September - November Literacy Events

Most recent listed first.

November 29, 2000

Read Aloud Stories: 

Alexander Who Used To Be Rich Last Sunday – the children observed from the cover that it is the “same” as yesterday’s story.  We talk about what’s the same and then read that it’s the same characters, author and illustrator, but a different story.  At the end of the story, the children and I had discussions about who saves money and what they are saving for, etc.

Shared Reading: 

  • Have You Seen My Cat?­ – child chosen from the I Can Read box

  • Poems/ Rhymes:  Again, we practiced all of our Nursery Rhymes.  At the end of the day, the children wanted to do them again with the CD this time.

Journals:

We talked about how to draw a mouse for our journals.  We have already made one by cutting different shapes, so the children were able to recall how they did that and used that knowledge to draw one.  We did not draw it in our journals today – they will be drawing them for their parents tomorrow.

Letters:

Today we filled our letter M page with capital M’s.

Language Experience:

Today, I showed the children a second time what the Demonstration of Learning Booklet will look like tomorrow and we went through the 10 things they will show their parents.  I modeled for them what they would do and where things would be.

 

November 24th, 2000

Read Aloud Stories:  

  • Today I Feel Silly – by Jamie Lee Curtis, talking about how this story has the same author and illustrator as yesterday’s story.  This was a great story that explains feelings.  The children were able to relate to it well.  The children really like the girl who is the main character in the story.

  • My Hands – by Aliki, we learned about how important our hands are in so much that we do.  Before the story was read we brainstormed all the things we could think of that our hands help us to do.  From the pictures, the children were able to figure out what the words would say.

 Shared Reading: 

  • Together we all read our “My Name” books twice (the ones we made yesterday)

  •   Charts:  I Paint!,

  • Poems/ Rhymes:  All our nursery rhymes

Songs: 

Today being Friday, the children got to request their favorite songs to sing.  

Language Experience:  

We finished doing portfolio reflections today with each student.  It was also time again ask children to volunteer to draw pictures for the newsletter.  I pick 3 children from each class each month.

We go through the newsletter together talking about things that will be happening in December and the children think of ideas to draw.

 

November 23, 2000

Read Aloud Stories:  

  • Tell Me Again About The Night I Was Born – by Jamie Lee Curtis

Shared Reading: 

  • We went through some of the books from the “I Can Read Box” that the children and I haven’t read out loud in a while.  They chose which ones they wanted to read (from Brown Bear, Brown Bear, I See, Leaves, Leaves, Leaves, to Have You Seen My Cat?)

  • Charts:   I Paint! – two different students read it again today.  They will have all had a chance by next week, before Demonstration of Learning Day.

  • Poems/ Rhymes:  All of our nursery Rhymes were reviewed.  I had boys then girls act them out.

Songs:  

  • I Have One Nose (also making our own verses)

  • Me! Me! Me!

  • Welcome Hello! to a visitor in our class

Writing Activity:  

We talked about the names our moms and dads gave us when we were born, and how they are all very special to us.  Each child made a Name Book, where they practiced writing their name on each page, and it turned into a rhyming story like this “My name is on a circle.  My name is on a square.  My name is on a door.  My name is on a chair.  My name is on a shoe.  My name is on a …”  I helped those children who were ready to use lower case letters in their names.  They all have a name card to use to copy from.  

 

November 22, 2000

Read Aloud Stories:  

  • The House That Jack Built – the children become familiar with the pattern after a few verses and I only need to point to the picture for them to know the final word.   

  • Class Book – What I Like – the book we all made together last week is all coiled and finished and I read it to the children today.  The last couple of days we spent gluing the pictures on each page and illustrating the title page.

Shared Reading: 

  • Charts/Rhymes:  I have each of the Nursery Rhymes we have been learning (not only in our Nursery Rhyme Big Book), but also on posters.  Each line of the rhyme has a corresponding picture beside it.  The pictures are removable so we can mix them up and sequence them.  We read each of them from the posters today, and then acted them all out.  We learned two new ones – Jack and Jill and Humpty Dumpty

  • Also we dramatized the rhyme from the Bookshop cassette again– Mouse Snack

  • Predictable Books:  I Paint! was read again from the pocket chart twice.  I am so happy to see that every child so far who has had a turn, has the left to right direction for reading!!!

