Did you know that Heidi is available to do staff development and student assemblies and classroom visits at YOUR school, group, or local library?  Yes, it’s true!  I travel from state to state, and conference to conference, and even school district to school district doing presentations for Pre-K, Kindergarten, and first grade teachers on teaching reading, writing, math, science, classroom management, technology, critical thinking, and meeting the needs of special needs students in the regular classroom.

I usually only do the assemblies when I am also visiting to do a staff development presentation, but that’s usually a result of the traveling expenses associated with the visit!  I am happy to come and visit local schools in the area without doing a staff development presentation.  (I live in Southern CA in Los Angeles County.)  Just remember that student assemblies are only as long as the student attention spans!  And so since my products are mostly geared for young children, assemblies are SHORT!  The last one I did in fabulous Las Vegas for the Clark County School District lasted about 25-30 minutes, and that was really pushing the limits of the attention span for some of the children, I think!

Here is a video of some of the highlights of the assembly that I did for the school in Las Vegas right before Valentine’s Day, on Feb. 13th!  Watching the video, I realize that I was a little hoarse that day, and I am embarrassed that my hair looked awful!  BUT…it was SUCH a great day!  Those children were SO excited and just singing their little hearts out!  They were hugging me and waving at me and telling me they loved me, and giving me Valentine Cards, and it was just so awesome for me!

I really think that everyone should get to feel as special as I did at least once in their lives!!!  It really made me feel that I am making a difference in their lives… and what could be better than that?

The next morning, I did a workshop for the Kindergarten teachers of Clark County School District in Las Vegas!  I was told that there are 1200 Kindergarten teachers there, and that 700 of them are NEW!!!!!  I can hardly imagine working in a district that large.  But what a wonderful group of teachers!  I really enjoyed my time there!

Here is a list of the current workshops that I am able to do.  I am not going to list the prices I charge for the day to come and do staff development, because the prices change depending on the type of event.  Please email us at info@heidisongs.com to find out more about pricing for staff development.  But the fact of the matter is that I have done so few of the classroom, school, and library visits that I have NEVER charged for them!  They are just for fun.  Perhaps in the future I will charge for them, if I start doing them more often.

Workshops Presented By Heidi Butkus

*Click here to see where I will be going next!*

75 Minutes Each

Guided Reading for Pre-Readers?  YES!
Grade Level:  Pre-K, TK, Kindergarten
Yes, Virginia!  It IS possible to do guided reading with emergent readers and children that cannot yet read!  It’s easy, it boosts language skills, and children enjoy it, too!  Come learn how you can easily cover many important literacy skills as you guide young children into the wonderful world of reading in a fun and developmentally appropriate way.  Plus, we’ll cover lots of other great guided reading strategies that really work to help get beginning readers moving towards becoming real readers.

Letters and Numbers and Shapes:  Oh, My
Grade Levels:  Pre-K, TK, K, 1
This session is jam packed with learning centers, learning games, and music that helps kids practice and reinforce the all important basic concepts of letter recognition, letter sounds, numeracy, and number & shape recognition.

Tips for Sounding Out Words and Fun Songs for Phonics
Grade Levels:  K, 1
Do you have students that struggle to sound out words, but “just can’t get it?”  Join Heidi to learn some time tested tips and tricks that are sure to help even your special needs and second language learners master sounding out words with short vowels in them.  Then learn some songs that will help your kids learn to sound out, read, and write words with digraphs and long vowel “chunks” in a fun and easy way.

Singable Songs for Letters and Sounds, and Other Active Methods of Teaching the Alphabet
Grade Levels:  Pre-K, TK, K, (First Grade RTI only)
Description:  Let’s teach the alphabet through music!  Come learn a different song for each letter of the alphabet.  All songs are set to familiar tunes and include references to help children remember what the letter looks like and the sound that it makes.  Participants will be taught some fun motions to go along with the songs, and will be encouraged to sing and dance along!  More activities and ideas for teaching the alphabet will also be taught.  Your kids will have so much fun, they won’t know they are learning!

Jumpin’ Numbers 0-30
Grade Levels:  Pre-K, TK, K
Come learn some fun songs and movements that will help your children learn to identify the numerals 0-30 and count to 100.  This program also includes a kinesthetic/visual component with specially designed flash cards to help kids take advantage of muscle memory for those children who learn best through movement.  The songs for the numbers 11-30 are particularly effective in helping children identify these difficult to learn numbers out of order.  Your kids will have so much fun, they won’t know they are learning!

