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 5 Little Pumpkins.

  • I also introduced the story I Paint!  A book that’s part of our literacy program (Bookshop series - Beanbag Books).  It will be a shared reading story.  We examined and talked about the cover , read the blurb on the back, talked about what the story might be about, etc.  After I read the first page, the children were already to finish the sentence of the next page.  I surprisingly asked them how they knew.  Some of them said they could read the word I pointed to (and a couple can), and the rest said they looked at the picture.  This is learning about clues for reading a word.  Throughout, we predicted what the boy might paint next.  Some of the children even noticed there was a rhyming pattern throughout.  This story has a very simple, appealing pattern, and the children love it.  We do a lot with this book.

Shared Reading:

  • Charts:  5 Little Pumpkins up on chart paper 

  • Predictable Books:  All Around the Seasons Go, and Pumpkins, Pumpkins, Pumpkins

  • Poems/ Rhymes:  Pumpkin, Pumpkin rhyme from yesterday

Songs: 

  • God Made All the Seasons

  • 5 Little Pumpkins,

Daily Routines Involving Literacy:  

I brought out a new lion puppet during attendance today.  This puppet only likes being sung to.  So I show them how he sings (for example) “Hello, Michael” and the child sings back, “Hello, Leo.”  When they sing, they try and match the tune and use a singing voice.  They also try and match the sounds (great for some of my speech delayed kids).

Writing Centre:  

I added some blank Haunted House books at the writing center.  I also have a folded corrugated board that I use to put thematic words up.  The word always has a picture or sticker beside it showing what the word is.  The children can stamp the words, write the words or whatever inside the book or on other paper.

Letters/Alphabet Book: 

We did the letter F today for ’F’all.

Dictated language:  

I worked on scribing the children’s fall pictures for our class book.

Language Experience: 

At the end of the day we went to phys.ed. with one class and the in the other I taught them a variety of fingerplays from one of my fingerplay books.

 

October 17, 2000

Note:  Today is Orange Day!  All the children tried to wear orange and bring something from their home that was orange.  I face-painted pumpkins on all the children’s faces during center time to make sure everyone had a little orange on them!

Read Aloud Stories:  

  • 5 Little Pumpkins – a book I made using the rhyme 5 little pumpkins sitting on a gate.  We sang with Raffi’s 5 Little Pumpkins first and then compared them.  Mine is a little different.

  • Pumpkins, Pumpkins, Pumpkins – another patterned rhyming story similar to Leaves, Leaves, Leaves except with pumpkins.  We compared how some of the words were the same.  We also went back and listened to the rhyming words.  I note how the words almost sound the same, and I point to my mouth to show how my mouth moves the same when the sounds are the same.  They “get it” better when I show it this way.

  • The librarian also read a story to them during library time.

S hared Reading:

  • Predictable Books:  We read Pumpkins, Pumpkins, Pumpkins a second time as a shared reading.

  • Poems/ Rhymes:  This rhyme is typed up and mounted (some of the words are replaced with pictures).  I track as I read it:

Pumpkin (picture), Pumpkin (picture), 
Orange, Orange
Cat (pic), Cat (pic)
Black, Black
Ghost (pic), Ghost (pic)
White, White
Let’s look for colors
On Halloween Night!

Songs: 

  • 5 Little Pumpkins

Daily Routines Involving Literacy:  

During attendance, each child stood up to show us where they had the color orange.  Even those children not wearing orange, but wearing red or yellow, I told them you need those two colors to make orange (we talked about this yesterday- they could wear red or yellow if the had no orange).  They also got to share and talk about what they brought from home that was orange.

Take Home Book – the message was Ask me about… ORANGE DAY

Journals:   

After looking at some real pumpkins, we learned how to draw a pumpkin in our journals.  We drew different shapes and sizes as well as wrote the word PUMPKIN.

The children also continued to work on their fall picture for our class book.

Language Experience: 

Today, I brought in a variety of ‘gourds.’  This included some ornamental gourds, squash, watermelon and pumpkins of different colors and sizes.  We talked about how they were the same, different, and how they are all in the same “family.”  Over the next couple of days, we will touch them, compare them, measure them, weigh them, etc.

During center time, the children experimented with mixing the colors red and yellow at a table for painting.  We saw what happened when you added more or less yellow and more or less red. 

 

October 16,2000

Read Aloud Stories:  

  • Pooh’s Leaf Pile – a story about Winnie the Pooh and his friends doing some discovering about fall leaves.  We predicted about the story from the title and front cover.  I also did some questioning throughout encouraging the children to think about what’s happening, what might happen, what did happen, etc.  At the end we reviewed some of the new vocabulary.

  • Round and Round the Seasons Go (song story)– We talked once again about the pictures and what’s happening outside in all of the seasons, what kinds of fun things can you do outside in each season, what animals do you see in each…

Shared Reading:

  • Predictable Books: Leaves, Leaves, Leaves – we read the story together as a class one time and then 3 more students were chosen to read to the class. I encourage them to try their best, use BIG voices so everyone can hear, and to wait until I turn the page to say the words.

  • Poems/ Rhymes:  5 Little Monkeys

 

Songs: 

  • reviewed some of the Raffi songs

  • learned a new song from our religion program called God Made All the Seasons, along with actions.  We listen once, then we repeat the words of the chorus after the teacher (without the tape), then we sing the chorus with the teacher (without the tape), then we try it with the cassette.  I add actions to the lyrics as the song plays.  They can follow and try to join in the words if they can.

