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liz - hello everyone is there a meeting here?
Hockeyrabbit - what's the topic?
Lisa - It's a free chat but Kathleen suggested that we might want to talk about summer homework.
Hockeyrabbit - well..I have a question..do any of you make your own big books?? I need some new ideas
liz - what do you mean big books?
Lisa - some big books.
Hockeyrabbit - uhm..books that are large in size, used for shared reading..have predictable text in it
liz - no I don't, but would love to know how
Hockeyrabbit - have any of you tried to have each student create a page to put in the big book??
Lisa - That didn't come out right. Yes, I make some of my own big books.
Lisa - Yes, we do that a lot.
liz - ok Lisa, I would love to make them too,
Lisa - THe books I make match my theme.
Hockeyrabbit - I currently just make up a boook, use the computer to enlarge the text, and find clipart etc. to put a pic on each page...then after reading it, the children have a smaller version of my book
Hockeyrabbit - Lisa-do u do an ocean theme??
Lisa - I do the same. Clip art is wonderful
Lisa - Yes.
Hockeyrabbit - oh, I should mention that the children illustrate their own books, and I leave out a missing word..either sight word, color word etc. that they have to write in
Hockeyrabbit - Lisa- can u give me some ideas for big books..ocean theme?? I am doing the 2 from Victoria's site (Kinderkorner)
Lisa - I like to do a "Down by the Bay" class book for our water unit - we live near a Bay so we do Bay and Ocean.
Hockeyrabbit - so what does the text say?
Lisa - Here's another easy one: Down by the blue sea, what can it be? I see a _____ looking at me!
Lisa - Down by the Bay is a popular children's song by Raffi and others...
Hockeyrabbit - oh, I like that
Lisa - Down by the Bay where the watemelons grow, back to my home, I dare not go. For if I do, my mother willl say... Did you ever see a ___ _________________. (Kids supply rhyming phrase such as did you ever see a whale sitting in a pail?
Hockeyrabbit - neat
Hockeyrabbit - do u also make an ABC name book in the beginning of the year??
Lisa - Yes. I use a lot of the Building Blocks ideas.
Hockeyrabbit - I need to start doing more of the BB method
Hockeyrabbit - I really like the sent strip writing idea
Lisa - We tried a name ABC book for our planting unit but it was hard. It went like this: Look at Our Garden. Angelica has asparagus in her garden. Brianna has broccoli in her garden. Corey has cauliflower in his garden. Everything was fine until we got to the names beginning with H and J!
Hockeyrabbit - Lisa-when u make the ABC book, do u leave out any letters??
Lisa - We have done LOTS of predictable charts this year. Boring for me to write, but the kids have really done well with them. I have lots of kids reading this year.
Lisa - I didn't for this book, but it would be easy to do. This book was one of our predictable charts. I type the sentences in large print and then have the kids practice reading them. Then we chop them up and scramble them up and the kids have to put them in order, glue, and illustrate. This is a Building Blocks idea.
Lisa - Hockeyrabbit, have you done a name ABC book?
Hockeyrabbit - what kind of centers do u do?
Ddee - hello does anyone know the qualificatios to be a opreKteacher
Ddee - thats Pre-K teacher
Hockeyrabbit - no, but I will next year..oh I do have a super neat idea for names though
Lisa - I do free centers. I feel the kids work hard and don't need all of their times structured. What kinds of centers do you do?
Lisa - PreK teacher requirements differ from state to state and public/private schools.
Lisa - Our public school PreK teachers here in MD have to have an early-childhood degree (4 yr).
Ddee - ok what are qualifications in your state Lisa?
Hockeyrabbit - once a week we have a "spotlight" person..forgot to mention I teach Spec ed..really low functioning..anyway, for our calendar routine I have that person's name up there, and we talk about the letters etc
Lisa - What's your name idea, Hockeyrabbit?
Ddee - got it Lisa thanks
Hockeyrabbit - then each day we do something special
Lisa - We do the names work, too, in the Fall.
Hockeyrabbit - I use the BB method of drawing the person and labeling him/her..then we make a a predict. chart saying nice things why we like the person,
Lisa - I like to use the overhead and I put the letters up one at a time and we cheer them. For Sam, we say, Give me an S and the kids repeat S, Give me an
Hockeyrabbit - I interview the person and the kids ask questions too
Hockeyrabbit - yep..do that with the calendar
Lisa - Oops. We do all of the letters and then say "What does that spell?" Sam! THen we scramble them up and the kids put them in order. Using the overhead gets everyone's attention.
Lisa - I haven't done the interview part because of time restraints. Next year,I will teach full day K and will finally have enough time!
