Danny Dog Delivers Delicious Doughnuts.

It wasn't but a week ago that I wrote the blog "Back To The Basics." It was here that I shared one of my discoveries for the need to go back to some simple concepts that will help enhance their reading skills and strengthen their phonemic awareness. I have since then come up with new activities to build these skills and went back to some of the early fun ones that we stopped working on. While working on strengthening awareness of the initial consonant we brought back our alphabet alliterations. They remain up in my classroom all year under our alphabet line, yet somehow these fun little friends and phrases were forgotten.

While working with these alliterations and ultimately tongue twisters I decided to record on mp3 their hard work of practicing them. They had a blast repeating their one phrase was recorded at the point of near perfection and enjoyed learning each other's phrases to help friends out. Afterward, I did some editing to the track, so that listening to themselves stumbling over phrases would not frustrate them. I then let them hear their individual voices for this fun class track. They were in awe as they tried to guess every one's voices, and we ended up in all sorts of smiles and laughs. I have yet to stick it on a CD or my iPod for us to listen to during snack time, but I have no doubt they will be excited to hear their voices once more when I get around to that little surprise.

Back To The Basics.

It came to my attention today that there is a need to get back to the fundamental reading skills that my Kindergartners have acquired from the start of the year. I was encouraged to see how quickly these bursting buds picked up basic reading concepts this year. They began to read much sooner than I anticipated. My overflow of encouragement boosted their eagerness to read and their confidence that they can do it.

As they have dramatically improved, however, it seems like we've all of the sudden hit a wall. I'm not sure if I'd call that wall 'laziness' or 'over-confidence' but they have started to develop bad habits. They begin to guess words they think they know based upon the beginning letter and sometimes the end, rather than taking the time to sound out every letter and not forget about the middle letters. So today, I implemented a new rule. We must go back to the basics and sound out ALL letters of every word, even the ones that are labeled easy. It's time to implement some new techniques so our middle letter friends are not forgotten!

I suppose this laziness or over-confidence can be found in any of us. As humans, we tend to fall into monotonous routines that run our everyday lives and sometimes forget the need to keep things fresh. It therefore becomes important for everyone, not just five-year-olds, to get back to the basics. Who wants to get stuck creating bad habits? Just a thought, but this appears to be something we all can learn a life lesson about.

A Silly Story.

Dr. Seuess wrote, "Every day, from here to there, funny things are everywhere." One of the reasons why I love teaching Kindergarten is because you get to be silly. In fact, you practically have to be silly if you want to be most successful. The other day, I gave my students an opportunity to write and illustrate their own silly stories, after reading One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish by Dr. Suess. If you've ever read it, it's full of rhyming, nonsensical short stories that the kids love to laugh and laugh about.

After giving them a moment to think creatively, I handed them their papers and let them run with their imaginations. Here's some of the silly stories they came up with:

1) My funny is a girl on the potty. And a rainbow was shining at her.

2) Goop and the Vilgaks. Goop is fighting Vilgaks with a sword. But Goop won.

3) Play, play, play, play until it was dark.

4) She went to the restroom. Mariah is her name. It was the boys.

5) Pop. He is on the cap. He is cool. He has three eyes.


6) My snack is Ed. Ed jumped.


So what's your vote on the funniest?
1. The girl on the potty?
2. Goop the Vilgaks?
3. Play play play play?
4. A girl in the boys restroom?
5. Pop with three eyes?
6. The snake that jumped?

Upside-down.

Have you ever come across something written by a child, backwards? It is actually quite normal for this to happen. In my world, this happens all the time. When I encounter this, I usually give a gentle reminder how to write it correctly and add loads of encouragement for doing their best. Writing can be frustrating at first, so I make sure to give extra support so they don't feel discouraged if it isn't perfect. For those discouraging days, I love to build confidence in my students by saying one of our favorite phrases, "The more we practice, the better we get!" This will usually turn that frown upside-down pretty quickly.

Aside from backwards, on a more rare occasion I have had students writing letters upside-down. They can typically write their names completely upside-down and backwards. Sometimes I stand there amazed. All I have to do is flip their paper upside down and there you have a perfectly written name. This seems even complicated for me to try.

While working with a student today, I noticed her writing her letters perfectly. On the line. Nice and round. Proper direction. When she finished one of the roundest O's I've ever seen I watched her as she then began to erase it.

"What was wrong with that O? I asked.

"It was upside-down," she replied.

I couldn't help but smile as I let her continue. I still can't quite figure out what about her O was upside-down, or even what changed the second time around, but I delighted to know that her writing standards far exceeded mine. :)

Rule 4.

I feel like I have become the classroom's official argument settler. Arguments usually occur during snack time or choice time. No matter what the topic of the day is, those little people always seem to turn to me for the final call. One time I settled the argument about whether the term 'google' was a number or a website. Another time it was whether or not breakfast and lunch could actually be termed 'brunch'. Today's argument occurred only minutes into class.

You see, every morning I open the class with Journal writing time. The Kindergartners have the opportunity to illustrate and write about any topic they want. They are generally very focused on their work, because if they finish early I allow them to have reading time. However, before they can escape to their reading time, their work must first be approved by me. The debate occurred when I had a line of three kids at my desk. I happened to be working with one student individually, while the other two filled their waiting time with quiet bickering. After I had finished working with the first student, the next two stepped up. Immediately, I could tell this was something serious.

"How may I help you," I asked.

"Teacher? Are '/thu/' and '/thee/' the same?"

"Yes. We can say them either way when reading T-H-E, but remember rule number 4? 'In 'the' the E says /ee/ because it comes at the end of a syllable'."

Now you can always tell the humility of a friend when he or she will openly admit they were wrong. This was one of those cases, since he turned to his friend, said "You're right," and then modestly walked away.

I was happy to have helped solve such an important issue, but I was couldn't help but wonder how the topic came about. Still standing there, I asked the third student and deemed champion of the argument,

"What was that about?"

With a gratifying grin, he looked at me and said proudly, "He said I was right!"

I was satisfied knowing that in that moment we had a humble loser, a proud winner, and a helpful mediator.