I have been back to work for a little over a week. It was tough to leave my little boy all day, but he is doing well and is the school pet at his daycare.
Today I did a writing lesson that my students really enjoyed and was authentic. I get so tired of asking children to respond to stories (when is the last time you did that? College?) and fill-in silly sentence starters. I am always on the look-out for "real" reasons to write. Today was the perfect example. My students loved my sub (as did I) so I explained to the children that sometimes people are far away and we can stay in touch with them by writing. I shared the example of my Grammy who is very hard of hearing so she does not answer the phone, does not like computers, and lives 3 hours away. I write to her several times a year so that we can stay in touch. Each child wrote a letter to my sub today. They shared things that they missed about her, thanked her for teaching them various things and shared their overall sadness at her departure. It was so meaningful to them and I know she will love the letters as well. Forever keeping my eyes open for "real" writing opportunities. What do your kiddos write about?
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
Saturday, November 3, 2012
Super Teacher Moment 3
Yesterday was my first day back and I was shadowing my awesome long term sub. It really just made me miss my little man more, but next week I will be teaching and that should help.
With that said, I thought I would share a super teacher moment blast from the past.... This one was from when I was teaching 5th grade. It was my first year teaching, and I don't think I did a whole lot well at that point, but I did create this intensive social studies activity that the current 5th grade team still uses today!
We learned about different Indian tribes and as a culminating activity, each class took on one tribe to study in depth. Students were asked to choose an area that they were interested in learning more about to create a center to share with the other classes during our pow-wow. Students could create a dance, housing, food, children's games, or clothing for their tribe. They then created a display or activity for other classes to see/do. It was wonderful to see how excited the students became when they were able to choose a topic that interested them and were able to decide how they wanted to present the information. (yes, from the start I LOVED differentiation!) I love that this now "old" fifth grade tradition started with me (the now kindergarten teacher) when I was a first year teacher:)
With that said, I thought I would share a super teacher moment blast from the past.... This one was from when I was teaching 5th grade. It was my first year teaching, and I don't think I did a whole lot well at that point, but I did create this intensive social studies activity that the current 5th grade team still uses today!
We learned about different Indian tribes and as a culminating activity, each class took on one tribe to study in depth. Students were asked to choose an area that they were interested in learning more about to create a center to share with the other classes during our pow-wow. Students could create a dance, housing, food, children's games, or clothing for their tribe. They then created a display or activity for other classes to see/do. It was wonderful to see how excited the students became when they were able to choose a topic that interested them and were able to decide how they wanted to present the information. (yes, from the start I LOVED differentiation!) I love that this now "old" fifth grade tradition started with me (the now kindergarten teacher) when I was a first year teacher:)
Friday, October 5, 2012
Super Teacher Moment 2
I have been doing this activity for the past three years as part of my 100th day celebration and it has been a huge success! About two weeks before the 100th day of school I pose a challenge to my class. We will try to collect 100 cans of food for the local food pantry. We discuss the importance of helping the food pantry and the kids get very excited to help. As the students bring in their canned goods, we count them. To reinforce the place-value concept, we put groups of 10 in a shopping bag so that we can count them by 10s in the future. We then place 10 bags in a box. Single cans are counted by 1s of course. This provides a second dose of place value practice each day which is always a good thing! We also write the number on the board. If you were doing this with older children, you could even have them complete the subtraction problem each day to see how many cans were brought in that day.
After we have many cans, we talk about how the food pantry will need to sort all the items so that they will be able to find what they are looking for. We then practice sorting the cans into food groups. This gives us a realistic application for sorting and I love realistic applications!!!!
On the 100th day of school, we do a final count of the cans and then bag them up for my husband and I to drop off at the food pantry. The volunteers there always tell me how grateful they are as after the holidays most people forget about the food pantry and they are running low come February.