Hockeyrabbit - then on the final day, I have a piece of paper that says I like___ because___.. In a magazine, they cut out the letters to foirm the persons name, then cut out picks of things that person likes
Hockeyrabbit - and finally, to top it off..that person brings in something special..usually pics, and sometimes parents come in too..the kids LOVE THIS
Lisa - We do the name books too - the kids draw the Star of the Day and write their name. I'm always amazed at how much better the kids can draw and form letters by the time we get to the last person.
Hockeyrabbit - I would do it a little sooner next year..but they LOVE it
Lisa - Great idea!
Lisa - We do the name work at the beginning of the year to help the kids get aquainted.
Hockeyrabbit - now, I am hoping to find a preK/K job next year..and I think I would call it something like "Top banana" or "Star student" next year
KindergartenCop - Hi allI do the name words at the beginningn of the year, too. It really helps K's start learning letter names and sounds.
Lisa - So is anyone going to do summer packets this summer?
Hockeyrabbit - too overwhelming for my kids in the beginning of the year
Lisa - We call ours Star Student.
KindergartenCop - Mine gets to be the "Leader" for the day
Lisa - I love Building Blocks. Next year we'll be doing Houghton Mifflin but I hope we can still do a lot of BUildling Blocks activities. My kids did well this year with it.
Lisa - Mine, too. And bring in show and tell in the "Star bag".
Lisa - I teach a fully included K class with a SPED teacher. We do her SPED kids toward the end so they won't be too overwhelmed and have seen a lot of modeling beforehand.
Hockeyrabbit - HM..yuck
Hockeyrabbit - you are going to be limited in what you can teach with BB
Lisa - Yuck? Don't say that! Our new principal just told us she spent $13-14,000 ordering everything HM for us. I hope I like it because I know I will have to use it!
KindergartenCop - I really liked the Houghton MIfflin
Hockeyrabbit - well it has its pluses and minuses..but I am not thrilled with ours
Lisa - I saw there were a lot of big books included so I'll be happy with that.
KindergartenCop - It has TOO much included, but I have learned to pick and choose and my K's did GREAT
Lisa - Are you using the newer series?
Lisa - That's good.
Hockeyrabbit - YES..Kcop is right..way to much info/stuff
Hockeyrabbit - yes..ours is I think 4 years old
Lisa - Do they have good materials for "gifted students"?
KindergartenCop - They teach the letters and sounds with alpha friends who have the "lower" case letters imbedded in them. The K's learned the lower case much quicker this year
Lisa - Hopefully, the newest series is better!
KindergartenCop - I have the newest one
Lisa - I like the use of lowercase letters. My lowest kids really struggle with them and you know parents often teach the U/C letters.
Hockeyrabbit - ok..mine is not the newer series then b/c we do not have alpha friends
Lisa - I think you have to order the Alpha Friends separately.
Hockeyrabbit - oh
KindergartenCop - There is a TON of phonemic awareness stuff that's pretty easy, so I made a spread sheet and filled in what pages they were on in each theme, then I used it as filler when I had 5 mins or so before recess, lunch, specials, etc.
Hockeyrabbit - can u tell me any of the big books in your series?
Lisa - I have taught K for 16 years and have never had a series, so this is all new to me. I think I'll like it since we're changing to full day K.
Lisa - That sounds like a good idea.
Hockeyrabbit - I wouldn't even know what to do in a half day program
Jessica - Hello All
KindergartenCop - Hi, Jessica
Jessica - Not sure what conversations you've had here so far tonight, but I am in need of help . . . I am desperate for ideas for gifts for parents for the end of the year (rather than mothers/fathers day gifts, we are doing a "thanks for all you've done this year" gift at the end of the year) I need ideas! HELP!
Hockeyrabbit - YIKES..hmmm
KindergartenCop - One other thing I learned, was to make overhead of the work sheets that have sentences. Then we did them together and I left the overhead up so the K's could fill in the blanks. That really seemed to work well
Jessica - Any great ideas out there?
Lisa - Are you guys familiar with the Winter, Spring, and Fall Phonemic Awareness songs and Rhymes books? They have great phonemic awareness songs and activities.
Jessica - (I didn't mean to stop your other conversations)
Jessica - Yes Lisa - they are GREAT!
Hockeyrabbit - ok well gotta jet..good nite everyone
KindergartenCop - Lisa, yes, I use them a lot!
Lisa - Good night!
Jessica - Good night - I need to go soon too
Lisa - We're doing painted flower pots for our parent volunteers.
KindergartenCop - night, hockeyrabbit
Lisa - I had the kids put their thumbprints all around the pots and we added bug features with a sharpie. THen on the rim, we put on "Thanks for helping us to grow!" Then we added soil and flowers.
Lisa - Good night everyone!
