In My Happy Spot!

Last week I was able to go home for a few days after working in Mississippi! Megan and Nick picked me up Thursday night at the airport and Friday morning I was in Megan’s room! WOW! Have her kids been working! They are so smart! Here are some photos I snapped while I was there:
I shared Megan’s birthday display a few weeks ago, but she has made it even cuter! And, here is how she displays her name word wall! She took those photos during open house while the kids wore their safari hats!
So here’s the problem….I got a new Ipad! Now I was super excited to get it, and I’m not complaining, but I just can’t get it to take good pictures. I know I must be doing something wrong. All these photos were taken with the ipad and I think they are blurry. But, it’s the best that I have, so…..
The halls were filled with all the great work they have been doing. This display is from the Family Fun unit!

Megan let me get started right away with Reader’s Workshop. Here we are working on one of  “The Three Ways to Read a Book”--look at the pictures and tell the story.
Here’s how it went:
Started with a connection: Remember yesterday when Mrs. Merrell showed you that you can read a book by telling a story that you already know? Well today I am going to show another way good readers can read a book.
Now the teach: Did you know that good readers can also read a book by looking at the pictures and telling a story? Let me show you….Then I modeled on a few pages.
Now their turn—active engagement: So now it’s your turn to try. Turn the page and say…Look at this picture. Turn and Talk with your elbow partner and take turns telling the story by looking at the picture. I did this for several pages and then skipped to the last page.
Link: So remember, today and every day, good readers can read a book by looking at the picture and telling the story.
Next we sent them off to read with their “good fit books”.

When we brought them back together, I drew their attention to the anchor chart where they are recording the ways to read a book. (from Blasting Off with Reader’s Workshop)
Then it was Megan’s turn and I watched her do the Writer’s Workshop Lesson. I was taking a video, with my ipad, of the mini lesson and now I can’t get a picture from the video. I know there’s a way you can do it, but…Remember? I don’t even know how to take a good picture with that thing!
So here’s how it went:
Connection: Guys remember how we have been helping the reader by labeling our pictures by putting the letter we hear at the beginning of the word? Well today I am going to show you how we can give our readers even more help in reading our piece.
Now the Teach: Here is my picture I started. See how I put that “b” by the baseball at the Braves game? I am thinking there must be more letters in that word baseball. Let me see if I can say it really slowly and hear some more letters. She stretched out the word and wrote a few of the dominate sounds. After a few words it was their turn.
Active Engagement: Now let’s see if you can help me. Let’ see…I put a “b” by the bat. Can you stretch out that word and see if you can hear more sounds. Turn and talk with your partner and see if you can stretch it out. Listen in and record those sounds. She repeated for several things she had labeled with just the first letter.
Link: Remember, today and every day, good writers think of ways they can help the reader. One way we can do that is to write as many letters as we hear when stretching out a word.
Then they went off to get their writing folders and started writing.

The writing on the top right, I loved the car inside the garage! He was so cute telling me how his dad had to put the car in the garage or his mom got mad! The sample on the top left, was so funny! He was trying to tell me that he and this other boy were playing some game. Now, it has been a long time since I have looked at toys for little boys! I had no clue of what he was telling me, but…I totally got him to understand that he needed to help the reader by putting as many letters as he could hear in that game’s name. Even though you really can’t tell it from the picture, the attention to detail in the game and it’s parts was crazy! The one on the bottom was a photo of a writing that was shared with Megan. Megan said, “Mom, I learned so much from that book study this summer (In Pictures and Words) about really taking the time to look at their illustrations. In the past I would have told this child to stop playing around and draw a “real” picture. But when I took the time to talk to the child about their illustration, I was blown away!” The child went on to tell Megan that it was the star that she could see at night when she laid in her bed. The text, even though I can’t read it all now, was something like “I love my starry sky…..” Too sweet!

When the kids came back together on the carpet, they each shared one of their writings with their elbow partner.
I have lots more to share, but I am sure you are tired of hearing me go on and on so I’ll save the rest for another day! Plus, I got to go to ANOTHER kindergarten class this week and I can’t wait to tell you all about it!