December

October

International Literacy Day

F.E. Burleson celebrated reading today along with the rest of the world for International Literacy Day! Our librarian, Ms. Wells, did a fabulous job planning this day for us. She assigned the book Zomo the Rabbit to the Kindergarten classes.

 



Zomo the Rabbit is a West-African folktale about a rabbit in search for wisdom. Throughout his journey for wisdom, he is given three tasks: collect scales from the Big Fish, collect milk from the Strong Cow, and collect a tooth from Leopard. Although he was able to complete these tasks with his clever tricks, he learned in the end that he wasn't all too smart. Though he had gained wisdom, he lacked the caution necessary to know that going after creatures larger than himself is not such a wise idea after all.

Langford's Little Learners were so fortunate to have Hartselle City Schools Superintendent, Dr. Vic Wilson, stop by our classroom to read this book to us. They loved getting to meet him, as each of them got to introduce themselves before the reading.

 

After reading the book, Dr. Wilson shared some of his own wisdom with us. He explained to the Little Learners that wisdom is 'knowing when to get into something, and knowing when not to get into something.' He then told them how they, too, can gain wisdom- through experience.

 

 

 

And what a great learning experience today was for us! We really enjoyed International Literacy Day, and all of us would like to give a great big 'Thank you!' to Ms. Wells for planning the day's activities, and to Dr. Wilson for taking the time to come and read to us.

Letters and Shapes and Rhymes, Oh my!

Whew! We have made it to our 22nd day of school! That seems so hard to believe; this time truly has flown by. I am seeing so much progress in every single one of your children, which is showing me that my Little Learners are proving to be doing just that... learning! So much time has passed since my last post (between striving to stay on top of things in the classroom and fighting all the lovely unfortunate sicknesses and bugs that come along with being a first-year teacher with my immune system working as hard as I am to get back into the swing of things, I have not been able to post as much as I would like.) I will be doing my very best to do better in the future so that you can see with your own eyes just how exciting it is to watch the continual successes these boys and girls are demonstrating all the time.

We have been covering "the basics" the first few weeks to review what your child may or may not have learned prior to kindergarten. Included in these basics are a general study of all the letters, shapes, and color words. Of course, throughout the year we will be covering these areas in much more depth as we continue adding more content and rigor across all the subjects. Use every opportunity at home to discuss with your children what they have learned, and to ask questions about these things we are learning in the classroom in order to continue the conversations and extend the learning outside of the classroom.

Another great idea for at-home extensions: writing their names. Try having them write their name using a variety of techniques and/or writing utensils to keep them engaged and excited about improving their handwriting (i.e. pencil, markers, paint, shaving cream... the latter always proves to be a kid-favorite!) Make sure your little one can also name all of the letters in the alphabet. If they are having trouble with this, try focusing on just the letters in their name at first since they are constantly exposed to these on a daily basis. I've learned that minor successes like this are almost always followed by major successes; a little boost in their confidence can go a really long way.

Another skill we are focusing on with the start of our new reading curriculum is rhyming. As you might have noticed on the progress reports that went home last week, we have been working on identifying rhyming words, as well as producing word(s) that rhymes with a given word(s).

(i.e. Which of the following rhymes with cat: can, bat, boy? Tell me another word that rhymes with cat.)

This is another thing that takes very little to no time at all to practice at home, and can even be practiced by pointing out the rhymes in your favorite song on the radio!

As I previously mentioned, we are in the middle of a brief overview of all the letters of the alphabet during these first few weeks of our reading curriculum. Note that this is a very brief review, covering one or two letters in a single day. If your little one is having a hard time keeping up with all of these, rest assured they will be getting much more practice with all of the letters over the weeks to come. Next week we will start having a Letter of the Week, starting with letter 'Mm'. We will be doing a week-long letter study of each of the 26 letters, focusing on letter formation, letter sounds, words that start with/end with/contain the letter, etc.

