4 truly loved valentine books

Last week I posted about how our class celebrates Valentines to connect family and school. You can read that post called 'Got Valentines?' by clicking here.

I realized I need  - truly that is the word NEED - to share my favorite and best loved Valentines books...

Here are my 4 Top Picks:

1. Frog in Love. by Max Velthuijs. Sadly, it is no longer in print so I suggest you search the amazon world for it because it is the most heart felt and sweet story of Frog who falls in love with Duck. The illustrations are tremendously lovely. Perhaps my favorite book on "love" :)

2. Franklin's Valentines. by Paulette Bourgeois & Brenda Clark. You know all about the Franklin series of books. The characters are so well done with Bear, Owl and all the friends. IN this Valentine adventure, Franklin has a little mishap with his special cards for his friends and -well - I won't tell you how it all gets resolved [but it does!].

3. The Day It Rained Hearts. [also know as Four Valentines in a Rainstorm]. by Felicia Bond (the 'If You Give a Mouse' author!). Such a simple, sweet story of one girl who makes extra special Valentines for her extra special friends. Super short story and young children love trying to guess which Valentine is for which kind of friend.

4. Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch. by Eileen Spinelli & Paul Yalowitz. Oh, how I do love this longer story of dear, quiet Mr. Hatch who [accidentally] gets a Valentine box of chocolates delivered to his house. The delivery makes him think someone Does love him and he begins to have confidence to talk to co-workers and become a bit more connected in his neighborhood. Oh, and how sad when the box is determined to not really be his - so sad for only a moment. Mr. Hatch's new friends let him know they Do love him :)



Do you have a favorite read for this time of year?

got valentines?

"You have to go to school

so you can love people you didn't know before."

quote from class group of young-fives discussing school, friendship and valentines.

delivering home-made valentines to school-made valentines bags = literacy, art, family, friends, sharing, giving.

Valentine's Day is a special holiday for many schools.

When I was in my long-term position as Young Fives teacher, we created a special tradition around Valentine's Day to incorporate literacy and art from home AND school.

Here are the key ideas we used:

1. HOME made valentines. All about choice and inclusion.

one friend delivers his home-made card to me!

• We asked families to be part of the Valentine making process. It IS a process and our intention was to uplift the creating process, the including all friends process and the make-it-at-home-then-bring-it-to-school process. We felt that the young-5s age is an appropriate age to challenge the creating/planning for 20 cards for their classroom friends. This is also likely a first-time challenge for guardians to "support" their child without doing the project for them. (* to note, it usually ended up that 1 out of our 16 would still be 'parent made' but that's ok - it is a learning curve for everyone to let go :)
• We'd make sure to start the planning of this at least 2 weeks ahead - not too soon that it got set aside, yet not too time-scrunched for parents.
• We sent home a printed BOLD list of all names from our class - this included children, teachers, pets at the time (yes, we would have a Valentine Bag ready for our fish or rat !) and any other significant member of our class group. The bold list could be used at home to copy from when writing or even to literally cut out and glue them onto their work.
• We encouraged guardians to chat/plan with their child THEIR way they would like to make valentines. We encouraged the CHOICE to be made by the child so that they would be excited and motivated to enjoy the process of valentines. Examples include
  1. Maybe via the COMPUTER with a self-made design or using artsy software
  2. Maybe via LOTS OF ART with glue and shapes and markers and glitter
  3. Maybe via store bought commercial CARDS (some children super love Hello Kitty or Star Wars or whatever - that's fine!) with the child signing their own name. *We encourage no candy so that we focus on literacy + art.
  4. We'd have the completed cards arrive the morning of Valentine's Day in a zippy bag for safe keeping til the children would pass them out mid-morning.

"I think this is the right bag for this card I made..."

2. Meanwhile AT SCHOOL, we would decorate sturdy, open topped, handled party bags.

• Use decorative, colored papers in traditional (pink, purple, red) colors and non-traditional (yellow, brown, orange) colors.
• Could have pre-cut hearts (for convenience) as well as stencils and scissors for children to design and cut their own hearts.
• Doily papers (lace-like cut papers), silver foil, gold stickers, be creative. These could be donated by families or purchased from your classroom budget.
• Super cool addition is COMPUTER PRINTED, LARGE "LOVELY" WORDS to glue onto their bags if the children choose. Word ideas include: KISS, LOVE, HEART, HUGS, SMILE. I tended to use shorter words so they would take up all the room on their bag.
• We found gorgeous holiday paper napkins that we would cut or tear to use pieces all over the bags.
• Blank papers for children to write their own words or messages to glue on.