Daily Routines Involving Literacy:  

Attendance – What did you do on the weekend?

We began a new routine today called Take Home Book.  Each child gets their own book in a large Ziploc baggie to write in at school each day and then take home.  On each page are the days of the week, the months up to December, the numbers 1-31, and the start of several phrases (I need, Ask me about, Today we, Don’t forget, Tomorrow is).  Together we decide as a class what to write about and up on the class white board I circle the appropriate  words and numbers and write a word or so below.  At take home book time each day (after recess), the children write it in their own books.  I find these books teach so much over the year (language, fine motor skills, reading readiness, familiarity with words, phrases, even sentences, and also number recognition, etc.), and hopefully increase the communication between school and parents.  It also gives the parents something specific to ask or talk about with their child regarding their school day.

Language Experience: 

Together we are in the process of making a class book called In the Fall We See  Each child is working on a fall picture to go into the book.  They can use the ideas from the brainstorm we made on the chart paper, or think of others.  This will last a couple days.  I will start scribing for them tomorrow about their pictures.

Many of the children and I helped to decorate our classroom with Halloween decorations today.  This was a wonderful language experience.  Some children helped to turn or house into a haunted house (covering it with black garbage bags), others made windows to go around the house drawing scary things in the windows., and making signs for the house.  We’ll work on this throughout the week.  Even others brought out some of my Halloween games.

 

October 13, 2000

 

Read Aloud Stories:  

  • Round and Round the Seasons Go – a “song” story about the seasons.  We talked about what is happening in the pictures in the different seasons and which one is the season we are in now, etc.

  • Counting Leaves – This was one of the books I made with the pattern (One yellow leaf, Two red leaves…).  The children were feeling so independent reading it that I prepared blank page books (except the words were typed at the bottom) for the children to make their own.  [See Writing Activity below]

Shared Reading:

  • Predictable Books:  Leaves, Leaves, Leaves – three more children read it on their own after we did shared reading as a class  

  • Rhymes:  5 Little Monkeys

Songs:

Today was “request” day.  The kids got to request all their favorite songs to sing.

Writing Activity: 

Each child made their own Counting leaves book.  They drew the appropriate number of leaves with the right color on each page.  I had the pages displayed for them to use as a model.  I reminded them of how all leaves are different shapes and sizes, so they could draw them how they wanted.  As I moved around the room, I comment on their pictures telling them what they are drawing as well as ask them questions about their drawings (ex.  “I see you are drawing one yellow leaf”, “The leaves you are drawing are very long/big/small/bumpy, pointy,” “I see you drew one red leaf, how many more do you need?”,  “What will you draw on this page?”)

After each child finished their books we read it together (the child and I or an assistant).  Then we partnered them up with a buddy and they had to go sit together and read it to each other.  Their “homework” was to take it home and share/read it with their family.

Language Experience: 

Together, we made a class graph about our favorite colors.  The children chose a paper of their favorite color, shared it with the class (“___ is my favorite color”) and glued it on the graph.  Afterwards we discussed how many of each color there are, whish color is the most/least popular, which have the same number, etc.

During attendance, I asked about the things we are each going to do on the weekend (it’s typical I get a lot of ‘watch TV.’ so I give them ideas of other things they could do instead of too much TV.)  Even my assistant’s and I shared what we were going to do.

Together we made a poster portraying all the different kinds of leaves we found on our fall walk and brought from home.  Different children were chosen to find (we’ve been keeping the leaves in our water table for the week) a red leaf, a yellow leaf, a green leaf, an orange leaf, a purple leaf, a brown leaf, the smallest leaf and the biggest leaf.  The leaves were placed on the poster with the words above them describing them.  We’ll keep the poster up throughout fall.

Notes:  Many of our students will be starting an Extended Kindergarten Program on Monday.  This means some of them will be staying all-day for the rest of the year.  All of the inner-city Catholic schools in Edmonton got some funds to do this.  I will continue teaching the regular program, while someone else runs the Extended program in a different room.

 

October 12, 2000

Read Aloud Stories: 

  • Autumn Leaves – a fact book about trees that lose their leaves in the fall.  It is full of beautiful “photographs” (not illustrations!) of many different kinds, colors and shapes of leaves.

Shared Reading:

  • Predictable Books:  Leaves! Leaves! Leaves! – the children and I read it together one time, the children read it without me one time and then I chose 2 students to read it on their own.

  • Poems:  We acted out our fall poem twice.

Songs:  

  • We learned a new counting song today:  1, 2, 3, 4, 5, I Caught a Fish Alive…

  •  We also sang Welcome Hello! to a visitor

  • Let’s Sing It!

  • The More We Get Together

  • The Sharing Song

Rhymes: 

One of the students yesterday on the bus thought of a new rhyme about going on a field trip, so it gave me an idea to change the words to Going on a Bear Hunt to Going on a Field Trip.  We made up the words together and talked about the things we saw in the Rutherford House.  This gave us ideas for what to draw in our field trip books.

Independent Reading: 

More Halloween Books were brought out today, so I made sure I gave the children time to look through them at Reading Time.

