Are You Considering SeeSaw for Documentation?

Are you considering SeeSaw for documentation in your classroom? 

I there are many great options about it as well as a few items to think about! I recently decided to use the program SeeSaw in my classroom to help with documentation of the learning.

I LOVED parent communication with it as you can send out notes and reminders through it. It is easy and efficient to use. My student’s parents absolutely loved looking up their student’s photos, work, and assessments which were shared with them. A few parents checked it regularly and raved about it. Other than that, to be honest, I didn't get any other feedback from the families in my classroom.

Assessment

There is a lot of AMAZING collaboration which can happen with this program! So many people have already created many assessment tools to share with others. These can easily be found in collaborative grade Facebook groups or with friends who you know who have created them. It helps teachers keep assessment simple and not having to worry about reinventing great assessments which have already been created.

Limited or slow internet?
Consider using a computer to search for assessment or add an assessment to SeeSaw. At first I was using my iPad but I eventually found that this was the most effective way to access all my stored information as my iPad ended up slowing down too much. With having two educators in the classroom I didn't always know what had been uploaded and the computer provided the fastest "check" for me to see so I wasn't making duplicates!

iPad problems

Our school had purchased a large allotment of iPads for teacher and student use which we have been very fortunate to be able to use. The unfortunate part of this is that in order to purchase many iPads, the purchasers sacrificed on storage space and our iPads came with the smallest amount of storage space available. Once our Board installed apps were added to them we had next to no storage space left! I found that SeeSaw is a memory hog as it is always trying to access what has been downloaded. As a result, the app crashed all the time

Not CASL approved
Our school board is very diligent in making sure that all our communication abides by the CASL designation and SeeSaw is not CASL approved.

Ultimately, this upcoming year I will not be using SeeSaw because of the CASL. This decision is totally out of my control. If I could, and I had access to better storage on an iPad I would LOVE to continue to use it!

What have your experiences been with SeeSaw? Please comment below to let me know!

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Recognizing Student Achievement

I love recognizing the student achievement in my classroom. From hard work, a great attitude, to the most improved in a subject student achievement is important to celebrate.

There are many different ways to recognize students. Here is a small listing of a few ways I have used over the years in my classroom:

Phone Call Home
Calling home to parents at the beginning of the year is a great way to establish a connection with the families in your classroom. Random calls throughout the school year are especially important for families who you do not see on a regular basis.

Positive praise points
A simple kind word of recognition goes a long way to build character and encourage students in their learning. This is often the most effective and personalized way to acknowledge student growth!

Brag Tags
Brag tags are a fun way to recognize student behavior and learning in the classroom. Students can collect their tags throughout the school year or take them home nightly to share with their family! My students love earning these on a regular basis and it is a great motivator for helping in the classroom.

  

Points
Students earn points through achieving learning goals or through positive behavior with classroom management programs like classroom dojo. Have students compete against themselves so that they see improvement and gains throughout the year!

Before or After School Chats with Parents
Children love it when they hear their teacher proudly share about all the great learning they are doing in the classroom. Parents know whether or not their child's teacher understands them and they love to hear about their child's growth. Instant feedback is a great way to do this!

End of the Year Awards
Student awards at the end of the year are one of my favorite ways of celebrating student achievement in a tangible way for kids to take home and share with their family the growth they have made throughout the year.

If you want to check out the end of the year awards I use to recognize my students click on the link below!

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Kindergarten Fundraiser Ideas

We are always in need of a little extra cash for running our kindergarten program. Most of our fundraising goes towards our outdoor classroom. We are constantly finding new ways to make our learning environment more engaging and, to be honest, outdoor materials wear out a lot faster than our indoor materials.

1. Cupcake Sale
Make cupcakes as a class and sell them!

2. Art Gallery Fundraiser
Buy canvases of various sizes for students to paint at the Dollar store or local art store. Parents come to either purchase the paintings at a fixed price or auction them off. I've heard of action prices start at $20/piece. For a set price I have heard schools successfully sell the artwork for $25. At a fixed price, each parent can buy their own Childs art. Saying that there is more motivation to spend more at an auction.

3. Cookie & Lemonade Stand
Make some cookies with a favourite recipe or two! Make several drinks and sell them to the staff, school or parents at a special event.