Songs:

Me! Me! Me!

Independent Reading WOWS!:  

I have been really closely observing the children the past couple weeks to complete some assessments I do for each child (for personal use only).  While watching the children read/look at books at independent reading time, I can see that ALL the children have the proper ways of holding and looking at books (left to right) now, and the majority of them are even tracking!   Every child can sit with a book for a good period of time and tend to look from the front to the back.  Of course they are most likely to choose books we are familiar with, but a few of the children are attempting to “read” new books from the bookshelf.  All of this just from the modeling I do everyday and the language they are learning to help them sound like readers and make up stories from pictures!  I am so proud of where they have all come.  (I remember that most of these children hadn’t been read a book until they came to kindergarten).

Daily Routines Involving Literacy:  

While writing the Take Home message everyday (we do it together after we figure out the date on our calendar), we have been sounding out the words for the message everyday.  Those who are most familiar with the letters and sounds help me out while I sound out the words for them, but I just can’t believe how many more children now are calling out the letters they hear.  It is such a great time (as well as when we do Journals) to learn about sounds, and words, and about those “silent” letters and how different letters have different sounds.  When I leave a space for the letters we don’t hear, the children are starting to guess what the silent or quiet letter is.  It is really quite amazing how far they are coming!  WOW!

While choosing my Special Helpers of the day, I have been showing the card with the name of the child to the whole class and those who recognize it call it out.  But yesterday, I began giving them the first letter of the name and seeing if they can figure out who it could be.  We list off all the people who’s name starts with that letter (some of the children even think about looking up on the word wall where our names are) and then I show them the card so they can see which one it is.

Dictated language: 

We are still doing reflections in the children’s binders.

Language Experience:  

For an activity today, we did sequencing for the Nursery Rhyme Hickory Dickory Dock.  Only three pictures needed to be sequenced.  All but a couple children got it (the only help was showing them how to do it before they went to the tables).

I also sent home their body part graphs (remember we had been tracing their leg, arm, foot, finger and thumb on large paper from largest to biggest).  I sent it home with an attached piece of paper that gave the parents some ideas for questions for them to ask their child. Examples:

“Ask your child: Tell me what is each body part?  Which is longer, your leg or your finger?, etc…”

In the gym the past few weeks we’ve been learning about “balancing,” throwing “high”, “low”, “catching,” “travelling” different ways, and games such as Red Light Green Light and Mouse Trap.

 

November 21, 2000

Read Aloud Stories: 

  • A House Is A House For Me – using the pictures, rhyming patterns and context of the sentences, the children were able to figure out the final words of the sentences if I left it open (i.e.. A hive is a house for a ….”bee,” A house is a house for … “me!”) During attendance, before the story, I asked each child about the type of homes each child lived in (apartment, house, condo, etc.)

  • I See Patterns – an easy-to-read pattern book with real-life photos of real-life patterns.  The children had fun helping me find them.  

Shared Reading: 

  • We read from the Nursery Rhyme Book we’ve been learning rhymes out of. We recited/acted Little Boy Blue, Little Miss Muffet, Hickory Dickory, Baa Baa Black Sheep, and Mary, Mary Quite Contrary  

  • Charts:  We are still reading I Paint! from the pocket chart each day.  Today we looked for all the letter “p” ‘s, and put the sentences back together again because they were all mixed up.

Songs:  

  • I Have One Nose song (making up a few more of our own verses at the end),

  • It is Snowing (2X) the children performed for me!  We are hoping that if we keep singing it and loud, that it will snow again soon.

  • Me!Me!Me! – with actions and trying to join in the verses today

Dictated language:  

I have been sitting down with each child the last two days and will continue for the rest of the week to show them their portfolio binder I have been putting together for them (samples of the work from September).  I ask the children to look through it and see what they can recall about the work they’ve done and how they made it.  After we look through it all I ask them to go back and look again and pick their very favorite piece.  I scribe for them on a paper that says “This is my favorite piece of work because…” and then write why they say they like it.  I think it is very important and meaningful for the children to reflect on their work and as well it refreshes their memory about what they've done and they do see improvements they’ve made (the way their name changes, the difference in their coloring, etc.).  I also tell the child I will be sending it home for one day next week so they can show their mom and dad.  I like to know that the family can take their time to look through it and talk about it rather than fitting it in to the Demonstration of learning.  I also attach a letter to the binder with some ideas for what parents can look for in their child’s work.  I send this home on Monday.  

