Search results matching tags 'writing' and 'reading'

Switch Kids On to Reading and Writing

Anonymous — Sun, 05 May 2013 19:00:00 GMT

Switch Kids On to Reading and Writing

As a former teacher and current parent, I’ve had experience in introducing kids to reading and writing. And while there’s no magic potion that works for all kids, I’ve learned that oftentimes the messenger is as important as the message. Even reluctant readers and worrisome writers will warm up to the task at hand when they see that someone else is actually enjoying it. So when encouraging your little ones to read and write, remember to make it fun – for both of you! Here are a few suggestions:

Reading

Step out of routines
Make special times to read. Don’t save reading time for just before bedtime, or it can become another rote exercise like brushing teeth and washing up. Have a reading night where you turn off the TV and let everyone pick a favorite book to read for an hour or so. For younger readers, create special snuggle-read time on weekends or after school. Remember to take time after reading to discuss the book your child has read (or listened to someone else read.) Let them voice their opinions about what they liked best in a story. Even if they focus on illustrations, let them know that you value their insights about books. This discussion time is especially important because it lets even pre-readers feel like they’re part of the reading process.

Lights, camera, read!
Don’t just read a book, act it out. Without donning makeup and costume, you can bring characters to life with a little inflection. Is the character sad? Use your saddest, poutiest tone to convey that emotion. Is the character happy? Unless you’re in a library, let your child feel the character’s joy through your own exuberance and RAISED VOICE. Is there more than one main character? Use different voices for each character. Is your child already starting to read? Let them read the text for one character and you read the text for the other. Some great books for together reading are The Duckling Gets a Cookie!?, Green Eggs and Ham, and You Read To Me, I’ll Read To You.

Celebrate books
Make trips to the library or bookstore special occasions instead of errands. Let your kids see other children enjoying books. Let them linger, browse and choose their own books. It’s a special feeling when one book out of hundreds on the shelf “speaks to you.” Kids have so little autonomy in their lives, let them enjoy this one freedom of choosing their own book and it will make reading that much more special for them.

Writing

Tell stories
It’s hard enough to memorize historical dates and multiplication tables, but at least once you memorize them they don’t change. Creative writing is never the same twice, and for some kids that really takes them out of their comfort zone. So even before writing comes up in school, you can help develop your child’s creative skills with some pre-writing exercises. Start by telling them stories, let them see that it’s OK to make up something on your own. If you don’t feel comfortable in your own storytelling skills, borrow from the classics. Make a fractured fairy tale about Goldilocks and the three skunks or Snow White and the seven leprechauns. Just change one or two things from a story you know well to create your own story--some storytellers even get paid for doing this! Let your kids suggest some of the changes and they’ll be engaged and excited about the creative process that will one day become writing.

Play games
Knock, knock. Who’s there? A learning opportunity disguised as play. Who? Orange you glad I didn’t say banana? Huh? No matter how silly the joke, encourage kids to play with words. Tell knock knock jokes. Make up rhyming games (I saw a cat and he sat on a ____). Use puns and make sure your kids understand them. Get your kids used to the idea of playing with words. Then when they are given their first writing assignments, they’ll already have experience with the creative process.

Praise
When your kids finally begin to put pencil to paper, don’t worry about spelling mistakes or sentence fragments or even if the stories don’t make sense. For younger writers, encourage their efforts and let them enjoy the fun of the creative process. Take time to find something you like in everything they write. Compliment them on a specific character or event in their story and they’ll see that you care. They’ll get the joy that all writers feel when they connect with an audience. Then they’ll enjoy the process and want to write more. And as they write more, their writing skills will continue to improve naturally.

BIO: Brian Rock is a children’s author and former school teacher who lives in Chesterfield, VA with his wife, daughter and of course, his many imaginary friends.

