It’s Greek To Me!

Posted on 02/07/2011 by teachlearnlaugh

Can you read this sentence for me, please?

!  $)&^  (*   &%  !  #&^.

Of course you can’t.

This is what printed material looks like to someone who can’t read, whether they are 6 or 60.  Until they are given the tools to decode it, it’s a meaningless foreign language.

Even though you couldn’t read the sentence, you probably noticed some of the symbols are repeated.  Recognizing likenesses and differences still isn’t enough to read the sentence but it is an important step in becoming a reader.

Remember in kindergarten when you were given a mimeographed sheet with rows of shapes and you were told to color the two that were the same?  Then at some point you were asked to circle all the letters or words in the row that were the same.  These were pre-reading skills so by the time you were ready to read you would be able to tell that ‘cat’ and ‘cat’ were the same but ‘cat’ and ‘mat’ were not.

Where to start?  Well, you can’t tell what is different until you are very familiar with what is the same.  At some point you will notice how much fun your child has interacting with the water at bath time.  A bit later you’ll notice the bath toys and start thinking what fun your child would have playing with them.  Rubber ducks or frogs?  Big decision, but I think you should get both, even though, to start off you’ll only use one set.  You want your child to become familiar with one animal.  “Find the duck. Find the big duck. Where did the little duck go?” and so on.  When your child can do all of these things with consistency, then you add the other set.  Froggy has come to swim in the duck’s pond. Now you can do activities that involve both.  “Oh, look, there’s a little/big frog just like the little/big duck.  And guess what?  Eventually, when it’s time to clean up at the end of bath time, your child will be able to put all the ducks in the basket and then all the frogs. Or you might want the little ones put in first and then the big ones.  Or maybe the green ones and then the yellow ones.  You’ve had fun, your baby has had fun and you have been teaching a pre-reading skill.

As your child matures developmentally (we really need to discuss developmental age vs chronological age some time soon) you can move on to sorting buttons by size, shape and color, laundry (finding pairs of socks), and the all time favorite, silverware (a precursor to unloading the dishwasher).  Are you not only starting to see a future reader but also a future mother’s little helper?  Just an added little benefit from all of your hard work.

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Internet Woes

Posted on 02/06/2011 by teachlearnlaugh

Webcams, one of my to go to tools for teaching grammar and writing to my 1st graders.  I have spent hours searching the internet, clicking on countless links, sorting through the good, the bad and the ugly, finding the perfect site for the perfect lesson for the intended skill.

The year starts with very few of the children being able to write a sentence.  We start small with three word sentences both for reading and writing.  Over a period of time they add words to their “Words I Know” dictionaries.  They grow and their sentences grow.

By December they are ready for their first webcam writing experience.  And off we go, spying on the world, for real time writing.

Our first stop is Aspen, Colorado to watch the skiers at the Aspen Mountain Gondola on the user controlled webcam.  Everyone has paper and pencil as they watch the gondola go up and the skiers come down the mountain.  They write down what they see and after about 10 minutes everyone has seen enough action (we just learned about verbs) to write and illustrate at least a three sentence story.

In January when we learn about sentence order we visit the JH Whitewater Boathouse. It becomes a snowmobiling office in the winter.  It’s perfect.  It has a 30 second refresh. You can see Steve (yes, I called and ask who was starring the day we watched) move from activity to activity.  The day someone came in to book a tour and money was exchanged was pleasant surprise and a big hit with the children.

The snow comes, the lifts open, and its showtime! As it turned out it was “no show.” I start checking the cam as soon as I hear it has started to snow in Jackson Hole.  No one is in the boathouse this winter booking tours even though there are snowmobiles going in and out of the parking lot (I kept watch when I was there Christmas) to begin said snowmobile tours.  So back to the search engine for this one.

On to the next assignment, adjectives.  I always start by saying in 1st grade terms that nouns are things you can draw and adjectives tell you how to draw them.  Eventually we get to the point where we can watch Jason’s Fishcam.  Once again with paper and pencil in hand they look for what they can draw and beside it list the size, shape, color, how many or what kind.  They always love the alligator that you can open and close its mouth. Time to check to make sure every thing is working for the next day’s lesson.

Oh, Jason, what have you done?  Retired the gator?  Moved the tank?  What happened to the red fish, the two yellow fish, the rough fish cave, the big alligator mouth, and all of the other things I need for my lesson?  Time to go fishing on the internet to see if I can find a Fishcam clone.

The good news, after two disappointments, is that I know my lesson to go along with our reading story “Foal” will go as planned.  Mystic Rock Minis will be there for us.  We may or may not see a foal born, we will definitely become attached and they’ll want to take up a collection to buy it as our next class pet.  Instead, with a little sadness, we’ll write the first born 2011 Mystic Rock Mini foal letters describing what it would get to do if it came to live with us.  We’ll add some math to this lesson as we compare a standard foal with a miniature foal which is about the same size as Felicity’s, an American Girl Doll, horse.

