Treasure of the Past-"Nuttin' for Christmas" Finding Evidence

In a filing cabinet filled with multiple decades of teaching materials, there is likely to be a plethora of treasures from the past. On one such foray into my files, I felt as if I had scored a couple fantastic flea market finds. The first was a 4th grade Weekly Reader from December 1963! It originally came from my mom's early teaching days and ended up in my file when she retired. Check out this cool piece of historic school nostalgia! Weekly Readers do not look (or read) like this anymore! 

Current Event of December 1963

Inside pages of the Weekly Reader

The second find, also exciting and forgotten, was the song, "Nuttin' for Christmas". It had been several years since I used this piece and I immediately remembered how perfectly it lends itself to teaching students  to practice "finding evidence".

Background of the Song...

I was in 4th grade at Jackson Elementary School in the 1970's, when my music teacher, Mrs. Kumpula,  introduced my class to the song "Nuttin' For Christmas" written by Sid Tepper and Roy C. Bennett. The child narrator of this humorous piece gives very specific details of how naughty he/she has been, doing everything from putting a frog in sister's bed, doing a dance on Mommy's plants, to filling the sugar bowl with ants. The child was found out because someone "snitched" and therefore will receive no presents for Christmas. As a ten year old, I was immediately hooked on the clever jingle of the lyrics and the bouncing of the catchy beat. 

Here is a traditional version with the lyrics displayed in the video as they are sung. 

Barry Gordon version of Nuttin' For Christmas

Here is a rocked-out fast-paced modern version by Relient K. If you are familiar with the song, I think you will appreciate this rendition as well. Pay close attention to the very end of this version.

Relient K version of Nuttin' For Christmas

Beginning the Activity...

We learn the song, discuss the lyrics, and sing it. A lot. I always have to apologize to my neighboring colleagues whose students start singing along on their side of the cement wall. During math. Kids absolutely love this song! I am lucky to have an ancient piano in my classroom to play it on. It's quite the relic, probably one of the last surviving acoustic pianos left in the school district as well as one of the most out of tune. Nostalgic indeed.

Evidence that they love to sing!

It's a rare but fun opportunity
to use our old Pianoceros!

It's so much fun introducing this favorite to my students and it has become one of their favorites too. We look closely at how the lyrics provide crystal clear evidence why this child should not receive presents and document this evidence on a graphic organizer together. Then it's the students' turn. This becomes their own writing exercise with the goal of writing specific evidence to  provide "proof".

We started with a graphic organizer.

So what are we providing "proof" of?

Each student is challenged to decide if he/she deserves presents this year based on evidence of their behavior at home/school. They generate a list of reasons why (or not) they feel they have been well behaved. Then they dig deep to give specific detailed evidence to prove it.  (An alternative activity for those that do not celebrate the holiday is to have students look for evidence of ways they have shown kindness to others this month.)

The Assessment...

Students write their evidence in the form of a friendly letter and send it to their parents. Parents often find this to be rather humorous as they don't always agree with their child's assessment of their own behavior! 

Lots of evidence of kind, 
helpful, and fantastic behavior!

And as for those old files? Who knows, maybe this letter will become someone's exciting discovery in an old file years from now. A treasure to be discovered in the future. 

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays and may your students find positive evidence of excellent behavior! 

If you have a piece of music you use in the classroom, please share your ideas!

Spice of Life: Keeping a Journal of Thankfulness

Spice of Life: Keeping a Journal of Thankfulness

Maybe it was just a coincidence or maybe it really was just a little spice of life to be perusing the grocery spice shelves when I overhead a couple of people complaining. In the matter of time it took to find nutmeg, cloves, and pumpkin pie spice, I had heard the woes of work, kids, and spouses.

Yep, I’m betting we all have gripes and I could probably whip out my own list faster than I care to admit. While there is a time and place to constructively work these out, I started to wonder what impact a grateful conversation would’ve been on these same topics of complaint.

That got me thinking of the 30-Day November Thankful Journal I had students keep last year. After overhearing those complaints, I felt I needed to do the assignment again, myself included. Part of the fun of keeping a journal is going back to find out what happened a year ago...so I dug out my last year’s journal and giggled at some entries, said “oh yeah, I remember…” at others, and was totally thrilled to find the day when I was told I was going to be a first time grandparent!

So thankful for this news a year ago!
It was fun to share this entry with this year's students.

...and here is my Little Bug, Kenslie, a year later!

To Begin With…

I found that students enjoy using composition notebooks. Maybe it’s because it’s more like a book they are creating, different from their usual spiral notebook, or because I am happy for them to include pictures or drawings along with the writing piece. I also give them the option of decorating the cover and show them some possibilities.

Examples of journal covers I shared with students.

Students took pride in making the journal special.

We discuss a lot about what it means to be thankful and things we are thankful for. I show lots of my own thankful journal entries and we write a few together. I learned that students often have difficulty thinking through their day in terms of things to be thankful for. Who am I kidding? Adults have challenges with this from time to time too! We tend to think about the big and the obvious and most days just aren’t like that. So much of what we have is often taken for granted.

Sometimes it's just the little things in life!

