66/180 TAKING IT OUTSIDE!

I love trees!
I love bark!
I love taking kids on tree walks...

Bella named this tree Lulu!

#ETK #YoungScientists@Work #OutdoorLearning #SCIENCE

65/180 BACK TO THE FUTURE...

Mondays after a week off is hard.
But seeing "some"... okay all, of my 3-4 year old faces makes it easier. 😊

"This is you Miss Fung and your son Bryce!"
 It's like one of those two view pictures. I initially saw sad faces, but then realized that it wasn't a sad frown, but part of my torso that was connected to my head, and only looked like a frown... when in actuality, there's a happy face on both of us,
 -minus a nose, get the picture? #whyIloveECE

I love observing my students. They are all so unique and fascinating!

Today I watched J sort his favorite color out of two different materials.

He sorted during outdoor center and made a symmetrical train.

Then during indoor centers, he did the same thing with the inch worms.

When you leave kids alone, they show you some amazing things!

GIVING THANKS...

This is my first Thanksgiving without both my parents here. 

They waited their turn in line to immigrant to the United States in 1966.

They were in their early 30's.

They had two young daughters and not much else.

They did not speak a word of English.

My dad's older brother sponsored them...

and had a kitchen job waiting for dad in Fresno, California.

Everything else was left behind.

I cannot imagine leaving America with my boys to another country today.

Thankful for their courage, hard work, and determination to provide for their children.

We have a better life because of their sacrifices. 

Drove up to Fresno to have Thanksgiving with my sister Gladys. 

Noticed the avocado tree in our backyard had grown.

Gladys told me mom had planted the tree and it never had yield any fruit...

Until this year.

Good to know that the plants mom tended and loved keeps on growing...

MANY THINGS TO BE THANKFUL FOR...

Yesterday the LA Times wrote a story about an amazing friend of mine. She has endured such challenging circumstances this past year, but still she rises. I am in awe of her. Like I said... we have many things to be thankful for... I am thankful for her spirit and light.

AMAZING MISSY!

64/180 Part 2: THE CIRCLE OF LIFE...

Yatzil's pinto bean and pumpkin seed...

DAY 1

DAY 3

DAY 5

DAY 7

64/180 THANKSGIVING BREAK IS HERE!

I am thankful that "they" were able to located my students' beautiful, first self portraits on canvases.

 I am thankful for a roomful of beautiful, unique, souls, that have unlimited energy, who teach me patience everyday.

Vanesa reminds us of the beauty in being kind to others.

It's has been tough emotionally for me this week, so close to the holidays, and not having mom here physically.  I am thankful that I have the next week to reflect, regroup, and revitalize before heading into the final weeks of 2016.  Enjoy your week off LAUSD peeps!

63/180 DONE!

After 3 afternoons at Starbucks, and late night logging on...
I am done with all of my DRDP ratings!
Now I know to start early and concentrate on few areas at a time.
Too much information to input!

One more day until Thanksgiving break!
1.5 weeks left to practice our Winter dance when we get back.
23 days until Daniel turns 16.
30 days until the anniversary of the worse day in my life so far.
37 days until Christmas.

Our math turkeys... sequence the numbers.

N is for nest!

And there's always painting!

62/180 Busy Day... Busy Night

Had a late night band performance.
Daniel didn't get back to school until nearly 9:30pm.
With homework check, late night dinner, baths, and such...
Not much time to post too much.

Highlights of the Day:
I tried direct instruction for letter formation today in groups.
We are exploring letter Tt, and since it's only straight lines,
thought why not teach it "formally" using white boards.

I have been a fan of the McCracken's for a long time.
They make great predictable books for shared reading.
I have used their book: Spelling Through Phonics throughout my teaching career.
It really isn't for PK-K, but I like the simple structure of it.
I use it with directed drawing and my students usually loved it!
Good practice with fine motor skills and it gives them confidence in drawing.

So we practiced writing the letter Tt exactly 8 times. 4 uppercase and 4 lowercase. Then we spent the rest of our 12 minutes coming up with words that began with the /t/ sound. A few directed drawings followed. Even though I give the same simple directions, all the drawings are so unique to the child and the words connected came from them.

B's turtle...

J's amazing turtle! Amazing because J doesn't know how to write his name yet, but his drawings are coming along really well! So very proud of him today!

Y wanted to make a family of turtles!

 Okay, I really need to get to bed now. Late night... 2 more days till Thanksgiving Week break!
Before I go, here are a few of my favorite Tt word drawings of the day... Tt for teacher, so we drew my co-teaching partner.