4. Prepackaged Popcorn
Prepackaged popcorn is great for selling as there is no prep. Perfect for a nutrition break sale! You just need a place to store the boxes throughout the week.

5. Sell Popcorn to the School
Have a popcorn machine at your school? Put it to use!

6. Book Sale
Parents donate books they no longer need. Then, sell them to students and parents in the community. Students can learn lots by organizing the books!

7. Gift Cards
This can be done around the holidays or all year long. I've seen it successful at some schools and not work at all at other schools.
www.fundscript.com

8. Basket Raffles
One for each class (allow each student in each class to pick a theme)
Christmas Basket
Easter Basket
* Be aware of local gaming licensing

9. Spaghetti Lunch
Make a meal together and sell a limited number of tickets. Looking for a staff meal for a Friday? This might work!

10. Label Fundraiser
Students always need to label their school supplies!

11. Bulb Sale
Perfect for organizing from January to March to help families prepare for the spring weather.

12. Cake Raffle
Our school loved this! The kindergarten teachers organized it and gathered parent volunteers from our kindergarten parents to help facilitate with the organization. We charged $1.00 for five tickets.

13. Movie Night
Although you cannot charge for watching a movie where I live, we can charge a minimal amount for pizza or popcorn. Although this fundraiser will not earn a lot of money, students and parents alike enjoy coming to spend time together at the school and be with friends! An average of $200 per night would be considered great.

14. Pizza Kits
This works best if it is sold to the whole school. Companies such as Little Caesars sell kits to schools!

What other ideas have you found work great for your school?

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Welcoming Families To Kindergarten

Including parents in their Childs education is extremely important. Children feel more comfortable sharing about their school day when they know that their family understands what they area talking about! Parents feel more involved with the school and it becomes a more welcoming place.

I wanted to make a list of activities to invite parents in on a regular basis. Having something fun or exciting makes the activity a bit more engaging for families to want to participate. Our first invitation was for Stone Soup and we did not invite siblings as we knew the participation was going to be huge. Our suspicion was correct and our classes were bursting at the seams! In the future I will consider inviting younger siblings to help ease their transition into kindergarten!

The following is a list of the ideas that I would like to use in my classroom. Several of them I have used in my classroom already. I hope you find this list to be useful. As I come across new ideas I will be adding them.

Play Invitation

Invite parents to learn along with you as a natural part of the day. Some teachers do this quarterly, monthly or weekly. I know colleagues who have invited parents for the last 45 minutes of the day. Others invite them for the last block and I have even heard of a "drop in" style where parents are invited any time of the day to stay for 30-60 minutes at a time. "Welcome Wednesdays" and "Family Fridays" are two coined phrases I have heard of over the years to help parents remember when the visit days are scheduled.

Stone Soup

This is the very first family visit that we had in our class. Students bring in a vegetable and we made a soup together. During the last learning block, families were invited to eat with us and learn with us as we shared our soup! Click here to read about our stone soup experiences!

Games Day

Who doesn't love playing a game? Children love to play and harnessing this energy makes learning fun! Most games have many math concepts which support the math curriculum. Plus, the extra bonus of social/emotional development. Have families bring their favourite to play and swap for the afternoon with other families to learn a new game!

Puzzle Day

Families bring their favourite puzzle to school and build it together with friends. Share/swap with other families for a new challenge.

Math Event

Provide a variety of math games for parents to participate and learn along with their children.

Reading Invitation

Provide a wide variety of books from the library and invite parents to come in to read with their child a wide variety of books!

Baking Fun

Students bake something that they all can enjoy (we have many allergies in my classroom) and share with their visiting family members!

Class Concert

Practice a song or two and put on a concert for your families! Children love to perform and what can be better than an intimate concert? If you've already presented for an assembly, perform the same activity for the families!

Class Play

If your students have created a play, shown an interest in puppetry or love nursery rhymes this is a perfect opportunity to put on a show!

Inquiry Celebration

After an inquiry, students can show off all they have learned to their families!

Multicultural Food Day

Have families bring in a special food from their culture to share with others. Make sure they bring an ingredients list if there are allergies.

