Reading Aloud to Children

Usually sometime during our school day we make time for reading aloud as a class. Not only do the children enjoy it, but I find the actor inside of me coming out from time to time. We just finished reading Cynthia Rylent's book, The Storm, and are now enjoying the E. B. White classic, Charlotte's Web.

According to Jim Trealease, author of The New Read-Aloud Handbook, reading aloud to children benefits them in many ways such as:

Reading aloud provides a positive reading role model
Reading aloud expands the child's attention span
Reading aloud exposes the child to rich vocabulary
Reading aloud exposes the child to good grammar
Reading aloud nurtures the child's emotional development, raising his/her self esteem
Reading aloud is FUN, providing the child with the pleasure of reading!

For more information check out www.readtomeinti.org and Happy Reading!

Writing Workshop

A few days ago Bri's mom stopped me at school and told me about an idea Bri had for writing folder. On their way to school a flock of geese flew over their van heading for destinations unknown. In our mini-lessons we have been talking about how writers get their ideas and how to be on the lookout for ideas anywhere and anytime. Bri got to share her story with the class and so we'd like to share it with you...
Today we also continued our project with the Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal. I brought it a box this morning and we used it for numerous activities. We first gathered a small cup from the box as a "benchmark" for everyone to use as they made their estimations of how many pieces were in the total box. Then each child was given a napkin full of cereal to tally and count. We gathered all our numbers, and added up the amounts and came to a grand total of 841. We checked through all the estimations to discover that Garrett was closest with 852! Later during writer's workshop we wrote about the experience. We saved the best part for last...by consuming all 841 pieces with not a crumb to spare. It was a great learning experience for us all.

Bullying: Jodee Blanco

I wasn't too sure about Tuesday afternoon's required meeting. Even its description, "an anti-bullying activist" didn't get me too excited. What I was thinking was that this would be another meeting that probably wouldn't get over until 5 (again) and that would make me late for my evening appointment...and yes, the meeting did last till 5...and past...but as I excused myself, I was wishing I could stay until the very end.
Jodee Blancoo is a survivor of school bullying. Willingly she shared her stories, but more importantly she shared with us her views on this problem and specific actions to take to help the one who is being bullied. She did not discount, by any means, the many efforts and programs that are in place to thwart bullying, but her focus was mainly on the victim. It was great "food for thought." Check out her web site: http://www.jodeeblanco.com. Spend a bit of time reading it, especially the Survival tab. (She also is the author of the best seller book: Please Stop Laughing At Me.) Hopefully you too will end up planning to spent more time on this important subject.

It's Spirit Day!!
Today was a day to celebrate the spirit of Summit and we began with a small splash of green and orange paint on our cheeks. Even Jordan's dad got into the spirit! After he saw all the excitement he requested we honor him with a painted face of his very own! It's a wonder how a bit of green and orange gave big smiles to each and every face!
During our math time today we were singing songs of SEPTEMBER and reviewed calendar skills on our wall. As we continue to work with tallies we created a tally sheet of our favorite cereals. Our 4 choices included HoneyComb, Frosted Flakes, Cheerios, and Cinnamon Toast Crunch...and the winner by a very narrow margin...Cinnamon Toast Crunch...which we'll enjoy tomorrow for a snack.
We've also begun working with cursive and have introduced the letters of a, c, and d. We call them wave letters because they look like waves when they're made.
"This is hard," several said as they practiced their first words of "add" and "dad." No offense moms...we haven't got to your letters yet.

New Beginnings...

Greetings one and all...
We don't actually know what we are getting into...This is our first attempt at creating a blog of our own, but hopefully it will provide you with some of the sites and sounds that transpire on a regular visit to our classroom. Rusty and Carol