for the love of seuss

In preparation for Dr. Seuss's birthday, I led my first ever author study. We began on Monday by looking at the a timeline of Dr. Seuss's life on seussville.com. This fantastic website has everything Seuss that you could possibly want to share with a classroom full of kinders. They loved the animations and we followed it up by reading Dr. Seuss's first children's book, Dr. Seuss's ABC.

Throughout the remainder of the week we continued to learn about the many components of Dr. Seuss's creations. We learned about the characters, about settings, and most importantly, about rhymes and word families. This author study doubled as my introduction to word families. Perhaps this is a little later than some kinder teachers' introduction of word families, but I think the foundations that have been laid led to a quick mastery and a topic that will now be a part of our weekly word work. 

Yesterday we wrapped up the week by reading Bartholomew and the Oobleck. If you haven't read this Seuss classic, you really should. It is a lot of fun and you can extend the reading by making oobleck! Yesterday we had an entertaining reading, full of silly voices and then we did "science" and made our own oobleck. It was amazing how many of my kiddos kept saying, "my mom will get so mad at my mess." I assured them that science was supposed to be messy, and that their moms would not get mad because I was the one cleaning up the mess, not them.

When I look back at the week, I think there was a tie between Bartholomew and the Oobleck  and Wacky Wednesday for the book of choice. The kiddos loved looking through Wacky Wednesday for all of the silly pictures that didn't make sense. Unfortunately, I only had one copy of the book so the kiddos were crawling over one another to see the pages. Next year I'll get a couple of copies from the library and have them work in small groups.

All in all, I think our Dr. Seuss study was a success. Happy Birthday to you (tomorrow) Dr. Seuss! And, thank you for sharing your imagination with so many generations and inspiring young readers. My class was asking all week if they could look at Dr. Seuss books whenever they had free time. Reading success!

Our March bulletin board, a small selection of Dr. Seuss stories, word family hats, and oobleck!

can i read

Earlier this year I was told that when my students are completing a task, they need to walk away with something. I followed the advice that was given to me by a veteran teacher, for a while, and found that this is not always the case.

When I received this advice, it was following an observation of my language arts class. For an hour, during this class, my students rotate through centers, spending fifteen minutes at each center. One center is independent reading. The observing teacher informed me that my students should not be reading just because, that they needed to walk away from the center with a finished product. I tried having them write in journals for a while about what they read; I tried having them do partner reading; in the end, I realized what their finished product truly is.

They love to read. 

My students will come up to me whenever they finish an assignment and ask, "Can I go to the library?" or, "Can I go to books?" or, "Can I read?" They may not be walking away from their fifteen minutes with a paper in hand, but they are walking away with a love of reading. They are gaining confidence in their skills and they get so excited when they can complete a smooth read of a book. 

Our classroom library (rather, a third of it!)

For me, the finished product is that I am helping to develop a new generation of readers. 

february

It is hard to believe that February is already here. January sure did fly, it makes me a little nervous about how quickly the rest of the school year will go. Especially since we have one half day and two days off this month. I'm not sure how I'm going to go about squeezing all of the necessary learning in, but I'll find a way.

Our February bulletin board: We love to read!

Yesterday my kiddos created "book valentines." They each chose a book that they could read and wrote the sentence, "I can read ______!" Then they drew a little picture about the story. Now we have a beautiful bulletin board to show of their awesome reading skills. 

centers

Word Work, Free Writing, Letter Focus, and Free Reading

Centers. It's just how we roll in Room 1 Kindergarten. Sometimes it is a stretch to find time to actually do our centers, but I try to make it work three days a week. As the end of the year crunch comes though, I may need to cut back to two days a week. For now though, we spend one hour rotating through four different centers to help with pre-reading and emergent reader skills. Today, my little learners worked on stamping their sight words for the week, using proper sentence structure, completing a letter Gg mini-book, and independent reading. 

Today was the first day that I broke out my letter stamp collection and the kiddos loved it. I had gotten a set at the beginning of the year, but with only two stamps for each letter, I was unsure of how to prevent arguments over different letters. A month or so ago though, my problem was solved. I found alphabet stamp sets for 97 cents a piece! With six copies of each letter the stamping was smooth sailing (with the exception of actually locating the letters that were needed in the jumble of 156 stamps).

I was impressed by my kiddos in their free writing center. Most remembered the basic sentence structures that we have been practicing all year - a capital letter first, finger space between words, and punctuation at the end. Some wrote multiple sentences and most remembered how to spell their sight words. Since we have been working on sounding out words, I was also excited to see what everyone came up with on their own in terms of letter sound recognition.