Build a Community

If your students have an interest in community helpers, 3D figures, maps or even treasure hunts this might be a big hit in your classroom! Have students create a community and show it off to others. This can be done with Lego, recycled materials or even as a mural that they create together. The options are endless!

Gingerbread Traps

The gingerbread man is on the loose in the school! Challenge parents to make a trap with their child in order to help catch him. When parents come the children can share how they created the trap with each other.

St Patrick's Day Trap

St. Patrick's is on the loose in the classroom! Challenge parents to make a trap with their child in order to help catch him. When parents come the children can share how they created the trap with each other.

Teddy Bear Picnic

Invite parents to a teddy bear picnic with their child. Bring your own food or make it a special event to share food.

Create Gifts

Teaching others to reach out to the greater community is a valuable lesson to teach even young children. We have hosted parents coming in to make crafts that we have donated to local senior homes in our community. Parents and children love to be a part of this and the seniors love to decorate their residence with gifts from our class! In the past we have made wreathes with patterned paintings of our hands and door hang decorations for during the holiday seasons.

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Stone Soup: Inviting Parents to Our Learning

This year we invited our parents to come and learn with us! It was a great experience and a way to build community.

We had read Stone Soup recently and decided as a class that it would a lot of fun to do this together. We ended up having so many vegetables donated to our class collection that we ended up making two soups. One was a potato leek soup and the other was a mixed vegetable soup. We made two versions to accommodate our students due to various allergies in our classroom.

I ended up borrowing my mothers food chopper. All hands were on deck to help out. From cleaning, chopping and adding the vegetables to our pots! The teachers cut the vegetables up into small manageable chunks and then students were able to press them into the chopper. 

We have three learning blocks in our classroom. Parents were invited to our third learning block. Students were learning at various learning centres and parents joined in. When they were ready to eat, they came and sampled our soup. 

The children were extremely proud to show off their learning. They showed of their learning portfolios and many included their parents in their play! Several students showed off how we do math talks to their parents, pretending to be a teacher as their parents participated in the learning as a student. 

Students and parents both enjoyed the experience and many parents were happily surprised to see their child eating and enjoying vegetable soup. We cannot wait to have more learning opportunities like this on a regular basis as we plan on doing this monthly!

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Four Frames Bulletin Board Set

I love creating bulletin boards that represent the learning of the children in my classroom.

Our old curriculum was very subject bound. At times we would have a writing, art, science or math focus on them.  I love the freedom of our new curriculum as it has changed to the Four Frames. There are so many cross-curricular links and I love being able to show that off.

One of my personal favourite ideas is to make a collage of current photos and collages we have made of the learning in our classroom. We have five different bulletin boards in my classroom so we use one board for each frame except we use two to separate demonstrating literacy and mathematical behaviours.

If you're interested in checking these out, click on the image below to pick it up from my store! There are five title pages and four pages with the corresponding expectations for each of the Four Frames. The titles are identical to what I have in the photos above but the expectations look better in the download.

I hope you enjoy it and find it useful for your classroom!

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Play Dough Recipe

I have had many parents bring in recipes of play dough. This is our best recipe that we have found to send home to our families.

Dry Ingredients
2 c flour
1 c salt
4 tsp cream of tarter

Wet Ingredients
2 c boiled water
4 Tbsp oil
food colouring

Mix all dry ingredients together in a bowl.
Mix all wet ingredients together in a bowl.
Mix together.
Knead together.

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11 Jobs for your Parent Volunteers

Looking for ideas for your parent volunteers? There are many ideas that they can help out with and they don't even have to enter your classroom!

Over the years I have noticed that I have had many parent volunteers who would like to help but I often have not have tapped this potential just from being unaware of what they could do and not being prepared for when they enter the classroom.

At School

Art Master
If you have a creative parent who is available during your art period and would like to help out with art activities you can always have them come in. They can collect the art materials, cut out what is needed and even help supervise. They can clean up the art materials at the end of the day, after the activity or during your lunch period (when you may have other supervision duties).

Home Reading Helper
If you have a volunteer who is willing to come in daily, this is a huge support for classroom teachers. There are many ways it can be organized.

1. They supervise the primary students exchange of books, ensuring that cards are returned to the correct book and books are placed back properly into the cart.

2. They bring the cart to each class and quietly call students in small groups at a time in each class to exchange books so the cart is never overwhelmed by too many students.

