During the month of November we start to talk about the things that give quality to our lives. Thanksgiving seems most appropriate for reflection on basic human needs and recognizing that not everyone has the same personal experience as each of us.The early Pilgrims faced struggles and made it through, at least in part, by the generosity of our Native Americans. We often need the help of others and can find our own ways to offer a helping hand.

Here are a couple of VoiceThread presentations of our most recent class books. We are trying to make a new book each week. The books are traveling around to all student homes and parents are writing messages back to the whole class in praise of their efforts.

Here is a direct link to the VoiceThread page. It may allow a larger picture.

Our next book was scanned at a higher resolution so it should be more readable. Tinkering with technology is necessary for professional growth and it makes the learning more fun when you can see improvement along the way. The children are reciting their own pages.

This one is entitled, I Am Thankful.

Here is the direct link for that one as well.

The month of March is full of changes and excitement. The children play in the snow but each day the snow piles become smaller and smaller. Half way through the month we will see all of the St. Patrick’s Day festivities and parades. Along with this is the magic and adventure of leprechauns. We have enjoyed talking about how we would catch one and win his pot of gold.

Here is a VoiceThread presentation with the students trying a hand at reading their own text. Everyone is doing their best and should feel mighty proud of themselves.

Use Pause and Play Buttons

I have been working on some professional development surrounding the use of images. It is an non credit online program designed to meet the needs of educators.

This week’s assignment for Images4Education called upon us to design an online story. Mixbook was a new program for me so I thought I’d learn more about it. This is the story I created. Problems? Yes. The site would like people to create their books and then purchase a hard copy. I am always looking for the free version ;+ As a result you will find that this book autoplays at a fast speed.

You can work around this by using the pause and play buttons at the bottom of the box. This will allow more time for you and your child to read the pages at a comfortable rate. You can also move the mouse around a bit or use the slider at the bottom of the box to go back to the page you want.

Some of your children are already reading text in books and will relish the opportunity to read our own creation. The children created the text with only a little editing on my part. Comments are always welcome! You can make viewing even easier by clicking on this link

| View Sample Photo Books | Create your own Photo Book

The children have certainly been hard at work on their writing. I love to watch their progress over time. Some children can identify the sounds and letters on their own but most need a great deal of help. It is a long process of skill development and kindergarten only brushes over the basics. So lets sit back and enjoy our latest Photo Story production, Our Happy New Year Hopes and Dreams!

hopes-and-dreams-2008

The children have embraced writing in a way I wasn’t expecting. For that reason, I am introducing our Writer’s Workshop a month earlier than usual. We use white boards to practice creating the words while the teacher writes on the paper in the front of the class. Everyone helps to create the text and spell the words. This is called interactive writing. The change for us is evident in class books that are going home for nightly visits. More words are being written by the children with the help of an adult. We do this in small groups where the children can help each other to clap the syllables, sound out the words, and try to identify the letter that goes with that sound. They are proud of themselves. You can support the learning at home by being sure your child can identify all upper and lower case letters and has practice with sound work.  I know you will enjoy the effort presented here in our latest class book, We Light Up the World. My apologies for the glare on the pages. I’m learning too. (Note to self, take photos before laminating.)

Click on the following link.

welightuptheworld