On this blog, I'd like you to tell our class what was your favourite children's book when you were growing up. Give us the title and author's name. You can also bring it next week (June 27) and show it to the class.
For next week, please bring your textbook to class. We will also have a focus on music, so if you have a musical instrument that you can bring in, that would be wonderful. Think about some songs that can be used in the ECE classroom; for example, transition songs, folksongs, holiday music, movement and music, music for learning phonemic awareness, just for fun songs, etc.
Enjoy this summer weather!
“I really liked hearing about other people’s experiences in the class that they went to. It’s neat to find out what goes on in other classrooms and a good way to get ideas for the future. One of the things that I forgot to mention about my own experience in last week’s blog was that the class I went to was in the same school that I volunteered in for a year and I had no idea of a lot of the things that were going on in this classroom. It was really neat to see where a lot of the children that I was working with had started out and realizing how far they had come.
ReplyDeleteI’d have to say that my favourite book growing up was The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch. I thought it was so cool how this princess could go from having everything to nothing and come out being stronger and happier. She was just so cool, especially how she called Ronald a bum at the end of the story, that was awesome. That book will always be an old favourite, but now I have new ones. My new fave author is Oliver Jeffers, his stories are great! Some are funny, some are touching and some both. I think my favourite book by him is The Incredible Book Eating Boy, it’s a really cute story about a boy that eats a lot of books and gets smarter and smarter as he eats more, but eventually all the information starts getting jumble up in his head. He has to stop eating books and learns that he actually loves reading them. The illustrations are amazing! I was in the library picking up this book one time and decided to look at some other Oliver Jeffers books so I picked up and read The Heart and the Bottle. By the end of the story I was totally crying but pretending not to. Needless to say, it was a good book… could make for a good lesson too.”
POST 5-June 21st/11
ReplyDeleteIt was very interesting to talk in our groups last night regarding our school visits. I find it intriguing to hear about what other people experienced and what others noticed and focused on. Through our discussion I was able to learn some valuable teaching tools. For example, on of my group members spoke of “Talking Tables”. I had never heard of this program for primary students, but it sounded like a wonderful engaging program to assist in early literacy. I plan on looking into this program. In sharing with my group about my experience, I explained that one of the main components that stood out for me was an aspect of the teacher’s classroom management, specifically classroom expectations. This teacher had only three rules in the classroom; Be safe, Be kind and Be Tidy. I think that this is a wonderful set of rules for primary students to abide by as they are simple and encompass a variety of behavioral expectations. Not only are these expectations simple, but also they are in a language that young children can understand and relate to. I plan to use these three rules in my own classroom one day.
I really enjoyed looking through all of the books this evening. I came across so many books that I had forgotten about. I found it useful to share and hear from others regarding their experiences with various books. In hearing from others, I feel as though I learned some great new ideas that I could implement in the classroom. My absolute favorite children’s book at present is a story called, “One” by Kathryn Otoshi. I cannot say enough about this book and I highly recommend it to any teacher. It is a story that deals with friendship, bullying and self-esteem. I have read it to many students of all ages and it has been very popular. When I was a child my favorite book by far was the “Polar Express” by Chris Van Allsburg. This story has the most beautiful illustrations and talks about the importance of believing and hope. The theme in this book extends far beyond Christmas and believing in Santa Claus. It is a classic story that I know I will enjoy forever.
From my visit to a full-day kindergarten: (names are fictitious)
ReplyDeleteParent/ community involvement:
-School has a strong start program that is well- attended
-Empathy program, couple and their baby visit classroom every so often and the children are proud to tell me about Joe the baby, showing me pictures of him visiting their class
-Sprouts program- children grow their own veggies and eventually a chef will visit in to make stir-fry with them. Students are familiar with Holly, who helps run the program and checks on the plants from time to time
Facilitating:
-Tammy had a great balance between being directive and low-intervention. It being this late in the year, most of her directions were ones that the students seemed already quite familiar with. After instructions were given and the children set into their project or activity, Tammy kept a careful scan over the room and intervened to non-intrusively help or encourage where she felt it was appropriate.
-Tammy phrased her interventions positively to extend the child’s learning. Stopping to encourage students in their activities, she was very specific with what she said and directed it towards the process. When a student looked like they were having difficulty, she said things like “Remember when you ________before? I remember that you have done this before by __________. Do you think doing that would work again? Or do you want to try a different way?”
Reading:
-Children often read as a transition activity
-When Tammy read with the children she asked them a lot of questions about what they thought was going on in the book
-Tammy read a story to the children, and interjected by asking the class what they thought was going to happen next. She used a dramatic voice and character voices to entertain and engage the students.
-After reading the story Tammy did a carpet brain-storm with the students about the story
-She then had them construct their own story in a drawing from looking at a few figurines of animals and things similar to those in the story. I thought this was a really exciting activity.
My favorite book from childhood:
-My favorite books as a child growing were all bedtime story types of books. I loved volumes like “A Book of Dreamland Stories” published by Brimax Books (no author), or “Best Loved Fairy Tales” by Lis Robson. My all-time favorite was an old one “Blackie’s Popular Nursery Stories” published by Blackie and Son Ltd (no author). It has beautiful plate illustrations sparsely placed throughout the volume of longer, traditional fairy tales.
