Since there will be formal district assessments...
17/25 of our kiddos made benchmark on letter ID. 12/25 of our students exceeded the Preschool Foundational Skills.
We may not all be where we all want to, or should, be at this time of year, but, we have made progress towards our goals.
But the true beauty of ECE lies in the informal learning that occurs during play and what I learn by just observing my students play. #EarlyChildhoodEducation #LearnthruPlay
Take a bucket of plastic animals...
Observe what goes on... sharing, negotiating, problem solving, oral language, designing, creating, dramatic play, math,...
What are they up to?
sorting and classifying without a directed lesson! #whyIlovewhatIdo
We're down to 8 days.
I'm tired.
Long weekend.
Quick trip to Fresno to help clean a little more of mom's stuff.
Never easy.
One step at a time.
500+ miles in 24 hours.
Two early call times for band.
Boys on vacation.
I'm not.
Lots to do!
Daniel played at Memorial Day Ceremony in our town. I like that we have these small local celebrations. I also like watching him play tuba!
Another year of SSC done. I ended up as secretary. It wasn't my first time!
I wanted to drive to Dodger Stadium to get a gift. We stopped by for a late lunch at Guisados! This is an Armando Palmero (limon water with jamaica water)
three tacos and a tamale (Wasn't a big fan of the tamale) I work in East LA, I know better tamales!
The Dodgers make me happy! I think if I win the lotto, my retirement party will at Dodger Stadium! Go Blue!
When you just can't sit on the rug for morning circle... "Run two laps and come on back!" #sometimeslifegivesyoumorethanyoucanhandle #heneedsmoreunderstandtoday #thingswecannotcontrol
When your teacher overbakes birthday cupcakes for your other teacher's birthday but you eat it anyway because it just doesn't matter when you're 4. #wasntcheckingtimer #overbakedcupcakes #chocolateface
When your teaching assistant replaces self portraits with cool sharks because you need those portraits in the classroom now... #talentedladies #luckyteachers #hitthejackpot
When the lunch lady serves you this item... #salsburysteak? #kidssayno #goingtobehungryETKs
When you have a go to guy for cool, personalized, end of the year teeshirts!
Today I wanted to work on connecting sounds to print more formally.
We used whiteboards to review letter formation as a warm up.
Then I used some of the ideas from the McCracken's Spelling book.
Since many of my students know their letters and sounds,
I want to move towards independent "kidspell" when writing.
I want them to continue to practice oral blending.
I want them start decoding simple CVC words.
Students write sounds they hear in the order they hear them.
Then we practice blending the sounds of each letter.
If students need more support, we move back to oral blending.
I use a lot of support this time around.
I want students to hear and identify sounds before writing the letter.
This will become easier and more independent as they practice.
There's a lot of scaffolding in the earlier stages,
but as students gain more confidence, they take over the process.
I love working with white boards.
They allow students to make mistakes.
It's not permanent!
They allow for individual instruction.
They allow me to model for students.
They allow students the freedom to change their minds.
4 year old N is practicing writing his name.
He has another year with us and is one of our youngest students.
Connecting letters with sounds was not something he is ready for.
#checkbacknextyear #differentiatingwithwhiteboards
They let students use the skills they know to figure out text.
They let me observe how students are tackling text.
They also provide opportunities for me to sneek in some quick teaching.
I've been waiting to use theses all year!
#theyRready #ETK #transition2Kinder
Today I had the privilege to watch and guide V as she read some unfamiliar books.
It was not a guided reading lesson.
I just wanted to see what she would do with an unfamiliar text.
She's putting so much together! So proud of her.
*Concepts of Print
*Using picture cues
*Using HFW and sounds
*Monitoring
I want to introduce skills and concepts that will help students make the transition to kindergarten.
We have started moving our focus to:
*recognizing and reading high frequency words
*oral blending CVC words
*decoding CVC words
*concepts of print
*using visual cues with letters and sounds (*reading strategies)
*monitoring reading
(all shown in some form on the video of U's reading today below)
Learning and using the high frequency word: CAN
I changed the first word from we to I to check if students were monitoring their own reading.
Many were!
Using students' interest and observations in literacy.
Highlighting the word can.
For students having difficulty, I write the word next to them as a model.
I asked students some of the things they saw at Cabrillo Beach last week.
I used their responses to create a predictable book.
(***at the beginning of video, D is heard thanking me for including a shark in this book!}
U can identify the word can.
When he comes to a word he doesn't know, he stops! #monitoring
I wanted to focus on using picture cues to help them figure out the words.
Fascination with our silkworms continue! Making observations and using informational text visuals.
The kindergarten teachers recognizes students that went beyond benchmarks every year. So we are going to do the same too. Today, I assessed and found 9 students that exceeded PLF skills, with several on the border. #proudsurprises
Our new favorite website: GONOODLE!
It's Friday. LAUSD surprised us with some back pay incentives for attendance. Fresh fruit treat for my incredible team! #chamango/pina
