Student-Led Conferences

Just finished one of my favorite events of the year--every Spring I have my kiddos invite their parents into the classroom afterschool to do conferences where the students review their growth throughout the year. I am required to have data folders where the students chart their goals and their progress toward those goals. I did originally balk at that idea for Kinder students, but the kids actually really benefit from seeing that visual for their progress.

 I use reading fluency, reading levels (F&P) and their scores from the reading program we use I-station. The students also show their parents their journals and the growth in writing as well as sharing their favorite activities/books from the class this year. 

Some of the kiddos got very shy (even though we did practice with partners this week), some jumped right in proud of their accomplishments. I highly recommend doing this with your kiddos at some point during the year, I think it really helps them understand where they've come from and where they are going academically!

Using Web Cams to Help Develop Empathy

About 6 years ago I was in the old building that used to house my school. I discovered a web cam that was documenting the life of Molly the Owl and her 2 owlets. We would watch the live stream constantly (and this was before I had a smartboard so it was a bunch of kids sitting around a PC). We watched her feed her babies, watched the baby owls grow feathers, grow wings and eventually leave the nest. I'd leave it on all the time and we'd hear a noise in the background during a lesson and the kids would say "it's just Molly". The truly remarkable thing about that experience is the kids still remember her as well as I do. They are in middle school now and last year my student came back to show me this book they found in their library.

What an exciting discovery.We obviously weren't the only ones who enjoyed getting a peek into her life.

I really think experiences like this one can help kids learn empathy. I think it can help them develop inclinations to care about others. I still use webcams often. This is my favorite site for them-they have everything from penguins to service dogs. I will even pull up the feed of the kittens at lunch to de-stress-how relaxing is watching kittens! :)

http://explore.org/live-cams/player/long-eared-owl-cam

#sorrynotsorry

So I found this book of false apology poems:

Apparently, William Carlos Williams wrote this poem to his wife after eating the plums she was so looking forward to.

Basically the first documented #sorrynotsorry poem! :) This author decided to write a few more.

So I asked the kids to try their hand at their own poems, saying sorry but not really. This was challenging for many of them.

Sorry I ate your jellybeans but they tasted like underwear.

Is it too late to say sorry? Yes it is.

I'm sorry but  I don't mean it.

I'm sorry I ate your food, but I liked it.

I'm sorry I put pie in your face, but you make me so mad!

I'm sorry that I stole your toy, you're the best.

Instructions

So April is National Poetry Month and even though we use poems in my classroom all year, I really make it a focus of our language arts unit in the spring. I was reading a list of poetry books to use with students and found this one by Neil Gaiman. 

Now I LOVE Neil Gaiman-I think he has such creative ideas when it comes to storytelling, so I had to check it out. This book is a list of instructions for life but it references fairy tales. I'm sure there is deep meaning in a lot of it if we were to analyze it, but I read to the kiddos with another thought in mind.

This is an example from the book.

So after I read them the story, I asked them to write instructions for life-what would you tell other kids the "rules" of life are--trust...., remember...., always...... I was floored by what some of them came up with.

Do not listen to Donald Trump.

Do listen to God.

Remember not to go to Antarctica.

Trust your mom and dad.

Remember your bravery.

Do not trust strangers.

Do not listen to the cats.

Forgive the dogs.

Do not forgive the snakes.

Just stick to your heart and do what you must do.

Now go young one.

Don't trust scary stuff.

Remember what you see on your journey.

Go to the woods and your quest starts.

Trust men.

Do not trust girls.

(I read this and looked at him, he said "well, it's my opinion". How can you argue with that! :)

I would trust the wolf.

I would not trust a camel.

I really trust the wolf.

Trust your family

Trust your big sister.

Trust your teacher.

Do not trust the zombies.

Do not trust strangers.

Trust someone you know.

Don't do mean stuff to people.

So there you have it-rules to live by from the perspective of Kinder students. Some good advice in here I think! :) 

Onomatopoeia

We introduce a lot of literary devices in Kinder-this is one of my favorites! I actually remember learning about this concept with the poem The Bells in high school. The tintinnabulation of the bells!

We have been identifying the sounds in stories that we read and now it was time to extrapolate that knowledge to writing! I simply asked the students to write a story where they incorporated onomatopoeia in some way-here's what they came up with:

Eggs, Eggs, Eggs

I love doing our unit about eggs! When I ask my kiddos what they already know about eggs, one of the things they say is that they are very delicate. Which is true-but they are also very strong! We predicted how many books we could stack on the egg and ended up with over 16. I love that there are so many egg stories in children's literature. These are a few of my favorites:

My students thought this story was just hilarious! They are trying to figure what this creature is that hatched with the chickens-because it's so much bigger than the others.

One of my all-time favorites. Jessica finds an egg and out hatches what must be a chicken. They refer to it as a chicken throughout the whole story which also causes some appropriate giggles from the audience. "The chicken saved her"--it's really an alligator, but since they had never seen a chicken or an alligator before....

Duck and Goose argue over whose egg it is when they find one in the park. They talk about raising their little baby and eventually become friends. There's a nice little twist at the end too!

Oh Horton! This book is great for discussing ethics and the jobs moms are supposed to do.

This is a folktale that is retold. It's a story about a girl who befriends a woman with talking eggs. She follows the rules and is nice, where her sister....not so much. 

This is just a very sweet story about a bunny waiting for his chick to hatch.

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday!