Search results matching tag 'language and literacy'

Encouraging Rich Discussion

Anonymous — Sun, 14 Apr 2013 21:29:00 GMT

Teachers need to ask questions to improve learning. Asking questions that engage children to freely express their knowledge, ideas and feelings.

Actively-Seeking-Knowledge card (A.S.K. Cards) provide teachers, aides and parent volunteers with the tools to do just that. These cards will help adults in the classroom ask engaging questions that will:

- Improve language skills

- Encourage learning

- Promote thinking

- Expand language

- Improve reasoning ability

- Creativity

- Build knowledge

- Promote growth

Rich discussions doesn't just happen, but it will happen when you use these A.S.K. cards. These cards can be easy placed in your small group work trays so that when adults are sitting with children they have the tools need to ask those questions that will lead to rich discussions every time.

I have these cards placed in every small group tray. This ensures that no matter who is sitting with the children at the table they will be able to encourage a full meaningful conversation with the children.

My parent volunteers especially like these A.S.K. cards because they feel that they are better prepared to involve themselves in the learning process.

Questions that can be found on the cards are as follows

Open Ended Questions

How and Why Questions

Encourage Problem Solving

Encourage Prediction

Encouraging Classifying - Comparing

Questions to Foster Creative Thinking

You can find these Actively -Seeking- Knowledge Cards at CM School Supply.

Muffins for Mom Celebration

Anonymous — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 12:08:00 GMT

Help your little ones celebrate that special lady in their lives, with a muffins for mom celebration. Moms can come to school with their little ones and enjoy a muffin breakfast just for them. Specially made by their little ones. This special day can be held the Friday before Mothers Day.

Making invitations for that special lady

Inside of invitation

Picture for mom

Making baskets for the muffins.

Get all the templates, inserts and photo tutorial in this Muffins for Moms Packet.

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Pet Shop :Unit

Anonymous — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 15:47:00 GMT

We stared our unit off by reading the book The Perfect Pet

After reading the book we had a class discussion on what we would need to do to help the pets.

We had a class discussion on what types of animals would make good pets and what types of animals would not.

Pocket Chart Story using the children's names.

The children enjoyed rereading the pet story over and over so that they could hear and see their name.

Small Group Activities

Fish Bowl Letter Bingo

Calling cards are in lowercase letters and the fishbowl mat is uppercase letters.

Counting and Writing

Children were given small cats and dog counters with number mats and dry markers. Children identified the number on the dog house and then counted out the amount of pets and placed them on the mat. Once they had completed that they used dry markers to write the number.

Doggy letter match

Children match the dogs to the right dog house by using the letters on each.

Art Studio

Children had the opportunity to go to the art studio and make pets of their choice.

Here is what some of them came up with

If you are looking for ideas for a Pet Shop Theme Lesson Plan, you can find one on TPT and TNB.

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On the Road and in the Air Week Two

Anonymous — Sat, 02 Mar 2013 15:47:00 GMT

Our shared writing activity

Pocket Chart Stories using the children's names

Small Group Activities

Train pattern cards

"Look I drew a car pattern."

Matching the capital letter to the lowercase letter

Writing Workstation Prompt Sheets for children to draw and have teacher dictate their story.

Creative Art Station

Hot Air Balloons made out of paper plates and q-tip painted

Airplanes made out of paper tubes and bottle caps

Jet

All of these ideas can be found in one of these packets

On the Road and in the Air (Transportation and Community Helper Unit)

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Transportation and Community Helper Writing Center Workstation

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Building Literacy with Interactive Stories Transportation Pocket Chart Stories

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Naming our Classroom Community

Anonymous — Sat, 09 Feb 2013 00:50:00 GMT

The first thing we did was to talk about the names of communities in our area. Next we talked about how we were a classroom community and if we should give our community a name. As the children came up with names for our classroom community I wrote them down on our board.

Here is what some of the name were

Happy Town

Fruit Country

Light City

Loud City

Quiet Town

Happy Village

Smartville

Play Town

Once the children came up with all the names we talked about them and what they would mean.

We eliminated the list down to 5 and the children then voted on what we should name our community.

We gave each child a post it note and they came to the board and selected the name of choice and placed their post it note under that name.