After discussing our school visits in groups this week, an issue that I keep coming back to is that of class discipline (i.e. timeouts). It seems to me that timeouts are pretty widely used but in some cases they may do more harm than good. One experience that was discussed was teachers giving a student a timeout by sending the student to go and read. I understand the need to remove a student from the larger group sometimes, but sending the students to read when they are in trouble will make the students associate reading with punishment instead of the pleasurable pastime that it is supposed to be. Another issue with timeouts is what to do if a student will not be able to sit apart from the group for a period of time befitting the misbehaviour. During one visit to a preschool class, I saw a situation where a three year old boy would not keep his hands to himself, so he was asked to sit away from the other children. He would not stay in the seat designated to him, he was yelling, invading the personal space of other children, and pushing his chair across the room, so the teacher held his hand and walked him with her wherever she went. She did not let him play with anything, interact with the other children, and he eventually calmed down enough to be allowed to go back to work. That is one idea that I plan to try if a timeout is not working.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed looking through the children`s literature in this week`s class, I also got a lot of good ideas about other books to look at from the people at my table, so thank you everyone! My favourite book as a child is hard to discuss because I cannot name just one book. When I started to read on my own, I would read every Robert Munsch book that I could get my hands on. Some of my favourites were: The Boy in the Drawer, Something Good, and Murmel Murmel Murmel. I also loved Big Sarah`s Little Boots by Paulette Bourgeois and Brenda Clark, and a lot of the Cabbage Patch Kids books.
I was interested to discuss our school visit experiences in class. It seems like there were a wide variety of schools visited and we discussed interesting topics - particularly how difficult behaviour is dealt with at a preschool / daycare level and how often staff are not supported the way a teacher at an elementary school would be. It is one thing to believe in the inclusion of all students, but for the inclusion of students with behaviour issues to be successful, extra support is sometimes needed.
ReplyDeleteI loved books as a child and I'm not really sure what my favourite was, but I do remember this book fondly: There's a Monster at the End of This Book (Sesame Street). I remember enjoying it because it was humourous! There's a great build up to the end of the book as Grover panics about the monster at the end of the book that he knows is coming because of the title of the book. He tries to convince the reader not to turn the pages and he keeps building obstacles to try to stop the reader from being able to turn the page. Of course the reader reads on, only to discover (to Grover's relief) that Grover is the monster at the end of the book. Besides the humour, this book teaches children about the reading process and the structure of books. I still giggle when reading it today - it's a fun read aloud.
Classroom visits
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the time to discuss our school visits in groups. It was surprising how each classroom exhibits such a different culture. I was most interested to learn about an open learning approach to one school as this was a new concept to me. There were three classrooms that were separated by low level walls. This made me recognize the importance of coordination and collaboration as this would be crucial if classrooms were sharing space. Another point that was great to talk about was the vision of an all natural classroom. I know the classroom that I visited was not all natural and very few people in my discussion group had visited an all natural classroom. One person discussed how the classroom they visited had attempted to be as natural as it could within the space that they were given, but this was nowhere near what an all natural classroom should be. Many different teaching styles were also discussed, which was a great learning experience.
Book Sharing
I think book sharing is a great feature that any teacher can add to their class. It is a great way to present books to children and it can foster reading. For example, if a student has a chance to see what their best friend or classmates reads at home it may increase their interest in reading that book or reading in general. I have many favourite books, which all come from the Robert Munsch collection; however, Jillian Jiggs by Phoebe Gilman is one of my favourite books that is not written by Robert Munsch. I still love this book but I think that I loved it as a child because of the repetition. The book repeats the line “Jillian, Jillian, Jillian Jiggs it looks like your room has been lived in by pigs”, which always managed to make me giggle. Even today when I read the line I still imagine reading it as I would when I was a child. I also liked that Jillian was adventurous. She made costumes from cardboard boxes, which is an activity that I often partook in as a child. I think that if children can relate to literature then they are more likely to build a love for reading. As an adult I would definitely read this book to children because it has lines that children can remember, it is funny, and it can teach children that being adventurous with friends is acceptable as long as you clean up your mess.
There was something else about my visit to the North Vancouver school that really struck me that I did not mention in my earlier post; it was the emphasis that the teacher placed on the value and significance of trust.
ReplyDeleteThere is an instance that I witnessed that illustrated this quite nicely; the children were having their outside time (after lunch and before home time) and had the run of the playground. I need to point out that this was a very large play ground that had a mixture of play areas (sports field, climbing frames, swings, and forested/trail area) and the children were allowed unlimited access to the areas; as well the teacher that I worked with believed that children should explore their limits and be aware of what those limits are. Many of these children had chosen to climb the trees in the area, and one little boys approached the teacher saying ‘Mrs. B, I think that I am ready to climb the big tree today’ to which the teacher replied, ‘J, I’m glad that you’re ready to try this out, but remember, I’m trusting you to know how high you can climb and how to do it safely’. The little boy, excitedly began scampering up the tree (which had quite a few low branches) he got perhaps a foot off the ground before he froze, looked over at Mrs. B and announced that ‘I think maybe I’ll climb higher tomorrow.’ Her response was ‘That’s a good idea J, we were going to be heading back inside in a few minutes anyways. Why don’t you let the rest of the monkeys (the children in the trees) know that they should start heading down now.’ When I asked the little boy about his actions, he told me that ‘I don’t want to break her (Mrs. B’s) trust ... she trusts us not to do stupid things ... we will not get to do things again if we break her trust’. I just thought that this emphasis was very interesting, especially how keenly aware the children were of the intrinsic, intangible value of trust.