Special envelop with heart sticker for each friend around our Valentine Mail Table!

ADMIRATION and MATCHING and READING. Also part of the process.

• When children brought in their bag full of cards on the morning of Valentines, I would make a special point of admiring their heavy bag or wanting to peek inside at their hard work :) The children would save their cards in their cubbies til we did our Special Valentine Delivery late morning.
• At morning meeting, we'd talk about the work we did and try to explain to our friends what we did for our collection and how they might identify our cards later. Admiring the process of CHOICE and HOW MANY DAYS OR HOURS it took to make these collections is important. Children begin to see how everyone did their own work and how we collectively come together to share and celebrate. 
• When we DO pass out our Valentines, we had a big table set up with our school-decorated bags ready to filled. We'd put our school big name card in front of our bag for easy finding and matching. (Our name cards are an integral part of our good morning times as well as our early writing experiences. You can see my name card a couple photos above - all children have one just like it.).
• Children take turns with a partner to pass out their cards while other children are in the choice time in the classroom. This allows for everyone to have their own time - long or short - to match up their cards to the bags on their own or with some support from teachers. The children playing in the room know they also get their own turn without being hurried or bumped around.
• When we are all done, we ADMIRE the bags so full on the table and bring our bags to our meeting area.
• We just ask the children to CAREFULLY look through their bag yet not dump them all out in case the cards get mixed up. Of course, the dumping and looking completely can happen at home :)
• When the children are reading through their Valentines, they are admiring each others' work, trying to read or guess who made which one, seeing stickers or art or envelopes. It is a special time to model how to look close, to give attention to work given by others, to appreciate effort and friendship.

Can you see the boy is smiling as he admires the Valentine from his bag? A very special moment.

The bags go home happily with the children at the end of the day.

The guardians' faces light up when they seen ALL the children walk out of the classroom with their hands holding tightly to their colorful, love-filled bags of Valentines.

Don't you just love Valentines Day?

"I thought I heard your voice"

Last week, I arrived at the state university where I am a part-time instructor. I walked into the office of the elementary education department and the Head of the Department greeted me by name. I have only seen her three times since I began working at the university and she greeted me by my first name. Even as an adult, I am caught by that skill - intention - that teachers at all levels try to offer: the idea that each person is recognized and acknowledged, my face and name having been filed away in the Head of Department's memory.

"Hi, Jeanne," said the Head of the Department as she casually glanced up to see me, To See Me.

We spoke for a few minutes, standing in the office doorway, about final grades and next term's courses.

I started making my way down the hallway to the Co-chair of the Department and as I arrived at her open door, she looked up from her desk and said, "Hi...I thought I heard your voice down the hall..." We chatted for a few minutes about the semester, upcoming courses, and her sweet dog Lucy who was in her office.

As I left that day from campus, I thought about Being Greeted By Name and My Voice Being Known.
I thought about how these same ideas are abundantly important in the early childhood classroom.

The most basic LITERACY: Young children know others by face and sound. This is how they "READ" and engage and connect. They see others and hear others, they discriminate details of how things look and how they sound. Young children are making meaning of their world bit by bit, face by face, sound by sound, voice by voice.

Classroom Games & Books:

1. Make class books of close-ups of parts of children's faces (you can take a regular portrait of the child, then crop in editing for Just Eyes, or Just Mouths, etc). Put the book in the Reading Area and children will love identifying their friends by these small clues!

2. If you don't have a tape recorder to make a "Sounds Like" tape/CD to play, you can make a Sounds Like book! Have the children make a drawing of their own favorite sounds and create a class book. Perhaps someone loves Truck Sounds or Wind Sounds or Jingle Bell Sounds! Friends can identify their friends' favorite sounds in their drawings!

3. You can play Sound games at your meeting/circle time. Children can say Good Morning or any other phrase using a different kind of voice - a mouse voice, a booming voice, a high or low voice. They can make up lots of ways to play with their voice!

4. You can play I Spy Describing Games for eyes or hair..."Do you see someone who has long, brown, curly hair? Who could it be?"..."Do you see someone with big green eyes? Who could it be?"

5. You can read Bill Martin Jr & Eric Carle's : Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? and Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?

Look around. Listen. Who do YOU see? Who do YOU hear?

hands-on nativity scene

One of my favorite explorations during the Christmas season is offering the children the pieces of the Nativity scene to get their hands ON. The classroom is lucky enough to have two distinct kinds of hands-on pieces for children to handle - you can see a few pieces of both sets in the photo.

Have nativity pieces for children to interact with along with a book - they love it!

1. One lovely set was gifted to our classroom nearly twenty years ago. A mom hand-painted pre-cut wood pieces from the local craft store, small enough for small hands, painted with rich colors and even some gold on the kings crowns (don't children LOVE silver and gold!).

2. The second collection is from a purchased hand-carved set with lightly washed-in colors, larger sized yet still handle-able by young children. These pieces I purchased one or two at a time over some years.

It is wonderful to be able to have pieces that are For Children to use, handle, play with, explore, experiment as they wish. So many Nativity scenes are 'extra special' to only look at on display, never touch, breakable, treasured, all that - it is important to offer pieces to children at home/school that invite them into the scene of the Birth Day :)

In your classroom:

You can make pieces from CONSTRUCTION PAPER, decorated by children, laminated to last longer and make more handle-able.  

You can make pieces from CLAY or PLAYDOUGH.

You can make pieces from RECYCLABLES & CARDBOARD.

Out of print but worth a search!

This particular book, The Christmas Story: A Nativity Tale for Young Children by Anita Ganeri, is a favorite to read, act out and also put out alongside the creche pieces. The book is unfortunately out of print, yet perhaps available if you search for it from sellers. The main reason I love it is because the pages are literally photographs of children dressed as though in a play acting out the Christmas Story and the story is easy to read and follow for the young age group.

* To note, this exploration is appropriate at our religious based school, where we explore religions of any students along with Christian celebrations.


Happy reading. Merry Christmas. Peace. Joy. Jingle.

Day 1: for the love of books

Educators are readying for the beginning of school.

Butterflies...excitement...and, of course, planning what books to have on hand to read! Some teachers have just started their classes this week and some are soon to start in the coming days or weeks.

these books were written by the children later in the year after we read a million incredible books together!

These "can't miss" books are perfect to connect with preschool children on Day 1. Why?

1. These are classics, favorites, and most likely KNOWN by the children coming into your class.

2. Children being familiar with a book for read-aloud time is a Comfort, is a Confidence builder that school is going to be ok, is an" Oh, I Love That Book!"

3. Teachers using familiar books can Have Fun with the book, Offer Participation while reading for repeating phrases or guessing "what's next", and know the length/content well to match the needs of the group. 

**tip: I like starting off with shorter books in order to create a stronger connection with the group of children by having a number of books read in one day that we now have experienced together! We might read one or two at morning circle, one at mid-day, one or two at goodbye time! It is also a good idea to have a number of books so children can try a "vote" for when to read which one during the day!

Here are friendly books with Bears, Ducks, and Mice...plus a few extra animal friendly books in the bonus recommendations list at the bottom!

Going on a Bear Hunt

by Michael Rosen & Helen Oxenbury

A father and his four children--a toddler, a preschool boy and two older girls--go on the traditional bear hunt based on the old camp chant: "We're going to catch a big one. / What a beautiful day! / We're not scared. / Oh-oh! Grass! / Long, wavy grass. / We can't go over it. / We can't go under it. / Oh, no! / We've got to go through it!" The family skids down a grassy slope, swishes across a river, sludges through mud and, of course, finally sees the bear, who chases them all back to their home. It's a fantastic journey--was it real or imagined?--with the family's actions (and interaction) adding to the trip a goodnatured, jolly mood.

