Practice Interviews for a President

In celebration of President's Day, last Monday, I taught my students a little bit about some of our country's previous presidents. On Friday, we talked about what it would be like to interview a president. I asked the students to pick a president and write a question as well as draw a picture of the interview. Below are a few of the responses that I received. I will include interpretations with the pictures.

Interview #1

I: What do you like about being president?

P: I like being important.

I: Why are you important?

P: Because Presidents are important

Interview #2

I: What do you like about being president?

P: I like to be President.

I: Where do you work?

P: The White House.

Interview #3

I: What do you like about being president?

P: That I get to be in charge.

I: What is your favorite color?

P: Pink.

Interview #4

I: What do you like about being president?

P: Yes. I will stop wars.

I: I love presidents.

P: I love love love presidents.

Interview #5

I: What do you like about being president?

P: Being in charge.

I: What is it like?

P: Very nice.

Enjoy!

Read Aloud

It was during my sophomore year in college, in Children's Literature class that I fell back in love with some of the most wonderfully written books of all time. This class re-iterated the importance of reading aloud in our future classrooms.

I took this with me when I student taught last year. My students were on the edge of their seats for The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo. It was a tale of adventure, and it took us three months to read... but as we finished it on my last day in Tennessee, I remember gasps of excitement at the way that the story ended. It was well worth the time spent!

Well when I took the Kindergarten job that I currently have, my thoughts on the importance of read alouds did not change. However, the length of them did. I read many picture books to enhance the lessons that I am teaching. But after three weeks, I decided to take a leap. Why couldn't my students comprehend a chapter at a time over a few weeks of reading? Why couldn't we share in the excitement of our own adventure and the thrill of trying to guess what could possibly happen next? So I asked my students if they would like me to read a book in little chunks like that. They voted with a hearty YES!
So we read:

I know that this book is something that most students don't read until the third or fourth grade, so there are lots of big words... but who can big words hurt? They are learning so much! And they are so excited to follow William as he discovers a knight in his toy castle that comes to life (Shh, my kids haven't gotten to this part yet). 

Here is the big wow in all of this. It comes with a little background knowledge:

Yesterday was the 100th day of school. In Kindergarten this is a huge celebration! We counted 100 items using our ten frames, we ate a mixed snack of 100 edible items from each student, and we even dressed up like we were 100 years old. It was a big day! And one of my students was absent. He was sad about it, for sure! But today I found out that he was really worried about missing was the read aloud yesterday. I got choked up for a moment when he raised his hand this morning and asked, "Mrs. MacLeod, did I miss the book?" It took me a minute to figure out what he meant... but then I just smiled. This is why read alouds are so important! My five-year-olds have already figured this out!

God Chose a King

One of the best parts of teaching at a Christian school is being able to talk about God and share different stories from the Bible.

One of the best parts about teaching Kindergarten is that my students haven’t heard all of the stories in the Bible yet, so there are still some new ones for them to soak up.

I took both of these for granted until yesterday when I was able to recount the story of why God chose David to be Israel’s second king. As the Old Testament storyline and theology of God’s Master Plan to save the world all came back to me, I grew quite excited. I shared with the students how Israel wanted a king that looked like a king, so He gave them Saul. Then Saul became bad, and God had to give them a king that would love them. It was the coolest thing as it dawned on some of my boy’s faces that I was talking about David- “A Man After God’s Own Heart”.

I am so excited to teach these boys and girls, and I pray that the Lord will lead and guide me as I teach these students stories from God’s Word. What an exciting opportunity!

Fantasy & Reality

Yesterday, I taught the concept of fantasy combined with reality. I read a story entitled One Quiet Afternoon with my guided reading group. This story is about a child coming home to find various animals playing with his toys and getting into his things. It was very interactive. The children got excited and laughed because the illustrations were very funny! After reading the story each of us wrote our own tale. We included something that was real and fantasy. Below are the stories that my students produced. I think they are fantastic! I hope that you do as well :-)

Story #1-
Once upon a time I was playing with my toys and I went downstairs and... It was crazy!!! I saw 10 animals in my living room and I yelled out "AHHHHHHHHH! Get Out!" And I pushed them out with a broom and I shut the door. I was terrified! And I felt better when all of the animals left. The End.

Story #2-
Once upon a time I was playing outside and a pig came up and said hello. Then a bird came and said hi and they both were swinging on the swings. It was a nightmare. Then a limo came to pick them up. The End.

Story #3-
One day I was home from school and I saw new toys and I played with them and dad came right then. There were animals coming and a chiwawa and a robin and a bunny and a parakeet and a fish and frog and a lot of animals.

Story #4-
One day I was playing WII. When I was done playing WII. A penguin came and said, "Can I play with you?" I said, "Sure." Then a whole bunch of animals came!

Story #5-
Once I was playing with my toy and then animals came in my room. There was a cat, a pig, a bird, and a duck. They were so loud and I had to kiss all of them.

Story #6-
I was playing in the backyard with my bike and then I saw an animal. The animal played with me on my bike. I saw the sun. It was so hot. I went inside. I played on my X Box. I was playing for a while. Then I saw a pig. The pig was the animal. The pig played hop scotch with me and the pig sleeps with me.

