My five-year-old granddaughter Lily showed me the Thankful Tree at her preschool when I picked her up the other day, and by the time we got home she wanted to make one for her home, too. Out into the field we went with her wagon collecting a small branch, leaves, pinecones, tall grasses, an old [...]
Categories: Holidays & Traditions, Schoolwide Issues, Teachers & Teaching |
Tags: classroom traditions, showing appreciation | 
2 Comments »
This week we have a chance to pause, perhaps . . . The great paradox of holidays is that amidst all the busy it can be too easy to miss some small delight that might matter more. JOIN THE CONVERSATION! Ask Chip a question or share your own thoughts! —If you’re reading this entry on [...]
Categories: Holidays & Traditions |
Tags: time for reflection | Post a Comment »
Teach Our Children Well: Essential Strategies for the Urban Classroom, by Helen Maniates and Betty Doerr with Margaret Goldman (Heinemann 2001) is a wonderful rediscovered treasure sent my way recently–one that’s well worth spending a few hours with over the holidays. JOIN THE CONVERSATION! Ask Chip a question or share your own thoughts! —If you’re [...]
Categories: Books, Holidays & Traditions, Teachers & Teaching, The Responsive Classroom® approach |
Tags: Responsive Classroom approach, Responsive Classroom practices, teaching strategies | Post a Comment »
As our developmental book swap continues, I keep getting diverted by great books about appealing themes—first poetry, then music, and now the holidays. But I can’t help recommending two books for Hanukkah, two for Christmas, and one for Kwanzaa before turning back to favorite books for five- and six-year-olds—after a break for a grown-up book [...]
Categories: Books, Holidays & Traditions |
Tags: Amazing Peace: A Christmas Poem, children's holiday books, Clyde Watson, Father Fox's Christmas Rhymes, Father Fox's Pennyrhymes, favorite books for children, favorite children's books, Good to Eat: A Chanukah Story, Hanukkah! Roni Schotter, It's Kwanzaa Time! A Lift-the-Flap Story, Latkes, Marylin Hafner, Maya Angelou, Naomi Howland, reading with children, Synthia Saint James, Wendy Watson | 2 Comments »
Though Thanksgiving is a week past and even those delicious leftover sandwiches are now a fading memory, I wanted to share a wonderful Thanksgiving story as part of our continuing “developmental book swap.” JOIN THE CONVERSATION! Ask Chip a question or share your own thoughts! —If you’re reading this entry on the blog site, click [...]
Categories: Books, Holidays & Traditions |
Tags: celebrating holidays with children, Diversity, Holidays & Traditions, Thanksgiving | 2 Comments »
Every school has its wonderful traditions and ceremonies in the last days of school, with children moving to new grades, receiving awards and recognitions, reading essays remembering their years in elementary school, singing favorite songs, and finding other unique ways to say goodbye to each other and the institution and community that has nurtured them. [...]
Categories: Holidays & Traditions, Schoolwide Issues |
Tags: end of the school year, goodbye traditions, last days of school, recognizing student achievement, singing with children | 2 Comments »
Every school has favorite songs; many schools have a song of their own. At our school, children would probably tell you we have two school songs. One is our own verse of This Land is Your Land, the American anthem written by Woody Guthrie and so beloved by school children everywhere, thanks to Pete Seeger [...]
Categories: Holidays & Traditions, Schoolwide Issues |
Tags: end of the school year, last days of school, magic penny, Malvina Reynolds, school songs, singing with children, Woody Guthrie | Post a Comment »
Toward the end of a busy yesterday at school, leaving a staff leadership team meeting and heading back to my principal’s office with a long unfinished list in my head, I noticed a child knocking frantically on the nurse’s office door surrounded by a group of four or five giggling companions. I then heard an [...]
Categories: Holidays & Traditions, Schoolwide Issues |
Tags: celebrating holidays with children, Holidays & Traditions, Schoolwide Issues | 2 Comments »
Recent Comments