Inspirational Words

Poem of the Day

What is a Teacher?
By: Barbara Cage

A teacher is someone who
sees each child as a unique person
and encourages individual talents and strengths.

A teacher looks beyond each child's face

and sees inside their souls.

A teacher is someone with a special touch and a ready smile,
who takes the time to listen to hear  both sides and always tries to be fair.

A teacher has a caring heart that respects and understands.
Someone who teaches the entire child
and helps to build confidence and raise self-esteem.

A teacher makes a difference in each child's life
and affects each family and the future of us all.

Inspirational Words

Inspirational Words

Giving Thanks to Jesus!

This Bible Class activity focuses on allowing my students the opportunity to reflect on the wonderful blessings they have been given by God and His son Jesus Christ!
In order to thank Jesus for all that he has done in their lives, my students made a flower that reads, "I love Jesus Because..." and each of their flower pedals expresses one reason they love Jesus!

Materials:

*Scissors
*Construction Paper (Different Colors)
*Markers (Different Colors)

Inspirational Words

I have come to believe that a great teacher is a great artist and that there are as few as there are any other great artists. It might even be the greatest of the arts since the medium is the human mind and spirit.

- John Steinbeck

Celebrating Diversity in the Classroom

The school I interned at hosted  a Multicultural Day to celebrate and educate our youth and their families about various cultures that are represented amongst the families at our school. Some of the cultures that were represented were the following: Egyptian, West African, Asian, Latin, Jamaican, Portuguese, and many more!

During the fair, several dishes were prepared for people to sample, live music from around the world was performed by our band teacher on the bass and his friend who is a guitarist, and there were a number of arts and crafts, as well as games students and their families could engage in like calligraphy and origami.

In order to kick off our Multicultural Fair day, we read a few books to help my students understand that we all are different in many ways, but that we should celebrate and embrace our differences because those aspects of ourselves make us special in our own way. The following are the books we read!  

After reading Elmer during Shared Reading, my students completed a writing activity for one of their literacy centers. They had to respond to the following prompt: "I am one of a kind like Elmer because..." 




Materials:
*Tissue Paper (cut into squares)
*Construction Paper (cut into squares)
*Glue
*Elmer Worksheet template)
*"I am One of a Kind" Worksheet
*Pencil

In correspondence with reading Corduroy during Shared Reading, my class completed an activity to demonstrated that they still accept and love Corduroy just the way he is.

 

 Materials:

*Construction Paper (brown and various other colorful paper)
*Scissors
*Glue
*1 Button (for each student)
*Googly Eyes
*Markers

Inspirational Words

Students who are loved at home,
come to school to learn.

And students who aren't,
come to school to be loved.

-Nicholas A. Ferroni

Reading: At Home

In order to promote literacy at home, I use reading calendars so my students can track their reading every night for each month. It is recommended that each student engages in a minimum of 20 minutes if they are in kindergarten through second grade and 30 minutes of reading per night if they are in third through sixth grade, but they are encouraged to read more if they would like. As a way to motivate my students to complete their reading and calendar per night, at the end of each month, I tally up the number of minutes they accumulated individually and the two with the highest amount is recognized in a school wide reading celebration where they, along with the rest of the winners, receive a certificate and a special treat like ice cream.

I also like to post my students' totals for each month on a class bulletin board so that their parents and others at the school can see the hard work my students are doing at home to become better readers!

Poem of the Day

I call my students
"my kids" because
in our year together
they aren't just kids
on my class list,
they become a part
of my heart.
-Anonymous