August 2015

I have to confess, that as much as I DREAD the thought of these beautiful, lazy summer days coming to an end...I am starting to get that ITCH! (No, nothing that involves creams, doctors, or difficult talks with your significant other.) I mean that back to school, "I can't wait to teach them something new" itch!

Because the bottom line is...

Learn about how using social stories can help build your classroom environment in a positive, natural way!

But, the thing I DREAD about those first couple of weeks back, is the amount of time that needs to be spent on reviewing and teaching manners, rules, and routines! Oh, there is no doubt that it has to be done! A successful school year hinges on the delivery of rules, routines, and manners from the very beginning! BUT...

THE MONOTONY! I mean, honestly...

We get our classrooms all fancied up, we do everything we can to make those sweet little pumpkins EXCITED to come back to school....and then we TALK, AND TALK, AND TALK, about their LEAST favorite thing....RULES, ROUTINES, AND MANNERS!

Well, I am here to tell you...I have come up with a solution my friends! Last year I decided that I couldn't look at one more ZONED OUT, ZOMBI-FIED FIRSTIE anymore while I was talking about such important things. So I created a series of social stories to use to help me get the job done!

Guess what?! It worked! The kids LOVED them! They loved that I wasn't just TALKING at them, but I was READING to them... STORIES...about kids just like them! The BEST discussions came out of these social stories. Especially because we read them OVER, AND OVER, AND OVER again.

Sometimes we read them in book form, sometimes I projected them onto the SmartBoard and we read them from there, and sometimes, the kids got the copies of the stories from the class library, and sat together on the rug reading their favorites together.

Each time I created a new social story, the kids couldn't get to the rug fast enough for Read Aloud time to hear all about what "those kids who are just like them" were doing next!

I plan on starting the first week of school with four of the most basic Back To School routines or manners that need to be put into place FAST- HALLWAY MANNERS, CAFETERIA MANNERS, PLAYGROUND MANNERS, AND FIRE DRILL MANNERS. (There is a method to my madness here...I choose these first because let's face it, these all involve taking our class OUTSIDE OF OUR FOUR WALLS...WHERE OTHER PEOPLE WILL SEE US!!!! YOU CAN'T FAKE THESE PEOPLE!!! Your students will give up your secrets in a minute when they are outside of those four walls! GET THESE PROCEDURES DOWN FAST!)

(Of course the stories are longer than four pages, but I wanted to give you an idea of what is covered in the stories and how I cover it.)

Using these social stories have been especially useful for students with behavior disorders or students with autism or even students who are new to the classroom or shy or anxious. These are some of the other titles we use in our classroom. (These are all available in my TPT store.)

I cannot stress to you enough how these stories have changed the way my students look at RULES, ROUTINES, AND MANNERS now! They CANNOT wait to learn more, hear more, talk about more!

I SO want you to experience this excitement too, that I am having a BACK TO SCHOOL SOCIAL STORY GIVEAWAY!!!

I am giving away a BACK TO SCHOOL SOCIAL STORY MEGA BUNDLE from my store!

This bundle contains ALL the social stories from the One Giggle At A Time Series! ($50.00 in my store...$66.00 if you buy them all separately!) Enter the Rafflecopter below to win! Have a GREAT BACK TO SCHOOL ADVENTURE!

XXOO

The Worry Jar is a great classroom technique to help ease the anxiety and worries of school aged kids! Find out how giving worries up to the worry jar relieves stress, anxiety and nervousness for students of all ages!

As Back To School time approaches, there isn't a teacher out there that won't tell you HORROR STORIES about the Back To School nightmares he or she is having. (These nightmares usually involve students literally climbing walls; rooms with no supplies, walls, or humans, but lots of goats and chickens; and my favorite, the one where the bell rings and you know the students have been in there for a good 20 minutes, but the hallway just keeps getting longer and longer and you just can't get to the room!) But as unnerving as these "wake you up in a cold sweat" terrors can be for us teachers, we know in our hearts that everything is going to be fine when we go back to school, and goats and chickens would never pass the dress code policy anyway.....

But....

Try Being A Kid Today! The things kids have on their plates to worry about today far surpass what we EVER had to worry about as kids! (Take this picture for instance...these girls had no idea their teacher would be asking them to do MANUAL LABOR when they got to school and clean the guts out of a pumpkin!!! As you can tell by the first picture, this firstie was not letting this project go by without me knowing how she felt about being asked to do this!) But seriously....
I teach in a district where many of my students come to school with very heavy burdens to carry. On top of the day to day kid stuff of sibling rivalry, cellphones, video games, snapchat, and the likes, in our district the poverty level is very high as is unemployment. Many of our students realize the trickle-down effects of those situations, and come to school hungry, tired, and still in the clothes from the day before. With class sizes as large as 30 and sometimes more, as much as I would love to be able to do it, it is very difficult to address all the worries and fears that the students carry in with them each morning. (We begin each day with Morning Meeting, but not all worries and fears are meant to be shared publicly.)
Now I know that when I have a worry or a concern about something at the forefront of my mind, it doesn't really matter WHAT is being said/taught/introduced by the person standing in the front of the room...I am going to keep worrying about my worry! So you can bet that little kids are going to do the same thing! Until you help them take care of that worry, it won't matter if you teach the BEST LESSON IN THE WORLD...they aren't going to get one word of it!!!
That is why I started something in my classroom called...

THE WORRY JAR!

The Worry Jar is one of my FAVORITE things in my classroom! I explained to the children that I know how they feel when they come to school with a worry in their heart or head that they just can't stop thinking about, because it happens to me too! So I made this jar for them to put their worries in! The pages to put their worries on look like this...

I allow them to go to the jar at any time during the day if they are feeling like they need to put a worry in the jar. (Even if it is during a lesson, I allow them to get the paper started and then if I need to, I ask them to wait to finish the worry page, but that usually doesn't happen.) I tell them that putting their name on the worries is optional and that I do empty the jar each night. I keep an eye on who uses the jar and if they look particularly upset about something I check in with them immediately or check the jar early. Most of the time though, just putting their worry down on paper is enough for them to begin to feel better!
These are some of the worries that I have found in the jar....