Author’s Share in the Author’s Chair

Allowing children to publish, share, and present the work is one of the easiest and most effective ways to validate and celebrate their accomplishments. As I am sure it is one of the greatest thrills for any writer to see their hard work arrive in a first edition from their publisher, it is equally as exciting for children to see their own work published and shared in their school community. In the Four Blocks writing block, the teacher begins with a mini lesson that appears to take about ten or so minutes. The students then write for between 15-20 minutes, followed by an Author’s Chair. In the book it says Author’s Chair takes between 35-40 minutes, but I think they meant that Author’s Chair takes about 10 minutes, with a total of 35-40 minutes for the entire block.

This seemed a little short to me as I usually tried to schedule at least 60 minutes for writing for the second half of Kindergarten on. I found that logistically after taking 20/25 minutes away for the mini-lesson, sharing, and transition, my students needed and wanted a decent 30 minute block for writing, illustrating, editing, etc. I do remember though reading (maybe from Katie Wood Ray?) that you always want to keep your writing block a few minutes shorter than the kids' writing span. When you say, “Time’s Up!” you want there to be groans of disappointment and cries of “Oh, just five more minutes!” If you wait until kids have exhausted their interest and attention span, writing will become boring and drawn out, which of course is something we never want!

In Author’s Chair, Four Blocks authors recommend that each child is designated a certain sharing day. I like this idea, but I also like the idea of pulling kids whose work you may have noticed during conferencing for them to share an “Ah-ha” moment or something directly related to your mini-lesson. For example, if your mini-lesson was on how to stretch small moments or adding adjectives to your writing, it is always nice to end the block by allowing a student who applied the new learning to their writing to share their work. It provides a nice bookend or closure to your lessons and provides the students with other examples of how they can apply the new learning as well. Of course, sometimes you have to help the connection along such as, “Wow, did you notice how Edgar added a ton of adjectives to his work? Let’s think about what adjectives he used.”

I also like the idea of Author’s Chair as not just the final step in the publishing process. Students participate in the Author’s Chair regardless of where in their writing they are which allows students to see real models of the writing process in action. This also ensures that all students, even those who only publish once or twice a year, can celebrate their writing and receive constructive feedback from their peers. As a teacher, I loved to sit back and just hear what the kids said to each other. Sometimes their feedback was even better than mine!

July Activity Calendar

As a teacher I always used to send home weekly homework packets. This sounds a little intimidating for Kindergarten but basically it just had a few fun activities to do during the week such as “Writing Wednesday” or “Math Monday.” (Parents also read a leveled reader with their child each night and recorded it in the Reading Log.)

Several years ago as the budgets all around the country started to get tight, our principal cut our paper supply by half for the remainder of the year. Although I didn’t use that much paper, I had to reevaluate the ways I had used paper in the past. The first thing I cut was the homework packets, which saved me about 80 pages a week. Instead I created Homework Activity calendars where students had different fun and educational things to do with their families each month. There are already a ton of homework and activity calendars on the internet so instead of reinventing the wheel I tried to pull my favorite pieces from each one. On the backside of each calendar I also included a focus book for the month with a short summary and some read aloud books that related to our themes for that month. Here is July’s!

Velcro Folders for Making Words

In first and second grade, one of the activities I loved to work with my students on was making words. Making words is also one of the activities that is part of the Four Blocks “Working with Words” section.

In making words, students are provided with a specific set of letters. These sets of letters can be used to make a variety of words, word families, or spelling patterns. By using the set of letters to create various words, students can develop a better understanding of spelling principles, but also how if you know the spelling of one word it can help you spell other words as well.

A sample lesson might start out with the letters a, t, b, c, f, m, r, n, d. The teacher might start out by saying, “Start by making the word ‘at’.” What letter could we add to the front of ‘at’ to make a new word?” Another way to work with students is by making all combinations of two letter words, then all combinations of three letter words, then four, etc. With the letters above you can make at, bat, cat, fat, mat, rat, an, can, fan, man, ran, tan, and, band, brand – just to name a few! Together we would work through the activity, giving each child a chance to make and break the words individually.