3. If your volunteer can only come in weekly or once a month, have them sort through the books to make sure they have been returned to the bins properly (e.g., in the right bin, with the right card and facing forward for students to see the cover).

Homework Helper
Having someone to go through the homework bin to check off who has completed their work is a huge time saver. If desired, they could check through the work and make a list of names of students, who still needs support in learning the concepts that were covered in the activity, in order to plan next steps and small group instruction.

Pencil Patrol
When you have young students it can be very tedious time consuming task. A volunteer could come once a week or daily to sharpen your pencils and pencil crayons quickly for you!

Portfolio Patrol
Many classes have student driven or teacher driven portfolios. Often the items inside the portfolio are contained in sleeves which need to be stuffed. Items often need to be sorted and organized. If these items are not "graded" and thus not confidential, volunteers can help organize these!

Reading Buddy
Lots of families do not have time to support their child with reading their home reading nightly for various reasons. Having a volunteer who is willing to come into the school and sit down with your students and read their book daily is a huge support to students and families.

At Home

Home Reading Book Repair Service
Create an Ziplock bag filled with a laminated instruction page for how to repair books. Send a small number of books home to parents with all the tools they would need to repair the broken books once a week. Ask for them to be returned by the end of the week!

Lucky Librarian Repair Service
Just like with the home reading book repair service, send home classroom library books that need some TLC. Send the books home with the required supplies and detailed instructions for how to fix them.

Budding Photographer
Know a parent who is a photographer and is willing to come to events to use your school camera to capture events like class trips or special assemblies? It is extremely hard for many teachers to add this task to their duties during the day and the end result would be appreciated by many families!

Skilled Skyper
Know someone who would love to be read to by your students throughout the day but cannot come to school due to mobility reasons or because they live far away? As long as you have the ability to use Skype or a similar technology, children can take turns read to them live them during your language block!

Super Slideshow Maker
Know a volunteer who loves to make slideshows? Having someone do this for assemblies, special school events, and even end of the year gifts would be appreciated by many parents in the community!

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Encouraging Your Kids to Write

Most kids just aren't that into writing. Except for homework assignments, writing isn't a big part of kids' everyday life at home. Educational advances have taught us however, that reading and writing development are intertwined in learning. The physical act of writing letters and words enhances a child's ability to read. This complementary relationship continues throughout childhood, therefore parents enhance their child's skills dramatically by encouraging the writing habit. So, what can parents do to help their child develop good writing skills during the elementary years?

Make a Menu
Let your kids design and write a menu for special family or company dinners while you do the cooking. Write difficult words for them to copy, or let them look up words in a dictionary. Additionally, pre-made place cards for each guest will make seating go quicker.

Write Lists
Let your Kids write the grocery list as you dictate what you need. They can also write lists to pack for a trip, plan a busy week, prepare for back-to-school or for special holidays.

Write a Letter to Grandparents
Keep a supply of kid note cards and stationery on hand for letter writing. A letter from a grandchild is always a delight; poor spelling and punctuation is overlooked!

Write Thank You Notes
Use that supply of kid note cards and stationary and have your kids write thank you notes to friends and relatives for their holiday and birthday gifts. Everyone will be impressed with their good manners!  Allow writing unfamiliar words phonetically and don’t worry too much over the punctuation.

Write a Picture Story
Draw a line about halfway down on a sheet of paper. Let your kids draw a picture of anything they wish at the top. Then, at the bottom guide them to write a story about the picture using the basic story elements of character, setting, and plot.

Newspaper Reporter Activity
Write 'Who, What, Where, When, and Why' down the left side of a sheet of paper.  Have your child watch a news story or learn about one online, then complete the facts on the sheet of 5 W's. 

Write Steps For Completing a Job
Have your kids list the steps they take to complete household jobs. This could include feeding a pet, making a bed, or sweeping the floor. This requires ordering thoughts into a proper sequence. Take the time to edit the steps with your child so that when a different sibling takes on the task, you know that the job is completed to your satisfaction.

Written Requests
Have your kids submit written requests for presents, parties, and sleepovers. Included in the request should be an explanation of why they need the item, party, and sleepover. This will improve their ability to express their thinking in writing, a chance for you to negotiate the terms, and have it in black and white.

