Tuesday at Kaiser School the first graders were getting a heavy dose of phonics. During workshop, instead of small groups working on different skills, everyone had the same worksheet. One side had pictures and then the ending of the words. The children had to put in the beginning blend.
A picture of grapes apes. They wrote in the blank gr. grapes. They had bl, gr, sl, sk, tr, st to pick from. Most of it was easy. Snail, trunk, tree . . . And then regional and age differences showed up. There was a picture of a blouse. 80% of them didn't know what it was. All they could think of was shirt, but the clue was ouse. Little girls wear cute shirts today, not a blouse. Then we had a sled and ice skates. No idea what those are. It doesn't snow in the Bay Area. Some of them might go skiing, but if they do something like sledding, they use a snow disc. Ice skating, not in their vocabulary.
Later they worked on the vowel blank silent e rule. In words ending with a vowel, a consonant, and a silent e, the vowel will be long. No e, the vowel is short. We had 10 sentences with a word left out. They had a choice of two words and had to add the correct word.
I like to _______ my bike. rid ride
The lamp is ________. dim dime
The page had a ________ . rip ripe
This didn't go well because some used only the words ending in e. That is what we are studying, so it has to be right. They didn't read the sentences. When I had them read the sentences to me, they would say, "Oh, that doesn't make sense." It is not just we have a long vowel. It is also no e we must have a short vowel.
Ms H asked me to read to the children. YAY! It was one of my favorite books, Herb the Vegetarian Dragon. If you are not familiar with this book, do check out the link. The illustrations are wonderful. And there are lots of things on the website that are fun to check out, like recipes. The point of this book is it is wrong to condemn others for living differently than you do. We all can be different and still live together and be friends. At the same time this book is not the sweet PC book that is dumbed down so the children will not be scared. The dragons eat people, pictures show people in the dragons' mouths. Herb is almost beheaded. The children love this book. They also know it is make believe. Just like my generation knew Hansel and Gretal were not really in danger and they didn't really throw the witch into the oven. It is called make believe.
We did a lot of work yesterday. The children really buckled down and finished their work. No one stayed in at recess. No one really acted out yesterday. A very successful school day.
Showing posts with label Herb the vegetarian dragon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Herb the vegetarian dragon. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
This and That
There will be no wedding posts this week. Monday I didn't go in to do ceremonies. I had only 3 hours sleep Sunday night because someone I love dearly is a bed hog. Today Marty needed the car for a couple of appointments, so I am not going in today either. Strange week.
Yesterday I did volunteer with my first graders. When the class broke into groups I listened to some of them read. But mainly I worked with a group doing math. They were counting by twos, fives, and tens. Easy right?
Well if you are just counting. But we know Ms. H, she will make those little ones think. Each child had a Ziploc bag with one inch square tiles. Each tile had a number on it from 0 to 9. They had a work sheet with three lines of squares with numbers in them . Each line was counting by a different group. Oh and all the numbers weren't filled in. They had to put a tile on a blank square and they could only use the number once. (edit: for some reason I had the word twice. Sorry about that) First they had to figure what they are counting by and then put the missing number in. After the page was filled in with tiles, they then could lift a tile and write the missing number in.
The page looked something like this: (I don't know how to make squares so imagine them instead of lines.)
_0 _0 80 _0 100
25 _0 3_ 4_ 45
__ 20 _2 2_ 26
I also worked with the children on their sight words. Most of them are doing well with them. But some are still struggling. All are improving, just some not as well as other.
I also read them a story. It is one of my favorite books. I have posted several times about this book. The point of it is no one should be forced to be like everyone else. We can make choices and live together with different points of view. And this wonderful book is Herb, The Vegetarian Dragon. The book talks about the dragons loving to eat Princesses and knights in their crunchy armor. One little boy said they should just eat the Princesses and leave the Knights alone. At 7 girls have cooties.
Yesterday I did volunteer with my first graders. When the class broke into groups I listened to some of them read. But mainly I worked with a group doing math. They were counting by twos, fives, and tens. Easy right?
Well if you are just counting. But we know Ms. H, she will make those little ones think. Each child had a Ziploc bag with one inch square tiles. Each tile had a number on it from 0 to 9. They had a work sheet with three lines of squares with numbers in them . Each line was counting by a different group. Oh and all the numbers weren't filled in. They had to put a tile on a blank square and they could only use the number once. (edit: for some reason I had the word twice. Sorry about that) First they had to figure what they are counting by and then put the missing number in. After the page was filled in with tiles, they then could lift a tile and write the missing number in.