Language Experience: 

This is a language experience I encourage the children and their parents to do at home.  Last week, I sent home a self-assessment for each child to fill out with their parents.  It gets the parent asking the children questions about their learning, their behaviors and their attitudes at school.  The children respond with a different picture depending on their answer. I have been getting these back all week.  It helps me to know how both the child and parent are feeling.  I believe children are very honest about themselves and want to feel like what and this is a wonderful learning experience for the parents.

For example:

I like to listen to stories   _____________(Always   Sometimes     Never   )

 

 November 20, 2000

Read Aloud Stories: 

  • Whoever You Are by Mem Fox – a wonderful story about how children around the world are different, but are also the same.  My students, being so multicultural, could relate to this story well.  We talked about different countries some of us come from and the different languages we speak, etc.

Shared Reading:  

  • Hickory Dickory Dock – a book I’ve made with each new verse (“The clock struck ___, the mouse ran down, Hickory Dickory Dock”)  We read the number the clock was pointing to on each page and sang it together.  

  • Poems/ Rhymes: Mouse Snack – a poem from our language arts program, Bookshop. We do it full of actions and it has lots of repetition.

Songs:

  • It is Snowing – the kids wanted to take the words away as we sang it

  • Head and Shoulders - Four times each time getting faster.

  • A new song I taught them the last day of school. The tune is not familiar, but the words are like this (with actions):

I have one nose, and I have two eyes (2X) 
I have one mouth, and I have two cheeks (2X) 
I have one chin, and I have two ears (2X)
I have one head that’s full of ideas(2X)

The children were making a couple of their own verses themselves today.

  •   Me! Me! Me!  A song from our religion program cassette.  We sang it twice today, the first time we did actions (following teacher) only as we listened, and the second tome they tried to join in the chorus.

Language Experience:  

The children did a craft today using different shapes of different sizes (smaller, bigger, etc)

 

November 16, 2000

Read Aloud Stories:  

  • “Fire! Fire!,” said Mrs. McGuire.  A book full of rhyming and patterns.  After the story we recalled all the things we could remember that fire fighter Garry taught to us yesterday.

Shared Reading:

  • Charts:  Two children again were chosen to read I Paint! from the pocket chart (the children will be reading this to their parents on Demonstration of Learning Day).

  • Poems/ Rhymes:  Heave Ho (taking the words away from each line each time we say it), as well as the three Nursery Rhymes we’ve been practicing from the Big Book.

Songs:  

  • Head and Shoulders

  • 4 Hugs a Day

Journals:

After storytime we learned how to draw a fire truck in our journals.  We used the pictures from Robert Munsch’s story The Fire Station.   

Language Experience: 

At circle time at the end of the day, I introduced some new math manipulatives and we talked about how we could use them.  We also made patterns using blocks and fruit counters.  We always put the patterns into words (for example: tall block, short block, tall block, shor…)

Notes:  We have a PD Day tomorrow.

 

November 15, 2000

Read Aloud Stories: 

  • The Fire Engine  by Robert Munsch – the children were excited to see pictures of the author and illustrator on the back of the book.  They know now how to know if a book is by them.  They also found out it was a very silly and funny story.  The end was a bit of a cliffhanger so the children had fun guessing what would happen next.  

  • Again today, we also recited our first three nursery rhymes from my Big Book of Nursery Rhymes as well as doing the actions with them.

Language Experience:   

The last two days, my assistant has been making body graphs with each of the children.  She traces their leg, their arm, their foot, their middle finger and their thumb.  As they do this, they talk about the names of the parts of their body and compare their sizes.  We will send these home later along with a paper attached to it that tells the parents some questions they can ask their child about it at home.

Special Visitor:  Firefighter Garry  came out to speak with the children about how a firefighter is their friend.  It is one lesson of a 4 lesson program that will get us ready to go for a fire hall visit later.  It was very interactive (1 hour long!) and the kids got a lot out of it.  I know they will be excited to talk about it with their family and with the class again tomorrow.  