Are your kids learning to spell their name?

Click the following image for 29 fun and engaging activities to support students in learning to write their name including math and arts activities!

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Are You Ready To Ditch the Planner?

Communicating with parents is a vital part of a teachers job especially in the primary grades. Now with digital communication, quick communication is easier than ever.

I'm going to discuss some of the benefits of using Remind instead of a planner.

Click here to learn more about the benefits of communicating with parents using Remind!

2-Way Texting

Reminds new feature allows private 2-way communication between teachers and parents. Set "office hours" if desired to define your personal life. Many teachers have been able to use this successfully without set office hours.

Teaching Benefits

More time can be used to teach content than having students write simple messages with primary students. Help engage students by focusing more on activities they are actively interested in order to develop their confidence and increase their interests in writing instead of writing notes as many slow writers get frustrated with writing and copying messages.  

Spend less of your planning time and class time actually teaching instead of reading and double checking each Childs planner. Yes, I know. We all have students who "claim" they don't have a note!

Other Benefits:

* Be able to prepare for accommodations before school (e.g., a broken arm)

* Quick reminder of missing permission forms (e.g., copy & paste the messages!)

Planner free? Nope! It's not for me.

Not everyone embraces technology with open arms.

Not all schools have access to technology.

Not all families can afford the internet or a cell phone.

Planners still have a lot of validity.

They can help develop printing skills.

Teaching kids how to write lists and sentences.

Kids become more aware of events at school!

These are the labels that I use in my classroom for my communication books.

Do you use this app or a different one like it? I would love to hear how it is working for you and get more feedback from other teachers. Leave a comment below!

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Reading Strategies for Beginning Readers: A Parent Guide!

How can I help my child when they are stuck on a word?

Sound it out! When your child gets to a word that they do not know, the first strategy they usually try is to sound it out. You can support your child with sounding out the words by blending the sounds together. For example, if the word is man, you can first review the sounds in the word, "m...a...n." Then they can blend the sounds together, "mmmmmmaaaannnn." When the sounds are blended together, it is easier for your child to hear the word! 

Remember: Know the Sounds - Blend the Sounds - Read the Word

Sounding out does not always work! So I can use other strategies!

Skip it and move on: Your child can skip the unknown word, finish the sentence, and go back to see if they can figure the word out. This allows them to use context cues to solve the unknown word.

Does it make sense?: When your child attempts to read, and the word they chose does not make sense out loud, they should ask themselves this question. They will then have to try another strategy.

Look at the picture: Often the words your child is trying to read are in the picture! For example, if your child is stumbling upon a word that starts with d and there is a dog in the picture, they can make a "good guess" and predict that it is dog!

Does it look right?: If your child reads the word, and the letters do not correspond to the word they said, they should ask themselves this question. For example, the story says, "The boy went to school," and the child said, "The boy is at school." The letters in the word went do not look right when saying the word is.

Does it sound right?: If your child reads aloud a sentence and something is wrong, they can ask themselves this question. If it doesn't sound right, then it likely wasn't right! "The boy is many friends" does not sound quite right, so they need to go back and check.

Look for small words inside of bigger words: The word and is inside the word hand. This strategy also works well for compound words. The words snow and man are in the longer word snowman.

Look for word families or patterns we know: If a child knows the word it, then they can read sit, hit, nit, fit, etc.

Bossy E!: "Bossy E plays a game, it makes the vowel shout it's name!" When students see an e at the end of the word, the e makes the previous vowel say it's name. For example, car versus care. The a says its name in the word care. Another example is mine. The i is saying its name (i as in ice, not i as in it). Kids love reciting this poem when they see the Bossy E on the page!

 Use Consistent resources: 

I find it is important to have consistent visuals so that the images are familiar to your child. I like to use them in a variety of different ways. These ones I find to be valuable, especially since they can be easily printed and do not require a of ink! They can easily be posted at home, in a homeschool or even in a classroom!






1. Reading strategies posters can be found here.

2. Matching bookmarks to help parents and children with home reading and reading in the classroom can be found here.

3. TEACHERS: This Home Reading Book Log with matching strategies can be found here. I really like this home reading log as it provides an easy way for parents to communicate with teachers how their child is reading, each and every night!

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