Kathy Elstad

Give Yourself A Plus!

Hi Teachers! I don’t know about you, but, discipline was not easy! I was always looking for ideas to help me and the kids. I wanted something fast and easy. I wanted to catch the kids being good! One idea I found was Give Yourself A Plus Charts. I created a cute little chart with 25 squares. When I would be walking or looking around the room, I would look for children who were doing the right thing. I would say the child’s name and “I like how you are working so quietly. Give yourself a plus.” The child would put a + in one of the squares. The other children would look up and see what the child was doing and sometimes change their behavior. Then, I would choose 1 or 2 more children and say, “Oh, _____ and_____ you are working quietly too! Give yourself a plus.” I would try to choose a child who changed their behavior. When their charts were full of pluses they turned them in and got a small reward. It can be anything you want. I stayed away from food. It was like magic what giving yourself a plus can do!!!! I had to make sure I caught EVERYONE doing good!

How Full Is Your Bucket?

Parents/Teachers having trouble with discipline. It’s NOT easy. Teaching children how to behave, how to do the right thing is a challenge!I. I have been both parent and teacher. Discipline was my biggest challenge. Tom Rath and Mary Reckmeyer wrote a book that could be helpful. The book is: How Full Is Your Bucket? for kids. It starts out that Felix and his sister were having some issues playing. Blocks were knocked down and his sister went to Grandpa crying. Grandpa said something strange. He said, “You just dipped from your sister’s bucket.” Felix didn’t understand. So Grandpa explained that everyone has an invisible bucket over their head. When your bucket is empty, you feel bad. When your bucket is full, you feel great. The rest of the book takes Felix through his day and he learns how his bucket became empty and how it became full. In other words, how the bucket works. There is so much opportunity for discussion in this book and from there, the ability to discuss the children’s real life examples. Eventually, a parent/teacher could just say, “How’s your bucket? The child could self-evaluate the issue and maybe, nothing more would have to be said. Watch out! Adults have buckets too! LOL. I saw a whole school do this. It was pretty amazing. Buckets are cool because they are concrete. Children can visualize buckets :)

Ps. I just went on Amazon to check it out and there is another book: Have You Filled A Bucket Today? And there is an adult version too! I’m excited to read the adult version since I am retired :). I love this whole idea of filling a bucket!!!

Plant A Seed, Grow A Story

Writing is a fun thing to do! It’s not always easy to start, to figure out what you want to say. It helps if you have some little seeds to get you started to grow your story. That’s when a LifeBook comes in handy. A LifeBook is where you collect little bits and pieces of your life. (See my LifeBook video). Each of these little bits and pieces becomes a little seed. A little seed to plant and grow into a story.

Step 1: Pick a seed or seeds.

Step 2: Pick someone and tell them about your seed or seeds. (I like to think of this as pre-thinking/prewriting.)

Step 3: Write your story. It’s helpful to write a bit., then stop. Read it out loud to yourself. See how it sounds. Does anything need to be changed? Do it. Keep writing, stoping, reading out loud, changing until your story is complete.

Step 4: Read your story out loud to a friend and talk about it.

Step 5: Now, it’s time to “play” with your story. Reread your story out loud. Stop, when something doesn’t sound right or you left something out, like spelling, punctuation. Make the changes. Keep reading the story out loud, making changes until it’s Just Right.

Step 6: Publish, share, celebrate your story :). Have a party! You’ve worked hard on it.

It’s so important to “hear” how your story sounds out loud. Things that aren’t working become more apparent when said out loud. Reading to others is powerful too! It’s good to know what someone else thinks :)

The Mystery Message

The Mystery Message is like playing Hangman. It’s a fun way to learn important reading skills. It’s what students actually do when reading. Every morning a Mystery Message would be on the chart paper. We would solve the message durning our morning time. I would ask: Does anyone know a word? A child would give an answer. If the answer was correct, I would ask how did they know it was that word? We would continue until the sentence was complete. Then, as a class, they would read the sentence as I pointed to each word. To figure out the words, the children needed to know letters, sounds, reading strategies, meaning — does it make sense. Every day the Mystery Message practices what the children have to do as a reader and it’s fun! I would tie the sentence into something the children were learning or doing —allowing them to use their background knowledge. Here is an example:

Sp _ _ _ _ s h _v _ 8 l _ _ _ . (We were studying insects and spiders.)

Give the Mystery Message a go! It’s fun and sneaky teaching :) :) :)

Book Nooks

Wow! I can’t believe it! I bet you can’t either! School is just around the corner. I believe learning should be fun! During summer, I would look for new, fun ideas. After lunch the children would have silent reading in their seats for 15 minutes. More seat time! I tried Book Nooks. Around the room, there were some cozy little spots— big pillows, an open tent, a little pool in the spring. Each child was given an index card to write their name and decorate it. Then, they would find a place where they would like to read and their card would be taped there. Someone even sat under my dest :). That was their Book Nook for a month. Every month a new card, a new place. They could sit “near” a friend as long as they were reading. If not, they moved to a different spot. They really enjoyed their Book Nooks!

Sunshine kid

Wouldn’t he look cute in your classroom? The children could tell you what a Sunshine Kid is like. Basically it’s classroom rules. Write their thoughts on a chart to refer to when they need to be reminded.

It has POWER. It’s their thoughts! It would be really great at the beginning of the year. I love to catch kids being good. Each child in my class had a Give Yourself a Plus Chart (20 to 25 squares) on their desk. When I was walking around or noticed somebody doing something good, I would say, “Oh Jonny, I love how you are working so quietly. Give yourself a plus.”

The other children heard and started working quietly too! When the chart was full, they earned something. My class loved fruit rollups :)