Patty's Room: Writing Materials

There is are so many meaningful opportunities for Patty's Pre-k children to write.  Here are a few:

Color sorted markers and colored pencils. 

 The writing center materials.  I love the two choices - fat pencil or golf pencil.  These are both developmentally appropriate.  And providing tape!  So important!

  More writing center materials- a tray of paper, a basket of words (blue cards) and a basket of picture + word cards.

 The picture + word cards are related to their current inquiry - air.

 The children write their name before entering the classroom.

 A basket of weather journals.

 Writing in housekeeping.

Computer play - typing away in housekeeping (pretend- of course).

 Writing is valued and displayed.

Love the writing hanging within these frames.

 Writing samples hanging in a window related their weather study (which came out of the air inquiry).

Tomorrow we will look at Hanging Art in Patty's classroom.

Monday we will look at how the air inquiry was demonstrated in the classroom environment.

Thank you to Patty and her co-teacher Jenni for sharing their amazing classrooms!!

DIY Clipboards

I don't know about you but I love having a clipboard for every child in my class but holy moly that can get expensive!

Well, I ran into someone  (Stacy)  who came up with a DIY version and I couldn't wait to share the goodness!

WHAT YOU WILL NEED:

• bulldog clips or binder clips (the binder clips are cheaper)
• 9 x 12 hardboard panel (Nasco carries one for 75 cents :: Click here)
• You could have boards cut at your local hardware store - but I like having the board's edges already sanded and smooth

Super simple - just attach the clip!  Done!

You are ready to go!

I use clipboards for guided drawings, group work, writing. . . . the list goes on!

TIP:   

A subscriber, Danielle, wrote me and said she was taking this idea and using it with her white boards.  Every student has a white board in their chair pocket.  (Check HERE for my DIY White boards)  She is going to add a bulldog clip to their white boards - and voila!  It doubles as a clipboard!   Brilliant!  Thank you Danielle! 

3-D Trees - The Four Seasons (Part 2)

This article continues a series on 3-D habitats and science topics. To learn how to make a brown bag tree, please refer to Part 1.

Today, I am going to share how I use these simple bag trees to construct the four seasons.  You can have the children each make their own seasonal tree or make a large class tree out of a grocery sack and create a seasonal setting.

FALL TREE:  I prefer to use tissue paper as it is easy to tear and glue.  You can also use construction paper.

Apply torn tissue paper with Elmer's glue.  A Q-tip works well.  I tell the children to "dot" the branch with glue and press the tissue paper into the dot.

It is fun to leave a few torn tissues laying at the bottom of the fall tree!

SPRING TREE:  I love to purchase tissue paper on clearance.  Here I found a great tissue paper at Target that I used for the Spring Tree.  Again, just tear it!

To add the spring gesture - add a few blossoms in the tree.  I love the glorious blossoms on trees in spring!

SUMMER TREE: I use dark green tissue paper for the full lush of summer!

WINTER TREE:  Make up a batch of snow paint and you have a wonderful winter tree!

(Snow Paint:  in a Dixie cup, squirt one shot of shaving cream, add a squeeze of glue, and a squeeze of white paint.  Be careful to not add too much glue and paint!  Keep it fluffy!  Apply with a popsicle stick!)

COMMON CORE STANDARDS
FOCUS:  Non-Fiction Books - Informational text such as 

Watching the Seasons (Welcome Books: Watching Nature) by Edana Eckart

Possible application:
Students read text about the four seasons and then create a 3-D representation of their understanding.  Additionally, after creating the seasonal tree, the students could write about the season.

• Speaking & Listening Standard: Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas  
• Add drawings or other visual displays to descriptions as desired to provide additional detail.
• Language Art Standard: Vocabulary
• Identify real-life connections between words and their use (e.g., use of vocabulary to describe and identify seasons through trees).
• Writing Standard: Text Types and Purposes
• Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose opinion pieces in which they tell a reader the topic or the name of the book they are writing about and state an opinion or preference about the topic or book (e.g., My favorite season is . . .)

A Simple Puppet Show

This is such a simple process that produces the most endearing results!   I had each color family (groups of four children) write their own story.

1.  The first round I let each group write and collaborate on their own a story.   Each group picked someone to record their story.  My rule was that each child could pick a character to have in the story - this prevented most upsets!

2.  Next I met with each group to hear what they had written and to add any last details.  Most stories were good to go!  They were typically 3 to 4 sentences long.