(Review from Publisher's Weekly)

Duck on a Bike

by David Shannon

Shannon serves up a sunny blend of humor and action in this delightful tale of a Duck who spies a red bicycle one day and gets "a wild idea." Sure enough, in no time flat, he's tooling around the farmyard. A succession of his barnyard friends greet him politely enough, but their private responses range from scornful ("That's the silliest thing I've ever seen," from Cow) to boastful ("You're still not as fast as me," from Horse) to wistful ("I wish I could ride a bike just like Duck," from Mouse). Then a herd of kids rides down the road in a blur of dust; they park their bikes and head indoors. A wordless spread records the sublime moment when the animals all gather with identical wide-eyed looks and sly smiles. Readers can almost see what they're thinking, and sure enough, the next spread shows them all zipping around on bikes, with Duck in the lead.

(Review from Publisher's Weekly)

If You Take a Mouse

by Laura Numeroff & Felicia Bond

In a rollicking romp, Numeroff and Bond send the energetic, exuberant star of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie and If You Take a Mouse to the Movies (and his boy sidekick) into the classroom. After pulling on his overalls, the diminutive character makes his first request ("He'll ask you for your lunchbox") and then demands a snack, notebook and pencils before climbing into the boy's backpack. Once at school, the mercurial mouse happily bounds from one activity to the next: he spells "a word or two" on the blackboard (Bond shows these as an impressive list headed by "onomatopoeia"), conducts a science experiment (purple matter erupts from his beaker), builds "a little mouse house" out of blocks (the edifice looks quite elaborate) and fashions furniture for it with clay. Realizing he needs something on his new bookshelf, the ambitious critter collects paper and pencils and creates his own book, which he then wants to take home, in "your" lunch box. (Review from Publisher's Weekly)

You might also keep in your book bag nearby...

Where the Wild Thing Are by Maurice Sendak

Olivia by Ian Falconer

Franklin (any in the series) by Paulette Bourgeois

Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin

little blue and little yellow by Leo Lionni

Mouse Paint by Ellen Stoll Walsh

The Flying Dragon Room by Audrey Wood

The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson

** for a big list of my Favorite Read Alouds Click Here

There are so many wonderful children's books to start off the school year!

What are some of your favorites to have ready-to-read in the early days of school?

chocolate milk

I have been collecting quotes, bits and parts of what people say, and poetry since I was sixteen years old. It is just something that intrigued me from early on - how words make a statement, how words together can be a work of art, a philosophy, an argument, a question, an expression of hope or love.

I love to happen upon a gem of a phrase whether via a live speaking person or via text or music. I try to listen in a quirky way and discover something that seems to me unusual or unusually charming or deeply touching.

On this blog, I have a page of 'wisdom from young children' which you can read here and a post about starting out with a Sharpie if you also want to start documenting by clicking here.

5 mini-stories today of how COLOR was incorporated by children in their explanations and expressions:

1. CHOCOLATE MILK.

My 4-year-old friend Jessica and I were waiting for her dad to pick her up from school at the end of the day. We were sitting out in front of the school, Jessica's things all packed up, and her dad was running a bit late. We decided to do an I SPY game as cars drove past our school, keeping a close watch for her dad's car. As we were looking, Jessica offered this great clue to aid our watch:

"My daddy's car is the color of Nestle's Quik...it is the color when you first put it in the milk."

So, the car is NOT the color AFTER you stir the powder in but right when you "first put it in" which is a totally different color and certainly darker than the photo can show you! Excellent detail to describe the exact color of dad's car and - thankfully - he did arrive soon thereafter!

2. BLUE POCKETS.

My friend Natalie was trying to make a collection of nature items. She was gathering sticks and rocks and bark. All these pieces were first cradled in her arms, then she turn her shirt upward to form a carrier and soon her collection was bigger than her shirt could hold. "Oh, I have blue pockets at my home!" she says as she wishes she had more room to gather her treasures. 

I found it humorous that Natalie describing blue pockets - compared to other colors? - was important and perhaps we all were to immediately be sympathetic and understand "ohhh, the BLUE pockets - yes, those would definitely gather nature items quite well."

3. PURPLE IS FOR BEAUTIFUL.

Oh, my sweet friend Jack. He was painting at the easel and I was video-taping his work while he shared. He explained about the red cross is for the church, the pink heart is for love, the black part is for the school and the purple..."The purple is for beautiful."

Yes. It is.