 

November 14, 2000

Read Aloud Stories: 

  • We Are All Alike, We Are All Different written by a kindergarten class.  It is a great story that encourages lots of discussion about each of our bodies, families, likes, dislikes, etc and how they are alike and different.

  • Retelling the story All By Myself (by Mercer Mayer) that was read with the sub on Friday.  The children retold the story to me and the puppet ”Jack.”

Shared Reading:

  • Charts:  two children were chosen to come up and read I Paint! on the pocket chart.

  • Poems/ Rhymes: We reviewed the Nursery Rhymes we learned yesterday.  The children are still just repeating the words of each line after me.  We also did the rhyme Heave Ho! today.

Songs:  

  • Head and Shoulders (4 times – each time faster) 

  • It Is Snowing (1X)

Daily Routines Involving literacy:  

I’m not sure if I mentioned this, but we have also started a Home Reading program.  Last week I had a selection of books (Mrs. K. books) that the children can pick from each day to take home and read with their family.  I will change the books every couple of months and the children will do this until the end of the year.  They can keep track of every 10 books they read at home and bring a Home reading log and bring it to school when it is full.  We will together as a class think of something we can do from there.  

During attendance today, each child helped me to make a class graph up on our bulletin board about “How Many People are in our Families”  Yesterday, we made card with our name and picture on it for us to use throughout the year for graphing.  We talked about the most popular size family in our class and the different people living with different families.  I even have a house of ten!

Writing Activity: 

After re-reading the story All By Myself, the told me about the things they can do all by themselves and then illustrated their ideas in their own little book called ALL BY MYSELF.  I had three blank pages behind the cover with the words “I can               all by myself.”  After they drew a picture we wrote in the words for it.   

Language Experience: 

Again, today was library day.  We read the first story I mentioned above at the library.  We also talk about the many different kinds of books our friends chose (different topics, genres, sizes, etc.).  The children dismissed from the library by colors that had on their book covers (i.e..  “If you have the color blue on the cover of your book, you can go line up”)

We did some more body patterns today by touching different parts of our body.  I started them off with a couple and then had children come up with their own ideas (i.e.. Head, nose, head, nose, head, nose…)

 

November 13, 2000

Read Aloud Stories: 

  • What I Like – we did predicting from the cover page by looking at the pictures and using the pictures throughout the story to give us clues for what the words might be

  • Nursery Rhymes (Big Book) – this is a book I made with the words and  a picture of each of the nursery rhymes we will be focusing on.  Today, I read Little Miss Muffet, Little Boy Blue,  and Baa, Baa, Black Sheep.  After I read them once, I had the children repeat the lines the second time and follow with some actions

Note:  These stories are not always read one after the other, they are read at different times of the day sometimes i.e..  The first one was read at carpet time near the start of the day and the Nursery Rhymes were read at the end of the class before home time.  

Shared Reading:

  • Charts:  After reading from the book, I chose two students to come up and read the story on the pocket chart.

  • Predictable Books:  We read I Paint!  one time together

Game: 

We played “Mrs. K. says” (Simon says) emphasizing parts of the body.  

Songs:  

  • Head and Shoulders (4 times, each time getting faster)

  • 4 Hugs a Day

Daily Routines Involving Literacy:  

As I took attendance today we graphed the number of boys and girls in our class.  We still everyday talk about healthy snacks and the food groups our snack is in.  We now have a poster from Save-On Foods that we can use as a reference.

Writing Centre:  

I added some gel pens with black paper at the writing center today as well as Bingo dabbers.  The kids were writing and drawing like crazy!!!

Journals:

After reading the story What I Like we decided to draw what we like in our journals.  With the pictures, the children copied the words WHAT I LIKE.  I even encouraged some of the children that I know could do it, to sound out the words of the picture they drew and write the sounds they hear.  I am always so impressed with those that can do this already!

Language Experience:  

I’ve already exposed the children to many kinds of patterns since September.  Today we did body patterns and musical patterns together.   Following this, for a math activity, each table got something from the math center and produce patterns.  Those that needed it we started patterns for them to extend.   We went around and encouraged the children to orally describe their patterns.  Most of them were color patterns with bear counters, colored chips, colored disks, etc.

