The Garden System: Time to Harvest

                              

Harvest time was so exciting for both first and second graders! Both grades were able to harvest the tomatoes, peppers, and onions that we started from seed last spring.

We have a good understanding now of how the garden is a system through books, observing our school garden and making notes in our scientific notebooks, and our visit to Mr. Leo's garden.  We continue to add pictures to the garden timeline in our room that helps us keep a visual of the progression of the plants and the system.

Thanks to Ms. Zina who prepared salsa for us to enjoy that was made from our harvested vegetables! It was delicious!

Camp Elim Fun!

Dear Crew,
What an enjoyable experience we had in the mountains together!  I loved having the opportunity to play with my children and to enjoy the beauty and fun at Camp Elim with them.  A HUGE thank you to the parents who chaperoned.  They were kind, helpful, and caring to me and to the children!

Reading Tool: Schema

 Using our schema to help us read and learn.
It's the file cabinet in our brains!

Schema is all of our background knowledge about the world.

Six and seven year olds don't have as much as we adults do, but they do have big files about their families, animals, and other things they have experienced so far in life.

When we bring our schema to the books we read, we "debug the book" by already having vocabulary and knowledge that will be talked about on every page. This makes the reading easier.  If we don't have schema about a book we want to read, then we have to slow down as readers in order to build schema and gather information to make a new folder in our brains.  Cool, huh?

First graders get this grown-up subject when I help them visualize it with the file cabinet in our room and my basic picture of our heads. 

At home, your child's schema can be activated by talking with your child about the books they read before, during, and after the reading.  So open those file cabinets and help your child create some new folders! Go to the library and enjoy talking about books with your child.

Reading Tool: Book Walk

The first day that I begin teaching reading tools, I wear my tool belt and talk about how using just one tool for a job doesn't always work.  The same thing is true when we read.  We need many tools in our tool belt in order to solve tricky words.  (this is not a video, just a screenshot) 


I want to begin sharing the reading tools that I'm teaching the children so you can support your reader at home. Here is the first one.

1.  Book Walking a Fiction Book:  Reading the title, checking out the back cover and title page, and looking through the pictures and talking about the story BEFORE reading any of the words.

This tool is powerful.  The story will be much easier to read when the reader already has some good ideas and predictions about the story and the characters.  Thinking about what the problem might be and how it will be solved will support the reader when they get to tricky words in the text.

Eventually the pictures go away as we begin reading chapter books.  Then we need to know how to make mental images for ourselves, and I'll be teaching everyone how to do this while they are reading.  We are all growing!

The Garden System: A Visit to Mr. Leo's Garden

Our visit to Mr. Leo's and Ms. Zina's garden in Sedalia was amazing.  Ms. Zina is our wonderful cafeteria director, and her husband, Mr. Leo, is a master gardener and beekeeper. 

They are very giving and gracious people.  Hosting 50 children at their home to walk the garden, see the bees, and eat homemade zucchini bread and honey from their own hives was a gift to all of us.  

Mr. Leo knows many secrets about gardening in CO.  We saw many vegetables such as artichokes, cabbage, cauliflower, two kinds of kale, corn, pumpkins and peppers, to name a few.

The children helped me write a thank you note to them.  Each child created a vegetable  to put onto the letter.  

Our crew is learning about the system of the garden. When you come in to visit, please check out the garden timeline and the big ideas we are working on as we learn about this system and how each part impacts the whole garden.

Nightly Reading: To, With, or By

Their are many ways to read books. At school, we listen to stories that I read aloud, the children share books as they buddy read, or the children learn to read in their heads as they begin to independently read.  

So far this year, my crew has become wonderful listeners of great stories, and they are kind buddy readers who love sharing their favorite books.

Beginning this week, I will teach them how to read independently.  It takes practice to learn how to read in our heads!  At first some of them may need to continue to whisper read out loud.  That's ok!  They will grow as we go.  

At this time I can expect them to independently read around 10 minutes.  By the end of the year they should be able to go at least 30 minutes of uninterrupted reading.  You can support your child by helping them practice this kind of reading now at home.

 I want to share the 3 kinds of reading that can be practiced at home each night as your child brings home their first reading books. 

 Reading aloud to your child is a way to grow your child as a reader.  Reading with your child is another.

When you read with, you could share the book by you reading one page, your child reading the next. This is often the way your child may choose to read right now as they are tired after a long day at school:) Finally, the reading can be done by your child. 

Important! Even with eager independent readers, reading aloud to your child will be important as they gain vocabulary and background knowledge of our world. Never stop reading aloud to your child! I want the nightly reading to be a snuggly, loving time. Choose whatever way that meets your child's needs.

Tips for Nightly Reading with Your Child

I grew up the oldest of five children.  I took to reading as a duck takes to water.  But this was not true for some of my siblings, and my son was not as enamored as my daughters were with books.  It took a while.

I'm a parent, just like you.  I want your at-home reading experience to go well for everyone.  I want it to be a time for building memories of love between you and your child.  This little book below says it well...

So, I guess what I want to say before sending that first book home is this is an opportunity to share love with your child.
There are no other expectations for your nightly reading! 
For those of you who want a bit more guidance, I'll offer some tips on the next post.

Books are love to me.  I hope your child will leave first grade feeling the same!