My favourite books when I was a small child were mostly pieces of poetry and fairy tales; my top three were ‘The Highwayman’ by Alfred Noyes, ‘The Lady of Shalott’ by Alfred Lord Tennyson and ‘British Fairy Tales’ by Amabel Williams-Ellis. All of these poems and fairy tales were read to me by siblings and mother; from the age of three and up, in dramatic fashion and acted out with props and sound effects. This set of materials is something that continues to hold my interest and fondness even to this day. With this early exposure to rhythm, dramatic portrayal and historical fantasy, it has shaped how I like to think of literature in the classroom. Just because there is a recommended age for some literatures, does not mean that that is what children should be limited to; they should be encouraged to explore literature in its various forms and express it however they, the child, are inspired to. Epic poetry and fairy tales I find make for excellent foundations of classroom dramas.
I found it really interesting to talk to the other people in my group about their school visits. It was interesting how different each person’s experience was. I found that the differences were really highlighted in the teacher and how they organise and run their classroom and in the classroom environment. Teacher rules and expectations for their students were a common theme as well as scheduling. Some of the scheduling intricacies we agreed on as a group as either good or things we would change. As for the classroom environment, it varied, a lot. Some classrooms were impeccable tidy, other’s were over kill sensory wise, and one preschool was used for multiple teachers and classes and so it was very busy but also had to be tidy for the next teacher.
ReplyDeleteMy favourite book as a child was “Purple, Green, and Yellow” by Robert Munsch. The story is about a girl who loves to draw and begs her mother to buy her the best markers, “the never come off until you’re dead and maybe even later markers.” She ends up getting in a lot of trouble with those markers, colouring her family members in all sorts of crazy designs and colours. I think the story was so appealing to me because it followed the warnings of my parent to be careful with permanent and water soluble markers, when and where to use markers, and not to colour on myself or the walls. Another reason was probably the repeated “never come off until you’re dead.....” It made the story enjoyable and the repetition helped me to remember the story before I could read it on my own.
I'm trying to think of my favourite book growing up, and there are so many that come to mind! I was the kid who, when I broke the rules, my parents took away my library trip that week. I loved reading!
ReplyDeleteOne book that I recall reading over and over from when I was young is the Butter Battle Book my Dr. Suess. I haven't seen it since I was a little girl. It's one of his longer ones, and it's about two towns. One town butters their bread with the butter side up, and the other with the butter side down. The towns get so angry with each other, they build a wall. Then they begin to build inventions to threaten each other with, and these inventions just get bigger and bigger. The book ends with each character holding a tiny red bomb over the wall to the other side, and the line 'who will drop it first? Will he or will I?'
I think it's about the cold war, to be honest! A lot of his longer books have interesting messages like that, such as the Lorax. Anyways, I don't think I realized this when I was little, but I enjoyed the book because I thought they were so silly for fighting over it when the bread was going to taste the same to everyone, and it really didn't matter. Beyond that, I can't think of why I loved it so much!
In regards to my visit to a kindergarten classroom, I would like to further comment on an effective classroom management tool that the teacher had exercised; which allowed her to capture the class’ attention among chaos. As noise level escalated due to the children’s vast amount of energy and excitement of the activities that they were participating in, it was quickly controlled as the teacher whispered “if you can hear me put your hands on your ears. If you can hear me, put your hands on your eyes. If you can hear me, put your hands on your mouth…”. This exploit was profoundly effective in grasping the children’s attention, while simultaneously decreasing the noise level, as the children became intrigued by the teacher’s motions and immediately became quiet as a means of being able to listen and find out where to place their hands next. I think that this technique is remarkable because it is a fun way to gain the children’s attention, while preventing the teacher from having to raise their voice as a means of gaining the children’s attention. Furthermore, this is especially important because I find that when a teacher constantly yells, the kids eventually become accustomed to it and begin to ignore the teacher’s commands. In addition, this technique is also great as it helps children practice reciting the names of body parts and recognize where those parts are located. Therefore, time is not wasted as the teacher simply attempts to gain the children’s attention; rather this time is utilized as a learning opportunity the children practice expanding their knowledge regarding the parts of the body.
ReplyDeleteI would also like to comment on the activity that we did in class; where we examined a great variety of children’s books. I thoroughly enjoyed this activity because I was introduced to many wonderful and inspirational books that any child or adult would profoundly benefit from reading; such as “No Two Snowflakes” and “The Story of Ferdinand”. As a child, my favourite book was “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” by Eric Carle. This book captures the story of a caterpillar whose extreme hunger encourages him to eat an enormous amount of food; of which each day his portions increase by one. At the end of the story, the caterpillar emerges from its cocoon as a beautiful butterfly. I constantly read this story because I absolutely loved counting the amount of food he ate each day, then repeating at the end of each page “but he was still hungry”. Although I was unable to read the whole book by myself when I first encountered it, through the constant repetition of the phrase “but he was still hungry” I was able to build confidence in my reading; as I became extremely excited when I read that phrase by myself. Finally, the end of the story was my favourite part because I was captivated by the vibrant colours of the magnificent butterfly. As I read this book as an adult, the aspects of this story that I loved as a child still resonate. However, I further love this story as it challenges conventional gender associations by referring to the male butterfly as beautiful. As the term “beautiful” is often associated with a delicate female character, while “handsome” is associated with robust male characters, by stating that “he was a beautiful butterfly” this story suggests that this term is not gender specific and thus males have the same privilege as females to be referred to as “beautiful”.
I found talking about our classroom visits in small groups was great because it was interesting to know what aspects of the visit each member liked and disliked. One of the members in my group visited a Montessori Kindergarten classroom and since I was in a regular Kindergarten class, I thought it was particularly interesting to talk about the similarities and differences between the two different environments. For example, in the Kindergarten class that I was in, the kids had center time/free play at least three times in the day whereas in the Montessori classroom the children were not given any real free play; everything was structured and had a learning objective in mind. This topic stimulated a lot of discussion with my group and it made me want to explore more about Montessori classrooms.
