passionately curious

A Teacher's Life

My colleague, Lucy Gray, has a wonderful blog devoted to providing helpful, interesting, and fun information about teaching and technology. Lucy teaches Middle School Computer Science at Lab, is an Apple Distinguished Educator and a contributor to the Infinite Thinking Machine.  One of my favorite features of her blog is the Friday 5, where Lucy offers 5 useful links to web resources each week. I've learned so much from her!

Favorite Classroom Calendars

Here are a couple of my favorite calendars for the classroom:

Celebrating Children's Books
This is a great way to promote literacy in the classroom.  Kids get excited each month when they recognize one of their favorite books.  Here's how I use the pictures once the year has ended.

Food For Thought
Saxton Freymann's whimsical food sculptures provide smiles and wonderment as children try to guess which foods were used.  There's also a mini calendar available for 2007.

Wish for a Snowy Chicago Winter

With rain and temperatures in the 40s, it's hard to imagine that a Chicago winter is right around the corner.   The city is an amazing and beautiful site after a fresh layer of snow, but the wind can be bitter, the snow piles eventually get icy and dirty, and the sun hides away for what seems like months.   Then,  there are the challenges of parking after everyone in the neighborhood has claimed their spot with a lawn chair, milk crate or spare tire ( a practice endorsed by our mayor).

Grown-ups get grumpy and tired of the cold and the gray, but children are always excited after a snowfall. At Lab School, we go outside nearly everyday and since teachers schedule and supervise their own recess times, we must also be prepared to endure the weather. Although it takes my class at least 20 minutes to get dressed with snow pants, boots, hats, and mittens, the excitement is contagious.  Playing in the snow with my students makes winter recess bearable and fun.   We are lucky to have a great sledding hill, the Midway Plaisance, right across the street.   How many jobs let you spend an hour of your workday sledding, building snowmen, or making snow angels with a group of seven-year olds?

While browsing the school library for winter books, I came across one called Recess at 20 Below. Although the weather's in Chicago has been warm, I decided to share it with my students last week right before our winter vacation.  Cindy Lou Aiilaud, a physical education teacher from Delta Junction, Alaska, wrote and photographed this charming tale of recess in Alaska from a child's perspective. Once the snow and cold do arrive here, I know a couple of my students will complain about going outside.  I will remind them of Alaska where there are only three hours of daylight in the winter and snow is on the ground from September to April, and of the children, who despite frozen eyelashes, still play soccer, build snow forts and go outside when it's 20 below.  Maybe a Chicago winter won't seem so bad. 

 

Why Read Aloud?

As a teacher of second graders, I feel the need to convince some parents of the importance of reading aloud to their children.  Parents often want to know why reading aloud is still so important when their child can now read and choose his/her own books. After a full schedule at school and work, soccer practice, piano lessons, and ballet, parents want to know what they can give up.  Despite the findings that correlate reading aloud with future school success, reading aloud is often the first thing to go.

At my Open House in the fall, I strongly encourage parents to read aloud each day and to do so as long as their child will allow it.   Here's what I tell them:

• Reading aloud gives you a chance to share and create an experience with your child that shows how fun reading can be.  Share the laughter, suspense, and tears together. Make memories and build a list of favorite books your child will always remember.   Encourage curiosity and leave your child wanting more!
  
• There are so many wonderful, content-rich stories beyond your child's independent reading level.  Reading aloud can build your child's vocabulary and background knowledge, improve listening skills, and provide an introduction to comprehension strategies that will help him or her make meaning of stories.  Make predictions, stop to talk about characters and story elements, compare one story to another you've read before. Introduce your child to new genres and authors. 
  
• Be a reading role-model.  Give your child an opportunity to hear fluent and expressive reading.

For over 20 years, Jim Trelease has provided parents and teachers with invaluable information and recommendations in his book, The Read-Aloud Handbook (sixth edition released this summer). Here are some other great tips for reading aloud:

Mem Fox's Ten Read Aloud Commandments

Madame Esme's Hints for Reading Out Loud and her Read Aloud Resuscitation (recommendations for big kids, grades 4-8)

Snowflakes

To launch an upcoming study of snow in January, my class visted the Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry yesterday.  While there,  we saw a small exhibit on the photographs of Wilson "Snowflake Bentley."  Bentley lived in Vermont in late 1800s and was the first person to take photographs of individual snowflakes.  His story is beautifully illustrated by Mary Azarain in Jacqueline Briggs Martin's Snowflake Bentley (Caldecott Medal).  His real photographs are also available in Snowflakes in Photographs by W.A. Bentley himself. 

The exhibit, "A Snow Story," also included the stunning photography (see above) of a modern-day Snowflake Bentley, physicist Ken Libbrecht.  He has a wonderful and informative website devoted to snow crystals, snowflakes and other ice phenomena. 

Here are some interesting facts we learned from yesterday's field trip:

• Snowflakes are not white; they are clear.
• Chicago's biggest recorded snowfall of 23 inches was on Jan. 26-27, 1967.
• Wilson "Snowflake" Bentley took over 5000 photographs.

Holidays of Light

Because my students come from diverse religious and ethnic backgrounds, we cannot merely focus on one winter holiday, nor are we discouraged from celebrating any holidays.  Instead, we celebrate and study many.  The halls are filled with the smell of latkes and Christmas cookies; Nursery and Lower School classes make decorations for a "Hands Around the World" theme that brighten the school's main Lobby; and children, families and teachers gather before school for a seasonal sing-along. Our Lobby displays a Christmas tree, a menorah, and a kinara.  We learn about the holidays celebrated in our own class and the parents (better experts than me) plan activities, read stories, and share traditions.  We participate in food, clothing, and toy drives.  We celebrate our diversity and our community. 

Later this week, we are going on a field trip to the Museum of Science and Industry to see their annual holiday exhibits Christmas Around the World and Holidays of Light, a look at winter celebrations that feature light and enlightenment.  Their site contains great information about holiday customs and traditions from around the world.  Here are some books that also include these holidays and celebrations of the winter solstice:

                                                    

Celebrations of Light    

The Shortest Day: Celebrating the Winter Solstice         

Lights of Winter

Make-a-Flake

Kids (and adults) can't seem to get enough of this interactive snowflake maker. Watch as the paper is folded before your eyes.  Then, use scissors to cut out your design.  Preview your snowflake and cut some more, undo mistakes, start over or make another one!  Snowflakes are saved in a gallery and can be printed.