Before the year is out we’ll check on the Bald Eagle cam, Lily and Hope cam, discover some new cams and we might even give the JH Whitewater Boathouse cam another try.

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That Darn Groundhog!

Posted on 02/02/2011 by teachlearnlaugh

February 2, Groundhog Day, and I had plans.  Not just plans, but Groundhog themed plans to work into a busy Wednesday at school.  A mix of science, art, language arts and just plain fun.  

To get a little head start, the children colored and cut out their groundhog puppets yesterday and made predicitons on whether the groundhog would see his shadow today.

This morning they made burrows, participated in a lesson on groundhog folklore, and named their groundhogs.   In order to bring the experience closer to home the plan was to let the children go outside, sing our Piggyback “Come Out Little Groundhog” song and have their own, trusty , paper pet groundhog predict the weather for the next six weeks, then come back to the classroom and write in their journals to record the event. 

Since it was rainy yesterday and cloudy this morning most predictions were for the groundhog to not see his or her shadow.  So we march outside with burrows and groundhogs in tow, set up, and sang our song.  Out popped the groundhogs out of their paper burrows and at that same split second so did the sun from behind the clouds. 

So, sorry to those of you in the nasty, cold, blizzard conditions but in the land of paper groundhogs and burrows there will be six more weeks of winter.

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Time With The Children

Posted on 01/31/2011 by teachlearnlaugh

I have a young friend who is an amazing woman and wonderful mother to her two young daughters.  Her parenting skills are right on target.  “No” means “no”.  She doesn’t laugh when her children are doing something inappropriate (that is another WHOLE discussion for a later date).  They go to bed on time and even when they call out, “Mommy, I not tired”, she has already said her goodnights and they fall asleep on their own.

But the number one parenting skill she has that impresses me the most is that she spends time with her daughters.  I can hear you now, “What do you mean ?  We all spend time with our children.”  What I mean is, she spends time with her daughters.  She isn’t just there physically, she’s there emotionally also.   When she does something with her girls, she is there giving them 100% of her.  Does she spend all of her time catering to her children? Absolutely not!  Have I mentioned that she has a full time job with what is sometimes a two hour commute?  She’s a wife, mother, daughter, sister, friend.  She wears all of those hats.  She finds time for herself.  But when she tells her children they are going to do something together, that is exactly what they do, all three of them, together.

Here’s one of my favorite examples, snack time.  When the girls have a snack, she sits down with them and visits with them while they eat.  They’re at the table, she’s at the table.  They are learning how to have a conversation while eating.  They are enjoying each other’s company.  Just think how that will work to her advantage when they become teenagers.

Her three sisters have similar parenting skills tweaked to fit their own families. I think it is a testimony to their parents, who I suspect, raised them the same way.

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The Perfect Sick Day

Posted on 01/29/2011 by teachlearnlaugh

Yesterday I woke up sick.  No fever.  It was easier to drag myself out of bed and go to work than to deal with getting lesson plans in order and finding a substitute.  My students were great but it was a long day.   It was one of those days where all I wanted was to be at home in bed.

I couldn’t leave right after school because five days a week I tutor a Korean student. He wanted to read Henry And Mudge Get The Cold Shivers. Seemed rather appropriate.  I could relate.  In the book Henry loves his sick days because his mother brings him popsicles, comic books and crackers.  Henry and I have a lot in common.

I got hit with good dose of nostalgia!  If I had to be sick, I wanted a sick day with my mother.

My mother made sick days special and believe me, there were a lot of them in my childhood!  Other than the sick part ( just a minor detail of my story), sick days are some of my fondest childhood memories.

My brother and I shared the upstairs of our house.  He would hear me yelling, “Mommy, I don’t feel good”, get up, go downstairs and announced, “She’s sick again.”  My mother would come upstairs carrying the thermometer and if I had a high fever both the thermometer and I would be carried back downstairs.  Because I was too sick to go anywhere, I would be settled into my parents big bed to wait for the doctor to make his house call.

After the doctor left I would take a nap and by the time I woke up my father would be home for lunch.  Since he was home to watch me, my mother could leave to go pick up ……drum roll, please…..sick day supplies!  The anticipation of waiting for her to come home was almost unbearable. Finally, I would hear the car pull into the driveway.  I knew there would be cherry popsicles, paper dolls, coloring books, some sort of cheap, little grocery store toy and of course Campbell’s Chicken Soup!

