Martin's Big Words

Today, your children impressed me, inspired me, and made me think. Each year, before or after Martin Luther King, Jr. day, I read the book Martin's Big Words. If you have not read this book, I recommend it. I always preface the book with some discussion and pre-learning about the civil rights movement. This year, we read the book The Story of Ruby Bridges and watched a video on BrainPopJr.com (see post below). We also had some discussion about segregation. 

As I read the book today, I watched your children's faces. They were a rapt audience--they were perfectly still and quiet. As I read and stopped to think aloud along the way, their hands popped up. Every single comment was relevant, thoughtful, and appropriate. It's refreshing to hear a six- or seven-year old's perspective on the civil rights movement. They just can't imagine why someone would be treated differently purely based on the color of one's skin. They compared those who believed in segregation to bullies, which is a topic Mrs. McCleary has been focusing on in her Guidance lessons. Many were shocked that anyone could stand by and watch such injustice happen in our world. They expressed thankfulness that things are different today. 

I am telling you this for two reasons. One, I think it's refreshing to see life through the eye's of a first grader. Second, I hope this is a discussion that you can continue with your child. We barely scraped the surface of the many topics that could spring from a simple discussion of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Hello!
I hope that everyone enjoyed MLK Day. Did anyone participate in any activities to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s memory?

We had an excellent teacher inservice day at school! UMS is a fantastic community of students, parents, teachers, and staff members. It was great to have some time today to be together as a professional community, learning how to best serve the most important part of the UMS family--our students!

I will be showing this BrainPopJr. video about Martin Luther King, Jr. tomorrow in class, but since this one is free and does not require a subscription to the site, you can view it too:

http://www.brainpopjr.com/socialstudies/biographies/martinlutherkingjr/

Another Writing Celebration!

We had an unexpected surprise on Friday afternoon...we got to share our writing one more time! Mrs. Anderson had asked me on Thursday afternoon if her class could come in to read their writing to us. They are working on a unit of study called Writing for Readers and they wanted an audience for their latest work. Of course, I welcomed this opportunity! During our Morning Meeting, students were asked if they wanted to just listen to the kindergarten students share their writing or if they also wanted to share their published piece from our last Writing Celebration. Most wanted to do both, so that's what we did. Each K student read their writing first, and then 1st graders read their writing. Each K student was paired with a first grader. What a great opportunity! 

Word Attack!

We won't let those hard words stop us in our reading or writing. Oh no, we'll use our "Word Attack" strategies to tackle unknown words! This was the teaching point of my mini-lesson last Thursday, which is something we've actually been working on all year with a different spin to it. I've taught students various ways to figure out unknown words, such as find a chunk of the word you know (Chunky Monkey), think of another word that looks like the unknown word (Detective Roo), and stretch it out (Stretchy Snake). But, until Thursday, I had never used the term, "Word Attack." They loved it! Several students said it reminded them of having "Fact Power" (say that in a superhero voice), which is a skill we are building in math. If they can figure out really tricky words, then they'll have "Word Power!" I told them Word Power is a combination of using Word Attack strategies and knowing many sight words. I am so proud of the great conversations we have about reading. Wow!

After Read to Self time, some students demonstrated how they used Word Attack strategies in their reading that day.

Sami found two parts of the word snowing: snow and ing and then put them together. 

Olivia figured out a tricky word, bandicoot, by taking it apart in chunks and then blending it back together.

Our Reading Cafe

The new year brought some changes to our classroom. I took down students' Hopes and Dreams from one of the bulletin boards and replaced them with our Reading CAFE menu. Students are working on new Hopes and Dreams right now, which are star-shaped and will hang from the ceiling. The CAFE board is a place where we will keep track of the many reading strategies children have learned and practiced. Right now, I am reviewing many of the skills/strategies I've taught previously and we're adding them to the board. CAFE stands for Comprehension, Accuracy, Fluency, and Expand vocabulary. The blank pages below the CAFE headings are where children will eventually post sticky notes with their names on it to indicate their reading goals. These goals will be based on some informal assessment I am doing with children right now. 

