The proper way to sweep a room . . .
#SOL16. No.5. In the Appendix of Things My Mother Used to Make (1912), there is an article titled "The Proper Way to Sweep a Room." Since it is March and spring cleaning is on my mind -- notice I did not say on my calendar -- I decided to read it. After all, if there...
Who is Grandma Will?
#SOL16. No.4. I shared a great laugh with my daughter today. For you to fully enjoy the humor, you must know that her brother-in-law's name is Will. Her boys are free writing daily in their journals --they are loving it because free writing is rough, rough...
In a 19th Century Kitchen . . .
#SOL16. No.2. Some of you know me well enough to know that I love old books. I mean really old books, like over 100 years old. I like to visit the online library Forgotten Books, and browse the books I find there-- mostly educational books but occasionally old books...
A Child Is Reading
A child was reading In second grade hall I leaned in She continued I stood still My coat still on She read to me Because I stayed Because I asked A child is reading . . © 2016 Alice, a found poem Inspired from Twitter post by @DalilaE on 2-19-16
Marshmallow Cannon
We made a mini-marshmallow catapult cannon. You need a balloon, toilet tissue roll, and a few marshmallows. Tie the mouth of the balloon in a knot. Cut off the bulb end of the balloon. Stretch it and pull over the toilet tissue roll to assemble. If you have a wide...
Letter Sort and Match
Materials: 26 colored craft sticks, 6 inches by 3/4 inch. 18-inch felt chalkboard eraser (of course, one that's never been used to clean boards) a Sharpie marker a pair of old scissors that are strong enough to cut the craft sticks Directions to make With a pair of...
Chameleon Words
Chameleons. Fascinating creatures, changing their color based on surroundings. Words are sorta, kinda, a little bit like that, changing their spelling or pronunciation just a bit based on their sentence surroundings. Here is an example. She didn't have much hope last...
Building Words in Kindergarten
Think to Spell™, a key learning routine of Johnny Can Spell, is a strategy for sounding out words in both reading and writing. In brief, it begins with oral language and moves to written language. The student isolates a word he speaks or hears. Then in an...
Phonogram Pair Up
Stand up. Hands up. Pair up with phonograms. Here's how we do it. Each student is given a mini-phonogram card. Students stand up, put a hand up, and pair up (Kagan) with another student by putting their hands together. The paired students share with each other by...
The Nativity
Each year as Christmas approaches, I always want to have the kids in my class make their own Nativity. But the ideas I have always are too elaborate and we just don't have enough time with Christmas play practices. This year, though, I found a really cute, simple idea...
Who doesn’t love an angel?
For our preschool class, I try to come up with a story craft that is something they can easily hold. They really seem to like those the most. Sometimes it has a handle, sometimes it's on a craft stick or slips over their hand or fingers. Sometimes it fastens on...
The Parkview Panther
We were well into the morning session of the first day of professional development. It was a summer Monday, kinda laid back but with an undercurrent of eagerness--the kind of eagerness teachers have at the beginning of a new year. Most of the 30 plus teachers gathered...
It’s empty!
When we got to the last egg, Ben opened it. His face clouded with disappointment as he sat still, looking at the open egg in his hands. He didn’t say a word.
Grammar Notebooks
A couple weeks ago I was going through some binders on a top shelf in my office, trying to purge in order to have space and stay current. Anyway, I ran across three black binders filled with my transparencies of the pages of the Grammar Notebook. Years ago, during my...
Change the Clock
March is National Reading Awareness Month. March is also the month when we change our clocks, springing ahead for Daylight Saving Time. I love early morning daylight hours, and every spring I grumble about moving my clock ahead an hour. I hate losing that hour. So...
Words in Phonogram Dictation
Looking for multi-letter phonograms in words. Today in kindergarten, we began our lesson by hunting for multi-letter phonograms in the date. As we found them, we underlined them to show the letters work together for one sound in the word. Our phonogram dictation. I...
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