Friday, June 29, 2012

Special Person of the Week!

This post is going to share with you how I do the Special Person of the Week in my class.


Word Work

I always spend a significant amount of time talking about the Special Person's name. We make a list of all the things we notice about that person's name. We also compare their name to another classmate's name.


Used To
When I used to make the Special Person book, I would have the students each draw a picture of the Special Person.  The Special Person's name is written at the top, and then students would write a compliment, on the bottom. 

I would have lots of conversations about that person but when the students went to write their compliment they were all the same... I like you. You're nice
They struggled with writing compliments.

Now  


At Back to School Night, I give everyone a date of when their child is the Special Person. 


(letter to parents)

Each week, a child will be our “Special Person of the Week”. On Friday, your child will be given a questionnaire to complete and return to school on Monday. Along with the completed form, they will bring five photos of special times in their lives to be hung on the “Special Person” bulletin board. Parents or other family members can be guest readers during the child’s week. Guest readers will read a favorite book to the class at the start of the day. If this time does not work with your schedule, we can always find another time during the week.



I put a limit to how many pictures to send in because one year I was getting over forty pictures from families. You can find the questions and book template at the bottom of this post.
There is a second page with a few more questions
Making the Class Book

I have the Special Person sit in a chair, and we share their pictures. We then read all the questions and answers together. The group sits and listens. 

After, I call out each page and pass them out. Each child makes a page for the book.


I am always surprised that the students remember the answers. If they forget they, find the Special Person and ask.


Reflection

 It can be tricky for kindergarteners to figure out where to put the words on their page, but with repeated practice, they get it!  

I think this book is something that if a child were to read it years from now, they would have a book full of childhood memories. 

Students are so proud and excited to take home their books and READ them.
I have the Special Person draw their face in the box. 
At the top of the page,  I put the first letter of the Special Person M...is for Mary.

Extension

 I recently took a course on Thinking Maps. If you ever have the opportunity to take a course/class, I strongly recommend it.  I am going to add a Bubble Thinking Map about the Special Person. I think this will be a great way to help kindergarteners learn about adjectives in an appropriate way.



 If you come up with a question that I don't have on my list, I would love to hear from you.

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Word Wall Alphabet PIctures

I made a word wall last summer that I found easy to use. I don't have a lot of wall space, so I wanted to make it smaller. I wish I had some pictures of the words I put on this year, but I forgot to take some. 

I love the little crowns at the top of my word wall. You can find a lot more examples of the Kid Writing link below. The kids get to wear them while writing time. The king of ing, the star of are and the wiz of is. It comes from the wonderful writing workshop book called
You can get to the author's site by clicking here


Friday, June 8, 2012

Favortie Fonts Linky Party



Here are my favorite fonts!! I LOVE finding new fonts. Once I get my report cards stuffed, I can't wait to go to Teachery Tidbits and see everyone's favorite fonts!
  My Favorite Fonts

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Word Book for Writing Workshop

I am working on my list of things to do for the fall! I just made this Word Book for my students writing workshop folders.  My goal is to use this little booklet as another resource for spelling and documenting words students are learning and using in their writing. I am hoping when students use a word in their writing I will highlight the word. I took the words from many of the kindergarten sight word lists. I also added some first-grade words too. At the end of the alphabet pages, I added a color page and days of the week.  






For a Copy click Here

Sunday, June 3, 2012

Writing Workshop Topic Booklets




I created this little booklet to use for the fall. The sheet is very simple, at the top, it has Things I know and Care About. The students draw in the box a topic idea and write the word or words on the line.  

 In the past,  I have had students do this sheet during the year. This year,  I thought it might be interesting to do it each month and see what topics students are selecting and how they develop over the year. 

 For example, when a student keeps writing the same topic at writing time, we can look at their booklets for a different idea. I think it would be an excellent tool to use during mini-lessons too.



Saturday, June 2, 2012

Memory Book Example

Here is an example of one student memory book. 

The books are spiral-bound together. 

Each child picked one memory. The child's memory is typed on the left side. On the right side, we did an art project to go with that memory. 

Next year I plan to do a few pages each month and file them away. I did not have the kids do a lot of painting and art projects, but I would love to do more of that next year. 


So below is  Brooke's Memory Book 

I did have some pages with photos but could not share them because we do not post names and pictures together.





My boys came to visit














(Thank you, Laura, for sharing this idea)


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