When Parents Ask: What Did You Do Today?

"What did you do today?"

I have heard about it from parents year after year.  I have heard about it from friends with kids year after year.  I have experienced it myself.  The dreaded answer to that question....

"Nothing."

The child comes home from school and they have absolutely nothing to say about their day.  Was it boring?  Were they not challenged?  Are they unhappy at school?  What is going on?

 I think that having this conversation with a child is very important. It promotes:

• reflection
• retelling skills 
• vocabulary
• language skills

 But it can be very frustrating when you hear day after day the same response, "nothing."  So how can we help our students be more responsive when this question is asked and how can we help parents get answers.

Asking the Right Questions

Now that I have two school age children, I have received the dreaded answer several times.  "Nothing"... "I can't remember" or even "Mom, it is the same thing everyday!"  Okay.  I know that none of these are true.  So I had to change my questioning technique.

I still ask each day "What did you do today?"  But if I don't get the answer I want, then I probe a bit further. 

• What book did your teacher read?
• What math game did you play?
• Who did you play with at recess today?

My questions are more specific.  And sometimes the newsletters that are sent home can help me with this.  That leads me to my next idea...

Newsletters

This may seem a little obvious because I think pretty much most/all teachers send newsletters to keep families up to date on what is going on in the classroom.  There are a few small things that we may be able to add to help our parents.

• Specific book titles--this allows parents to ask questions about the exact book being read
• Vocabulary words--this year I am including these specific words and asking parents to use them, too
• Questions--last year I started listing some questions that parents could ask their students about the lessons that were occuring
• Apps--I list one app or website that we will be using so that families can try it out as well

My newsletters are pretty short and sweet.  I try to make sure that I have a fair amount of white space so that they seem less overwhelming.  But I try to make sure that I put information in the newsletter that will provide parents with a springboard to conversations with their children.

Social Media

Another way to help our parents engage in these conversations is through social media.  This summer I learned about several teachers using Twitter and blogs to reach out to their families daily.  I really wanted to try this out and I decided to use the Remind app.

Remind is a free communication tool for teachers.  Parents can get the message through email, a text message, or the app.  It is very easy and quick to use.  The message can be a sentence or two, an image, or a voice clip. Once the account is set up by the teacher, parents choose to sign up for these notifications. 

With this app, I have been sending one image a day highlighting something that was done.  My hope is that this daily information will provide parents with information to ask questions about their child's day.   Here are some examples:

There are so many other apps and methods to this approach available to teachers; however, this one has been quick and effective for me this year so far.  I look forward to talking to parents at conferences about the impact that this has made on them.

 What do you do to help promote these conversations at home?

Turn and Talk: Making the Most of Collaboration

I’m Cathy Collier, from Cathy Collier’s The W.I.S.E. Owl and I’m a talker!  Always have been, always will.  My mother used to start parent conferences with, “I know Cathy talks too much, what else can you tell me?”  My very favorite high school English teacher used me in a vocabulary example, “Cathy is loquacious.” Yep, it means talkative. 

Get them talking.

One of the best ways to let children demonstrate their understanding in the content areas is to let them talk.  Of course, controlling the talking is the secret they don’t have to know.  Here are a few conversations your students can have that will let you know just how much they know.

Good Noise

Years ago I had a teacher assistant who would complain every day about the noise in the room.  I would constantly tell her, “They are 5.  It won’t be perfectly quiet for long.”  I’d also say, “They need to talk to communicate their thoughts.”  I kept trying to tell her there was a difference between noise and good noise.

Turn and Talk Better

We all do it, but do you know how valuable it truly is.  Make sure there is procedure for talking.  Make rules. 

1.     Get a partner.  Make sure they know WHO they should be talking to.

2.     Make sure they know what to talk about.  Set a purpose.

3.     Make it mandatory that both partner’s talk.  Give roles:  the talker and the listener.  Each   student gets a role on a popsicle stick.  They rotate holding the signs to share the talk.    You can also use the roles to have the students share their discussion with the class.

4.     Make them justify.  Hold the partners accountable for the “because…” part of the statement.  They can’t just give an opinion or a fact, they have to back it up.

Oral Projects

Students love talking…so letting them choose what to talk about can help you focus their attention to details.  One year, I had a monthly family project.  In the middle of the month, I sent home a template due at the end of the month to be displayed for the following month.  For example, half way through September I sent home a pumpkin for the students to decorate.  It was due the end of the month, to be displayed outside our door for the whole next month.  We spent the day they were due letting the students describe their project.