Our letter focus and independent reading centers happen almost daily. My students are getting better at remaining focused on their reading for the whole 15-minute center rotation, and most are self motivating enough to remain on task. 

I know I've said it before, but I really do have a pretty impressive group of kiddos this year. They have made a lot of progress. While I may forget it sometimes in moments of frustration, they always end up surprising me in the end.

fun friday

It's that day of the week again! Fridays are always a breath of fresh air. They may be really crazy, but they are also fulfilling in that I can see how much progress my kinders are making. Some are jumping leaps and bounds, others are moving forward like inchworms. Either way, they are making progress.

Once success story from today came during reading assessments. At the end of the first quarter I gained a new student. She came without strong foundations in any subject area, but she is catching up  quickly. Today our assessment was on blending (sounding out) C-V-C (consonant-vowel-consonat) words that began with 'r' and also on reading the words she, with, me. 

During the first couple of weeks that this little kinder was in my class she would look at me and say "It's too hard," when we did reading assessments. Then she started picking up sight words and would get points for those. Today, she sat down confidently and sounded out her words. She ended up receiving an 80%! After six weeks in our class, she earned a proficient score! I was (and obviously still am) really excited. We high-fived and I told her how proud of her I was. 

It was a good day.

go with the flow

This morning I was working with a small group on letter identification and they just about had me rolling on the floor with laughter. While they may be slow in picking up their letter names, they are pretty quick on their feet when it comes to other funds of knowledge.

The activity that we were doing involved me showing students letter flash cards. They take an imaginary picture of the card and then write it in the air and identify it. When I showed the letter 'p' the following conversation ensued:

Me: "What letter did you just write?"

Student: " 'q' "

Me: "That's close. This letter is standing on his leg. The 'q' is balancing on his tail."

Student: "A cow has a tail too."

I eventually just told the students that the letter was 'p'. I heard all about animal tails in the meantime. Perhaps it was just a method of distraction, but I was amused and had a good time. I think they did too. Sometimes you just need to go with the flow and have a good time - otherwise, you may just miss out on a learning opportunity. I'm not sure if I found mine today, but perhaps tomorrow they'll remember that 'q' has a tail like a cow and that 'p' stands on his leg. I'll just have to wait and see.

long day

It's been a long and full day. Teaching then grad school. But here's a look at what I did today!

Building sight words

Math manupilatives

back at it

Having a three day weekend was such a blessing. I had time to do a little bit of grad school work, to begin making Christmas gifts, and to run a lot. In essence, I had me time. Sometimes as a teacher it is so easy to get wrapped up in the little ones that surround you day in and day out that you put your own needs on the back burner. I was able to rejuvenate and jump right back into the swing of things this morning.

We had a great Tuesday. We talked about the plot in stories, about verbs, about citizenship, and the numbers eighteen and nineteen. The kinders picked up on some of the things, others (such as plot) will take a fair amount of review. Whatever the case, we're back into the swing of things. We have a week and a half to keep on swinging until we're off for a whole week to celebrate Thanksgiving. We'll need to see how quickly we get back into the swing of things after that!

One highlight for today was having one of my little learners write her first name all by herself three times unassisted! We have been working so hard and it seems like this little break was what her brain needed to make things click. Wahoo! Success! This same little learner was also a rock star in small group around the world today. She is finally getting her numbers (1 - 10) down (with the exception of 9). Progress!

venn diagrams and counting beads

Today pretty much consisted of more kindergarten awesomeness. In language arts we are learning how to compare and contrast. My kinders compared two of their classmates and came up with a fantastic Venn Diagram. My favorite similarity is that both of the students were wearing their shoes on the correct feet.

I recommend zooming on on the "same" category.

In math I have some that are still struggling with their numbers one to ten. Today in their intervention group they practiced number identification and counting. They had to name the number at the top of each pipe cleaner and then string that many beads on to it. They did pretty well for it being the first attempt, but we will need to keep on keeping on and really stress these numbers (still, after 13 weeks). That's just what we do in Room 1 Kindergarten.

My nifty bead charts (sometimes Pinterest has such fantastic ideas)

inspiring

Today we had parent teacher conferences at my school. It was a busy day, with parents missing appointments then squeezing in later in the day so that I had a line down the hall. In the grand scheme of things though, 15 out of my 18 students' families showed up for the big day (I even completed my final conference in Spanish - always exciting for me). My other three students ended up having to go out of town for family emergencies and so I will check in with them tomorrow afternoon since they are all pick-ups.

