Hooray for Books!
06 May 2012 6 Comments
in Fun with Language Arts Skills, Retelling for Comprehension
I received a nice comment recently from CanadianParent, and she asked if I have a list of favorite books to read to Preschoolers and Kindergartners. Children and books are two of my very favorite things, so I gave it some consideration the last few days. First I would like to show you an idea for how I organized my books. When I was teaching I think I had more books than our school library. Other teachers sometimes came to borrow them, and I wanted to be able to find books quickly and easily. This is not how I organized my classroom library for the children to use, this was how I stored books in my cupboards.
I bought a large box of these cardstock pocket style file envelopes from an office supply store.
I started out using lighter weight folders but I found that these held up for years. I bought the kind that could expand to 1 or 1 1/2 inches so lots of books could fit inside.
Then I used a sharpie marker to label the pockets.
I organized my books in 2 basic ways – by author and by subject or type of books. My leveled books were usually always out in the room. I had one cupboard containing books that were sorted by author, these folders were in alphabetical order. In another cupboard I had books by themes like ocean, five senses and ecology; as well as genres such as alphabet books, fairy tales, math books, etc. I put the folders containing thematic/holiday books in the order I usually used them during the school year. The genre folders were on other shelves. I also had some folders for books I used for writer’s workshop and reader’s workshop. So many books!! Sometimes I had so many books I needed two folders for the same author or subject. Sometimes I had just too many books in a category, so I put the books on the shelf between two folders that were labeled.
Of course I had a bunch of books that I just couldn’t part with that didn’t fit easily into any of those categories, so I had another cupboard with dividers labeled A-Z and I filed those books either by title or by an important word in the title.
So … on to my favorite books!
How can you choose? There are so many wonderful books available. This list is by no means complete – I love hundreds of books, and there are new fantastic books published all the time. But I hope maybe someone will find a new favorite among these titles that I loved sharing with Kindergartners.
My very favorite children’s author is Tomie de Paola.
Here are a few of my favorites! The Art Lesson and Nana Upstairs & Nana Downstairs are true stories of Tomie’s childhood. Bill and Peet is a fun adventure story about loyalty. Now One Foot… is very touching about a special relationship between a child and grandparent. Pancakes for breakfast is a wordless book that is great for looking at detail, predicting, and just enjoying the story. Andy, That’s My Name is great when you are working on word families. If you aren’t very familiar with Tomie de Paola’s great work you are in for a treat! His illustrations are easily recognizable, and you might notice how many books written by other author’s he has illustrated too!
My next favorite author is Leo Lionni. Both of these authors are featured in exhibits at the Eric Carle Picture Book Museum that I mentioned in an earlier post.
Little Blue and Little Yellow is a fun story to introduce color blending – I always followed up by finger painting with yellow and blue. Six Crows, Tico and It’s Mine are great stories for acting out and retelling – and great object lessons in getting along. Fish is Fish is full of color and imagination – I gave the children a fish tracer, and after they traced and cut out a fish they decorated it to look like a cow-fish or a house-fish or a police officer-fish. Frederick teaches that everyone needs to contribute and help, Alexander the Wind Up Mouse learns that what you wish for isn’t always better than what you have.
Another author that I love is Kevin Henkes. He addresses that beloved blanket so many children have in Owen. He also deals with disappointments, taking risks, sibling rivalry and lots of other topics that young children identify with.
I loved these Pat Hutchins books too. For Good Night Owl we made a construction paper owl, and wrote about the kind of things that kept the children from being able to fall asleep. We made maps of the farm in Rosie’s Walk and retold the story with small paper hens and foxes. This is another great story to act out, but you need to make or collect some props. The Doorbell Rang is a great math story, and the Monster story is just fun.
Ezra Jack Keats is another great author.
The Snowy Day is fun to act out right at circle time, pretending to make a snowball and put it in your pocket, walking with your toes pointing in and pointing out … There is such great language to retell and enjoy. When I made time to read it over and over the children started to use the vocabulary and talk about it when they were out on the playground in the snow. We had a class pet show and the book fit right into our activity. Peter’s Chair is great when a family is having a new baby.
Mercer Mayer was one of my own children’s favorite authors. They absolutely loved this alphabet book:
He is also well known for Nightmare in My Closet – we had fun making up “nightmares” out of scrap paper and putting them into construction paper closets. I love the Little Critter series, Pirate Soup is great to talk about problem solving!
