Social-Emotional Learning Teaching Strategies-Jellybeans by Kiersten Hall

Social-Emotional Learning Teaching Strategies-Jellybeans by Kiersten Hall

by | Product Reviews, Teaching Literacy with Freebies

 

Social-emotional learning is very important to teach in kindergarten, and I have found the perfect book to teach it: Jellybeans. Even the title makes me happy. 

This book lends itself to teaching about kindness, anti-bullying topics, and likenesses and differences.

Rhyming is incorporated throughout, so this is also a skill that can be taught with this book.

Kids have always loved  jellybeans, but now they can actually relate to them. Really. 

All of the jellybeans are different but the same. The book makes it known that we all have different talents, shapes, sizes and personalities but yet we are alike on the inside. 

 

Jellybeans are different colors. 

 

social-emotional learning

 

 

Social-emotional learning is based on acquiring an understanding of inclusivity and diversity.

Jellybeans highlights diversity by using beautiful and colorful illustrations to metaphorically connect jellybeans to people. 

“Much like a dish of jellybeans, each of us brings a different flavor.”

Jellybeans teaches acceptance.   

Children usually see anyone outside of their “normal” as undesirable in some way.

Students start to realize that they are different when it is pointed out to them.

 Because, the book Jellybeans shows our differences in a positive light, it challenges the idea that there is a “normal.” 

We are all unique and have very special characteristics. 

“Be your own jellybean. Be proud of who you are.” This statement from the book is powerful and inherently teaches social-emotional learning to our young students. 

Jellybeans highlights all personality types. 

 

social-emotional learning teaching strategies

  

There is the Sassy Jellybean. We all have sassy jellybeans in our classes. 

There is the Bubblegum Jellybean who is snappy and loud.

Toasty Marshmallow Jellybean is light-hearted and mellow. 

This is a prime opportunity for social-emotional learning to take place.

Social-emotional learning is based on the ability of students to regulate emotions and adjust to their environments.

A study based on a national principal survey “found that students who receive high-quality social-emotional learning instruction have achievement scores on average of 11 percentile points higher than students who did not receive SEL instruction.” 

Kids in the classroom will recognize these emotional traits in themselves. 

Also, traits viewed as negative can be looked at in a positive light.

Jellybeans is a great conversation starter on how to regulate our emotions and appreciate different emotions in our environments. 

Discuss how we can all have diverse traits at various times and some personalities might be appropriate in different situations. 

Role play situations like a football game where it might be appropriate to be snappy and loud. 

 

Lesson Extensions for Social-Emotional Learning:

 

 

  • Have students share with a shoulder partner their similarities and differences.
  • Talk about when you feel like the Sour Cherry Jellybean who is grumpy or the Tutti Frutti Jellybean who is lots of fun. 
  • Brainstorm all the ways that the jellybeans are the same.
  • Role play situations where students may feel a certain emotion that is similar to the jellybeans.  
  • Have students finish the sentence, “ I am……. . This will show the similarities to the jellybeans and other people.

Download the free extension activities here that will allow your students to develop their social-emotional learning in a healthy way. 

I am so glad that I found this book, and I know you and your students will enjoy it.  

Jellybeans is truly an amazing teaching tool that encourages positive behaviors and overall kindness. 

 

 

Buy it now on Amazon or at Wal-Mart. 

Literacy Skills Fall Bundle Review for Kindergarteners

Literacy Skills Fall Bundle Review for Kindergarteners

by | Product Reviews

This is an enormous literacy skills bundle that does a great job of reinforcing major kindergarten skills. For example, each component correlates to several standards that are conveniently displayed.

Boat of Syllables

First is the syllable unit. Teaching kindergartners the concept of identifying syllables is difficult. Usually, students want to stretch out the word by individual sounds instead of chunks of a word. Consequently, they need lots of practice with clapping, songs and fun identification games.

