Transform Your Teaching!
Summer Seminars
August 1-3, 2011
Portland, Oregon
DAY 1: Begin the Year with "Best Practices" in Joyful Accelerated Kindergarten Literacy
DAY 2: Writing to Read in Kindergarten: Explore the Power of "Kid Writing"
DAY 3: Multisensory Teaching of Foundation Skills: Explore the Magic of Fingerspelling and Signing Songs
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Welcome ,
All Kindergartners Love to Write and Draw! |
Every day the kindergartners come into class with new ideas for books they want to write. Some bring in journals and books that they are writing at home. Others ask, “Do I get to publish today?” Both of our all-day kindergarten classes at McKinley and Candalaria in Salem, Oregon are filled with the energy of young, engaged writers.
We see the results of all of our diligence to ABC fluency exercises, “kid-writing” workshop, teaching for mastery of “heart words”, and providing motivating writing centers where children write “really cool books!”
Many children delight in their six-page books while one student wrote a 21-page chapter book which he worked on daily for five weeks in Writers Workshop. We asked Sebastian’s mother if she would like to type it up so we could actually publish the story. And, it is hilarious! (Then the bat sang Old King Cole to his friend Jack Henry. And the bat hugged him. The End. Are you Kidding? This is a chapter book! Chapter 3... ) Then there is John (a future NASA Engineer?) who has completed a non-fiction resource book, All About Rockets
. The table of contents includes Rocket Engine and Generator, Controls Inside the Rocket, and The Battery and Fuel Tank...
- Come and see the Kindergarten Publishing Center at McKinley Elementary in Salem, Oregon and study with Katie Nelson, Winter Curry and myself on May 7th. There are still a few spaces available. See workshop invitation for details.
- We also invite you to join us in Salem, Oregon to see the amazing kid writers in Laura Flocker’s all-day Candalaria kindergarten May 5th for our last Kindergarten Cadre meeting. Laura’s children are currently writing books based on their prediction of what will happen in Mo Williams’ next Elephant and Piggie book, Should I Share My Ice Cream? See Elephant and Piggie Book Club details next month.
I am documenting the work of these kindergarten writers in yet another chapter (Kindergarten Publishing) of my book Joyful Writing-to-Read Kindergarten Accelerate Literacy: All Kindergarteners Love to Write and Draw! The first rough draft will be available this summer. (My apologies to those who thought to purchase my current draft right now. It just keeps growing.) |
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2. Kindergarten Teachers Who Sing, Sign, Dance, and Celebrate Language |
As I reflect on the work of gifted kindergarten teachers in some of Oregon’s most joyful and highest-achieving classrooms, it is with a sense of awe. We continue to provide experiences that far exceed National Common Core Standards, and our best teaching practices still celebrate the imagination and honor childhood.
Kathie Bridges is a mentor kindergarten teacher who uses Sign Language and the arts to build an optimal learning environment; she was also a part of our action-research team for “Multisensory ABC and Phonics Immersion.” See
Kathie Bridges' Children Memorize, Recite and Perform Language
Kathie said, “I believe that music MUST be included in the classroom every day. Singing and dancing are an integral part of our daily class time. Music is an extremely important and effective component of a multisensory and balanced early literacy program. It’s fun to see how comfortable children become as young singers and dancers when they are exposed to music daily. It is especially wonderful to watch those who were reluctant to participate in the beginning of the year grow more comfortable as the year progresses.”
This literacy manual is only available with Kathie's workshop. We will let you know if we schedule another session. “Hardly a day goes by that we don’t dance together,” explained Kathie. What are the reasons for this?
- Children who playfully sing and dance together build speech communication skills in a most delightful way.
- Watch the dance motions in her videos! They include crossing the midline which develops the healthy neurological integration needed for reading and writing success.
- Dancing requires keeping a steady beat, which supports reading fluency and rhythm.
- Movement energizes the brain, creating the optimum (brain-friendly) conditions for making new learning connections.
- Movement and dance build the life skill of performing confidently in front of others as well as physical fitness, good health, and happy learning memories.
 See Video clips: With Happy Hearts We Dance and Sing. At the end of the dance, Kathie Bridges talks about her intentional use of cross-lateral movements and the literacy benefits gained when children dance and sing every day.
See Video clips: End-of-Year Rap
See My Teaching Philosophy by Kathie Bridges |
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3. May Curriculum Connections: Poetry, Children… and Nature |
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May Wind is Busy
May wind is busy
Brushing the robin’s tail.
Combing the willow tree,
And whispering to my ear —
That summer is near. |
Kazue Mizumura |
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- Children’s connections with nature can often be captured in short, memorable
poems such as the one above.
- Hearing and memorizing poetry makes any meaningful class study richer in imagery and language. We want descriptive, poetic language to become a part of every child’s speaking and writing vocabulary.
- The more young children memorize, the larger their capacity for memorizing becomes.
May poems and curriculum connections:
Poetry and Songs for Mother’s Day (You may download individual pages for your Poetry “I Can Read” Notebook.)
