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Kathleen - At 11 a.m. Eastern Time: Grade 1 phonemic awareness activities will be the topic. Of special interest: using students' names for phonemic awareness activities.
Kathleen - Good morning. Does any one do any activities with grade one students' names to address phonemic awareness?
Lori 1/2 - Hi. I'm new to chat. I often line children up using different phonemic awareness elements. For example, anyone with "ch" (sound), or I stretch their names out really slowly or clap the syllables etc...
4blocks newbie - I've been reading about how to use the childrens' names as part of word wall
4blocks newbie - do any of you do this as the first words to the wall?
Lori 1/2 - The first words I put on the word wall are children's names. I put one a day as each child has had their first chance to be a star of the day.
blue - i use students names on the word wall as the first words too. i use this as a reference tool for early shared writing lessons.
4blocks newbie - do you start the first day of school Lori 1/2?
Kathleen - New chatters: Keep your "Send to:" box set on "Room."
Lori 1/2 - No, once I get my class (it usually takes a week!) then I usually start the second or third day. We make a really big deal of the Star of the day, interviewing them, making a special book for them to take home, using their names in rhymes etc... and putting their name on the word wall. Once you have more names up then you can play lots of games in the pocket chart with them. The children this year played "Guess My Rule" with the name cards all year long. (Sort the names and leave a group of them that fit a certain rule like a double letter etc..)
Stevie - I made ten copies of their names in large type to use for vowel study. Has anyone read about name use beyond beg. cons?
blue - the 4 blocks phonics for 1st gr. book has some excellent suggestions for teaching with students names. this book suggests having one child be the special child each day.
Kathleen - blue, what is your favorite activity from the 4 Blocks for gr. 1 book?
blue - this child is the feature for interviewing and shared writing experiences
love1st - I plan to do a chart with "My name is _____". Then from there, I'm going to give each child their name on a flashcard to put on the wall. Then we'll each illustrate a page to make our first class book.
4blocks newbie - great ideas, thanks!
Kathleen - Everyone: What are your favorite oral activities with names to encourage the development of phonemic awareness?
blue - this is a difficult question...there are so many great ideas. i do like guess the covered word. i really value the cloze procedure
Kathleen - {I'm sure everyone already knows about the banana fana fo fana name game...]
Stevie - I did find that it helped to have their names in a several lists posted around the room (lunch..) so they got used to knowing verbally and later reading both 1st and last names.
love1st - BLUE-how do you do the cloze with their names?
Sue - I use a book called Phonemic Awareness songs and rhymes
blue - focus on finial sounds. create sentences from the interview process
blue - many children's names could fit but you can narrow down the choices by focusing on initial sounds
blue - I've heard of the book "Beyond the Names Chart" by Debbie Dillar. Is anyone familiar with this book?
love1st - I use their names on the wall throughout the year to point out various phonics rules (short e, y=Long e at the end, blends, and digraphs).
Stevie - No, not familiar with Beyond the Names book. What do you know about it?
Lori 1/2 - One of the first "art" projects I do the first few days of school is to have the children find the letters of their name from my piles of diecut letters. They glue these onto long banners and decorate with pieces of tissue paper. Once these are done they get put up high around my room so they are there for everyone to read/write etc... They are very colourful.
blue - I've heard it has some good suggestions for teaching with names--I'm not sure if it is research based..........I have not looked at it yet. i wondered if anyone else has
Kathleen - Sue - One of the early activities is singing , Where Can My Good Friend Be? For example, a part of that song goes like this...Where, oh, where can my good friend be? Where, oh where can she be? She starts with /K/ and she ends with /m/. Where, oh where can she be.
Stevie - I'm going to try the diecut letter banners. Thank you. I think it's also impt to start with an empty bulletin board so you can create together. I just have up the paper so it looks colorful but nothing from last year.
love1st - SUE-I love that song...and Lori's art project. thanks for sharing them.
Kathleen - Lori put "art" in quotes because it isn't really an ART project...more of a craft (just wanting to illuminate that point about the difference between art and craft.
Kathleen - From KC - I use name activities all year long - every time we staart over on leader I add a different activity.
Kathleen - New chatters: Keep the "Send to:" box set at "Room" so your posts go to the screen.
Susan - Hi Kathleen! I use the kids names early on for clapping out syllables then when we study presidents in Feb - we use their names - lots more syllables!
Stevie - This was my very first time with this chat room. Thanks for your help - got to drive kids!
jacquejo - I tried using real rubber bands while we were blending. The kids loved it, and it seemed like those few who take longer to get it, really plugged into this.
Deb - I have explore
Kathleen - When I was teaching K, one of the indiv. daily news sheet activities was to record the number of syllables (claps) in the Helper's name.
KC - I was thinking of doing name activites with summer school group k going to 1st
Susan - jacquejo - what did you do with the rubber bands?
Sandi - Kathleen , what about the banana, etc. song? How do you use it?