As we worked through the lesson I would invite students to come up and model making the word using my large letters on the pocket chart. This provided a scaffold for students still working on the letter and allowed me to make informal observations about students’ understanding.

I made sure students had multiple copies of each letter in their folder. This allowed them to make several words without having to break down each word in between. For making words, I had a set of large letters on square pieces of paper (one color for consonants, one color for vowels). These were the letters I used on the pocket chart to model the making words lesson. Each student had their own smaller set of matching letters that they kept in a manila folder. The top flap of the folder had two plastic bags attached. In one bag the student kept their vowels, in the other bag consonants. On the bottom flap of the manila envelope were strips of velcro. Each letter had a small piece of velcro on the back. When students made the words, they attached them to the velcro. This allowed them to hold up their folder for me to see their words without the words falling off and it helped the letters stay where they were supposed to on the child’s work mat.

In Four Blocks, part of the making words activity involves looking for patterns within the words (for example, seeing the pattern between at, bat, cat, hat, etc.) By sorting words by their pattern, students are focusing on the features of the word and understanding how looking at onsets and rimes can help their reading and writing skills. At the end of the lesson, when all the words are sorted and read, students can practice transferring and applying new knowledge by naming and writing a new word that fits into the spelling pattern (for example, adding 'that' or 'sat') to the word list.

After students have had practice with the format of making words, this activity can easily be transferred to a literacy center. Students can be provided with a set of letters and work through the process to make, read, and write as many words as they can. It can also be extended to a homework activity where parents or older siblings can support learning as well.  

Celebrating the Birthday of the USA!

As someone who has always worked on a traditional school calendar, it was a new experience for me when I moved south and learned that some schools operate on a year round calendar. Of course, students don’t actually go to school year round, but schools are basically open the entire year. With many of the year round schools gearing up for the start of school and the Fourth of July around the corner, I dug through some of my favorite patriotic crafts to share.

For Memorial Day I modified a craft I had found on Enchanted Learning. The craft is a flag windsock (which the kids love to play with all the way home – in fact, I’m not sure how many actually made it home in one piece). The Enchanted Learning website recommends you use a cylindrical oatmeal container for the “body” of the windsock, however I could never get my hands on 25 oatmeal containers at the same time. Instead I take a piece of 12” x 18” construction paper for each child. They cut out white stars and glue them on the front of the blue paper. Then they turn the blue paper over and glue one end of several white and red party streamers strips (1 ½ to 2 feet long) to the bottom (long) part of the blue paper. When they finish, I staple the two short ends of the paper together to make a cylinder (the body of the windsock). Now the red and white streamers hang in a circle from the bottom of the windsock. Then I punch a hole on either side of the windsock and the student ties a piece of red yarn between the two holes so the windsock can be hung up and displayed. As I said before, easily one of the favorite take-home projects of the year.

Another fun (and educational!) craft is the Lady Liberty hat. After living in New York, the Statue of Liberty is one of the most exciting landmarks to see and visit. After teaching my students about the Statue of Liberty and why she is such an important symbol for our country, we make our own Lady Liberty hats. Instead of green though, we make ours from red, white, and blue construction paper. Each child starts with a blue band, cut from a 12” by 18” piece of construction paper. You can either make the band even all the way around or make it crescent moon shaped (with the “fat” part for the front) like Lady Liberty’s hat. Then each child cuts out long triangles from red and white paper to represent Lady Liberty’s peaks on her hat. Students can also cut out white stars or letters to spell out words like, ‘USA’ or ‘America’ or ‘Liberty’ on the blue band to really show their patriotic spirit.