4. IS YELLOW ALLERGIC TO BROWN?

My five-year-old friend Hailey liked to have her drawing markers NOT touch each other on her work. She had been drawing since quite young and had gained a particular sense of color and composition. She was working one day in the art area when  - somehow - her yellow marker overlapped onto her brown that was already drawn on her paper. She saw the tip of her yellow marker become brown and when she tried to use it straight away, the yellow marker presented brown color onto her paper. I watched her look perplexed, look again at the marker tip and turn to me..."Is yellow allergic to brown?" she asked. You can decide how you would answer that question.

5. PINK-ISH, PURPLE-ISH.

There is almost nothing more delightful during my school days than documenting children's work. My friend Isabella had this story ready to tell when I started to ask her about her work:

"This is a friendly monster named Jackie! She likes to eat carrots and she lives in the mountain! Her favorite color is pink-ish, purple-ish!" 

What a treasure to meet such a friendly monster!

There are so many elements to documenting, listening, collecting quotes or questions. It is lovely to be in classrooms where WHAT the children have to say is appreciated and examined and respected.

What gems have YOU discovered in art, chats, and your daily routine? Anything about Chocolate Milk or Blue Pockets or Friendly Monsters with favorite colors?

because it is your name

Came across an old photo and just stared at it.

I remembered this 4-year-old girl in this exact moment, so many years ago.

I remembered her NAME  - easily - as I stared at the photo of her water painting her own name with a stick, at our school, outside on the playground, on the side of the sand box.

Outside exploration with sticks and water and ... T-A-Y-L-O-R.

I thought about how special each of our names are to us.

How it begins so early to put our name on things we do, things we make, things we own. Putting our name on something is an action of sorts - it is an announcement that continues to announce every time someone reads our name:

This is ME, I am HERE. This is MY NAME.

Painting mostly abstractly on the easel...except for his name: can you see it TWO TIMES?

Think about your name.

Think about how people know YOU because of your name, how it sounds,

how it feels on your tongue,

how it rhymes or jolts or is lovely like a song.

one friend gives friend JACK a letter which he discovers in his mailbox: he knows it is his because it is HIS NAME.

There are so many names to know OTHER THAN our own: this girl is writing a note to someone from the class list!

Do you make sure to KNOW your students names on the first day (nearly!) of school? I have found that knowing a student's name (and their guardians, and siblings, and grandmothers...) literally changes your relationship in one instant:

"Wow? YOU know ME?" 

Has that ever happened to YOU? Didn't you feel immediately welcomed, included and "in" ?
Your name has power and grounding and vitality.

It is double-or-nothing for C-H-R-I-S-T-I-N-A as she signs her second piece of art work with HER NAME.

Personally, I remember wishing I had a different name because I wanted it to "sound" a different way - exotic perhaps, or like a famous person, or from another country. As I grew up, I realized my name was exactly what it should be and it fit me exactly right.

My name IS french and IS in songs by David Bowie and Elton John so surely I can be content with that.

My name IS part of I Dream of Jeannie and The Little Mermaid. It could be worse.

And, I am pleased with the general "magic" with which my name IS associated. 

Professionally, I have been called by my first name only, then "Miss Jeanne" for about thirteen years, then "Teacher Jeanne" (of which I am not a fan) and now, well, am back to my first name only in the college courses I teach.

My husband takes delight in hearing "Hello Miss Jeanne" on occasion as we walk through our downtown streets in the location where I taught for so many years. It does have a nice ring to it - my name ... granted, to be acknowledged usually does have a nice ring to it.

What about YOUR name? Does it fit you just right? Have you struggled with it?

A-M-A-N-D-A's name is ready to take flight with her twirly flyer any second!

special delivery of a card with 2 NAMES on it and looking for ONE NAME on the exact right mailbox.

Think about all the places we NAME IT in our classrooms: 

name tags, cubbies, clothing, shoes, blankets, backpacks, lunchboxes, mailboxes, coat hooks, charts, portfolios, writing area lists, birthday boards, sing up lists...
so many opportunities for our NAMES to be boldly present. 

a friendly monster story AND a painted I-S-A-B-E-L-L-A ... what could be better?

from a boy named W-A-L-T: "C-O-L-E you are inv - " ited to my birthday party. friendship rocks.

Think about the names that will be in your upcoming class.

KNOW that each name is important - the way it is pronounced and the respect it deserves. 