Daily Routines Involving Literacy:  

During attendance today, we did a BRAINSTORM about fall.  We talked about what “brainstorm” means and as I talked to each child, they were asked to think of something they see happening in the fall.  As they though of ideas, I drew pictures of their ideas and wrote the words on a large piece of chart paper  We brainstormed about animals and birds and bugs and what they are doing in the fall.  We thought of the weather getting colder and the clothes we need to wear when we go outside.  We thought of the trees and what they look like.  We thought of the leaves and their colors and on and on…

Field Trip Books: 

After discussing all the things we remember about our field trip, the children had to fill a page in their field trip books about the day, drawing as many things as they could remember seeing.  As they worked and during center time, we scribed for them all about their pictures.

Language Experience: 

During centers, the children were encouraged to visit the art table to create a “fall” picture.  The paint colors were the colors of fall leaves and they made art by blowing brown paint through a straw (tree trunk and branches) and sponging the colored paint (leaves) around the branches and on the ground.  In terms of language, the children learned about colors, location, instructions to follow, words to describe their picture, etc…

 

Wednesday, October 11, 2000

Notes:    Today we took a field trip to The Rutherford House (the home of Alberta’s first premier) to kick off our Halloween theme in a fun way!  The children got to bake in an old fashioned kitchen, listen to a spooky ghost story, tour the house, learn about the Rutherford Family, talk about costumes and Halloween Safety, and more!  

Shared Reading:

  • Predictable Books: Leaves! Leaves! Leaves! (two times together as a class and one student read it to the class on their own)

  • Poems:  Our fall poem we recited once more today

Songs:  

Because it is one of our rules on the bus (we have to sing!), we sang any song the children requested that we have learned at school.  This added up to a lot of songs sung over and over!

Independent Reading: 

I brought out some new Halloween story books for the children to look through after snack time was finished.

Daily Routines Involving Literacy:  

My question of the day while taking attendance was “What might you see on Halloween?,” This got the children thinking about Halloween (symbols, costumes, animals, etc.).

Alphabet Book:  

We had just enough time to learn the letter “L” today after our Leaves! Leaves! Leaves! Story.  We sang the alphabet song (while I pointed to the alphabet line on the wall) to find the letter “L.”  We tried to figure out if it was a letter close to the “beginning,” “middle,” or “end.”  This helped us know where to look when we looked for it in our alphabet books.  We drew the letter really big with our fingers/arms, and then I modeled how to do them on my white board.  I talked about starting from the “top”, making a line “down”, “stopping” and then “across” to the “right” (lots of language involved!).  Of course I always do some ”wrong” to see if the children catch it!  This is always fun!

On the bus we looked for the letter “L” and on signs and places around us.  The children initiated this again!

 

Tuesday, October 10, 2000

Read Aloud Stories: 

These are several pattern stories that I made with my own pictures/clip art and words that I read to the children today. 

  • Counting Leaves – a counting pattern story, pictures of the different colors of leaves you can see in the fall:  One yellow leaf/ Two red leaves/Three orange leaves/Four brown leaves/Five green leaves (read it twice – the children read it more the second time).  We talked about the first letter of the word leaf and leaves, drew it with our finger in the air and talked about the sound it made and what our mouth looked like when we made it’s sound.  We also talked about the pattern in the story – the words and # of words that are the same on each page.

  • Turkeys! Turkeys! Turkeys! – A fun pattern rhyming story with lots of new vocabulary in it. (Turkeys by the corn. Turkeys by the well. Turkeys by the wagon.  Turkeys by the bell……)

  •   Leaves! Leaves! Leaves! – A story with a similar pattern.  We talked about the titles being similar – they guessed what it said just by looking at the pictures and comparing the way it was written to the Turkeys story.  How many times to we say Leaves in the title?  So, how many words on the front page? (Leaves on the house, leaves on the street, leaves on the car, leaves on the feet….and so on)

Today was also library Day and a special helper got to pick any story from the library for me to read.  Usually we do this every Tuesday on Library Day.

Shared Reading:

  • Predictable Books:  The children began following along and predicting the patterns of the stories above.  We will do more shared reading with it each day.

  • Poems:  This poem is up on our chart paper to follow:

(pretending to be leaves the children first followed the teacher how to act out this rhyme and then we tried it together, then boys only then girls only- 4 times total)

Like a leaf or a feather,  
In the windy, windy weather  
We whirl around  
And twirl around  
And all fall down together

Songs:  

With actions we sang 

  • The More We Get Together 

  • It’s Mine But You Can Have Some (by Raffi).  

  • We also listened to and learned a new song from our Beanbag Book series cassette about counting called Let’s Sing It!  It allows the children to really experiment with different voice levels and sounds and we can talk about the instruments we hear playing.

Journals:  

Field Trip Books – after our fall walk, the children wrote the letters FALL WALK and drew all the colors of leaves they saw outside.  After their pictures were finished, they could pick their favorite leaf from our collection and tape it into their book.

Language Experience:  

Today, we had planned to go on our Fall Walk to look for signs of Fall.  The children had fun collecting as many different shapes and colors of leaves they could in their small brown bags.  We stepped and danced around in the leaf piles and talked about words that would describe the sounds they make.  After we finished collecting we gathered in a circle and everyone picked their favorite to share and tell us about their colors.  We found other things on the ground, like pine cones, sticks, branches, pine needles. We talked about there being very few bugs and birds around, etc, etc.

During attendance today, we put each of our names up on a name graph.  All the children had to help me figure out where the names go according to the first letter it started with. We read the graph by talking about more/less than, the most popular first letter, which had the same?, etc.  Later, as I dismissed the children to line up I went through the graph to say “If your name starts with the letter ___, you can go line up”  I will use this throughout the week this way and in a week or so we will put our names up on the word wall.

