songs (my favorite was Rrrrrrrats are rrrrrrrunning, rrrr, rrr, rrr, because we were encouraged to roll the r, and it was fun!).  I learned to read with the Spot books by Eric Hill, and it was just a natural part of what we did.  I don't remember any flashcards or worksheets, although I do remember we had some mimeographs once in a while, and they smelled funny!  I loved everything about school, and knew even at 5 years old that I wanted to be a teacher.  (That was going to be my day job, until I could be a famous singer like Sally Boyden from the Johnny Young Talent Time show!)

When I graduated college I got my dream job, teaching first grade!

 What could be better?  I had ducks and fish and butterflies in my classroom (I do NOT recommend ducks by the way!), and we read and read, and I think we all had fun while we learned.  Sure, there were spelling tests, and timed math tests every week, and end of year tests, and May was always a whirlwind of end of year activities and deadlines and requirements, but I loved it.  Yes, over the six years I taught in the public school system we did add more requirements every year.  A few more forms, "the test" style questions for first graders - to prepare them for third grade testing, and yes, we did start using scripted math and language arts curriculum, but I could supplement them with my own ideas and activities.  It was still good, but, there was an edge to things, something that didn't feel right to me.
                                     
When my youngest was born, a couple of my teacher friends suggested I should stay home and teach my kids and theirs, and when I thought about it, I said yes.  The money and benefits didn't come close to comparing to a professional salary, but the value of being at home with my children, and of making their early childhood years amazing was well worth it. 

Friends told me stories of the continuing changes in the school system, and I was glad to be out.

I think the best thing about being at home with the children, was that I realized I could teach at home, and do it however I wanted.  I got to examine my core values and beliefs, and then live them.  We took long walks to the playground every day, collected dandelion flowers and stomped in puddles.

                                  

We watched the big trucks work on the road (from a safe distance), and started taking a lot of field trips.  We visited the museum and the zoo, the stock shows and the library, city parks and anywhere else that had child friendly venues where we could have real, hands on learning. 

My children learned to read, not with flashcards or worksheets, but with my friend Spot the dog, Eric Carle books, and marvelous books on tape, like The Dragons Are Singing Tonight by Jack Prelutsky.  I learned a tremendous amount about how children learn, and developed my program around that.  I'm pretty opinionated about early childhood, because I've spent the last 16 years deeply and passionately involved in it.

All of this is my backstory for this week's TpT seller's challenge:
                                      
When I saw this blog topic this morning, I thought, what?  Yes, I do dream big, but to say that I'd like to make a living doing TpT full time seems a bit... well... ordinary.

I'm very lucky right now to be able to TpT full time, and I really hope that I can build my business to the point that I feel justified with this as my only job, and that I can make a meaningful financial contribution to my family.  I'm living the dream, working toward that goal!

The thing is, not everyone is living the dream.  Many, many excellent and outstanding teachers are still working in our public school systems, doing the best that they can for their students, within the constraints that have continued to grow, sometimes to the point of choking out the fun.  My educator friends tell me they can no longer do many of the things that we know are best for children's learning: cook with them, do craft projects, read poetry, be kids!

My dream, what all my 22 years as an educator have prepared me for, is to make it easier for teachers and students to learn in playful, joyful, age appropriate ways.  I know time is short, and I'm so very sorry, I know the constraints are tight.  Finding fun learning activities that also meet the various standards, whether that's Common Core or state standards, is getting harder.  The joy of learning and of teaching is all too often being sucked right out of our schools, in the name of rigor and testing.  I hear of early childhood classroom where you can't find a toy kitchen, dress up bin, or sand and water table, but worksheets and flashcards are at hand.  I hear of elementary schools with little or no recess time, limited physical education and music time, and I wonder how our kiddos manage!

I've been so very blessed to spend the last 16 years playing on swings, digging in the garden, reading books aloud, and doing jigsaw puzzles with children, who have learned a love of nature, understanding of plant and animal life cycles, mathematical and logical skills, and to love reading and how to get along with each other.  Now I want to share that joy with as many teachers and children as possible, to help teachers put joy and playfulness back into their classrooms, without compromising learning goals or breaking the bank.  I want my teaching materials to help make teaching and learning a little easier, and a little more fun. I want to make a difference!