The name IS the child that you are inviting, welcoming, and including into the family that is your classroom. 

Uplift the names, uplift each child.

this says it all: L-A-U-R-E-N and then she had me write at the bottom "I put a frame around my name!" well done.

We should ALL feel this proud of our NAME [like Lauren's painting above] where we frame our name in big bold fabulous paint.

S-I-G-N  your  N-A-M-E.

book review: a fine, fine school

I realized that I have my lovely, lengthy Favorite Read-Aloud Books  page yet I have not offered any book reviews of any of them. I will remedy that ever so slowly, one by one...

So, here starts my first Book Review and I thought I may as well begin at the top of the list:
A Fine, Fine School by Sharon Creech. Recommended for ages 4ish-8ish.

This book seemed just right to begin with because many of us right now are on some sort of holiday where we don't attend and/or teach school for weeks/months.

The funny (deep breath!) idea from Sharon Creech is that Principle Mr. Keene is so proud of his students and teachers, that he starts to add more days to come to school!

"This is such a fine, fine school! I love this school! Let's have more school!"

What if YOUR school was open on weekends, in the summer and every holiday, too! Oh, my, what if we really did that?

 
Fortunately, this story also has a girl named Tillie who does love school, yet also loves her little brother - who doesn't go to school yet - and her dog, Beans.

Tillie loves being at home on the weekend to climb her favorite tree, and to take Beans on his walks, and to push her brother on the swing and to try to teach him how to skip.

As school becomes MORE and MORE, Tillie gets to do LESS and LESS with her family and her dog. By the end of the story, Tillie has a heart to heart with Mr. Keene and things - just maybe - turn out as they should. 

Things I love about reading this book with children:

• Illustrations by Harry Bliss are humorous and colorful and detailed - children find so many quirky bits on every page.
• Repetition of language ... "let's have more school!" ... offers call & response with students
• Opens discussion about school AND family time
• Open discussion about when something is "good" should we just have More and More of it?

**Play for children - and adults and pets - is a huge, invaluable part of a healthy life. The content of so many blogs for early education SHOWS us that this IS absolutely true.

For play and exploration and active ideas, please check out these inspirational bloggers

• Jenny at Let the Children Play
• Gill at Moving Smart
• Christie at Childhood 101
• Tom at Teacher Tom
• Sherry & Donna at Irresistible Ideas

Cheers to good books that remind us that school is important yet FAMILY and PLAY and NATURE are vital in our daily lives.

hungry caterpillar felt story

I was inspired by NurtureStore's The Very Hungry Caterpillar activities and wanted to offer one more to help celebrate the work of the incredible Eric Carle.

[ *I should note that this post is unusual in that it presents "my work" that I created to add to the children's hands-on choices in the classroom. There is always - always - room to adjust the example for children to be the inventors of these characters or others, in felt or paper, as puppets, on sticks, whatever works for your child or children :) ]

You can write the story on a long cardstock or use index cards...or memorize it :)

When I first began teaching many years ago, I started making games and activities that could extend math or literacy related experiences for preschool age children.

I decided one day to make a FELT STORY of The Very Hungry Caterpillar. I fondly remember spending a few nights with Colored Felt, Scissors, Hole Punch, TVHC Book, and Glue. The result was quite impressive, colorful and ready to be used by young hands!

Tip: If you have never made a felt story before, they are fun and easy! You can literally make the key characters and objects from a story using all felt OR you can use colored paper or the computer to then attach a bit of felt or velcro on the back and that should work just fine on a flannel board. Or, attach a bit of magnet to use on a magnet board! (and, the floor works just fine with less than four children!)

"by the light of the moon, a little egg lay on a leaf..."

"...the sun...and out popped the little caterpillar..."

"Monday...the very hungry caterpillar at through one apple...still hungry"

"Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday...2,3,4,5...still hungry"

"Saturday...uh,oh...tummy ache"

"Sunday one leaf...then so big...then cocoon...then WAIT...then Voila! A Beautiful Butterfly!"

Obviously, I didn't write the full story in the photo boxes, yet  - of course - you should uplift the integrity of the story by doing so when you share with children!

