MOTIVATING   YOUR

RELUCTANT   STUDENTS

That can be such a difficult job on the student and the teacher both at the same time.  Your student has been given instructions that you know they understand, especially with this particular individual because you know you have restated the instructions individually to them and perhaps even helped them get started.  Though as soon as you leave their space they quit working.  That lack of will-power, motivation, willingness to put forth effort by themself is so lacking.  You have to work on that motivation so hard with these students and when you can break that barrier it is such a welcoming sigh of success for you and the child.  It is time for a "happy dance".

THE  BOOK  CHAIR

How clever to whomever designed this chair.  Could be every Teacher's answer to where can I put all of my extra books I received this year--I have no room left on any of my bookshelves.  Then what Teacher or student(s) wouldn't love to sit in that mighty chair and read away in sheer delight.  

THE   GRAMMAR  VOCABULARY

First and second grade you drill to your students nouns and verbs and that job is really fun and quite easy.  Third grade you start to throw in adjectives and pronouns.  Then the sentence confusion begins to happen. A noun becomes an adjective a verb becomes a noun and you have your work cut out for you and yes you DO work on it ALL year.  Some get it quickly and some not so....  Then 4th grade you introduce conjunction, preposition, and interjection--the mouthful words--which some barely can get the words out of their mouths correctly let alone tell you what they stand for in a definition.  Then if you thought some were confused before, wait.  You have that patience of a saint, that is why you are a TEACHER and you will dissect and teach and reteach it all year and hopefully by the end of the year almost all of your students will be Grammar Ready for 5th Grade. 

HAPPY  DAY!!!

No better way to start the day with a great big smile and hopefully end it the same way.  Think "happy thoughts" all day!!!

W E L C O M E

O C T O B E R

Time for cooler weather(??), leaves changing colors(??), football games, hot chocolate, AND the only thing children associate with October--HALLOWEEN.  Come on now how many of you adults love HALLOWEEN just as much as your children do?????

PART  OF  YOUR  CHILD'S 

READING  HOMEWORK!!!

When your child starts school and you start receiving their homework assignments and all of a sudden you start seeing all of these new approaches to learning you say to yourself (really how OLD AM I???).  You read it once (perhaps in sheer disbelief), and then again NO this is for real (my child is telling me about this partially, and right now needs a little assistance with it.  So I am delving into this and making sure that I am a diligent parent and fully understand this.  So by the time we are done with this assignment I can assure you I will be a PRO on this particular skill.  Then I will be building up endurance for the next one.  Good luck, parents we are here for you and your children.

A U T U M N   T I M E

The four seasons of the year summer, fall, winter, and spring.  Living in sunny Florida  the subject of seasons is hard for our students to comprehend.  They associate the seasons more with holidays.  Their fall is Halloween, winter is Christmas or Hanukah, Spring is Easter or Passover, and summer is 4th of July or just plain summer vacation time or possibly camp.  We can talk about the leaves changing or the flowers blooming,  how it snows and people making snowmen but really does that happen or is it all "make-believe."