Fun and Easy Ways to Use Technology With Young Children
Grade Levels:  PK, TK, K, 1
Come learn some great ways to use a projector, digital camera, document camera, and a digital video camera in your Kindergarten or Pre-K classroom!  Some great ideas to make use of internet access in the classroom will also be given.

Bananas for Apps!  Using the iPad and iPod with Young Children
Grade Levels:  PK, TK, K, 1  (I also have a version of this presentation for Grades K-2).
Come hear about some great ways to use both the iPad and the iPod with young children in your classroom!  Explore lots of new apps and discover some new ways to use these wonderful devices that you may not have considered before!

Musical Fun and More for Phonemic Awareness and Early Literacy
Grade Levels:  Pre-K, TK, K, 1
Description:  Come learn some fun and active songs, games, and activities that develop phonemic awareness, concepts of print, and a love of literacy.  Skills covered include rhyme, beginning sounds,  syllable counting, phoneme blending, and more!  Your students will have so much fun, they won’t even know that they are learning!

Helping Your Struggling Students Meet the Common Core Standards
Grade Levels:  Pre-K, TK, K   (I have a first grade version of this session; see below for description.  The two sessions could be combined if necessary.)
Description:  Participants will learn some time tested tricks and tips to help slow learners, budding English language learners, and special needs children meet the state standards.  Topics will include teaching the alphabet, numeral recognition, developing early math concepts and related vocabulary, and behavior management.

Helping Your Struggling Students Meet the Common Core Standards
Grade Level:  1  (I have a Pre-K, TK, and K appropriate version of this session; see above for description.  The two sessions could be combined if necessary.)
Participants will learn some time tested tricks and tips to help slow learners, budding English language learners, and special needs children meet the state standards.  Topics will include teaching the sight words, learning to sound out words, phonics, and behavior management.

Favorite MultiSensory Tips and Tricks For Phonemic Awareness and Sounding Out Words
Grade Levels:  K, TK, 1
You don’t have to sit still to learn!  Come learn some teacher tested and child friendly tips and tricks for getting kids started developing phonemic awareness and sounding out words through movement.  We’ll also learn a few short songs to help kids along the way with these concepts.  This session is jam packed with ideas that can help you channel your students’ excess energy into a useful learning tool to help turn your little ones into readers.

Sing and Spell the Sight Words
Grade Levels:  K-1
Come learn some fun and easy sing-a-long songs and movements that will help your students memorize the spellings of the many basic sight words commonly taught to beginning readers.  Then you’ll get lots of great new ideas to help your students practice these words!  Come ready to sing and dance along!

Fun Songs For More Sight Words
Grade Levels:  K-1
Come learn some NEW fun and active “Sing and Spell” songs and movements from HeidiSongs for a whole new set of words commonly taught in Kindergarten and First Grade, plus lots of great new activities that kids love to help them practice them.  Come ready to sing and dance along!

How to Put on a Class Play Without Driving Yourself Crazy
Grade Levels:  PreK, TK, K, 1, 2
Come learn the nuts and bolts of putting on a musical class play with children as young as Kindergarten to motivate readers and improve comprehension skills.  It’s not as hard as it looks!  You’ll also learn why research supports developing children’s language skills in this way, so that you’ll be able to explain to your administrator why it is okay for you and your students to be having so much fun.

Musical Math Plus Manipulatives
Grade Levels: K, 1
Math, manipulatives, and music just go together!  Come see some great games and manipulative based activities that kids love to help them learn basic math concepts.  Then get up and learn some fun songs and movements that will help your children rehearse the language and remember the concepts that were presented.  These concepts include: sorting, patterning, comparing sets, coin recognition, skip counting, volume shape identification, addition, and subtraction.

Singable Books to Make and Read
Grade Levels: TK, K, 1
When a child learns to read a book through singing, reading success is  guaranteed!  And what they want to read, they will read- over and over again- especially if they get to take that book home and keep it!  So come learn how to make your own “Singable Books” and get your class started making some of their own, too.  Along the way, we’ll learn about how Singable Books develop early reading fluency, as well as some other hidden academic benefits to your students.

Great Whole Group Games and Activities for Math and Language Arts
Grade Levels:  PK, TK, K, 1
This is a great session for anyone that wants to learn lots of fun math and language arts activities designed to be delivered effectively by one teacher to a whole classroom full of kids, and no help at all!   Activities are fun, active, motivational for students, and effective in producing learning outcomes.  This session is perfect for both the “seasoned” teacher and the brand new teacher, alike!

