Teaching Blog Addict ROCKS!!!

Ok, if you are a teacher and have not checked out Teaching Blog Addict, you are totally missing out! This is probably THE best resource for teachers of all grades. There are so many authors who are great teachers, bloggers, and have tons of wonderful ideas and resources. So, in short, don't be the last to join this great blog, click below and find out for yourself what fun TBA can be!!!

Tutorial Tuesday: Sign Language

My toddler talks, why would I teach him sign language?

Some feel that the use of sign language is only to bridge the communication gap while infants are still not talking. True – sign language is a great resourceful tool to help with communication at the infancy stage but sign language is just as resourceful for toddlers as well!

Many of the benefits still apply!

•           Reduce of frustrations (for both parents and children) & tantrums (when their point is understood quicker than trying to guess the verbal word they might not be able to get out intelligibly or remember!)
•           Increase in social skills
•           Increase in joint attention skills
•           Promote early communication
•           Increase in vocabulary skills
•           Increase in reading abilities and desire to read
•           Increase in visual attending skills
•           Increase in cognitive development (higher IQs)
•           Reduce “terrible two’s” J

Toddlers are able to attend to information presented to them much more than infants – everyone knows that. Why not provide them with educationally resourceful information while their brains are such active sponges? They are eager to learn. Using sign language teaches them a second language at an early age and being that toddlers are such visual learners, sign language fits in perfectly with their learning styles.  Toddlers are able to understand the association between the two-dimensional (2-D) picture with the sign associated to it.  They are so interested in the world around them. With the use of sign language, they are increasingly interested in playing together, reading together, and learning new lessons.

One thing I love about the toddler stage is ‘the power of the point’ (as I call it). Toddlers are at a great age that they understand and use joint referencing. So as the parent, when you point to something, your toddler will look. And this works vise-versa as well! When your toddler points to something, they expect you to look. This is a perfect way to learn new signs and increase their vocabulary skills. My daughter understands the sign for TREE every time we are taking our walk and she points to the tree. She looks at me pointing and I say, ‘yes, it’s a TREE.’  She always points to our family pictures in the living room – this is a great time for her to learn the labels of people and now sign (e.g. MOMMY, DADDY).

The benefits are endless. Many parents find that their toddlers and pre-school children are learning sign language at daycare as part of their curriculum. A few of my parents from classes or on the streets come to me and say, “my daughter is signing DIAPER because she needs her diaper changed.” My response: “Great – thank your day care because you are one leg up on that potty training thing that everyone else has such a tricky time doing.” But most importantly, it’s something that my family participates in together. Sign language – the benefits are endless!

Kristy works as a speech-language pathologist in the school systems, early intervention, as well as with private clients. Kristy uses ASL both personally (with her daughter) and professionally in her therapy sessions and by teaching classes, tutoring sessions, and workshops. She is a Master Level Certified Sign Language Instructor through Signing Time®, a new blogger, a student in Nova Southeastern University’s SLP.D program, a wife, and a new mom of a 14-month old. Visit her new blog and her Facebook page and become followers! www.hearmyhandsasl.com

Wishlist Wednesday: Toddler Approved

This week, we have Kristina from Toddler Approved, an awesome blog with so many wonderful ideas for toddlers on up! Please stop by and show her some love and appreciation for guest blogging here today.

Hi, I'm Kristina over at Toddler Approved. I am thrilled to be here at Lori's blog today! I am currently a stay-at-home mom with two kids (ages 4 and 1) and in my past life :) (before kids) I was a National Board certified elementary school teacher who taught a special day class for children with mild to severe disabilities. My blog is just a way to help make our lives a little bit more educational, creative, and fun. I blog alongside of one of my best friends and am loving all of the new people I have met through this experience.

I have loved reading through many of the previous Wishlist Wednesday posts and really have had a difficult time trying to decide what to share with you today. I am a pretty simple mom. We make do with what we have when we want to create and we have far too many crafty supplies. We love books and I would love rooms full of them, but my husband would probably go a little bonkers if we added any more to our collection! One thing that has been on my mind a lot lately is who I am becoming as a mom and an educator for my children. Last week I wrote a post sharing Eight Ways to Deal with Anger as a Parent because I have been struggling with that lately. So today I thought I would share with you my "mom wish list." If my kids could express it, this would be their wish list. I am a work in progress on all of these items!

I wish for a mom who...

• says yes every time that I ask her to come play with me
• looks for the good in me each day and then teaches me to DO good through her example
• is well rested and energetic and takes good care of herself
• teaches me to be a good friend to others 
• allows me the independence I need to grow and learn on my own
• has high expectations for me but loves me despite any silly mistakes that I make
• always listens when I am talking and pays attention to me (doesn't multi-task while we are talking) 

That's just a start... I could go on and on. Do you have a wish list that your kids or students would make about you?