They counted each column to see which name we would be using for our classroom community.

It looks like we are now called Smartville "because we are all smart", they said.

If you are looking for something to enhance your writing center workstation and is geared to community helpers and transportation, then here is a packet for you.

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Literacy in the Block Center

Anonymous — Sun, 03 Feb 2013 14:12:00 GMT

When developing an effective learning environment you need to take into consideration that not all children learn in the same way.

Children learning and enjoying literacy does not mean only in the designated areas like the writing center or during small group. Some children might benefit more from a writing experience in the block center. So when thinking about teaching children about literacy think outside of the box and create meaning literacy learning experience throughout you classroom design.

This week we have be learning about our neighborhood. We have talked and made lists of what you can find in our community as well as what we could do in our community when we grow up.

We extended this discussion to our construction zone and the children created our community, with signs and all.

Under construction

Sign writing station

Walmart

They even put all the cars in the parking lot and it turned out that it was the biggest building in our block community. Which is funny because it is also the biggest shopping area in our town that always has the most cars.

Hospital

Gym

The child placed hearts on the sign, when asked why she simply stated, "You need the gym to work out your heart."

Train Station

Shoe Store

Grab a set of block play word cards for your center, they are free for just stopping by.

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Kid Carpet.com has some great factory to you transportation road rugs that can dress up any center.

Wreaking Ball Fun

Anonymous — Sat, 26 Jan 2013 01:40:00 GMT

The children have been asking to knock over their block structures in different ways. They have pushed, kicked, and rolled balls into the structures to knock them down, but they wanted to know how do builder people (construction workers) knock over building. This lead to a discussion on wreaking balls.

I then went home and raided my husband garage for scrap PVC pipe and fittings to create a frame for the children to experiment with wreaking balls.

For the first attempt the children decided on a wiffle ball that they could tie to the end of the string. They did their count down !0, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 away it goes. Nothing happened.

Child "It didn't work."

Child "It was not heavy enough"

Child "We could tie a block to end."

Teacher, "How are you going to make sure the block will not come off?"

Child "Tape it."

Second attempt 10....1 away it goes.

Success

Child "It fell over."

Child "What if we make a bigger castle?"

Child "Can we try other things?"

Teacher "Yes, what do you need?"

Child "A rock."

Teacher "How can you attach it to the string?"

Child "Wrap it around."

Child "We can tape it."

Child "It is going to take a lot of tape."

I chalk today up to a very successful day!!

"Fun with Action Rhymes and Poems"- A Collection of Original Action Rhymes and Poems for 3-6 Year Olds

roxanna — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 12:04:42 GMT

Fun with Action Rhymes and Poems contains 83 delightful new rhymes and poems, written by Brenda William, a well-known children's poet and author. Ideal for use in a variety of settings, from nurseries and schools to playgroups and mother-and-toddler groups. Teacher's notes provide suggestions for using rhymes to support learning across the Foundation Stage and KS1. Rhymes are grouped by common themes used in early year settings. Rhymes and poems are linked and cross-referenced to popular themes.

more: https://www.brilliantpublications.co.uk/book/fun-with-action-rhymes-and-poems-92

"Brilliant Activities for Gifted and Talented Children "- Ashley McCabe Mowat

roxanna — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 11:58:13 GMT

This was worth every penny. I have been using it since it arrived and not just for G&T – it is accessible by others too. I have been impressed by the variety of activities and the way they are structured, it gives G&T children a chance to carry out independent activities without it being an onerous task for the teacher. I hope they bring out volume 2 and 3 and 4…

more: Brilliant Publications- Publishers of Creative Educational Resources, UK net.

Transportation Pocket Chart Stories

Anonymous — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 22:29:00 GMT

Getyour students reading with these fun transportation pocket charts stories.

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Pocketchart stories are a wonderful way to get your students actively involved in thestory telling process. When using pocketchart stories it helps to bring the stories alive and capture the attention ofthe students. Students are able to participatein a hands-on way as children are able to move the text around to createdifferent versions of the same story.

Booklet Includes:

I can ride in a …

Color Airplane Pocket Chart Story

We rode in (using children’s names)

On My Road Trip

Color Dragster Race

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