Understanding syllabication helps students with literacy skills. In the Boats of Syllables activity, there are over 20 colorful pictures that turkeys are holding. Additionally, students need to match the number of syllables in each word to the boat that has 1, 2, 3 and 4 on them.

Materials are in color and in black and white. Also, there are cut and paste and color the syllables worksheets at the end with the same pictures from the matching activities. Consequently, I love this syllables unit as it has plenty of opportunities for reinforcement and mastery.

Rhyming Word Identification

The next unit in this bundle is the identification of rhyming words. I am not sure if parents are reading nursery rhymes to their children anymore. As a result, this is now a skill that kindergarten students have a difficult time with.

In addition, this unit has students matching leaf cards to a corresponding tree that belongs to the same word family. Leaf cards have only the pictures on one set. Another set has the pictures with the written word. 5 recording worksheets are included in the set.

Conveniently, this can be used to record answers while doing the matching activities or later for reinforcement. Rhyming helps build phonemic literacy skills.     literacy skills

Medial Sounds

Pumpkin in the middle is a unit that helps students practice the literacy skills of identifying medial sounds. Students usually have an easy time with initial sounds in words followed by ending sounds.

In contrast, middle sounds are the toughest for kindergarten students to hear. This set has colorful and black and white pictures. One set has the word written with the middle letter left blank. The pictures are placed appropriately on wagons. Also, there are pumpkins with the vowel sound that need to be placed in the middle.

Another set of cards has just the pictures with no letters. Students need to match the appropriate vowel sounds to the card. There are recording sheets for both sets. Moreover, I laminated the cards and had the students write in the middle letters on the actual card.

For the picture cards, I line all of the pictures up in numbered order on my white board tray. This makes it easier for students to write down the words on their recording sheets in order.

As a result, students were able to write down the words easier.

Sentence Scramble

Sentence scramble is a great way for students to practice the literacy skills of sentence order and language conventions. Each sentence has about four or five words. Also, each word has a number on the card to indicate the sentence it belongs to.

As a result, it helps to keep the pieces together. There are recording sheets for the sentences. One variation of this activity to differentiate instruction is to write the sentence on sentence strips and place in a pocket chart. Students can match the words on their cards to the words on the pocket chart.

Words For Dinner

Words for dinner teaches initial and final sound identification. This set has colorful and black and white pictures. Additionally, this set has the word written with the initial and final sounds left blank.

The pictures are placed appropriately on plates. Forks with the consonant sounds need to be placed in the beginning and end.

Turkey Sight Words and Letter Match

Finally, turkey sight words is a fun way for students to learn to spell and read sight words.

Frequently used  words are written on turkeys. Students make the words with feathers and adorn the cute bird bodies. As a result, this word work center enhances so many literacy skills.

Letter match is also included in this fantastic bundle of early literacy skills. Students match uppercase letters to the lower case letters.

This fall bundle was a huge success in my kindergarten classroom It is very valuable in keeping students actively engaged while learning basic literacy skills that improve learning.

Each skill is correlated to several common core objectives. We highly recommend ItsKinderTime

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Botley the Coding Robot

Why I Love this 3d Shapes Center (and you will too)

Why I Love this 3d Shapes Center (and you will too)

by | Product Reviews, Teaching Blogs

3d Shapes is a standard that is taught and mastered in kindergarten. As teachers, we do not want to make everything ourselves At least, this teacher doesn’t.

There are many resources on TPT that provide activities for 3D shapes. Sometimes, these activities look great on paper.

Unfortunately, they don’t always translate into engaged learning. So, I am constantly on the lookout for centers that will teach these skills, but most importantly, keep my students busy for more than sixty seconds.

What does Dive into 3D Shapes contain?