Wishlist Wednesday: Sharing Kindergarten

Hi sweet bloggers, this is Mary from Sharing Kindergarten. 

I love to share ideas for Kindergarten (ish) students.

You need to know that I love my job! My goal is to be the BEST teacher I can be. This is my career, passion, hobby, and never ending goal. I want to share it all with you on my blog,http://sharingkindergarten.blogspot.com/

Want to know my most desired wish? I want… to teach. In other words, the testing and paperwork process needs to calm down. It does not have to stop… just calm down.

Yes– there is a time and a place to assess students. Yes– There is a time and a place to do paperwork. BUT, each student matters, counts, and deserve my time and effort. I want to teach everyday not assess everyday. I want playtime, art, movement, science experiments, food, glue, messy faces, colored hands, and tons of smiles and laughter every.single.day.

I am blessed because my school “gets it” more than most. We teach students with faces, names, families, and personal struggles. We do not teach test scores. 

I know I am preaching to the choir, but that is what is #1 on my wish list.

I hope you stop by my blog to see all the actual teaching ideas we do everyday and tell we what is your favorite thing to teach. I have a freebie waiting for you.

Motivational Monday

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Motivational Monday

Ever feel like your aren't appreciated? Never rewarded for all the hard work you do? Well, you are changing lives of children, the best give you could give them. So here is some motivation to let you know you are doing a wonderful job!

Source: teachfactory.com via Chrissy on Pinterest

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Source: myteachinglife.edublogs.org via Marisa on Pinterest

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Thinky Linky Thursday

Some Pinterest pumpkin finds for this week that are good thinking activities:

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3-D Pumpkin Puzzles

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<a href="http://preschoolteacher81.blogspot.com/search/label/thinky%20linky%20thursday"><img alt="Preschool Teacher" src="http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r103/loriajones/ThinkyLinkyThursButton.jpg"/></a>

Promoting Autonomy

As many of you know who have studied early childhood or child development (especially at The Ohio State University), autonomy is a major factor in teaching young children. One reason for this is to teach children problem solving skills that they will use their whole life, not only academically, but socially as well.

But how do we begin promoting autonomy as early as possible? Today, as I was feeding baby food to my baby with a spoon, it dawned on me that it is never too early to start. Even if it's just modeling the behavior, that is a good first step. Allowing the baby to watch what you do as you explain what you are doing is beneficial even if the child does not fully understand what you are saying. Children absorb a lot.

The next step would be allowing the child to get at least some hands on experience with the task. In preschool, we do "hand over hand" with the children when we are first teaching them how to pour their milk at breakfast and lunch. (We do family-style meals in which our goal is for the children to become completely self-sufficient at serving their own meal). Basically with the "hand over hand" technique, we are at first doing almost all the work of actually balancing and lifting the milk carton to pour the milk, but the child is holding onto the carton alongside us. Gradually, we give the child more control in allowing them to do it by themselves. You would be surprised how quickly they learn with this type of hands-on experience and scaffolding.

So, I decided to begin this process with the baby eating the baby food. I let him grab onto the spoon as I helped guide it to his mouth. As you can imagine, this type of teaching can be very messy, but children actually love doing things themselves and get that much more gratification from achieving a goal because they were active participants.

I think this is sometimes where we get caught up as parents or teachers by saying, oh it will be easier/faster/etc if I just do it myself. We must be very careful about doing this. I have seen too many 3 and 4 year olds walk into a preschool classroom who were not able to (or didn't think they should have to) do the simplest tasks on their own because mom and dad have always done it for them at home. It is a real eye-opener for those children coming to Head Start. But with the help of the other children and modeling from the teachers, they catch on quickly.

Bountiful Boynton

I would first of all like to thank my sister-in-law for passing down all her Sandra Boynton board books to us for the baby. These books are wonderful! Fun to read and so much to learn. From rhyming to alliteration, to body parts, to position and direction words, to animals sounds, to counting, to opposites, to ABCs to predicting. These books have it all! They are great for infants and toddlers as well as preschoolers. Also passed down to us were the book and CD Rhinoceros Tap and Philadelphia Chickens. I have yet to listen to the CDs, but I hear they are lots of fun. I would recommend these books to anyone with young children or teachers of young children. There are so many things you can do with each book, I am not even sure where I would begin. I think I might have to just read one and see where the kids go with it. And I especially love that they are board books. I never really appreciated the true worth of board books until my son was born and I realized that literally everything goes in the mouth, not to mention paper tears really easily.
I would also like to mention briefly (since I know not everyone has a Nook), that the Nook Color app of The Going to Bed Book is AWESOME! It is interactive, but not in the same way I have seen other Children's Nook Books where you can click on something and it says the word aloud. This actually has moving things in the pictures that you can click on and make things happen. Great value for $3.99.
One last mention is that Barnes and Noble is actually having a great sale on toys and games. Lot of educational board games that would be great for the classroom!