December - February Literacy Events

Most recent listed first.

Wednesday, February 28^th

Read Aloud Stories: 

• Dinosaurs (a simple Scholastic book with facts about dinosaurs)

• Show and Tell by Robert Munsch

Shared Reading

• Predictable Books:  

  • We read Who Can? together as a class a couple times.

• Poems/ Rhymes:  All the rhymes from yesterday we reviewed.

Language Experience:  

• The children attended the school Ash Wednesday celebration today.  We returned and had some more discussions about Lent.  We wrote numbers 1-40 on our white board so we can count down to Easter.

Notes:  

We have begun doing individual assessments on each child this week before our next Demonstration of learning (March 22^nd).  We play some alphabet games to check for phonemic awareness, alphabet recognition, as well as other reading behaviors.  I also play some math games with them to check their skill level and understanding.  My assistant does them throughout the day and I help some at center time.  So far we are just amazed at the literacy skills of the children compared to September, even November!

Tuesday, February 27th

 The children and us walked to the nearby Smitty’s restaurant to tour the kitchen and make our own pancakes for Shrove Tuesday.  The children had a great time and had a lot to talk and draw about in the field trip books when we returned.  This took up the entire half day.

Monday, February 26^th

Read Aloud Stories:  

• Dinosaurs at Your Fingertips by Judy Nayer – this is a book full of facts about the most common dinosaurs.  The illustrations were able to show the characteristics of the dinosaurs so the children could tell me what they look like, their size and colors they might be.  Lots of discussion happened throughout the book.

• Saturday Night At The Dinosaur Stomp by Carol Diggery Shields – a fun rapping, rhyming story

Shared Reading:

• Charts:  I put up a new rhyme in the pocket chart.  The children spotted it right away and wanted to read it:

Dinosaur Bones

Let’s look for bones, dig, dig, dig,
Dinosaur bones, big, big, big,
Back to the lab, zip, zip, zip,
Clean the bones, chip, chip, chip,
Put them together, so, so, so,
We built a dinosaur, oh, oh, oh.

We’ve discussed all we know about dinosaurs already and how we learn about them, etc., so the children and I talked about paleontologists and what their job is.  We shared ideas on some actions we could do for the rhyme and did it a second time.

• Predictable Books:  

  • I introduced a new book from our Beanbag series, Who Can?  The children and I examined and discussed the front and back covers and then they listened to me read it first.  The children commented on how short and easy it was so I asked them to read it with me the second time.

• Poems/ Rhymes:  

  • We learned three other dinosaur rhymes/chants today:

 Oh where, oh where did the dinosaurs go,
Oh where, oh where could they be?
They were much too big to disappear,
It sure is puzzling to me.

Before we sang each verse of this one, I showed a picture and talked about each of the dinosaurs.  The children asked lots of questions!

All Around the Swamp
(to the tune of The Wheels On The Bus)

The Pteranodon wings went flap, flap, flap, etc…
The Tyrannosaurus Rex went grr, grr, grr…
The brontosaurus went munch, munch, munch…
The triceratops horns went poke, poke, poke…
The stegosaurus tail went spike, spike, spike…
 
Dinosaur, dinosaur, where can you be?
Hiding behind where you can’t see,
Now you see one, it’s waiting for you,
Here comes another, and now you see two.
 

Songs:   

• We will be learning a variety of songs from the cassette Wee Sing Dinosaurs.  Today we sang the first three.

Daily Routines Involving Literacy:  

• As we do everyday, the calendar show brings up discussions about events that are coming up.  We talked about tomorrow being Shrove Tuesday, and Wednesday being Ash Wednesday.  I explained what the days meant and their importance.  As a result we discussed Lent and ideas of things we can do to get ready for Easter.

Language Experience:  

• Today was another Birthday Baking day for our February birthdays.  As we do every time, the children do all the preparing and then share with the class how they made the treat and then go around to the staff of the school to offer the extras.  I have a letter typed up for parents about the importance of baking and cooking with their child at home as well as a copy of the recipe.

Friday, February 23^rd

Notes:  Today we celebrated 100 Day!

Read Aloud Stories:  

• Cheerios Counting Book – helped the children easily count to 100 and see how by using groups of 10 cheerios.

• 10 Apples Up On Top (by Theo Lesieg)- a really fun rhyming story (it’s a Dr. Seuss book) about counting and in the end 10 different animals have 10 apples on top of their heads.  We could easily count by 10’s to 100.  You have to read it!  The children laughed the whole way through.