He has enjoyed writing stories since he was old enough to hold a no. 2 pencil. Although he was once put out of class for writing too many stories, he went on to receive a master’s degree in Creative Writing and Children’s Literature from Hollins University. Along the way, Brian has performed as a stand-up comic, worked as a “McCountant,” and written award winning country songs. He also contributes to the Richmond Children's Writers blog.

His first children’s stories were published in the Roanoke based children’s newspaper, Kid’s World. His poems have been published in Highlights for Children and Poetry Train. He currently has four published picture books: DON’T PLAY WITH YOUR FOOD!, PIGGIES, WITH ALL MY HEART, and THE DEDUCTIVE DETECTIVE.

Activities for toddlers :: reading, writing and songs

Anonymous — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 11:00:13 GMT

Welcome to day five of our activities for toddlers series. We’ve already looked at sensory play, arts and crafts, maths games and imaginary play and today we have some lovely playful ideas for reading, writing and songs that are just right for toddlers.

Activities for toddlers :: reading, writing and songs

These reading, writing and song . . . → Read More: Activities for toddlers :: reading, writing and songs

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Anonymous — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 22:20:00 GMT

Coming Soon!

A Surprise!

I've been working on a project with an award winning author and artist for the last four months and the project is almost done! It's been hard keeping this a secret and it's one reason why I haven't been posting much on my blog, lately.

I'll be posting it here soon so that everyone
will have an opportunity to read all about it.

Okay.. Here is a little information about, but I'm not going to tell you the name of the book YET

I created a packet of 87 activities for the author's book. The book has already won the Connecticut Press Award for Children's Literature and is in Barnes and Noble stores.

The author and I discussed putting activities on a CD that could be made available for any classroom teachers, school Media Center teachers, librarians, homeschool parents and basically EVERYONE!

WHAT'S ON THE CD??

~ A copy of the book in PDF format for grades 3 and up. (ALL AGES love this book!)

~ An audio recording (MP3) of the book, Read by an NPR classical music radio show host from Chicago, who is also an opera star and who sings with symphonies around the world.

~ My packet that includes activities for all learners. The genre of the book is part of the suggested Common Core Standards genre. All student worksheets are ready to print and in PDF format.

There are hands on activities, art activities, and the majority of all the activities align with the Common Core ELA Standards, Informational Standards and Common Core Math standards! Also included are map skills activities that align with state social studies curriculums. It's a great way to integrate math and social studies into an ELA project!

Why the MP3 recording of the book? We're providing the recording of the book so reluctant readers and non-readers can enjoy the story. They can look at the pictures in the hard cover book as the audio is playing. If done in small groups, one student can turn the pages for the non-readers.

The PDF of the entire book, on the CD, is perfect for small groups of children who can view the book at centers and work on the activity sheets together.

If you're wondering if that hard cover book will also be available, the answer is YES!

I'm predicting everything will be done in a few days, so please STAY TUNED!!

Because Boards of Education have slashed their budgets, they aren't giving the money to teachers so they can purchase things for their classrooms.
Because of this, there will be an incredible offer for the CD and book.

STAY TUNED!

Ruth

Language Arts Foldable....telling the WHY of a skill

Anonymous — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 23:47:00 GMT

One thing I really like to do (though I suspect we all do ;) ) is connect the language arts skills we are learning about to the reading we are actually doing. If the kids see what it is that I am telling them good writers do while they are reading a book that is considered good writing, I feel like there is more buy-in. So while teaching about appositives, I took the opportunity to have the students dig into our novel, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH , to find the skill in action.

This lesson came AFTER we had taken notes in our grammar journal, done a few workbook pages, and even had some small group lessons on it....so it wasn't an introduction. The kids already had some working knowledge of what appositives were. However, that didn't make this any easier ;) It is one thing looking in a workbook and figuring out what the appositive is. It is quite another finding it in actual text...where you aren't even sure there are any to begin with!