 

October 6, 2000

Notes:  Today, the children and I are celebrating Thanksgiving with a Friendship Celebration, to thank God for all that he’s given us and the new friends we’ve made in kindergarten.  It’s something we’ve been planning and preparing for the last few days.

Read Aloud Stories:  

  • Five Little Monkeys – a cassette and story added to the listening center and a fingerplay we will be learning and practicing.  It has a wonderful pattern and the cassette has a funky beat to go along with the rhyme.  The kids really get into it and in a fun way learn math concepts of more/less than, and adding and taking away one.

  • Twas’ the Night before Thanksgiving – a rhyming story, with opportunities for  a lot of predicting, questioning, reviewing.  The kids enjoy it!  We talked about the ending being both funny and happy.  All the children were asked to try and remember what they ate on Thanksgiving so they could come back to school on Tuesday to tell me.

  • Thanks For Thanksgiving – A story that gave us some ideas for things to be thankful for.  It also gave us a picture of what Thanksgiving dinner would look like in some families.  We talked about who has tried turkey before, and the difference between turkey and chicken.

Songs:  

  • We sang “Welcome Hello!” to another visitor today 

  • “The More We Get Together” 

  • and 2 new Raffi songs:  “It’s Mine But You Can Have Some”, and “Mr. Sun.”

Daily Routines Involving Literacy:  

During center time today, the children and my assistant helped to prepare for our classroom Friendship Celebration by helping to cut up different fruit for our Friendship Fruit Salad we would share.  They talked about all the fruit, their colors, their shapes, their smells, and then they chose one to cut up to put into the salad bowl.

(I often plan some additional literacy activities to do during center time that may last 1-3 days.  Children most often have the choice to come over and participate although it’s rare they choose not to do so!)

I also taught some small groups of children at center time how to play Go Fish!

Journals:  

We learned a fun way to draw a turkey in our journals using your hand!  I demonstrated how to draw on the white board first and we all helped to sound out the word (they could hear it started with a “T” like TEDDY!)

Language Experience:  

Our Friendship Celebration was held at the end of the day in our classroom.  We talked again about why we light a candle at each celebration we have (we did this for our School Opening Celebration) and started with a group prayer.  All the children had a turn while we went around the room to say Thank You to God For something, and then we finished with our everyday snack prayer. We passed out some fruit salad for everyone to share!  We tried to remember all the different fruits we cut up, and saw how colorful it all was.  We talked about how everyone helped to make it and we’ll use experience as an example of cooperation and friendship throughout the year!

 

Monday, October 1st 

Notes:  This week is Read-In Week and I have a number of staff from our school coming in to read stories to the children each day.  The Occupational Therapist was also in today to pull out small groups of 6 children to do some activities with them.

Read-Aloud Stories: 

  • Polar Bear Polar Bear, What do you Hear? By Bill Martin Jr./illustrated by Eric Carle – comparison between Brown Bear, Brown Bear and this story (same illustrator – did you like this story, do you think you will like this one?), names of animals, sizes of animals and their sounds, colors of animals (are they this color in real life?), guessing the sounds on some, recalling the animals and sounds at the end

 Shared Reading:

  • Predictable Books:  Have You Seen My Cat?  By Eric Carle – looking at the cover and title…what does it tell us about the story?, counting the cats on the cover, how many children have a cat at home, talking about the many kinds of cats on the first pages – tame vs. wild and what that means

  •  Poems:  reviewed Fuzzy Wuzzy, Rub-a-dub-dub, Hug your bear (all with actions)

         NEW:-learned new (typed up with corresponding clip art; learned actions after reciting first time; right now the children are just repeating the lines after me)

I love bears
Fat bears, thin bears
I love bears
Tall bears, short bears
I love bears
Happy bears, sad bears
I love bears
Black bears, brown bears
I love bears

         

Four little bears in a soft, feathery bed,
And the itsy, bitsy, teeny, weeny, littlest
bear said, “Move over!”
and they did and one fell out… Kerplunk!

Three little bears...

Two little bears...

One little bear in a soft feathery bed.

And the …….littlest one said, “Good Night!”

 

One bear,
Two bears,
Three bears,
Four
Five bears,
Six bears,
Seven bears,
More! 

Songs: 

  • Teddy Bears

One little, two little, three little teddy bears
Four little, five little, six little teddy bears,
Seven little, eight little, nine little teddy bears
Ten little teddy bears! 

  • “The More We Get Together”  by Raffi

  • New songs added to our daily songs:

          “What is the weather?” song (I made up)

          “Thank You Lord” song/prayer for the end of the day.
                    Thank You Lord, Thank you Lord,
                    For all the things I learned today.
                    (verse 2)For all my friends and this special day
                    (verse 3)For all the love I felt today
                        Thank You Lord.

We only learned the first verse today – it’s my own little melody.

Daily Routines Involving Literacy:

  • Calendar time:  We looked at our new calendar for October (what changed?) and talked about all the special days coming up for this month.

  • Craft time:  Talking about how to make our craft (teddy bear string puppet) and the steps we need to take to make it finished.

Writing Center:  

I worked with some children at the writing center today making books (I have blank books and paper at the centre).  The children wanted to make alphabet books, drawing a picture for each letter, the next page they decided to draw Halloween pictures, and the last page they wanted to draw rainbows

Dictated language:  

My assistant has been pulling out the children the last two days to ask them about their field trip book pictures.  She writes into words what the children drew and asks them to “Tell me about your pictures, tell me what did you see/do at the library, what was your favorite part about the field trip, etc.”  She then reads it back to them at the end.