Usually after a dose of medicine and some Vicks Vapor Rub I would be feeling better by early afternoon, at which point I would be moved to the divan in the living room. Propped up by pillows I would sit and watch the one and only channel we received on TV, color, play with the paper dolls, eat my lunch and eventually, like all small children, I would become bored.  This is when my mother would perform her “sick day magic”.

The first thing she would do was go upstairs to get one of my dolls.  Then she got two of my grandmother’s painted china tea cups and fixed us some tea.  She’d pull up a chair and we would have a tea party.  After the tea party she would get her sewing box, fabric, and paper and sit beside me all afternoon designing and handsewing clothes for whatever doll was chosen. Little tiny stitches for little clothes.  She had the patience to sit there, talk to me and sew these incredible doll clothes!  If I was sick for a day or a week, she would be there by the divan every afternoon and I would watch her.  I can still see her sitting there.  I still have the doll clothes and I am amazed at her skill.

As I got older, coloring books and paper dolls became magazines, popsicles became ice cream, doll clothes became clothes for me but the soup remained the same and my mother still sat with me in the afternoons.  I hope she knew how much I appreciated her!

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Where’s The Duck?

Posted on 01/28/2011 by teachlearnlaugh

I am a children’s bookaholic!  There, I said it…… think what you will of me but that’s just the way it is.  I have over 700 children’s books in my personal library.  Recently, I have felt so guilty about adding more books that I’ve started purchasing them for my little friends.  Their parents think I’m just so thoughtful but actually I am only satisfying my habit.

I find I am first drawn to the illustrations.  I have always been this way.  When I was a little girl we had a set of Childcraft books. One book had drawings of a little girl playing house.  I was so fascinated and looked at it over and over again but I couldn’t read at all.  My favorite book was We Like Kindergarten. In my early 20’s, while sorting through my childhood closet, I realized the illustrator was the same for both.  My collection and love of Eloise Wilkin books was born.  My current favorite book obsession is Splat the Cat books by Rob Scotton with illustrations that just make me smile.

Little children love to look at pictures.  Picture books are directed at them and can be “read” by everyone.  Some are even lacking words at all so the “reader” can make up their own story.  Beginning readers often use the pictures to help them decode the sentences. They’d rather read the picture than read the words.  For some children, it is a sad day when they begin to read  chapter books and pictures become almost non existent.

Board books are made for very young children.  They’re small, sturdy and simple.  They are where you should begin your book journey with your child.  At some point along the way, your child is going to start trying to grab at the book….after all you’re holding it and they want to do what you do.  Grab a paper book….rip!  Grab a board book….sturdy.

Your tracking finger will start to multitask.  It will not only go top to bottom, left to right but will soon start pointing to animals, shapes, numbers, and our family favorite, babies. Babies like to look at other babies. Our first board book was Babies by Gyo Fujikawa and we looked at those babies every night.  The book is still in good condition 29 years later, waiting to be shared with another generation.

Animal board books are simple.  Most are one animal per page.  The perfect place for your busy, multitasking tracking finger to introduce your child to animals.  It’s the natural thing to do…..point, “duck”….and one day you will be surprised when you open the book and your child points and says “duck”.  The door is opened for, “what does the duck say?”  As your child matures, so do the books.  You will start to buy books with more detail in the pictures and so you can ask, “where is the duck?” and your child can point.

The best thing about board books is the size.  They are small, just the right size for little hands.  Book smart skills can be practiced when no one is looking……hold, open, look, babble…..pretending to read the book.  They are content because books are associated with comfy, warm feelings and they have been learning about them from you.

Board books…..small, simple sturdy ……. the beginning of the journey to independent reading.

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Drama, Drama, Drama!

Posted on 01/26/2011 by teachlearnlaugh

The book has been picked out, your little one is sitting in your lap ready to hear a story, you’ve been singing “Top to bottom, left to right”, you’ve opened the book, and now, you need to channel your inner thespian.  You need to read with feeling………excitement, sadness, happiness, mama voices, daddy voices, baby voices, silly dog voices, and big scary monster voices!  You need to throw your self into the book and make it come alive!

Why all the drama?  Because children learn by example.  They watch, they listen, they imitate.

Your tracking finger pauses at a comma, your voice pauses. Stopping at a period, your voice stops and goes down.  At a question mark, your voice stops and goes up slightly. When it stops at an exclamation mark, no telling what happened!  Excitement? Fear? Jubilation?  Eventually, when quotation marks appear, you say, “I see quotation marks, someone must be talking.”  Ahhhhh, don’t you just love it…..teaching your child and they don’t even realize it.

Add the drama and you make every sentence you read jump off the page.  The first time you see your child to pretend to read a book with Oscar worthy acting, you will know you have done your job.  You have given them another skill to take to kindergarten.  Reading with feeling and emotion takes practice and very few children arrive in first grade with the skill.  They weren’t exposed to the skill enough.