Thursday, November 9, 2000

Read Aloud Stories:  

  • Me and My Amazing Body:  a fact book about the parts of our body from our skin to our heart.  It was a great follow up from what we learned at Save On Foods yesterday. 

  • It was a snowy day today so I brought out a story called Millions of Snowflakes.  It was a rhyming story with a counting pattern so the children were able to predict many of the words.

Shared Reading:

  • Charts:  I used the rhyme It is Snowing on chart paper today and tracked the words as we recited and acted it out.  After we tried it twice with the words we took away words from each verse and only did the actions.  Each time we sang it we took more words away but I still pointed to them.  At the end it was all actions and no words.  The last time we put all the words back.  The kids love it when we do this.  

  • Poems/ Rhymes:  An action poem we learned that says all we learned about eating healthy foods:

Healthy foods make you grow,
Make you strong, 
And make you think!

Songs:  

  • My Body, Your Body

  • 4 Hugs a Day (the kids wanted to sing this one twice)

Daily Routines Involving Literacy:  

During attendance, I asked each child to tell me one thing they saw or learned at Save On Foods yesterday.  This gives them some ideas to think about before they draw a picture in their field trip book.

Journals (Field Trip Book):  

The children helped me draw things from each of the four food groups that we saw and learned about at Save On Foods.  Afterwards, they drew their own picture about the field trip and we scribed for them about it.  

Notes:  I will be absent tomorrow but have chosen a story All By Myself for the sub to read.  We will retell it on Monday and do some related activities to follow up on it.

 

November 8, 2000

Language Experience:  

Today the children went on a wonderful field trip to Save-On Foods.  This trip extends on our discussions in school about healthy eating and the four food groups.  We toured through the entire store sampling foods from the different food groups and even getting a look at what’s happening behind the scenes in the store.  They are great with the kids there and read them a story at the end.  All the children were given a free Franklin story book at the end as well as a coloring book and a goodie bag with a healthy snack inside (apple, juice, granola bar, etc.).

Songs:  

Of course we sang on the bus the whole way there.  We sang The Wheels On the Bus, and Hey Dum Diddley many times!

Daily Routines Involving Literacy:  

Before we left, I took attendance and asked various questions to the children about our field trip.  Examples:  Where are we going?  What do you think we will see there?  What kinds of foods will we see?…

A side note:  I forgot to mention yesterday, we began talking about our families.  During attendance I asked each child how many people are in their family living in their house. The story we read also had family as an underlying theme.  We’ll do more with the theme of “All About me” and families over the next couple of weeks as we get ready for Demonstration of learning on November 30th.

We also did the Five Little Monkeys rhyme again, but this time with some finger puppets ( a mitt that I have with Velcro on each finger and on each monkey so I can add and take away)   

 

November 7, 2000

Read Aloud Stories:  

  • Is It OK If This Monster Stays For Lunch? – another story about many different kinds of monsters.  This story had some predictability, and the children asked many questions and comment on the story throughout.

Shared Reading:

  • Charts:  Today I had the sentences from the story I Paint! mixed up on the pocket chart.  The children helped me put them back together by using the book.  Having the sentences on the chart one under the other really helped the children to see the repetition of the words “I paint the…”  We put these three words up on our word wall today.  I chose three children to come up and use the pointer to read the story from the pocket chart.

  • Poems/ Rhymes:  

    • It is Snowing 

    • Heave Ho

Songs: 

  • My Body, Your Body

  • Hey Dum Diddley Dum.  

  • We also listened to a new song by Charlotte Diamond called 4 Hugs a Day.  We will learn it more throughout the rest of the week.

Independent Reading:  

The children were invited to use the pocket chart for reading time today if they wanted.  The children enjoyed playing teacher and reading I Paint!  At center time a couple of the girls were mixing it up and teaching my assistant to put it back together.  

Daily Routines Involving Literacy:  

This month we began “special person of the day.”  This child gets to do the “calendar show,” choose a book to read, the weather/graph and sit in a special chair.  Everyday now there’s less teacher talk and more children talk!

Writing/Drawing activity: 

The children are still working on their monsters and will be for probably one more day.  I began scribing for them about their monsters writing about what they look like, what they do, etc.   

I am still helping children illustrate pictures for our class book called “I Paint!” 