September 28, 2000

Notes:  Today the children went on their first field trip to the Public Library (a short 1 hour tour and book browse).  I find that after a few weeks of increasing the children’s interest in books in the classroom, I can take them to the public library and they’ll love it!  All the children got their own library card and I encouraged them to bring back their families to take out books, cassettes, CD’s, videos, etc.

Read-Aloud Stories:  

  • How Teddy Bears Are Made – a non-fiction story about a teddy bear factory, showing photos of how teddy bears are made (unfortunately I don’t know of a place I can take my students to show them this on a field trip!)

  • The Wheels On The Bus (by Raffi) – We talked about the way we should behave on a bus and together decided on some rules to remember (one rule being “you must sing on the bus!”) 

Journals (actually Alphabet books):  

After reading the book about how Teddy Bears are made, we sang the T-E-D-D-Y song.  We looked for the first letter in the word TEDDY - T, and after knowing that, we looked to see how many times it said TEDDY on the chart paper.  I brought out my white board again and talked the children through writing a capital letter T.  I showed them how to start from the TOP, and to take my time and try my best.  Then I drew some more T’s and they told me if I was doing them right or wrong.  The children love this and get very involved.  We sang the alphabet song, while I pointed at the letters on the wall above us.  At the end of the song, I asked them where is the letter T, near the beginning, middle, or the end?  Once we decided it was closer to the end, I showed the children an Alphabet Book.  Inside are all blank pages with only a different letter of the alphabet in the corner of each page.  We found the letter T page, and the children filled their pages with as many letter T’s as they could.

When we were on the bus, children we noticing T’s everywhere.  It was just great to see the connections they were making so quickly!

Language Experience:  

The trip to the Library was a fabulous language experience.  Not only did the librarian show us so many different kinds of books and book topics, but she read us a variety of stories, riddles and poems (felt board story, puppet stories, fall poems). 

On the bus all the way to the library we sang every song and recited every poem we learned from the beginning of the school year.  They wanted to repeat songs over and over.  On the way back, we sang more and played color find games.

Wows! and Reflection:

It was so wonderful to see how excited the children were about looking through books at the library!  This field trip is always worthwhile, but this group this year seemed a lot more interested than those previous.  I’m so proud of them already! 

 

September 27, 2000

Notes:  A substitute was in for me today, so it was mostly reviewing and asking the children to show her what they have been learning and their favorite songs and stories

Read-Aloud Stories:  

  • Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?

  • Round and Round the Garden

  • A Pocket For Corduroy – the children retold the story to a puppet

 Shared Reading:

  • Poems:  Hug, hug, hug your bear
                   Fuzzy Wuzzy
                   Rub-a-dub-dub

  • Songs:  VIP, Welcome Hello!

Daily Routines Involving Literacy: 

The children finished a craft we started yesterday.  They explained to the sub the steps they had done so far, and the sub went over the next few steps to do to finish.  We usually go over the steps several times verbally and visually (with pictures of cutting, gluing, coloring, etc.) and through modelling (sometimes I show them what to do and show them my finished product)


September 26th, 2000

Read-Aloud Stories:  

  • We read the Bear Hunt story we didn’t read yesterday and did a lot more comparing of the two afterwards.  Which one do you like the best?  Why?  How are the endings different?  Etc…

  • I also read the sequel to Corduroy … A Pocket For Corduroy also by Don Freeman.  The children were excited to see Corduroy again, and we talked about many of the differences on the book cover pictures and we guessed what this one might be about.  Do they think it will be the same story inside?  We also looked on the back cover to see for clues.  Many of the situations in this story are similar and they children were so excited to notice! 

Shared Reading:

  • Charts:  We sang T-E-D-D-Y again today!

  • Predictable Books:  The children also wanted to read Brown Bear, Brown Bear again today.  They remembered what came next on every page.  I did tracking as they chanted the story words.

  • Poems:  We reviewed the Rub-A-Dub-Dub rhyme and Fuzzy Wuzzy rhyme today.  But the second time we said them we tried to make up actions to go with the words.  The third time we put it all together.

Songs: 

  • A new song I also had typed up with pictures we learned with actions today (all the children had to have a bear for this one):

                             Hug, hug, hug your bear
                             Squeeze him very tight,
                             Hold him high, and let him fly
                             Then hug with all your might! 
                            (tune of Row, row, row your boat)

  • Other songs:  We sang Welcome! Hello! And V.I.P. again today.

Journals: 

The children and I learned how to draw Corduroy today.  I drew him with the children’s help first on my white board and looked at the book title to copy the letters of his name.

Daily routines Involving Literacy: 

At snack time today (carrots and cucumbers and dip), we talked about the colors of our snack, words to describe the smell of the snack, where it comes from, and words to describe the sound it makes when we eat it.   At snack time of course all the children are encouraged to remember to say thank you, no thank you, yes please, etc.

Wows! and Reflection:  

The children are really enjoying journal and storytime.  I am seeing so much progress and improvement in the children’s drawings and confidence.  Those who last week were saying I don’t know, and I can’t are now working on their own with no requests for help.  During these work times, the children are also being encouraged to use their words and manners (i.e.. Excuse me, please pass the felts, can we share, etc.)


