Book Whisperer Ch. 1

How do I feel after reading the intro and first chapter of The Book Whisperer?

In a word, validated.

When I taught 2nd, 1st, and now Kindergarten, 

all I wanted to show my students was to leave my classroom with a love of reading.

I believe all students can read. 

Some students just take a little longer.

The last month of school, one of my struggling students finally became proficient with their HFW.

When I was assessing his decodable words, he began by saying whatever came to mind, not decoding.

I isolated the first part of the word, he read it.

I uncovered the second syllable, he read it.

I praised him and acknowledged that he was reading.

I swear I saw the light inside him shine!

As teachers, we live for these moments don't we?

He read the rest of the words.

He read sentences.

He started reading books.

He saw himself as a reader, and he now knew he was a reader.

I was so excited, I told everyone, my coworkers, my principal, my husband!

I'm anxious to read more about Donalyn Miller's strategies, and I'm encouraged by her words so far.
I try to foster a love of reading by reading to my kids.
After reading a book, Big Book, or poem I let kids revisit them.
Can I just say it's the best feeling to see kids huddled around books,
seeing them with pointers, reading chants,
hearing the inflection in their voice.

Ahhhh, music to my ears........

Read Along Questions

Mrs. Lyons from Think of Teaching is hosting a Book Club and is starting off with some read along questions.

1) What is your favorite book (or series) from childhood?

Owl At Home, I loved the tear tea chapter

2) What is your favorite book (or series) now?

I love reading James Patterson, who knew he could write mystery, suspense, and romance :)

3) What is your opinion of e-readers?

I borrowed my daughter's Kindle, thought I wasn't going to like it, 

but the best feature was lying in bed reading and not having to worry about how to hold the book.

4) Finish this sentence: "On Sundays I like to..."

watch Chick Flicks with my girls :)

5) Describe yourself in 5 words!

Mama to 5 great kids

6) Hardcover or paperback? Why?

 Anything at the bargain section at Barnes & Noble

7) Coffee or Tea?

Ohhhhhhh this is by the far the easiest question yet,

Coffee, almost everything tastes great with a large cup of café

Last Day of school

Yesterday was the last day of school,  this is always such a bittersweet moment. 

We worked so hard to learn our letters, sounds, and high frequency words 

so that we can start reading.

Ahhhhh to see my kiddos read, such a gratifying feeling.

I received some really great gifts, but I have to admit, the hugs and cards

I received from my students and their parents just touched my heart.

¡Muchísimas gracias!

Father's Day Gifts

 Our last week of school, can you believe it?  We have been so busy!  We had our final awards assembly last Friday and we had another great performance at a theatre last Friday night.  I wish I would have taken some pictures because they were so adorable in their Mexican attire!

Kinders are so cute, they can perform just about anything and just look so adorable :)

For Father's Day my colleague and pal, Miss Ayala shared a fast, easy, and colorful gift idea.  We made magnets with Popsicle sticks and a nice label on the back.

Today is Bring your Dad's to school day to go along with our Field Day.

This is usually a lot of fun for both our Kinders and their Dads.

4 more days!

Open House

Open House was a great success!

A huge thanks to all my students who proudly showed their parents all the work

Each reading group interactively wrote and painted an ocean animal.

We sponge painted our sea horses and used tissue paper for our fishies.

Colorful jellyfish really added an ocean atmosphere.

Students wrote about each animal in their Sea Animal Journals.

More divers and pictorial input charts.

Tangram fishies, such creativity!

Ocean animals with oil pastels

Miss Lawson's sea anenemone hats were so cute, I jut had to take a picture and share.

    

All about me octopus

Can you find yourself?  Student silhouettes are always a big hit!

Our Spring corner

Our social studies wall.

Now we're focussing on our end of the year events.

Eight days to go, can you believe it?

Desks vs. Tables

Joining the Linky at Ladybug's Teacher Files .  And for me, the winner is definitely....TABLES!!  Well, for Kinder anyways.
When I taught first and second grade, it was really important for students to be responsible for their own materials.

Kinders at our school have tables.  And I have to say, I'm definitely sold.  When I switch classes for ELD or other content areas, it's so much easier to manage students at four tables than 20 individual desks.



Each table has a table leader.  They're responsible for placing baskets on the tables and putting them away at the end of the day.  They'll also help me pass out papers and activity books

Red and yellow baskets (go Trojans!) house book bags, journals, and miscellaneous books.  Crayons, pencils, erasers, and scissors are community property.  

I won!

Yahoo!  I won Just Love Teaching's  Giveaway!

How I do love my sugar-free hazelnut Lattes!

Thanks again Angela, and thanks for sharing your super ideas!

Math-Calendar Wall

This is our math/calendar wall.

My Kinders are very good at counting by 1's, 5's, 10's and counting backwards from 30.

At the very bottom you'll see some of the Mountain Math activities we do.  I must say, my Kinders are really great!

The Student of the Day is posted on sentence strips to help decode the name.  At the beginning of the year we look at beginning sounds, then beginning syllables, and now we decode by pulling the sentence strip backward and decode by ending sounds.