Well hello! It has been three weeks since
my last blog post. Three weeks? Really? Wow. Where did that time go? My class
has kept me really busy and really tired! They are so cute, I mean really cute.
Innocent and just full of love... but oh my. It's so opposite from last years
class that it's really unbelievable. Last year's bunch was.....precocious!
This year.... b a b i e s!
Sometimes they want their mommy so much it makes me want my mommy! I am happy
to report however, that we are beginning a love affair. You know the look, when
you are teaching and they give you that face that tells you they approve of you
and they know that you "get them". Uh huh, that one. Priceless.
Now if I can get a little more English
going and a lot more independence, then we'll be doing great!
My "To blog list is a mile long! So
this will be a little hodge
lodge of projects and goings on!
I recently added to and revised my Goldilocks
and the Three Bears unit to include a Close Reading
passage with writing extensions... the
kids have been loving it! (Bears) The kids have really loved it, and they
did so great with the writing extension, which was us doing completely
together, but they
did reference the text! I have a new
smart board and laptop, and I wasn't able to access the writing tools as usual
from the Adobe (PDF) so I captured the pages and pasted them on a Smart board
Notebook, it actually worked out great and I loved the crayon writing tool! We
used the writing prompt that asked them to draw, write, or dictate two facts
from the text. As I said we completely worked together on this and the facts
that we chose were that the cub stays close to his mom and that
he leaves the den when he is two years
old (hence the speech bubble stating his age), how cute was that idea?
The hearts were added when one little guys said they are living bears,
not pretend so they
have hearts, so we all went back and
added hearts to our bears :o) Their cuteness shines through in these work
samples, and so do their varying ability levels!
Next week we'll do our Story Sticks
retell and the writing extension where we compare The Three Bears to Real
Bears. Can't wait to see what they come up with!
Writing around the room with Goldilocks
and the Three Bears has been fun too! Love to see how they learn to handle holding the
clipboard and pencil as they walk around, so many things going on all at once
using so many different large and small muscles. Those tongues come in so handy
sticking out sideways and helping us get our jobs done!
Activities
Plus BEARS Close Reading!
Here’s a
little freebie from the unit, it really helps the little ones who have trouble finding the words
to be successful at re-telling!
I have several new projects I am working
on right now and finally was able to get a couple up and
going. Listen
Up! First Sound Fluency Practice and Intervention Tool became a priority
because I need it yesterday
for
this little group! It's been quite awhile in the making and is finally done!
It will be really helpful for our
instructional assistants to do some interventions for us. I think it will
make a great small group too. The teacher
directions on each page are really specific so that whoever is teaching them
will already have the directions and specific language they need to
facilitate an impactful intervention group.That is
always a problem with handing a small group over to someone who hasn't been
trained up in the same way and we never have enough time to talk. I think this
will help a lot! This is a really comprehensive resource. It has:
• LEVEL 1 (CCSS:ELA-Literacy.RF.K2D)
Hear it – Say it – Circle it Interactive Oral Language Phonemic Awareness
(26 pages strictly phonemic
awareness).
Each page is labeled with the target phoneme
(sound). Students listen for the first sound in words,
circle the
pictures of the target sound,
cross off the pictures that have a different sound. Very specific scripted
teacher directions are provided on every
page to support instructional
assistants or volunteers in intervention groups. ANCHOR
CHART for hearing the sound and saying
it. Key word cards
for each page.
•LEVEL 2 (CCSS:ELA-Literacy.RF.K.3)
Hear it – Say it – Write it (Phonemic Awareness plus writing initial sounds) 26
pages
Students listen for the first sound
in words, circle the pictures of the target sound, cross off the pictures that
have a different sound
AND write the initial sound for
every picture.
This can be used in a variety of
ways:
-As differentiated practice for the
more proficient student
-As follow up to the first 26 pages
-As intervention for students
becoming proficient but needing more practice
ANCHOR CHART for hearing the sound,
saying it and writing it. Key
word cards for each page.
***Update!***
Here's a video to provide some insight about how to us Listen Up!
Sorry for such a long post! I hope your
school year
is going great so far!