I have found that children take wonderful care of felt pieces and stories when you organize them in a way that sends that message = perhaps a basket, a shoebox or even a zip-bag with a label. Certainly things happen over time - like our dear butterfly has had her antennae snipped a bit - but overall children want to care for and re-create the story! They especially love the "junk food", the strawberries, the very full caterpillar...and The Butterfly!

Cheers to Eric Carle and all his dearly loved books!

word bank treasures

collecting RAINBOW from a drawer under TREASURE next to MOON

What if your classroom had a Word Bank? 

Hmmm,

what IS

a Word Bank?

good question!

HAPPY and FROM and MOM and DEAR and...

[above] It could look something
like this...



or this [left]...







Using a Word Bank in your classroom is an exciting, hands-on way to offer words to children to USE without imposing direct teaching methods.
When creating the Word Bank  - a classic small items sorter found in the nuts/bolts section of a hardware store or in the craft aisle at a crafty store - the children can help choose words they would like to have available in the drawers.

the best kind of message from one friend to another...complete.

Usually, having the names of class members (children, teachers, class pets) in drawers is a starting point and ensures everyone is valued and represented from the class. Words associated with "sending" or "receiving" mail is helpful to offer vocabulary such as FROM or DEAR. I often skip the words TO or FOR because children can learn those by sounding out as well as teach their peers when needed.

all friends' names included on this friendly paper person.

Including current trends or movie characters can be a wonderful way of hooking children into the writing area to explore writing tools, books, and messages in order to USE their favorite word.
One year, I had a particular boy group who were fascinated with POKEMON and POWER RANGERS and so those words made their way into the Word Bank...AND those words were used feverishly, daily!

This boy loved POKEMON and POWER RANGERS  - and loved the writing area!

Granted, not all favorite words can always have their own drawer, and in this case we have "sign boards" in the writing area that have lists of words for which children have asked for spelling (sometimes these boards have holiday specific words that have interest primarily around the appropriate month of the holiday - Halloween, Boo, Turkey, Merry, Hanukkah, Bunny).

Amy used the "sign board' for the word DAUGHTER and also the Word Bank words I LOVE YOU MOM for her special note, along with tape, pencils and two different kinds of note paper.

Keeping stock of your words requires a computer to create columns of the words to print and cut. My trick is that I make only a one page document with one word/name in three columns as the basic template. Then, as I need to restock a drawer, I just "find/replace" the word on the template with the current needed word. In this way, you don't need to keep a 30 page document of word bank words. [By the way, you should decide if your school prefers all caps to learn or caps and lower case. I tend to start with all caps, but that is my preference for children to gain command of the strong lines of capital letters. There is no right way - create the words in the format that matches your school's philosophy on this issue.]
Starting interest in the Word Bank, I like to introduce the large tool in large group so everyone can see, but then the hands-on introduction is in small groups where each child could make a "surprise" note for someone in the other group (and vice versa, this ensure EVERYONE gets at least one first piece of mail with their word bank name - and yes, we have mailboxes which will be a future blog post).

Word Bank note made in small group.

Word Bank note made in small group.

Choice time for children is the richest, most interesting time for them to explore on their own and to apply Word Bank words in ways that fit into their own plans, ideas, books, and important messages.

this 4-year-old committed herself to rainbow moves to create her RAINBOW!

Crayon, pen, cut pieces, dots, TREASURE and HAPPY - well done!

CAT made its way onto this abstract piece of art of numbers &swirls...tools used: tape, crayons, hole punch, ruler, scissor, stapler, stencils!

giant love for mom in yellow heart shape with I LOVE YOU MOM from Word Bank.

this child created her own Word Bank name pieces to decorate her work.

this child created her own Word Bank word to then take into the block area to race cars!

Below: This is an excellent example of a book made by a 4-year-old who combined her interest in book making and the use of Word Bank words. She later "read" her book to anyone outside on the playground who would sit with her for a while!

Cover of HAT/CAT book.

Page 1.  I like dogs.

Page 2.  I like blue, Dalmatian dogs.

Page 3.  Dog treasure.

Page 4.  I like to give dogs a bath.

Page 5.  Pirates like treasures.

The End.

The Word Bank.
It can be a rich way to offer words to children that THEY want to use to tell their own message,
in their own way,
in their own time.




**check out Carnival of Letter Play for more amazing ideas from NurtureStore and a host of other fabulous blogs!!