Poems/ Rhymes:  

I have 2 poems about 100 that we learned and acted out:

100 Stars

I saw 100 stars last night
Shining in the sky
I wondered as I watched them
How did they get so high.

They stayed with me
Like mommy’s goodnight kisses
The whole night through
I made 100 wishes.

(After the poem was learned we put it to song and then each child talked about a wish they would make) 

100 Animals

This rhyme I made picture strips of 10 of each of the different animals to put on the felt board as we recited it.  At the end we were able to see what 100 animals looked like and counted them all by ten’s to 100.  It’s a fun rhyme to put actions to.

I went to the zoo.
And what did I see?
100 animals
Looking at me.
 
I saw…
 
10 tall giraffes eating from the trees,
10 silly monkeys scratching on their knees,
10 sleeping snakes lying in the sun,
10 munching elephants eating peanuts one by one.
10 leaping tigers, performing in the shows,
10 pink flamingos standing on their toes,
10 grouchy bears, trying to get some sleep,
10 happy hippos, in the water deep,
10 roaring lions, walking two by two,
and 10 galloping zebras, all living in the zoo!

Songs:  

• A little song we clapped and sang throughout the day:

Today is 100 day, 100 day, 100 day,
Today is 100 day, 
100 days of school! 

Daily Routines Involving Literacy: 

• During attendance we shared ideas about what things we would like to have 100 of, what we would not like to have 100 of, what we think we could eat 100 of and what we would buy with 100 dollars.  Each child was asked a different question and I helped them answer with the question words in the answer.  (I do this almost everyday – instead of answering the question with yes or no or one word answers I model for them how to say an entire sentence answer)

Language Experience:  

We did a variety of small group activities today:

• we made 100 snacks by taking 10 of 10 different snack foods.  I had an assembly line of 10 snack foods across the tables and the children counted 10 of each for inside their bag to make 100 snacks.  I had cheerios, fruit loops, chocolate chips, popcorn, peanuts, Smarties, mini Ritz crackers, etc.

• We took 100 BIG footsteps, 100 small footsteps and 100 normal footsteps around the school and tried to guess where we would end up.

• We did other exercises like movements with our hands 100 times (clapping, slapping, snapping, etc), movements with our feet 100 times (pointing and flexing, circles, tapping, etc.) and large body movements 100 times (jumping jacks, skips, marching, knee bounces, etc.)

• The children worked together in partners to make a collage of 100 (pre-counted) things.  They could see what 100 looks like when they were finished and how 100 of one thing looks very different from 100 of another.

• After we talked about 10 10’s making 100, we made 100 finger art by painting our hands on a big piece of paper 10 times, which left us with 100 fingers!

• Each child got a little certificate to take home congratulating them on completing and celebrating 100 days of school.  On the back I listed all the things we did at school today so parents could talk to their child about it.

Wednesday, February 21st

Read Aloud Stories:  

• Stephanie's Ponytail by Robert Munsch

• I gathered more Robert Munsch books from the library and the children chose to read this one today.

Language Experience:  

We took a trip to the CIBC bank

Friday, February 16th

NO SCHOOL FRIDAY! 

Thursday, February 15^th

 Read Aloud Stories:  

• Mmmm Cookies! 

• Aaron’s Hair by Robert Munsch.  

The children all agree that they really like Robert Munsch’s stories.  They also noticed that they are generally very silly and make believe.  One of these stories had a different illustrator and we looked at the differences.

Daily Routines Involving Literacy: 

During attendance, I asked the children to tell me about their favorite part of valentine’s day.  The children are also talking all about how they are so excited to start learning about dinosaurs next week. 

Language Experience:  

We had fun making jellybean patterns in small groups and transferring them to paper.  The children had to tell their pattern and I scribed for them.  Another small group during center time, children were invited over to make creations with magic noodle Styrofoam.

Letters:  

We learned how to draw the letter R in our alphabet books.  We also brainstormed things that we know start with the letter R and each child had to draw three pictures.

Wednesday, February 14^th

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!

 Read Aloud Stories:  

• Arthur’s Valentine 

• Winnie the Pooh’s Valentine

Language Experience:  

The children made all their own snacks for their little Valentine’s party today: red Jello Jigglers cut into hearts, heart-shaped strawberry or raspberry jam sandwiches, and pink strawberry milkshakes.  We also went on a red hunt around the school (using our clipboards, we sketched all the red things we could see), passed out our valentines, and gave the children time to read all their valentines.