ReplyDeleteAnother aspect of the class I really enjoyed was looking through and discussing the variety of different children’s books that we were presented with. Reading was something I did a lot of as a child and even to this day I still enjoy browsing at the plethora of children’s books that are available. When asked to name one of my favourite children’s books, it took me a while to come up with just one! I really enjoyed the Franklin series and the Berenstain Bears series, but I think my favourite children’s books by far would have to be ones written by the very humorous and talented, Robert Munch. I remember many of the Robert Munch books so well because of their humour; I would always be laughing when I read his stories. Some of Munch’s books that stand out for me are “Stephanie’s Ponytail”, “Purple, Green, and Yellow”, and “Pigs”, but the one I remember the best is “Wait and See”. “Wait and see” is the story about a little girl named Olivia whose birthday wishes always seem to come true much to her parents dismay. In the beginning, her parents make her a cake and Olivia wishes for “snow, snow and more snow!” Olivia’s father warns her that this cannot happen on a hot summer day but Olivia just responds by the phrase “wait and see” and before you know it, “the whole house was covered with snow!” So her parents make her another birthday cake to which Olivia then wishes for “rain, rain and more rain” and immediately, there is too much rain outside so her parents make her another birthday cake and a similar pattern ensues. I liked this book because of its humor and its use of repetition of the phrase “wait and see.” I feel if this book was read for young children, it would be a great way to use some open ended questions about their own birthdays and what kinds of things they wished for and to simply sustain their attention and interest because of its humor.
My favourite book growing up was "Purple, Green, and Yellow" by Robert Munsch. More than anything, I am a "visual learner", and I've always had a passion for the visual arts. I loved this book because it felt like it was about me. My mother always bought me the "original" pack of felts, and I was always wanting the felts that had the "fancy" colours. I was also always drawing on myself. I loved to colour my shoes, and my clothes, and may hands.
ReplyDeleteFor those of you who haven't read the book, it's about a young girl who begs her mother to buy her the latest felts. With each pack of felts she gets, she finds herself lured into using them in "inappropriate" ways. The last pack of "new" felts she gets are "indelible-never-come-off-until-your-dead" felts. I wont spoil it, but she's a little naughty with her felts! It's fantastic, and the illustrations are full of colour. I loved that book.
On another literary note: as an adult, one of my favourite children's books is called "The Giving Tree" by Shel Silverstein. It is a very sad and emotional book about giving of oneself to the extreme. It is beautiful!
As a follow up to my grade one classroom visit, the topic that my group focused on from my classroom visit was calendar/circle activities. The thing that made this classes calendar unusual (to me at least) was the length of it. Calendar consisted of numerous activities, based on things learned during the school year and took between 30 and 45 minutes. There were activities relating to the day of the week, the day of the school year, the weather (including a song), math problems, money problems, a monthly poem related seasonal activities, a song about the season, and many other activities. I found that these activities seemed to drag on and the children were starting to lose focus but the end of calendar. In my opinion, I would alternate these activities, to occur every second day, and cut calendar time in half.
ReplyDeleteThe other interesting thing for me was that the activity was run by students. I really like this idea because it gives the children a sense of control of their classroom, and makes them feel like contributing members to the classroom community. The structure is that the special helper of the day got to choose one peer to assist (marked of so each child got an equal number of opportunities) in leading calendar. This allowed the teacher to prepare activities for the day, placing worksheets onto students’ desks or whatever she needed to do. I think that the teacher not attending to the calendar activity may be a contributing factor to students looking focus. So potentially this strategy of students leading, but the teacher observing and facilitating a slightly shorter calendar could keep a more focused attention on the calendar activities.
From my childhood, the book that I loved and remember is Goodnight Moon. Goodnight Moon is written by Margaret Wise Brown and the title summarizes the story pretty well. The first half of the book is written in a paired rhyming structure that introduces different items around the house, which are visible in the pictures. For example, “…a little toyhouse. And a young mouse”. The second half of the story then starts with “Goodnight room” and proceeds in wishing a goodnight to the different objects visible in the room and illustrated pictures. This is also written in a paired rhyming scheme. Looking back at Goodnight Moon now, I really don’t know how I was intrigued enough by it to read it each night. Maybe the rhyming structure and the ability to search for the objects you are seeing or wishing goodnight to played a role? There is also a very comforting feeling about the book, and it works as a nice transition to going to bed.
Good afternoon everyone! I'm sure everyone is enjoying this beautiful weather we are having! :)..
ReplyDeleteAs for this week's blog, I would like to mention my favourite children's books growing up. I really enjoyed Robert Munsch books because his language was simple and very easy to connect to, like in "I'm embarassed." Another book I absolutely loved by Munsch is "The Paper Bag Princess." I feel a lot of kids would enjoy this book because it has some realistic yet imaginative adventure embedded in it, which I thought was just perfect growing up. Speaking of realistic adventure, I always felt "Corduroy," by Don Freeman, is a really cute story about adventures a stuffed bear goes on. Young kids would surely enjoy Corduroy as I did.
"Jack and the Beanstalk's" magic beans signified the 'magic' power as a kid I wanted to possess.
Disney has some great stories I really liked as a young girl like "Cinderella" and "Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs." The type of love-stories Disney depicted always had two lovers separated by some evil, which as a young girl was enchanting to learn about through stories and books.
"The Three Little Pigs" is a definite favourite! I read this book and "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" countless times. "Little Red Riding Hood" is another cult classic. All three of these stories take place pretty much in one place. And I feel its the simplicity in the found adventures in these stories that can capture the younger ones.
