95/180 Some Days...

Some thing must have been in the water today...

But even on those days... there are always things that bring me joy,

like J feeling proud that he drew a happy person in his favorite color red! 

 or hanging out with preschoolers during writing workshop...

 or having two competent TAs teach students how to follow directions

and provide opportunities to practice fine motor and early literacy skills

Happy Year of the Rooster!

94/180 Creative Curriculum

This is my first year in ETK.
This is our one of our curriculum guides.
I alway feel a guide is just that, a resource and not set in stone.
You take what you need.
It has some good stuff, and some that I thought didn't match my kids.
After a semester of finding my way back to ECE again,
I'm ready to start going deeper into each unit.
First up: Clothing.
                                           

Week One: Types of clothing we wear in different types of weather... 

(Poem of the Week)

And on the homefront, it's California Mission Project time! 

For some reason I don't remember Daniel doing one and I looked forward to it. Although there are many missions closer to our home, this is the one Bryce was given. Road trip up north next weekend... with a 4th grader, his camera and notepad, a moody teenage brother, and 2 dogs! Wish me luck!

Happy New Year! Sun Nean Fy Lok!

We celebrated the Year of the Rooster yesterday in class.

The kids had a great time and I got to share my culture with my students.

Eating noodles (for longevity) and orange chicken with chopsticks!

Posing with the "Funny Guy"and wearing red for luck!

Practicing the Lion Dance to chase away bad spirits and bring good luck!

Our wonderful collection of percussion instruments (Thanks Donors!)

93/180 Early Literacy!

Today I wanted to try guided reading with students that I thought were ready. I have a handful of them that know letters by name, many sounds, a few sight words, and basic concept of print. Our wonderful plant manager found an extra kidney table so that we could replace one of the long rectangle ones. I really like to be able to sit close to students and having conversations about text and the kidney table helps facilitate that!

I used a simple Level A reader.

We did a picture walk, discussed picture cues, and what penguins can do.

I didn't concentrate on decoding, my main focus was concept of print.

Goal for the Day: 1 to 1 correspondence

After we read the book together. They each practiced reading independently.

  

After reading, I asked them to talk about things they can do.

Then I wrote down their words, 

cut each word out while they read them (Reading Recovery Style)

Then I asked the student to put the words in order... and they DID!

Other friends noticed what we were doing and wanted to read too.

So we talked about the pictures and read the text together.

Afterwards, they shared things they can do and I wrote.

I still cut out each word so that they can see words are separate.

But this time...

they had a model to help them match.

 

After they finished their drawing. I had them "read" their sentences.

(Print carries meaning... check!)

Early Literacy makes me happy!

92/180 Ready, Set, Go! (Following the child...)

I decided that our Data wall wasn't really providing much data.

It was just a wasted corner and we hadn't really looked at it much.

So... REVISION!

Less is more.

So we decided on 4 main areas.

As a former kindergarten, if students entering kindergarten met the goals below, I'd be thrilled!

Took off the tree and made each child a bee. I divided them into group by how many goals they have met. Then using data we had just collected, I wrote the goal number that they accomplished. Bees have magnet tape attached. Those students that were curious and wanted to know, I explained with the numbers meant. I am hoping that parents will also find this easy to read.

Here's another data chart. It was used for how many letters can you read?
I have over 6 students that either know all the letters by name or are very close.
The standard for my class is to know half of alphabet.
So today, I grabbed a group of kids and informally assessed them to see if they were ready to join me in guided reading. They were ready. Not the whole class, but some that understand concept of print and knew 5-7 sight words may be. I'm excited to see what happens as we move forward.

91/180 Pictures from our Day

Red painting for Chinese New Year!

 I have tons of magnetic letters sorted for blending and CVC words in K-1.

Today I took them out, dumped them all in a bucket added sorting trays

and small cookie sheets. Free exploration!

 Each day I surprise the kids with a new artifact for CNY.

Today it was the funny man's head.

I'm not sure who he is, but the head is pretty funny

and he teases the lion to chase him.

 And there's those wonderful drums!

Hope the walls are thick!

Every changing walls!

90/180 HALF WAY MARK

Can't believe our school year is 1/2 over today!
I love these kiddos!
Today, we "celebrated" by rearranging some furniture.
Still trying to make the flow of the classroom more functional.