61/180 DIRECTED DRAWING...

Still working on inputing measures...
One of my talented TA's lead the directed drawing center this week.
Not bad for 4 year olds!
Can't believe Thanksgiving is next week already!

60/180 PUMPKINS! PUMPKINS!

After a few weeks of exploring pumpkins,

 we are now ready to grow our own!

The soil has been ordered and our seeds-

(from our class pumpkin) have begun to sprout!

Hopefully our seeds will continue to sprout and grow full cycle!
I'm a little concerned about our 3 week winter break...
But we have lots of seeds to spare, if we need to replant again!

Thank you FEDCo Grant for funding our unit!

SUNDAY SCORING...

I need to finish my rating (aka progress reporting for ETK) for my students.

Its going to be a long process.

I'll start earlier next time.... really I will.

Until then, enjoy our-

RANDOM CONVERSATIONS DURING WRITING...

 

3 year old N just became a big brother again!

59/180 FAKE FRIDAY

I like how that sounded on my friend Erin's FB posting today.
We have tomorrow off.
So it is like a Friday, only it's not.

We are 1/3 of the way done with the school year.
Winter break is around the corner.
I feel more comfortable in my new role.
Our team is coming along quite well.
We have our roles down now.
Our talented TA's are taking initiative to do what they do best without waiting for our "approval," now. I hope they feel they are our partners, because they are experts too.

When your TA's want to get creative with the classroom door!

We had all our parents show up for student-led conferences this week.
25 Done!
So much easier when there are 2 of us.
We did not separate into yours and mine,
They are all ours and...
felt just as comfortable that our TA's helped conduct them too!
Now I have to input the 800+ measures by next week.
But it's all good.
I'm still a procrastinator that is easily distracted!

So my epiphanies of the week: (I love the word Epiphany!)

*I am going to start each circle time with a favorite read aloud. Why now?
Because I think they are finally ready. I started to do that at the beginning of the year, but soon found out that reading anything longer than a few minutes, with more complex text, was something most of them was not ready for. Now, we can move forward... #followthechild

*We will do the Flag Salute each morning.
We forgot that they did not know what the flag salute was or the verses. We must now find a real flag. Our patient RJ teacher gave me a small paper one on a straw yesterday as a talking piece. That will do for now.

*I will alternate Shared Writing and Writing Workshop everyday in small groups. Repetition, Routine, and Practice. The early literacy educator in me is fighting to come out, but had to hold off a little. I have seen so much growth in terms of drawing and speaking, time to take it a step further. They are ready now. #followthechild.

*More science. Enough said.

"Teacher, I want to eat the pumpkin!"

58/180 MOVING ON...

Literacy Center today... Read Aloud Pumpkin, Pumpkin. Examine pumpkin seeds. Shared writing... and then a little literacy work (all in 12 minutes!)

Group 1: We read their sentences together and practice finding and matching the letter Ss for seeds!

After group 1, just decided to stick with simple Concepts of Print.

Students generated the sentences and we practice reading
and tracking them together.

Going left to right was my main goal.

1 to 1 correspondence was a bonus!

*Note for my sister, YES, we are play-based. We play 2 hours outside each day and at least another hour inside. Center time is only an hour of their 6 hour day. See pictures below!

57/180 CONFERENCES, PROGRESS REPORTS, and an ELECTION

I'm tired.
It's Election Day.
I am grateful I live in a country where citizens can vote.
Where there is freedom of speech.
I am just a little speechless tonight.
God bless America and the people that live here.
Thinking positive as we move forward.

I wish mom were still here.
She lived for politics.
She always had a lot to say.
She didn't like either candidate.
Tonight makes me miss her more.

56/180 SMALL STEPS...

J's writing samples...

SURPRISE SATURDAY FIND!

It may appear to be just a $3.00 toss & stick toy to the untrained eye...
but to a teacher looking for a way to satisfy one of her special friend's need for throwing, hitting, banging, and chasing, it is a FIND! It won't satisfy his need to hear loud crashing or banging, but I think it will make a perfect "Throw and Run Toy!" And it may save one or two of our toys from shattering into pieces next week.  Fingers crossed!

55/180 LONG DAY, SHORT POST...

Student-Led Conferences Day 1
8 Completed
Nice Chatting with families
Surprised Green Tea Latte Frappacino
Homecoming 2016!
Go Moors!

Tired Teacher and mommy.
Back up early tomorrow...


Our 4 Stations for Centers today. Worked out really well! Easy to differentiate too!