As I grew up into intermediate grades, I found myself completely addicted to the "Goosebumps" series by R.L. Stine. I just loved the way he was able to build suspense with his descriptive language. He drew me into the book to the point I would feel the need to continue reading until I finished the book. I'm sure the reason why I enjoyed the Goosebumps series must be because I've always been into scary movies and suspense. This reinforces the notion of how important it is to present books of the genre the students are interested in to encourage reading.
Discussing everyone’s visit to classrooms was interesting, and it gave me so much more to think about. I find that each week I come to class with a set expectation of what I want my classroom to look like and how I believe a teacher should act, but by the end of class I have many different and justified perspectives in my head. It takes a while for me to ease the disequilibrium from the new information until I can feel secure in what I want in a classroom. One example my group discussed was parents volunteering in the classroom. When this idea was brought up, I stated that it should only be for special occasions and rarely used in kindergarten classrooms. I believe that for the first year it is important that children adjust to life without parents, and constantly bringing them into the classroom may interrupt or stall the student’s adjustment. However, when listening to my group, many of them wanted parent volunteers in the classroom. Each of them had valid ideas. They wanted learning to be a community effort, and they wanted to ease the boundaries between school and home. They believed that school should not be the only place where learning occurred, and that by getting parents involved they can encourage parents to help in the learning process. I think that this is an interesting perspective, and I would now be open to have parents, one or two at a time come and help out in the classroom at set times. It would only be one or two times a week, and they would be fairly relaxed lessons. Another option is that I would open up the classroom in the morning for noisy reading before the day starts.
ReplyDeleteMy favourite children’s book is Freckleface Strawberry by Julianne Moore. I discovered this book about 3 years ago, and I love it. It is about a little girl who hates her red hair and freckles. She does not know anyone else with them (except her younger brother), and one day she gets tired of being a freckleface and decides to wear a ski mask. Long story, short, she begins to love her freckles. I read this any chance I get to classes; I have done lessons from reading power on this book (making connections) and used it as an introduction at the beginning of the year (to learn about your teacher). I enjoy it because I relate to it. When I was younger, I always felt different because of my red hair and freckles. I went to a heavily indo-Canadian populated elementary school, and no one in my family had them (stupid recessive genes!). I think that I would have appreciated my freckles and red hair more if I had read this book when I was younger.
I really enjoying hearing and sharing our experiences we had in our classrooms. As many of the people in my group had also gone to a kindergarten class, I found it extremely interesting to hear about the similarities and differences within each of the classes. I really enjoyed hearing about the different transitions the teachers had implemented and the value and importance it has on the students so that there is a smoother transition from one activity to another. I’ve always been aware of the importance of transition and how it is important that you give the students (regardless of what grade they are in) some kind of warning about how much more time they have before it is time to go to music or to clean up but it was not until this past week that I really noticed it. I was toc’ing in a grade 6/7 class all week and one of the students who is not usually in the class since he does his own work with his aide outside of the class decided to join us for gym. Since it was sunny, I decided to play capture the flag with them on the field. After 4 rounds of capture the flag, I decided to let the children have some free time on the playground. Since I did not give any warning about this change, and because this child already has a difficult time with change and transition, it caused for him to have a complete melt down which resulted with him swearing and throwing gravel at the other students.
ReplyDeleteAs a young child, I have always loved reading. I remember every Saturday morning my mom would either take us to the Burnaby library or a library close to our house. Every week my mom, older brother and I would sit at the dinner table and my mom would record us reading into a microphone cassette player or we would simply take turns reading a page of a book. As lame as it sounds, it was an activity I always looked forward to each week. As a beginner reader, the books I loved reading including books by Robert Munch, The Berenstain Bears and any fairy tale book such as The Emperor’s New Clothes, The Fisherman and his wife, and Goldilocks and the three bears. Later I then moved into books such as The Babysitters Club, Nancy Drew, any books written by Judy Blume such as Super Fudge, Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing and Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great.
Sharing the experiences we had in the different classrooms was very interesting. Hearing about the way each of the classrooms was so very different, yet the similar at the same time. Having the opportunity to share and discuss the different features in small groups was great. We were able to ask each other questions and describe more in detail what we observed. One of my group members talked about the way the classroom was set up, and it was very different from the classroom that I had visited. Having that opportunity to listen to every ones perspective was enlightening.
ReplyDeleteWhile going over this week’s reading I found the section on stereotypes in children’s books intriguing. The book discusses the ways that cultures are portrayed in books. Within the reading, the book asks a number of interesting questions such as; “Are the skin tones and facial features of people from black and ethnic minority backgrounds portrayed correctly? Are colors lifelike or are black people a grey color? Do black and ethnic minority people look like white people who have been coloured as an afterthought? Do black and ethnic minority characters appear identical in appearance, with one variety of hair, skin tone, and similar features?” (Naughton, Williams, 2009, p.175) After reading this section I stopped and really think about the questions. This was something I had never noticed in my experience with books. I found this very interesting, and began wondering what image does this send to our students or children? I have no real answers but I felt this was a topic that I want to look further into. This chapter also contained a section about gender and was talking about taking notice to the roles that women and men play in children’s books. We try so hard to break gender stereotyping in our classrooms but without noticing it we use books which portray the characters in gender stereotypic roles.