Tuesday, February 13^th

The BREAD LADY came to visit today!  It is a very interactive program she has where the children help her in every way to make bread from scratch.  She teaches them a lot about nutrition, ingredients, and she also reads the story The Little Red Hen.  She sets up four learning centers while the bread bakes and the children get to eat one small loaf in class and also take an extra loaf home to share with their parents and tell them about how they made it.  It’s a very worthwhile experience that takes the entire half day.

Monday, February 12, 2001

Read Aloud Stories:  

• Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney – I also had the stuffed bunnies to go with the story.  The children enjoyed the story very much.  They learned to predict what would happen with each turn of the page as we went along.  We talked about what the story really meant at the end.

• I Love You With All My Heart – a story about different animals that live in the Arctic and about a mommy polar bear who loves her baby “with all her heart.”  The children and I discussed what we thought that meant before continuing with the story and in the end we understood.  We related it to how our moms and dads love us and the parts of their bodies they use to love us.

Shared Reading:

• Chart:  I put the sentence strips from the book Make A Valentine.  We read it from the book and then the pocket chart.  I had pictures of the different actions in the story (cut, draw, write, give) and the children had to match it up to the correct word/sentence.

• Poems/ Rhymes:  Reviewed all and here are two new ones we learned today:

I’m a little letter, nice and fat
Here is my address, here is my stamp.
Drop me in a mailbox, and watch me go.
Sending my love around the world.
 
5 Little Valentines all in a row,
The first one said, “I love you so.”
The second one said “Will you be my valentine?”
The third one said, “I will if you’ll be mine.”
The fourth one said…

 Daily Routines Involving Literacy: 

We are still choosing special helpers each day (usually three) by reading names I have written on little bumblebees.  At the beginning of the year, I was showing the name and reading it, then I would later ask if anyone recognized their name.  We’ve extended this in different ways as many of the children’s literacy skills and phonemic awareness have improved, as well most of the children can read and recognize all their friends names. Sometimes, I give them the first letter of the name and see if they can figure out who it could be, other times I show them the last letter instead.  For extra fun, some days we play a guessing game with them by me giving a variety of clues and one by one they eliminate those children it could not be.  I even tell them a word that rhymes with the name sometimes or I spell all the letters of the name to see if they can guess the person.

Friday, February 9^th

Read Aloud Stories:  

• We Share Everything – by Robert Munsch.  The children go crazy over this book! 

• Love You Forever – also by Robert Munsch.  The children realize this story is not silly and funny like the other books by him we’ve read.

Shared Reading

• Predictable Books:  

  • Hearts 

  • Make A Valentine

• Charts:  

  • repeated from yesterday

• Poems/ Rhymes:  

  • repeated all as well as learned 2 new ones:

Love, love, love your friends,
Love them all year long,
Especially on valentines day,
As we sing this song.
 
You are my valentine, my special valentine,
And I love you, yes I do.
You are my valentine, my special valentine,
Please say you love me too.

Songs: 

• ABC Rock (they LOVE this song)

Daily Routines Involving Literacy:  

During attendance I asked each child what they love. 

Writing Activity:  

• The children made little books drawing pictures of things they love (people, food, activities, things, etc.)  Some I encouraged to sound out the words, others we wrote or spelled for them.

Alphabet Dictionary:  

• letter V we did today 

Thursday, February 8^th 

Read Aloud Stories: 

• Once I Was A Heart – this is a book I made using various hearts and creating different pictures for each page (“Once I was a heart, but now I’m a mouse, but now I’m an airplane, but now I’m a sailboat,” etc…)  After we read the story, we each went a created our own heart pictures (I had a variety of different colored and shaped hearts for them to work with)

Shared Reading

Predictable Books:  

• Make A Valentine – the children recalled as much as they could from the story before we read it again (what do you need, what steps do you take)

• Hearts – before turning every fourth page, the children tried to recall the rhyming sentence that came next.  We went back and found all the rhyming words in the book we could.

