Classroom Pictures
September 22, 2000
I've decided to use this area on the website as a photo-journal of the 2000 - 2001 school year, as it seems like I never have time to write my In My Room column these days. I'm going to try to add a few pictures with comments every weekend, to stay up to date with what we're doing in my classroom.
Here are some things we've done during the past week:
Who Is Here Today Pocket Chart
In the hustle and bustle of the first three weeks of school, I realized that many of my kinderkids couldn't recognize their own name in print. Although some of those same kids can write their name, they're just not looking at print yet with a discriminatory eye. And unlike previous years, they haven't learned to read each others' names, either, which is mainly due to my being preoccupied with some behavior problems and teaching the kids classroom routines and how to use the various Literacy Centers.
This is the pocket chart we use every morning to show who's here and who isn't. The name cards are on a table, and each child has to find their own name and place it in the chart, beneath the sentence that says "I am at school today." The Child of the Day (my helper) puts the cards that are left over in the bottom rows, under the question that says "Who is not here today?"
This is an activity I usually begin the first day of school, but somehow it got overlooked this year and we just started it this week. Some of the kids are having LOTS of trouble finding their own name, especially the ones whose names begin with A.
The kids like to take the cards out of the chart during Literacy Centers time and rearrange them, sorting by first initial, boys/girls, shortest name to longest name, etc. They also enjoy taking them to their table so they can write their friends' names on the little clipboards we use for our Write the Room center.
I
have 3 or 4 "extra" sets of student name cards on sentence strips, written
in different colors of markers (all the cards in each set are the same
color). We use them in other pocket charts, to fill in names in some
of our monthly/thematic poems, like "Who Stole the Cookies from the Cookie
Jar?"
Jack Be Nimble
This week's TLC Art Project
I love the hair on this happy Jack!
A few years ago, I decided we needed more racially diverse art projects. Since we were going to be making our TLC Jack Be Nimbles that week, I cut Jack's head and hair from brown construction paper, and suddenly Jack was an African American. The children adored him, of course, and the parents did too, though some simply thought it was a "cute" idea. While a lot of the things we do may look cute as a finished product, I have to say there are few (if any) things I do just for the sake of being cute.
One
of the things I love about TLC (Teaching Little Children) art projects
is that they teach the kids to listen and follow directions. If they
listen, they do it correctly ... if they don't listen, most of the time
I won't give them another piece of paper to try it again, since all the
cutting skills and shapes are ones we're practiced repeatedly. And
no matter how their pictures turn out, they are all different and have
a pesonality of their own. And, yes, they're quite cute, too :o)
Neither of these boys
followed the directions exactly ... Matthew has the hands in the "wrong"
place (in my opinion, there's no such thing as "wrong" in art and creative
projects), and Michael's Jack ended up with no hands at all. If I
ask a child how come their picture is missing something, they usually respond
"I like it this way." Very rarely will they say they lost the paper
or cut it up too small to use.
My intention was to put each week's project on top of the one from the previous week, so that I didn't have to take down 20 pictures to file every week (I save them all to bind into a keepsake book at the end of the year). However, I had lots more room on the wall and didn't feel ready to cover up their Humpty Dumptys yet, so stapled this week's project below each child's Humpty from a couple weeks ago.
Take a good look at the
Jack who's the second from the left ... I always end up with several like
this, and the kids think it's pretty funny that Jack might burn his bottom.
I always use Jack Be Nimble (the poem as well as the art project) to talk
about fire safety, and to introduce Stop, Drop, and Roll.
Here is a view of more
of the wall ... if you remember my Setting Up The Room pictures (click
here
to see them), this is the south wall of my room. The picture below
will give you even more perspective on how that end of the room is shaping
up (and how messy we are already).
On the left are my math manipulatives shelf and math cubbies, with guided reading and Home Reading Connection materials on top in baskets. The white racks that look like they're in the way (they are) are rolling garment racks with the top half of the sidebars removed ... I'll be using these to hang my Discovery Packs homework packets. Until then, we move them around in this corner of the room, so that we can get to things we need (like math stuff).
