BOISE, Idaho — Editor's note: This content is sponsored by CapEd Credit Union and originally aired in January 2023.
Grabbing and keeping the attention of 5- and 6-year-old students can be challenging, to say the least, but this week's Innovative Educator finds creative ways to help her students soar.
Carmen Larrinaga calls her kindergarten classroom at Christine Donnell School of the Arts in the West Ada School District her nest, and the students her little birds.
"I needed to come up with a theme, and I thought birds, birds are so fun," Larrinaga said. "So, we've kind of made that our theme and decorated."
The decorations include cut-out birds on the boards and a large tree with paper chain leaves.
"We have a little saying that we are brave, intelligent, respectful and determined students," Larrinaga said. "It spells bird."
Larrinaga likes to feed her birds a diverse diet of brain food, "to keep learning exciting" for students inside the City of Trees classroom.
The kindergarteners learn math problems with Play-Doh, making little balls with bits they break off the bigger blob. Then, they smash the balls they took away in a subtraction example, before Larrinaga gathers the nest by saying "hands on top of your head."
It hammers home the message – just like her theme days do. Penguin Day perfectly and positively piqued their curiosity:
"On our last day, we decorate with penguins, and we do all our traditional stuff," Larrinaga said. "We do reading and math, but just with a penguin theme,"
50s Day fueled their fancy for finding out fun facts:
"On the 50th day, they can dress up in 50s costumes, and then we just do things with Tootsie Rolls and bubble gum," Larrinaga said.
The learning leader said her students love it.
"It's so fun when they tell their parents 'this was the best day ever,'" Larrinaga said. "When you hear it was the best day ever 15 times in a school year, it's great. It's a great year."
As the birds spread their wings, Larrinaga has one big hope for when they leave her nest – to venture off "with a love of learning and confidence that they can do hard things."
It's big year for Larrinaga as she celebrates her 21st year as an educator.
Educators, for information on submitting an application for a classroom grant through the Idaho CapEd Foundation, visit www.capedfoundation.org. If you would like to nominate an Innovative Educator, send us an email to innovativeeducator@ktvb.com.
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