Thursday...is library day in room 142!

A Trip to the Library...

You may not think that is a big deal. You may not think students would get excited about a little ol' trip to the school library...but not these kids. Thursday morning rolled in and I mentioned that I had spoken to our librarian, our school has Babymouse, and Captain Underpants! We have acquired these titles this summer in our classroom during my many trips to Village Books, Goodwill, and Amazon.com. The kids began to buzz, little post-it notes began to disappear, I was asked to write a note to the librarian. "Mrs. Amick can you write her and tell her we want to check out anything?"

"You always get to check out anything, now you just know what you want to check out!" I said.

Plans were being made!

Lunch arrived, "Mrs. Amick, Mrs. Amick, when are we going to the library?"
After lunch was over, we used the facilities, gathered our notes and we were off to the school library. As we entered, the librarian led them to the story area. She gave me a questioning look as it seemed everyone had brought a post-it note to the library. As I left the library, I felt proud of my students, they are readers. They are setting goals as readers, they are developing interests and finding favorite authors, they are excited (at the age of 7/8) about going to the library! Mostly, they are turning into lifelong readers, something I have tried to instill in them.
When I gathered them later they were all a twitter about their new finds. Some had stuck with with their post-it note ideas, some had been enticed by other titles. Mostly, they were just content. They were talkative, mentioning to their neighbor what book they checked out, some had gotten nonfiction books and were revealing new information they were learning. All the talk was "good" talk, it was about books!
Fast forward to Friday: "Mrs. Amick, can we do Independent Reading time all day?"

Building Stamina

Reading Workshop in first grade was noisy. First graders read aloud, alot. They aren't talking but they are "whisper" reading for about 20 minutes. It's hard to confer, it's hard to maintain focus for some students, but we got through it. This year I have noticed that most of my kiddos are drifting off and really valuing this precious time that I give them. At first they chatter while getting their books, they find their spot, and then the room falls silent. They are growing as readers.
Today we discussed our stamina. I used myself as a runner to model this new word for them. I talked about how I used to just walk the dog, then I started walking faster, and then I started running. I kept mentioning that all that time I was building stamina. Readers build stamina when they dive under with great books (this is an analogy we came up with when we talk about how readers dive into books. Like a SCUBA diver, they don't experience the above water world, only what is going on under the water, their in their own little world). We discussed that when they go to their reading spot that they need to have enough books to maintain their stamina.
When they marched off excited to read a pin could have dropped in that room.
I pulled up to a person who was reading just a simple Dr. Seuss book, I asked, "Why did you choose this book?"
"I'm working on my fluency, Mrs. Amick! I'm going to practice with this book (the Dr. Seuss book) and then I'm going to really dive under with this one!"
In one reflective moment I realized how much they have grown as readers. Not only do they value this time, they have built stamina, but they also know what they need to read to build themselves up as readers.

Living with a Kindergartner

So Syd is learning about beginning sounds at school lately. Everywhere we go she points out words and says what their beginning sound is, stressing the sound at the beginning. It's a start and we're so proud of her progress. Today at lunch though we had to chuckle when she said this:

"Scaragus, scaragus, Momma, scaragus starts with scary, that starts with 'S'! So, scaragus must start with S!"

Scragus=Asparagus

We had to talk about Asparagus, starting with 'A' even though the beginning sound sounds like the 'E.'

Darn that schwa sound, gets us everytime!

When "**!!Eeerrrr*!*!*! becomes "WOoo Hooo!!!"

So, for the last three weeks I have been arriving at school prepared to greet my little pumpkins with my bright shining face, full of lessons that won't get taught, workstations that will be had (no small groups to meet yet), and workshops to be given minus the conferring. EEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRR! Yes, my system, my non meeting AYP (Annual yearly pain in the ?) system has to do DIBELS and TRC. We were given palm pilots to record our data and while that was very cool I saw myself losing ground. Dibels took no time at all, but the TRC, whoa, I was spending 30-60 minutes on one child. What were the others doing you may ask? Keeping busy! I became more and more stressed at just "getting it done" and I was not doing my students justice. I started to hate the system, hate going there, hate my job, hate, hate, hate. My mind said, "this is why the world loses good teachers!" Thursday, after almost 3 weeks of testing my students, I finished... (can you hear the hallelujah chorus?)
I synched my palm pilot and then printed out my data.
Here is what I discovered:

-My five students who are not where they should be, are already receiving interventions. Apparently, the moron that I am according to No Child Left Behind, is smart enough to notice when a child is not reading at grade level. Hmmmm.....
-My other students, the other 16 proficient readers, are reading at the end of second grade. How can that be? They just started 2nd grade, well you see, their teacher, has studied the benefits of Reader's Workshop and implemented that in her classroom. Those students excelled with that program and she continues to work with them again this year. Why? Because she knows it will continue to work.
-The other 2 proficient readers, are at grade level, and that is okay. They are where they should be, reader's workshop will get them to a k by the end of 2ND grade.
Maybe, I am not such a moron after all. Smart enough to read really great best practices and apply!

