It has been a long time in the works but I am happy and excited to announce that we have found a way to incorporate all 4 year olds who will enter Kindergarten next year into my Handwriting Without Tears program.  The afternoons were typically the time that “lessons” took place, but after a meeting of the minds and some shifting of schedules we were able to make it happen for these kids who leave at 12/12:30.  Also- if your child only stays one afternoon a week, they will get a second lesson (on Monday mornings) also.  February 1 was the first day of excitement and with a quick  introduction to the classroom we jumped right into how we hold a crayon.  Please follow my shutterfly site as well as this blog to see the pictures I take in my classroom of your child’s work and progress.

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 ”We have a mystery to solve!” exclaimed Bryn. 

“We do?” I asked.

Atti replied “see it’s a clue”

“That’s a question mark” said Coho.

We began to talk about punctuation, and played around with sentences that required certain punctuation.  Jake piped up right away that punctuation comes at the end of sentences.  The reason I had chosen this lesson was to supplement the book making/writing that would come this week in the Studio/Mystery Bay classroom. 

Atti knew that an exclaimation point was to “make yourself scream” and Owen added that it was to show when you were really excited.  Izzy playfully shouted “There’s a fire!” as a fine example for using an exclamation point.

When we moved on to question mark, Hannah recalled a time when her grandmother and her were making a grocery shopping list and to show that they were unsure if they needed ketchup her grandmother wrote ‘ketchup ?’ on the list.  Ellis added that it is also for thinking/wondering.  Lucas asked “Jen, why do you have a radio in your room?”  When I went to answer he said, “I know.  That was my question mark example”.  Adah said she asked her mom this morning ”where did Dad go?” when she was wondering that very thing.  She then realized that when her mom answered “he went to work” that her mom ended her sentence with a  period.

As the month continues the 1st graders will be working on sentences in my room and the K group will be starting on lowercase letters.

This week the first graders got new workbooks!  This book is actually just double lined paper with space for drawing pictures too.  We practiced writing our names in our best handwriting on the first day.  As with a lot of learning here at the Community School, the writing was exciting and contagious.  The next day kids were begging to do more writing in the new books.  Thursday we decided to have a writer’s workshop.  Nora brought one of her favorite books from home and began transcribe the words on the pages, one by one, slowly and beautifully.  Izzy also wanted to join and grabbed a great book about cats.  As the girls wrote they asked for music.  The morning passed with beautiful writing and conversation.  We can’t wait until next week!

Every Tuesday afternoon the K2 group (Michelle, Terry, Jaala, Sarah and myself) meet to talk about curriculum among other things.  Michelle and Terry shared the recent fascination with snails and Jaala and I brainstormed about how we could incorporate snails into our spaces.  Jaala thought the kids would enjoy building snails out of the HWT wooden pieces and Sarah mused: “wouldn’t it be fun to write letters in slime?” like a snail trail.

Wednesday morning I gathered all of the materials and put these ideas in motion.  We started with hand sanitizer or soap in our dishes, tracing the letter S as a snail would, slowly, leaving a trail behind.  After that we made snails out of the wooden pieces and adorned them with buttons and jewels. 

Thank you to my peers for keeping cooperative learning alive.  Vive L’education!

After the week was through I subbed in the Vashon classroom (on Friday morning)- I led morning circle  to introduce myself to the parents who may not know me and introduce the lines and curves we  use daily.  I explained to the families that we had begun letters this week and I heard a proficient reader/writer say, “it was actually kind of hard”.  To me, this means I have succeeded, sometimes it is tricky to have to teach something as basic as an L to a child who has been writing for months.  For that particular type of student to watch the ‘correct’ formation and then work at it for an afternoon (instead of saying “I already know how to do L”) warms my heart.

Success!