To help the Little Learners become more familiar with each letter, we will be doing a letter collage for each Letter of the Week. We need your help to make this the most effective and exciting it can be! Your child will be getting an envelope to take home each week. He/she is responsible for looking through magazines, newspapers, etc. to find pictures of anything that starts with that letter. (Feel free to have them bring in a picture of themselves for the classroom collage during the week of the first letter of their name!) For now, we will just keep it at one picture/cutout per child to ensure that everyone's pictures can fit. For an idea on how this will look in our classroom, take a peak at this classroom that did it first*:

Letter Study: Alphabet Collage

*Disclaimer: I did not come up with this idea on my own, but rather found it on another classroom blog where I get many of the ideas I incorporate into my own classroom. Check out Maria Manore's Kinder-Craze for many creative ideas to use with Kindergarten children!

Check out some of the activities we have been doing in the classroom so far during our alphabet review weeks!

Making letters out of sticks & curves during literacy station rotations:



 

 

 

Letter Explorations, using many different types of letter tiles, magnets, & manipulatives:



First Days of School

Wow! What a wonderful, fun, exciting first week of school we have had! 

It's so hard to believe we started school one week ago from today. Let me tell you, we have been busy! I hope your little learners have been telling you all about what they have been learning so far. Aside from covering all of the rules & expectations of our school and our classroom (they are doing GREAT), we have also been learning our first color word (red) and our first shape (circle). We learned some songs to go along with both of these to better help us remember them, so make sure to ask your little ones to sing them to you! (...if they haven't already, I catch them singing it all the time even when we are not singing it as a group!)

We have been practicing working in small groups since we will be doing a lot of that this year in both reading and math. Before our curriculum starts next week and we are in the full swing of things, we are just practicing with manipulatives, blocks, and puzzles for now. The main goal of this training is to have them practice using whisper voices, working together as a team to complete the task and to clean up, and to work the full time until the timer goes off. They are learning so fast, and I know that when it comes to starting our actual literacy station rotations, they will be more than ready!

I have enjoyed the time I've been able to spend with your sweet little learners so far, and I'm so looking forward to all that this year has in store for us. Thanks for sending in all your paperwork and supplies in such a timely manner; that makes my job easy a little easier. Here are some photos of your little ones hard at work in stations practice:

Happy (almost!) Friday, and have a great and restful weekend!

Welcome to Langford's Little Learners!

Thank you for visiting Langford's Little Learners! 
After spending years anxiously waiting to become a teacher with a classroom of my own, I can't begin to tell you how happy excited ECSTATIC I am to have finally made it here. Having visited countless teacher blogs over the course of my experiences as an educator thus far, I realize teachers aren't the only ones who benefit from such a resource.

Here's why:

• I am a firm believer that parental involvement is an absolutely, positively crucial factor in terms of student success. I believe learning does not stop when the bell rings and the kids walk out of the school doors. In fact, learning never stops. So when parents are made aware of what their child is learning in the classroom, they have the opportunity continue these conversations at home and the learning continues. 

There's no doubt in my mind that all parents want their children to be successful. I haven't even had the opportunity to meet all my "Little Learners" yet, and already I can't wait to see how much they will grow and learn this year. I'm not yet a parent myself, but I do know that there is little better than the feeling that comes with witnessing my students make progress. There's no way for me to even describe it; so much joy overcomes me that it serves to confirm all over again that teaching is my passion and my calling. I want your child to succeed, and since I know you want the same I am striving to do all I can this year to keep you informed of your child's education. This is one of the intended purposes of "Langford's Little Learners".

• Life is busy. I know that some days it's all you can do to respond to look through all the emails, texts, missed calls, etc. (That's not just me, right?), and I know the thought of adding a classroom blog to the list of things to check on a regular basis can just seem like way too much. This is not my intention at all. All important information will be sent home in paper form. In addition, it will also posted to the blog. Whichever mode of communication you choose to use is completely up to you. I will, however, add additional content to the blog that will not be sent home otherwise (i.e. photos of activities, lessons, special events, etc.). This blog is intended to serve as an added resource made available to you, providing additional opportunities to become involved in/ aware of your student's education and school & classroom happenings. 

I will try my hardest to keep this blog as updated as I possibly can in order to provide you with the most accurate information and announcements pertaining to our classroom, F.E. Burleson, and Hartselle City Schools in a timely manner. If you are trying to reach me, I would suggest sending an email to my school email account to ensure the fastest delivery and quickest response, rather than sending a message through the blog 

Thank you so much in advance for sharing your little one with me. I am excited to see what this year has in store for Langford's Little Learners!