39/180 H for House...

H is for house
H is for happy...
(teacher because after 4+ hours, her favorite baseball team won!)

Some student work from our unit on BUILDINGS:

 H for House

My TA's added the counting and numbers to incorporate our math focus for the week (counting 0-3)

Thanks Albertsons for the straw!

We had real straw, sticks, and a brick for the kiddos to observe before they did this.

Tomorrow, I am going to have them retell the story!

38/180 IT WAS A GOOD DAY

Reflections with my teaching partner today...
1. Routines are pretty set.
2. Our kids know how to clean up... well most of them.
3. Lots of growth social-emotionally overall.
4. Students are happy.
5. Running noses and band-aid requests are a given.
6. So are bumps, bruises, and unclaimed hair clips.
7. We should outlaw the dramatic corner/playhouse until we can find a good housekeeper... (JK, but it was a thought!)
8. We can hear J calling "Teacher, teacher..." in our sleep.
9. ETK is a pretty good gig!
10: We're taking tomorrow off...

The Dodgers also won to force a game 5.
Our PD was on the 3-Phase Lesson in Math...
and I love the 3-Phase Lesson in Math!
Bryce did his homework before he got home.
And did I mention I have tomorrow off?

Photo of the Day: (Taken from small group time)
Small Group Today as we continue our focus on BUILDINGS (this week houses)

I read and discussed the book Building a House.
We found pipes in the bathroom, identify electrical sources, identify parts of homes, etc.
Then did a quick directed drawing with students on the basic parts of a house.
(Some simple vocabulary for EL students)
I will turn their pictures of houses into a class book later.

Yaretzi decided to practice writing the letter H on her drawing.
Could it be that she had just come from a group where she made a house with the letter H?

37.5/180 CONCEPT OF PRINT and TEACHING READING TO 4 YEAR OLDS...

If you know me, you know that Early Childhood Education is one of my passions.

The other is Early Literacy.

I want to keep my ETK class DAP (Developmentally Appropriate Practices)

But I also want to incorporate early literacy skills.

This was my small group activity today. (12 minutes max!)

Our theme is BUILDINGS

This week we are looking at homes, types of houses.

Letter intro: Hh

You can get a lot in 12 minutes!

1. We looked a pictures of different types of houses.

2. I drew a simple rectangle.

3. Students added parts to a house (door, windows, roof, etc.)

4. I wrote the word/letter A and drew a picture of a part of a house. (Talking aloud as I do)
5. I read each sentence with the pointer.
6. Students take a turn reading the sentences using the pointer.

7. Quick word search for the word A.

8. We sit in a circle and play "Pass the plate."

*Students pass the plates around in a circle until I say stop. (I didn't have music available, so I just said "Stop!")
Plates can have letters, numbers, sight words, math problems, question, etc. I wrote the sight words I and A.

Once I say "Stop!" Students who are holding a plate turn it around and read the word.
It's not competitive, so if a child doesn't know it, we say it together. Just practice and exposure in a fun way.

There you go! 12 minutes!

Favorite moments from group today:

One group added tires. James is a big Monster Truck fan, so he insisted the house have tires.

Students found tires on a house amusing while they practice "reading and concept of print."
So I wanted to show them, there are many houses on wheels!

Another favorite moment was when Nathan picture read the sentence and read the word A as "I see a ________."  I didn't interrupt or correct him during his reading. I wanted to praise him first.

Then I helped him focus on the print. He does know the word A, so I just wanted to remind him to check. I love the way he started to read and then stopped and reread from the beginning again.
He's on his way to monitoring his own reading!

37/180 KIDS' ART FILLS MY BUCKET...

Art pieces for the Very Special Arts Festival next week at the Music Center.

Materials: Acrylic paint on canvas with watercolors and permanent marker.

Theme is Heroes.

Our performance is the song, "What I Am"

Self Portraits of the young heroes in my class!

36/180 ACRYLICS AND 4 YEAR OLDS...

I have canvases leftover from last year.

I have acrylic paints.

We are participating in the Very Special Arts Festival.

Lets see what we can come up with...

More next week.

On a side note:

So glad it's Friday.

All the adults are sick or semi sick.

We can use the weekend to regain our strengths.

35/180 FIRST UNIT: BUILDINGS

The curriculum is new to me this year.

Our first unit is BUILDINGS.

Today we read the book Changes, Changes.

It brought back so many memories.

Wordless, but lots of oral language in small groups.

After we read the book, we made our own changes happen using the same set of blocks!

 We went from a bedroom with beds to...

 a house for them to live in... to... 

A boat to sail away in!

Yesterday, we looked at buildings around the world via iPad.
Then we looked at the buildings in our school.
And then we looked and described our own building.
Last, we tried to draw our building the it's elements!

34/180 BASEBALL NERVES & ROBOTS

Dodgers haven't won a World Series since 1988.

They haven't started division playoffs yet, 

but I am already nervous.

Dang Giants just scored 3.

They have won the world series the last 3 even number years.

It's an even number year.

Eeeek!

We are always on the move in ETK!

We could change bulletin boards weekly.

We are working on rectangles today.

One of our TA's did this with them.

I'll post my group work tomorrow.