 

November 6, 2000

Read Aloud Stories: 

  • There’s A Nightmare in my Closet – predicting, questioning, and brainstorming ideas for how the story could end, sharing and discussion about nightmares -who has had them and what they were about, etc.

  • The children also retold to me the story Where The Wild Things Are which they read to a substitute last Thursday.

Shared Reading:

  • Charts:  I Paint! on pocket chart

  • Predictable Books: I Paint! – 1 time as a class and three students read on their own; I See – one time shared reading  

  • Poems/ Rhymes:  It finally snowed on the weekend and so the children were talking about the snow today.  I taught them a snowy day rhyme:

Heave Ho, (low pitch)  (shoveling action)  
 Buckets of snow  (holding a large bucket action)  
The giant is combing his beard, (use both hands to pretend to comb downward from chin)  
The snow is as high as the top of the sky, (voice pitch goes up) (hands reach from floor to the sky)  
And the world has disappeared.   (whisper)

Songs: 

  • We sang My Body, Your Body and I taught them a couple new tunes:

  • Hey Dum Diddley Dum  - from Sharon, Lois and Bram   We sang it a number of times talking about different parts of our body we could keep the beat on (the children came up with ideas like snapping, clapping, on our laps, jumping, playing a guitar, etc)  

  • We also learned a song for a snowy day:

  (to the tune of Frère Jacques) – with BIG actions

  It is Snowing, It is Snowing, 
All around, all around, 
Soft and quiet snowflakes, 
Soft and quiet snowflakes, 
Not a sound, Not a sound.

Language Experience:

We are now in the process of making another Class Book from the story I Paint!  The children brainstormed pairs of rhyming words today that we could “paint” in our book.  We made sure we thought of enough words so everyone could do one page.  Two children will each do the title page and the last page that only says “I Paint!”  Some of the rhyming words they thought of were incredible (owl, towel – pizza, Lisa – jacket, packet, etc.)!!!  During center time, I asked children to join me so I could help the draw their page for the book.  Each child got to pick the thing they wanted to paint in their picture.  Each time I had a new group, I brought their attention to the book and all the things each page needed (a person with a paintbrush, something they are painting, and a pet cat)  All the children wanted to have the same pet animal as the original book.

After our monster story today, we looked back on all the monsters we’ve met in different stories and looked at all their different characteristics.  After this we read I See and the children had to think about how many eyes, fangs, legs, spikes, etc. their monster would have.  Each child went off to begin drawing and creating their own monster on paper.  Tomorrow we will finish drawing and color our monsters.    

 

October 30, 2000

Notes:  Today the dental hygienist was in for about 45 minutes to teach us about brushing our teeth and bringing us some toothbrushes so we can brush every day at school after snack time.  We’ll start this after tomorrow’s Halloween party!

We were also invited up to the computer lab today to view some Halloween posters the gr. 9 class made on the computers.  Each E.C.S student got to rotate around the 20 computers while each grade 9 student talked/reminded them about rules to remember on Halloween.  It was great repetition for the kindergarteners because we’ve talked about this in class and with Ron Pearson the magician.  It should be drilled in their little heads by now pretty well! 

Read Aloud Stories:

  • Bats – a fact book about bats

  • Bats Are Black – a pattern story about the things that bats are as black as…

Language Experience: 

We did a craft today making a bat.  The children started with 5 black squares – so we talked about shapes: sides, corners and what would happen if we turned or folded it.  Then I showed them a sample bat I made and asked them what shapes I needed to make it (4 triangles – wings, and a circle - body, plus two small triangles for ears).  The children were then challenged to make their own bat from the five squares of black paper I gave them.  We also talked about the other things we would need to put it together (glue, scissors, pencil) and discussed the steps to making it.

At the end of the day we had time to make our faces for our paper bag pumpkins so we could turn them into jack o’ lanterns.  The children decided between black paper for a dark pumpkin or yellow paper for a glowing lit up pumpkin.  This is something we’ve noticed in storybooks.

The children and I today did some brainstorming as to what they would like to do for our Halloween party tomorrow.  We picked our favorite Halloween story to read, will sing our favorite Halloween songs and recite our favorite Halloween rhymes.  They wanted to play games and I told them about the games and centers I have planned for them. 

I also worked with a few children at center time today and went through the November newsletter ideas with them asking them to help me draw some illustrations for it.  Each month’s newsletter I do this.

