The Golden Rule with Van Gogh

One February morning as I was teaching my First Grade class about Rosa Parks, a little girl raised her hand to announce that,"This is crazy!" to which a normally very quiet (in academic settings) boy responded very matter of factly with, "Their moms did NOT teach them the Golden Rule."  

This was the first time I had really focused in on the importance of such a simple rule. I had always taught students about Respecting themselves, others and the environment. But this one rule (The Golden Rule) encompasses it all! 

"Treat others the way you want to be treated". How seemingly easy!  Watching the news each evening, you can see how people really struggle with this rule. If we can just focus in on this rule with our young eager learners, maybe when we are all older the news will not seem to be so dreary! Too optimistic? Perhaps. Can't hurt to try. :)

                        On to the activity! 

A good friend of mine introduced me to this fantastic book about Vincent Van Gogh, "Camille and the Sunflowers" by Laurence Anholt (this author has written many different picture books about artists and they are fabulous!). My friend has always read this book to her class while teaching them about the great artist and focused the kids in on how Van Gogh is treated poorly (bullied) by those around him. A few years ago I needed to figure out how to tie in this important lesson about "treating others the way you want to be treated" and Van Gogh sunflowers. 

I got it! The sunflowers represent the Golden Rule! Sunflowers are golden! Making a class mural of sunflowers surrounding the writing of what the Golden Rule says, and putting the mural up in the school, is a great way to get that positive message out there. All the while, you are teaching the class about a famous artist, his artwork, and tackling various Common Core Standards. 
Click to find Van Gogh Lesson!

                          Home Connection At home, I think about this rule a lot. As Penelope is growing up, she is meeting many different people and having many new experiences. I always knew she would find herself face to face with a child who hits, or a child who says mean things, but knowing these things happen does not make it any easier to swallow when it actually does. 

Even Cooper got into it! 

So, we started talking about this magical Golden Rule. Teaching Penelope the importance of treating others the way she would like to be treated is hard. I'm not going to pretend that it is easy to teach this concept, especially to a three year old! However, as I have learned, it is often the hardest things to teach that are the most important to keep working on. 

We talk about it a lot. And by we, I don't mean I just talk at her. We discuss what it means. We talk about moments she has had with friends and how it fits into this rule, be it good or bad. We even talked about it as she was swinging on the swing today and hit the tree with her foot. "Would you like someone to kick you and laugh? No? Then should you kick the tree and laugh?" This spurred a fabulous apology to the tree (I did not ask her to do this) and a very interesting conversation about how trees feel and how they talk and what they might say. 

With all of this in mind, I took Penelope to the store to buy some sunflowers. In the morning, during patch time, Cooper takes his nap. This gives us almost 2 hours of time to play or explore or create together, just us girls. 

Here we go...

We read the book about Van Gogh. Looking at the sunflowers and enjoying the story. I didn't go too deep with this, she is only 3! We did, however, talk about how a sunflower is a great flower for the Golden Rule, because it is golden. 

We then took out the paint colors she saw in the flowers. On a big poster board, I showed her how I would paint a sunflower. I made a big brown circle and then painted yellow petals and had her paint my green stem. 

Now it was her turn. I made the circle for her and she painted it in. She painted great yellow petals and even counted as she went. She then finished with her green stem. "Ok, Penelope, lets make a whole garden of these golden flowers!" Hmm...
***This is the beauty of this rule. I am teaching my loving, caring, smart,strong willed, free spirit about a rule that states to treat others the way you want to be treated. How could I then tell her that she can't paint her special garden the way she wanted to? 
"Mama, I'm making a Kandinsky Garden". (Kandinsky lesson to come!)

Now on the wall of our playroom we have a Golden Rule Garden that reminds us of this special rule. Just like the rule, our Kandinsky/Van Gogh inspired garden is quite magical! 

Pony Bead Letters (Great first week of school activity!)

I'm always looking for fun and engaging table activities to do with Penelope. In the mornings, Penelope has to wear a patch on her left eye to help strengthen the vision in her right eye. The doctor has recommended that the best activities for her to do during this time would be activities that are up close so that she can help her eye grow nice and strong! That said, I am constantly trying to find new ideas that will be fun for her and not only help her eye get stronger but will also keep her mind off of the fact that she has that pesky patch on! 

One morning we were looking through our art cabinet and found a big bag of pony beads. So many options! I have found, however, that asking Penelope to string tiny beads on a thread can be frustrating for her, and that is not the feeling we are looking for! 

What to do?! 

She is really into spelling her name right now, so I thought we could try something out with that. I drew a large P on a piece of white card-stock. Penelope then traced the P with the glue bottle, and we were ready to cover it in beads! 

I tried to see if she would be into creating a color pattern, but it wasn't happening, so I threw that idea out the window and just watched her "do it myself!" 