Kathleen - jacquejo, rubber bands...great idea to illustrate the s-t-r-e-t-c-h-i-n-g
Kathleen - Sandi bandi bo bandi banana fana fo fandi, BANDI.
jacquejo - I wrote 3 sounds on the board, and we all said the sounds while we stretched the rubber bands. Then, we let the rubber band go, and "shrunk back " the word, saying the whole thing.
blue - Here's another song: Tune...."This Old Man" I like you. You like me. Such good friends we will be. ____ likes ____. ____ likes _____. Such good friends they will be.
Kathleen - Kathy bathy bo bathy, banana fana fo fathy, KATHY
Susan - also from 4B we do a making words lesson with each child's name on the day that we do their interview.
4blocks newbie - blue, do you put 2 different names in the blanks?
jacquejo - I love those songs. I have a pocket chart designated to the spelling songs from the 4blocks site.
blue - How about this song: Willaby Wolloby Woo....you just substitute children's names.....so........Willaby Wolloby Woosan....an elephant sat on Susan. Willaby Wolloby Wason....an elephant sat on Jason.
4blocks newbie - jacquejo, are you the only one with a rubber band?
blue - yes.........put 2 different names in the blanks
4blocks newbie - thanks, blue...these are wonderful songs
jacquejo - No, the kids all have them. I found them in the supply closet. THey were about 4 inches long. I think they got them from office depot.
blue - another thing you can do for stretching is have your children "pretend" to have a piece of gum in their mouths. They can pretend to stretch the gum out as they stretch the words.
Kathleen - Kids could imitate the stretching as though they too had a rubber band. it might be asking for "trouble" to have the kids using the rubber bands...probably okay in small group.
4blocks newbie - any problems with children trying to pop each other?
4blocks newbie - Kathleen, like your idea
jacquejo - They did pretty good as a whole class, after the first person lost their rubber band.
Cathy - We use a pretend rubber band
Kathleen - Oh, I guess jacquejo has direct experience and it works fine to give the rubber bands to the kids.jacquejo, do you do a lot of prep before giving them out?
Sandi - Yes, thank you, the songs are great
jacquejo - A little bit, but it didn't take too long.
blue - i've also used rubber bands. the really thick ones worked best for me. if a child tried to snap it at someone else they lost it. i didn't have too much trouble with this b/c the bands were special and everyone wanted to keep theirs
Sandi - How about interview questions? Do you do a patterned question form?
jacquejo - Yes, they were really thick, about an inch.
love1st - Thanks all...I've jotted down some great ideas for the first week of school...gotta go fold clothes now!
Lori 1/2 - for interview questions I have the children ask each other. I add a few key questions the first few times to model how to find out information.
Susan - I don't use a patterned question but they end up that way because the kids will "latch on" to certain questions and ask them of every child
Sandi - Do you limit the number of questions asked?
4blocks newbie - how many interviews do you do in a day?
Cathy - We usually have a limited amount of time.
blue - i wish i could stay........i have to head out to class. i'm doing my thesis on phonemic awareness. will transcripts of this chat be available?
trish - 5-7 questions was suggested in the book
Susan - I use tables in my room so each day one table is designated "the reporters" and they can ask questions that day
trish - I like the tables idea
Lori 1/2 - I stop the questions when I figure we have enough information to write a paragraph about the child. (We then do shared writing for this part and make up a STARS book when we have a page for everyone.)
jacquejo - What a great idea Susan!
Sandi - I usually type up a page for each student on special paper with a picture and put in 3 ring binder. They love this book!
Susan - Sandi - I am going to try that this year - did you let them take turns taking it home?
trish - I turned the interviews into a book, it was a popular book during SSR
jacquejo - Susan, does each person have their own book?
Sandi - I didn't, but not a bad idea.
4blocks newbie - this is my first time to chat and I can't tell you how excited I am to get this year started! Your ideas are so helpful
Kathleen - Those books are terrific ideas. Kids are most interested in material that is about them and people familiar to them.
jacquejo - I am going to try chair pockets, and thought maybe this could be the first book I put in there.
Lori 1/2 - We have a bin of "Class made books" that the children can choose from for Take Home Reading along with all the other books in the class..
KC - I have my summer kids only 3 weeks - do you think it would be worth it to still use n - by the time everyone has a turn, the session is over!
Susan - I had a mom do it this year and they went in their memory books so everyone did get a copy but it wasn't until the end of the year - not useful to practice reading
KC - names
Kathleen - 4Blocks newbie, be sure to check out the chat schedule, there are chats practically every day (usually evenings, but it appears people turn out for morning chats during the summer, so I'll schedule more of them)
jacquejo - But what a good closure to the year
4blocks newbie - Will do!
Lori 1/2 - KC, maybe you could highlight more than one child each day???
trish - KC I still think it would be benificial. I put the interviews on chart paper they could read them anytime then
Sandi - My problem with the interviews is that by the time I get to the 25 student, they're "burned out!"
KC - thanks, good ideas
jacquejo - My son's teacher did an interview on chart paper and sent it home on his birthday. He loved it!