Side Note: After writing this, I actually looked on the internet and it looks like another way to make a Statue of Library crown is by using paper plates to make the band and the points. Although most of these crafts then painted the crowns green like the original, you still could paint them red, white, and blue for the Fourth of July. Happy Birthday America!

The Magic of Word Walls

I’ll be the first to admit that when I started teaching Kindergarten I wasn’t exactly sure how to effectively use my word wall. I knew I wanted to start the year with my students’ names and pictures, but after that I really didn’t know what to do. I had seen some red flag word walls before – teachers who start the year with every single word on the word wall or teachers who end the year with four words on the word wall or primary teachers with words like ‘measurement’ or ‘weather’ on their word wall. Of course, with the huge push for math word walls and science word walls it is easy to see how confusing a simple literacy word wall can be.

Eventually I found that by thinking about my word wall in a similar way to how I thought about my shared reading selections helped me know which words to focus on and place on the word wall. I tried to purposefully select words that were slightly above the independent level of the average student in my class. This supported most students within their ZPD, with my lower students requiring a little more help (color, peer support) and my higher students being provided with a personal or content word wall to help extend and expand their own writing skills.

I also learned the hard way that just sticking words on the word wall does not actually help students learn. During my writing mini-lessons, interactive writing, shared writing, or writing conferencing I constantly had to remind myself to use simple think alouds, such as “Hmmm. I want to write the word “can.” Where could I look to find how to spell that word?” But I was amazed at how quickly the students started modeling their own thinking after me and the word wall suddenly became an active teaching tool and resource instead of a static word display (although a pretty static word display!).

One of my favorite changes to my word wall recently has been the effort to make it interactive. I first heard about interactive word walls a few years ago and LOVED the idea. It seemed the perfect extension of the “think-alouds” I mentioned above and was a way to actively engage students in the use of the word wall. Furthermore I could actually monitor how, when, and who was using the word wall to support their work. Of course, after I remade all my words so they could be removed from the word wall for students to grab and take to their seat for spelling support, I found a problem. Once a student took a word off the word wall to spell, it was no longer there for other students to reference. Hmmm.

So I rethought how my word wall could still be interactive, but practical too. Eventually I came up with this idea. My actual word wall stayed the same with the high frequency and sight words being typed on colored paper, laminated, cut out, and placed on the word wall. This ensured at least one copy of the word was always available for students to see. Then I made several additional copies of each word (copied on the same color paper). At the bottom of each letter’s area, I placed a card pocket (like libraries used to use for book cards). I wrote the corresponding letter on the card and then put the extra copies in the pocket when the word was placed on the word wall. That way when students came to the word wall they found the word they were looking for and then if they wanted to take the word back to their seat, they could match the word spelling and paper color to quickly find the same word in the pocket.   

Today I started looking for other ways that teachers have made their word walls interactive. One idea I saw was to place a basket of paper strips and markers by the word wall. When students come to the word wall to find their word, they can then write the word on a slip of paper and take it back to their seat. I liked this idea because that way the student is actually practicing writing the word twice. For younger kids I have noticed that copying can sometimes be a problem as their eyes can have trouble focusing and refocusing between near and far vision, but I think that with enough modeling and practice and as long as the word wall wasn’t too high or far away this could work really well.

Relearning the Four Blocks Way – Guided Reading

Last week I ordered a used copy of The Teacher’s Guide to the Four Blocks from Amazon. I had read this book probably six or seven years ago, but couldn’t remember a lot of the information that differentiated Four Blocks from some of the other literacy frameworks. The first school I taught at when I was fresh out of college did not ascribe to any particular educational philosophy or ideology (besides come to work and teach your kids). Teachers used different materials, followed different schedules, and had different ideas about how, what, when, and where kids should be taught. As a new teacher I struggled to find something to become my educational foundation. Eventually I followed a good friend of mine into the Fountas & Pinnell Balanced Literacy school of thought and ended up at an Literacy Collaborative school where the Balanced Literacy framework drove all instruction.