Poetry for May Day, Rockhounds, and Birds
Connections with Nature: Our Studies of Birds and Rocks
May (just like every month of the year) provides opportunities to awaken children’s love of nature. Children are inherently fascinated with the natural world outside the classroom, and this often creates compelling reasons to draw, write, and read. One of our goals is for our children to initiate their own scientific explorations over the summer—to learn more about birds, collect rocks, study the night sky, observe and record changes in nature.
Curriculum Connections:
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4. End-of-the-Year Rituals Bring Closure |
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Over the years, my kindergarten colleagues and I have shared many vignettes of memorable classroom rituals, traditions, and celebrations. For us, school has always been a “celebrative place.” We delight in making each child’s learning experience more memorable and meaningful through thoughtful attention to classroom rituals, traditions, and celebrations. These symbolic acts help us build a thriving community of learners. Children come to school with diverse background experiences.
It is the stories we tell, the songs we sing, and the traditions we build that bind the children together emotionally and intellectually, creating an optimal climate for learning, both social and academic.
Happy kindergartners in Eugene, Oregon are busy hand-painting wings this month for their End-of-the-Year Kindergarten Fly-Away Celebration. Parent volunteers trace and cut out a set of wings from railroad board for each child. One of the teachers explains, “After the children paint their wings with bright colors and designs (and sometimes feathers and glitter), we attach two elastic straps to hold these on their arms.
On our last day of school, families are invited for an informal picnic lunch and Popsicle event, which concludes with the children donning their wings and ‘flying away’ from kindergarten. Children love the effect of flying in their wings down the sloping hills and meadow areas at the edge of the school woods!”
Families watch and applaud at the bottom of the hill as their joyful child comes floating up and down again and again. What a lovely, symbolic way to bring closure to a joyful kindergarten year!
See article: End-of-Year Family Ritual: Kindergarteners Paint Wings and Fly Away.
For other end-of-the-year celebration ideas, see:
Photo Essay: The Kinder Stars’ Year-End Celebration with Celeste Starr
Kathie Bridges Video clip – End-of-Year Rap
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5. Closing the Achievement Gap Over the Summer |
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Powerful kindergarten literacy gains can easily be lost over the summer, especially by our emerging readers and writers who are still building foundational skills. Wise kindergarten teachers have developed strategies to support family fun and literacy learning over the summer:
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- Give Each Family a Copy of Summer Homework? Summer Fun! Encourage families to keep the love of learning alive and to value unstructured childhood play.
- Remind families to reread, recite, and sing together from their child’s “I Can Read” Notebook pages of poems, songs, rhymes, and chants. Children will continue to gain reading fluency with these short, familiar works of language.
- Encourage your children and their families to reconnect with nature over the summer.
- Share information with families about your local public library summer reading programs.
- Teachers, ask each child to carefully print two self-addressed envelopes so you can write to the child. In return, the child is given two addressed envelopes or postcards so he or she can write to their teacher. Children love to send and receive mail, so this will encourage them to continue their passion for drawing and “Kid Writing” all summer long.
- Teachers, send home a blank drawing/writing book to use as a Science Journal or Summer Happenings Book.
- Encourage the child to verbalize their summer learning goals during the last week of school…“This summer, I want to learn about…”
- Send home a summer reading journal for each child. Explain that they can draw a picture of their favorite part of each new picture book and write the name of the book, author, and several sentences about it. “I like the…” “My favorite part of the book is…”
- Give each child a favorite paperback book from their teacher. “Happy summer reading...”
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We believe our role in building strong, joyful family learning connections may be one of the most important contributions we make toward creating healthy schools and healthy communities.
For more information, see Parents as Partners in Kindergarten and Early Literacy: Family Connections that Multiply Our Teaching Effectiveness. See our online bookstore. |
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6. Transform Your Teaching Literacy Seminars and Salem Cadre Meeting |
Join us for one day or all three days of our Joyful and Accelerated Literacy foundation Seminars
(Appropriate for Literacy Coaches, preK-1, Special Education, and ELL Teachers)
Register before June 5, 2011 to take advantage of the
discounted early registration fee!
(Save $200 for the three-day registration)
See: Summer Seminar Invitation
Next Cadre Meeting
May 5, 2011 (Thursday) 4:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Candalaria Elementary, 935 Hansen Avenue South, Salem, Oregon 97302
School Phone: 503-399-3136 Laura is currently updating her resource book. We will let you know when it is available. Art, Literacy, and the Kindergarten Child: Continued Explorations and Inspiration from an Arts-Rich Kindergarten with Laura Flocker and Nellie Edge. Learn more from Master kindergarten-researcher, artist, and Reading Recovery® teacher, Laura Flocker about our action-research on kindergarten-friendly handwriting and brain exercises to build fluency with letters and words. See how our Elephant and Piggie Book Club has inspired kindergarten published books.
We will explore the following:
- Reading and writing connections and guided reading
- See documentation and display of writing samples—Fall through Spring
- Dialog about family year-end Celebration of Language
- Consider the journey to National Board Certification: that is Laura Flocker’s next professional goal.
- If you are not able to join us, be sure to visit Laura’s website: Laura Flocker's Kindergarten
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Wishing you Happy Year-End Celebrations
Nellie Edge
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