December 1, 2000

It's Friday night, and I'm back at the coast for a full day tomorrow at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, doing follow-up meetings for the Central Coast Integrating Science and Technology project I'm participating in as part of the California Science Project.  I'm a wee bit sleepy, as I seem to have The Cold That Won't Go Away, but it's a beautiful night and I can hear the surf through my open door, so I'm going to see if I can get this page put together and online.

Although my part of California looks nothing like this picture, I liked it so much that I had to sneak it in here.  If you'd like to find more wonderful Winter graphics from this artist, visit Cute Country Graphics. You'll find lots of great graphics and page sets to spruce up your personal websites, to use in the classroom, and to use in craft projects.

The KinderKids had a wonderful week, with lots of exciting new activities, which you'll see below.  I had a rather exciting week as well, as our Kindergarten team was visited by a film crew from Time Warner Cable after school on Thursday, to have a planning meeting videotaped.  We weren't quite certain what the focus of the project was, and neither was the cameraman -- his notes were rather vague, indicating that "good teachers" meet as grade levels, plan instruction and assessment, and collaborate in many ways.

He only needed 5 to 10 minutes of footage, but our team is so good at collaboration that we were still going strong long after he'd finished that part of the taping, and we weren't ready to stop and move on to something else :o)  Of course, we stopped anyhow, and he taped me talking about team work and how each teacher brings something unique to their job, making our team stronger by having such a wide variety of talents in our group.

The other "teacher news" at school is that we're adding a Kindergarten/First Grade combination class, so -- once again -- I'm having to move children out of my room and on to a new teacher.  4 Kindergarten classes and 4 First Grade classes are transferring two students each, which leaves room for growth in all of our classrooms.  We qualified for the new teacher because our enrollment in K and 1 was so high that we needed to add a class in order to be in compliance with California guidelines for class size limitations.

The new teacher -- Diane Randall -- has been on campus as a long-term substitute for several weeks, covering for a teacher on maternity leave.  Diane and I spent several hours together this week, beginning to plan her schedule and to get her thinking about her personal teaching style, what her goals and expectations will be -- academically and socially -- and what materials she's most in need of, as she's a brand-new teacher who owns very little to bring with her.

We're very excited to have Diane joining our Kindergarten and First Grade teams, and everyone is ready to help her with whatever she needs.  Next Wednesday, she'll be receiving "her" class, made up of children from eight different classrooms, so she'll have some serious community building to do as she gets all the children integrated and used to the change.  I know she's going to have a wonderful year!

The Kindergarten team put our heads together and decided to make her some Vicki Witcher big books to use in December and January.  These are the books I showed in last week's photos. They are not currently available to order from Vicki, though she hopes to be ready to ship blackline master sets in January.

We're also making some non-seasonal books for Diane to use with her class all year long.  All of the KinderKids have favorite stories that they already know and can "read," and many of the students are reading the high frequency words found in the stories.

You can make your own Big Books from any small blackline master that you use with your students, by enlarging the page on the photocopier.  I often use smaller copies of the illustrations to make a pocket chart set of the stories the students have in their book boxes, many of which are also in my Big Book center.  Children need mulitiple opportunities to interact with familiar text, in order to acquire and reinforce Concepts About Print (CAP), and to build fluency and comprehension along with a sight word vocabulary.

If you use Scholastic's Literacy Place as your reading series, there are many blackline masters for student books that can be made into pocket chart sets, and the illustrations and text can be enlarged and made into Big Books.  This is an easy, inexpensive way to make good use of the materials you already own while adding materials to your independent Literacy Centers.

We're also making some Song & Poetry cards (like the ones shown in last week's classroom photos) for Diane, so she'll have materials for at least two Literacy Centers her very first day.  I ordered extra copies of everything I sent to duplicating for January -- worksheets,blackline books, and some terrific activities from Carol Gossett's Gingerbread Man units (one for Math and one for Language Arts), so that Diane will have some good thematic materials to use for Gingerbread Men and Snowmen, plus six to ten blackline books for shared reading, guided reading, and to place in her students' book boxes.

Have a great week!

~ Victoria
 

We got our G is for Gingerbread unit off to a great start this week, reading several fun versions of the Gingerbread Man story, then comparing the story elements of each one.

I began with the Gingerbread Man Big Book from The Wright Group, and then read several smaller versions of the story.

In addition to the books above, we also read several versions that are no longer in print (doesn't that sort of thing make you crazy?).

We made story maps of the characters and the sequence of events in each of the stories, and the KinderKids were anxious to share every little thing they had noticed about each story.  Some stories had animal characters chasing the Gingerbread Man, some had various people -- including the Little Old Woman and the Little Old Man -- and in one story it was a child who was baking the Gingerbread Boy and who inadvertently let him escape.

In one version of the story, the Gingerbread Boy meets a wolf before meeting the fox.  In another story, the fox is fully dressed and never enters the river, but tricks the Gingerbread Boy into coming closer "so I can hear you," just like the wolf in Little Red Riding Hood.

All of the Gingerbread stories we've read so far are now in a Gingerbread Man literacy center, along with some other activities shown below.  Next week I'll introduce Jan Brett's Gingerbread Baby, to launch my Jan Brett Author Study.

Gingerbread Baby

Here are some cards from a work job in my Gingerbread Man literacy center.  The gingerbread men are cut from white poster board, and the green trees are cut from laminated construction paper (laminate before punching figures out).

The pieces can be used in several ways.  The Gingerbread Men have the uppercase letters of the alphabet on one side, and the trees have the lowercase letters.  Children can sequence either set of cards in A to Z order, or they can match the uppercase and lowercase letters.

The back side of each card has words that begin with the featured letter.  Some of the cards feature high frequency words and decodable CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words, while other cards have more difficult words on them, including student names from last year's class.