I loved and used many of Don and Audrey Woods books too – here are some favorites:
We used the Napping House and King Bidgood in our Healthy Habits unit. Check out how we remade Silly Sally in a previous post.
P.K. Hallinan is another author I always shared with the children.
He has written tons of books, I have a lot of them. Heartprints is a great book for thinking about how you affect other people. If you are familiar with Bucket Fillers, the theme is very similar. His books promote great relationships, they are loving, warm and touching.
I really liked sharing song books with children, especially when they already knew the song. I have lots of books for Raffi songs, here are a few others – there are lots and lots on the market.
My granddaughters are 19 months old now and they love Over in the Meadow, Eensy Weensy Spider and other books based on songs we sing. Kindergartners could often “read” these independently!
Here are some other favorite books:
Go Dog Go is often one of the first books children can read by themselves. Ian Faulkner tells great stories about the michievous Olivia. The Important Book is great to emphasize descriptive language. One Hungry Monster is just fun!
Robert Munsch has written lots of funny books, I wasn’t comfortable reading all of them at school, but Stephanie’s Ponytail is a great story about being unique and not following the crowd. Lyle, Lyle, Are You My Mother and Katy Kangaroo are old classics that I always made sure to share with my class.
ABC of Monsters was another favorite of my children. I have an extensive collection of alphabet books! The Pigeon books were always favorites – I like using them to show expression and voice. Leo the Late Bloomer is a great reminder of how every child blooms in his or her own time. I loved all of Helme Heine’s books – the illustrations are warm and wonderful.
I also had lots of versions of fairy tales, but my favorite ones were those illustrated and retold my James Marshall. (That reminds me of when the teacher next door was sharing a variety of different Red Ridinghood books and a little boy raised his hand and asked if they were going to read more about the virgin Red Ridinghood. It took a few minutes to realize she needed to explain the word VERSION!)
We always acted out The Little Engine That Could, and referred to that when we needed to keep trying and not give up! Elmer and Woolbur fit into zoo and farm themes and are great characters that you won’t want to miss.
As I said, this list could never be complete – but I just couldn’t leave out Pete the Cat!
I love the basic, repetitive text and the free song that is available online. It also has a great message in a very simple story.
Here are these books and more in list form, including the authors!
Here is a printable copy:
Happy Readng!
I always love to find new favorites, please add a comment and share books you love too!
Chickens to the Rescue!
27 Mar 2012 1 Comment
in Fun with Language Arts Skills, Retelling for Comprehension, Farm
I take Owen to story time at our local library. Today we heard this fun story, it was new to me and I loved it! It was full of silliness and opportunities for children to join in; but mostly I loved it because it would be wonderful to introduce or practice the story elements – Problem and Solution.
Basically this story is about the Greenstalk’s – a farm family who run into a myriad of problems, but luckily their flock of chickens always comes to the rescue, until the end of the story. The events take place through a week, so it is another chance to reinforce the names of the days of the week. This would be a fun story to act out. You could make headbands for the characters using pictures like these. You could make as many chickens as you’d like to include more children in the retelling.
These directions are to make a mask, I would just staple the chicken head onto a paper strip for a headband.
Here are the farmer, his wife and their two children from the story. There is also a duck and a cow.
Here are printable versions:
After reading this book a few times I would show the children pictures of the problems that occur in the story, and each of the solutions. After reviewing story elements, I would remind the children that most stories have a problem that needs to be fixed. I would encourage the children to make two columns of pictures – ones that show a problem, others that depict a solution.
Here are sorting words:
Printable pictures
I put the problem and matching solution on the same page, if you print them just cut them apart. I always glued pictures like these on construction paper to make them a little more durable.
After sorting the pictures into the problem or solution columns, I would ask the children to match each problem with the right solution.
I would discuss all the ways these chickens were problem solvers in the story. I might lead into a writing activity:
Since this book ends with the pigs solving the final problem it would be easy to do a new story as a class, thinking of problems that the pigs might solve. Of course it would be titled Pigs to the Rescue!
At story time today the preschoolers made this very simple chicken project – it was fast and very cute. If you plan to display the children’s writing these would look great next to their writing paper.
The comb was made by tracing Owen’s hand, then we folded it in half and taped it to the back of the small (6 inch) paper plate.
One child at story time had read this book before, as soon as the librarian turned to a picture of the group of chickens he started yelling “Chickens to the rescue!” Soon they were all joining in. It was so fun!
Delightful Dinosaur Day
22 Mar 2012 3 Comments
in Dinosaurs, Parent Education, Preschool
Dinosaurs are fun!
I am always on a campaign to bring more fun to early childhood. I am very familiar with the amount of curriculum and expectations that govern the time young children spend at school, but I just really believe that teachers need to advocate for play and fun. I shared a book we made about dinosaurs in an earlier post, now I am sharing a parent/child activity day that my kindergartners loved. I think these parent/child days are one of the most effective ways to educate parents about how children learn and things they can do with their child at home. If you are new to my blog, please check out other parent/child activities like Cowboys, Outer Space, Transportation, Oceans, and Pirates.
Here is our invitation:
When I planned these special days (or evenings) I tried to include activities from many areas of the curriculum, language arts, science, math, and social studies. We usually began the day by showing a little of our every day circle time routines, then we did a fun song, story or poem that got parents and children actively involved. For Dinosaur Day I passed around a basket that contained simple dinosaurs cut from construction paper, and everybody took one – parents and kids. Then as we sang this song, they stood up and did the motion.
Tune – If You’re Happy and You Know It
Printable version:
Then we did an enthusiastic version of Dino Pokey (think Hokey Pokey!) I really encouraged parents to get up and do this with the kids. I always practiced it the day before with the children.
Dino Pokey
Here are some very simple clipart pictures of these dinosaurs:
Next I quickly went over the activities that were available, passed out a check off list, and gave each child a paper bag to collect his/her work as they went between the classrooms. We usually decorated the bags ahead of time.
I repeated this parent/child activity many times and usually changed a few activities, but here is a simple description of the activities from one year.
I also found a list of things to do in my files, so I thought I’d share that too!
I printed directions for each activity and posted them on 3 sided signs on the tables containing the materials for the project or game. Here is a picture to show what the 3 sided signs looked like:
I didn’t save all of these directions, but here are a few.
Some activities required a recording sheet, like Bronto Boats. The children placed small dinosaurs in different colored boats, after predicting which boat would hold the most dinos. They recorded their results on this paper (2 on the page).
We also play Dinosaur Soduku
The kids made up a dinosaur story with a beginning, middle and end.
Here is an assortment of dinosaur clipart:
This boy was tossing beanbags into the swampy basket!
Check out the stegosaurus hat – they glued spikes to a piece of adding machine tape that went down their back and was fastened to a headband. We put a stegosaurus head on the headband.
Here are a few more resources that I found in my files. I hope you find something you might be able to use.
Here are a few songs and poems about dinosaurs!
I hope you find some time to play dinosaurs with your class too!
Play Props
21 Feb 2012 Leave a Comment
in Nana Stuff, Play
I love to play with children. These days I spend a lot of time playing with my 3 grandchildren and it is so much fun watching them become more sophisticated ‘players’ all the time. The twins are almost 17 months old now and they love to hold a phone to their ear and chatter words they’ve heard their parents say. They love to bring a bowl and spoon from their play kitchen and feed anyone who is willing to appreciatively munch their imaginary food. They take anything resembling a car and push it along on the floor saying “zoom, zoom.”
Owen is in a stage of constant discovery and experimentation. ”I wonder what would happen if …” is the way he approaches playing with anything from mixing colors to stacking blocks. Of course they are very well supplied with all kinds of play materials – we do our part to support Fisher Price, Mattel and Little Tykes.
For many years I tried to encourage my kindergarten students in their play too. I loved to set up play centers in my classroom. I spent a lot of time going to places in our community to collect/borrow/buy materials that would transform my play center into McDonalds, a travel agency, or a fix it shop. But I learned that less is often more! I would set up a darling, realistic play center and the kids would be so excited to go there, but sometimes I was a little disappointed with how the children would play. Sometimes when I supplied many realistic props the children would lose interest more quickly than when they had the opportunity to use their own imaginations and pretend a little more. I think it’s great to set the theme of a play center with some materials, but when the children create props or use things from around the room they are usually much more engaged and involved in their play.
There is an important connection between pretend play and reading. When children use one item to represent another, they are building a foundation that helps them understand how a letter represents a sound. Of course they are also developing wonderful language skills as well as problem solving, motor skills and so much more.
I have a tub full of generic things that my Kindergartners loved to use.
There is nothing special about the particular things I put in this box, I just collected some generic things from around my house that I thought the children might use in fun, interesting ways. It really doesn’t matter what you use, but here are some ideas of things my kids enjoyed.