I think they are fantastic tales. I love how some of these students wrote an ending that got rid of the animals. Enjoy!

Mysteries

Recently, I read "The Case of the Missing Pet" with my guided reading group. After our reading, we each wrote our own mystery. See what you can decipher and solve:

The Case of the Missing Sister
We had to find my sister. We looked at my Mom's room and she was not there and we look everywhere util we found her. She was in my room whith my toys, and I was not mad at her.

The Case of the Missing Remowt
Frist, I look in my room. Then I look in my mom and dad's room. Last I look in the 3rd floor.

I Case of the Fhon
Won day I was makeing my bed and I was kalling my frand and i droped my fone. Behind my bed and I code not find it until I looed clows and fornd it.

The Case of the Phone
Once upon a time, I lost my phone when I was 8 yeas old and I looked everywhere aroued the house then I found it. The End.

The Case of the Jacket Mestery
Won time I was going to go shoping and I notist that I couldn't find my jacket and I looked in the landry room. I looked in the grage, and everywhere I looked I never fond it so I cheked the shelf and I was so happy and I told my mom and we went.

I love these mysteries because they involve some little invented spelling. This made reading them a bit of a case, but I think you will enjoy them very much!

Poems about MNP Community

This week we read a story entitled Max Found Two Sticks. In it, a young boy named Max uses sticks to create rhythmic sounds that he hears in his community. He copies the startled pigeons by playing his sticks on the front steps. He copies the church bells on soda bottles and the marching band on empty garbage cans. I showed my students how poems include rhyme as well as repeating words to help them to flow. Then we took a walk around the playground and came inside to write a poem about what we heard in the Mitchell Neilson community.

Poem #1-
Rocks moving, rocks moving on the ground.
I hear kids talking, talking and birds chirping, chirping.
Rocks are moving, moving around.
Kids are talking and birds chirping in the sky.
I love everything I hear around me.

Poem #2-
Wind, wind blow all day.
Please stay today.
It feels cold, but I like it.
Wind, wind keep blowing.
Wind, wind blow all day.

Poem #3- 
I step on mulch.
I heard a crack.
I broke it.
For real, now I have to eat a meal.

Poem #4-
I heard chirping like tweet, tweet.
It scattered and flew away.
I think the mom was finding food for her babies.

Poem #5-
I heard birds and I heard lots of chirps and tweets.
I heard cars and the wind.
I heard kids yelling.

Poem #6-
I heard kids swinging on the swings and
birds chirping in the trees.
I felt the wind blow in my ear and
heard kids jumping on the playground.
I heard cars driving fast and
teachers talking outside.
Kids yelling and kids talking.

Poem #7-
Birds, birds chirp.
The birds tweet, tweet, tweet.
They want food, food, food!
The moms give, give, give the
food, food, food!

Poem #8-
I heard vroom, vroom all the time.
Vroom, vroom, I know what it is, it is a car, car.
I hate the sound of vroom, vroom.
I can't get it out of my head: vroom, vroom.
I don't like vroom, vroom.
Please get it out of my head.

Poem #9-
I hear cars driving in their cars
and Vroom, Vroom, Vroom and
rocks hitting on the tires and
some different cars driving on the road and
I hear four cars.

Poem #10-
I heard kids yelling.
I heard kids jumping.
I heard mulch and heard the birds
chirping, tweet, chirp, tweet.
I heard the swings ding, ding.
And I heard airplanes buzzing, buzzing.
I heard the wind blowing.

By the way, this poetry writing session took place right before lunchtime. Poem #3 references that and when I read them, I thought this was a hoot!

Free-Verse Poetry

This week my students read a poem containing a story. It was about some sticks in the woods at night.
Then I asked them to write their own poem. It didn't have to rhyme. It just had to contain a story. Their ideas are so sweet! Here are some of the poems that they wrote:

Poem #1- 
The wind was blowing, and it was raining.
It was a storm!
I was scared!
I almost popped.
My sister was laughing at me.

Poem #2- The Day at the Park
One day I went to the park.
I was riding my bike and doing some tricks on my bike.
I saw some kids playing with sticks.
I got off my bike to play with the kids.
It was fun.
Then it was time to go.
I said goodbye and got on my bike.

Poem #3- Dogs
Once there was a little girl that had five dogs.
They were really nice.
Sweet and Cute.
And the little girl loved them very much.

Poem #4- Picking toys
Once upon a time a little girl had a mess.
Her mom asked her if she can clean her room.
She said no.

Poem #5- In the Woods
I was in the woods trying to go find my cat.
And I saw a pretty butterfly.
But some came in the woods running to me.

Poem #6-
Last night a girl named Kaitlyn went to pick up sticks with her big brother Christian.
She loved to pick up sticks.
If she got to at least 30 or 40, her mom would make her, her favorite dinner.

Poem #7- 
Last night a little girl named Kania was outside picking up sticks.
She saw a flower in the woods on the grass.
It was cool.

Some of my students didn't have time to finish their poems, so I am going to give them some extended time to work on these on Thursday. I hope I have more to publish after that.