Here in the picture you can see that it was a hit! Penelope did a P for her name, a C for Cooper and a D for daddy. I wrote in the remaining letters of each name and then we put them on the wall in the play room. By the time we were done, she did try to make a necklace, which was a little tricky, but it never hurts to try! 

Classroom Connection

This activity really took me back to the first few weeks of school. I was thinking that it would be a great way to work on a few things that first week with a new class. 

1. I might be more likely to have students either do their entire name in beads or their initials. 
 -If you do initials, it would be a fun "get to know you" activity for them to tell the class their full name after creating their project and even a story about their name. My First Grade teacher team did a fun homework asking families to write the story of their child's name. This might be a fun tie in to have them share the story of their name as they share their initials. 
2. Encouraging work with beads can show you your students fine motor skills. Watch as they work on their letters. Are they working fast? Are they working slow? Are they sloppy? Are they getting frustrated? Who feels comfortable with the glue bottle? These are all such important things you need to know about these learners and activities like this one could be a great way to get a feel for everyone early. 
3. Work on patterns. Penelope is too young for the pattern work, but Kindergarten and up could be a great time to see who understands patterns and maybe who could push themselves to do more complex patterns with the beads. 
4. Make a "me map". After students finish their letter or letters, have them use the remainder of the page to draw things they would like to share about themselves. What makes them special? What makes them happy? What do they want to share with the class? 
5. Use all of the letter pages to create a large class bar graph! See which letter is the most common first letter for a name in the class and which is the least. You can do tally marks with your bar graph! 
6. Enjoy the book "Chrysanthemum" by Kevin Henkes to get started talking about names. 
**These would look fantastic up as a border around the chalk board, or a bulletin board. Keep them up all year! What a fabulous way to show off those letters and personalities! **

Vivaldi's Four Seasons

 There is a video that you can download through iTunes of Joshua Bell playing the variations of Vivaldi's Four Seasons. While I was teaching, I downloaded this video to teach various lessons. One day, Penelope came across this video on my phone (Summer, Allegro) and became completely entranced by it. The speed at which he plays the music and the beautiful rhythm captivated her. She would take my phone and play this video over and over again as if it were an episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse! 

 And so it was that one day I decided we would try out our own variation of a lesson I taught in Elementary School, using this very beautiful music. 

 When I taught about Vivaldi in school, we read books about the famous composer, listened to his music, wrote opinions about his work, and even tied his famous "Four Seasons" into our own study of the seasons of the year. There are four poems Vivaldi wrote to accompany his music, which lends itself nicely to a poetry unit or to having students write their own poems about the seasons, inspired by his music. We would close our eyes and listen to each season, trying to figure out which season it was and why it represented that season. "Is that the sound of thunder? If so, it is a summer storm? OR Is that sound ice coming down in the winter?" 

 I played this guessing game with my Penelope. We divided a simple white sheet of paper into four boxes (I folded it twice). I played for her the first season (I think I picked Spring) and had her  water color whatever she wanted in that box. What did she see in her imagination when she heard that music? What did it make her feel? What colors did it make her see? 

 I always had loved this lesson, but had no idea if Penelope would take to it. She did this activity for a little over 1 hour! AMAZING! Normally, we jump from one activity to another and 30 minutes is a max. But, this time, she was completely focused and engaged, just as if she were watching Joshua Bell on the phone. 

Click here for Vivaldi Lesson Unit!

Number Games!

   I remember so clearly being a student in Elementary School and dreading math class. I had this terrible fear of math and "being wrong" that I guarded myself from math throughout my entire life as a student. So, when I started teaching school I felt this strong desire to make math fun. This pushed me to really think outside of the box when teaching math, so that I could reach all different learners, the way I wish someone had done for me.
   I had a student a few years ago, who had severe behavioral issues. Math caused such anxiety in him that he would lash out, and I totally empathized! To help with the anxiety, I started calling math time "number games" and it eased him immensely! I had to make sure to teach these different standards with a variety of math games and also the given district materials. It was a challenge I greatly enjoyed.

That said, here I am at home with Penelope pulling in these little games to build her confidence with numbers and expose her to a variety of learning styles.

I happen to have a few math board games that I made over the years, but they are easy to make at home! 
                       Numbers Game Board

1. Using a large piece of construction paper (or even taking two pieces of regular size paper together!) draw large shapes- the board I have pictured has rain drops just for a fun visual, but you could make circles, squares, flowers, clouds, whatever your little one might like! 
2. Write different numbers in the shapes. I went from 1-8 but you can go much higher or stay lower
3. Encourage your child to join in on the fun and decorate around the shapes on the "game board". If your child is older, they could work on writing the numbers themselves, or even tracing them! 
4. My board is laminated, but no need to do that. If you want it to keep, you can always use packaging tape across the top. 