Today I started rereading my new, used Four Blocks book. As I worked my way through the daily overview I was reminded that in most literacy frameworks there is more common ground than differences. The first thing that struck me though was how the Guided Reading Block was structured. Our school district is BIG on guided reading – but guided reading the Fountas & Pinnell (F&P) way; the idea that you pull small groups of students who demonstrate a similar need and skill together for a differentiated, leveled lesson. In Four Blocks, the teacher selects either a big book or a trade book with multiple copies for the students to read together in a group. In the example, pairs of students read together and stopped at a preset point in the book to record the facts they remembered.

Although there were lots of similarities between the F&P and Four Blocks Guided Reading (picture walk, follow-up activity, comprehension check) there were a lot of differences as well. Three big questions that jumped out at me were:

First – How do the partners read together in the guided reading lesson? Sometimes you see partners choral read, echo read, or partner read but I wasn’t sure if there was a specific way that was recommended for this guided reading format.

Second – I always think it is interesting when students are paired in such a way that a stronger student supports a weaker student. My mom was an enrichment teacher and I always remember her saying that strong students are not tutors, they need to be challenged as well. How does the format of whole group reading instruction differentiated learning to meet the needs of all readers?

Third – Time! In the book there was a range of 30-40 minutes for the Guided Reading lesson. Although I know that Four Blocks is recommended for grades one through three, I think some of my first grade students would have had a hard time sitting for 40 minutes for a single lesson without some type of movement or change. 

After reading the Guided Reading introduction I am excited to read the entire Guided Reading section in the book and hopefully can answer, or at least reflect, on some of my initial questions about Four Blocks.

Keeping Reading Skills Sharp is as Easy as A, B, C

Many of us have heard the research about the famous “summer slide.” While children from middle class families can actually gain skills over the summer, children from working class families can lose several months of learning in the few weeks we are out of school. These effects are amplified for children who may not speak English at home and can quickly lose the speaking and listening skills they have gained as well. Providing your students with a summer activity book or guide can help chase away any summer boredom and keep skills and knowledge fresh in children’s minds.

There are many places you can track down discount new or gently used books. Scholastic’s book order forms always have several $.99 books each month and lots of reading warehouses online sell paperbacks for even cheaper than that. A trusty favorite is always local yard sales or second-hand stores, such as Goodwill - often you can find brand new books for pennies. Sending students home with several books over the summer is no guarantee they will read, of course, but just providing the books presents the opportunity and reading only six books may help with the summer slide effects.

You can also provide students with the materials and resources to support their writing development. Young children can use chalk or a paintbrush and water to practice writing their letters, simple words or short sentences on pavement or a sidewalk. At the end of the year I publish a directory of each child’s name, their phone number, and their address in the summer book (with parent permission of course). Then I send home paper and envelopes and encourage the child to write letters to their friends, just like they did in the post office center during the year. I also send a letter to each child to guarantee they have at least one piece of mail with their name on it.

If kids have access to a computer and internet, share with parents some free, quality websites such as Starfall.com or PBS’ Kids which has videos, stories, games, and tons of other activities to keep kids minds’ moving. In addition to books and materials, I photocopy sets of letters, high frequency word lists, simple early literacy games, and other materials to put in a summer activity bag for students to take on the last day of school. Inside are directions for parents about the activities and a short explanation about why it is important to continue learning even once school is out for the year. Parents are often looking for ways to keep their kids busy so hopefully in those moments they will grab the bag and get to work!

It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood!

Growing up in a small-town in the Northeast, I knew every corner of the area and took advantage of every local resource during the summer months when I was off from school. I think I participated in every library program from the time I was in preschool through high school - I really did just love to read. When I started teaching I was amazed at how many kids didn’t take advantage of the opportunities around them. I had kindergartners who had never been to the library and parents who couldn’t find the local museum for our annual field trip. With all the fabulous opportunities in the community, it seemed a shame for kids not to be able to participate. One year I spent as much time learning about the local area as I could, and compiled my findings into a parent friendly local area guide for my students and their families over the summer. I included summer library program schedules and area tricks, such as the fact the local museum let families in free on Wednesday afternoons. I also included schedules for arts opportunities, such as free concerns in the park, and local traditions, such as the farmer’s market every Saturday morning.