Highlights of the Day:

Yesterday, I introduced the cymbals.
Today, it was the Lion Head!

We are working on our steady beat-drum patterns...and taking turns without tears!

Writing Workshop continues.

Goal this week to increase WW to at least 3x this week.

The students are getting the routine down now.

1. Find a blank page.

2. Stamp the date.

3. Draw or write your story.

4. Share it!

I have seen them progress along nicely,  and with 1/2 the year left, I am confident that we could move towards a writing workshop period, where we are all writing at the same time. I am looking forward to doing a mini lesson, and ending with author's chair. Right now it's in small group, but I would love for my students to experience the whole class writing at the same time! Patience Jane!

Nadia: I helped her stretch out the word Dad. She told me that her dad was fixing the car. I asked her to try to write some of the sounds. After I praised her on DAD, I asked her if she wanted to write cards she could. I said the /k/ sound and she wrote C. Then I moved on to another child while she colored. When she finished she add the letter R on her own! Not sure if it was for the ending sound of CAR or because we are focusing on the letter Rr this week. Either way, very excited about her development. Trying to push her to be more confident and try to write on her own!

 Justin: November 2016

Justin: Today

He told me to take a picture of his work. My students know I am always documenting. He drew a picture of the Lion head. Then just wrote letters on his own including the Rr to tell his story. He went around the room looking at letters to write. Then he was done. He happily shared his story with me. I didn't need to take dictation today. His writing said it all!

Sometimes I need to just listen and learn... Thanks for reminding me Victoria!

Happy 90th Day of School!

89/180 Rainy Days, Roosters, and a Huge Gift from Google!

It rained all day again.
But it wasn't so bad.
I think the kids missed playing with each other during the weekend.

We began our Chinese New Year week today.
I so enjoy this unit because it exposes my students to my background and culture.

Although Los Angeles is a diverse city, we are segregated in many ways.
I teach in a classroom... school, where students are all from the same culturally background.
All my students are Latino, specifically Mexican.  I love learning about their community and culture. I want them to learn about mine. I know they will realize that we have a lot in common despite our differences. They also get to bang a lot of drums and cymbals, and chase away bad spirits in a Lion costume. How fun is that?!

When I student taught in Sally Tsuchiguchi's kindergarten classroom years ago,
I learned that there is a poem, song, or chant for every topic you can imagine.
If there isn't one, then you can make one up.
I spent many weeks creating poems, songs, and chants in her classroom.
I have used poetry in my classroom every since.

Here is the Chinese New Year poem I created over 20 years ago.
I wanted to incorporate the important elements of the celebration and make it simple enough for my young English learners to understand.

My team partner not only is a chef, but he is quite an artist too! He drew the animals of the zodiac free hand, and then shaded in some of my drawings as well! #luckyteacher #favoriteCNYpoem

***The sun came out at the end of the day. We may go out to play tomorrow! Yay!
***Even more good news was the phone call I received afterschool saying we got a field trip from Google to the California Science Center next month! It was a great day!

WE MARCH BECAUSE WE CAN

I hadn't planned on attending the Women's March in LA initially.

It had rained all day Friday and rain was expected on Saturday too.

But I really wanted to be there and I wanted the boys to be there too.

They agreed to go.

So...

I woke up early and was inspired to create something.

A teacher's house and garage can be a gold mind for creating last minute signs!

We invited our friends Tonie and her daughter Nitse to join us.
So off we went on our adventure, hoping to take part in history!

After being left behind by a few trains filled to capacity,
And not waiting to spend a small fortune on Lyft or Uber,
We decided to ride the Metro train in the opposite direction...
to find a seat on the train going back towards downtown.
So after riding up to Arcadia,
we were able to find a seat/space to ride all the way back to Little Tokyo!
It was worth it.

 In a crowd of 750,000 faces, just how likely are you to find one that you know and love?! Tia Terry!

I want to raise boys that respect girls.
I want them to know that we have the right to share our thoughts, feelings, and opinions.
Freedom of speech is what makes America great!

After a long, but eventful, day-including his first exposure to some interesting things... Bryce celebrated with lunch in Chinatown, followed by dessert in Little Tokyo!

Not sure what will become of the marches across the nation. 

