Charting a course. . .

Armed with my newly gained knowledge of SMART Notebook, I am using all of the pieces relected upon in my last post to plan and create SMART Board activities. For example, our book this week is Mouse Paint. We are working on colors, color mixing, concept words like hide, stir, three and positional concepts such as under/over, in/out. With my many English Learners, it is also important that an activity include opportunities for the students to use oral language with vocabulary words and comparisons. The social goals we have for our students include turn taking, waiting, and learning friends names. I designed a game where 3 mice are hiding under different color "puddles" of paint. In a small group, each child takes a turn to move a puddle and see if there is a mouse under it. I model the game and the oral language I want them to use by naming the color of the puddle I choose, and say "yes, there is a mouse under the green puddle" or "no, there is not a mouse under the green puddle". I ask the first child to play the game, helping them with the oral language if needed. Then the child is asked to pass the pointer to another specific child (recognizing friends names, turn taking and waiting). Structuring activities in this way will benefit all my students, cueing into the areas of need indicated through our assessments and data collection.

Moving Right Along. . .

October has been a great time for reflection about my classroom and my 4 classes. As a program, Stepping Stones/ECSE have been working on data collection and assessment, building on the Work Sampling assessment to ensure consistency among the early childhood programs here at Central Family Center (Stepping Stones, School Readiness, Family Literacy, and ECFE) Although it can be time consuming, I see the value in using the same tools across programs to assure that all of our children are having their academic needs met. During our workshops on October 20th, we were able to work with data collected on our students. I know a large number of my students are English Learners or come from dual language households, and when looking more closely, this fits 19 of my 42 students - almost 50%! (for 4 of them, this is their first English experience) This has made me more aware of the importance of using more visuals with everything we do. Adding more visuals with songs and rhymes, using props and demonstrating directions instead of just giving verbal reminders. I have also started focusing more on the vocabulary for each unit, including nouns but also action words and descriptors. The other main focus for literacy and language this fall is on alphabet recognition and sounds, and our classroom is using the Zoophonics program this year, so that is another learning curve for me to implement more fully throughout our class day.

I was able to attend a SMART board training on October 27, and created a couple new activities for the SMART board and my classroom touchscreen computer. It helped me become more familiar with the software, and I was able to reflect on the types of activities that will build the skills my students are focusing on. Letter activities, positional words (over, under, behind, around), colors, shapes, vocabulary, and number concepts are my starting points!

With students at age 3 and just turning 4, our team has seen a real need to concentrate on social and emotional development to help build postive interactions between our students. Central Family Center is implementing PBIS (positive behavioral intervention strategies), which focuses on direct teaching and modeling of expected behaviors within the classroom and throughout the building and playground. This year we added a Feelings and Friendship unit using a book with photographs of real children that our students really identified with. It has made a common foundation to talk about feelings and how to talk to our classmates. To build on this foundation of recognizing and naming emotions, I am adding social lessons from the Second Step curriculum, which also uses photographs of real children with stories about feelings and interactions - with a discussion component of real life situations.