When a child reads with feeling and emotion, pausing at commas and stopping at periods, they have a better chance of understanding what they are reading.  Being able to read words is not enough. You also have to be able to visualize and comprehend what is being read.   Drama can help with that.

Speaking of drama….who do you think gets picked for the great speaking parts in class plays?  You got it…..the children that can speak and read with feeling and emotion!

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Top to Bottom

Posted on 01/23/2011 by teachlearnlaugh

You understand “book smart”.  Your child has learned how to hold a book just by watching you.  The tune “Head, shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes” has been floating through your head for a few days.  Now, it’s time to teach your child how to “read’ a book.  This is so easy to do and has a surprising result!

Change the words in your head to:

“Top to bottom, left to right, left to right,

Top to bottom, left to right, left to right,

My mind knows the story always goes,

Top to bottom, left to right, left to right”

Get your pointer finger to work as you and your child sing the song…..your finger does the motions down the page of the book.  Your finger is tracking.  Your child is watching you and even before they begin to read words they will go “top to bottom, left to right” and be able to keep their place on the page.  They will know how to “read” a book. Children that are able to keep their place on the page are less likely to skip words or skip from the beginning of one sentence to the end of another, losing information along the way.  They are also less likely to skip math problems, or questions on worksheets and tests.  They have a plan….top to bottom, left to right…….

I wish I could tell you who supplied the words to the “piggyback” song but my internet search did not solve the mystery.   Piggyback songs are simply words set to familiar music. There’s probably thousands of them.  They show up at almost every educational conference, on popular children’s educational media and daily in classrooms all over the world.

Oh, I almost forgot!  I promised you a surprising result, didn’t I.  Early in my kindergarten teaching years I had a 5 year old girl with an amazing sight vocabulary. When I mentioned it to her father he said he had been reading her books like Moby Dick and other classics and …………while he read, he put his finger under each word…….yes, ladies and gentlemen, he tracked.  He didn’t have the time to do this with his younger daughter.  She was just as sweet, and just as smart but did not enter kindergarten with a sight vocabulary.  I always thought it was a shame.

Tracking might not build every child a sight vocabulary but it seems like such an easy thing to do not to try it.  What harm could it do?

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Life Skills vs. Tech Skills

Posted on 01/22/2011 by teachlearnlaugh

In a recent Tweet, followers of The Wall Street Journal were informed that 14% of kids age 4 or 5 can tie their shoes, but 21% can play or operate at least one smartphone app! This deeply disturbs me!

Flash back to 1997, my 2nd year of teaching at my current school. A child of two professionals enters kindergarten. Instead of going to preschool, he stays at home with a nanny. Introduced to the computer at an early age, he’s busy daily with software so he will be ready for school and compete with his peers. He passes the entrance requirements with flying colors. So why was it suggest to his parents that it would be in their child’s best interest to take him out of our school and place him in a preschool? Because he had never been given the opportunity to do the developmentally appropriate activities that his classmates had experienced. Yes, he knew how to read but he didn’t know how to use a pair of scissors or crayons. A computer could hold his attention to play his games but he couldn’t sit to listen to the teacher read a story. He didn’t have the readiness skills he needed.

Dexterity plays a roll in being able to tie your shoes. If your child can’t tie the laces on their shoes, then get them legos, tweezers to transfer rice from one bowl to another, Polly Pockets, Matchbox Cars or anything else that makes them use their fingers. You have to be able to pinch those bunny ears to hold them tight while you go around the tree and into the hole.

Do you want to know where bike riding fits into all of this? The complete article is located at AVG TECHNOLOGIES.

 

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Book Smart

Posted on 01/19/2011 by teachlearnlaugh

There is a difference between “book smarts” and “book smart.”  Book smarts is what you learn from reading books and gaining the knowledge they hold.  Book smart is like being street smart.  It is knowing how to maneuver your way through books.  Before your child enters kindergarten, you want them to be book smart.

Actually, you have already started teaching your child to be book smart.  While reading to your child you’ve been holding a book, title side up, with the spine on the left and the opening on the right. That’s Book Smart 101 (sorry, Kindles have no place here).

Even though you haven’t formally set out to make a lesson on how to hold a book, you’ve been watched.  When the time comes for your child to start to explore books on their own, they will naturally imitate what they have seen you do when you’ve read to them.  They will know how to  hold and open a book.

The next step in being book smart is know how to “read” a book.  The warm up exercise for you is to get this tune running through your head…..Head, shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes…..make it drive you crazy, popping up in your head when you least expect it for a day or so.  Then check back and find out just what in the heck you are going to do with it to teach your child how to read a book.

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