Push Pin Words

WARNING: Sharp Objects were used with 1st graders!

My students are very active, and my CT is really great about making sure that they move around and do a lot of different activities. We work on our word wall/sigh words for a good chunk of time in the morning and do many different activities with them. Today we did an activity that my CT got from a development day, that we call the Push Pin Words. It has many benefits for students who need to develop not only word recognition but fine motor skills, and trunk muscles. 

Yes, we gave 18 1st graders push pins. And yes, arming some of them was nerve racking, but as long as they know the rules before they will do well.

Here is how it works. 

Students are given a sheet of paper with the words that you are working on for the week. The words are dotted, so students can see where they need to place their push pin in at. Like this one

Students need to work on the carpeted area to make this work easier for them. 

Now that they have their paper. Demonstrate with one student how they need to lay. (I wish I had a picture for this) Their hip bones need to be flat. If they are leaning on one it won't build the muscles that this activity is targeting. Now that they are laying on their stomach, ask them to lay on their forearms to prop themselves up. This will target their truck muscles, and their arm muscles. We told our students that if their arms hurt when they are done they are doing it right!

Students will lay their paper in front of them. Taking their push pin they start poking through the dots on their paper. They are looking at word recognition and letter shapes. The words should look like this:

When they have finished their whole sheet ask them to raise their hand and wait to have it checked. The teacher can see how they did by turning the paper over and making sure that all the letters are formed. If not you can see where they forgot and ask them to fix it. The back will look like this:

My students LOVED this activity. Not only did they get to lay on the floor but they got to use a sharp object. It can also be done with a toothpick or pencil if you are leary about the push pin. The push pins we used were large and students could grip them well like a pencil so it also helped students who struggle to hold their pencil, but anything you use will be great fine motor skills. 

And the best part! All you could hear was little pricks of the paper, they were so QUIET!

Summertime in Atlanta Michigan

Somethings never change. We have been camping at the same place for many many many years. And before that my dad and uncles vacationed there on the weekends during their summers. But other things also change, people come and go. Beaches are different. The group is much smaller. But the company that comes with the changes and the laughs are still the same.

This past week I spent with my family at our favorite location. There is a lot of history of why we camp where we do, and I want to share that one day. This year was super relaxing with lots of food and cards thrown in. Here are just somethings to remember about the 2012 year at Clear Lake;

• Beating Dad in Cribbage
• Beating Mom and Uncle Richard in Cribbage with Dad
• Five Guys camping in the same loop
• People shaving their armpits in the lake
• Hobo Pies being made while still light out
• Never having to put the Party Tent up because of awesome beautiful weather
• Two boys stealing our wood
• The duck noise coming from some teenagers
• Ticks at the Cote Site
• Kayaking in the Lake
• Wine and Appitizer night-special South African Wine
• Tiki Man 
• Uncle Richards 1bullet theory
• and so much more

Its another year done, and looking forward to the next one. 

Summertime in Grand Haven

Summertime in Grand Haven is awesome. As much as it is a tourist attraction it is also just small town America. And today I showed it off to my sister and her friends. We had the full tour of the town.

We began our day at Lake Michigan. Emily tried to skim board. Leah got sunburnt. Haley was awoken abruptly from her friends. Rachael complained it was hot. Courtney claimed the water was too cold. And I was the photographer. We took a walk from the City Beach to the Pier. And just relaxed . Then it was time to get to the city and have some lunch. We found out it was national ice cream day too, so we decided we needed ice cream as well. After lunch, and a quick shopping trip for Lake Michigan/Grand Haven sweatshirts I got the girls on the Trolley and hyped it up. It was not like I remembered but I think the girls enjoyed it. We ended the day with ice cream and more pictures. Overall it was a fun day.

Being in Grand Haven reminded me about how much I love Grand Haven. While the tourists can be too much, there is just so much to do in Grand Haven and it has so much history. Not to mention the people are amazing and the communities are awesome. One day I want to be a part of that community. 

Engaging and Encouraging

It is my third summer working as a campus tour guide and it is my last summer. And while there are days that I wish I did not have to go to work and could just sit and do other things, I love my job! I love the people I work with and once I get out on campus with a family, and it is not 100 degrees outside I love my job!

Since I have been back we have been really slow at the office. But this past Friday it was the beginning of the summer craziness and it was so much fun! The families I got to meet were amazing and they were really interested in hearing about my trip abroad. I've been trying to figure out a good way to incorporate it into my tour and show students that study abroad can be a great option at any point of their college career, and with some more tours I think I will have a great way to include it.

Engaging students in the idea that it is POSSIBLE. Encouraging them to grab the brochure is a great tie into how I began my experience and then leads to how I never thought I would ever study abroad.Teachers in High School, Professors in College always talked about the experiences and I brushed it aside but my friends encouraged me to do it.

My story is so long, and one day I want to make it apart of my blog. There were so many factors that influenced my discission and in the end I know I made the best choice ever. It will forever be a part of me and that is why I want to include in along my tour route. We must tell the stories, and hook them in. What book did you ever read that didn't have a hook in the beginning? That is exactly what I am doing.

