by Alice Nine | A9 Journal |
#SOL16. No.13. Outside the temperature is 44, but feels more like 37. A cold rain is falling. A trace of someone’s wood fire is filtering through the woodsy, mossy air. Inside my kitchen is toasty, warmed by the aroma of breakfast–coffee, bacon, an omelet,...
by Alice Nine | A9 Journal, In My Classroom |
#SOL16. No.12. I The inspiration II The poem Growing together As years slip by, Sharing the earth Our roots entwined. Steadfast we stand Sunshine and rain, Faithful and true My Love and I. Writing about my writing The afternoon is perfect for a garden wedding....
by Alice Nine | A9 Journal |
#SOL16. No.11. I heard his chirp–a tiny, hopeful chirp. Then I saw him, perched on the railing next to my table. Plain brown, no fancy plumage. He cocked his head, this way and that, stretched out his neck, ruffled his feathers, and chirped again. Brave little...
by Alice Nine | A9 Journal |
#SOL16. No.10. June 2014 Somehow, from somewhere, a notice about an email drawing class came to my attention. I was intrigued by the idea of taking a course via email. And I’ve always wanted to do more sketching, more drawing. I believe drawing goes hand in hand...
by Alice Nine | A9 Journal, In My Classroom |
#SOL16. No.9. Having fun with a Bed-to-Bed Free Verse Poem* It’s Tuesday Sunrise and coffee with my man –Treasure these moments when I am home Reading and answering emails Keeping phone appointments –One lasted 1.5 hours, we should have Skyped...
by Alice Nine | A9 Journal |
#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...
by Alice Nine | A9 Journal |
#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...
by Alice Nine | A9 Journal |
#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...
by Alice Nine | Featured |
It was between winter and spring. Day had ended. The evening was becoming night when I heard the telltale chirp. My daughter and I began to text. We could talk, either by phone or in person since she lives next door. But we often choose to text. When texting, it...
by Alice Nine | A9 Journal |
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...
by Alice Nine | For Fun |
We made a mini-marshmallow 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 rubber band...
by Alice Nine | For Fun, In My Classroom, Literacy |
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...
by Alice Nine | In My Classroom, Literacy |
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...
by Alice Nine | In My Classroom, Literacy |
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...
by Alice Nine | A9 Journal |
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...
by Alice Nine | In My Classroom, Literacy |
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 Alice Nine | A9 Journal |
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,...
by Alice Nine | A9 Journal, For Fun |
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...
by Alice Nine | A9 Journal |
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...
by Alice Nine | A9 Journal |
Two weeks ago in Sunday School class, I was told, the kids had tons of fun acting out the Triumphal Entry. They even had a “real” donkey, thanks to Jim and John. (Even though it wasn’t Palm Sunday yet, Jim and John asked to tell the story early on...
by Alice Nine | A9 Journal, In My Classroom, Literacy |
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...
by Alice Nine | A9 Journal |
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...
by Alice Nine | In My Classroom |
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...
Connect With Me