To help my students become familiar with the library, we walked to our neighborhood library (fortunately only a few minutes away) and filled out library card applications. We looked at the games, CD, DVDs, and toys the library had (in addition to the books, of course!) to try and help raise the students’ excitement level. Our local library also has done a great job expanding their bilingual and Spanish sections which is fabulous for supporting our Spanish-speaking families. We also attended one of the story programs and left with a simple craft the kids could take home.  I was hopeful that if the kids liked it, they would ask their parents to come back again. Every community has events, places, and people that make it special. Exposing children and families to these opportunities can help everyone – including you!  

Keeping Math Skills Sharp is as Easy as 1, 2, 3

Like reading, it is easy to keep math skills sharp over the summer break. Children can play the color game in the car, find shapes in their world and remember the shape names, sort objects such as shoes and socks or laundry colors, count forks for dinner or the number of steps to the car, make patterns with household objects, and draw patterns outside in the dirt or on the sidewalk.

Math vocabulary can stay fresh, too. In the summer activity bag that I give each child on the last day of school, I provide parents a list of key math terms to try to use around the house. Parents can play simple math games with their children using positional vocabulary or measurement skills. Saying things such as “I spy something over the table.” or “I spy something larger than my shoe.” supports students while they have fun at the same time.

The grocery store is another place to keep learning moving – colors, shapes, money - it’s all here! You can provide parents with simple grocery store activities or problem/sentence starters to keep their kids busy and learning in the store. In the car families can play the number game. Before getting in the car, each player picks something they will look for during the ride. It could be stop signs, people walking, blue cars, or hard items to spot such as license plates with the letter “Z” or people riding their bike. During the ride, each player calls out when they see their item and keeps track of the total number of items spotted. The winner is the person who has the most at the end of the trip.  

As adults, we know that math is everywhere from telling time, to cooking, to shapes in our world. The foundational math knowledge children are learning in the primary grades is easily transferred from school to home and you can help empower parents to make this happen.

Be In It To Win It!

Like most teachers I am a bit of a hoarder. I refuse to throw away anything, anything I might need in the future. Therefore, when I moved classrooms three times in three years I thought my husband might let me go. (He was really excited when I managed to stay in the same place for two years in a row!) It really was a little hard to believe how much stuff I had saved. What’s strange though is I am exactly the opposite at home - I can’t wait to throw things away! I guess that’s one of the paradoxes of being a teacher.

Despite my hoarding tendencies, I don’t like to have to pack up loose items at the end of the year. (This is probably also because I love buying new supplies over the summer!) Starting about a month or so before school ends, I start passing out tickets to students for various reasons – answering a really tough question, being a good friend, remembering to read their take home reader, acting as a good citizen, etc. During the last week of school, students write their names on the back of their tickets and drop them in my special flower pot. As I start to organize the room I start pulling together different items ranging from school supplies (pencils, crayons) to literacy tools (class books, interactive writing pages) and other items such as library stuffed animals or homemade class games and display them on the back counter. Over the last few days I start pulling tickets and allowing students to select items to take home as a Kindergarten memory. Not only does this help me to ensure students have the opportunity to take items home with them it also helps me keep my hoard under control!  

Read Alouds for the End of the Year

There are a ton of great books to celebrate the end of the school year. Two of my favorites are The Night Before Summer Vacation and Miss Bindergarten Celebrates the Last Day of Kindergarten.

