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...
Marshmallow Math
Monday. School is over and the four boys are pulling on their coats, hats, and shoes to walk through our backyards to their house. EM already has her hat, coat, and shoes on. She stands quietly beside me and in her sweet, barely-three voice asks, "Gramma can I have...
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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