  • There are 15 double-sided activity cards that illustrate beautifully how to create 30 different shape creations.
  • The cards start with simple 2D shapes such as triangle, square and rectangle. Then, they move up to more difficult 3d shape challenges. Students copy each card.
  • There are 3 different sized straight sticks in three different colors. 60 sticks make up the entire set.
  • 2 different colored connector balls. These balls have holes that the sticks connect to. The holes are at different angles allowing for the creation of 2d and 3d shapes.
  • There are 20 bendable curved pieces that enable spheres, circle and cylinders to be constructed.

Dive Into 2d and 3d Shapes Pros and Cons

Pros

  • Cards are easy for students to copy and follow the directions.
  • 2d and 3d shapes can be created.
  • This product does a great job of teaching shapes through hands on learning,
  • Children can develop creativity and make other objects.
  • Keeps children completely engaged.
  • This would be appropriate for students aged 4 and up.
  • Differentiation is easy as students can create 2d or more challenging 3d shapes.
  • High durability of pieces made of heavy duty plastic.

Cons

  • Students have some problems inserting the sticks into the correct angled connectors.
  • Connections can be a little loose
  • Not enough pieces for many children to use at one time.

3d shapes

Why I love this center

 If you teach kindergarten, I know you understand why engagement is one of the top characteristics we look for in a product.

Do you want your students rolling around the floor or cutting each other’s hair? Probably not the best usage of time.

I have used this center at least 10 times this year. If I am having a rough day and want my students engaged, I pull out the Dive into Shapes Center.

If it’s a day before a holiday, a windy day or Snack Shack Day, out comes the shape center. Do the students complain and say, “Again???” No, they love it as much as I do.

Do they learn every time they use this product? 100 percent, Yes!!!! 2d and 3d shapes are important standards.

This product reinforces these concepts in a fun and hands on way. Students learn the best when they are actually doing and creating.

90 percent of my class knows what each shape is because they make them regularly.

Final Thoughts

Honestly, I am going to buy another one of these. The main downside of this product is that there are not enough pieces for five students to work on their shapes at the same time.

My students make their shapes with different colored pieces from what is on their cards. It works for them, and they don’t complain.

I would like for them to be able to have enough pieces to follow the cards exactly.

The price of this product seems to be right on for the value. I can honestly say that Dive into Shapes is my go to center for teaching 3d shapes.

 

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Cano Harry Potter Coding Wand Review

Cano Harry Potter Coding Wand Review

by | Parenting Blogs, Product Reviews

Is the Cano Harry Potter Coding Wand the hottest educational product on the market? It well may be. Most every parent wants to find the perfect educational toy. One that will set their child’s heart ablaze with the desire to learn. Coding has become the latest buzz word. We want our children to learn to code. We search for products that will make coding fun. I think Cano Harry Potter may be it.

Easy Assembly

The first step is to create the wand. This is educational by itself. Follow the instructions to build your own magical wand. The entire process takes about five minutes to complete. What child wouldn’t want to have a magical wand that can do cool stuff?

The next step is to connect it to your laptop, tablet or computer. It is LED and connects by pairing through Bluetooth. The Cano Harry Potter app describes everything you need to do to get your wand up and running. The app is based on a map with challenges set in Hogswart, Hogsmeade, and Diagon Alley.

What does it do?

The app teaches you how to maneuver the wand to instantly create magic on the screen.

You are able to make feathers fly, fire sparkle, beans get bigger or smaller. The user can make items transform into something else completely.

These spells are created by code that you can combine or change to complete challenges. As the user completes challenges, they increase in difficulty.

They are rewarded with clothes, accessories, and props that they can use to customize their avatars. The app is very good at making each user feel successful and encouraged by their ability to program spells and create magic.

One great thing is that everything can be saved to impress friends and relatives. Who doesn’t like to do that?

Cano Harry Potter Verdict

Pros

  • Great way to get interested in programming and coding
  • Easy to assemble
  • Impressive and fun for family and friends
  • Difficulty increases
  • Versatility
  • App is very helpful and informative

 

Cons

  • Graphics are pretty basic
  • Doesn’t work on older tablets and Ipads
  • Wand doesn’t make noise

The overall verdict on this product is 5 stars. It is very entertaining and worth the almost 100 dollar price tag. The creators fulfilled their mission of providing an educational and entertaining experience for children and their parents. This passes the age test. This passes the magic test.