The Night Before Summer Vacation is a spin-off on the classic poem, The Night Before Christmas. In this story a girl and her family are preparing for a fabulous summer vacation. Of course, as with any big summer vacation there are always things that can go wrong! One of the best parts of reading this book is the rhythm, rhyme, and meter that allows you to use a cloze format to complete each couplet. After reading the book, students can share their own summer plans and compare their stories with what happened to the little girl in the book.

The Miss Bindergarten series offers Kindergarten teachers the opportunity to read about important points in a Kindergarten year: the start of the year, Miss Bindergarten being out sick, taking a class field trip, the 100^th day of school, and, of course – the wild day in Kindergarten! The final book for the year is Miss Bindergarten Celebrates the Last Day of Kindergarten. Just like Miss B brought in the year, we celebrate with Emily, Danny, and Franny as the fabulous class closes out the year with balloons, hugs, cards, and gifts.

The read aloud and book discussion is one of the quintessential pieces of Kindergarten – and there is no better way to finish out the year.

Tissues and Tears mixed with Excitement and Cheers!

The last day of school is always bittersweet. No matter how excited we are for summer, it is always sad to see the kids who have been such a part of our lives, and we have poured so much of our heart and soul into, leave for the next grade. Although they will always come back to visit you know in their heart they will have a new teacher to write notes to next year and to share their precious hugs with. Which, of course, is exactly how it should be.

When my kids leave on the last day I always like to send them away with a book, a poem, and a big hug. This is my favorite end of year poem and you can find it all over the internet, although I think we all think of it as “ours”:

            You are a very special person

            And you should really know,

            How I loved to be your teacher,

            How fast the year did go.

            Please come back to visit me

            As through the years you grow,

            Try hard to learn all you can,

            There is so much to know.

            One thing I tried to teach you

            To last your whole life through,

            Is to know that you are special,

            Just because you’re you!!!

            Good Luck in Grade One,

            I am very proud of you!  

Just a Little Pomp and Circumstance

Even if your school does not have formal graduation for the end of the school year, you can make mortar boards or graduation caps for your kids to proudly wear home on the last day. Start by taking a large piece of colored construction paper. Cut a square from the page, usually between 8” by 8” and 12” by 12” is fine. This is the top of the hat.

Then cut long strips of the same color construction paper. Although the length does not matter, they should be at least 2 ½ to 3 inches wide. Measure the strips to fit around the top of the graduate’s head. If the strips are not long enough you can glue or staple them together until it is the correct length. Make sure to overlap the ends by about an inch or so.

Then take the measured strip and cut v-shaped notches every inch or two inches down the strip. The notch should be about 3/4 of an inch to 1 inch deep. Fold the notches over and place drops of glue on the folded edges. This is how you will attach the strip of paper to the top part of the hat. White glue or a glue stick works, but if you want to make sure the paper sticks, hot glue works best. Just make sure to keep the hats out of little hands until the glue dries.

 

You can make a tassel using yarn, string, or you can even buy tassels at most craft stores. These can be attached using a brad to the top of the mortar board – and presto – a graduation cap.

Instructions on how to make simple mortar boards can also be found at ehow.com and Enchanted Learning.

Sunshine and Summertime

A hot, yellow sun is one of the clear signs of summer. One way to let students share their excitement about the summer months ahead is to let each child write a “sun ray” about their plans. Start by making a large, friendly sun out of construction or bulletin board paper. Decorate the sun with sunglasses or a glass of cool lemonade to help with those hot summer months.

Make a ray for each child in the class. Sun rays can be made from cutting sheets of construction paper into strips. Depending on the age of the students, you can make the strips any width you need. Allow each child to write a sentence about summer on their strip. Attach the strips to the sun. For added effect you can gently curl the ends of the rays by wrapping them around a pencil or pen and then releasing them.

Because remember, summer is just a few “rays” away!

For the Dads

Father's Day comes around every June and offers us a day to say thanks to dads, grandpas, uncles, and others in our lives. I remember making crafts at school (most of which my dad still has) for Father's Day. It was always nice to know that I would always have something for my dad. Of course, not all kids may have a dad in their lives, so Father's Day also presents a chance to talk about other people who are important in our lives as well.

