Students have become quite aware of the types of texts they encounter in the classroom and whether they are fiction or nonfiction. One student is so interested right now in nonfiction books that she recently said, "I just want to put all my pretend--I mean, fiction, books away and just read nonfiction books so I can learn about things." She summarized the difference between the two text types so perfectly. Though, I encourage students to read all types of texts, and we've had conversations about why one would sometimes read fiction and sometimes read nonfiction. Authors have specific purposes for writing the texts they write, just as we have specific purposes for reading them--sometimes we want to learn, and sometimes we're reading purely for entertainment. And the two purposes intersect quite a lot, actually. Recently, our lessons have focused on using the visual information in nonfiction books to help us learn. We have been studying the maps, photographs, close-ups, diagrams, captions, and other features of many nonfiction texts. Students have discovered that they can learn a lot through these elements of nonfiction books, even if they cannot yet read all of the words. | This student was eager to share all she learned about jaguars, just by carefully studying the photographs. |
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We were treated last Friday to a theater performance at TC West High School. Mrs. Morgan's daughters, Ellie and Anna, co-wrote and produced a sequel to Alice in Wonderland entitled, Alice's Return to Wonderland. We had great seats in the theater and many students were very excited to get to meet some of the cast members after the show. It was a wonderful performance and we enjoyed our trip. This was our second opportunity to attend a performance this school year! In December, we visit TC West for a holiday musical concert. Such a treat, and so inspirational to our young learners!
We've had shapes on our mind in during Math Workshop lately! As I've told students, Geometry is one of my favorite parts of math (though I love teaching math in general). There is just so much to explore with Geometry, and it's very hands-on in nature. We are cruising right through this unit, as many of the concepts and activities have been covered through our math learning stations and exploration opportunities throughout the year. We have been honing in on our "math talk," especially during our mini-lesson and small group time. We've been thinking and talking a lot about how shapes are similar and different, where we see them in the 'real world,' and how you can compose and decompose shapes (a common theme in math). For example, many students are so excited to discover that a square can be cut in half not only to make rectangles, but also to make triangles! And did you know that you can fit six triangles into a pattern block hexagon? Or three triangles and a trapezoid? It's all very exciting! (And, in case you were wondering, very in line with Common Core). For more details on that, click here. Students have been spontaneously noticing and commenting on shapes that are all around us in our room and in our world, and they are often using the correct names for them. Rectangle vs.square is a bit tricky still, though many are starting to see how they are alike and different. Students had an opportunity to document their shape "noticing" via the iPad camera and the PicCollage app. It's AMAZING how quickly students learn to use new apps with a minimal amount of modeling/explanation. Wow! Some of the shape explorations are pictured below--the collages were created with PicCollage. The task was to choose a shape, take four or more pictures of examples of that shape in our room, and to create a digital collage. Some found a mix of shapes and excitedly came back to show me them, and some stuck with just one. The next step--to label those shapes, compare them via a voice recording...there are so many possibilities. In the meantime, I'm so excited about how quickly and eagerly students took on this new task, and I'm eager to show them more ways to share their learning via the iPads! We have also been thinking about how combining shapes allows us to make new things. Pattern blocks are a perfect medium for this exploration. Students were really excited to make a star with pattern blocks and then make the same shape with their legs as they passed a soccer ball during indoor recess! Great connections!!!
Hello, loyal blog readers! I feel like it's been a while, and I apologize. It's not for lack of news to share--things are always happening in Room 9! But, we did have spring break not too far back, so I suppose that's part of the reason for the delay. In any case, we are back in action! Last week, our schedule was slightly adjusted, as we started to eat breakfast in our classroom rather than the cafeteria. It's been a good change. One advantage of eating in the room is that students can eat at their own pace. If they get to school right at 8:35, eat, and are done by 8:45 or so, they can use that time to make a quiet and calm "settle in choice." Our "settle in choice time" has been quite popular, and quite amazing, in my opinion. Students have done very well with finding a calming activity--building with blocks, painting, drawing, reading, doing a puzzle--there are many choices. We finish breakfast/settle in choice time by 9:20ish, and then our day is off and running with a very positive start. Below are some photos of this earliest part of our day.