• Charts:  

  • all the songs were recited

• Poems/ Rhymes:  

  • all the rhymes were recited

Songs:  

• ABC Rock 

• Rise and Shine

Daily Routines Involving Literacy:   

• During attendance, I used one of our valentine alphabet games (where a letter is on the front of a heart then you open it and there is a picture of something that starts with that letter).  Each child was shown a letter to tell me what it was and then we all brainstormed things that could start with that letter.  It was so fun!  They blew me away with their ideas.

Writing Activity:  

• We began making our parents valentine cards today.  The children wrote the words “I Love You” and “Love name.”  We will do some decorating to it over the next couple days.

Wednesday, February 7^th

Read Aloud Stories:  

• Will You Be My Valentine? – this is a story I have in the listening center that I played to the class.  It tends to encourage them to visit the center more if I do this once in a while.  (It also gives my voice a break!)

Shared Reading:

• Predictable Books:  

  • Make A Valentine – a book from the Beanbag Books collection as part of our Language arts curriculum.  The children immediately related it to our Make a Snowman book.  It is not a story, but an instructional book, and we talked about that.

  • Hearts – repeated from Monday.  This time the children read it more independently.

Charts:  

• We sang the same songs as Monday as well as learned 2 new ones:

(to the tune of 3 Blind Mice – with actions the children echoed)

Love, love, love,
Love, love, love,
See how it grows,
See how it grows,
I love my friends and they love me,
We love others and then you’ll see,
There’s more than enough for a big family,
So love, love, love,
Love, love, love.

If you love me and you know it,
Clap your hands,
If you love me and you know it,
Clap your hands,
If you love me and you know it 
Then your face will surely show it,
If you love me and you know it clap your hands.

(other verses: jump up and down, touch your head, etc…)

Journals:  

• We drew our best friend in our journals today.  The children were encouraged to write their friends name as well as the words “My best friend”

Notes:  Our last day of skating lessons was today.

Tuesday, February 6th

 Today we went on a field trip to the Rutherford House where we baked valentine’s cookies, made a valentine craft, went on a valentine heart hunt around the house. As well, we learned a little history about the house (we were there in October as well so this was some great repetition for them).  Some of the children had even since come with their parents!

We sang and recited our valentine songs and rhymes on the bus.  When we returned we drew all about our trip in our Field Trip books.  We scribed for them what they could tell us about their pictures and experiences.

Monday, February 5^th

Read Aloud Stories:  

• 50 Below Zero by Robert Munsch – our weather just got colder and so I thought this story would be appropriate, also because the children enjoyed the Robert Munsch story from last week so much I thought I’d read some more this next couple weeks.

• Seeing as we’ve read nearly all the Jan Brett books, we gathered them all from the bookshelf and compared them, mostly the animals.  Afterwards, we drew 2 animals of their choice in our journals.

Share d Reading:

• Charts:  We learned two new songs from chart paper.  For the next couple weeks we will sing and learn many valentine’s songs and rhymes.

Love is something if you give it away,
Give it away,
Give it away.
Love is something if you give it away,
You end up having more.

(the children echo the words and song and then we sing it with actions)

 Here is my valentine, my valentine, my valentine? (show with arms)
Here is my valentine, 
I am stuck on you. (partners hold hands)
Now we’re stuck together, together, together, (swings arms together)
Now we’re stuck together,
We’re one big valentine. (give each other a big hug)

I demonstrated this song with a partner first and then let the children try a couple times.  They love it!

• Predictable Books:  

  • Hearts – a patterned rhyming story similar to our Snow, Turkeys, Turkeys, Turkeys, Pumpkins, Pumpkins, Pumpkins books (“Hearts on the table.  Hearts on the floor.  Hearts on the window.  Hearts on the door…)

• Poems/ Rhymes:  These are a few of the valentine rhymes we learned today with various actions (the children are just echoing these for now):

Inky dinky, Inky dinky,
Inky dinky, boo!
Inky dinky, Inky dinky,
I love you!

Inkety dinkety, Inkety dinkety,
Inkety dinkety boo!
Inkety dinkety, Inkety dinkety,
I love you!

Do I love you? 
Do I love You?
Do I love you?
Does a fish swim?
Does a chicken lay eggs?
Is the sky blue?
Is the dinosaur extinct?
Do I love you?
You can guess,
The answer is YES!

I love you little,
I love you lots,
My love for you could fill 
ten pots,
fifteen buckets,
sixteen cans, 
three teacups,
and four dishpans! 

