Mrs. Malo

An Acrostic Christmas

Posted on December 11, 2011 by Mrs. Malo

I am a few days behind on my blogs and much of this is because we missed our book last Tuesday (catching up from the Sunday before). I really want to tell you about them in the order I originally planned so we just finished the book schedule for the 6th day and here it is:

I found Merry Christmas: A Victorian Verse by Mary Teichman at our local discount book store and thought it would be a great book for Literacy Tuesdays. Originally published in 1993, it reads as if it was written 100 years ago. This is a great book for working on literacy skills with both of my girls. It is written using the letters in the phrase “Merry Christmas”. Each page is a different letter: “M for the Music, merry and clear”. For Eileen she loved reading me the letter on each page and then I would read the rest of the phrase. After a couple of pages Kaitlyn decided it was her job to tell us the sound that the letter makes, fine with me! They didn’t realize while we read it that there is a rhyming scheme but I could easily point it on on a re-read.

For Eileen’s activity we focused on letter recognition and made it a bit more fun by adding in our alphabet stamps. On the back is written the complete text of the poem in the book. I asked her to tell me the name of each letter, and then she would find the stamp and then stamp it on her paper. It worked pretty well but a couple of times she got mixed up on where to stamp hence it is a bit difficult to make out the Merry Christmas. I realized after that we also missed the last S. When you remember that she is only 3 I think the exercise worked pretty well.

Kaitlyn’s activity was to write her own acrostic poem. We have not done any poetry at home yet but she loves to write so I knew she would like this activity. I first asked her to pick a Christmas word or phrase and she came up with ‘Santa Claus’. I thought this was the perfect length for her and not too long. She wrote the letters down the left hand side of her page and we decided to write ‘is for’ after each letter to make it easier for her to write and read. She got stuck on a few letters but the only one Mommy had to give her was nativity for the letter N. After she was done her rough copy she stamped out the word Santa Claus (it was her idea to do the colour pattern) and then neatly printed her poem. I think she did an awesome job!

Books, Kindercrafts

ee Tree

Posted on December 7, 2011December 8, 2011 by Mrs. Malo

I just love it when I come up with a great lesson for my Kinder class and it works well from start to finish! Today I had one of those lessons. One of the blogs I frequently follow is Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas and she has had a few great posts on activities to do with word families. I have been wanting to try and work some fun word family activities in with my class and had a great opportunity today.

Our focus for the month of December has been around a great book: A Porcupine in a Pine Tree – A Canadian 12 Days of Christmas by Helaine Becker and illustrated by Werner Zimmermann. We are doing some a great sequencing and counting activity that I will blog about later but from this book our focus has expanded to include all Christmas Trees.

I started today by reading the book The Little Christmas Tree by Karl Ruhmann and illustrated by Anne Moller. This is a cute book about a tree that doesn’t feel special in the forest among the large majestic trees but knows that some day it will get it’s chance to shine. As I read along with discussing key illustrations and themes in the story we pointed out words with the ‘ee’ sound, a sound that we learned in our Jolly Phonics program last week. After we sang the song “I’m a little pine tree”, to the tune of “I’m a Little Teapot”:

I’m a little pine tree as you can see,

All the other pine trees are bigger than me.

Maybe when I’m grown up I will be,

A great big Merry Christmas tree.

We circled all of the ‘ee’ sounds in the song and then I told them we were going to make a craft to learn more words with the ‘ee’ sound.

There was a bit of prep on my part for this activity, so it didn’t take all day. I had already cut out for each student: a green tree, a star, and four circles with ee words (free, tree, see, and bee). For each word there was a circle with the complete word, and a circle with the ee missing.

Students started by printing their names on the back of their tree and the ‘ee’ on their star. I came around with a black marker and made their ee’s brighter. This gave me the opportunity to help those students who struggle printing lower case e’s but they still had to make an attempt themselves. Next we glued our stars at the top of the tree. One word at at time students glued the word on the tree and then the circle with the part of the word (missing the ee) on top so they could ‘peak-a-boo’ under the circle to see the complete word. After a few glue mishaps with completely cover the word most students figured it out and the trees were a success.