Thank you so much to Third in Hollywood, Teach Create Motivate, Sparkling in Second Grade, and Peppy Zesty Teacherista for hosting the TpT sellers challenge, and posing this thoughtful prompt!

Valentines Day

Are your students getting excited about Valentines Day?  It's such a fun holiday to celebrate - there's good things to eat, crafts to make, and kind words spoken or written.  A lot of the children seem to show up in red, pink and purple clothes, often with hearts on them.  Valentines day can be a lot of fun, and even although I don't have a class of kids to prepare for it this year, I thought I'd share some of the things we've enjoyed doing in the past.

One of the things my kiddos have always loved to do is cooking.  There are a lot of fine motor skills and life skills involved, not to mention measuring and counting.  For our Valentines day party I like to have the children bake cupcakes - and they are all too willing to oblige!

After our snack, our party begins in earnest.  A lot of parents come and join us, so I like to take the opportunity to show the parents what the children have been learning.  Valentines is a great week to talk about the letter V in preschool, and you can see one of our letter crafts behind this happy kiddo.

Another way we show off what we've been learning during our party is with a modified game of pass the parcel.  I grew up in Australia, and pass the parcel was a popular party game.  It's a bit like musical chairs, but with a gift.  While music plays, the gift is passed around a circle of children.  When the music stops, whoever is holding the parcel takes off one layer of wrapping.  There are always a lot of layers!

 Between each layer, I put a note on a heart shaped paper, with directions for something for us to all do.  Some are simple and fun, like go hug a grown up (I don't say parent, in case someone doesn't have a parent attending, but of course it's their own grown ups they go to first!)  We also have directions like "say something nice to the person next to you" or "smile at someone you like."  My oldest students are usually able to read these simple directions, but if they can't, there's also former students who come back to visit, brothers and sisters who want to join in and help.

Other directions include reciting learning songs, jumping up and down while we count to 20 - just quick little things that are part of our daily routine precisely because they help the children learn and remember.

Of course we have the obligatory Valentines containers.  I use paper sacks that the children decorate at school earlier in the week.  That also is a lesson.  I show them a bag I made years ago.  One side has layer upon layer of ribbon and stickers, hearts and sparkles - way, way too much.  We talk about the word "gaudy", and how you can't see the things that are on there because there is too much.  The other side is what I call "tasteful" - enough decorations, not bare, but not ridiculous either.  Check out their bags, I think all the kiddos hit the target!

Many of the children write their friends' names on treats or Valentines that they bring.  Sometimes parents help them, but not always.  Either way, they take turns reading the names of their friends, and delivering their Valentines.  Reading names is a great way to begin reading, what could have more meaning than your own name, and the name of your friends?  They see each other's names in our classroom so often that even the 3 year olds can usually figure out each name - even if only by the first letter.  Oh yes!  We practice looking each other in the eye and thanking our friends for each card or treat, no matter how small. It's easy to get overwhelmed in the giving and receiving, but gratitude is not only a social nicety, but I think a big part of feeling happy.

Our Valentines learning gets another boost about a week later.  Those of you who work in early childhood will smile and understand totally!  My husband usually gets me roses for Valentines (I'm a lucky wife!), and I enjoy them as long as they last.  There comes a day though when they are no longer attractive on my kitchen counter, and it's time to move them on.  Not to the compost or the trash can, oh no!  We can sort and graph with them!

But we still aren't done.  The children love to pull the petals off, pretend with them, give each other flowers... those roses still have at least 2 days of learning left in them!

 Eventually we take them outside and inevitably they are thrown up in the air, danced in, gathered and dumped, loved upon until they are no longer even pretty scraps.  Some end up in sandcastles and "soup", others dry up  on the playground and settle into the mulch. 

I've used this activity with my own kiddos for several years, and they love it.  I hope yours do too!  It's an easy emergent reader that has children reading "This heart is ___ (color)" - a simple text to help them work on color words.

If you're planning your Valentines Day learning, I hope you'll also check out my Valentines Day resources.

Happy Valentines Day everyone!

It's beginning to look a lot like... Halloween!

It has taken me a little longer than usual, but I have started our Halloween themed learning fun.

