Join me in an effort to spread literacy by posting pictures of your pets, cute animals, or natural backgrounds with the word “Read” written on it. Let’s make this go viral. Let’s encourage reading!
Check out my board Anything and Everything First Grade on Pinterest. I also started an Anything and Everything Science of Reading Board. I’m debating on starting a board for pictures of animals somehow associated with literacy. Right now I have been searching my camera roll for adorable pictures of my pets and writing “read” across them. What catches your interest when you are doing searches?
Groovy Educator on Pinterest: https://pin.it/7ztfBcJ
Saavas’ Inaugural Literacy Fellowship
I have been selected as one of twelve teachers across the nation to participate in Saavas’ Inaugural Literacy Fellowship. They are flying me to Chicago at the end of the month. I’m so honored and excited to discuss literacy with researchers and product managers. It will be an experience!
Frozen Fridays
Frozen Fridays are a fun family tradition in our house. When my daughter was itty bitty she loved watching Frozen, dressing up like Anna or Elsa, and eating ice cream. That's how Frozen Fridays began. We set up a pillow and blanket fort in the living room. We plan our Frozen snack. Most of the time it is a "frozen" ice cream treat. Sometimes we find actual "Frozen" products like a gingerbread house of Elsa's castle. My daughter either dresses in a themed Frozen outfit or Frozen jammies and then we settle in to watch the movie.
Sometimes we invite friends or cousins for Frozen Friday Festivities. It is always a blast. We do not do this every Friday because we want to keep it special. Now that the new Frozen II movie is about to come out, it's a perfect time for your family to start a Frozen Friday family tradition. Memories to cherish forever!
Check out this Disney Frozen Website!
Mom Junction has fun Frozen coloring pages that can be a part of your Frozen Family tradition.
Here is a People article that lists new Frozen products on Amazon.
Frozen Products
New Facebook Group: Groovy Teaching Ideas
Teaching Writing Skills and Vocabulary Through Conversation - "Fans"
In this relatively short video, I model how you can use conversations to build your child's vocabulary. Through questioning and rephrasing, you are modeling appropriate language skills. This in turn improves your child's ability to write because usually if a child can say it, he/she can write it (even if words are sounded out).
In the video, I begin by asking what my daughter wants to talk about and she replies "fans." Then she goes on to say "So today we will be talking about fans." She automatically went into an introduction without even realizing she was stating the topic (probably because her mom's a teacher). By giving her a choice on the topic, she is more interested in the conversation. This builds engagement.
A little while later in the video, I state "Apparently my daughter is a fan of fans." I am intentionally modeling another way to use the word fan exposing her to mulit-meaning words (in a fun way). I tried to use a little humor to keep her engaged.
When I asked her what she liked about fans, this is leading her into provided details (another important element of writing). I then asked her about the function of a fan. When she didn't know what function meant, I knew this was a teachable moment where I can help build her vocabulary. I guided her thinking through questions and then asked her to provide more examples.
Towards the end I provided the sentence stem "Now we know..." and she was able to complete it. I know this is not the strongest ending but it provides structure.
If I was going to have her write about this, I would model putting all the information she just gave me into a thinking map and then ask her to tell me about fans just like she did during our conversation referencing the thinking map.
This then would be transferred over to writing.
I hope you enjoyed watching our video. It was super fun to make!
Science - Animal Movement
Last night there were some adorable frogs on our porch. I filmed one and had fun editing the 30 second movie in iMovie.
It made me think about teaching first grade writing and science. Children could watch this short clip and discuss/describe the frog's movement. Also, the children can compare and contrast this frog's movement with that of another animal.
In science one of the topics we study is how animals move. We read is titled Move! written by: Robin Page and illustrated by: Steve Jenkins. The short little clip is a great introduction to the concept of movement before reading the story.
Here are a few more resources that may be useful if you are teaching this topic. Even though some are geared more towards Kindergarten and Preschool, they're helpful differentiated lessons for struggling students.
It made me think about teaching first grade writing and science. Children could watch this short clip and discuss/describe the frog's movement. Also, the children can compare and contrast this frog's movement with that of another animal.
In science one of the topics we study is how animals move. We read is titled Move! written by: Robin Page and illustrated by: Steve Jenkins. The short little clip is a great introduction to the concept of movement before reading the story.
Here are a few more resources that may be useful if you are teaching this topic. Even though some are geared more towards Kindergarten and Preschool, they're helpful differentiated lessons for struggling students.
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