Left hand, blue! #SOLC17

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Two Writing Teachers

Left foot, blue!

I'm sitting on the floor of the gym.

Right foot, green!

It's family reading night, and I'm hosting the word game room.

Right hand, yellow!

No, Twister doesn't have words.  I planned to tape word card to the dots,

Left hand, red!

But figuring out two-step directions has proven hard enough.

Left foot, yellow!

Some little brothers and sisters help me spin.  They smile and giggle.

Right hand, blue!

Daughter Allison redirects the kids jumping hopscotch and balancing on foam beams.

Right foot, green!

I'm wish some parents would put down their phones and engage with us. <sigh>

Left hand, red!

A few jump rope or help their kids to play.  Others stay on the sidelines.  

Left foot, red!

I wave, smile, and share compliments of their children's enthusiasm.

Right foot, yellow!

I don't mind sitting on the floor of the gym.

Left foot, blue!

When it's for my students.

Celebrate Reading / Celebrar la Lectura! #SOL16 17/31

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Two Writing Teachers

We did it!  A little idea of a reading night to celebrate reading turned into the real deal.

Many staff helped before, during and after the event to make it run smoothly.

Parents and kids had smiles as we punched holes in their "reading passports," keeping track of what rooms they visited.

Read alouds, book browsing rooms, Book Flix in the computer lab, create a bookmark and become an author.

73 families attended!

My feet are sore, my cheeks hurt from smiling, but I'm so very grateful to all my coworkers and students.

The celebration finishes tomorrow morning as I pull passports from each classroom and students win A FREE BOOK!

#schooljoy

Parfaits anyone? SOLC #20

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Two Writing Teachers

We hosted a sweet parent/child event at school last night.  We invited students in grades 3rd-5th to come with a parent and read functional text.

We called it "Fun, Food and Following Directions."

Catchy, right?

At the start of the evening, I read aloud Chicks and Salsa and used my document camera to project a portion of the pictures on a big screen.  It was my first time reading the book, and now I know why it comes so highly recommended (Ole!).

We decided to have our students create a simple parfait.  The directions we wrote lead students to crush vanilla wafers, then layer those with vanilla pudding and whipped topping.  YUM!

There wasn't too much of a mess, and we had lots of great interactions between parents and children.  Some of the parfaits were more like blizzards, and some were total works of art.  I talked with two fifth graders about sedimentary rocks as I checked out their parfaits.

The best part of the evening came when four families were simply relaxing in the lunchroom, chatting.  We teachers continued passing out books to students and thanked other families for coming.  One mom from the chatting group jumped up and exclaimed that she felt like she was at a gathering, and they were very relaxed at school as they socialized.

My fellow teacher explained to her that being relaxed at school was exactly the reason we hold parent/child events.  We want our parents to be comfortable coming to school, and we want our students to see that we value them as part of our school community and as a part of their family.

Today we were all tired, but it was worth it!

Game Night (small scale) - SOLC #21

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Two Writing Teachers

My co-Title I teacher and I hosted a small game night for students in 3rd-5th grade who get extra support in reading.  Our first idea of game night was to send home games with every family who attended.  We'd show them how to play and then they would take the games home.  Our district coordinator thought that it would be wiser to purchase a bunch of games, then have a lending library.  That way our budget would work, and we could share the experiences with more families.

We had 10 families attend tonight's event. We taught the group how to play Basta! (think Scattergories) and gave them a make-and-take bag with letters, categories, a 3-minute timer, golf pencils, and lots of paper.  While different home languages were spoken by these families, we were able to communicate how to play and keep score.

The other games we purchased were Boggle, Apples to Apples Junior, and Bananagrams (in English and Spanish).  We loaned out nearly all the games tonight as the families were leaving.  The biggest hit?  Apples to Apples Junior.  They love that someone gets to be the judge and there's really no wrong answers.  Every answer is considered, and they are learning some great vocabulary.

Even though it was on the small scale, I think we made a big impact.  The families had personal attention from our principal and assistant principal, two teacher assistants, and two reading teachers.  We sat and played with the families and shared laughter and excitement.  It was time well spent.

Poetry Frenzy

I am very thankful for my public library!  Today I had a wide-eyed stare from the gal at the check-out counter.  "Wow, that's a lot of books!" she proclaimed.  Working as a team, we had the pile of titles back into my book bags in a flash.

At my school this week we are hosting a poetry night.  I am ready with books!!  We plan to read aloud poems, and have parents and children read poems together (and enjoy the great illustrations).  Then we will see what happens when children and parents write poems together.

Before all this happens, I get to enjoy my stack of poetry titles, many by authors I haven't read before.  I plan to post my favorites.

It may be April 30th, but I wish you ...
Happy National Poetry Month!