The children used these hoses and tubes in lots of ways. They were fire hoses, astronaut air tubes, car washing hoses or even elephant trunks. There is no right or wrong way (except to be safe) to use these materials. Sometimes I would get involved in playing with the children and pull out something from the box to pretend with, and that often encouraged them to use this stuff in lots of fun ways.
Funnels were used as telephones or megaphones. The red thing is a heavy wire covered in rubber that can be twisted into shapes. The black thing was an old unused car ashtray that the kids used in some creative ways.
Here are some sponges, an old remote control, a frisbie and a bean bag ball.
Empty containers and old telephones are always popular too!
The children would find materials from around the classroom to use, too – like extra headphones from our listening center or clipboards from the writing center.
My husband helped me take some of these generic things and attach them to a triangle shaped peg board that he put together for me. This was used as a Mission Control board when we studied outer space, and a count down for race cars during transportation. They used this in lots of other ways – the film container attached to the springy cord was often a microphone for a recording studio!
I originally spray painted this box and cut the slit in the top to use as a mail box, and it served well for many years. It was also used as a suggestion box, a math game, and lots of other things the kids thought up.
I made this pretend television set many years ago. Sometimes the children stood behind it and pretended to be actors or weather forecasters. Other times I supplied paper taped onto dowels that the kids used to draw a story. The dowels slipped into the sides of the box and when they turned them their pictures “scrolled” across the opening.
If you have had a chance to look around my blog you probably saw pictures of the cars I made out of xerox boxes.
One of the most popular things in my classroom was this bench with a steering wheel that my husband put together. Three or four children could sit on it at a time and it transformed from a bench to a car, plane, bus, train … and even more. My little ones are loving it now too – so far Owen is always the driver, and he never forgets to turn around and pretend to fasten my seatbelt when I “ride” behind him.
We all know that when young children open a gift they are often more excited about playing with the box! Maybe you can find some things around your house that can be turned into exciting play props too!
Choosing a Preschool
06 Feb 2012 Leave a Comment
in Nana Stuff, Preschool
I never realized how complicated choosing a preschool can be! Owen’s mom has been researching and visiting schools, and pondering this important decision for the past few weeks. I have gone along on a few classroom visits, and I’ve been doing a lot of reading and thinking about how to choose a preschool too, it can be overwhelming for parents who are trying to make the best choice for their child.
A few years ago one of my professional goals was to build relationships between early childhood teachers in our school district and local preschools. I began by sending questionnaires to Kindergarten parents asking their opinion about the preschools their children had attended. Overwhelmingly parents were very positive about their child’s experience at preschool, which was great to hear. I think that takes some pressure off parents making this decision – most children have a good experience. But this personal decision is very emotional, as well as financial and practical.
I love hearing from teachers who have read this blog, and I know you are all professional and very capable of evaluating a program on your own. I also know that providing a program that parents will choose is important because preschools are a business that depends on tuition paid enrollments. Before I went to visit preschools with my daughter-in-law I needed to sit down and think through what I thought was important. When I was teaching, parents would ask me for preschool recommendations every year. Maybe this post will give you a few ideas if parents ask you too!
I recommend starting this process by making a few important decisions:
-Compile a list of possible schools
-Decide how far you are comfortable driving to take your child to and from school
-Set a limit for the amount you feel you can pay for a program, check to see if you are eligible for Head Start or a subsidized program.
-Decide if a specific type of program is a priority for you. Here is a link to some very simple definitions of different programs and terms you might come across. I found these definitions online – if you have more or conflicting information about one of these, please share that with all of us.
Think about your goals for your child in preschool, are you looking for a socially based program or more rigorous academics? A co-op or day care? Faith based or Montessori? There is not one answer that fits all children and families. What matters most is that the preschool experience helps your child gain an appreciation of what school is like and a positive attitude toward school.
-Think about how much time you’d like your child to spend at preschool – how many days per week, how many hours each school day.
-Then, if possible, talk to neighbors and friends whose children attend these schools.
Hopefully answering those questions will help you cross some programs off the list you created, and steer you toward a few schools you would like to visit.
My daughter-in-law told me she found plenty of check lists online about what to look for when she visits preschools, but most of them gave her questions to ask, but not how to evaluate the answers she was given. Here is a link to one checklist I found online – there are lots if you take a little time to search.
Here are some basic guidelines from NAEYC.
Today I would just like to share some of my thoughts about what to look for and things you might ask when you are choosing a preschool. Basically there are 3 parts to each preschool – the people, the place and the program. So I broke down questions I would ask, and my thoughts about what makes a quality preschool, among these 3 categories.
