A is for Apple

The students love this song! Today we listened and watched it on the smart board. Preschool is all about getting the students prepared for kindergarten. We want the children to have a variety of social and academic skills before entering kindergarten.

At the beginning of the school year I do an abundance of assessment and take a collection of each child's work. (Yes, I still have 77 students) This takes a great deal of my time, but it provides me feed back about what the students already know. This also gives me and idea of what I need to teach them! 

Needless to say, the children need to learn the letter sounds! As I was assessing one child, I asked him what sound does A make? His response (with great confidence) was that 'A' makes music! I assured him that the letters do make a sound, and I promptly got my SMARTboard on with this YouTube video ready for our next group time. 

By the end of the video all of the children were singing along (and learning their letter sounds)! Since then I have posted this video on my web page so the children can watch and learn from anywhere, anytime thanks to YouTube.

'Tis the Season

'Tis the season for boots? What, it is September in Minnesota and the temperature is about sixty-five degrees. Why did two of my three year old students wear boots to school today? 

After talking with one parent, she said the child liked the boots and she let him wear the boots. So, was this a battle the child won or is there more going on here?

As I thought about this, it isn't too far off. Target stores are selling boots on their shelves right now. This is just a typical preparation for the winter season in the eyes of retailers. In the eyes of our immigrant families, it is much different. The temperatures are dropping significantly from the summer months and now the stores are selling boots and winter clothes. Children see the boots in the store and tell their parents they want them! The parents are thinking, it is cold and this is what Minnesotans do when the weather changes. How confusing for immigrant families! 

Why are the stores selling boots in September? Why wouldn't you wear boots to school in September, especially if they light up and have your favorite character on them?

Cheese

One by one the children stood by the wall, all lined up and in place for their class photo. It is hard to stand and wait when you are three years old. All you care about is playing and doing what you want, when you want! (I guess not much changes with age!)

Say cheese! Somehow, this word translates across many languages. You would think this word would only work well in WI! All of the children put on the biggest smile they have when I tell them to "say cheese."

After I took the photo and told the children they were done, I dismissed them all to play. They all took off in a million directions, all except one child. Standing by the wall one upset child said, "Mrs. Crystal, you didn't take my picture." I assured here I did. Still unsatisfied she said, "well I didn't see it."

From past experiences she has been able to see the photo immediately after it has been taken. She was unsatisfied that I didn't show her the photo right away. By seeing the photo, she knew I took the picture.

My students rely on immediate digital feedback! This is the only thing they have ever known. They will probably never have to wait to develop film!

It's a Coconut

Mrs. Crystal, Mrs. Crystal, I found a coconut on the play ground! I was confused as the student handed me two pine cones. (on the left in the picture above) Too bad we live in Minnesota, coconuts don't grow on our trees! After reading Chicka Chicka Boom Boom this week to the students, and they were confused about the coconuts, I thought I better bring in a real one!

What a great hands on thing to explore. We had to inspect the coconuts brown husk and hairy surface. Most students were surprised by its weight and had a hard time passing it around the circle.

Why don't we teach with visuals? Our English Language students have a hard time trying to figure out what we are talking about most of the time. The use of visuals in our classroom can significantly increase learning.

We are going to crack into this coconut in a few weeks to taste it. I can't wait, yum!

Going Google

After months of working with our teachers on creating Google Sites, they have all gone public! This is a big accomplishment for all of our staff to have completed. Check them out at www.edenpr.org/famctr.

This all started after I attended the TIES training in December where I heard Molly Schroeder a Google Certified Teacher share how Google Sites work. I was very interested in this for our staff. During this time our district had just adopted the Google Apps for education so we could go Google!

After working with our web developer we choose the perfect colors and I created a templates for each department in our building. I then delivered several trainings on Sites. Through the process I answered many questions and taught teachers how to create in Google. 

We are so excited to have a great communication tool that is user friendly and looks great. Our web pages are part of our marketing and we need to look good to the families we serve! Google Sites has also been a great way to collaborate with colleagues and share information. 