 

October 26, 2000

Read Aloud Stories:  

  • Itsy Bitsy Spider – Right away the children guess the name of the story from the picture when they see the spider on the front cover.  The children get excited about this story, because for most of them the song is already familiar.  Although, they don’t realize there are more places the spider climbs besides the water spout!  At the end of the story we went back to see if we could remember some of the places the spider climbed up.  We discussed what problem the spider kept having?, (falling off) Why he was trying to climb up somewhere (to make a web), Why do spiders make webs?

  • Creepy Countdown -  a story counting Halloween creatures from one to ten, then back again.  The children can predict how many will be on the next page, what it might be, etc.  Ten is mice and they all scare the creatures and then it counts back down to one again with all of the creatures running and hiding from the mice.  At the end we talked about who is afraid of mice and why someone would be afraid of such a small animal.  I shared a story about an experience I had with a mouse.

Shared Reading:

  • Poems/ Rhymes:  we repeated all our Halloween rhymes and songs on our posters

Songs:  

  • Itsy Bitsy Spider – 3 times

  • Spider On The Floor (Raffi) – 2 times

Writing Activity: 

After reading the story Creep Countdown, we each made our own Halloween book representing numbers with pictures.  I had blank books shaped like ghosts with a title on the front and a place for their name and on each page inside there was the number one to ten.  Mine I used as a model had 1 skeleton, 2 black cats, 3 ghosts, 4 bats, 5 jack o’ lanterns.  Those children that were ready I encouraged to write the words too.  They turned out fantastic!

Note:  No school Friday!

October 25, 2000

Read Aloud Stories:  

  • The Biggest Pumpkin Ever – Before the story, we predicted about the story from the front illustration, read the blurb on the back for clues, throughout the story asked questions to encourage recall and involvement, then after the story, I asked questions about what happened, how did the pumpkin get so big, etc…

 Shared Reading:

  • Predictable Books:  I Paint – two times as shared reading

                                       What Do You See? – my Halloween pattern story

  • Poems/ Rhymes:  all the rhymes and songs we’ve learned plus one more rhyme that focuses on the sounds of “o” and “e.”  After I read each verse (from a book I’ve made), the children look at the page and follow the letters “oooooooeeeeeeeoooooo” to make a scary sound.  They loved it!

Songs:  

  • 5 Little Pumpkins – sang three times – once with me and twice the children “performed” FOR me.

  • From the song “The witch is in the dark” we went on to make up some of our own verses about other Halloween things.  They came up with ideas like “The bat sleeps at night” and “The witch makes a brew” and “The vampire sucks blood”

  • One more fun song we learned today:

A haunting we will go,
A haunting we will go,
We’ll catch a ____________,
And put him in a __________ (must rhyme),
And then we’ll let him go.

On the paper I have the rhyme typed on, I have Halloween clip art around it, to give the children ideas for what words to put in the spaces.

Language Experience:

  •  We created a piece of art representing the five little pumpkins using 5 Popsicle sticks, cutting 5 pumpkins from orange paper, and then at the end putting five stars in the sky.  

  • We carved one of our class pumpkins today during center time. 

  • We made pumpkins out of paper bags at another table during center time. 

 

October 24, 2000

Read Aloud Stories:  

The students have been asking me to read this story: Look out for Ghosts – a glow in the dark story about ghosts and a little boy who sees things around his house that look like ghosts.  We had fun turning off the lights to see the “ghosts.”  I would ask, “is it really a ghost?”, and the children would tell me what it was that only looked like a ghost.

Shared Reading:

  • Predictable Books:  I introduced a new book that I made that is an extension of the story Brown Bear, Brown Bear.  It had Halloween things in the story, for example “Black bat, Black bat, what do you see?  I see a skeleton looking at me.”  We read it twice and was inspiration enough for the class to make a similar book.  

  • Poems/ Rhymes:  We reviewed the past Halloween rhymes and songs we learned and then learned a new one:

Zoom!  Zoom!
Fly on my broom!
Up to the moon!
Zoom!  Zoom!  Zoom!
Zit! Zat!
With my black cat!
Scare a bat!
Zit!  Zat!  Zat! 