The People
-What are the qualifications of the staff? I would look for preschool teachers and assistants to have some early childhood training. In our area most preschool teachers have a 2 year degree. Years of experience working with young children is often more valuable than a 4 year degree to teach high school.
-What is the staff turnover? If teachers don’t stay long that might indicate problems among the staff or dissatisfaction with the school.
-Who is in charge? How comfortable are you speaking with the director? I think it is important for teachers to understand and be able to explain why they are doing specific activities with the children. You should feel very comfortable speaking with the director of the program.
- What is the adult/child ratio? NAEYC’s guideline is one adult for every 7 children aged 2 1/2 to 3; with a limit of 14 children in a class. For ages 3-5 the ratio should be about one to ten, and up to 20 in a class.
-What is the age range of the children in the class? In a 3 year old class, what is the cutoff for entry – must they be 3 to enter the program? How many children will begin the class as a 2 1/2 year old, and how many will start the same program at age 3 1/2?
Some things you might notice about the teacher:
She should relate to the children at their level as much as possible
She should be warm and affectionate with the chidlren
She should communicate through conversations, not commands
It would be great if she delights in the projects, the play and the children’s interactions
Research shows that strong positive relationships with a teacher can predict children’s cognitive advancement at preschool. (They don’t care what you know until they know that you care!)
I came across a YouTube video of Vivian Paley, the well known author, Kindergarten Teacher and play advocate. She begins this short speech talking about the importance of imaginative play and ends talking about the special relationship between a teacher and child – it’s worth watching if you have a few minutes!
Vivian Gussin Paley at 92Y Wonderplay Conference 2008
http://www.92y.org/content/wonderplay_conference.asp
The Place
- Is the preschool licensed by the State or Social Services?
Preschools meet in elementary schools, church basements, and free standing buildings. Many preschool classrooms were not built specifically for that purpose, and which leads to a lot of creative storage solutions and challenging bathroom situations. When a preschool is licensed you know that the facility, materials, and general practices have been checked for health and safety, and approved. They adhere to an appropriate teacher/child ratio and teachers have the required credentials.
-Do you have a good feeling when you go into the classroom?
-Check for general cleanliness and organization. Clutter and disorganization can affect some children negatively. When you look at the classroom from your child’s point of view it should be welcoming and friendly. All visible materials should be there for the children to use each day. Stored items should be out of sight, behind doors or curtains if possible.
-There should be adequate toys and play items for the amount of children. These materials should be clean, safe and in easy reach of little people.
-Materials and shelving should be labeled so the children can clean up independently. That is an important skill for them to be working on in preschool.
-Is the bathroom easily accessible? Are children allowed to go to the bathroom whenever they need to, or do they have to wait and go as a group? Are sinks located close to the bathroom and accessible for children? Are sinks available in the room to for hand washing before snack or after messy projects?
-Research also shows a clear relationship between physical play and brain function, as well as long-term health benefits. Is there room for kids to run around? Do they have a climbing structure, tricycles, balls?
-Are outside play spaces safe and fenced?
-Is the parking lot safe? How far do you have to walk (maybe bringing along younger siblings!) to get into the building?
-A few programs offer drop off service, where a staff member or volunteer greets your car and helps your child out, and into the building. This can be very convenient, but you also miss out on the chance to see what activities are set up for the day, have a quick word with the teacher if needed, and help your child get settled for the day.
The Program
Teachers should be able to tell you not only what they do in the classroom, but also why they do it. In every classroom the time is limited and teachers need to carefully prioritize and choose how to use this precious time. For every thing you choose to do, you must eliminate other things you won’t have time for.
-Do they focus on important social skills like gaining independence, sharing and following directions? Do they incorporate activities designed to help children delay gratification and wait for their turn?
-Do they plan concrete activities because they know that children learn best through hands-on, active learning that engages their senses and emotions? How much time is spent on coloring sheets and worksheets?
-Do they encourage collaboration, interaction and discussion? Cognitive and social development are enhanced when children work to discover the hows and whys of their actions. Today Owen was using my warming tray to melt crayons and “discovered” that blue and yellow make green. He was so excited – we’ve read Leo Lionni’s Little Blue and Little Yellow many times, but it wasn’t real to him until he accidentally mixed the colors on his own.
-Can the teacher describe or give examples about how they promote problem solving and creative thinking?