The important part of this process is to honor what the children created.  It is important not to impose too much of our own "sense of story" on the children.  Their delight is found in what they created.  I feel it is critical to let it be what it is.

3.  I gave each child white card stock to draw and create their paper puppets.   Here I did insist on large scale drawings.  If a drawing was too small - I requested the child redraw it on a larger scale.  They colored their puppets with crayons. Each child drew and cut out their own puppets.

4.  Finally, I taped each puppet to a dowel rod.

The puppet stage was made from a refrigerator box folded to make a tent-shape.  I stapled on bulletin board paper and let the children paint grass.

I read their stories as they acted them out with their little puppets.  It is a fun process and so easy. 

Ninjas in hot lava saving a princess!

It's a party!

Everyone had a snack!

Celebrating New Siblings

I know most of you probably do something like this or even something more elaborate.  But I think it is always fun to share ideas.  Here is what I do -- I would love to hear about what you do!   Cole is becoming a brother for the first time tomorrow so we made him a book.  (I love making books for big events like moving, new siblings, etc.)

I demonstrated how to draw a baby in swaddling.   The kids love drawing babies!

 Here is the finished book!

Here is a sampling of the book:

Next, I make a little baby for a card:

 I cut a round piece of tissue paper.  This one is about 3 or 4 inches wide.  I cut out a "baby."

 Fold one side of the circle over onto the "baby." Glue.

Fold over the other side and glue.

Glue the little baby to a card and write something! (I added a little heart.)  I like to make a big deal about the kindergartner becoming a big brother or sister.  Cole's new sibling is a little girl - he calls Sissy.  So we all agreed - Sissy is one lucky baby to have sweet Cole as a big brother!!!  So exciting!!

Drawing + Word Work

I think it was five or six years ago that I went out to San Francisco to visit my BFF Mimi. Her daughter, Fifi, attended an arts based charter school and her kindergarten teacher welcomed me into his classroom for the day.

As the children arrived, they would draw the picture and word he had drawn on the chalkboard. I was amazed at the children's ability to reproduce his images. It was a simple task but I saw so many rich and wonderful processes at work. First, and perhaps most obvious, was the eye-hand coordination. There was the visual perceptual development and spatial perceptions. But what truly captured me was the incredible power of image and word dancing together. What would it be like to do this day after day - new words, word family words, theme based words all linked with a picture symbol.

Five years later, I am hooked.  I begin this process mid-year as their fine motor skills have developed a bit further. 

My drawing on the white board with the word written below. There is no instructions given.  The children just look up on the board - draw and write the word at the level they can do it. 

A sampling of the children's work:

I love the little details the children will add like the tree in the background.

Another student adding details.

Kid Writing

Kid writing is an amazing reflection of student understanding of not only their own thoughts, but of letter sounds as well.   It is such a natural process.   Everyday in my classroom, the first activity of the day is writing in your journal.  In my classroom, the children are BOSS of their journal writing - I never tell them what to write about.  This is important on several levels:

• First, it gives children a place to express what is important to them and what they love.  You get a glimpse into their inner world!  What are their interests?  Concerns?  etc.

• Second, it supports the use of important thinking/cognitive processing that does not otherwise get activated.  It is brain smart!  It requires the child draw from that which is meaningful to them and then give it form in symbolic terms (drawing, words, complete thoughts, etc).  

I think it is important to honor the stage of writing they are currently in and support their self-expression in its current form.  Like learning to walk - each stage is important in the process.

• An important tip #1.  I never write the "adult" version of their writing on the page.  To me, this undermines the process.  We are honoring their self-expression.  When you re-write their expression - it sends the message their writing is not "correct" or good enough.  I find each level of writing to have its own splendor and as you dwell in kid writing - you can truly "get" the written communication it is.  It is disrespectful in my opinion to re-write in a child's journal.  It is not the place. 

• An important tip #2.  I feel strongly about this - handwriting and writing are two separate processes in the beginning.  Handwriting is the construction of specific line formations.   Journal writing is learning how to capture thoughts on a page as words and sentences.  A kindergarten student is new to both processes.  Keep them separate!!

I do not give the children lined paper for journal writing at anytime during kindergarten (I use lined paper exclusively for handwriting practice).  I feel it requires too much thought about the lines and not enough freedom in thinking.  I want the children to focus on the sounds and what letters to use.