Work Smarter: Tip #1

Well, three days in and already I'm finding myself munching bowls of Doritos, cheddar cheese chunks and pretzels. This happens, not during the day, but as soon as I get home. All day long, I eat pretty healthy. I say "pretty" healthy because there was the occasional chocolate fest. But, that's over for now. I ate the last of the 20 pieces of chocolate I had in my desk drawer for "those" kind of days.

My goals for the week were the following:
-meditate at least 3 times
-exercise at least 4-5 times
-be a more active listener

I'm doing great with the meditation (anyone can do this for 3 minutes....that's what I'm up to). I've been using guided meditations. I still have a million thoughts in my head at any given time, but for the time I meditate, and for about 10 minutes after, I feel very calm. This will be my biggest challenge.

The exercise is going well.

I still have work to do on the active listening. I did find myself biting my tongue several times, so I am becoming more aware of my habit of cutting people off.

I am a work in progress!


O.k., onto Tip #1 for Working Smarter, Not Harder...

Create a Poetry/Song book with your students. This is a great way for your students to practice fluency while reading/singing meaningful, fun, "just-right" texts.

Here is a picture of the way I'm using them this year. It's no-frills (except for the book tape I used to tape the covers on). You may also choose to use a binder (I've included both sizes of covers and parent letters in the TPT file below). Every Friday, students glue/place the new poem/song in the book, they highlight anything they can read or what I tell them to find/highlight. I strongly suggest having your students use a yellow or orange crayon to highlight. Crayons are so much easier than using actual highlighters that young children are obsessed with and use so hard they make holes in the paper....then cry about the holes... totally defeats the purpose of using the dang things.

The poem "Getting Ready" is from the following book: 

It's one of my favorite resources for fun, first grade poems that are filled with sight words. You can find it at www.amazon.com

Click on the picture below to get your FREE TPT Poetry/Song Notebook covers, parent letter and a weekly plan for using it. You will LOVE using them!!! Such a timesaver!

Do you use Poetry/Song books with your class? How do you use them?