September 25, 2000

Read-Aloud Stories:

  • Going on a Bear Hunt (a child chose which version we read again– the one from the book or the one I have written on paper);  talked a bit about how they are different (only one has illustrations, one you need to march on your lap throughout, we see different things.)
  • Children’s Bible   Chapter 1: The story of Creation

    • remembering who the stories are about in this big, heavy book (God)

    • looking at the table of contents: how many stories are in this book? (we counted)

    • Finding the first story title and what page number it is on

    • We read the story of God’s creation and there was opportunity for lots of questioning and discussion on each page (wonderful illustrations), 

    • At the end of the story, we discussed how we can keep God’s world looking beautiful and then recalled from the pictures all the things God created once again

Shared Reading:

  • Chart Paper:  Some of the songs and rhymes we learn I display on chart paper so we can follow along with my finger, a child’s finger or a pointer.  We learned a song to the tune of B-I-N-G-O:

          There was a baby had a bear
          And TEDDY was his name-o
          T-E-D-D-Y, T-E-D-D-Y, T-E-D-D-Y
          And TEDDY was his name-o
          (clapping one more letter each time you sing)

  • Poems:  Some of the thematic poems and rhymes we learn I type up on a piece of paper with corresponding clip-art I can find (that give clues to the words) and then mount them on construction and laminate them.  The children eventually remember them by what color they are on (i.e.. Do the green one!)  We recited two today twice in a row (the children repeat the lines after I say them when we are first learning them – I track and/or point to the pictures as we read them)

          Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear,
          Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair,
          Fuzzy Wuzzy wasn’t fuzzy 
          Was he?

Rub-a-dub-dub
          There’s a bear in my tub         
          He loves to splash and scrub
          He washes his toes
          And shines his nose
          Then off to bed he goes

We also reviewed Round and Round the Garden (once to ourselves), but today we also gathered in a standing circle, and faced a partner.  This way each child had a chance to tickle a friend with the rhyme.  They loved it!

Songs: 

  • Today being a child’s Birthday, we learned the Birthday Polka song (on our religion program cassette).  All the children are in a circle and stomp and clap their feet as they sing, while I dance in the middle with the Birthday child.  Then after we sing Happy Birthday!

  • We also reviewed our songs Welcome! Hello! And V.I.P.

Daily Routines Involving Literacy:  

This is not a daily routine, but it is routine on Birthdays.  As I mentioned above we sing and dance for the Birthday child, but I also have a special Birthday backpack they get to take home for one night.  It is filled with a Birthday puzzle and 4 storybooks about Birthdays (i.e.. Arthur’s Birthday, Moira’s Birthday, The Goblin’s Birthday party, etc.).  Inside is also a Birthday journal, and we brainstorm ideas for what the child could draw and/or write inside about their birthday.  We show and read it the next day. 

Once a month (which was today), we also have a Birthday Cooking Day!  All the birthday children of that month get to go and bake a special treat for the class.  The children are very involved with the baking and get to do everything (well almost! – okay, not putting it in the oven).  They get to come back to class and tell everyone the ingredients before we eat it.  During center time, the leftovers are passed out by the same children to staff around the school and they learn how to ask nicely, use their manners, as well as get to know other adults working around the school.  Again they are usually asked, “how did you make it?” and they have to remember.

Journals:  

After reading about the story of God’s creation, we drew in our journals all the things we could think of that God made and wrote above it GOD MADE.  Again, they brainstorm and draw “with me” first on my white board.

Wows! and Reflection:

Being the fourth week now, the children are really starting to “get it!”  The routines are much better established and there is a lot more children talking than teacher!  (Although some days it doesn’t feel that way!)  

Friday, September 21st

Read-Aloud Stories:

  • Ira Sleeps Over (chosen by one of the children) Again we did more discussing about what we think the story is about just by knowing the title and the title page picture.  I also turned the book to the back and read the blurb.  Did it tell us more?  It got us excited about reading it because it said “Wait until you see what happens!” or something like that.  I only stopped once in a while to ask questions or to give the children some time to think about what happened and to respond.

  • Going on a Bear Hunt again except this time it wasn’t from a book.  I asked the children if they wanted to learn a new bear hunt (it was one I had on paper with no pictures).  This time they had to repeat, but we also had to do actions to it.  Throughout you must keep the beat by marching on your lap with your hands and then we act out all the things we have to go “through.”  We talked about how it was a little different from the book.

Shared Reading:

  • Poems:  I used the book Round and Round the Garden to learn more verses to the rhyme.  We made up more finger actions to the rest of the rhyme.

Songs: 

We learned two new songs today:

  •  Just as class begun, we learned a new song to welcome a visitor to our class.  It is from our religion program cassette called “Welcome, Hello”.  It is always a hit with the children.  We also learned the actions that go along with it.

  • Before we started our writing activity for the day and after we read our story, we were talking about the things and people who are special to us (first it was our teddy bears, then we talked about our family).  The song V.I.P. always becomes one of the children’s favorites over the year.  It talks about being important in their family. 

Journals:  

We started a new book called our V.I.P. book.  Over the year, each child will make a book about themselves.  Today we drew a self-portrait on the first page and practiced writing our name on the second.  Many of the children used models to copy their name from, others I found needed to trace their name.    

Language Experience:

Having a visitor come to our class is a wonderful opportunity for some literacy experience.  We talk about how to greet a visitor, and how to ask appropriate questions one at a time to find out who they are and why they are here.

Notes:

The Speech and Language Pathologist was in today to do screening for my students.  We flagged at least 8 students with severe language delays, and probably the same with mild/moderate delays.

