Newsletter Room 8
From the start of the year, as a part of the routine, the children in Room 8 know to grab a book after snack, take a seat on the carpet, and spend time quietly flipping through the pages of their chosen book. They choose from a large variety of books found in our class library. The books range from Mo Willem’s stories, to National Geographic Encyclopedias, to Jewish holiday themed books, and even a few with interactive components. Over the course of the year, the children have shown a real affinity towards this 20-minute section of the day. They appreciate the quiet time and the opportunity to view, study and learn a new book each day. Recently, we started a new component as a follow-up activity to quiet reading time. After the 10-15 minutes of quiet reading, each child stood in front of their peers, introduced themselves, and explained, in their own words, one page of the book they had chosen that day. This activity reinforced the concept of details, which has been an ongoing topic of discussion throughout the year. In addition, it was an extension of an activity that the children loved. It is important to create curriculum that builds on the interests of the children. It increases excitement in the specific activity, confidence in the child and their ability, and promotes a love for learning. This new piece of the quiet reading time was a hit in Room 8. At first, the children demonstrated a little bit of fear when standing in front of the class to present their ideas. It can be very nerve wracking! We heard a few quiet voices, and some of our friends needed to be prompted a couple of times, but after doing this for a few days in a row, they are now pros! We love hearing their imaginations run wild as they explain what they see happening on their chosen page. One of Rian’s favorite books, she explained, is How the Crayons Saved the Rainbow. Her story behind the last page of the book was about how the cat was looking up at the sky because the cat thought that the cloud was very interesting. She shared that throughout the book the sun and the cloud got mad at each other, but they made up in the end and made a beautiful rainbow. Lilah chose a very different type of book than Rian! Her pick was Discovery Channel: The BIG Book of SHARKS, and she explained what she saw happening on page 29. She described that the large shark had his mouth wide open with huge teeth all over and red coloring inside his mouth. There was also white on the side of the shark’s mouth, which kind of looked like there was a starfish on it. The children learned new details, facts and stories from their own reading and from listening to their friends present their ideas, all while building up their own self-confidence. After about two weeks of doing this activity, there came a day that we did not have time to present our findings after quiet reading time. Towards the end of the day, Dylan and Alexandra both noticed that we did not do this activity and asked why. By the end of last week, each day after the children ate snack and picked out a book, at least one, if not more, inquired if we were going to do the story activity. We realized that this simple task became a huge hit in our classroom! In light of this newly found love of literacy, we wanted to build on their interests of reading and story-telling. We found the perfect book to take this concept a step further. Rather than reading their own books at quiet reading time on Monday, we read a new story to them today called A Cheese and Tomato Spider by Nick Sharratt. Have any of you heard of this book?! Silly, funny and colorful are three words that the children came up with to describe this story. This interactive book sparks creativity and makes one think outside of the box. The pages are divided into two parts so that each page features one bold picture cut in half of a spider, grandma, ice cream cone, etc. The children have the opportunity to mix and match the pages creating silly combinations such as a strawberry flavored volcano or a birthday lemon. The combinations are endless! We encouraged the children to interact with the pages and create their own story. The story was enticing to every child in the class and kept each child on their toes. After reading the book, we continued down this creative path and asked each child to create their own crazy combination of anything they desired. For example, Chloe made a sun on top of a blue snowman with flower hands and feet. Lennon made a chair sitting on top of a tree and a tree circle on top of a race car, and Nixon designed a house with arms, hands, legs and feet with a tree growing out of the top of the house. The children turned their imaginations into colorful illustrations. Next time you are in Room 8 ask to see their amazing creations. We will see where this love of literacy takes us next! We will also dive into the holiday of Purim next week as it is quickly approaching. We hope everyone has a great weekend. Shabbat Shalom! Mari & Aaliyah REMINDERS:
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Pre-K Room 8Mari Greifer Archives
March 2020
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