Word Work/ Morning Work

Word Work/ Morning Work

by | Product Reviews

Do you want your students to master many kindergarten skills? Do you want them to ace the Maps testing?  Then, this word work practice is definitely for you. 

Let’s face it. Certain skills have to be reinforced consistently and mastered. This takes daily practice with each concept. Beginning sounds, sight word recognition, rhyming words are all practiced daily in this word work resource.

The particular resource that I am reviewing is for Language Arts for the month of October. Math daily practice is also available. I took a gander at those units also, and they are A-May-Zing.

What you get with this product:

word work

  • 22 pages of morning work/ word work practice
  • Each page has numerous skills to review and practice. Handwriting, rhyming, sight words, and beginning sounds are all developed.

 

How I used this product:

word work

  • This can be used as morning work as soon as students arrive to school. A good idea is to bind the pages together in a book for each month.
  • I used this product at my Daily Five Word Work Center. Each page has enough skills to keep the small groups stay busy for 10 minutes. The students colored the pictures when they finished.
  • In addition, I used this work each day for a week. The students became familiar with the structure. They improved their basic phonics skills in this short amount of time.

Benefits of Morning/Word Work

  • The focus skills change each month.
  • Common Core Standards are reinforced daily.
  • Level of difficulty is increased.
  • Students have plenty of time to independently practice ELA standards.
  • Great preparation for standardized tests.

My students enjoy doing this Word Work. There is enough variation that my kindergartners don’t get bored. They feel successful now that they understand the concepts.

It is hard to find daily work that takes the right amount of time to complete. This is perfect. I feel very confident that my students are learning and improving I give this TPT product five stars. It is a great price of 4.00 for the amount of substance and quality you will receive. Find it here.

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Halloween Geometry for K-2

Halloween Geometry for K-2

by | Product Reviews

Halloween geometry comes from an amazing TPT creator. Margo Gentile offers many high quality products.

This particular product is best for early elementary through second grade.

Because Halloween is  very exciting for kids in the early elementary grades, this product is perfect.

Kids always want to talk about their costume during every single lesson.

This product encourages students to learn about shapes while expressing their creativity and imagination.

Halloween only comes once a year. We might as well make the most of it!!

Also, this product encourages artistic expression and most importantly, FUN!!!!!!!

What you get with this product

  • An anchor chart that gives colorful representations of five shapes as well as the definitions.
  • 22 pages of shape-related Halloween activities

 

How I used this product

  • I re-introduced the five shapes using the attractive anchor chart.
  • My students made the pumpkins with the rectangle face. Then, the students cut out black rectangles and decorated the pumpkins. Students could also draw the rectangles.
  • At centers, my class decorated the haunted house by cutting out the different shapes.
  • My students had a great time coloring the pumpkins and making rectangles with the grids. They enjoyed the haunted house activity even more.

Benefits of Halloween Geometry

  • Students are excited about this activity. They love to decorate pumpkins almost as much as adults love to buy pumpkin spice products.
  • Cutting, tracing, shape recognition and art activities are all included in this product that sells for only 2.99.
  • My kindergartners love learning about shapes through these hands-on artistic activities.
  • Students displayed creativity.

The activities last awhile. The students don’t finish in 30 seconds.

Benefits for other grades

  • Students have the opportunity to label and write the shapes that they found in each picture.
  • The art project requires students to follow directions and know their shapes.

 

I was really surprised how much my kindergarten students enjoyed these activities.

I threw in some markers, and I think they could have spent hours using this product.

I put the pumpkins on the bulletin board.

 

They looked adorable.So, we give this product 5 stars.  Find it here.

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