A Teacher's Idea

Have you ever heard of heart maps ? What are they all about? What do they look like?  A heart map is a visual representation of what a student likes or cares about. This heart-shaped picture uses drawings and words to show the things that "live" in a child's heart waiting for the chance to be revealed by a writing activity. The most important ideas go in the middle and the less important things go in the surrounding spaces.  First mentioned by Georgia Heard in her book Awakening the Heart: Exploring Poetry in Elementary and Middle School,  heart maps can help students attend to writing from a much deeper level than most prompts. Students express themselves more accurately and completely when they use this visual display. in the above picture the child reveals his love of his family as the greatest heart idea and his passion for  food, music, his dog Roxy, travel, nature , music and movies as secondary but also important. These are all the things dear to his heart.

This is my third year teaching grade 1 (second year infants) and I am all the more anxious about my new class. I always look forward to seeing their bright eyes and sunny disposition , at least for the first week. As you know, by the second week of school the novelty of the first week begins to wear and out comes the 'little people'. We see a range of personalities and a rainbow of learning styles that we must cater for quickly! But how do we engage our new students enough to capture their attention from the get go? We use Writing Craftivities!   Below are links to some FREE writing craftivities from fellow bloggers for the varying levels throughout elementary school.                                   

Lately  I have been seeing the word ' glyph ' pop up very often in my searches. From preschool  to university and across subject areas, there it is " GLYPH! GLYPH! GLYPH!. Of course my first thought was that this had to be a Social Studies or History 'thing', but then I came across glyphs in Science, Reading and Mathematics.This threw my ideas into a tailspin! What is this all about?  Well, naturally I decided to do some digging to see what I can come up with, and this is what I found. I hope that today's post is just going to wet your appetite and that you do your own search to see how viable this is as a teaching tool. So let's see what this 'new wave' is all about.   Photo Courtesy  http://littleblogfish.blogspot.com What is a Glyph? The word 'glyph' is short for hieroglyphics which is an ancient Egyptian system of writing. In that system signs were used by scribes to record information in a pictorial

My family and I celebrated three birthdays for the year so far. Lots of love and kisses and lots of cake and ice-cream (I'm feeling that now). Anyway, against the wishes of my significant other who doesn't miss an episode of Hoarders on TV, I KEPT THE CAKE CONTAINERS! (Actually I keep things home temporarily until I can deposit them at school, so he is anxiously awaiting the start of school.)  So I looked around cyberspace in search of some new and innovative ideas on upcyling plastic   cake containers that I can probably tweak for use in the classroom, and I did find some. So today I am going to reveal what I took delight into making. The picture quality is not as I would have liked but I'm sure you understand. :) A Caquarium To make this is very simple. You will need: A piece of styrofoam or cardboard for the base 1 styrofoam cup poster paint shells (or sand) pictures of fish and other aquatic life super stron

I found this thread which all of you can identify with for sure! It is someone's idea of what makes a good principal . The piece is punctuated with a little 'washy' language, but  collectively it is good reading. It was so good that I just had to share.  Click the picture for the link. You will not regret it!!  Direct link to Mamacita:  http://www.janegoodwin.net/2012/04/02/a-good-principals-qualities/

I'm having a sale on my  Back To School Clipart Sets  at TPT. They would be fun to have and exciting to use simply because they were made for you. Until Sunday you can purchase your back to school clipart sets at 10% off . I'm happy to say that the response that I am getting so far has been amazing!   I didn't think that teachers were in need of clipart that much. Nevertheless, here they are! Tell me which one catches your eye ! Brush and Splash Clipart Set Finger Paint Clipart Set Place Value Clipart Set Big Markers Clipart Set Pretty Pencils Clipart Set Many Bottles of Glue Clipart Set  Remember, the sale ENDS on SUNDAY!!  Get ready for Autumn with my Pumpkin Patch Clipart Set!