While they were in gym today I glued the “I’m a Little Pine tree” song on the back of the tree along with a small homework assignment. I asked them to talk with their parents and see if they could list any other works with ‘ee’ in them. Then they were to circle any that had the ‘ee’ and the end and therefore rhymed with the word tree. I am interested to see what they come back with on Monday.

I will definitely be doing more activities like this one. I am thinking ‘og’ words around Groundhog day, and ‘ar’ words when we are studying space in February (star).

Books

Mickey Saves Santa

Posted on December 7, 2011 by Mrs. Malo

Eileen was thrilled that our book on December 5th was her pick: Mickey Saves Santa from the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse series.

Monday nights are busy for us so I picked a fun book with a fun simple activity. This is no literary masterpiece but it is a fun themed book that Eileen loved. You can easily tell that is is based on a television episode because the story is choppy and you can tell there are parts missing. Mrs. Claus show up at the clubhouse announcing that Santa needs help or he will not be able to deliver presents. They could have been more creative with his problem than simply a broken harness but Eileen didn’t seem to care. Included in the book were over 25 stickers and two paper ornaments to stick them on. The girls enjoyed making them and hanging them on the tree.

These ornaments were not the activity I had planned but I let them make them anyway. After I put on Christmas music from a Disney CD I had picked up a couple of years ago: Disney’s Santa Time. It is not an easy CD to find but it is one of our favourites. My absolute favourite song is called “Stars” and I have never been able to find it anywhere but on this album. I put the music on and let the kids dance for a few minutes before winding down for bed.

Books, Family Adventures, In the Community

God Gave Us …

Posted on December 6, 2011 by Mrs. Malo

Sunday’s book (December 4th) was God Gave Us Christmas written by Lisa Tawn Bergern and illustrations by David Hohn.

I decided to put this book on a Sunday for two reasons: first its has a religious theme so it is a good book to read before going to church and Sunday school, and second we have more time on the weekend and the activity I had in mind would take a bit longer.

First thing in the morning I read the book to the girls. It is a story of a little bear who asks his Mamma:

“Who ‘vented Christmas? Was it Santa?”

Mamma answers that God was the one who invented Christmas, that “God gave us Christmas”. The next day Little Cub asks to go find Santa but Mama suggests that instead they go to find God. I really like how Mama Bear doesn’t exclude Santa but instead says:

“Santa Claus reminds us about many good things like generosity and care. But is is God and Jesus that we celebrate most come Christmas. We always want to thank God for giving us Christmas.”

This makes it easier for children to follow without abandoning their young visions of what they know of Christmas.

Little Cub and Mama set out to look for signs of God – and that is just the task I gave Kaitlyn. I gave her my little camera for the day and told her to take pictures of things that God gave us. She took it to church, and Sunday School, and with us as we went to get our Christmas tree. The pictures may have been different if we did it for a week instead of just a day but I still think she did an amazing job!

She put all of her pictures together to make a collage. I helped her a bit with shaping her photos and with spelling but she did the rest herself. In case you have trouble reading she came up with: stories, friends, nature, family, trees, home and us.

Books, Family Adventures

Letters for Santa

Posted on December 3, 2011 by Mrs. Malo

Today’s book (December 3rd) was It’s Christmas David! by David Shannon.

Eileen got this for Christmas last year when it was very appropriate for her. This year it is VERY appropriate for Michael. This was a great read for both of the girls. Kaitlyn was able to read most of the words so it was fun for her to read it to us, and because of the limited text Eileen was great at helping us read the pictures. A very cute Christmas picture book.