As a child, my love for reading was ignited. I remember reading with my mom or dad every night before bed. Like many children I had my favourites that I loved to hear over and over again. One of these favourites was “The Elves and The Shoe Maker”. This book is about an elderly couple who make shoes to sell in their store. The man is getting older and it is taking him longer to make the shoes. One night when they are sleeping these elves come to visit and make these beautiful shoes for the couple. In the morning they find the shoes and are so happy. The shoes sell right away and again the couple leave the materials out and the elves come again that night and make new shoes. At the end of the story the couple see the elves and then make them some clothes to show their appreciation for what they are doing. Earlier this year I was very excited when I found a copy of this book, I bought it right away and called my mom in Newfoundland. I was so happy to have again added a copy to my collection, during high school I donated my childhood books to a new preschool that was opening near my house. I decided to share my love of books with these new students. I still love to share my love for reading; during my practicum I created a mini library for my students to choose books from. The school where I did my practicum’s had a high Chinese population. After my first practicum I had some duel language books sent from China for the students to read and take home to share with their parents. I remember how much I loved reading with my parents that I wanted to share this opportunity with my students.
It was interesting hearing each others' school visit's last class. I wanted to add one other interesting thing I noticed from my visit to the 'open concept' school were students were only separated by partial walls and bookshelves- the students had to be respectful of other classes. A phrase that I heard from many teachers that day was 'our neighbors are working; we need to keep the volume down', or 'our hallways are part of our classroom'. This environment would likely push students along on their development of self-management and volume regulation; however, I can't help but wonder if this is to enhance their learning. Sometimes, shouldn't learning be louder (but in control)?
ReplyDeleteAs for my favourite book growing up, I loved the collection of disney story books that came along with tape cassettes that read the story out loud to you. I remember even trying to make these myself with a recorder/karaoke machine I had. I would put in a blank tape and record myself reading a story and then would play it back another time while I looked at the story. I think this was a great way of developing my literacy skills (although, i didn't know it!) and is an activity I would use in my classroom.
I have to say that my favorite book as a child was probably something that not many other people would have heard of. When I was 4 and lived in Australia my parents took me to the library every week, and the story I chose religiously was "The Story of Horace" by Alice M. Coats. It is a story about a bear that eats a family. Yes, morbid, nasty and yet entertaining. The link to this wonderful story is here... http://www.archive.org/details/storyofhorace00coatuoft
ReplyDeleteAlthough it is perhaps not something that will make its way to the classroom now, in its time it had a place.
This week's class was a chance to hear of other experiences and the similarities and differences in the classroom settings. It gives us as students a chance to decide which ideas we would encorporate into our classrooms and which we wouldnt. When I was an on call person I found it incredibly useful to visit many different classes through my daily teaching assignments. Through this I was able to envision all the different aspects of the classrooms that I would eventually add to my own.
It was very interesting to talk in our groups regarding the school visits. I learned a lot about how other teachers’ organize their classrooms, how they manage, set up rules, expectations and schedule their classes. The ideas will indeed be very useful when I become a teacher in the future. One thing that I really enjoyed about my school visit was that the teacher sang or have students imitate certain actions during transition times such as clean up and gathering at the carpet. This ties in really well with the readings for the past week. The chapter on singing also mentions how a preschool teacher uses singing for transition times such as pack-up time, at lunchtime and time to go outside. In this aspect, singing helps children learn and is used to cue them into daily routines. I also find the chapter on recalling very informative and agree with some of the facts that were mentioned, that children’s success in recalling will be maximized if they have a high level of interest and enjoyed what they are being asked to recall. I find that when students learn through play or singing songs, they can recall information better. The games and songs help reinforce their ideas, concepts and knowledge, review their own learning, express their understandings, practise sharing ideas and information with other people and develop a sense of self (MacNaughton & Williams, 2009). Moreover, I enjoyed looking through the children’s books in the class. It was nice to have this opportunity to examine some ECE library books that I can use in the primary classrooms. I also enjoyed listening to my classmates’ presentations regarding when and why they would use the books they chose in their primary classrooms as it gives me ideas on the books that I would choose to read for my students for certain occasions in the future as well.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was growing up, I did not have a particular book that was my favourite. However, I remember the first novel that I really enjoyed reading was Charlotte’s web by E. B. White. I liked that the story is about friendship between Wilbur, the pig and Charlotte, the spider. The story is a great story to teach students about friendship and loyalty. Loyalty goes hand-in-hand with the theme of friendship in the novel. Students may understand the term friendship better than they understand the term loyalty, so it is best to start with examples of the friendship theme and then introduce loyalty. It may be helpful to define loyalty for children first and then look for examples throughout the novel.
Glenda MacNaughton and Gillian Williams (2009). Teaching young children: Choices in theories and practice (2nd edition). Berkshire, England: Open University Press.
It was interesting to see the different teaching styles and environments that came out of our group discussions on classrooms we visited. Students in my group visited classrooms with lots of colour, natural classrooms and even open concept classrooms with more than one class in a room. In my group we were all in our last semester of PDP and some of us had already begun teaching-on-call, so they shared their experience when they had taught primary classrooms. This then led to TOC strategies and games for students in early childhood. We talked about songs, games, and ways to discipline students at this age. When I TOC one strategy I use is asking a few students what their classroom teacher does to get their attention. This way I am able to use the same strategies that they are already used to. Giving students something that is similar to everyday in their classroom.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed looking at the classroom books the ECE library had to offer. There were many books that I thought would be useful in teaching concepts in a classroom setting. I chose to present the nursery rhyme book dedicated to bears. During my practicum I chose to teach a theme about real and fake bears. This book would have been useful to have in the classroom, I could have chosen a nursery rhyme as a weekly poem or even just to teach the students some of the bear nursery rhymes to say at our Teddy Bear Picnic. Watching everyone present a book during class gave me new ideas of how to incorporate the books into my teaching and classroom library. I hope to share some of the books I wrote down to my own class some day for them to learn from and enjoy!