The black crates on top of the table on the righthand side of the picture hold Literacy Center materials ... games, puzzles, flash cards, letter and word tiles, etc. This area is my ABC Center, and it's one the kids can always go to if their other work is finished. Just to the right of where the picture ends is the large window in the south wall. I'm thinking about buying mini blinds to keep it covered at least part of the time, which I hope will eliminate a lot of time wasted staring out the window (the kids and I are all guilty of this one).
To find out more about
the wonderful TLC art projects, visit their brand-new website at http://www.tlcart.com
We Can Make Patterns
Our first quarter math benchmark requires the students to make an ABCABC pattern, and to describe to me what the pattern is (i.e., they're supposed to know it's ABC). They also have to tell me some of the attributes of the 3 items they use for their pattern (shape, color, size relationships, etc).
In past years, I've used Unifix cubes for this assessement. This year I think I'll use pattern blocks instead, since they seem to enjoy working with them so much.
The pictures above and below are two simple ABAB patterns we made this week, and most of the kids did quite well. LIke the Chicka Chicka ABC Trees from last week's pictures, I put the pattern samples on the wall so that they were there for the parents to see at Back to School night last week. As always, my goal is to give the parents an opportunity to compare their child's work with that of the other children in my room, and I let them come up with their own conclusions about what is average, how many children have mastered a certain skill, and where their child fits in to the spectrum.
The ones who made the
pattern correctly (and I gave LOTS of help, but they had to glue it down
in the correct order themselves) have a large sticker on their pattern
sheet. For the sheets with the orange background (our second day
of making the ABAB pattern), I gave each child just the 8 paper blocks
they would need. The children had to build the pattern on the background
sheet using the paper pattern blocks, and have me approve it before they
could glue it down. I was moving from table to table, checking each
child's progress and helping to make corrections as necessary.
I was quite surprised that many of the kids took all the blocks OFF the paper once I said it was OK to glue them down. When that happened, I had them build it over again, and then checked that it was correct. 15 minutes into the activity, all but 4 or 5 students had finished and gone to work in Math Tubs or read Big Books. Those last 4 or 5 kids had a lot of trouble with the concept still, and even with supervision insisted on moving the blocks/breaking the pattern when they glued them down.
Because this was a practice exercise as well as an assessment, I allowed them to do it incorrectly if they kept changing the pattern after it was built ... I wanted a visual record/reminder of who will need extra help preparing for the benchmark, which we have to do before the end of October.
Free Stickers
My local Albertsons markets always have stickers at the counter, to give to small children (and you KNOW how much kids like stickers, right?). So everytime I go to the market, I ask for more stickers for my 19 kinderkids.
Another place that has
large, free stickers is Trader Joe's market -- a speciality kinda place,
mainly in Southern California -- they had awesome Snowman stickers last
Dec/Jan, and are always happy to share. One more place that I've
gotten great free stickers is Long's Drugstore, at the pharmacy counter.
Last year they had terrific sticker sheets (about 4 x 6 inches) for Halloween
and Thanksgiving. Be sure to ask everywhere you shop about free stickers
... you might be pleasantly surprised.
Homework Calendar
This is our September Homework Calendar, which I have hanging on my Math Their Way bulletin board. Each child made the handprint, then I stapled the art and blackline calendar to the background paper. The apple handprint is explained fully in my A is for Apple unit, and it's very simple to do: the apple is made by painting the child's palm red, and the leaf/stem is their thumb painted green. The one above was done by a student who pushed their thumb down twice, and I messed it up by spelling their name incorrectly (look closely and you'll see it says Mrs. Smith on a white label sticker).
We review the calendar homework assignments every morning, and have a few minutes of Sharing Time spent discussing them. More children do the homework simply because they get to share the following day. There is NO requirement to bring anything back to school for this homework. It's mainly intended as an extra tool to get families involved in what we're doing in the classroom.
If you are interested in purchasing the Homework Calendar blackline masters for the 2000-2001 school year (August 2000 through August 2001), please send me a note and I'll send you my address. There is a set for kindergarten and a set for first grade, and they cost $10 each, including shipping.
Shared Writing
I do shared writing with my class every day, and this week I spent some extra time showing them different ways they might plan what they're going to write about. The pictures below are the actual chart paper examples I did on the easel, but they turned an odd color from the camera flash.