The page looked something like this: (I don't know how to make squares so imagine them instead of lines.)
_0 _0 80 _0 100
25 _0 3_ 4_ 45
__ 20 _2 2_ 26
I also worked with the children on their sight words. Most of them are doing well with them. But some are still struggling. All are improving, just some not as well as other.
I also read them a story. It is one of my favorite books. I have posted several times about this book. The point of it is no one should be forced to be like everyone else. We can make choices and live together with different points of view. And this wonderful book is Herb, The Vegetarian Dragon. The book talks about the dragons loving to eat Princesses and knights in their crunchy armor. One little boy said they should just eat the Princesses and leave the Knights alone. At 7 girls have cooties.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
READING TO CHILDREN
One of my favorite things to do is to read stories to my first graders. To bring a book to life is a great experience. I love to hear the children laugh, groan, giggle, go ewwwww; it is wonderful. I do all the voices, I show the pictures twice, I ask questions about the pictures, I have as much fun as the children.
Today I read one of my favorite books to them Herb, the Vegetarian Dragon. Yes, that name is familiar to the regular readers. Click here for the link to last year's blog about this book.
This book amazes me ever time I read it or think about it. You can hear a pin drop while I am reading. The children are awed by this book. They also are tickled by it. They love the thought of dragons eating the crunchy knights in armor. They scan the pictures and find things I haven't noticed. And they get the point of the story: we all are different but we can live together in peace.
Last year my niece, who used to teach elementary children, fell in love with this book. She bought the book. BUT not for her children, for her vegetarian husband. Gotta love that.
Today I read one of my favorite books to them Herb, the Vegetarian Dragon. Yes, that name is familiar to the regular readers. Click here for the link to last year's blog about this book.
This book amazes me ever time I read it or think about it. You can hear a pin drop while I am reading. The children are awed by this book. They also are tickled by it. They love the thought of dragons eating the crunchy knights in armor. They scan the pictures and find things I haven't noticed. And they get the point of the story: we all are different but we can live together in peace.
Last year my niece, who used to teach elementary children, fell in love with this book. She bought the book. BUT not for her children, for her vegetarian husband. Gotta love that.
Monday, April 13, 2009
SCHOOL TODAY
I volunteer in a first grade classroom. I do pretty much anything Ms. H wants me to do. Check papers, sort the week's classwork alphabetically and assemble it to go home.I work one on one in any subject that a child needs help.
Today I was lucky enough to read an incredible book to the class. There has not been a book read this year that captured the attention of this class as this book did. These are lovely children, just a little busier than most. We have the bouncers, the can't sit stills, the talkers, the stir it up ones, we have children with the attention span of a gnat. This is a difficult class to control and to get to listen at the same time. This book did it.
Herb, The Vegetarian Dragon is beautifully illustrated, written so well, and has a purpose. The purpose is to show we can have different life styles and still be friends. It is probably not PC. It talks about dragons that eat pretty princesses. And the dragons love to eat knights in their crunchy armor. It shows a dragon about to be beheaded. It talks about war. The children loved it. They all sat and listened, they answered questions, they begged for the pictures to be shown again. They were enthralled. And I loved the story too.
Check out the website. Read the first two chapters. Click to see more pictures, play the song. If you have primary age children or grandchildren, this is a book to buy.
Today I was lucky enough to read an incredible book to the class. There has not been a book read this year that captured the attention of this class as this book did. These are lovely children, just a little busier than most. We have the bouncers, the can't sit stills, the talkers, the stir it up ones, we have children with the attention span of a gnat. This is a difficult class to control and to get to listen at the same time. This book did it.
Herb, The Vegetarian Dragon is beautifully illustrated, written so well, and has a purpose. The purpose is to show we can have different life styles and still be friends. It is probably not PC. It talks about dragons that eat pretty princesses. And the dragons love to eat knights in their crunchy armor. It shows a dragon about to be beheaded. It talks about war. The children loved it. They all sat and listened, they answered questions, they begged for the pictures to be shown again. They were enthralled. And I loved the story too.
Check out the website. Read the first two chapters. Click to see more pictures, play the song. If you have primary age children or grandchildren, this is a book to buy.
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