-Are children allowed to choose some of their activities each day? Children benefit most from open-ended materials like blocks and construction toys, play dough, dress up and dramatic play, and creative art supplies. These should be available for a good portion of time every day. When teachers step in to take a role in the play it is even more valuable. Sometimes free choice activities are mostly games or materials designed by teachers to fulfill an objective. The children are really self directed if they are allowed to choose what to play with, and how they would like to use the materials.
-How is play woven into the day? Do they encourage imaginative, pretend play? Are there opportunities for physical play?
-Do they include lots of rich literature and story telling? Do they usually follow up reading with discussions, role playing or retelling, or projects that relate to the story? Developing comprehension skills is a vital step in learning to read, and it begins when children are engaged and involved in stories they hear.
-Do they integrate letters and numbers into play as well as routines of the day? Some parents tend to evaluate a preschool based on how many numbers and letters their child is learning. Research from NAEYC shows that children who recognize at least 8 letters when they enter Kindergarten are usually successful in school. When preschools spend a lot of time focusing on letters and numbers they do not have time for many of these other rich, valuable experiences. This is especially important in a class of 3 year olds who will be exposed to letters and numbers over and over before they reach first grade. One of the best ways to encourage children to learn letters and numbers is to show them how they are used – letters in their name, letters in words around the room – like “on and off” on the light switch, and “open and closed” on doors, numbers on the clock or a telephone, etc.
-Are they open to unannounced visits from parents? Do they ask you to call before stopping in to observe or pick up your child?
-What is their discipline policy? I think discipline is an opportunity to teach. Of course teachers must keep every child safe and they often need to stop inappropriate behavior. In order to help the child learn to make better choices the teacher needs to be sure the child understands what (s)he did wrong, and help the child come up with some ideas of better ways to handle the situation.
I don’t think any parent will find a perfect preschool program. When you choose from the list of schools that fit your basic needs you are looking for the best fit for your child. As a parent you can help your child love preschool by always talking about the school and the teacher in very positive terms. When you are excited and eager to hear about what goes on every day, your child is likely to love it too!
Dear Future Teacher …
28 Jan 2012 4 Comments
in Nana Stuff, Preschool
Owen’s parents are thinking about preschool.
I know it would be great for him. I want him to love it. I sure will miss him!
Seriously, how can I be feeling sad about this when he won’t possibly go until next year?
Change has never been easy for me! I loved every stage of my own children and never wanted them to grow up! But of course they did. And then I found out how much fun it is to be a grandmother! I always say I am the luckiest Nana in the whole world. My wonderful son and daughter-in-law generously let me invade all the time, and willingly share all the exciting marvelous wonderful things these three little beings do. And this time around I have all the time I want, to listen and play and just be with them. See how lucky I am?
So with the whole issue of choosing a preschool being discussed I have started thinking and reading about how to choose the right preschool. It can be overwhelming! I will be writing more about that process very soon – but today I wrote a letter. It is written to Owen’s future preschool teacher, telling her a little of what I hope he will find in her classroom.
I know that preschools are a business. In a sense they are in competition with other preschools, so they must make some decisions based on gaining students. Parents approach this whole process of education in so many different ways. Some parents demand a preschool that will push academic subjects and they are happy with worksheets and homework. I understand this, but I also think that all early childhood teachers are responsible for educating parents about child development and how children learn too.
I started thinking about what I would want in a preschool for Owen (and I do realize that it is not my decision, his parents are very capable!) At three Owen already recognizes upper and lower case letters — he learned them through everyday experiences, like looking at STOP signs and reading alphabet books, and talking about what is on his cereal box in the morning. He knows sounds too – I’m not really sure how he learned those! He was interested, he asked questions, luckily he had lots of people ready to respond to him. He LOVES numbers. He notices them everywhere – on piled up warehouse boxes at Costco, on weather forecasts, and on his favorite matchbox cars (he calls any car with a number on it a race car!) I know he doesn’t need a preschool that focuses on drilling letters and sounds.
Research conducted by the National Association for the Education of Young Children has shown that children who enter kindergarten knowing at least 8 letters are usually successful. That means they know important letters – like the ones in their name and a few others – maybe the T of Target and M of McDonalds. It certainly won’t hurt them to learn about letters and numbers in preschool – but I hope that doesn’t become the focus of what goes on. Especially for children like Owen who have a late fall birthday. We have a Dec. 1 cutoff date, and I have encouraged his parents not to send him to school when he is still 4. If he does wait, and goes to preschool 2 years, and then Kindergarten – I am concerned that he will be taught and retaught letters and numerals that he already knows!