So, after creating this foldable to the right, I asked the students to open up to the first chapter of Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH . The very first sentence actually contains an appositive...so it was perfect! We discussed WHY it was there. What would the author feel is the need to put that in the writing? I mean, it is much more difficult to write using appositives, so why bother? Well, the kids really seemed to grasp the idea that the appositives paint a clearer picture of the action and help the reader to understand just exactly what is going on in the story.

Then, in partners, I sent them off on their own to find three more examples. On the outside of the foldable they were to put the actual quote from the book. Inside, they wrote what the appositive was and then (here is what is important) they wrote WHY it was included in the sentence.

What I really liked from this lesson is that it made the students think about what the skill we were learning about had anything at all to do with real life. So very often we teach the kids something and just ask them to "do it" without any thought as to why (I know I am guilty of this for sure!) But asking them to figure out what the purpose of the skill was within the context of an actual novel, really brought it home for them. That day, on their Paragraph of the Week, they were to include appositives...and I wish I had a picture for you. They really were great! (simple...but great ;) )

What skill are you teaching now that you think you can apply this foldable to?

Learning how to read with speech bubbles

Anonymous — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 15:02:14 GMT

My daughter is interested in learning how to read so I’m always looking for ways to add words in to our play. She enjoys reading books, but she’s still at the stage where that can feel like hard work sometimes. Adding words into our play gives her lots of opportunities to practice reading but it feels much . . . → Read More: Learning how to read with speech bubbles

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Meet the Beezy Teacher from Germany

Anonymous — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 12:23:00 GMT

Who am I? I'm 'THE BEEZY TEACHER'

This “Beezy” teacher has been teaching for 34 years. Starting her teaching career working as a Special Education teacher for the Austin Independent School District in Austin Texas, she decided to accept a teaching position working for the Department of Defense Dependent Schools Overseas.

After ten years in Austin, she decided to experience life in another country. She accepted the challenge of teaching overseas and enjoy the cultural experiences. She landed her first assignment working in Germany as an elementary teacher at a school for the dependent children of U.S. soldiers stationed in Germany. After several years of teaching Preschool Children with Disabilities, she became a Kindergarten teacher and continues in this teaching capacity today.

“Teaching in Germany has been challenging. Unlike my counterparts in the U.S., we are in many ways isolated from the cutting edge changes in education and continuing education. I miss not being able to attend educational conferences and workshops but this is offset by the incredible cultural experiences we are able to offer our students while are living in Germany.

I have walked through the streets of many cultural cities and have experienced many historical events such as the fall of the Berlin Wall. It was a changing experience to teach in a foreign country where teaching supplies are not easily accessible. The lack of access to materials led me to create a lot of my own materials that followed the DoDDS standards, yet were fun and creative. I am able to try out the new products and share with my colleagues. I have been blessed for living a wonderful life away from home but I look forward to returning home to the good US of A.”

Although my Master’s degree is in the field of Educational Administration, the Beezy teacher has never felt the need or desire to work in administration but has enjoyed working directly with children.

It's a great experience to join the collaboration here at PreK+K Sharing. I'm excited to offer my European experience teaching Kindergarten to all the readers of this collaborative effort spotlighting excellence in education around the world. Next month I'll give you a tour of my classroom.

It is also exciting to join the Early Education Emporium and have the opportunity to spotlight my 'products' under the big umbrella, alongside all of the other great contributors here. Follow this link to see my eleven products. Be sure and check carefully, through my store, because three of my products are offered to you for FREE(!!!) In an effort to introduce you to my work. Until next month!

-- Beezy --

960. My students like stories

Anonymous — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 10:54:00 GMT

Yesterday I implemented the following activity with my adult students – all of them are retired people that wish to learn English for traveling and visiting different countries.

Basically it was a listening activity, but it also had speaking and reading parts. It requires several steps. We have not finished yet – I expect tomorrow or on coming days. We’re enjoying the activity, and they like stories I invent.

