Posted by Chip on December 14, 2009
Holiday traditions are developing some new wrinkles as the wrinkles of the generation that carried the torch for their forbearers become more evident with age.
Case in point—a colleague who is the principal in one of the district’s elementary schools where I now serve as curriculum director related this tale to me. She happened to be [...]
Categories: Holidays and Traditions |
Tags: car trips with children, communication, family, family ties, Holidays and Traditions, travel with children | 
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Posted by Chip on December 4, 2008
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.” In searching for books that as accurately as possible tell something about the “first” Thanksgiving in New England, some from the vantage [...]
Categories: Books, Holidays and Traditions |
Tags: celebrating holidays with children, Diversity, Holidays and Traditions, Thanksgiving | 2 Comments »
Posted by Chip on October 28, 2008
No matter what grade you teach, this week gives you both the opportunity and the need to be highly creative. That’s what it takes to focus the children’s attention on necessary academic instruction while their minds and imaginations are filled with Halloween (even though you might not celebrate this holiday at your school) and the other [...]
Categories: The School Year |
Tags: Holidays and Traditions, talking with children | Post a Comment »
Posted by Chip on May 2, 2008
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 adult [...]
Categories: Holidays and Traditions, The School Year |
Tags: celebrating holidays with children, Holidays and Traditions, The School Year | 2 Comments »
Posted by Chip on March 31, 2008
It’s Tuesday, right? You’ll be fixing breakfast and your eight year old will be screaming in the bathroom at the top of her lungs and telling you to come quick! You tell her to hold her horses, you’ll be there as soon as you flip the eggs and she’s screaming she can’t wait, C A [...]
Categories: Holidays and Traditions, The School Year |
Tags: April Fools, Holidays and Traditions, The School Year | Post a Comment »
Posted by Chip on February 11, 2008
(Thanks to Fifth Grade Teacher Amy Bernard for her “friendly letter lesson” from Loser, for inspiring this idea!)
Here’s a little fun twist for Valentine’s Day that you may or may not have tried: A quick contest, open to any student in the school (or by grade level, etc) to promote empathy and understanding.
RULES: Students may [...]
Categories: Holidays and Traditions, The School Year |
Tags: celebrating holidays with children, Holidays and Traditions, Jerry Spinellli, Loser, promoting empathy, read-alouds, reading with children, The School Year, Valentine's Day | 2 Comments »
Posted by Chip on January 10, 2008
A Welcome Back notice on our cyberspace newsletter and calendar alerts parents to a school-wide literacy activity that we hope will open discussions at the dinner table and in the car about a book everyone grades 3-5 in the school is reading:
Happy New Year!
A new reading activity for a new year:
This week we are beginning [...]
Categories: Books, Holidays and Traditions, Schoolwide Initiatives |
Tags: favorite children's books, Holidays and Traditions, observing children, read-alouds, reading with children, Schoolwide Initiatives | Post a Comment »
Posted by Chip on December 18, 2007
During the frantic holiday season let’s pause once in a while to watch the children in their moments of sheer joy beyond the moment of opening gifts or our viewing them through the lens of a digital camera.
We see the word JOY everywhere during the holidays. After all, it rhymes with …__ __ __, a [...]
Categories: Holidays and Traditions |
Tags: celebrating holidays with children, Holidays and Traditions, observing children | Post a Comment »
Posted by Chip on December 13, 2007
Recently, at a staff meeting at our school, we had a wonderful presentation about the effect of trauma on learning and the way the brain reacts in times of stress for children who have experienced trauma in their young lives. It had been a particularly hard day at school, and it was just the first [...]
Categories: Holidays and Traditions, Managing Behavior, The School Year |
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