Songs:    

• ABC Rock – by Greg and Steve

• Rise and Shine – by Raffi (to wake us up in the morning and get us stretching)

Independent Reading:  

• There are many new books related to our Valentine’s Day theme in the bookshelf.  I also have opened up quiet reading time to be a time when the children can also play with other literacy, and alphabet games.  So far I have a shelf of various alphabet games, flash card games, lotto games, small pocket charts, etc.  These are all games the children are familiar and independent with because we have played them with the children often during center time.

Language Experiences:  

• I talked to the children about a variety of new centers and games we’ve added for our valentine’s theme:

Writing Centre:  

• There are valentine words up, blank heart books, valentine writing paper, stamps, pencils, etc.

Craft center:  

• There are many pink, red, and white things to make crafts out of.  There are several sample ideas for crafts to make displayed in the center as well.  I usually do this especially for those children who just don’t have the courage to go to that center.  We talk about how to make them.  There are also a variety of blank valentine cards (real and copied) so the children write, decorate and send them to their friends.

Literacy/theme-related games:  

• I also have some new alphabet, memory, and counting games that we talked about.

Journals:  

• Each class chose two animals to learn to draw from Jan Brett’s stories. 

Thursday, February 1^st 

Read Aloud Stories: 

• The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats – there was lots of talk about the illustrations in this book as well as opportunity for predicting and inferring.  We will read more of Ezra Jack Keats next week, the children said they liked this author.

• Town Mouse, Country Mouse by Jan Brett – Many of the children have heard this story or seen a movie about it.  They loved all the action in it, as well as connecting the animals in the story to animals in her other stories.  It was a very long story (I thought) but the children didn’t think so.  They are beginning to show a real interest and understanding of literature.  They are beginning to ask more questions and tell me things before I even ask them questions.  They figure everything out!

Shared Reading

• Charts: 

  • We again read the rhyme “Five Little Snowmen”

  • and the song “Build A Snowman” from chart paper.

• Predictable Books:  For the final time today, the children read me their Tracks in the Snow books.  Their ‘homework’ was to  take it home and read to their parents.

• Retelling/Dramatizing: The children also retold The Mitten using their mitten and animals they made two more times before they got to take it home today to tell to their family.

Songs:

• “Oh so Good” – we practiced this song two times, they wanted to sing it over and over!  These kids could just sing all day.

Routines involving literacy: 

• We began February today which involves looking at a new month on our calendar, a new pattern to learn as well as discussing all the things that will be happening this month.

Notes:  The rest of our day we were out again at our skating lessons.  Also, there is no school tomorrow. 

Wednesday, January 31st

Read Aloud Stories:

• The Hat by Jan Brett. The children were able to notice again that this was another Jan Brett book. We predicted from the front cover what it might be about and saw that it "looked the same" as The Mitten in some ways. We talked about the animals in the story and what they might do. Then we read to find out. There are so many stories contained within the original story, that the children are realizing that they can look around the page to see what's happening next or to see what's happening somewhere else. 

Shared Reading

• Predictable books:

  • The children followed along in their Tracks in the Snow books again today and then after we read it once, we went on a hunt for the letter "S". Whenever they found one, they had to circle it. Of course, they began to notice that there was a pattern - there were always three on every page. "I see dog tracks in the snow." They had lots of fun with this and ALL the children were successful!

• Rhymes/Poems: Hello, Sir!

• The following rhyme on chart paper. 

Five little snowmen riding on my sled.
One fell off and lost his head.
I called Frosty, and Frosty said, 
"No more snowmen riding on that sled!"
(Each verse, we decrease by one and cover up a snowman picture.)

• (tune of Frère Jacques)

Build a snowman,
Build a snowman,
Big and round
Big and round
Sun is shining on him
Sun is shining on him
He's all gone.
He's all gone.

Songs:

• Oh, So Good.

Language Experiences:

• Again, everything we do has some kind of literacy connection within it. We did some artwork today, where we did a lot of discussion about colors, instructions, ideas, steps to take, etc.

• As well, we still do a Take Home Book everyday writing messages to the parents about something we did at school that they should  ask us about or remember. The children are getting very efficient about sounding out the letters we write, and talk about the spaces we leave between words, and letters that have no sound, or letters that funny sounds when we put them together, what vowels and consonants are, and even some punctuation. It's whatever is relevant to what we write that day. So much phonemic awareness is learned by this experience every day. 