Wows! and Reflection:

We learn a lot of songs and rhymes in my kindergarten program.  We repeat them over and over throughout the year.  I find it teaches them so much language, and gives them lots of practice with the sounds and rhyming.  We also usually make up actions with the songs and rhymes we learn.  Not only for motor development, but with so many ESL kids, it helps them to understand what the words mean.  More than anything, it keeps them busy and involved and is much more fun!

 

Thursday, September 21st

Read-Aloud Stories:  

  • Going On A Bear Hunt  The children love this story, because they can get involved and repeat all the lines.  Before we read the story, I told them the title and asked them “Where do you think these people are going?” (on a bear hunt)  “Why would they want to go hunt for bears?”  I opened the whole book front and back cover together and the children saw that it was a family.  We talked about this a little, “Would you want to go on a bear hunt?”  “Why not?”  and questions like that.  There are some wonderful, fun sounds and words to say in this story.

Poems:  

still more repetition of Open Them Shut Them and Round and Round the Garden.  Their “homework” was to go home and teach Round and Round the Garden to their family and tickle them all!         

Language Experience:

Calendar:  We talked about the colors of bears on the calendar (this month the numbers are on bears).  We said all the colors out loud, until we noticed something… “Red, brown, red, brown, red, brown, red, brown… What’s happening?”  Then we talked about how this is a pattern and what that means.

Fire Drill:  We discussed what would we do if there was a fire in our school.  This led to us making three rules together:  “Walk, don’t stop, stay together.”  Then we practiced the escape twice, once with the whole school.

Wows! and Reflection:

During the story Going on a Bear Hunt, it was great to see every child was involved either by repeating the words or very intently listening and watching.  Some are very shy still, or almost seem to be so overwhelmed with the story to say anything.  I have many children in my class who have never been read to or even seen a book before.  So this is a very new experience for many of them.

 

Wednesday, September 20th

Read-Aloud Stories:  

  • The Lord’s Prayer Book  This is a cute little book that helps to explain the Lord’s Prayer and what the words mean.  It really makes sense to the children.  After we read it, I gave the children some scenarios and they had to tell me if it would be something God would or would not want us to do. 

  • Retelling the story Corduroy:  I tried something new and fun today that worked really well in order to get the children excited about retelling stories.  I brought out a new puppet – her name is Jill.  Jill talked to the children a little and then they had to guess something Jill really liked about school.  With a few clues, they figured out that she loved books and being told stories.  She asked them about a story they read yesterday.  Could they remember? (Corduroy)  Then she asked them to tell her about the story.  The teacher didn’t need to help they said!  So, we went through the whole story looking at the pictures to give us clues to help us remember what happened.

  • Brown Bear, Brown Bear was also read again before home time.  The children wanted to try it the second time on their own with no help from the teacher.

Shared Reading:

  • Charts:  We have been reading our Class Rules everyday before we begin to remind us.  We also talked a little about consequences if the rules are broken.

  • Poems:  Round and Round the Garden 
                              Like a teddy bear,
                              One step, two step
                              Tickle you under there!  (this rhyme is a fingerplay)

We did it about four times with the teacher, changing hands after every second time.

Daily Routines Involving Literacy:  

We talked about manners at snack time today.  I demonstrated some actions and they had to tell me if it was good manners or bad manners. 

Wows! and Reflection:

I am so excited the children wanted to read Corduroy and Brown bear again.  And using the puppet for retelling the story worked so much better than I ever could have hoped.  Even the shyest, quietest, lowest English-speaking kids got involved and participated.  It’s so funny, the children didn’t even look at me.  They can’t take their eyes off the puppet!  And they didn’t even get bored retelling the story.  I always found this to get boring before.  But this puppet idea I think will make all the difference!  It was such a wonderful language-rich experience and I hope also that it will help the children when they use the puppets at the puppet center.  They also now want to use puppets when they get to look at books at READING TIME.  It was so exciting.

 

Tuesday, September 19th  (first day with all students)

Read-Aloud Stories: 

  • Corduroy

    • talked about the author and how he is the man who “wrote” the story

    • showed the title

    • talked about title page picture. Questions I used to prompt the children:  “This is Corduroy, what is he?  What’s happening in the picture?  What is Corduroy missing?  Do you think that is his button he’s reaching for?  Should we read the story to find out? Etc…”

    • throughout the story there is lots of predicting that can be done: “What do you think will happen?”  

    • talked about feelings in the story and how they changed “sad, scary, sad, happy”

    • Asked the children at the end “Who liked the story?”

Poems: 

  • “Open them, Shut them” used throughout the day to calm and focus the class

New Songs: 

“O Canada” with the morning announcement (prompting the children before each line is sung) 

Journals: 

This was the first day we used the journals to draw a teddy bear.  This is our process for journal writing:

I use a white board to draw first in front of the class.  The trick is though, the children have to HELP me draw the picture by “using their words” to tell me how to draw.  As much as they will want to, they can’t show me where to draw things.  This encourages so much language!  We talked about shapes I could use to draw the head, the body, etc; how many arms, eyes, ears, legs to draw; where the parts go (on top of, under, beside, etc.); colors we can color our picture; and so on…

After we decide the picture is finished, we need to write the words.  I help to articulate the sounds as I sound out “teddy bear.”  I write the letters the children hear and call out.  Then I go back to fill in the missing letters.  The children are encouraged to try as many letters as they can.  Most of them want to impress me and say “I can do them all!”  From there, the children go to draw their own teddy bear in their own journals.  Trust me, doing it this way almost entirely eliminates the “I can'ts and the “I don’t know how’s”!  And look at the language and learning that happened in such a short, fun time!