One of the scenes in the book is David sitting with Santa showing him his very long Christmas list. I thought this would be a great lead in to the girls writing their Christmas letters to Santa. We were going to decorate paper for our letters but Kailtyn really wanted to do hers all by herself and I thought lined paper would be a big help. I found some free printable snowman lined paper that was perfect. I sat with Kaitlyn and wrote her letter as she dictated it to me, and I helped Kaitlyn with a few words (spellings). I gave them some Christmas stickers we have to decorate their pages and envelopes.

Fortunately there were no surprises for Mommy and all of the items they asked for were the same they told Santa 2 weeks ago when we did our pictures. It was tough getting Eileen to add anything other than what she wanted for Christmas but eventually I convinced her to add that we would leave Santa cookies, even though I think she only added it thinking she might get to eat some. Kaitlyn was much easier and was very thoughtful and methodical with her letter.

We will drop them in the mailbox on our way to church tomorrow and hopefully will get a letter back from Santa before Christmas!

Books, Craft Thursdays

Reindeer Rebellion

Posted on December 3, 2011December 3, 2011 by Mrs. Malo

Our book for December second was The Great Reindeer Rebellion.

This is a cute book I picked up on the discount shelf at Coles/Chapters. From an adult perspective, and in light of all the labour unrest that has happened in the past year it is nice to see that there are some employees that just can’t be replaced – Santa’s Reindeer! This story is written in rhyming verse and sounds similar to the traditional Night before Christmas. There are a few times the rhymes could be more creative (up & up) but overall it is very nice to read aloud and easy language for kids.

We had Gord’s staff party so Gramma and Grampa watched the kids and did a reindeer craft with them, and after seeing what they came up with I am very happy I gave them this task! They found an outline for Birch Branch Reindeer and adapted it for the kids. First my dad went out to the field behind their house to find some appropriate wood. They wanted to make small reindeer so he found the appropriate size branch but you could go larger to make a reindeer that could stand beside your fireplace. He cut a body and head for each of the girls and then found twigs for legs and antlers. He prepared them by drilling the appropriate sized holes for the legs and antlers. They did suggest to me that if I was to do this again to cut them a few days in advance so the wood could dry out a bit easier, this would make it easier to stick together. Dad also said you need to be careful where you drill the holes for the legs so your reindeer can stand easily and doesn’t do the splits!

With the girls they first glued on the legs and antler and then added the embellishments. They added googly eyes and used pom poms for the nose and tail. Mom found some gymp coring in my craft bin and used it to put the bell around the neck. Kaitlyn decided she was going to make Rudolph’s girlfriend Clarice so she added a pink bow. I think they turned out super cute!

Books, Family Adventures

24 Books until Christmas

Posted on December 1, 2011 by Mrs. Malo

I have so many thing to blog about both from my class and with my own children but I was so excited to find a book Christmas countdown over at Reading Confetti that I just had to do it at my house. I will blog about our great migration unit and my weekend away soon but I want to try and keep up with blogging about each of the books we do leading up to Christmas.

First I gathered all my Christmas books together, and I also checked out our local discount book store (and one small trip to Chapters). Next I created a table on my computer with all the days leading up to Christmas. I starting by matching books to any special days or special events (eg. getting our tree, making the gingerbread house, and church events), and then I filled in the rest based on activities I wanted to do with each book and how much time we would have on different days.

I search my house for some sort of basket to put them all in and ending up with a small laundry basket. It’s nothing special but the size was perfect.

You can guess from the book right at the front that today we started with The Elf on the Shelf. I managed to pick one up when I was shopping last week and thought we would introduce an elf to our family this year. We opened our box to read our book and meet our Elf. Have much debate and deliberation we decided to name him Frankie. Kaitlyn actually suggested Frankenstein but we convinced her that Frankie was more an Elf name. I think the big thing will be trying to keep Eileen from touching him. Kaitlyn is right into it and has already registered him online and spent some time checking out the website, so far she is not too much a fan of the site (not that kid friendly). The big thing is going to be for Gord and I to remember to move him every night.

