School and the City

When I was student teaching, I actually had to write an economics unit for my kindergarteners. I have also taught an entire economics unit to my second graders this year. The following books are my favorite read-alouds for teaching wants / needs, goods / services, and saving / spending.  Those Shoes  is about a boy who really wants the shoes that all of the cool kids at his school have. It is a great way to introduce needs and wants.  I am actually using this book with my students on Wednesday this week. There's a read-aloud video of it on YouTube. Love it! I like to use If You Give a Mouse a Cookie  to practice identifying goods and services. We make a T-chart and categorize all of the things that the mouse asks for as either a good or a service. Alexander, Who Used to Be Rich Last Sunday is my all-time favorite book to open discussion about saving and spending. It is hilarious to read about Alexander trying to keep up wi...

Through the trial and error that comes with the first year of teaching, I have discovered one of my new best friends in the classroom: MUSIC. Music! Through college courses, chats with veteran teachers, PD seminars, and blogs, I have gathered many ways to use music in the classroom and have tried them all. Music works so well with my current class. Here's how I use music on a daily basis: 1 - Phonics and Math Concepts I use YouTube videos to help teach my kids new spelling patterns as well as mathematical concepts. There are videos out there for EVERYTHING! The videos usually have catchy songs that students sing all day long - helloooo memorization! For phonics, my favorites are BreakThruChris and TheElectricCompany . Right now, we are learning about "Bossy R." I crack up every time we watch! HaveFunTeaching and HarryKindergartenMusic both have tons of awesome math videos. "Coins in My Hand" by Harry is a favorite in my classroom. Again - ...

In second grade, we recently finished a BIG balanced literacy unit on characters. First, we learned about character traits. After we discussed character traits for a few days, I had students write down some of their own character traits on paper frames. They loved it.  Next, we had a discussion about how like we are growing up, characters are growing up, too. Although we may still want things we can touch like toys and games, we also want things that we can't touch. We have to put ourselves in the character's shoes and determine what it is that they really want.  To see if my kiddos understood, I had them draw a quick self-portrait and write a sentence or two about what they wanted. I was amazed by how quickly my students grasped this concept! Some of the things that they want in life are so precious!! "I want to be a good person." "I want to make my family proud of me." "I want to be a very good citizen." ...