Dictated language:  

I scribe for any children’s drawing or artwork during center time.  I ask them to tell me about their picture, or let’s write a story about your picture, etc.  Then they can choose to take it home or put it up on the bulletin board.

Language Experience: 

  1. The attendance board was started today.  As each child comes in to class, they must find their name on the board (it is a corkboard, at the children’s level) and turn it around from the color orange to yellow.  This tells me they are here today.

  2. Before we do our praying or “talking to God” we learned about how to do the sign of the cross and what “the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.” mean and why we do it before and after we pray.  Tomorrow, we will look at the words of the prayer. 

  3. Our Daily reflection at the end of the day.  I ask the children to put up their hand if they can tell me one thing we did today.  Later in the year, I will have each child tell me in a circle.  I find this refreshes their mind as to all the activities we did that day, besides center time and recess, so they can remember better to tell their family.

Wows! and Reflection:

It excited me when the children asked “Can we read Arthur again?” 

 

September 12th-14th

Staggered Entry Week 2

Read-Aloud Stories:  

  • Brown Bear, Brown Bear (2nd and 3rd time)

    • we tried to remember all the animals in the story before we read it

    • one group wanted to use voices when we read it again

    • one group wanted to count the animals

  • Arthur Goes to School

    • a lot of predicting (it’s a lift-the-flap book), counting, opposites, alphabet

    • remember what Clifford did on his first day… did Arthur do the same?

Shared Reading:

  • Predictable Books:  Both groups wanted to try and read Brown Bear, Brown Bear all by themselves as a group the third time  

  • Poems/Rhymes:

    Open them, Shut them, Open them, shut them,
    Give them a little clap!
    Open them, Shut them, Open them, shut them,
    Put them on your lap!

New Songs: 

“Days of the Week Song“  We will sing this every day when we do the calendar show.

Daily Routines Involving Literacy:  

showed the “Daily Agenda” – pictures and words showing the order of things we will do each day.  Every day this changes and we discuss it after prayer.

Journals:  

Each child drew their portrait.  First though, the children help the teacher draw her portrait (the children have to use their words to “tell” the teacher what to draw – talk about shape for the head, where things go, what color, how many…).  Then the children are more confident to draw their own in their journal along with writing their name copying from a model.

Language Experiences: 

- Learning and reciting the 3 class rules, then I acted situations out to see if they knew if what I was doing was right or wrong

- took the children on a tour of the centers around the room to talk about how many we thought could fit at each, rules about playing, clean-up and how to play

Wows! and Reflection:

It’s the second day and we are already sitting 45 minutes on the carpet through 2 stories!

September 5th-September 7th

(Staggered Entry Week 1)

Starting theme:  Teddy bears!

Read-Aloud Stories: 

  • Clifford’s First School Day by Norman Bridwell

    •  predicting the story from the cover and inside pictures

    •  recalling the story events after we read it

    •  asking questions throughout and talking about what’s happening in pictures

    •  let’s do all the things Clifford did on his first day of school (fingerpaint, make cookies, play at the park, eat snack)

  • Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? By Bill Martin Jr.

    •   children love this book!  It captures them right away.

    •  Listening to the story the first time and they will start to join in and recognize the pattern after a few pages…

    •  Colors we know (inside front and back cover)

Shared Reading:

  • Charts:  written classroom rules with pictures, and counting on the calendar

  • Predictable Books:  Brown Bear, Brown Bear…

Poems/Rhymes:  

  • A simple rhyme we learned to chant while we mixed our cookie dough: 

Stir (name) stir,
Stir (name) stir
I can hardly wait till the cookie’s on my plate
Stir (name) stir! 

Songs:

  • A “Good Morning” or Good Afternoon” song is sung everyday

  •   “Teacher Song” (a song I made up for the children to remember my name)

  •   “Are We Ready”  (tune of Frère Jacques) to help the children get ready for line-up time

  •   “Clean-Up Song”

Independent reading: 

Almost everyday, children who finish their jobs a little early get to have READING TIME (they choose a book to look at with a teddy, alone, or a friend)

Language Experiences:

  • baking cookies from scratch

  • tour to the bathrooms ( 5 finger rules we went over and over and then practiced)

  • finger-painting

Wows! and Reflection:

I was happy to see how many children recognized their names already!  This is a great start.  I also seemed to find that because I was a little less nervous this year (being my fourth), it really had an affect on the children’s attitudes.  The more excitement I showed, the more the students did.  All students this week were very involved at story time especially when I used my Clifford puppet and when the story was predictable.  I know they’ll want to read Brown Bear, Brown Bear over and over again.  Using modelling and repetition (especially when going over rules, etc. ) really helps the students.

Daily Routines Involving Literacy:

  • taking attendance (right now I am only saying, “Good morning/afternoon (name)” and the child says, “Good Morning Mrs. K” – later I will ask a question of the day to each child as I call their name and this will be a sharing time

  •  READING TIME (independent reading)  

  •  Storytime 

  •  Calendar:  Counting to 30

  • Snack time: recalling the ingredients we put in our cookies

  • Recess

  •  Center time: free choice

  • Songs for line-up and clean up are sung everyday

  • Reflection at the end of the day (What did you do today?)