A Final Day at Peach Plains

When I got the call that I was placed in Grand Haven I have never imagined what an impact it would make on me. I had an amazing semester before I left for South Africa, and now I have amazing contacts to take with me. I have good memories and rough memories. I have good experiences and tragic ones. Through it I was loved by everyone of my students, parents, and my CT. I had an amazing CT! And while I knew it before I left for South Africa, it became more evident after I left and we stayed in contact overseas.

So today I took my final walk to Room 19 with my Fiore Flowers waiting to have an amazing afternoon at the year end celebration. And that it was. The class of 2020 (yes 2020, scary!) enjoyed a day all together as Peach Plains 4th graders one last time. As they move onto White Pines 5/6 Building next year it is bittersweet to see them go, but exciting to see what is head for them.

There was a Relay Race, Scavenger Hunt, Hot dog lunch, Dunk Tank and Tug-a-War for the kids to do, and by far the dunk tank was the favorite. My CT was a brave sport and got in for the kids. As she said, they will not remember me yelling at them or telling them to do this or that but they will remember me getting in the dunk tank. And that is for sure. Ten times she fell into the tank and the class erupted. It was a lot of fun.

I got to see a lot of the parents. Grand Haven is an awesome community, and the parent involvement at Peach Plains is amazing so I had meet a lot of the parents before and at conferences. They we just excited to see me and hear about my South African journey. Every time I would say hello and introduce myself again, a parent would respond oh yes Miss Hughes, we have heard a lot about you. So I would have to say that no matter what battles I fought with my students when I was there, they are not going to remember that but they will remember the stories and gifts I brought them back from South Africa. They learned so much from my 6 weeks away from them, and that is something that they will never forget.

I will miss Peach Plains a lot. But I am now fully ready for my next journey. I will always be a Fiore Flower as will all those students, but we are now all on a new journey of change.

My CT Nancy and I

Love her!

Nancy in the dunk tank. Kids loved it!

4th Grade Picture!

Camping

My family has camped as long as I can remember. We have an awesome group of friends that we always go with in July and do some small trips on weekends occasionally, and when I was younger we always did a long week as our family vacation. Times have changed but camping is still in my blood. Driving home from Algonac last weekend with the girls I was thinking about all the campers my family has owned and all the problems we had with them. Well really it was only with one camper did we have major problems. Each and every time we got a new camper it was bigger and so exciting.

I don't remember the first one that much. I know we borrowed my dad's cousins pop-up for our very first trip. Then we owned one very similar to it, with the hard sides. The first one I really remember is the one that we had so many problems with. It was the one we owned for the longest time. Now I know we owned two Starcrafts but we may have owned three. There was a blue phase, that pop-up went through everything with us. We use to push the beds in just a little further to stuff our swimming noddles at the edges. We use to pop it up in the garage most of the way and pack for our long trip. One time we had it popped up too much and closed the garage door, leaving a huge gauge in the roof. We also didn't lock the door when we traveled so we could get our cranks out when we got home, we just would lay them on the floor by the door. Well we learned our lesson about locking the door when a truck drove by honking its horn at us on I-75. The door has popped open who knows when. When my dad pulled over to close it he saw we had lost both our cranks. Lucky for us the trailer store was going to stay open til we got there to get new ones. From then on we kept the cranks in the truck. This pop-up also had the little wheel ripped off it. Dad had forgotten to crank it up once the trailer was on the truck. That was not a fun moment. A week before our annual trip with the group mom and dad decided it was time to get a new trailer. Not sure why so soon to our trip, I'm pretty sure we had most of the trailer packed already for the trip but one week before we left we unpacked the blue one and packed the new green trailer. The green trailer wasn't with us long, maybe four years or so and I was sad when we came home from our July trip and they told me it was time to take pictures of it to sell. That's when my parents upgraded to the trailer with fold out wings. I haven't slept in the trailer much, now I sleep in a tent. See they upgrade once we all leave; don't all parents?

Yet no matter where I sleep I always have fun camping. It is in my blood. My friends and I have mostly all decided we're going to camp forever, and be just like the group I grew up with.

What South Africa did to Me

An experience of a lifetime is what I just came from and  I am noticing is little things on how it changed who I am.
1. I am not much of a TV watcher anymore. It actually makes me anxious to watch TV during the day. I usually only turn it on as I'm getting ready for bed.
2. I am now a coffee drinker! Lincoln did that to me. Nightly coffees with the host parents and late night chats were the best.
3. I have become less of a texter. Unbelievable huh? Sometimes I just do not like being connected to the world anymore.
4. I love my students even more. There is an overwhelming love that is shone between the Americans and South African students. Coming home I have noticed how much more I care about my students and want to know more and more about them. I cannot wait to see what next semester brings with a new group of students.

Of course there is a lot more that Africa did to me and so much that I will only see as I continue to move forward. I have been home a month and some days it is hard to remember ever being there, but the pictures remind me of all the fun times we had as a group.

I would be wrong if I said that I haven't really had time to think about Africa. School, moving and work has thrown me back into the real world really fast. Some days I have to remember to take a minute and remember being there. Or like today when I was unpacking the rest of my clothes from moving I stopped and a smell I only knew from Africa got me. The laundry soap and the Saunders' house smell was still in some of my clothes. It is the little things that I will remember to remember as time continues to pass.