I really enjoyed sharing my school experiences with my group last week. One of my group members observed a very long circle time (over an hour long). Because this circle time was student-directed, the teacher did not intervene at all during that entire time, even though the children were no longer able to focus at the end of the circle. We had a group discussion around circle time: how long it should be, whether a teacher should step in or not during circle time, and what should be taught and reviewed during the circles, i.e.: weather, calendar, etc. We came to a conclusion that pre-school/kindergarten circle times should not last more than 30-40 minutes, as it is very difficult for young children to maintain their attention after that period. We also think that it is important that the children learn new concepts during circle time, instead of only reviewing what they already know. Last, we agreed that the teacher should intervene during circle time when necessary (i.e. if the children are misbehaving).
ReplyDeleteIn my school observation the circle time was literacy-oriented, as the children read sentences/books together, talked about “silent letters” in words, and practiced reading phonics. The circle was led by a student, but the teacher stepped in a few times to remind the children of the behavioral expectations. I thought that worked well.
When I was a child my favorite book was: “Lucia-ja-vou-indo” (“Lucia-I-am-coming”), a book written by the Brazilian author Maria Heloisa Infanto. The book narrates the story of Lucia, a slug who did things extremely slowly. It would take Lucia hours to cook, clean her house, getting dressed, etc. When Lucia got invited to her friend dragonfly’s birthday party, she got very excited. However, it took Lucia hours and hours to get ready for the party. By the time Lucia arrived at the party location, the party was already over. There were empty plates and glasses everywhere, and the party host (the dragonfly) was already asleep. Lucia was very sad because she missed the party. Lucia was upset because she was often late for events and blamed herself for missing the party. At the end of the book Lucia’s friends, who were very supportive, organized a party for Lucia in her house. Lucia was happy because, for the first time in her life, she was on time. It did not matter how many times I read this book, I still found myself cheering for Lucia and hoping that Lucia would make it to the party every time I read the book. I also appreciated how Lucia’s friends accepted her for who she was and customized a birthday party to make her happy. It could be a good book to talk about differences between people and acceptance.
Firstly I would like to express my thoughts towards the small group discussions we did regarding our class visits. I found it interesting when our group starting talking about transitioning. We each had a unique experience with our respective teacher regarding their methods of transitioning. One experience I heard really stuck with me. A group member was saying that the teacher that she observed sang a song and walked around the classroom passing each centre ending at the carpet. By the time finished the song the children were seated at the carpet. I am adding that strategy to my mental list of teaching tricks that I want to use in my future classrooms! When I was working in a kindergarten class I observed that children would always respond better to me when I would use phrases that rhymed or when I went even further and sang out these phrases. In chapter 16, the text talks about singing in the classroom. Singing helps support children’s wellbeing. I would sometimes sing these phrases to familiar tunes and the children would laugh and correct me saying “no Ms. Ingrid, those aren’t the words to twinkle twinkle little star!” I would always explain to them that we can make up our songs if we want to. Then the children would sometimes start rhyming words on their own. That was kind of a side note there, my reason for mentioning that particular classroom experience was to give an example of how rhyming phrases and singing can be more effective ways of communicating messages to children. Personally I believe that using song as a means for introducing a transition is a less threatening way than giving children verbal warnings like “5 minutes to clean up”. I also believe singing will work better with children who usually have difficulty switching tasks or are hesitant to changes. Singing makes the transition a fun activity instead of a stressful one.
ReplyDeleteI don’t have a single favorite book per say. I remember enjoying reading the series based on Ramona. I enjoyed reading about her wild adventures. I think these books are great for grade 2 to grade 4, because they are longer books, so the child has to be a skilled reader. I think the stories based on Ramona inspire creativity in children. I also think they are wonderful books that children can relate too on a number of levels. For instance, Ramona is a middle child, many children are a sibling themselves and can relate to the feelings Ramona expresses in the stories. I believe that a teacher could use a one of the stories as an introduction for a creative writing activity, just like Ramona imagines these crazy situations, children can make up their own short stories.
I wanted to go back to two classes ago b/c I’m not sure that I blogged about my experience with the classroom stations. I coloured during my time at “play” because it was somewhere safe to go. There was a shadow area and a build a track for cars area and I would have loved to do either of those but both of those stations were busy. Rather than go and join the other students at those area’s I chose to go to a station that wasn’t busy. As an educator I think it was important for me to reflect on that because I like to use stations in my learning environment. I want students to be able to experience stations until they are satisfied that they’ve taken all they can from them, but I also want to be inclusive of learners. I would want stations to remain in play until I could see that all students had a chance to go and visit/experience them. I would try to make sure that students who were shy or quiet, those who I knew had troubles initiating the social roles required to access the more popular stations had equal access. This would require being aware and assessing how goes to each station and how often they are moving through them.
ReplyDeleteI can’t say that I remember a favorite book as a child. I was always an avid reader and the library was a regular outing in my life and one of my favorite places to go, something I have passed onto my son. I loved all of Judy Blume’s novels and some of the first chapter books I remember reading are “The One in the Middle is the Green Kangaroo”, “Freckle Juice” and all of the “Fudge” series with Peter and his younger brother. I was also into Beverly Cleary’s “Ramona” series. I think that these books all resonated with me because I had a younger brother and the crazy things that happened to the characters and their families resonated with my own experiences. Dennis Lee was always a go-to book when I was a child and I remember enjoying his poetry and the links to many of the places I lived and visited. These are certainly books that I would, and have, brought into my own classrooms as much of their content is relevant and they’re fun and engaging. As an adult, and a parent, I have many new favorite authors. David Shannon writes some great books and does amazing illustrations – “Alice the Fairy”, all of his “David” books. Jon Szchieza, Matt Novak, Jamie Lee Curtis’ “Is there Really a Human Race?” and “Big Words for Little People” are all great authors and titles out there that cross many age and interest boundaries. During my practicum we had a read along time once a day and I would often bring books in about what we were learning or themes I wanted the students to consider. For a few weeks I was focusing on friendship and friendliness and I read a book about friendship everyday. We discussed the books and how they pertained to our classroom. When we did a unit on Air, Soil and Water I brought in books on the water cycle and left them out for free reading. Many of the children picked them up and made connections from the books to what we were learning which lead to many more children reading them with excitement. Books are an important part of a teacher’s toolbox.