*We used pennies as game board chips (beans work great too!) and made out own larger dice. To make the larger dice, I took two of her wooden building blocks. I put painters tape on each side and used a marker to draw the dots. This made it more fun to play and easier to read.*

The game I played with Penelope was just a number recognition game. She rolled the dice, counted the dots, looked for the rain drop with that number and placed a penny in that rain drop. As soon as she was tired of that game, we moved on! 

However, with older kids, you could do so many fun things. This could be a number recognition game, an addition/subtraction game, fact families and more. 
   *A piece of paper for them to write down the addition problems they are doing (they don't always realize they are doing addition when counting up those dots!) is a great way to assess their understanding. For example, Penelope rolled 3 and 5 so she could write on her paper (I would not have her do this!) 3+5=8. Want to take it to another level? Have them do the fact family! 5+3=8, 3+5=8, 8-3=5, 8-5=3)

Common Core Standards

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.K.CC.B.4  (Kindergarten) 
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.K.NBT.A.1 (Kindergarten) 
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.1.OA.A.1 (First)
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.1.OA.B.1 (First) 
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.1.OA.C.5 (First)
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.1.OA.C.6 (First) 

And then... (Story Sequencing)

One of my absolute favorite things to do is listen to Penelope story tell. She has this fabulous imagination that takes stories in the most amazing directions. 

For a while, her favorite phrase was "and then". It was so funny to listen to her tell stories and keep saying "and then..." 

She really got me thinking about sequencing and how much we had to work on that skill in First and Second Grade. I even took the opportunity to check out a favorite book from the library to get her thinking about order of events, without doing my usual lesson. 

A few years ago, a good friend of mine (the librarian at my elementary school), turned me on to the book "King Bidgoods In the Bathtub" by Audrey Wood. The book has beautiful illustrations and a very funny ending, that kids love. I would always read it in class with my students and even have them start to act it out in small groups. The acting helped get the sequencing down! 

So, Penelope and I checked the book out from the library and had a blast acting out the different moments in the book. "What happens next? or What happened first?" were great questions we asked ourselves. Daddy even joined in on the fun! After a few weeks of reading this book, we even joked about Penelope being the King in the bathtub and enjoyed laughing about what we might have to do to get her out of the tub! 


Check out the link below that will lead you to my Teachers Pay Teachers account. I have an entire lesson plan, including graphic organizers, to enjoy with your class!

Story Sequencing and Read Aloud!

Shapes Everywhere!

Penelope loves learning about shapes and is very interested right now in spotting them wherever we go. It reminds me so much of the lessons I had been working on in First and Second Grade when I was in the classroom. 

Kids seem to love geometry! Maybe its the great connection you can make with them to art or most simply, the fact that they surround us every day. 

I will post a few different lessons to connect shapes using various artists, but I wanted to take a moment to show you what we did here at home. 

           SHAPE HOPSCOTCH! 

1. Using sidewalk chalk, create a hopscotch board on the ground.
2.  Encourage your child to tell you which shapes they would like to have in each box.
3.  Depending on the age of your child, either draw the shapes yourself or have them draw them. 
4. Color the shapes in so that they are easier to see. 
5. For Penelope, we don't worry about throwing a rock to skip boxes. She just jumps through each box and calls out the shape she lands on. However, if you have an older child or want to try to make it a little trickier, have your child toss a rock to land in a box. They can call out the shape they must skip over, and then make sure they don't jump in that box as they are going! 

So simple, but yet such a great way to practice those shapes. Really great way to practice drawing the shapes, as your child gets older. 

               IN THE CLASSROOM
I always loved taking my class outside for some fresh air. What better excuse than to do a little geometry! 

1. Break your class into pairs. 
2. Have each pair create a hopscotch together. One person calls out a shape, while the other person draws it in the box. Working together and helping one another with shapes will be a great bonding activity. 

**Make it harder as they get older by giving them cards with clues to create the shapes (ie. "this shape has four sides and four angles" One partner reads the card aloud and the other partner must figure out the shape and draw it in the box)

Common Core Connection: 

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.K.G.A.2

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.1.G.A.2

Welcome!

Hi! I am an elementary school teacher turned stay at home mama. Loving being home with my two babies, but missing the excitement and daily challenge of creating new common core driven lessons for my students. So, my daughter, Penelope, has become my guinea pig! (Everything I try with her, I make sure is age and Penelope appropriate!) 

Come join us as we tackle life at home, being 3 (oh it can be a doozie!), and that crazy Common Core Curriculum! Its amazing how much you can learn without even realizing you are doing it. 

I try some of my activities out on Penelope, but will also write about lessons I have enjoyed using in the classroom while always connecting them to the Common Core for you to use at home or in the classroom! 

Lets enjoy this adventure together! 

Susan