When I was talking with my neighboring teacher during a break from the madness, she told me one of the most incredible stories ever. Below is my paraphrasing of this story.

My student's grandmother came in today for her conference and expressed how excited she was that her granddaughter was learning how to read. The grandmother had gone to school and struggled to complete the third grade. When she stopped going to school she also stopped reading.

Now that this woman's granddaughter wants to read, she is needing to learn how to read once again. She pre-reads all of the stories that she will read to her granddaughter and then walks the 1/4 mile down the road to ask her neighbor what the words are. Then she practices so that she can read her granddaughter a bedtime story. The woman expressed that she is beginning to remember the words now and that she is learning how to read again.

How amazing is it that a kindergarten student can inspire an elderly woman to take an interest in reading and re-learn this valuable skill? I feel inspired, to say the least.

real or fantasy

Sometimes I think that kindergarteners float on a fine line between reality and fantasy. They have such vivid imaginations that sometimes it is hard to tell if something that they are sharing is real or not. Last year I had a student that worried the whole school by telling us that he could not get off of the bus at home because no one was there - that his whole family had been arrested. After sitting with him for about fifteen minutes, he got around to sharing that this had been a bad dream that he had and that his family was not in jail. I did eventually get in touch with his dad who had been worried sick when my little kinder did not get off of the bus and he hurried himself over to the school and all was good. Reality versus fantasy, it can be a valuable piece of knowledge, even at five years of age.

This week, we have been focusing on realism and fantasy in stories. My kinders seem to have picked up on this skill pretty quickly, and so today we decided to have some fun with it. Each student was paired with a classmate and they had to come up with something that was real and a way to make it fantasy or make believe. Then the pairs drew their ideas on a piece of chart paper. We may not be fantastic artists, but we had some great ideas. School buses with wings, dolphins wearing shoes, books with faces, and the list goes on. We had a great time expressing ourselves and now our classroom has a new piece of art to adorn its walls for a while.

In other news, this morning one of the fifth grade teachers approached me to say that one of her friends sent her boxes of books for the students at our school. As a result, my minders were able to go on a "field trip" this morning to her classroom and select a book to take home with them forever and ever. My kinders were in heaven and were so excited when I told them that they would be allowed to use their books during independent reading time today, even if they were too hard. They practiced reading the pictures if they chose more difficult books and were so engaged that it was a sight to be seen.

Yay for art and books!

progress

We have been in school for 10 weeks now and progress is being made. In preparation for parent teacher conferences I have been wrapping up quarterly progress reports on foundational skills. My students are making headway on learning their letter names and sounds. Some have made the jump from zero letters recognized in a minute to fourteen, which is really incredible when they entered school not knowing letters from numbers. Others, that entered school with basic letter knowledge are now approaching sixty letters in a minute. Progress!

While these numbers are fantastic, the thing that has really gotten me excited is seeing actual progress in my students' reading abilities. Today, I had each of my independent readers (13 of 18 in my class) read a new text to me. The story included high frequency words that we have been working on all year along with some new CVC words (words made up of consonant-vowel-consonant combinations) that were composed of letter sounds that we have been working on, such as cap. 

One of my students, one that struggled quite a bit at the beginning of the school year, blew me away today. He nailed his sight words and then successfully sounded out each of his new CVC words. He was a rock star. He read the story from beginning to end and was even able to tell me the main idea of the story. As I said, I was blown away. 

I love that progress is so noticeable in kindergarten. I love my job.

progress

This week marks the end of the first quarter for my kinders. Due to fall break beginning on Thursday, this means that we have two days left in the quarter to nab our final grades and to catch up on the backlog of progress monitoring on students.

For those of you that do not know, progress monitoring is just that, a check on the progress that students are making so far in the school year. The two areas that I am focusing on right now are first sound fluency (a student's ability to recognize the first sound that they hear in a word) and letter naming fluency (a student's ability to name letters of the alphabet, both capital and lower-case, out of order). Today I focused on completing check-ins with my advanced students.

These are students that tested at a level at or above that which is expected for kindergarteners at the beginning of the school year. This is a level that gauges the skills that they enter school with and identifies the areas of need for the students. Today, my advanced students mostly monitored at the level that is expected by the time we break for Christmas. This is pretty exciting for me - the strategies that I am using are working on these bright little learners. 

Tomorrow, we'll see how the students that tested at below-level back in August. Fingers crossed.

collision

Today, teaching and grad school collided. This isn't exactly an unusual thing, but today it happened in an exciting way.

