Learning About Thermometers and Temperature Zones

I was REALLY proud of how well the kids worked togther to cut out these photographs from the magazines!!!

Kidwriting!!!

Shared Reading

We read Cam and Pat the other day.

We have not had access to the kids' Anthologoies, so I have been reading the story to the kids as a Read Aloud. Then we go over the story on chart paper as shared reading for practice.

The next day we read Mac the Cat.

 I once again modeled the Reading strategies like making predictions, and then built background knowledge with the kids about things that "bad" cats do. Next, I did a Read Aloud with the kids and asked comprehension questions during and after the reading and scaffolded their thinking to help them better understand the story. Finally, we made our own books in cooperative groupwork. The kids LOVED creating these, and after it was done-they could sequence the story perfectly, having had to construct the correct sentences with the matching illustration and put it in order. I even made a few mistake putting the books together...needless to say they TOLD me if I put a page out of sequence. Oops. But that's okay...it tells me they're learning-which is great!!!



Some of these were so cute! I was so proud of them.

They signed their names as the publishers.



Two Weeks Without Books

Today my principal told me that I would have to teach Reading to my first graders without books. They will arrive in two weeks. So I guess this begins an adventure for me into discovering just what I can do when given the freedom to invent how I will teach these kiddos. I actually feel a little liberated.

I remember my very first year of teaching. My principal made it a priority that we teachers maintain "fidelity" to the Reading program. Fidelity is one of those new buzz-educational jargon words that means that you should stick with what the teacher's manual says and do not waver from it. So from then on I took that goal to heart.

But now, here I am forced to do my own thing! Today We read the book on a pocket chart. Tomorrow We will do more shared reading and then "publish" our own copies of the text in group work. It should be fun!

Onward on my journey!!!

Seeking Inspiration in All That We Do

I have been slaving over creating a blog site for the past 2 hours, only to stop and do it all over again. I created a blog site using a different program...and found that I couldn't even post on it at all (hint: don't use "teachersfirst" if you're new to blogging and you need to submit an entry right away!). However, now that I started over, I found this site very appealing and all of my energy came soaring right back into me. The moral of the story: seek inspiration in all that you do!

I look forward to learning about this new technology. I have to say that as an educator, I have shied away from online public forums. I have heard all too often about teachers saying the wrong thing, or being contacted by students or parents and difficulties arising. But, for this week, I will stick to my motto: Seek inspiration in all that you do...I hope that this endeavor proves fruitful and rewarding. I am looking forward to it!