Susan - Sandi - I agree - that's a probelm with a large class - do anything 25 times and it gets old!
Kathleen - How could Sandi and others avoid that burnout after so many names?
Kathleen - Hi L/MO!
Lori 1/2 - Another thought, we have used cheer leader pom poms in the past to cheer for each student using the letters to spell but also the sounds (stretching the name out).
KC - I could see kids getting tired of it - esp the drawing a picture part in building blocks
Kathleen - Maybe a different set of questions after each 5?
4blocks newbie - i team teach and we will have 36-40 so i could use some help with interview burnout, too
trish - maybe with props? a microphone, something that chages the sounds would help?
L/MO - I am jsut returning to four blocks after a looooonnnng year of Saxon Phonics
Kathleen - Make it a math activity to keep track of each set of 5 names, then change the interview questions
jacquejo - Is it something you could do in small groups with your peers?
Lori 1/2 - Burn Out - shorten the interview part of the Star's day and add more game type activities like sorting the names etc..
4blocks newbie - very good ideas
L/MO - For Sandi, maybe the teacher could turn it into a game of guess who? Bulliten board...Put info up and have kids try to put a picture with the name?
4blocks newbie - my dog is barking to be let out so bye for now and THANKS SO MUCH!!!
Kathleen - bye newbie!
Kathleen - Goodbye newbie!
L/MO - Bye Newbie
Sandi - Thanks for all of the good ideas this morning. I have an appt. so need to sign out.
Susan - ???What are these two buttons in the corner of my screen that say "freeze" and "resume"??
L/MO - Bye Sandi
Cathy - Good question Susan
Kathleen - Susan, they can be used to either stall the chat screen or get it moving again
jacquejo - How do you guys do dictation? I have tried it for 2 years now, and my kids get so bored.
Susan - Well - have to go - hubby will be home for lunch soon and won't think much of finding me on the computer and my three kids still in PJ's and no housework done!
L/MO - I may have missed some topics but does anyone else add names to their wordwall?
Kathleen - Susan, just explain that you've been participating in free professional development
Kathleen - In k we used names to begin the word wall
jacquejo - I did, and the kids loved it. I used a different font from the rest of the words.
Lori 1/2 - Thanks all, this has been interesting. Bye.
Kathleen - I used red for the vowels in the names, and black for consonants, and cut the name out to define its configuration before pasting the name onto a contrasting color of paper.
KC - I have names on my abc line in front of room and not on wordwall - but in LOTS of other places around room
Kathleen - Goodbye Lori!
Kathleen - KC, that's a form of word wall (the ABC line)
L/MO - In second grade we begin the year with dictation. My kids don't do very well on it. They are not given the sentence ahead of time
Kathleen - I mean the ABC line with names posted in alph order
L/MO - Do you leave the names on the word wall all year
Kathleen - L/MO, what is the purpose of the dictation?
KC - like Leader list, cubbies, lockers, name tags on table, I have another word wall for sight words - colors, numbers, McGraw Hill
Kathleen - I left mine up all year in K, kids became aware and made use at their own pace.
L/MO - You know that is a good question?
jacquejo - We do Open Court. I do most of it, just in my own way. They want you to do 2 lines of 3 words each, and then a whole sentence. It take s forever!
L/MO - One that I would like answered from the powers that be?
Kathleen - Good point, L/MO
L/MO - I grade each sentence using three criteria capital letters, spelling and punctuation. I would prefer to take these grades from daily work but the other teachers in my grade level insist on continuing the practice of paper and pencil tests. It takes 30 minutes out of my morning.
Kathleen - L/MO, how often??
jacquejo - I think it's for showing the kids how to pull apart a word into sounds. Blending is more for putting a word together from sounds.
L/MO - Once a week
Kathleen - L/MO it seems as evaluation it could be done as you said, from real work. But if it must be done this way as a form of formal assessment, why so often?
Kathleen - Time is so precious....
L/MO - I don't know.
jacquejo - I think it does have some merit, but I wish I could think of a way to make it more fun. I wish all the kids were on computers, to make it go faster.
L/MO - Anyway back to phonemic awareness and names. Does anyone include names on spelling lists
Kathleen - I know some use names on spelling lists
KC - no spelling tests in k
L/MO - Do they take a grade on it?
Cathy - Towasrd the end of the year we used names for Bonus words. They enjoyed it!
Kathleen - I wouldn't hold kids responsible for learning to spell correctly all names (in grade one) but it would be a good exercise for them. Names too often don't fit any spelling pattern,
L/MO - I can see some parents not liking it very much if I did
Kathleen - But not as the spelling test
L/MO - I think I agree.
jacquejo - me too
Cathy - Thanks so much! I've got to get moving!
L/MO - Well thanks for the input...son wants the computer now.
Kathleen - For help with phonemic awareness/phonics with names and other activities, check out the Early Childhood-Primary chat transcripts in the archives (linked over there in the left frame), and go to the Lessons Bank http://teachers.net/lessons and search for the term phonemic.
Kathleen - Goodbye, and thank you to all who participated!
