Reading Powers #3: Making Connections

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Back in February, I attended a workshop about the Reading Powers as defined and written about by Adrienne Gear.

Series:

Reading Powers #1: Lesson One Poster

Reading Powers #2: What is Reading Poster

Thinking Sticks Freebie (Google Docs)

I've been VERY slowly introducing this in my classroom as I become more comfortable with it. Last week we finally went beyond just talking about our connections to WRITING about our connections!

I made this large mock-up of a page in the book and plan on eventually laminating a permanent copy when we have laminate again at school so I can wipe away the old connection and start anew.

I walked the students through two different books making connections and then filling out my connections. We did one on each of two days. One day I took I am Sharing by Mercer Mayer and made a connection between Little Critter offering his sister the drippy ends of his ice cream to my daughter doing the same to me with a licked by our puppy half eaten banana, yum...

The next day I took a book from our Turtle Island Voices Collection: Beaver and Porcupine. I made connections to how they were friends and spend a lot of time together, and I spend a lot of time talking to my friends. I could have also connected to how they live in different homes and my friends don't live in our community, but this worked for my kids!

After our second example with my connections, I read a new story, this time Mrs. Wishy-Washy Day, and made suggestions of a ton of different connections they could make. I chose this specifically because they should ALL be able to connect to one of these things:
1. Hiding from someone.
2. Hiding from Your mom when she calls you in.
3. Not wanting a bath.
4. Trying to give an animal a bath.

5. Falling into a body of water (tub, puddle, lake, etc)

A cow hid/ This is me hiding

She fell in the bath/ I fell in the puddle

Wishy tried to bathe the cow/Mom tried to bathe me

She fell in the tub/ I fell in the sink

How do you teach connections?

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If you would like me to review other books for kids please leave a comment. It must be useful to either teachers or parents of children age 4 to grade 2.

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Dear Tooth Fairy...

One of my kiddos were devastated when they LOST their tooth somewhere in the class, so I helped out a bit.

Update: Yes, the tooth fairy accepted her note. PHEW!

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If you would like me to review other books for kids please leave a comment. It must be useful to either teachers or parents of children age 4 to grade 2.

Want to find awesome resources for your Early Childhood Education classroom?
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Slap Hands in Action!

Have you seen my Slap Hands?

I've been putting 3 up (one from each of the first three levels) each day since we got back from Easter break. I plan on continuing EVERY SINGLE DAY until summer vacation. This is partly review for the students who know the words and lots of practice for my kiddos at a variety of levels.

After the day is over I"d been putting them up on the back of my door so students can still access them. Next year when I start using these at the beginning of the year I'll only be "slapping" a set a week instead of a day.

Last week I loved them off the door onto the wall so they can be more easily used for a stamping centre during guided reading.

My kids love these, and the firsties across the hall keep coming and slapping them too!

The pre-primer set is a Forever Freebie!

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If you would like me to review other books for kids please leave a comment. It must be useful to either teachers or parents of children age 4 to grade 2.

Want to find awesome resources for your Early Childhood Education classroom?
Visit Reading With Mrs. D on Teachers Pay Teachers
Facebook
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Today's featured resource: 

Help support Reading With Mrs. D and our family. Join Swagbucks and we can both earn money to spend on our kids!

Science Object and Materials final lesson

Here in Saskatchewan one of the first-grade units is all about Objects and Materials, and several outcomes require kids to make a new Object out of other materials, so for our final lesson in this unit, we made these tambourines!

Materials per student:

2 paper plates

a small handful of noodles (we used shells)

8 10cmish pieces of ribbon

8 staples

First I directed students to colour the side of their plates that normally touch the table.

After that was done we formed a slow line where we filled with noodles, stapled four times, chose ribbons and returned to the end of the line to staple on their ribbons. Considering their different levels of artistry, it went pretty well!

Circle of Courage (most communities call it the medicine wheel)

Canadian Flag

Love

Side view of another love tambourine

How do you end your Objects and Materials unit?

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If you would like me to review other books for kids please leave a comment. It must be useful to either teachers or parents of children age 4 to grade 2.

Want to find awesome resources for your Early Childhood Education classroom?
Visit Reading With Mrs. D on Teachers Pay Teachers
Facebook
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Today's featured resource: 

Help support Reading With Mrs. D and our family. Join Swagbucks and we can both earn money to spend on our kids!

Welcome Science Ambassadors!

My school participates in a program which has Science Ambassadors visiting remote communities and helping teach Science. We had our first to classes last week with Jacinda and Ashley. It's going to be a great 6 weeks!

Here's a picture from their first day where they helped my kiddos classify critters into the four types. 

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If you would like me to review other books for kids please leave a comment. It must be useful to either teachers or parents of children age 4 to grade 2.

Want to find awesome resources for your Early Childhood Education classroom?
Visit Reading With Mrs. D on Teachers Pay Teachers
Facebook
Twitter
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Today's featured resource: 

Help support Reading With Mrs. D and our family. Join Swagbucks and we can both earn money to spend on our kids!

Math: Tangram Fun

We're wrapping up our Geometry unit in Math and so we've been having some fun creating with Tangrams earlier this week. We made these cute Tangram art projects to display in our hallway. Here's My "Apple for the Teacher"

Some students created their projects completely without help, while others lacked the spacial skills to do this activity unaided, so I put of several patterns on the computer screen to help them build their critters. Check out some of the best:

girl carrying...

Bluejay

Triangle

Vulture

Do your kiddos enjoy Tangrams or is it too hard for their spacial sense?

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If you would like me to review other books for kids please leave a comment. It must be useful to either teachers or parents of children age 4 to grade 2.

Want to find awesome resources for your Early Childhood Education classroom?
Visit Reading With Mrs. D on Teachers Pay Teachers
Facebook
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Today's featured resource: 

Help support Reading With Mrs. D and our family. Join Swagbucks and we can both earn money to spend on our kids!

Dental Health Month

I'll admit I didn't do much for Dental Health Month in my classroom, aside from continuing to take candy from students and reminding them to NOT bring pop to school after their lunches at the local Gas Bar (our towns only restaurant). 

However I did participate in the school wide contest for Bulletin boards and created this Bulletin board featuring my students smiling mouths and their teeth showing!

And our wonderful Dental Therapist talked to my class about how many teeth they have and the importance of looking after them.

I'll need to do better next year to talk more about this in class time too. Suggestions for good books that month next year?

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If you would like me to review other books for kids please leave a comment. It must be useful to either teachers or parents of children age 4 to grade 2.

Want to find awesome resources for your Early Childhood Education classroom?
Visit Reading With Mrs. D on Teachers Pay Teachers
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest

Today's featured resource: 

Help support Reading With Mrs. D and our family. Join Swagbucks and we can both earn money to spend on our kids!