Since Father's Day falls at the end of the school year, it presents a great chance for students to show off their fabulous writing skills. I would make books for each student with a piece of folded colored construction paper for the cover and one or two sheets of writing paper folded in half for the pages on the inside. Over the course of a few days we would share different things that either we loved about our dads, things we liked to do with them, or anything else that was in our hearts. The students would then work on completing their Father's Day books by writing a page each day. At the end of the project each child then had a book for their dad (or for the other special person they had selected) that talked about that person, what they did together, why they were important, and special memories they had together. I always loved seeing the thought and creativity and love that went into their books.

To go with the book, each child would create a hand print in clay. A simple clay recipe to make is to mix 1 tablespoon oil, 1/2 cup salt, and 1/4 cup of water together. Once these are mixed together, add 1 cup all purpose flour and knead the mixture. This makes enough for one child's handprint. Take the dough and roll it out until it is about 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch thick. Allow each child to push their hand onto the circle to make the print. Using a toothpick, write each child's name or initials on the back of the clay (be careful not to push too hard or it may go through to the other side). Bake the clay at 250 degrees - depending on the width and depth of the print this can take several hours, but monitor the prints carefully and make sure not to "overcook". The next day students can use paint(s) to decorate and personalize their print. One of my favorite ways to wrap this gift is to take a student's painting from the art center and place it face down. Then place the handprint in the center. Gather the sides in the middle and tie together with a ribbon or bow. It's a "recipe" for a fabulous Father's Day!

America's Stars

Flag Day is June 14th each year. As a kid I remember sweating through Flag Day ceremonies in elementary school and listening to third graders play America on their recorders. It always meant summer was a few days away!

To celebrate the American Flag, our class makes a display for the hallway. We use bulletin board paper to create the red stripes and then use white sentence strips for the white stripes. On the white strips, we use interactive writing to create sentences describing things we love about our country and why America is special. For the 50 stars, each child cuts two white stars from construction paper. Then I take each child's photo and they glue their picture on one of their stars. We then place the stars on the blue bulletin board paper and place it on the flag to complete the display. The display is titled America's Stars!

As a special treat for Flag Day we also make a yummy cake. At the start of the day we mix a basic cake mix together and place it in a rectangular baking pan. We then place it in a large toaster oven to bake. After the cake cools, we frost the cake with vanilla icing. Then we place blueberries to represent the blue part of the flag and strawberries in rows to make the stripes. There are tons of pictures of this cake online and you can see some here. It is always a refreshingly sweet and almost healthy way to end Flag Day. Yum! 

Donors Choose - Teacher Appreciation Day Everyday!

I was introduced to the Donors Choose website in 2004. A teacher at my school did a short presentation about Donors Choose to share some children's books she had received for her first grade class. I was hooked. Whenever I received catalogs from my favorite educational companies - Lakeshore, Kaplan, Really Good Stuff - I flipped through them and eagerly marked off all the fabulous books, materials, resources, furniture, and supplies I just had to have. Of course, in the end, reality set in and I realized that apparently these companies thought they had mailed these catalogs to CEOs and multi-millionaires who could actually afford these items. For example, the whole group, multi-color carpet I absolutely loved cost more than every carpet in my house... combined.

That night I went home and immediately wrote a proposal and uploaded it to Donors Choose. I think I checked my proposal everyday to see if it had been funded or not. After three months, and some time researching other proposals that had been fulfilled, I realized I had made two key mistakes. (1) My proposal was way too long. Although I wanted to describe in great detail my students and how these items would enhance my instruction, potential donors did not necessarily want to read a dissertation when trying to share their money. (2) My proposal was too way too expensive. I had piled several items together and combined with the fee Donors Choose adds to each proposal (to cover their operational expenses) it was more than most donors wanted to spend. Although Donors Choose allows multiple donors to combine their donations to fund your project, I have found most donors would rather fund something entirely than only partially fund it.