I store both sets of cards together in a large zip-lock plastic bag, and keep it in the Gingerbread Man literacy center tub, along with the familiar books and a wonderful Gingerbread Baby stuffed toy the KinderKids use as a reading buddy.

For more terrific Gingerbread Man activities and resources, visit my

G is for Gingerbread Unit

December Good Morning Song

This picture isn't very clear, so here are the words to our December Good Morning Song:

Good morning to the presents,
Good morning to the elves,
Good morning to the workshop at the pole.
Good morning to the reindeer,
Good morning to the sleigh,
Good morning to the Santa we all know.
 

Christmas Tree Math Workjob
 
 

These are large Ellison cutouts mounted on half sheets of construction paper.  I make ten sheets -- using two different colors of paper in an ABAB pattern -- and write the numbers 1 through 10 in the upper lefthand corner.  I add the correct number of stickers at the bottom of the page for children who are still learning to read numerals and/or for the kids who haven't mastered one-to-one correspondance.

I laminate the cards for durability (and to keep the stickers in place).  I have two different sets of the Christmas Tree cards, because this is a very popular activity.  Here's how the cards look when a child has finished the activity:
 

I use different manipulatives for each of the Christmas Tree work jobs.  One set has small Christmas themed erasers from the Dollar Store, and the other set has minature Christmas ornaments and jewels.  Children work alone or in pairs, sequening the cards, decorating the trees, and counting the objects.  Each set of ten cards requires 55 manipulatives.

December Quilt Squares

Here are two quilt squares I've used for my December quilt in past years.  When I used the Christmas Tree patch with the patchwork Star, I used a royal blue background  instead of the red background shown here.  This year I'm using the Christmas Tree patch with the red background, and our other patch is a Santa Claus handprint on yellow construction paper.  The handprint is a bit hard to explain without a picture, so I'll add it Monday, after we make them, and will also add some pictures of the finished quilt.

The Christmas Tree patch uses a 9" x 9" background and a trunk made from a 1.5" x 3" rectangle.  The tree is made from three green construction paper squares ... 3", 4", and 5".

Each green square is folded in half to make a triangle, and only the top points of the triangle are glued together, making a "puffy" triangle, which gives added dimension to the quilt.  Working from the bottom, the triangles are glued in place, largest to smallest, and the tree is topped with either a star or angel sticker.

The patchwork Star is also on a 9" x 9" background sheet, and is actually assembled in four sections, on background sheets that are 4 1/2" x 4 1/2".  Building the smaller sections and attaching them to the larger background paper makes the work more manageable for little hands, and helps keep things lined up correctly.  I make this patch from foil giftwrap, which makes it extra-special and shiny.
 

This Week's Thematic Word Families

Introducing Word Families Through Literature:  Using a variety of literature to study over 50 word families is the title of a terrific book from Carson-Dellosa Publishing Company.  It's not available from Amazon.com or regular bookstores.  To find out more about the book, visit my pictures page dated 11-17-00.

Each word family has a featured book, along with alternate/additional titles you can use.  There are several thematic activities suggested for each story/word family, and blackline masters are provided when appropriate.

This book really got me thinking about new ways I can work word family studies into my thematic units, so I'm now including one or two word families on my weekly In My Room updates.

December Thematic Wall
 

The Pumpkin Patch is long gone and a fireplace is the first element on the short-lived December thematic teaching wall.  I hung the KinderKid's December Homework Calendars on the wall for the paint to dry, and left them there to make a cheery backdrop for our videotaping.

I sent the calendars home on Friday, and on Monday I'll be putting up a large paper Christmas tree for interactive reading.  We'll soon be hanging Christmas stockings on the fireplace and displaying Gingerbread Men and other artwork in every available space.  When we come back in January, I'll replace the fireplace with a large gingerbread house and a snowman.
 

December Homework Calendar

The artwork for our December homework calendar is sponge paintings sprinkled with silver glitter.

Victoria's Calendar Blackline Master sets include the homework calendar page for all 12 months of 2001 (365 simple standards-based activities, with no religious holiday references) plus directions for suggested artwork for each month.  There are separate sets for Kindergarten and First Grade, and they cost $10 per set, including shipping.  To order, specify grade level(s) wanted and send payment to:

Victoria Smith
1904 Mountain Oak Road
Bakersfield, CA   93311
 

More Christmas Trees

This tree is fingerpainted, and the paper dots are attached by pressing them into the wet paint in any pattern or manner the child wishes.  When the trees are dry, the kids cut them out and we hand them on the wall around the room.
 

This tree is a blackline master I've had forever.  We color it green, cut and paste it to a construction paper background, and color in one ornament per day, to countdown to Christmas.  The KinderKids keep this tree in their book boxes, which we use every morning.
 
 

December Pocket Charts
 
 

Our December "Happy" Poem
 

We sing this one to the tune of Where is Thumbkin?  I have the kids' names on sentence strips so they can put them in the blanks in the first two lines.
 

December thematic vocabulary, with matching cards (without the picture) so the kids can take a word to their seats during writing time.  They also enjoy taking the words out, mixing them up, and returning them to the correct places.  The KinderKids always get very excited -- and very greedy -- when we put up new thematic vocabulary words, and it becomes their favorite Pocket Chart Center for a week or more.
 

Pocket Charts used to hide my messy desk and work table during our videotaping.  During Literacy Centers time, I move them out onto the Story Floor, so that there's plenty of room to read both sides of each chart, working alone or with a partner.  I have two other stands you can't see in this picture, so we're currently using 12 pocket charts.
 

This Week's Favorite Books

Happy Teaching

Victoria :o)
 

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Copyright by Victoria Smith, 2000
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