So why should he go to preschool now? I think he needs to be with peers – his little sisters are quickly growing into worthy play partners, but they are younger and littler. I think he would love all the experiences and fun of going to school. Anyway, all this thinking is what led me to write this silly little letter to Owen’s future preschool teacher. I would love to pin it to his shirt on that first day of school, but I won’t. I will share it with you, some of you will be meeting, hugging, playing with other Owen’s next year. Maybe you will take a minute to listen to one child’s Nana.
Here is a printable version in case it is too small to read on screen!
Red Ridinghood
11 Jan 2012 1 Comment
in Retelling for Comprehension
Red Ridinghood was another Fairy Tale that I loved to use with my Kindergartners. I usually told this story using props before I read it. I always found that my whole class was really paying attention when I told a story, and I could look around at their reaction when I wasn’t looking at the pages of a book. I liked having simple props or pictures to show while I told them the story. These pictures fold in half and stand up.
Here is the basic story that I told my class:
Here are printable copies of the stand up figures:
Sometimes I used these sequencing pictures. You could show these while you tell the story. You could use them as a follow up activity to help the children retell the story. Sometimes I gave the children a few of the pictures and had them write a sentence about what was going on in that part of the story. Sequencing pictures like this is great for practicing the beginning, middle and end of stories – or putting events in order.
My class loved to take turns acting out the story too! I had a red cape, left over from Halloween for Red Ridinghood. The Woodsman held a paper towel tube for an axe. We used a basket from housekeeping, and I made a paper headband for the wolf.
The wolf face was fastened on a headband strip. I used paperclips to hold it on instead of stapling the headband so it could fit a variety of children. I loved hearing the children acting out the story – they used such great language and remembered so many details.
When I told the story I always said that the wolf shoved Grandma in the closet. When we read the book by James Marshall the children always noticed that in his version, the wolf ate Grandma. I like the G-rated version better myself! There are lots of versions of this story available and it is fun to read and compare them.
This story also lends itself very well to talking about strangers. This was part of our Social Studies unit so it fit right into our curriculum. I made a simple outline of a child wearing a hooded sweatshirt and each child glued his/her face onto the picture.
Then I gave them a picture of a wolf and talked about how he was a stranger.
Then we talked about how scary the wolf looked and that I knew they were all too smart to talk to someone that was so scary. We talked about how strangers don’t always look scary, but that it really is not safe to talk to anyone that they don’t know unless they are with a grownup that they trust. So we glued a picture of Bob the Builder on the back side of the wolf picture. I thought that Bob the Builder was a recognizable, friendly character to represent a stranger that did not look scary.
I have started telling Fairy Tales to my grandchildren. It’s even better than sharing them with Kindergartners!
10 Little Rubber Ducks
30 Dec 2011 2 Comments
in Math Stories, Retelling for Comprehension, The Ocean
I was so happy when I found out that Kohls was releasing more of Eric Carle’s picture books in their Kohls Cares for Kids program. These are such wonderful hardcover picture books for the bargain price of $5! If you don’t live near a Kohls you can find them online!
I already owned a copy of this book, but it was one of those that I had not taken time to develop lessons and use. When I reread it I was so excited about all the possibilities!
1. I loved the whole idea of talking about HOW AN AUTHOR GETS AN IDEA. Eric Carle shares a news article that inspired this book on the inside cover. He read about a cargo ship containing toys that dumped into the ocean, and decided he just had to make it into a picture book. It would be really fun to look for simple news stories that the children might adapt – or to create a story as a class based on something in the news!
2. This book is wonderful for RETELLING and acting out. I found some clipart pictures that you might be able to use, either staple pictures on headbands, or punch holes to wear as a necklace – or even glue them onto construction paper for the children to hold.
Here is a link to full sized pictures:
3. Along with retelling – this book makes great use of DIRECTIONAL TERMS! You could choose one child to be a duck – or 10, and have them go in the specified directions. This would be a great time to label North, South, East, West in your classroom – if you can figure it out! I am a bit directionally challenged myself! I do have a good concept of left and right though!
4. This book would be a good tool if you have children still working on basic NUMERAL RECOGNITION. I am sharing some pictures of numbered ducks, but it would be even more fun to get small plastic ducks (they come 2 in a pack) from a dollar store or somewhere, and put numbers on them!
5. COUNTING BACKWARD! You could also use these pictures or the plastic ducks to practice counting backward from 10 – 0.
6. When you first read this book it is obviously a great way to introduce or reinforce ORDINAL NUMBERS! Here are the same ducks labeled with ordinal numbers.