In this picture, I began by drawing three objects at the top of the page, which is how I prefer my students to do it in their journals. I told them my pictures were a PLAN for what I was going to write about, and stressed that they could make their plans in pencil. My rule later in the year is NO crayons or colored pencil drawings in their journals/draft books, since this is our rough draft area where we practice writing. We save colored illustrations for stories that go to publication.
The kids were very excited about each picture I drew, shouting out what it was. They had very high motivation to be a part of this activity.
I modeled using a frame sentence that's up on our wall, and reminded them that the words I, see, and a are all on the word wall, too. I had to figure out how to spell the words I didn't already "know" -- please remember this is the 4th week of kindergarten, and I still have children who don't really "know" even the one-letter words.
I use Ellin Keene's "think aloud" modeling strategies when writing in front of the class. (click here for more info on Keene's book, "Mosaic of Thought: Teaching Comprehension in a Reader's Workshop." In the first sentence, I knew the beginning sound of flag, and used a magic line to indicate I knew there were more letters. In the second sentence, I knew the beginning and ending sounds of the word book, so I was able to write it using Kid Spelling (after I wrote all three sentences, I went back and made the Book Spelling corrections that you see in green (well, they really are green, but it's hard to tell in this picture).
This is the second example I gave during our shared writing time that day. It's a simple one-line story, which could easily be made into a "published" book, where the child would get to do a full-color illustration. I wrote the first sentence in Kid Spelling, using their offered letters and copying love directly from the Word Wall. Then I wrote the sentence again, in Book Spelling, so they could see the correct sentence as it would appear if they published this story.
Good Apple Behavior Chart
This is my Good Apple Behavior Chart, which many of you have asked about. It's discussed in my A is for Apple unit, and also in the Back to School section of the website. Each child has four apples, and after receiving one or two reminders/warnings about class rules and making good choices, I will change the child's apple and send them to Time Out, according to the consequences chart below.
If a child becomes a Green or Blue apple during the day, they lose part of all of that day's recess and also have to remain in their seat (reading or writing) during any Free Choice activities in the afternoon, which might include Developmental Centers (playtime), working with the math tubs, or watching a video.
A child who becomes a Blue apple is often removed from the classroom by my principal (I ask him to come get the child, and to make a big deal about it, so the kids understand that consequences are serious). Depending on the behavior involved, a blue apple child may be sent home for the remainder of the day, may spend the rest of the day in our in-school supspension/behavior room, or may come back to class after talking with the principal or campus supervisor and having an appropriate time out.
Shared Reading
I read many stories to my kids every day. This photo is a tidied-up version of what my reading easel looked like at the end of the day on Friday ... the books you see are the ones we read that day.
This is my copy of the Nursery Rhymes book each child has in their personal Book Box. It's a collection of about a dozen Nursery Rhymes (with pictures they can color) that we've been reading/chanting/singing since the first day of school. The cover art is a blackline dot-to-dot, glued to construction paper. I laminate the covers and then staple the books together.
This is Little Leap, who is new to my room this year. He's from Frog Street Press, and he sings songs about the alphabet and plays interactive games. So far, only Mrs. Smith gets to hold him. The kids really enjoy it when we use Little Leap, and he's taught us a new song for the letter sounds ... here's the verse for the letter B:
B says /b/
B says /b/
See the letter say the
sound
B says /b/
The tune is a modified Farmer in the Dell. We sing the letter sounds several times per day to several different songs, and this one is a favorite that the kids sing on their own when reading from their book boxes.
Another Pattern Activity
These are some of the Sticker Pattern cards I've made, along with the tagboard sleeve I use with them. The cards and sleeve are laminated for durability.
I slip the cards into the sleeve, then pull them upwards, one sticker at a time. The kids have to make predictions about what will come next, then identify the pattern (ABAB, AABAAB, etc.). This is a very fun activity that can be done during those free moments when there isn't time to do anything else, and it's great for bringing stragglers to the Story Floor.
The four patterns shown are ABAB, AABBAABB, AABAAB, and ABBABB.
That's all for this week. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!
Victoria :o)
Go to:
Victoria's Thematic Units Index