Let’s talk Social Studies and Science

A great way to get students talking is to link the discussion to a social studies or science standard.

            Magnets – According to Virginia Standards of Learning, our kindergarten students needed to understand the laws of attract and repel.  It can be a tricky concept for 5-year-olds to express.  After magnet play with several types of magnets, including a brief explanation of North and South Poles attracting and repelling, students are put into pairs with “sandwich boards” made of red and blue construction paper with “N” and “S.”  They need to have a conversation with each other to determine something that would help them be “attracted” to each other.  They also need to determine something that would make them “repel” from each other.  They share with the class the things that would attract (donuts, candy, ice cream) and those that would repel (bees, snakes, spiders). 

            Reuse Something – Our kindergarten students also need to learn about natural resources to reuse, reduce, and recycle.  We always have a “reuse” project due at the end of the unit.  Students need to create something from something else that would typically be thrown away.  When they return their projects to the class, they need to tell the students what they “reused” and made into something new.  

This student reused paper plates, a paper towel roll, an old CD (as the base) to create the game.

            President – What would they do if they were president.  I’ve seen it as a writing assignment for older students, but younger students can’t get their thoughts down on paper easily.  Let them talk about it.  You can have them dress up as a President for the Day.  They can tell you what they would like to do, if they were president.  Cupcakes for lunch every day?  Video games were mandatory?  You’ll love what they say.

Talk…use it wisely and it will make them wiser. If you'd like a copy of the talking sticks, click the link.

Writing Models for Younger Students

Hello, everyone!  It's Andrea from Reading Toward the Stars here with some writing help for young readers.

As I work with students throughout the day, I am constantly working to make sure they are getting every aspect of literacy instruction to help them get the full picture of all things literacy.

One easy way to help young readers learn to write is through models.  This may seem simple, but it is such a perfect way to introduce them to the conventions of writing.

I read a simple book with the students called Color It Blue from Scholastic.  After reading it, we made these books with other colors.

 The students first made a Circle Map to list some things that were the color they chose.

Then they used the book as a model to help them write and illustrate their very own books.

I love using this to help students understand the conventions of writing.  It is a simple way to help them gain insights into the conventions of writing with sentences and words.

5 Tips that will help you LOVE your Listening Center

Do you have these problems with setting up and running a Listening Center?

You don't have enough books.

It's too noisy.

You don't have the "fancy smancy" listening center that costs hundreds of dollars.

The kids fight over who is running the Listening Center.

Here are a few ideas that may help you have a more organized Listening Center.

Have teachers put their resources together.  Share your listening center books.  Our first grade team has done this.  We have a common area where we keep our books.  Luckily, we had a great parent helper organize our books for us.

She was WAY organized and would seriously come all afternoon almost every day last school year.  Honestly, it was like having a personal assistant at school.  We miss her!

Anyway, here is what she came up with.

They are put in order first by "theme" that goes through the entire school year.  Then, the rest are in alphabetical order.  When we check out a set of books, we put the clothespin with our name on the books that we are using.  This way, others can see where the books are at and I know quickly where I need to return them.  

For years, I had students listen to books without any headphones.   My listening center is in the hallway right outside the door so they could listen directly from the CD player.  Here's the problem:  They were always talking and goofing around.

I got a headphone jack this year.  I thought it was going to be expensive, but it really wasn't- I got one that has 10 headphone jacks.  I had ordered it out of a school supply magazine for about $25.

Here is one from Amazon that only has four.  

Have you ever looked at the prices of a "fancy smancy" listening center?  Ridiculous!  I use a Boom Box (yes, I just said Boom Box).  It does the job.  It has both a CD player and a tape player in it.  I think I got mine at Wal-mart about 10 years ago and it still works!

I have "leaders" at the listening center.  I put a list of the center groups at the listening center (laminated) and then I just put a black dot next to the name of the person who is the leader that day.  I just go down the list each time I put a new book into the listening center.  We practice "A LOT" how to be a leader.  They are in charge of getting the books and handing them out, putting in the disc, and they are the ONLY ones who are touching the CD player.  

I mentioned above that I didn't use headphones for years.  I do now.  It is SOOO much better.  Each student has their own set of headphones.  We keep them at their "bookshelf" that is next to their table groups where we keep a lot of the supplies.  When they go to the listening center, they grab their headphones.  It is now QUIET at the listening center.  