Happy Spring! I hope everyone enjoyed the cold, yet gorgeous and sunny, weekend! It's clear that the students are excited to see the longer days and nicer weather. It has been nice to get outside without having to tromp through deep snow. Recess seems to be fun again for everyone! Speaking of spring, our spring break begins this Thursday, March 26th with a half day of school. Dismissal is at 12:12. We will return to school on Tuesday, April 7th. Here's a brief look at some of our classroom happenings last week, as well as a few reminders... Dressing for the Weather It is nice to have our playground drier than it was just over a week ago. Blacktop recess out in the front of the building was just not as much fun, though it was much drier than than the alternative! There is still a lot of snow out there, but it's easy for students to avoid it--if they so choose. Please continue to send your child with snow pants, winter coat, hat, mittens, and boots until after spring break. Let's hope that we won't need those things after that! Children who play to play in the snow or in the patches of wet ground on the playground MUST wear their full snow gear outside. It's no fun to sit inside with wet socks, shoes, and pants. Please remind your child about your expectations regarding proper clothing for outdoors. They know mine. :-) Color Week! It was great to see a rainbow of colors in our clothing throughout last week. Thanks to all who helped their children join in the fun! I think most children are much stronger in reading the color words, which are part of our sight word collection. We did many activities throughout the week for practice. The books Birds, by Kevin Henkes, Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See, by Bill Martin Jr., and Pete the Cat, I Love My White Shoes by Eric Litwin, were class favorites for thinking about color words. We are going to read one of my favorites this week: The Day the Crayons Quit. I'll post about that when we read it, as we'll do a fun follow-up writing activity. We also enjoyed a Color Robot Video and an all-time class favorite dance-along song: Awesome Rainbows. These are too good not to share! :-) Students also painted rainbows, made a Pete the Cat color word book, watched/listened to several color word related books online, practiced sight words using two rainbow writing methods (one is pictured below), and did a rainbow themed bird painting project with our reading buddies in Miss Knue's class. I have A LOT more up my sleeve for this theme, so our Color Week is really going to be a Color Week-and-a-Half. :-) Up next--a fun color poem and a super cool science experiment (or two or three)! Science Connections One of my personal favorite parts of the week was going to Mr. Kay's 3rd/4th grade class to visit their arcade. Amazing! Students created arcade/carnival games with found materials as a culmination to their study of Forces and Motion. It was a perfect connection to our class' current study of Pushes and Pulls. My wheels are turning (no pun intended) and I am strongly considering doing some project-based learning after vacation. I have had great success with this mode of learning in the past with 1st graders and I could see a spark light up in they eyes of many of our students as they visited the projects made by the 3rd/4th graders. I kept asking them, do you think you could make something like this? Most of them were very certain they could--and I agree. I'm thinking along the lines of ramps, roller coasters, race tracks, mazes, etc. to fit with our pushes/pulls theme. Stay tuned! Math We have officially ended one math unit and are about to start our first geometry-focused math unit--I'm so excited, as geometry is decidedly one of my FAVORITE parts of math! It was what hooked me into mathematics as being an interesting subject when I was in school. Of course, we'll continue to explore and review other math concepts as move into the new unit, and previously learned skills will be integrated into new learning. We will study 2-D and 3-D shapes. Here is the unit summary as provided by our published math curriculum, Investigations: Make a Shape, Build a Block: 2-D and 3-D Geometry Students explore geometry using a variety of materials, including Geoblocks, pattern blocks, interlocking cubes and geoboards. They describe, sort, and compose and decompose two- and three-dimensional shapes. They think about shapes in their environment and match two-dimensional shapes to threedimensional objects. We will officially begin this new unit tomorrow! Last week, we explored composing and decomposing numbers. Students used two-color chips to show ways to make 5 (i.e. 4 yellow and 1 red is 5 chips total; 2 yellow and 3 red is 5 chips total), they selected a number from 4-10 to "decompose" for the activity "Toss the Chips," and we worked on making arrangements of 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 color tiles. We worked on our visualization/memory skills when we played "Make My Design." In this game, a student makes an arrangement with a predetermined number of color tiles. The design (arrangement) is hidden behind a file folder so the partner cannot see it. The child then lifts the folder to show his/her partner. The partner has to try to recreate the design after seeing it for only 5-10 seconds. This game is a perfect example of some of the many ways we work to improve working memory in kindergarten. In case you missed it, here's a short article about working memory and why strengthening it matters. iPads in Action Students are thinking of creative ways to use our iPads. Here, a student has decided she wants to see how her letter formation looks. She asked me to take a video, so I did. Then another student asked for some handwriting/letter formation analysis. I love it when students think of ways to use technology. Coming this week--we will use the app Pic Collage to document our findings as we go on a shape hunt in our classroom. We will share them after they are finished...possibly on a brand new blog where STUDENTS will do the posting. Did you know we use our iPads daily, multiple times?! Watch for details in later posts. Enjoy your week and watch for more blog posts to come!