Look carefully at the pictures - at first glance it looks like we're doing nothing but playing, but we've worked on sorting, matching, fine motor development, seriation and more.  See if you can spot the learning!

 Our Halloween sensory bin has lots of small plastic goodies in it: rats, spiders, witches' fingers, rings, finger puppets, etc., plus some "test tubes," a pumpkin box, small trick or treat can, and a purple people eater.  Everyone needs a purple people eater!  The children like to pick through and collect items - note the rat collection at the bottom of the picture.  The rats are having a rat race - her words, not mine!  They sort, collect, negotiate for the desired pieces, and get a sensory play time all at once.  This was by far the most popular toy at school today, and was in constant use whenever I made it available.

 I find it very interesting that the children all want containers to put things into, and love to see them working on their fine motor skills and pinch grip - very important muscle development that is a precursor to writing.  We need strong finger muscles to hold a pencil.

 Our fall themed sensory bin was another very popular item today.  This child found 4 different sizes of scarecrow, and ordered them from biggest to smallest.  (That's ordering or seriating, an important math skill.)

 These children sorted pumpkins and leaves into the dishes - including the various gourds that don't look like jack-o-lantern pumpkins - demonstrating that they did indeed learn about gourds on our field trip to Green's a couple of weeks ago.  No standardized test necessary, they're showing what they know!

 Our jack-o-lantern felt board is mostly for fun - but also involves matching, shape recognition, and another fine motor work out.

 Our math centers for this week are various mats I created to work with Halloween foam shapes - available all over the place at this time of year.  The colorful Halloween themed shapes engage the children - they saw them on the shelf while we were eating lunch, and asked what they were.  When I told them they were for math games, the kiddos actually cheered!  Yes, our math lessons are so exciting, that children cheer for them!

 We sorted by size, shape, and color, and also matched and extended patterns.

Never underestimate the power of play - or the learning involved!

Looking Back...

I wrote yesterday about winding down my school, and getting ready for new learning adventures.  Letting go of 21 years of teaching materials is not a quick or easy process... letting go seldom is.  Going through every shelf, every notebook, each piece of paper is an overwhelming task that winds through a lot of "Memory Lane" territory.

I thought I'd go through pictures, to find a few for the post I was writing yesterday, but that brought back so much, and looking through thousands of pictures over several hours helped me see some themes that have run through many of the 21 years I've spent working with children.  I got teary... several times... and found myself thinking about the song Seasons of Love, from Rent.  The song asks: how do you measure a year in a life?

I wonder, how many birthdays have my kiddos celebrated with me?  How many cupcakes have I helped children to bake?

My best guess is about 108 birthdays... which is about 2600 cupcakes!

How many field trips have we been on?

 My estimate? about 1500 field trips!

How many meals have I served?  Breakfast, lunch and snack for 15 1/2 years... this number blows my mind...

99,900 meals!!!

How many goats have we milked?

That one is easy, just one!  We all got to hold a baby kid, and then took turns milking the momma goat - that was a pretty memorable field trip!


How many pumpkins have the children scooped the guts from, and carved at school?

 One jack-o -lantern each year... next week will be my 16th daycare Halloween, and our 16th pumpkin to carve...

How many Easter egg hunts have I hosted... and how many eggs have the children and I stuffed for them?

Like the jack-o-lanterns, one egg hunt each year, so 15 egg hunts.  When I first started I had the children bring a dozen eggs each, but over the years I've kept the empty eggs, and reused them... I have about 400 of them now (anyone want to buy 400 pre-loved Easter eggs?!)... My best estimate is that we've stuffed and hidden about 3500 eggs.

What about masterpieces - or "mess"terpieces?

... a LOT!  I've uploaded 819 to our Artsonia page in the last 2 years alone.

How many children have I taught?  That number is easy to estimate.  I've had 132 daycare kiddos, and about 120 first graders, so around 250 children have called me teacher.

Even as some of these numbers are pretty impressive, they don't tell the most important parts of the story of my school: things learned, friends made, and smiles shared. 

Those are numbers no-one can know,  but my heart tells me that they are enough. 


If you are a family member of one of "my" kids, I want to thank you for sharing your child with me!  I'd also love for you to leave a comment about what your child(ren) remember about their time with me.