Fire Safety Week is next week - but it's always a good week to learn about fire safety.

First I am going to tell you a little story.

A long time ago (like the 70s) I was visiting my grandparents' unheated home in England (they don't seem to believe in central heating in England - at least in the 70s).  My bedroom had an old electric fire in it.  One morning, I was chilly, and stood in front of the electric fire to warm up.  The frill on my jammies got inside the protective cage and caught on fire.  I had no clue what to do, so I ran around the room screaming my head off.  Luckily my mother was in the next room and stop, drop and rolled me.  The end of the story is that I had a deep second, partial third degree burn on the back of my leg and got to check out a number of hospitals around England. 

The post script to the story is that I believe that it is really important to teach kids what to do if they, or someone else catch on fire.

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Sandi

 

chatper 7: I Thought I Knew How to Teach Reading - but Whoa!

I was really hoping that this chapter would give me the magic ticket to teach reading. 

A list of to dos: turn three times clockwise under a silver moon, clap 3 syllable words twice a week, read a Dr Seuss book once a month,  use deliciously descriptive language, always keep the printing pencils sharp, sprinkle with fairy dust - and ta da - they read!

Well, yes.  And no.

Johnson and Keier definitely have a list of things to do.  

But the ta da - how they fit everything together to make meaning from lines on a page -  moment for each child is different - and that is where teaching is an art.

expectations

I love what they said about expectations. High expectations.  Of myself as a teacher, and of my students' learning. (p. 110)

• Expect that the lowest-achieving students can learn to read and write. 

• Support children as they learn how to learn. 

• Believe that you are the one who will teach this child to read and write. 

If I don't expect it, it is very unlikely to happen.  

I need to define my expectation. 

I expect that all my students will enjoy looking at books for pleasure and for information.  I expect that  all my students will look forward to and enjoy story time.  I expect that all my students will develop the skills and strategies necessary to become fluent and comprehending readers.  

Then it becomes an intention.  Teaching with intention is powerful.   

Love this book.

names 

I loved all the ideas using the kids' names to help them learn to read.  On a post that Kimberly wrote about her classroom decor, a reader commented that names are the first gift that a parent gives their child.  Their name is usually the first word that a child learns to recognize.  Let's use that natural connection to build reader confidence and connection to print. 

One of the songs that we sing (phonemic awareness) at the beginning of the year is Willoughby Walloby Woo.  It's fun, it uses the kids' names, and teaches rhyming.   

I made a class book page to go with the song.  The plan is to take a picture of each child lying on their stomach with an-elephant-is-sitting-on-me face.  Click on the elephant to download a copy. 

no pain

Last week I learned about physical literacy at a kindergarten summer institute.  One of the things the instructor kept reiterating was "no pain, no pain".  If kids learn to flinch when a ball is coming their way, they will likely never unlearn it. 

The same is true for reading.  

Johnson and Keier write: Make learning to read easy. (p. 129)

They quote Frank Smith: The main thing we learn when we struggle to learn is that learning is a struggle. (p. 129) 

I guess that is when we use our magic fairy dust.  The art of teaching. 

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Sandi

boom de yada   boom de yada  boom de yada  boom de yada

edited 2021

A gazillion and four years ago (or sometime in the last 20 years) I came across an Earth Day version of  a song that I used to sing at campfire when I was a Girl Guide.

Discovery Chanel found the song and made it their own a few years ago.

Fun tune.  Easy to sing.  Great for Earth Day.

Click on the graphics to download a copy.

edited to add:

I wanted a fully black and white copy of the song to use with my class - so here it is.  Click on the graphic to go to Google Drive to get a copy. 

Enjoy Discovery Channel's take on the song. 

                             

remember, reduce, reuse, recycle

            

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Sandi

This is write the report cards week, anti-bullying/pink shirt day week, and Dr Seuss' birthday week.

Instead of writing report cards, I was blog stalking and playing Pinterest, looking for some Dr Seuss fun yesterday afternoon.

This is what I think my kidlets will be enjoying at the end of the week.

In Lieu of Preschool made this Dr Seuss sensory bin.  They created the truffula trees from painted cotton balls and sticks.  Very cool.  I like to save The Lorax for Earth Day, so we will have to create some other Seussical trees.

source: In Lieu of Preschool

My favourite Dr Seuss book is Green Eggs and Ham.  'Cause I like it, Sandi I am.  

Coffee Cups and Crayons filled a green plastic Easter egg with sand and had relay races.  

If we eat green eggs (no ham), we'll go for green pudding with a vanilla wafer. ( Let's hope those report cards get written easily. )  These are the green eggs that Mrs Lirette and her Learning Detectives enjoyed last year - vanilla pudding dyed green and a vanilla wafer. 

source: Mrs Lirette and her Learning Detectives

Most of my kids do not have the foggiest clue who Tim Tebow is (hockey is king here - ask them about the Vancouver Canucks), but they like videos, so they might get to enjoy lunch with a movie.

And a song.

                                 

Or two.

                                    

The Cat in the Hat and Thing 1 and Thing 2 are fabulous characters (even though I don't find the book as amusing as many other's do).

I love these Things that Tina Ruff made with her kids.  

source: Tina Ruff Pinterest

This snack from Kitchen Fun with My Three Sons is fun, quick to prepare and healthy.  

source: Kitchen Fun with my Three Sons

I am not sure that I can gracefully put on Justin Bieber reading the Cat in the Hat.  I'll send the link home, just to reinforces that home-school connection :)

And of course, we will indulge in lots and lots of Dr Seuss books.  Hmm ... who can I get to come in and read with us ...

            

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Sandi

Anti-bullying day is next week.  So, it's time to "think pink".

I prefer to think pro-actively and support kindness, caring and acceptance rather than teach the symptoms of bullying.

Noah and the Whale's song Give a Little Love works perfectly for that.

We watched it.  A few times.  

Then we made our own video with our big buddies.

Their teacher roughed out the story line, a dad who is a professional videographer volunteered his expertise, and we were ready for filming.  

The premiere showing is this Wednesday at the school's Anti-bullying Assembly.  The video is under wraps until them.

The kids were awesome.

And they are pretty excited about being in a video. 

I hope that they remember - have written into their lives - that kindness begets kindness.  

To "give a little love".  

ps  Without the help of our students teachers (who basically took over the classes for the morning)  we could not have filmed our video.  Thanks ladies.

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Sandi

There are so many great monster books and monster activities that we could keep monstering for a couple more months.

But tradition dictates that Pajama Day is in November, and we are beginning to run out of November.

Before the monster stuff all goes back in the box, and the box goes back on the shelf, here are a couple of monster tidbits.

During my summer every-rock-must-be-painted phase, I made some rock monsters.  The kidlets did lots of sorting (putting in groups and having others figure out their sorting rule) and patterning.

We made monster faces.  I was inspired by some monster accessories and tried my hand at making my own.  What a fierce little monster!

We learned a monster dance.  That's right.  We learned how to dance like monsters.  For some, it wasn't a real stretch!

Way back in the olden days, I went to a McCracken workshop (I am quite fond of McCracken resources and think that it is a crying shame that they are no longer available)  and one of the handouts had The Monster Dance on it.  We made up our own actions.  I think that other classes are a little worried when we do the monster dance.  Click the stomp for a free download. 

next up, nocturnal animals 

            

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Sandi