Then I had an idea – you could run off copies of a box for each child and cut a vertical slit in it. Each child will cut out these strips, overlap them and glue them together. Then they could cut out the numbered ducks and put duck 1 in the box under the word 1st, etc.
This is kind of large – you might just want to use it to demonstrate or play with as a group – you could probably reduce all the pages on the copy machine to make a smaller project for each child!
7. In the story they packed 10 ducks in each box. This would lead right into practice COUNTING BY 10′s!
I had a couple of ideas to use with this story. You could give each child a copy of the cargo ship and just let him/her glue on 5 boxes labeled 10, 20, etc.
Or you could give them pictures of 5 boxes full of 10 ducks each. After cutting out the boxes they could glue on the numbers counting to 50 by 10′s on the back, and then glue them onto the boat. That would give them a more concrete idea of what it means to count by 10′s.
8. Of course this book would tie in to an OCEAN UNIT very well because the ducks fall into the sea and met a variety of ocean animals.
9. There is some great VOCABULARY too! I loved the ”Chuckedy-chuckedy-chuck” sound of the rubber duck machine. I would spend a few minutes talking about “bob” and “drift.” The more I read this book, the more I love it!!
10. One of my favorite parts of this book is the wonderful STYLE and VOICE! A technique that Eric Carle uses is to repeat the last few words of some paragraphs, I would tell the children that when I read this book it touches my heart!
He repeats phrases like “whistles across the sea,” ”10 ducks overboard!” and “only water and sky.” It is a very effective way to include emotion in this story!
If you don’t already own this book I hope you get a chance to pick it up at Kohls! And I hope you love it as much as I do!
Weather Pictures
04 Dec 2011 4 Comments
in Weather
Allison wrote to ask if I had the masters for the Weather Book I made with my Kindergartners. I tried to reply to her comment but I guess I don’t know how to add pictures to comments!
Anyway, I do not have the masters for that little weather book, the words were very simple -
The weather today is sunny.
The weather today is cloudy.
The weather today is rainy.
The weather today is windy.
The weather today is snowy.
I changed this text different years to make it simpler or more difficult to read, based on my group of children. You could just say Today is rainy. Today is sunny. (etc.) or you could make it longer – “The weatherman said it will be rainy.”
And I included small clipart pictures of that type of weather next to the words. Then we made a little weather forecaster – run off on yellow construction paper with the child’s photo on it. I am attaching weather pictures and a “forecaster.” You just need to use white out or cut out the bear’s face so the children can glue on their own photo.
Here are printable versions:
I hope your kids like playing weather forecaster too!
Nativity Advent Calendar
29 Nov 2011 6 Comments
in Nana Stuff
I have been shopping for a Nativity Advent Calendar but I haven’t found exactly what I am looking for. What I had in mind was some kind of cute box with 24 or 25 little doors that open, and room inside for figures for a nativity scene. Preferably already stocked with the figures! I do have child friendly nativity sets, but haven’t found any boxes that would fit. So I decided just to make one on the computer for this year.
I made this calendar with spaces to put a picture for each day in December up until Christmas Eve. Then I realized that Owen (who LOVES numbers) would probably like to be able to tell how many days left until Christmas, so I revised it:
Next I made slightly smaller boxes and filled them with all kinds of Christmas clipart pictures.
If you have one of those Nativity calendars with small boxes or doors, you could cut apart these pictures and put them into the boxes instead of candy, etc.
There are a few extra choices on this sheet because I knew Owen would like to pick the pictures he liked best each day. The idea is for him to choose a picture and glue it on the calendar every day. His cutting is improving, but he might need some help with this!
In Kindergarten we always made a Kindness calendar. At school we made a Santa face that was numbered to count the days until Christmas. Each child counted out 25 cottonballs and took them home in a plastic baggie. I sent home a note and a list of kind things children could do each day to earn the cottonball for their project. If you’d like to see that – check out my posts for December and Christmas last year. You could easily use the Kindness ideas along with this Nativity calendar too!
I thought all this clipart was so cute that I decided to make another project. I wrote out the story of Jesus’ birth and printed clipart to go on each page. My idea is to read the book to my little bunnies and add a picture each day through the month. By Christmas the whole book will be illustrated.
Here is a link to see how it looks – I printed out the book pages and put them into a red folder with prongs, and glued the cover on the front.
Here are printable copies of the calendar too!
Do you get as excited about Christmas as I do? It’s even more fun sharing it with grandchildren!