That spring I was moved from fourth grade to teaching Kindergarten for the following year. That summer I sat down and identified a variety of materials, resources, and supplies from different companies that could help to make my classroom a better place for my students. Learning from my past mistakes, I grouped less expensive items together and instead of writing one proposal I wrote several, short proposals that followed a pretty simple, but informative format.

The effort paid off. Within a few weeks I started getting emails saying my proposals were funded and when I arrived back to school there were boxes of materials waiting for me. Donors Choose basically allowed me to supplement my instruction with everything I wanted for my students but could not afford to do on my own. Over the past six years I have received an incubator, leveled readers, books for my library, math manipulatives, an art easel, a teaching easel, puzzles, center materials, and child-sized furniture, just to name a few.

To learn more about Donors Choose and how to create proposals you can either visit this guide or go to the Donors Choose website.

The ABCs of a Kindergarten Year

Throughout the year, we worked to create enough class big books so each child would have one to take home at the end of the school year. The last class big book we made was the The ABCs of Kindergarten.  

To start the project I wrote down the side of a large piece of chart paper the letters of the alphabet. As a class, we brainstormed different things we had done this year, topics we had learned about, parts of our day, or special events that started with each letter. We tried to make sure we had at least one thing for each letter. At times we had to get creative, such as eXtra ____ for X, but most times we ended up with at least several ideas for each letter.

Each child would select a letter to illustrate for our big book. If they choose a letter with multiple ideas, they could pick their favorite one. So for example, if M had math and music, he or she only picked one to illustrate and write for the book.

After each child completed their page (usually a 12x18 sheet of cream construction paper) by writing the word or phrase (”going to the zoo” or “reading”) and illustrating that idea, I laminated the pages, punched holes in the side, and attached the pages together in alphabetical order to form our final class big book, The ABCs of Kindergarten. Over the years I found that the metal rings that you can buy at any office supply store were the easiest way to bind the books together.  

The book joined the other class big books in the library, where the children loved to read their own work, and on the last day of school, each child was able to select a class big book to take home with them to remember their time in Kindergarten.

Piecing Together School Memories

With the year wrapping up and hot weather in the air, it is easy to start drifting into summer before the school year is even over. One of my favorite things to do at the end of the year was discuss with the kids all their favorite things we had done over the year. Just like you bring closure to each day, it is important to wrap up the year as well.

One way to not only help kids remember all the wonderful things they’ve done this year, but also to share with the school community, is to make a memory quilt. To make each quilt square, take two square pieces of construction paper: one colored and one white. The white square should be slightly smaller than the colored square so when the white square is glued onto the colored square it has a framing effect.

Each child can then decorate his or her quilt square with a favorite memory of the year. Students can draw stitch marks on the colored border to mimic quilt stitching. Depending on the number of students you have you can make a 4x5 quilt (20 squares), 4x6 quilt (24 squares), 5x5 quilt (25 squares), or a 5x6 quilt (30 squares). Teachers, assistants, and support teachers can fill in any extra spaces to make a perfect square. To display the quilt on a hallway wall, you can attach each piece to the wall or, if you are really adventurous, use yarn and a hole punch to “sew” the quilt squares together.

As you piece together your shared memories, it is always fun to hear what children remember and what special memories they will take with them from your room.

Stepping into the Blogging World...

For years I have followed the blogs of friends, family, and complete strangers. I love to see what my sister is doing in New England or learn a great new recipe, but have never taken the time to start my own blog. It's kind of like Facebook: I like to see what everyone is doing, but don't take the time to update myself. I found out there is actually a word for this - "antisocial networking." Wow.

This week I decided to dip at least one toe into this world - and, hopefully by stepping into the blogging world, this will help me release my "antisocial" ways!