You know you are busy when you actually count the number of photos you have taken at school for various activities! I have had such a fun two weeks with my kiddos, and couldn’t decide what to blog about, so I’m blogging about more than one “happening” in our little kinder community.
First UP!
We are working on 2-D and 3-D shapes in Math this month! Two of our Common Core goals are:
Identify 2-D and 3-D Shapes
Make an object using 2-D shapes
Our cute shape leprechauns were such fun, and we like that they are the size of a REAL leprechaun! ;)Each student put his/her own personality into the leprechauns while identifying squares, rectangles, triangles, and circles. Here are a few of our Shape Leprechauns, and the directions for making them:
Now, for the big NEWS!!! Do you want your kids to have total engagement when reading? Are you trying to improve reading stamina? You may want to try this little trick:
Two years ago I was given the opportunity to purchase 25 multi-cultural dolls from a company that was going out of business. The dolls were 1.00 each, plus the cost of shipping. This is the best purchase I’ve made in a long time for helping to manage our Read to Self time. Each child chooses a doll to keep in his/her reading tub. When morning work is done, or when it is time for Read to Self, the student sets the doll nearby and reads to it. We have an arms length rule, meaning, each student must be in his/her own space reading the whole time. If we reach our minute goal, we are allowed to put our dolls together with another partner for a little EEKK “DD”(doll-doll) time. You might be surprised at how serious children are when they are reading to a doll or a stuffed animal that does not talk back. I can roam around and observe–even take pics without kids being disturbed. My class is totally in the reading zone when we are having Read to Self time. The rag dolls I have are washable–totally love that feature about them! I would love to be able to refer you to such a deal as the one I got when I found the little dolls, but the company is no longer selling them (as far as I know). Another option that I have considered is to have each child bring a doll or stuffed animal from home. The same rules would apply: Prop the doll in a listening position (so as not to be tempted to play with it), and READ! I would love to know if you currently use something like this in your own room to aid students in reading with confidence and fluency! Here are a few pics of my cuties reading to their “buddies”.
I love comments, so let me know how you handle Read to Self time. What works for you? What doesn’t work for you?
quiltmom says
MAGGIE,
I think the doll idea sounds fantastic- I will have to check in my beanie box-I used to have a number of the dolls- we had a reno at school and got rid of stuff like that but maybe I still have them- I can see how kids would be engaged in reading to their dolls.
Thanks for sharing.
Regards,
Anna