Yesterday I started by writing some words and phrases from the text of a worksheet, so as to do a pre-listening exercise. On the whiteboard I wrote some words like: Katherine Stinson, sailboat, around the world, alone, dangerous, dangers in the ocean. We were discussing them so they could make kind of an idea about the story.

After that I read the story aloud, number by number.

After that step I handed out worksheets with the story, and again I read the story aloud, and we discussed and clarified some points of the story. They were writing notes of vocabulary. And they asked me many questions about some words that were new to them. I got amazed they had understood the story while I was reading it aloud for the first time.

I would say this was learning and even something of acquisition.

Of course you can use the worksheet if it’s any useful. / Photo from: sampedrosun com. Painting-by-Terryl-Godoy-Man-at-Work-4

Worksheet # 145

The Unbelievable Story of Katherine Stinson

February 4, 2013

1. Katherine Stinson is a courageous and brave woman. At 23 she has been the first woman in sailing around the earth completely alone. She states her guardian angel has been an allied friend though.

2. She sailed off from Hawking Harbor, on January 2, 2013, close to New York City.

3. Her sailboat / sailing boat was about 80 ft (24.38 meters) long.

4. The mast was around 20 meters high.

5. During her trip around the world she has faced two strong storms, waves 10 yards high, but on the other hand she had to suffer some dead calms.

6. The firm Lucky Strike has been the main sponsor: they have invested $ 6,000. Its logotype was painted on the big sail.

7. She could keep in touch with her manager, Ray Branson, all the time, by radio and with the help of communication satellites.

8. She could count on him.

9. In case she was in a dreadful situation, up to the point she could perish because of a storm or a crevice in the skull for example, she could call Ray Branson, and this person would send powerful large motor boats to rescue her.

10. There were about 50 points along the route where those large motor boats could set off at once.

11. Moreover, in other hazardous or dangerous circumstances for her, Mr. Branson would send a helicopter to rescue her. She had GPS (Global Positioning System).

12. It’s a relief she achieved the harbor of New York after 28 days. She has suffered diseases, storms, fog… but she says the most dreadful thing is solitude.

13. Oh, I’ve got to say that Ray is her husband. He was one of the people that received and welcomed her, together with their kids / children, Kevin and Sarah and many other people.

the A-Z of how to write

Anonymous — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 10:00:51 GMT

I’m joining in the global A-Z blog party today with an alphabet dedicated to learning how to write. Here are twenty-six fun, creative, tried-and-tested ideas that you can use with your children to help them enjoy their first steps in learning how to write. There are ideas here for sensory alphabets, making spellings fun, . . . → Read More: the A-Z of how to write

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Big "Good" Wolf - CCSS Rdg/Writing FREEBIES!

Anonymous — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 23:30:00 GMT

This was originally scheduled for my "Friday Freebie" post, but after coming home Friday and finding out about the shooting...I had to hold off. My heart pours out for the families, the school, and the community involved. May God bring them peace and guidance as they work through this.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Second chances are the name of the game in this adorable book!

We read it and the kids LOVED it!
Then we completed the following pack of Reading/Writing activities:

The next day, I read this book to them:

We also completed a Venn diagram comparing and contrasting the two books.

It's in the pack too!

Enjoy the books and activities with your students!!!
And HAPPY FRIDAY!!!

Anchor Chart Notebook SNEAK PEEK!!!

Anonymous — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 23:00:00 GMT

Do you use anchor charts?

I use both the handwritten ones and the ones I make on the computer.

My newest project is an anchor chart notebook. It will contain anchor charts for the following 3rd grade subjects: Reading, Language Arts, Writing, Math, Science, and Social Studies.

My plan is to put them in sections (according to the subject) in a binder. Then my students will have constant access to all of our anchor charts. They love getting up to reference them. And for those of you who have limited wall space or fire marshall issues, the notebook is a great alternative for you.

You wouldn't have to keep them in the binder either. If you're working on a specific topic, you could pull that anchor chart out and post it to your board.

I'm hoping to have the pack finished by Monday night. :)