School visits:
ReplyDeleteI was very intrigued with one of my classmate’s experiences during her visit to a school. She talked about the school that she visited was an open-concept school and there weren’t any walls. I thought “what?” how could that possible work. She explained that collaboration was very important to their school philosophy and not having walls encouraged this pedagogy. She talked about how they worked together to incorporate quiet and noisy school activities. I personally would love to see how this actually works in real life.
Favourite book:
I don’t know if anyone has every heard of the Poky Little Puppy, but these books were my favourite growing up. There is a series of Pokey Little Puppy books geared at the early childhood market. Poky is an adorable black and white puppy that is extremely inquisitive and is always getting into mischief, not unlike a real puppy (which is very real for me right now because we just got a border collie puppy and she is non-stop mischief!).
I remember reading about Poky getting lost and finding all kinds of new and exciting creatures, like a lizard and a snail. Can’t you just imagine what a puppy would look like approaching a little creature like that? One of my favourite stories was when Poky had to go to bed without strawberry shortcake.
Instead of following his siblings when they all sneak out to play, the Poky Little Puppy lags behind to observe other things. In the beginning, his independence is rewarded. The puppies had all dug a hole underneath the fence to escape from their yard, but only the Poky Little Puppy's siblings are caught. The Poky Little Puppy avoids punishment because he's off exploring as his mother scolds his siblings, and he comes home alone after everyone is asleep. The Poky Little Puppy then eats the rice pudding that the mother was planning to give all the puppies but withheld because of the fence-digging incident. This pattern then repeats itself, only with chocolate custard for dessert instead of rice pudding.
Only at the end of the book does fate catch up with the Poky Little Puppy. When the puppies are sent to bed without dessert a third time, they wait until they think their mother is sleeping, then sneak out of bed and fill in the hole they'd dug under the fence. She sees them doing this and rewards them with strawberry shortcake. The Poky Little Puppy not only arrives too late to get any strawberry shortcake, but is forced to squeeze between the fence boards since the hole has been filled in. The book concludes with Poky Little Puppy going to bed without a bite and feeling "very sorry for himself." (Wikepedia, 2011)
I enjoyed listening to and sharing our classroom visits. One of my group members said that the teacher in the classroom she visited only had three rules. “Be Safe, Be Tidy and Be Kind”. I believe that having these three rules is very useful, especially since they cover such a wide variety of things. It is great to have three simple rules for the students to remember. By having only three rules it makes it easier to work with the students following the rules. If a student is being rude to someone it is easy to ask him or her if they are being kind. I think this is a great idea for the classroom, especially in a classroom with young children who will have a hard time remembering a long list of rules.
ReplyDeleteOne of the other group members said that there was a very long circle time in the classroom he visited. He said that the circle time lasted up to 45 minutes long. I believe that this is a very long time to expect students to pay attention for. These students are younger, and therefore their attention spans are not going to last 45 minutes. We talked it over, and thought that it was a good idea to slowly leave out some parts of the circle time once they had been covered enough times. For example, the teacher taught many math activities during circle time. We thought that it would be helpful to cover one different math activity each day. This would shorten the circle time and it would also give the students some variety everyday.
A topic of interest to me during class visit discussion was the topic of discipline and free time. Teachers have different discipline methods and for their own reasons. The discipline method of confronting the child in front of the class brought up different concerns. The concern of mine was how that makes the child feel and if it is effective. For example can the teacher be specific in what the child is doing wrong and provide alternatives? Another discipline method mentioned that brought attention to me was confronting the child privately after the rest of the class is occupied. The reason for this method is because it allows for a deeper conversation between the teacher and the child. It also can allow the child to open up and not be embarassed while discussing with the child.
ReplyDeleteTime outs brought the concern if they are disadvantageous to the child's learning. For example is it always necessary for the child to be removed from the learning environment especially when a lesson is going on? Is there other ways around this, like moving the child to a different seat?
My favorite series of books as a child was The Berenstain Bears and the Mr. Men and Little Miss series by Roger Hargreaves. The Berenstain Bears always and interesting family conflict that always got resolved. I also think it having a show motivated me to read their books. However the Mr. Men and Little Miss series was my ultimate favorite. I loved the unique and individualized personalities of the characters. I loved how they used their specialized personalities to overcome obstacles. It is a series of books that I will always cherish.
It wasn’t until I had to think about what my favorite book was growing up that I realized how many books I read when I was young and now I’m having such a hard time picking a favorite out of all of them! I was always extremely excited when the Scholastic book order catalogues would come around. I especially loved Robert Munsch books and as a gift from a friend, I got these miniature Robert Munsch books. A specific Robert Munsch book that I like is called “Something Good”. It is about a dad who takes his son and daughter grocery shopping and all the interesting events that happen along the way. It’s a fun read filled with humor, which makes it enjoyable. I remember also loving to read the Berenstein Bears series; every time I see the tv show on now, it just reminds me of my love for those books.
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