We have learned and practiced dozens of reading strategies--those that we've reviewed are listed under the category they refer to. For example, "reading sight words in a snap" helps children be more fluent readers, so this skill is listed under "Fluency" on the CAFE menu.

Since we now have a CAFE board, many of my reading mini-lessons take place in our "Downstairs Library," so that I can refer to the strategies listed as I teach. This is to help make this board more meaningful and useful for students.

Beginning Tuesday, students will end Reading Workshop by choosing one of the "Daily 5" choices for the last 20-minutes of our morning literacy block. They will decorate index cards with their names on them, which they will then put in the pocket chart to indicate which Daily 5 activity they will do that day. 

For Fun Friday, we did a literature-based art project inspired by the book Elmer by David McKee. Here is a sneak peak. It was so quiet and relaxing when everyone was working on drawing and painting their "Elmers." I actually got to sit down and do an entire project with them! I got so absorbed I forgot to take photos of students doing their artwork. This project is not done yet, but here's a look at what we've done so far!

A few more photos from last week...

One of the choices at the Red Word station in SWR was using dotters to practice words.

This group was so enthusiastic about writing "og" family words in their Word Family notebooks...I was very impressed. But I think we all forgot about the word blog. Go figure! 

Just another "take our picture" moment during Math Workshop! :-)

We had a school-wide meeting on Friday to commemorate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. At the end,  Mrs. Flanagan's daughter, Meghan (she just finished her student teaching in Williston), taught the whole school a new song called the "Flea Fly Song"! It was quite fun, but it will take some practice for me to learn. I will take a video just as soon as we've mastered it. This was not connected to MLK Day, but it sure was fun!

Writing Celebration!

We gathered in Mrs. Hughes' classroom yesterday afternoon for a writing celebration! Students read their published writing to a partner from the other class. Chec

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k out this slideshow for some photos...

Supplies needed

If anyone has a package of sandwich- or gallon-size Ziploc-type baggies, we are in need of both sizes in the classroom. Also, we need paper towel tubes to use in making a number scroll. We've been working on these for a while, and we are ready to assemble them. Please send in any of these items if you are able. Thank you!

Staying Healthy...

Hello!

The title of this post is something I try very hard to do--for myself and my family. Staying healthy in the winter months can be hard, and 2011 has not started out in a very healthy way in my household! I had strep last week and now my son Patrick has Roseola. This was a new thing to me--not the strep (I get that almost annually), but the Roseola. The poor guy has a miserably high fever and is just uncomfortable.

So, the point of this message is to encourage everyone to remind their children of the importance of washing their hands thoroughly, drinking plenty of water, and eating healthy foods. I know we can do all these things and STILL get sick, but I have met some resistance to the hand washing thing recently in the classroom. I will keep reminding/reinforcing the importance of good hand washing habits. Also, your child is welcome to keep a water bottle in the classroom and to leave at his/her table spot to drink from throughout the day. I notice lots of healthy foods during snack time--keep it up!

Stay well (or get well, if your year has started like mine)!

Warmly,
Erin

Lunch Bunch, etc.

On Wednesday, I invited some students to be a part of the first Lunch Bunch of the school year. Eight students joined me for lunch in the classroom. It was nice to be able to talk to each other without anything else going on in the classroom. The boys and girls loved that it was calmer and quieter than the cafeteria. Later that day, we used shaving cream to practice our spelling words. A few students preferred not to use shaving cream, so they used paper/pencil instead. We also put the finishing touches on the stories they will share during Friday's Writing Celebration with Mrs. Hughes' class. Everyone had a list of things to do to get ready for the celebration--finish their writing/illustrations, read the book to themselves, and read the book to a friend or two. 

The Room 6 lunchroom

Silly pizza girls!

Making spelling more fun!

Reading their published work to get ready to share with new friends on Friday!