Songs: 

  • Some new simple songs we learned (I made the first one into a book so we can follow along with the words, with each page a new line/verse is typed up with a corresponding picture)

To the tune of The Farmer in the Dell
The witch is in the dark,
The witch is in the dark,
Hi-ho it’s Halloween,
The witch is in the dark.
The witch takes the bat, 
The witch takes the bat,
Hi-ho it’s Halloween,
The witch takes the bat.
The ghost says boo,
The ghost says boo,
Hi-ho it’s Halloween,
The ghost says boo!  

  • I also sang for the second day now a song about The Three Ghosts (to no familiar tune).  It  starts:  

Ooooooooh, one, two, three.  
Oooooooooh, ghosts are we, 
Ooooooooh when you sleep, 
Oooooooh then we’ll creep
…and on it goes) 

  • Looking for Dracula was of course requested again from the start of the day! 

  • We also sang  the Five Little Pumpkins two more times. 

Journals:

Today we talked about how to draw a ghost and wrote the word in our journals.  We thought about how ghosts can be any shape or size.  I also showed then how to make a simple one by using their hand.

Language Experience:  

Each child drew a Halloween picture for the class book Orange Pumpkin, Orange Pumpkin, What Do You See?  Some of the children were ready for writing the word on their own for what they drew (“I see a ________ looking at me”) Others I scribed for them.  We will read the finished product book tomorrow,].

Today was our library day again (every Tuesday- this is only our third visit), and of course there is a lot of language learning  in the library.  Children are encouraged to look at books, share them with friends, talk about the pictures (the teacher and assistants go around to help model that, like we do in the classroom).  If time goes well, the librarian or myself reads another story – a book that one of the students chose to sign out.  We also reviewed the rules and expectations of library behavior and with library books with the librarian.  The children also need to recognize the library card with their name and I teach them how to use the computer system to sign out their books.

 

October 23, 2000

Read Aloud Stories:  

  • Guess What?  By Mem Fox – predicting from the front cover illustration, title did not give us much for clues about the story, a pattern story about a witch, lots to see in the illustrations, lots to talk about, many questions to ask.

Shared Reading:

  • Predictable Books:  I Paint! – read together as a class, once again without me, and then two students read individually out loud .

  • Poems/ Rhymes:  I have some new Halloween songs/rhymes typed up to read along with.  We learned a couple today:

to the tune of Frère Jacques
Witches, Black cats,
Scary goblins,
Hal-lo-ween, Hal-lo-ween
Let’s go trick-or-treating
Let’s go trick-or-treating
Oh what fun!
Oh what fun!

 

Haunted House (picture)
Big and tall
Haunted House (picture)
You make me feel small
Looking at me with cobweb (picture) eyes,
We can tell that you’re in disguise

 

Also we learned the chant Looking For Dracula from the Charlotte Diamond album.

I also have a large poster with a poem about a Haunted House.  Many of the words are replaced with pictures so the children read from the pictures and I read the words.  We recited this before we drew a scary Halloween picture with “magic” wax crayons (which we will do a resist paint with tomorrow).  Each picture had to start with a Haunted House.  Of course I showed them my finished product first.  We also discussed where we could look for ideas for our picture before we drew it (the teacher’s picture, pictures in the writing center, decorations around the room, our brainstorm on chart paper, books, etc.)

Songs: 

5 Little Pumpkins- sang 2 times with the CD, then read/sang it once with the book

Field trip/Special Visitor book: 

Today we talked about the visit from the magician on Friday.  I drew pictures on my white board of all the things the children could remember seeing in the magic show and then the children had to go draw their favorite parts.  The children dictated to me about the picture and their favorite part of the show.

Language Experience: 

As I took attendance today, the children brainstormed Halloween as I drew/wrote their responses on chart paper.

Daily Routine/Take Home Book: 

We circled the date as we do everyday and then circled Ask me about and wrote the word Halloween.  The children were encouraged to go home and share with their parents about all the Halloween things we brainstormed.

 

October 18, 2000

Read Aloud Stories:   

  • Scary, Scary, Halloween – We even turned the lights off to read this story!!  We did predicting throughout about what it would be about, what will come next…It had a surprise ending.  It had a variety of Halloween vocabulary in it (such as vampires, witches, werewolves, etc…)

  • We also read again <