Book Walking

Reading Tool #1

Book Walk

Before reading a new book, looking through the pictures carefully for “clues” (details in the pictures), gives the reader many of the actual words or ideas from the story. 

These clues may be facial expressions on the characters that give a reader an idea of how the character is feeling or what they may be thinking. 

 The picture details often shows the reader something that may help them read a difficult word in the text, like the words “squealed” or “whistle” or “hurray”.  

If we teach our children to learn how to LOOK CAREFULLY FOR DETAILS before they read a book, along with reading the title and thinking about what the story could be about, children find reading easier and much more enjoyable!

When they come to a tricky word, they can check the word and the picture,  think what makes sense, and low and behold, the tricky word pops right out of their mouth!

Give this a try at home and see if it doesn’t make reading easier for your child! We’ve been working on this tool at school but your child will need to be reminded to do this without my prompting!

Ms. Mary Beth

Camp Elim part 2!

Camp Elim Fall 2013

Peace among the Storm

My Dear Crew,

After 12 hours of sleep I'm back and as I write to you I find myself amazed by your children.

They were such troopers.  At a very young age they showed all of the character traits that we find so important in life.  Perseverance, beneficience, empathy, stewardship, and of course integrity!  My favorite part of camp is stepping back and watching them bond with one another.  So very beautiful!  So much love shown to each other.  

Thank you for hanging in there yesterday as you waited for information from the school.  My first job in situations like this is to care for your child's heart, mind, and well-being.  I did my best to stay calm so they did not feel the stress I felt inside.  Ms. Dana and I both love your children very much.  They are written on our hearts.  

I plan to put up a slide show of pics on my blog this weekend.  I left my camera chord at school, so thanks for being patient with me until I'm able to retrieve that.  I hope your child built memories for a life time at camp this week. Here are a few pics I had on my camera.

The yert...a new addition to Camp Elim.
Inside we did an activity that led the children to use their  senses.
Ask them about it!

Peaceful times at camp.

Expedition: We Are Family

Our 1st Expedition: Families

It has happened at the end of week four.  We became a family unit.

Like magic, it happens. Nothing is more dear to my heart than to see this unfold every year. It's truly amazing and it changes everything for the rest of the year. Read the questions below and I'll explain my reasons for the project above.

We began looking at the first two questions and as we did the children began learning about their crew mates families and with great joy they found that many of them looked like their own.  We had some very heart-felt conversations about our families and we have learned what a family means.  Ask your child what we have decided a family is.  And as we realized we are different at home but the same family at school, it became apparent to me that this crew needed to feel like they had a day-tiime family that they belonged to. So...we drew ourselves and placed them around the heart.
We ARE a family that can take risks together.  It's the love that makes it so.