Our Family...complete

Last week we adopted a new dog. Her name is Lucy, she is rescued from God only knows where, she is a year, and she is ever so sweet. We feel complete now that we are a two dog family.

Writing From Another Perspective

Scott's Perspective:

"Oh, I know what this message is!"

"Um, Scott, this is Sarah, I am the one leaving our child's elementary school where she has just begun her first day of Kindergarten. She is so beautiful (sniff)babe, you should have seen her! She was sitting at her table, pencil in hand, and writing her name. (sob)I peered at her one last time. She is so confident, everything we wanted her to be and more. I think we can be very proud of her (sniff, sniff,)"

"I knew she would cry! She always holds it together but when it comes down to it, she sent her baby off to school today!" Scott says to his fellow worker.

Jen's Perspective:

"Hey, how's it going?" asks Jen.

"Not great! (wailing sobs) (sniff, sniff)

"Oh Sarah, I wondered, she's okay, she'll do fine!" Jen reassures me.

"I know but you should have seen her, (sob) she was so confident, and so mad at me for being at her new school. She doesn't need me any more! (sob, wail, sniff)" Sarah weeps into the phone.

"Where are you sitting? I need to get my mind off all of this! I'll call you back when I get to the coliseum!"

I sent my baby child off to school on Thursday. She did wonderfully, the bus ride was awesome, and Mrs. Hilger is very kind. Kindergarten has been a culmination of parenting to me, when I looked at her confidence, her stride, her independence...I knew we had done enough. She is ready, now I must find it within my heart to be ready as well.

Choosing 5...

If you could choose five books to have in your classroom library that you could use for both writer's and reader's workshop what would they be? These books encompass what you teach throughout the year, you can pull them from the shelf and your know exactly what you will teach. What would your five books be?
Here are my five:

1. Chrysanthemum, by Kevin Henkes: I know I have said it before, "I love this book!" It's perfect for teaching small moments, dialogue, repetition, point of view, I could go on and on and on... In reading, this book is excellent for making connections, character development, protagonists, antagonists, heroes, repetition, making inferences, again, on and on and on... This book really is phenomenal when creating community. When we had a bully this year we simply reflected about how Chrysanthemum felt, and how Victoria and the gang only treated her this way because they didn't love themselves. We connected with Chrysanthemum!

2. Apples by Gail Gibbons: If you want to teach All About books, this is the book for you. Gail has such a wonderful way of turning nonfiction books into very interesting materials. You always learn something new when you pick up one of her books.

3. All the Places to Love by Patricia Maclachlan: Connections, imagery, writing a story using poetic words. Inferencing, repetition, using illustrations to make your reader fall in love with your story. Besides all that... it is a beautiful book!

4. Skippyjonjones: Okay, so it is a far cry from making connections, and sometimes it is hard to read and follow as a reader... by golly, this is a fun read! There is nothing like opening a new Skippyjonjones books and reading it aloud to your students. They make me giggle for goodness sake! My students love the language that Mrs. Jones uses with her kittens. They love the songs the chimichangos sing. We absolutely love using our "best Mexican accent." These books teach us that reading is fun! You can open a book, get lost, and have a blast!!!1

5. Charlotte's Web: I loved it in the third grade and I love it now as a teacher. I don't teach a lot in writing from this classic. I teach a lot of things from it in reading. We really connect as a class when we read this classic. We cry at the end, even the boys. We discuss their friendship, how even though they were very different they learned to get over their differences and enjoy each other for their strengths. Plus, E.B. White is phenomenal! His language usage is so beautiful when it rolls off the tongue. The kids can't believe that Charlotte dies, they just can't believe she's gone.

My five mainstays in my classroom. This week I have been putting books back on shelves, and organizing my books. Debbie Miller set up a nook in her basement when she retired from teaching so that she could be among her books. I was so glad to be back with my friends (my books) when I pulled them from the boxes. I held each one, put it in its basket, now we wait for our human friends to come and read.