But this I do know, if we all stay silent, nothing will change. 

We learned today that we can express our thoughts, feelings, and opinions

in a peaceful, and respectful way.

We may not all agree, but we need to listen to and learn from each other.

Thanks to all the men and women in blue that kept us all safe and sane!

88/180 HERE COMES THE RAIN AGAIN...

But it didn't let up today.
Rained the entire school day.
Stopped right at the time of dismissal.

Imagine: 7:50-2:30... over 6 hours.
In a classroom...
With 22... 3-5 year olds,
And no outdoor, running, screaming, jumping, bouncing, dancing, hopping, sliding, chasing... with the exception of some puddle splashing/raindrop drinking ETKers that escaped to go to the bathroom without an adult and instead took an accomplice!

Terrifying huh?

I love the rain and all, but lets not have it all day with a room full of stir crazy preschoolers! They did get to read, write, paint, color, play, make cookies, and eat carrots (Letter Cc).

On a more happy note... it's nice to have a team partner that is also an Italian Chef! Just saying! #Lunch #ILoveMyTeam #AdultsinRoom27Only 

87/180 The Importance of Outdoor Play

It rained this morning, 

but later on, the sun decided to make an appearance.

The kids and I had a blast making observations of the sun moving back and forth from behind clouds.

We ended up saying that the sun was playing hide and seek and it did for nearly 15 minutes...

overcast, sunny, overcast, sunny... Love the chance to make observations!

In the ETK requirements there is a mandate that students spend at least 2 hours outdoors each day. This is one mandate, I am more than happy to obey! So much going on when kids are at "play" both indoors and out... planning, designing, creating, testing, matching, patterning, strumming, singing, negoigat, 

The sweet sounds of engineers at work! #blessed #Lovemyjob #ETK #LegosRock!

86/180 Things That Make Me Happy...

Best gift! Ethan and I with a birthday cake!

Seeing evidence of growth... (Name Chart)

 SAMPLE 1...

 SAMPLE 2...

SAMPLE 3... We're getting there!

ALWAYS MY FAVORITE STATION...

We are moving towards adding writing workshop to our daily rotations. Students have access to writing and drawing tools everyday both indoor and out, but having writing as a station would make it a formal daily routine and they are ready. 

They definitely have choice in how and what to write, and the goal is to foster confidence and the love of writing and communicating our thoughts, ideas, and stories.  

I am still navigating writing in ETK and learning each time I listen and watch my students.

Here is what it looked like:

Students have a journal (blank pages stapled in a file folder). 

They know the routine: find a blank page, of draw a story, share it, and I took dictation- (I wanted to model that what you say can be written).

Today I had the opportunity to work with each child and differentiate accordingly. 

They all had to follow the routine of finding a blank page.

Writing (or attempt) to write their name.

We stamped the page.

They were free to draw/write about any topic or story they wanted.

The rest depended on the child.

Nathan had a story in mind. He began to draw right away. *Students have 1-12 minutes.
Trust me, we get a lot done in that time! 

He shared his family story orally first. Then instead of taking dictation, I suggested that he write the story on his own and he did! He started writing random letters initially and then he said, "I went to my... I know how to write I!" He stopped writing random letters and wrote I. Then he continued to say and write his story using random letters, but every time he said I, he wrote it! Starting to make those connections! #beautifulobservation!

Abigail share that she went to the movies with her family.
I knew she was beginning to make letter sound connections, so I asked her to try to write sounds that she can hear and skip the ones she didn't know. We focused on labeling initial sounds: Movies, Dad, Mom, Valerie "I wrote my name already."

Justin wrote about going to the park and playing ball with his parents and brothers. We talked about how fun parks were and I asked him to share more details. Since he only had limited letter knowledge, we concentrated on telling story orally in English.

Most of the students drew and shared their story. I didn't write anything on their pages. My comments were oral. Yatzil just wrote her name 5 times in rows, while others just drew a picture and shared. All good... for the ones that I knew had an understanding that letters make sounds, I encouraged and supported them in writing down sounds they heard.

Ethan knows all his letters by name and many by sounds, I decided to do some interactive writing with him. I wrote the letters he didn't know in blue. So very proud of him! *Bonus points if you can read what it says!

It was a good day. Now I need to get to bed.