I am so proud of all of the staff! We are the first ones in the district to all officially have gone Google with our web pages!

Read to Me

Read to me, read to me! As a teacher I read to the children during our large group time every day, but for some children this isn't enough. I would love to read to every child who asks this. However, there is myself and my assistant with 16 children all who have different needs and wants to learn. How do I give children access to books, reading and language when they want it?

One way I did this today was by giving children access to an online read aloud. They sat side by side on the computer using headphones to listen and watch a story being read to them. These children were at www.leadingtoreading.com. Here they listened to a  3 minute read aloud book about the bus. Meanwhile, I was able to play, engage, and work one on one with their classmates.

Some children listened to the same story several times. They enjoy being read to! Accessing an online read aloud really helps free up my time as well as provide children learning opportunities to become readers.

Read to me, read to me!

Sleeping Baby

Today was my first day back to school! (I'll post my back to school picture later mom!) It was a great start to the year. It is fun getting to know all of the students and seeing their little personalities come out. We did all of the typical things today: group time, exploratory play, gym, snack, choice play, and music.

Today was also my first day using my sound field system. You can read more about it here. Basically it amplifies sound across the room so all students can hear better and therefore, learn better. There is extensive research on how the sound field system improves achievement for all learners. It is really great, except when the babies are sleeping!

One sweet young girl asked me today to please be quiet because her baby was sleeping. It was so sweet, yet so funny! I forgot that my microphone was still on. Lesson for the day, turn off  microphone when the babies are sleeping!

Guess Who Gets Gmail?

As you can imagine parents ask me a multitude of questions and share with me endless information about their child. One parent told me about her son great desire to be like his big brother and father. (Not uncommon) The child really wanted to have his own email! He watched his dad email during work and his older brother email friends and family. 

Now mom, she was very unsure of what to do. She really wanted her four-year-old to learn to write and read letters. He was really giving her a hard time at home about sitting at the table and writing and tracing. I assured mom that her son would learn to write and read all in due time. I shared with mom some online resources where she could find some activities to reinforce  learning. I also shared my email address with mom and told her that he could email me when he was ready.  

Just a day later I receive an email from my students new Gmail account! Yes he is four and he sends me regular emails from his Gmail account. At the end of the email it reads, "typed by my big brother." Do you think my student  will learn to write and read letters using Gmail? I sure do!

Watch Cartoons. Learn English.

After meeting with my incoming students and their families (all 77 of them), I hope you can still hear me! Why do some of my ELL families tell me their child knows English because they watch cartoons? After they proceed to name all of the cartoons their children watch, I think they watch t.v. all day. Oh wait, they do! The parents always ask me, "what do I do my son watches t.v. all the time?" "When I turn off the t.v. they cry." All I can say is turn off the t.v. and they will cry today, but maybe not tomorrow? Is this really a good answer?


An article by Jaana Jylha-Laide, Learning by Viewing: Cartoons as Foreign Language Learning Material for Children-A Case Study say otherwise. The case study presents a study of a six-year-old Finnish girl who learned a foreign language by watching English language cartoons on video, without formal teaching or contact with native speakers. See the link here.  PBS also has a great article about how elements of educational t.v. are effective.


Yes, we need children to learn a wide variety of skills while their brains are developing, but how much t.v. is too much? Do children really learn English by watching Sesame Street, Dora, and Tom and Jerry all day? I told the parents to turn off the t.v. What would you do?

To Blog or Not to Blog

This is the question I was contemplating. Then I watched this YouTube video. Really, 76% of teachers don't use blogs, wikis or podcasts! I guess I can understand this. I spent my whole day writing lesson plans, creating curriculum, preparing my classroom for year, and meeting with parents. What teacher has time to Blog?

I work hard to engage my learners who are 3-5 years old and 99% of them don't speak English as their first language. This is a big challenge as you can imagine. However, my bigger challenge is going to be engaging them for a bigger purpose. These children will graduate in the year 2025. What are the tools I can equip them with to become successful? I guess I will start here.