The girls were excited to hear there was a television show on the book but I think that we may have already missed it this year. If anyone knows of where I can find it online please let me know. It may be a big help in getting Eileen excited about Frankie.

I was impressed tonight that this adventure of ours seems to be a priority for Gord. I told him that we were starting our book countdown tonight and I would like it to be something we do together as much as possible and he made sure to schedule his meeting tonight later so that he would be here for our book.

Tomorrow night is a reindeer book and a craft with Gramma. Gord and I have his staff party but I am going to try and read the book before I leave. If not I think it will be O.K. for Gramma and Grampa to participate in our little adventure.

Literacy Tuesdays

E is for Eyes

Posted on November 24, 2011 by Mrs. Malo

This Tuesday’s letter was E and Kiboomu had a great idea for Eyes. I printed off a large E for Eileen and the word Eyes for Kaitlyn. I pulled out a pile of old magazines and the girls set out to find eyes to cut out and paste on their letters. This was a great task especially for Eileen because we have just started working alot on her fine motor skills, specifically with scissors. She was very determined to cut her eyes out by herself.

It took longer than most of our Tuesday letters but they turned out pretty cool! The girls both got very excited when they found some unique eyes. I think the one eyed monster that Eileen found in an advertisement was our favourite.

As a side note my joy of Eileen using scissors was very short lived – as she cut a chunk of hair off Kaitlyn today. After an emergency visit to the hair dressers you can’t notice too much, the key will be the next time I put it in a ponytail!

Literacy Tuesdays

C is for Cotton

Posted on November 22, 2011 by Mrs. Malo

Last week our letter was C and this one I came up with all on my own. I wanted to make sure we were using the hard c sound, plus I have learned the key is picking something that both girls can easily do – so we decided on cotton. I picked up a bag of cottton balls at the pharmacy on sale and these worked perfectly. On Eileen’s C she simply glued on cotton balls. For Kaitlyn I printed the word cotton out for her and she tore up cotton balls to smaller pieces and glued them on the word. Nice and quick and easy!

Character Ed

Character Education: Compassion

Posted on November 21, 2011 by Mrs. Malo

At West Lynn we have a different character trait that we highlight every month. For the month of November it is Compassion. I spent some time on google and came across a pretty good lesson perfect for Kindergarten. It was based around the book The Brand New Kid by Katie Couric. I am always a bit hesitant reading children’s book by ‘celebrities’ but I was very pleasantly surprised. This is a great book with a great message, written mostly in language that kindergartens can follow and it has a nice rhyme and cadence for a read-aloud. I was fortunate to find the book in our local public library.

I started our study last Monday by reading the book to the class. Throughout we discussed how Lazlo was feeling, and then eventually what Ellie did to make him feel better. After finishing I told them that Ellie was showing compassion to Lazlo. We discussed that compassion is caring and helping someone when they have a need, the easiest way for them to understand is to tell them it is trying to help someone feel better when they are sad or upset. At the end of the day I sent a letter home with each student explaining the book to parents and asking them to discuss the concept of compassion at home.

Today we reviewed The Brand New Kid and I read them Grady the Goose by Denise Brennan-Nelson. I borrowed this book from my teaching partner and it was perfect on many levels. We are studying migration and today specifically we were looking at the Canada Goose, but in terms of compassion the farmer in the book shows compassion to Grady by freeing her and taking her to her family. After this I introduced the compassion quilt to them. Each student was given a small square of paper and they each had to draw a picture of someone showing compassion. To make sure they knew what they were going to draw I had them tell me before I gave them their paper. This gave me the opportunity to clarify their answers and make sure they understood the concept of compassion. When they were done they had to bring their square to an adult in the room (myself, my EA or one of my volunteers) and we wrote their sentence for them describing their picture. At the end of the day I glued them all together on a large bristol board, and I am VERY happy with how the finished product turned out!