Developmentally Appropriate Ways to Get Kids Writing- Fast!
Grade Levels:  K, (First Grade RTI only)
Have you ever struggled to get your kids off and writing in Kindergarten?  This workshop is chock-full of ideas and techniques that will help all children get started writing fast.  Lots of ideas for active learners, musical learners, second language learners, and special needs children, too!
The Reluctant Writer’s Workshop- And How to Assess Young Children’s Common Core Writing
Grade Levels:  TK, K,
Come hear Heidi’s best tips and tricks for motivating young children that simply don’t like to write!  You’ll gain lots of ideas that can be implemented easily with materials you probably already have.  Heidi will also show you how she assesses informational, narrative, and opinion writing u

Discipline and Classroom Management Tips to Get You Through the Year
Grade Levels:  PK, TK, K, 1
Join Heidi for a review of her very best tips to help manage and “train” your students so that you can have the fun with them that you always knew was possible!  Once they get your routines and procedures down, everything else will fall into place, and you won’t believe what you can accomplish!

Using Guided Drawing to Motivate Young Readers and Writers
Grade Levels:  TK, K, 1
Participants will learn to use guided drawing with their class in a whole group situation, and how this can help motivate children to read and write.  They will learn how to teach their children to look for simple shapes in the world around them to help them draw characters from popular children’s books, animals, and seasonal characters.  They will then learn how to use their drawings as a springboard for writing about what they have read or learned.  Participants will get to “draw along” with the presenter for hands on learning, and learn some great ways to get kids writing and making their own books.

Common Core Literacy Centers Kids Love
Grade Levels:  K, 1
Come learn how you can make some fun literacy centers easily and quickly!  These little centers that kids love include independent activities for phonics, CVC words, sight words, and more!  Managing centers efficiently will also be discussed.

Differentiating Your Language Arts Program Through Music & Movement
Grade Levels:  TK, K, 1
Differentiating instruction isn’t as hard as it sounds!  Come learn how you can differentiate easily in both whole group and small group lessons, and still make it home in time to make dinner.  You’ll learn how to create just one lesson plan, but give it four different ways.  You’ll also learn how to differentiate through music and movement, and how to manage flexible grouping efficiently.  Tips on working well with a co-teacher will also be discussed, as well as developmentally appropriate models of teaching small group lessons that really work to help children gain mastery.

Critical Thinking Skills:  Big Ideas for Little Learners
Grade Levels:  TK, K, 1
Description:
Is it possible to make higher level thinking skills and critical thinking developmentally appropriate, and bring those questions down to a kindergarten level?  YES, and it’s easier than you think!  Come learn how in this interactive workshop.  You’ll leave with lots of specific techniques on creating higher level questions for both fiction and informational text that are appropriate and “do-able” for young children, as well as a make it and take it teacher tool to help you implement this in the classroom on Monday morning.

__________
The following workshops below are three hour workshops, and are a compilation of some of the workshops listed above.

Techy Tots:  Fun Ways to Use Technology as a Teaching Tool for the Common Core in the Early Childhood Classroom
PK, TK, K, 1  Three Hour Workshop

Come learn about all of the fun, new ways you can use technology in your early childhood classroom, even with the most minimal equipment!  Children are naturally interested and motivated by new technologies, so come learn how to use this to your advantage, and get the most out of each piece of equipment that you have access to in your classroom.  Topics will include easy ways to use a projector, digital camera, document camera, a digital video camera and the internet in your Kindergarten, TK, or first grade classroom.  And guess what?  You don’t have to be a techie genius to implement these strategies and ideas!!!!
And then… Go Bananas for Apps with Heidi!  Come hear about some great ways to use both the iPad and the iPod with young children in your classroom!  Explore lots of new apps and discover some new ways to use these wonderful devices that you may not have considered before!  Bring your iPad or iPod along if you have one, and be ready for some fun.

From Non-Reader to Reader:  MultiSensory Tips and Tricks for Teaching the Alphabet, Phonemic Awareness, and Sounding Out Words!

PK, TK, K, 1  Three Hour Workshop

Do you have a class full of wiggly pre-readers?  They don’t have to sit still to learn!  Come learn some teacher tested and child friendly tips and tricks for teaching kids the alphabet, getting kids started developing phonemic awareness, and teaching them to sound out words through movement.  We’ll also learn some songs to help kids along the way with these concepts. This session is jam packed with ideas that can help you channel your students’ excess energy into a useful learning tool to help you take your little ones from pre-readers to readers in just a few short months!

Contact Information:

Heidi Butkus
Email:  info@heidisongs.com
(909) 331-2090  (HeidiSongs office)
Address:
HeidiSongs
P.O. Box 603
La Verne, CA  91750

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