Coming to a Mailbox Near You

 

Someone's been making Christmas cards...



Mrs. McNosh Hangs Up Her Wash and other Rhyming Fun

The concept of rhyming seems to be particular difficult for my little English Language Learners this year.  So recently I took a couple of weeks to try to move them in the direction towards grasping the concept and being able to produce rhyming words themselves.  I happened to have on hand Mrs. McNosh Hangs Up Her Wash in big book form. 

 

And who doesn't love Mrs. McNosh?  She's certainly not a traditionalist when it comes to doing the laundry.  Everything from the laundry to the mail to the turkey is fair game for a good washing.  As stories go this one is great fun with lots of vocabulary and rhyming practice thrown in too.  Here's a little preview of the story done by one of my students. 

 

I love the view of Mrs. McNosh in the top box.  Too cute!

In searching the web, I didn't find many resources out there to go along with this story so I made up a rhyming activity myself.  This is my first attempt ever to attach documents to my blog and my hand drawn pictures pale in comparison to all the cute clipart out there but the kids had fun so maybe yours will too. 

Feel free to print and enjoy the following activity.

For those who might be looking for some ideas for fun ways to practice rhyming with their students, there were two other group activities that we did to practice making rhyming words that are worth mentioning.  Let's call the first one Rhyme Around the Room.  I placed quarter sheets of poster paper around the room with one word at the top.  Groups of students were assigned a paper.  They used the marker and wrote as many rhyming words as they could think of in about 30 seconds.  After 30 seconds were up they moved to a new paper, read the words added by the group before them and then continued adding new words of their own. 

 

We'll call the second game Rhyming Encore.  The students were once again placed in groups and given a white board and marker.  I gave them a word such as "fish" and then the groups had to write down a word that rhymed with "fish."  As soon as they had a word they could share it.  Play continued until a group repeated a word, gave a word that didn't rhyme or wasn't real or couldn't think of any more rhyming words.  At that point, the group with the last valid word got a point.  



Just last Friday I was walking with one of my students at our Track and Field Day, our minds about as far away from the classroom and rhyming as they could be.  This student happens to be one of the ones who has had the most trouble with this concept.  He was playing with words as we walked and suddenly he came across two that rhymed, "Mat and bat - those are rhyming words!" he exclaimed.  Even if he didn't win any races, throw the farthest or jump the longest, that was a moment worth celebrating.  He understands the concept of rhyming!

Library Love

As I shuffled through one of my student's writing folders, I found a little love note tucked inside.

 

It's a sentiment shared by a great many Sahel students.  We are blessed with a spacious and inviting space, over 18,000 books and one amazing lady who has invested a great deal of money each year in providing us with new books. 

 

 

And then there is our librarian...

 

 

And boy, does she ever know how to create anticipation and invite participation! 

Before you know it you'll be paddling through the wilderness,

 





joining the army,

 

 

building a robot

 

 

or exploring the depths of the ocean.

 

 

Is it any wonder this place is the recipient of adoring fan mail?



To Inspire Acedemics

 

A helpful suggestion from a former student.  The vocabulary and spelling just kill me! 

Now back to inspiring acedemics....

Magnify the Lord

 

"O magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together."

Psalm 34:3

 

Magnifying the Lord - rejecting the desire to complain about circumstances and instead focusing on God, his character and how I see him at work.  It's a daily challenge.  I'm working on it, though I'm sorry to say there's probably been more failure than success. I'm thankful for the grace God extends to me despite my failures!  Anyway, what better way to magnify the Lord than to share a moment in the classroom when it was clear that the Holy Spirit was at work. 

 

We were just finishing up a Social Studies unit on Me and My Family and were waiting for a special celebration with our families to begin.  I had covered just about everything that I had planned but I had yet to get to the little lesson I had wanted to teach on being a part of God’s family.  Fifteen minutes remained.  Not much time but God just directed my thoughts back to that lesson.  So I called my students to the mat and we talked about God’s family – how God wants everyone to be a part of His family and how we can do that by accepting the free gift of salvation offered by Jesus through His death on the cross.  Before long, one little boy right in front of me raised his hand.  “I a-a-am part of Go-o-od’s fa-a-mily,“  he stuttered.  “I’ve a-a-sked Jesus into my heart.” 

 

“Wow, Junior! That’s amazing!” I said.  “Did you know that when you are a part of God’s family, God takes cares of you just like your Mom and Dad take care of you and your sister?  God takes care of you because He loves you!”  I wish you could have seen the smile that just lit up that little boy’s face.  It was beautiful!  Before me was a child who knew the confidence and peace that comes from knowing that you are cared for not only by an earthly family but also by Our Heavenly Father.

Next, a hand was raised on the back of the mat and a little girl said that she too had asked Jesus to come into her heart THREE times.  Thinking that not unlike me as a child, she might be struggling with fear and wondering if she really belonged to Jesus, I assured her that she really did belong to him and she didn't have to keep praying to receive him as her Saviour.  She promptly raised her hand and assured me that she wasn't afraid.  She had asked Jesus into her heart three times because SHE LOVED GOD SO MUCH!

Our fifteen minutes were drawing to a close.  I just asked my students if anyone would like to pray and thank God for making a way for us to be a part of His family.  We pray every morning together but my students rarely volunteer to pray so you can imagine my surprise when several hands went up all over the mat.  Being part of God's family is A BIG DEAL and there were lots of little thankful hearts so we had some popcorn prayers.  Everyone prayed out their sentence or two thanking God that they could be part of his family.  I listened and my heart was blessed and I'm pretty sure that God must have been smiling too.

 

 

 

You Had Me at Hello

Love is a many splendored and fast moving thing in the First Grade.  Someone has been exploring the depths...

 (Hearts & butterflies set the mood!)

 

Clearly "You had me at hello" wasn't just for Jerry McGuire's girlfriend.  It works on numbers and fish too.

No beating around the bush here!

 

So a few lessons to be gathered about love in the First Grade...

• Every love story begins with a "Hello".
• When it comes to love and declaring your feelings, just get straight to the point.

Variations on a Theme of Blue

This picture received high praise from me this week.  My teacher's assistant and I "ooohed and ahhhed"over it.  You might be wondering why.  The answer to that question would be because the student branched out from his normal color palette - BLUE.

Judging by the work in his writing folder, I think it's safe to say that blue is this kid's favorite color.  In fact, I'm pretty sure that in 12 years of teaching I've never had a kid so obsessed with one color.  I wonder if he's ever heard of the Blue Man Group?  It could be his dream job!