Poetry & Song

Two of my favorite ideas that we are doing this year in first grade are to incorporate Poetry and Songs into our classrooms. We got the idea from Debbie Miller's book Reading with Meaning, and many of our resources come from both of Maria Walther's books- Reading Instruction for the Differentiated Classroom and Month-By-Month Trait-Based Writing Instruction.

I was disappointed to discover last year that my students did not know the Mother Goose poems. These were little poems that I grew up knowing such as "Old Mother Hubbard", "Little Bo Peep", "Humpty-Dumpty" and other classics. So this summer, my co-teacher and I planned to bring this in to first grade.

The greatest asset about using poetry in my classroom culture is that the children memorize so many poems, and then when they look inside their specially made poetry binders, they can practice saying and reading them while pointing to the words. It's a great way to indirectly get them to learn new vocabulary and thus improve their reading.

I love finding poems that relate with the current units we've been studying.

The songs that we are learning have been numerous and fun. We've learned songs like "Frere Jacques", "Baa Baa Black Sheep", "Joshua Fought the Battle of Jericho", "Kookaburra", and so many more. These are fantastic to use during transition times. I start the song, and the students join in singing. By the time we're done with the song, they need to be ready to learn. I have copies of the songs in bins at each of the tables, and students are allowed to practice reading these as well. Why is this valuable? *Ding *Ding *Ding. This is another valuable source of indirect vocabulary instruction!

Renovating Basal Readers

When I was a child in first grade, teachers used things called Basal Readers to teach reading to children. These were thick textbooks with collections of popular children's books all assembled inside. We would turn to the same page and the teacher would have students volunteer to read each page outloud, and then he/she would guide us through the questions at the end of the story and that was what we did for Reading time.

In my classroom today I teach reading by sharing a story aloud as well as teaching a specific word family or phonemic idea. I have easy books, medium level books and hard books, and I differentiate by putting my students into a book that suites their specific needs. It has been said that this is a much more effective way of teaching reading than using the "old" basal readers.

What should I do with all of those old basal readers in my cabinet? By the way, they still have wonderful stories assembled inside of them, and these stories are still relevant, but I can't teach each student the old dis-engaged way of how I learned to read because this generation needs more hands-on experience in books.

I got the following idea from a good friend and previous classroom teacher. I cut off the covers on some old basal readers and used the binder combs to assemble each story into a book. I have dozens of books ready for my students to read. 

 

One of the students that read one of these books actually thought I had written it because of the binder combs. These books are just as great as the books in our library, but they are also easier to send home because if they get ruined, I don't even have to worry about them. I have so many, and I didn't spend lots of money buying nice hard copy books to send home.

I love that some of them include skill pages to give the child something to do with their mom and dad when they are reading it at home.

The other thing that I do with "old" basal readers is that I send them home with my good readers that need more practice with fluency because they can keep them for a few weeks and practice reading and re-reading the stories to ramp up their fluency and reading voice. 

Challenged and Refreshed!

Over the past few weeks, I have just felt busy and a little bit drained of my fiery passion as I felt bombarded with paperwork and keeping track of student assessments, as well as pleasing the parents, and making sure my room is clean. I could keep going, but you get the idea. It's easy to get lost under the pile of things to do.

These past two days I have been encouraged and refreshed attending the Nexus ACSI (Association of Christian Schools International) sponsered conference. Our school had a live satellite video that showed the event taking place in real time. It was an encouragement to be challenged from the Word of God. I was reminded to think back to the time that I was first called by the Lord to go into teaching. I was encouraged to give my best in the classroom, and focus on continually speaking the Word of God on a daily basis... and even before I had time to reflect today, I was encouraged by a woman I don't even know in the ladies' bathroom today. She encouraged me to share my ideas, even though I explained to her how I often feel too new to give anything to the field of teaching. She encouraged me to take the time now to blog and share my ideas with teachers who are stuck in the staleness that may come with years and years of teaching the same grade.

I will have you know that I always view seasoned teachers with admiration, and I desire to soak up everything they can share. I am humbled by their expertise. 

And the truth is, I'm not afraid to share my ideas, I just don't think that they're always worth sharing. But who am I to judge? I have a rhyme and reason that I do the things that I do. So going forward, I will try to share the little things that make my classroom special and the things that I do with intention to inspire others. Please know I do this with the most humility. I know that I have so much to learn.

Suz

IT'S CHESTER!!!

It's Chester!!!

Chester is one of our favorite characters. We have read all three books written by Melanie Watt- oops, I mean Chester! You'll have to check these stories out if you haven't read them. This cat is quite the comedian and has a precious mouse sidekick to add to the appeal. Ever since we have read these stories, the students quote Chester constantly. 

So I have reasoned with my students previously that I can't possibly be the one painting the characters onto the desk because I'm not a good artist.

Well... this is how one child's logic worked as he tried to crack me.

Student: Mrs. MacLeod, I think you're the one painting the desk.
Me: Really? Well, it can't be me because I'm not a good artist.
Student: Well, actually the characters aren't really that good. I see smudges, so I don't think it could be the real authors sneaking in here... I mean, they don't look exactly like the book characters.
Me: Oh Really? (with a big grin)

I will make a general announcement soon that I'm the artist, but until then the logic of my students has been quite amusing.