Top 10 Literacy Tips for Teens

If you have lived with a teen recently or are beginning your career in middle or high school, then chances are these kids look familiar to you. Perhaps you've noticed that teens are very tech savvy often listening to music while they're working on a paper for English, sending messages to friends through Snapchat, and checking the latest game scores on ESPN.  Yes, our teens are multi-taskers to the extreme, and if you are teaching them, then chances are you've become pretty tech savvy yourself and observed these and many other teen behaviors. 

Parent Reading Volunteers

It's Jen from An Adventure in Literacy here to share an easy, no hassle way to incorporate parent reading volunteers in your classroom.

Last year in my class I had "Read with Me" volunteers. These volunteers would come weekly on scheduled days/times to listen to students read. Once I set up the initial schedule the program ran flawlessly for the rest of the year. The parents and students loved the program and it took very little work on my end. Here are some tips to incorporate this in your classroom.

1. Enlist Volunteers

At back to school night I shared this program and put up a sign-up sheet for interested parents to sign up. I listed times that I knew would be ok for students to be out of the classroom for a few minutes (literacy centers and intervention time). I also put a blurb about this in my newsletter for parents that didn't attend back to school night.

You can download a no frills editable copy here.

2. Make a Schedule

After signups I made a schedule and contacted parents. 

3. Train Volunteers

Many classrooms in our school were using parent reading volunteers so our reading specialist had a brief training for volunteers that shared tips for reading with children and helpful prompts to use.

4. Set up a Routine

I put the reading log sheets and a pen on a clipboard hung by my door. When volunteers arrived they took the clipboard, grabbed two chairs to put in the hall, and selected the first reader. After the first reader finished they told them who to send out next. Students brought their independent book boxes with them so they had familiar books to read. The students and parents knew what to do so it minimized distractions and I could continue teaching.

5. Be Flexible

I let the volunteers decide how they wanted to run their session with the child. Some would read a few books while others would focus on just one but have discussions after. Each volunteer seemed to add their own spin which was great because my students were getting different opportunities to work on different skills. I also let the volunteers know that if something came up and they were unable to attend it was not a big deal.

The read with me program was a huge success in my room and I was so amazed at how easy it was. If you're interested in starting something similar you can download a free copy of my student book chart and directions here.

Picture Books for Math

Hello!

It's Pixie Anne here from Growing Little Learners here today to share my top 5 favourite picture books to use when teaching math! There are so many great books out there for introducing different mathematical concepts, especially to younger children but I have noticed they are being used less and less in favour of online games and videos. 

These do a brilliant job too but I think I'm going to make a conscious effort to dust off some of these favourites and, whether I share them in math lessons or just as end of the day readers, just share them!

1. How Big is a Million? By Anna Milbourne

One new friend, one hundred fish, one thousand snowflakes and one million stars! A beautiful book following a little penguin on his journey to discover how big one million really is. A perfect opportunity for getting the class asking their own big questions about the world and for a deeper understanding of place value.

 2. One Odd Day by Doris Fisher

The rhyme makes this a great book for reading out loud. My class loved the crazy scenarios (no even numbers on the alarm clock, 5 legs on his dog, only one sock to wear and a shirt with 3 sleeves!) and this made the book all the more memorable. We had great fun discussing other 'odd' things that could be seen or that could happen that day and told our own funny stories to fix the learning in our heads!

3. A Remainder of One By Elinor J Pinczes

Poor old Joe seems to be always left out of the 25th Army Corps when they line up for parade until at last he finds his place! I'm particularly fond of this one as I used it in an interview for a promotion and got the job! It is excellent for a first introduction to remainders when dividing and a perfect way to ensure the whole class can access this concept. There are also great opportunities for discussing how it feels to be left out and to act this out in PE lessons.

4. Sir Cumference and the First Round Table

Sir Cumference and his family (Lady Di of Ameter and his son Radius) are on a mission to solve the problem of the king's table and their carpenter, Geo of Metry, makes several tables before the perfect one is found! The story is engaging and the pictures really help explain the mathematical concepts. A really creative tale which makes learning math vocabulary easy (and there are other books in the series too!).

5. The Rabbit Problem by Emily Gravett

I'm a big fan of Emily Gravett books and Matilda's Cat and Dogs have been used a number of times!

The Rabbit Problem explores multiplication and the Fibonacci sequence in a cleverly illustrated and funny way. I wouldn't use this book with the whole class as the images are busy but with a small group it is great to explore and discuss together.

I know there are so many more amazing picture books out there for exploring mathematical concepts with children that I haven't even heard of yet so please leave a comment below sharing your favourites so my wish list can grow!

Thanks for stopping by today!