For my reading class I have been assigned the task of doing a miscue analysis on one of my students. Essentially, this entails having a student read a selected text that is slightly higher than their reading level. You analyze their reading to identify strengths and weaknesses in their reading so that you can develop a plan for helping the student improve their reading.

Today, I chose my highest reader to help me with the task. While students were working on a fall craft project I pulled him out for about ten minutes to have him read to me. I chose a story that we will not encounter in our independent readers for nine more weeks and he did an amazing job. He sounded out words and blended them almost effortlessly. He made self corrections when something didn't seem right. He worked through challenging passages and made it to the end, averaging 12 words a minute. It was fantastic for a beginning reader. I was am so proud.

Now I just need to go through and re-listen to my recording of him so that I can write up my report. I have a feeling that that will not be quite as exciting for me to do, but I'll be glad to have an idea regarding how I can help him continue to excel.

Sometimes it is fantastic when two worlds collide!

the things they say

Today my students began brainstorming for a week long writing project that will end in an illustrated piece that answers the question, "If you could be anything little, what would you be?"

As I sat down with my most advanced students, I happened to yawn. One of the students commented on the fact that I must be tired and I replied, "Yes, I am a little bit tired." Almost immediately after I sat down I described the prompt for the morning's center. One of my bright little kinders looked and me and said, "I am a little tired." It took me just a moment, these little guys are too fast sometimes. I had been thinking they would reply like the lower students in class, "I am a little butterfly," or "I am a little fire truck." No, this one spit my words back at me and had me laughing. I love their sense of humor and how quickly they catch onto things.

Happy Monday!

salsa anyone

When Grad School and Elementary School Collide

It was magic. Today when my kinders finished their language arts assessment I told them that I had a surprise for them. They had to clean up their table spaces and then come sit with me at my round table. When they sat down we talked about how they had homework every night to help them get smarter. Then I told them that I had homework to do to for my school. When I told them that they were going to help me with my homework I received some anxious looks. Then I told them that my homework was to have them taste different kinds of salsa. Those worried looks went away pretty quickly.

I pulled out our salsas one by one. They evaluated the appearance, the texture, the taste and the spiciness. Some students started out saying that they didn't like salsa, but when their friends kept on saying how good they were, almost everyone jumped on the salsa train. Some salsas they liked, some they did not, but whatever their response to the salsas, they loved the tortilla chips.

After they evaluated four different kinds of salsa, I set the bowls of salsa and chips on another table and let them go at it. Today marked progress reports day, so I thought it was a bit of a celebration. We're half way through the first quarter of school and they have worked extra hard. Today, we played ate hard.

Some of the best comments from my kiddos during the thirty minutes of salsa party madness:

"Ewwww! That looks like poop!" ~5 year old boy responding to the appearance of salsa verde

"Mrs. Hall! I can tell my dad that I like salsa now!" ~5 year old girl after eating chips heaping with salsas of all flavors

"Mrs. Hall, you're the best teacher ever!" ~Numerous kiddos slurring through their salsa high

Needless to say, the day was pretty rad. 100% of students scored 80% or better on their language arts assessment. More than 50% scored 80% or better on their reading assessment. Roughly 90% scored 80% or better on their math assessment. We ate chips and salsa. One student had asked his mom if he could bring a snack for all of his friends in class, so we also ate Goldfish at the end of the day. And the kiddos earned playtime at the end of the day (after eating Goldfish). Yeah, that's how every Friday should be! 

 

like a pirate

Arrrrrr. This morning I was working with my RtI (Response to Intervention) group for language arts development. We were working on letter identification for t, n, and r. When we got to the r, one of my kinders said, "Arrrrrr. Like a pirate." This made my day, and it was just after 8AM. I love how inventive some of my students are and that he was able to make this connection. It worked for him, and by sharing his thoughts with the group, they all picked up on Arrrrrr as well. 

Now, if only he didn't want to call every letter Arrrr now... But, I suppose we all have to start somewhere. It doesn't hurt that the students in this group were trying to make "pirate" faces as well when they were saying Arrrr. Love it!

money money money

As a general rule, teachers do not make a lot of money. I think it is also a general rule that teachers end up spending a lot on their classrooms and their students to make learning more engaging and enjoyable. The equation doesn't really balance out, but that's the way it goes. At least in my home.