Each week, I listen to my kindergarten son read from a bag of books he brings home on Fridays from school. Some books are familiar--he cruises right through them. Some are relatively new to him and, of course, he stumbles on some words. Just the other day when this happened, he got extremely frustrated, and he wanted to stop. In that moment, I had to make a decision--persist with the reading in "teacher mode" or take this opportunity to look at the bigger picture. I opted for the latter--for a bit. We talked about riding his bike, building with Legos, playing Minecraft--things he loves. I asked him to think about what is "easy" to him. He said they all are. I asked him what he wants to become good at, and he said swimming and reading, but they are "too hard." Of course, the obvious connection between his preferred activities is that he's good at them because of hours of relentless practice. We talked about how "practice makes progress" (not perfect--that's not a realistic standard) and reading and swimming would soon be easy for him too--with practice and persistence. Later that day, he tackled the challenging books again with a can-do attitude, and he was all for the idea of signing up for swim lessons. For my tentative learner, these are big leaps! His struggle got me thinking more about the 16 Habits of Mind we are working to instill in learners throughout TCAPS. Persisting is listed first: "Persisting: Stick to it: Persevering in task through to completion; remaining focused. Looking for ways to reach your goal when stuck. Not giving up." I did a little searching and found this article about fostering persistence in children--it's worth the read.
We are exploring a new genre during our literacy block--procedural, or "how to" texts. Since we will soon be writing these in writing workshop, we're exploring them through reading experiences first. This immersion in the genre helps students better understand the different structure these books use. A procedural text teaching how to do something looks and sounds much different than a story! This week, students in one of my guided reading groups had the opportunity to follow the steps in one of their texts, Making a Bird. They completed the project quite independently! Experiences with this type of reading can happen at home too. Following recipes, doing craft projects or science experiments, using the guide when building a Lego set, learning to play a new game--all involve text and sometimes photos/illustrations to teach how to do something. We are enjoying our celebration of reading month in kindergarten! Yesterday was "cozy pajama day" in our classroom. Students had opportunities throughout the day to read with their stuffed animal friends with a blanket, in a spot of their choice. They could also choose any books to read. Once everyone got settled in to read (I had to put a stop to building blanket forts--as fun as it was, it distracted the group from being on task), students were able to focus and keep reading for quite a while! At various points throughout the day, students chose to read alone, in small groups, and with partners. Most spread out their blankets and brought a pile of books to their special spots. Many ate a snack while reading (remember, this was a very special day!). In our normal classroom routines, students also have choices in their reading. After reading their on-level ('good fit') book bag books, they can browse book basket books on the tables. Currently, book bag books are teacher selected, though that will be changing soon as I have acquired more texts for our classroom leveled library (yay!!!). I believe strongly that student choice in books has a direct correlation with reading motivation and achievement. Soon, students will be able to "book shop" for their own book bag books using the acronym "I PICK." More on that later. :) Also, throughout the day, when students finish an assignment early, they can peruse our many classroom books and find a book to sit with and enjoy. In terms of comfort while reading, students are currently doing independent reading time at table spots, but partner reading time happens throughout the room. We have found that it's easier for most to stay focused at table spots when doing "read to self" time, but when reading with a friend, finding a spot away from others is beneficial. Also, many partnerships like to lay on the floor or sit in cozy nooks. I'm eager to get to a point in our class when students can sustain focus on their independent reading job in a spot they choose rather than at table spots--we're almost there! We've done it before, but whenever a routine starts to not go well, we practice until expectations are solidly in place once again. For independent reading (read to self), that means staying in one place and quietly reading for the duration of the reading block. I've tried to make our classroom literacy environment much like a home environment where a love for reading is fostered. In such a home, kids have many books to choose from--whether from the library or the home collection. Reading happens often--alone and with others, and there is lots of conversation about the books. Reading happens in comfortable places, often on a couch or a special chair, or snuggled in bed at bedtime. While a classroom will never be the same as home, my hope is that children will leave kindergarten identifying themselves as readers, no matter where they are in terms of reading level. Here are some photos from our cozy pajama reading day. It's pretty obvious that students enjoyed this experience. I did too! Be sure to scroll down to the end of this post for an important reading tip/reminder! So, here's the tip and an important reminder--make sure to read with your child every day, for at least 20 minutes. Make it special--comfortable and cozy. Help foster a positive attitude about reading by making it enjoyable. Your reading time at home pays off tremendously! Check out this "infographic" about reading at home 20 minutes per day.
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