• During the attendance of the day, we still do a question of the day, when each child shares their personal answer. We have reading time everyday and the children are all so confident now at picking up to read or look through, or at songs and rhymes on posters, or using a pointer to read through on the chart paper or pocket chart. 

• We do have phys. ed. only once a week (except for when we go outside) and there is lots of language involved (mostly teacher talk and children listen and follow directions) as well.

• Of course, the most beneficial and rich language experiences occur during the daily 45 minutes of our center time.  

Tuesday, January 30th

Read Aloud Books:

• Mouse Mess by Linnea Riley - this was such a fun story for the children to "read" from the pictures and tell me what they see and what's happening. They were able to do lots of predicting also. They related it to the story There's a Mouse in the House. We talked about our experiences with mice and what they'd like to do to prevent mice from making a mess! We also wanted to read another story, but we got so involved with this one. 

Shared Reading:

• The children read from their Tracks in the Snow books to me today. We also did a "word hunt" searching for all the animal words. Every time they would find the right word, they would underline it. (E.g. I see dog tracks in the snow. I see cat tracks in the snow.) The children began to see a pattern, that it's always the third word in the sentence.

• Rhymes: We learned a new rhyme today that we had fun with. (We used different voices - one plugging our nose and the other spoken normally.) The children thought it was so funny.  It goes like this:

Hello Sir
by Caroline Perry

Hello, sir. Hello, sir.
Are you going to golf, sir?
No, sir.
Why, sir?
Because I've got a cold sir.
Where did you get the cold, sir?
Up at the North Pole, sir.
What were you doing there, sir?
Catching polar bears, sir.
How many did you catch, sir?
1, sir, 2, sir, 3, sir.
4, sir, 5, sir, 6, sir.
7, sir, 8, sir, 9, sir.
10, sir - that's all I got, sir.
Aastchoo!

• We practiced it a couple of times and will practice it more to do some fun things with it later. 

Language Experiences:

• We went to the library today to look for some animal books. This is just a challenge I give to the children to give them new ideas for a book to look for, then we look at what type of animals they found in their books. It especially works for those children who choose those same Power Rangers/Batman books that need a bit of variety or something more appropriate for their mom and dad to read to them. 

• We also did some artwork and number writing today. 

Monday, January 29^th

Read Aloud Stories:  

• Trouble With Trolls (Jan Brett)  We listened to this story from the cassette in the listening center.  Some children were able to figure out the author by looking at the front cover (just by the similar illustrations), while others were able to read her name.  We finally got to see a picture of her at the back and saw she has a pet hedgehog, just like from the story The Mitten.  The children were able to do lots of predicting throughout the story.  We discussed what happened once again after we read it.

Shared Reading

• Predictable Books:   I supplied each child with their own Tracks in the Snow book to follow along with today.  The children demonstrated their tracking and directionality skills.  They were so impressive!  We will be using these books in different ways throughout the week.

Songs:   

• We looked at all our posters of winter rhymes and songs and I asked the children to sort them out (SONGS separated from RHYMES/POEMS)  

• We sang the songs only:  “In January,” “Snowflakes Whirling,” “It Is Snowing,” “I’m A Little Snowman,” “One Little, Two Little, Three Little Snowmen”

Charts:  

• After singing “One little, Two Little…”  I showed the children the song on a pocket chart.  The words are all separated and they helped me fill in the blanks with the missing words.  They could play with it during reading time and center time.

Language Experiences:  

• The children finished their animals for their mittens and so for the first time today we retold the story The Mitten using our paper animals and mittens.  I used the book and we followed along and made up our own version.  We reviewed all the animal names beforehand (“Everyone show me their hedgehog!”  “What’s the name of this animal again?”, etc…).

• We will practice it again tomorrow and then take it home to tell our families.

Friday, January 26^th

Read Aloud Stories:  

• Comet’s Nine Lives – another Jan Brett story.  The children were able to make some comparisons now between her stories.

Shared Reading:

• Predictable Books:  

  • Snow – a pattern story similar to ones we’ve read before (“Snow on the house.  Snow on the tree.  Snow on the road.  Snow on me…..)

  • Tracks in the Snow – the children were more independent reading this today.

Poems/Rhymes:  

• All the same ones were reviewed, but the children performed them on their own today.

Language Experience:  

• The children recalled the animals from The Mitten (on a piece of paper) and began coloring them for the mittens we’ve been making.

Notes:  The rest of our day was spent at skating lessons.   