Today, that equation was turned around a little tiny bit. I received an email from my principal saying, "Surprise, classroom teachers have XXX amount of money to spend on their classrooms!" These surprise emails make me giddy. It's kind of like being a kid in a candy store. As a result, I spent my planning period and a fair amount of time after school playing around online, trying to figure out what I wanted to bring into my classroom. Then I spent more time substituting one item for another until I came up with what I felt was the best way I could use this surprise gift.

You may be wondering, "why on earth did she spend so much time figuring this out today?" It's a good question. The reasoning behind the time that I spent sorting out which items I would like to bring into my classroom today is that these "gifts" often expire pretty quickly. Administration is told that their schools have so much money to spend within a certain period of time, otherwise those funds disappear. I do not want to be one of the teachers that misses out on the opportunity, and I also don't want to just fill my room with junk. I spent time thinking about what would help to make my instruction more meaningful, and then I played around with those ideas. What I came up with is as follows:

• Dry erase markers (I use these daily, they are expensive, and they help me save trees)
• Math manipulatives and corresponding centers that are Common Core aligned
• Language arts manipulatives and corresponding centers that are Common Core aligned
• Wikki Stix to help visualize letter and number formations (and to just have fun every once in a while)
• Letter beads for practicing putting words together and to practice blending sounds

First thing tomorrow morning I can put my order in. Then it's a waiting game. If you recall, I received the bounty from one of these money gifts early this year - the order had been filed last spring. I guess beggars cannot be choosers. Whenever it arrives, I have faith that it will arrive. And then I will celebrate - again!

school is a place

School is a place...

During the last year, I was asked to develop a school is a place project for my students to complete as a part of a grad school assignment. This year, at the end of the first week of school, I asked my students what they thought school was. Most of them had been to pre-school, so they had some idea, but it is always interesting to see how individuals perceive school. My students responded in a number of ways, including: to learn, to read, to have fun, to make friends, to count, to draw, and to use computers. They drew images to capture their ideas.

I took these images and held on to them. Today, I put them out for the world to see. We had open house at my school this evening, and I thought that that was a perfect time for these responses to be put out there for parents to see. I love having this student touch as individuals approach my classroom. For me, it also serves as a reminder that school is about so much more than sitting down and learning. School is a place where my students are learning social skills, are developing oral language, and are testing their limits. As a teacher, it is my job to facilitate this growth, which means that school cannot always be about learning (regardless of what officials who have never been inside of a classroom may say).

I plan on taking this project one step further. At the end of the year, I plan on repeating this activity. It is my hope that at the end of the year my students still have these same thoughts about school. I hope that they still view school as a place to make friends, a place to have fun, and a place to play. I also hope that when they say that school is a place to learn, and read, and do math, that they say so in a positive way. It is my vision that education is fun and engaging and worthwhile. Through engagement, my students should walk away ready for first grade at the end of the year, and not feeling as though they have just been set free from mundane and draining tasks.

What is school to you? What do you think of when I say "School is a place?"

sunday

Today's pile

Last Sunday I had the pleasure of sitting down and doing some crafting. I could relax, without any worries, and just be. On Monday, the realities of being a teacher and a grad student sank in. Classes started and with them, the pile of work grew exponentially. This Sunday, I am able to go about my normal morning routine, but I know that instead of sitting and relaxing and taking some me time, I will be sitting and reading, or writing, or finishing up the last little touches on my lesson plans for the week.

This semester, the mister and I decided to take three graduate courses. This may sound slightly insane (and perhaps it is), but by doing this we will only need to take one course when next summer rolls around. It will be a month long course as opposed to one that consumes the whole summer. While we may be kicking ourselves for it now, I think that we will sit back with a sigh of relief next summer when we are able to head east and enjoy some time with friends and family that we have not seen in far too long.

On today's plate I have reading for a class appropriately called The Teaching of Reading, some more reading for Introduction to Special Education, and I will probably sit down and pound out a couple of assignments for our "bonus" class, Technology in Education. This "bonus" class is one that everyone has told us is tedious and somewhat annoying, but from what I have seen so far, this also means that it is easy. I have completed some of the assignments already, such as "Write a 5 page paper about yourself," and "Write a 5 page paper about your family." Others include, "Use Paint to create four pictures that tell a story and insert them into PowerPoint." I think I've got this.

On a positive note, it is just after 9:00 and I have worked out, cleaned the kitchen and bathroom, vacuumed, and started laundry. The mister is plugging away in the kitchen so that we have some tasty treats to eat on the run (i.e. during a 15 - 20 minute break during classes on Monday and Wednesday nights), and so our Sundays go. Welcome back to reality.