I focused on those small moments of thankfulness that pop up throughout the day. Again, I gave students many examples of those small moments (a favorite lunch being served, a great test score after studying, a cloudless day) and had them give examples of their own. This year I gave students a list of prompt ideas to glue into their composition books. Ideas included such possibilities as…What book are you grateful for? Tell 3 positive things about someone you have a hard time getting along with.

What Worked…

Students are given a few minutes at the start of language arts time to write their entry. It almost goes without saying that it must be written in complete sentences (several of them) with enough detail so that reading it a year later will make sense. Writing on Saturdays and Sundays as well as during Thanksgiving break are optional. However, I did dangle a carrot out there. Those who complete all 30 days of November to the stated expectations, receive “classroom cash”. This was enough incentive to engage at least three quarters of students in the full 30-day activity.

As a kid, I was thankful for free candy too!
As an adult, I am thankful when someone hides the candy!!

We started with a "trial run" entry on a Monday
making the first try easier for students to recall weekend details.

So what happens when students turn their journals in with all 30 days written but it’s clearly a halfway job? Simple. They get half the pay. Or the amount (if any) their work has earned. Of course they are made aware of this up front. I also made sure they knew that if they happened to forget their journal at school/home, it should not become an excuse to stop journaling. Another piece of paper can be attached to their journal later. They do receive a grade on the assignment whether or not the full 30 days were completed or just the required school days.

Reflection…

I absolutely loved reading last year’s journals and look forward to this year’s! I found out so much about my students and the things they cared for and valued. My goal now is to challenge students to continue keeping a journal beyond the Thanksgiving season and throughout the year. Journal keeping can be difficult. I know.

I have tried maintaining a journal only to end up putting it down for months. But that’s okay. It’s a new day and there are many new thankful moments to write about. I again reflect on my entry when I learned I would soon be a grandparent. I really didn’t think all the hype and wonderfulness I’d heard of being a grandparent would be true. Except that it is. And here is my recent journal entry. Sweet spice of life.

From time to time I share parts of my
thankful journal to continue to model for students.
They were excited when I read this one to them!

Please share ways you have used a journal or similar activity.

Getting to Know Students 

So now that the school year is underway, initial assessments are behind us, and desks are hopefully still organized, it’s time to focus on really getting to know students. Yes, all those assessments are helpful in learning about students’ academic needs, but what about other areas of students’ lives? What about building student/teacher relationships and making connections?

A Letter to My Teacher

Recently I came across a writing idea that snagged my attention not only because it could be used as a teachable writing piece but just as importantly as a way to get to know my students better than just the surface interests of a first day of school bingo. I call it “A Letter to My Teacher”.

Where to Begin

I reasoned that if I expected my students to write a letter highlighting three things about themselves, I had better be able to do the same for them. So I thought about what I would write if I could go back in time just a few short years ago to 4^th or 5^th grade…okay, maybe more like 43 years ago. What would I have wanted my teacher to know about me? Definitely things I was interested in and things that could make my 10-year-old life easier if she knew of them.

My 10 year old self.

So I crawled back into my 4^th grade head and wrote a letter to my teacher. I included a couple light-hearted topics such as loving to design house blueprints with my protractor (yep, I really did such a thing). I also included the heavier topic of the on-going embarrassing situation of forever being one of the last two kids to be picked by the same ole team captains for P.E. kickball. Time after time. Without fail.

I wasn’t sure what kind of reaction my students would have when I read my letter to them. I soon found out. There wasn’t a sound in the room. As in, I could hear a pin drop, kind of silent. Many could identify with the humiliation of someone who was consistently picked last. The looks of empathy and concern were evident on their faces as they realized their teacher was human too and had survived through some not so pleasant things. A new connection had been made.

Writing the Letters

Students brainstormed their ideas, and then chose their most important three to include in their letter. From there it was fairly easy for them to compose three detailed paragraphs as we delved into paragraph structure and organization. We later added an introduction and conclusion and reviewed the friendly letter format. These letters became one of the first formative writing assessments of the year.

I was amazed at how fast and furious students dug into this assignment, with very few reluctant writers! They were eager to share about themselves and I was eager to read their pieces.

 

What I Discovered

There are a few things that stand out to me about “A Letter to My Teacher”. First, I enjoyed reading each and every letter and learned many new things about my students. I found it to be a fantastic way to make new connections. Even though there were predictable topics such as sports and pets, I also read some surprising topics such as an ornithology hobbyist and a few chefs in the making. Among the fun and surprising parts, were also a few red flags. I brought these to the attention of pupil services to see how these concerns could best be addressed.

Second, I found students had an easy time finding things to say. I believe that because I opened up about my 4^th/5^th grade self, they felt empowered to do the same. I also reflect that it was fairly easy for most of them to organize each of the three topics into three different paragraphs. It was truly a great way to teach the writing trait of organization.

Finally, I surprised myself with what I dredged up from those long ago ’74-’75 school years. The good. The bad. The ugly. It’s all part of the experience of learning, growing, helping others, and making positive connections with the next generations.

There are many ways to get to know students. Please share ways that work for you!

If you would like to read more about writing a letter to the teacher, here is the link where I saw this idea.

http://suburbansnowwhite.com/i-wish-my-teacher-knew/