Thursday, January 25^th

Notes:  Today our school is celebrating Chinese New Year, so there were a lot of festivities planned for the day.

Read Aloud Stories:  

• We joined the grade 1’s in the library to listen to a Vietnamese story read by one of our school liaison workers.  It was read in both English and Vietnamese. 

Language Experience:  

• We talked about the puppet lady’s visit and about all the puppet show stories she told.  We recalled all the puppets we could and which ones were our favorite.  Afterwards the children drew pictures about it in their field trip/visitor books.  We scribed about their pictures afterwards.

• We also did another snow experiment today to see if snow takes up MORE or LESS space when it melts.  The children shared their predictions about what would happen, and we watched and talked about what was happening throughout the day.  We drew a picture before and after.

• The rest of our day was spent in the gym enjoying Tet Festival activities like making paper lanterns and tissue flowers, playing chopstick games, and winning prizes.

 Wednesday, January 24^th

 Language Experience:  

The entire day the children were entertained by the Puppet Lady!  She puts on several very interactive puppet shows, uses the children to put on a few finger puppet shows as well as reads them a story.  She is fantastic with the kids!  There is never a dull moment.  I wish I could get her in once a month.  It was such a language learning experience for all the children.

Tuesday, January 23^rd

Read Aloud Stories:  

• The children retold the mitten to our puppet Jack (actually a sub was in for me today and so they were telling it to her as well).

Shared Reading:

• Charts:  

  • The winter songs from chart paper were sang together today

• Predictable Books:  

  • Tracks in the Snow was read again today with the children encouraged to join in the reading pattern.  They tried to see how many animal tracks they could remember.

Language Experience:  

• We are now in the process of doing some activities to help us retell the story of The Mitten.  We’ve read it twice now and the pattern is quite predictable, so we are making our own mittens (out of paper) and coloring and cutting out the animals so that we can retell the story in our own way.  Today the children were busy beginning to sew their paper mitten.

Letters:  

• In our alphabet dictionary, we wrote the letter W today.

Notes:  Having a sub in today was a great language experience for the children.  Because she didn’t know our routines the children talked her through the entire day telling her what she/they do next.  They did super! 

Monday, January 22^nd

Read Aloud Stories:  

• The Mitten by Jan Brett – the children got so into this story it took us forever to read!  They loved it.

• Tracks in the Snow – this is another pattern book I made about different animal tracks in the snow.  The children try to guess what animal it could have been that made each set of tracks.  We will eventually learn to read this one together.

Shared Reading:

• Poems/ Rhymes:  all the simple rhymes and songs we’ve learned related to winter were reviewed (with less and less help from the teacher).  I’ve been just showing the rhyme written on the poster and seeing who knows which one it is.  Some are recognizing some of the words to know this.  Other rhymes I give action clues for.

Songs:  

• Animal Dance

Journals: 

• Each child drew a picture of their favorite animal (from the story or not) to put inside our class mitten (I had one cut out of large paper to put on our door).  Some of the children were encouraged to sound out the name of their animal and try to write it, the rest were given the words to copy. 

Thursday, January 18, 2001 

Read Aloud Stories:  

• Gingerbread Baby – the children have been asking me to read this and since we have read one Jan Brett book I thought we could look at the similarities the author has in her books.  I also went to the library and found as many Jan Brett books as I could so the children could recognize them and we could do a bit of an author study on her.

Shared Reading:

• Charts:  I chose two students to come up and read the story from the pocket chart.  We also talked about words that are the same in the story (that repeat).  We also never forget to read the last line excitedly because of the “exclamation mark.”

• Predictable Books:  There’s A Mouse In The House – read one time as a class, one time children only

• Poems/ Rhymes:  We read three rhymes/songs from the pocket chart today, two we’ve read many times before and one new one:

  • I’m A Little Snowman – the children read and did the actions while I tracked the words.  Afterwards, I had the students help me search for the letter “Ss.”  We talked about capital and lower case depending on which one each child found.

  • If All Of The Snowflakes – we did the same thing except I had children come up and find the letter “Aa.” 

  • I turned to a new rhyme and using clues and sounding out we tried to figure out what it said.  The children did amazingly well!  The rhyme was “One little, two little, three little snowmen”

Notes:  The rest of the day way spent skating and at centers.  During center time, some of the children came by to help make Thank You cards for some volunteers who came to help us make our birdhouses on Tuesday.