I love this activity as it teaches so many great mathematical concepts as well as important social concepts. The children are always so excited to help others. There has never been a year that we have not surpassed the goal of 100 cans. Last year we had 148!!! I also love the fact that this project supports a local charity. We donate to Manna on Main Street in Lansdale, PA each year. I highly suggest finding your local food pantry and consider doing this project with your class.
http://mannaonmain.org/
After we have many cans, we talk about how the food pantry will need to sort all the items so that they will be able to find what they are looking for. We then practice sorting the cans into food groups. This gives us a realistic application for sorting and I love realistic applications!!!!
On the 100th day of school, we do a final count of the cans and then bag them up for my husband and I to drop off at the food pantry. The volunteers there always tell me how grateful they are as after the holidays most people forget about the food pantry and they are running low come February.
I love this activity as it teaches so many great mathematical concepts as well as important social concepts. The children are always so excited to help others. There has never been a year that we have not surpassed the goal of 100 cans. Last year we had 148!!! I also love the fact that this project supports a local charity. We donate to Manna on Main Street in Lansdale, PA each year. I highly suggest finding your local food pantry and consider doing this project with your class.
http://mannaonmain.org/
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
Super Teacher Moment 1
I apologize for taking so long to get this up, but I had a 3 week old with a cold this week. Needless to say, sleep has been elusive!
This past year I was very excited about my pizza lesson. Teaching a half day kindergarten can make it tough to get everything in, so I am always looking for ways to integrate and this lesson allowed me to do just that and boy was it fun! We were reading a theme about food in language arts and finishing our science unit about the five senses. I decided to read the book called "Hold the Anchovies" which is part of our program and focuses on asking questions before reading a nonfiction text. We asked questions about how pizza was made before we read and found the answers in the book. For the questions the book did not answer, we did further research on the Internet. I then had my students make mini bagel pizzas. Each child put one teaspoon of sauce on half a small bagel, added two teaspoons of cheese and if they wished topped their pizza with one pepperoni. I then broiled the pizzas in my toaster oven for about 3 minutes. Before eating, we talked about what the pizza smelled like, looked like and felt like. After eating, we described what it tasted like. Finally, we talked about how we could remember how to make the pizzas again. (I am always on the look out for realistic writing activities.) As a class, we completed a shared writing of the recipe being sure we included each step and a title. When we were complete, I typed up the recipe and sent it home with each child. While it did cost me $23 to make one mini pizza for each of my 43 students, it was well worth it and the kids talked about it for days! The number of skills we worked on and the lasting impact they had was quite evident and exciting to watch. Many parents and students told me that they made the pizzas at home and that the kindergartners helped read their recipes (while most of it was most likely memory, it reinforced the importance of writing) as they made dinner with their parents. What a rewarding lesson!
This past year I was very excited about my pizza lesson. Teaching a half day kindergarten can make it tough to get everything in, so I am always looking for ways to integrate and this lesson allowed me to do just that and boy was it fun! We were reading a theme about food in language arts and finishing our science unit about the five senses. I decided to read the book called "Hold the Anchovies" which is part of our program and focuses on asking questions before reading a nonfiction text. We asked questions about how pizza was made before we read and found the answers in the book. For the questions the book did not answer, we did further research on the Internet. I then had my students make mini bagel pizzas. Each child put one teaspoon of sauce on half a small bagel, added two teaspoons of cheese and if they wished topped their pizza with one pepperoni. I then broiled the pizzas in my toaster oven for about 3 minutes. Before eating, we talked about what the pizza smelled like, looked like and felt like. After eating, we described what it tasted like. Finally, we talked about how we could remember how to make the pizzas again. (I am always on the look out for realistic writing activities.) As a class, we completed a shared writing of the recipe being sure we included each step and a title. When we were complete, I typed up the recipe and sent it home with each child. While it did cost me $23 to make one mini pizza for each of my 43 students, it was well worth it and the kids talked about it for days! The number of skills we worked on and the lasting impact they had was quite evident and exciting to watch. Many parents and students told me that they made the pizzas at home and that the kindergartners helped read their recipes (while most of it was most likely memory, it reinforced the importance of writing) as they made dinner with their parents. What a rewarding lesson!
Friday, September 28, 2012
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