A Community of Writers

As the K-1's come together as a community of readers, we're also coming together as a community of writers.  Writing happens every day - formally during writing workshop, writing the morning message, writing notes and letters to friends and family, labeling drawings, and during shared and interactive writing.

The children are learning that writing has many purposes.  It's more than a collection of words on a page - writing is about constructing good stories and sharing important ideas.  Children may begin by drawing a picture and labeling their pictures with a few words.  Then we'll encourage children to say more about what they've drawn and add on to the picture.  Soon we'll help them say enough that they need to start a new page, next they'll start a new chapter, and next a new volume.  And, so it goes......

Even if some of the children are simply writing a few words to accompany drawings, they're learning about story structure and language, about how books go from front to back, and top to bottom.  This process of writing is helping children to become better and stronger readers.  As children work to construct and write the "morning message" for their classmates, they understand their words have importance - they're not only sharing a message with their class, they're also learning about spelling, punctuation, and relying on strategies for writing we have been practicing since September.

During our writing workshop, the children are completely immersed in work with sound-letter correspondences. As they work in their green "frog books" (our preferred name for our writing notebooks) constructing stories, children learn to stretch out words, isolate chunks of sounds, relate the sounds in one word to the sounds in another word, and search their memories, the alphabet chart, and the word wall to match sounds with letters.  Once they've encoded a chunk of sounds into print, they reread what they've written and continue supplying more of the needed letters.  The writing workshop could almost be retitled "The Phonics Workshop" except that, of course, so much else is being accomplished as well.

We know children learn language best when using it for real purposes.  We know that words are easier to read when they occur in a story than in a list.  Our approach is to let children learn words as they encounter them in texts that are funny or sad or otherwise, memorable.  I highly doubt you'll find any child who says, "Wow, that list of spelling words for my spelling test was fascinating!"  But, you will find a child who may struggle with an unknown word while reading about the adventures of Jack and Annie in the Magic Treehouse series, or while laughing along with Frog and Toad, and the next week use that very word in his or her writing.  This is exactly the type of meaningful learning we strive for in both reading and writing workshop.

We want school to say to children, "Welcome. Come in. You can feel at home here.  Bring your life and your stories and your ideas and energy - we are going to have a blast here, exploring all sorts of amazing things together.  One of the greatest things we'll explore here are letters and words."  I want letters and words to be a cause for our celebration, exploration, invention, talk, and laughter, and I want letters and words to be all about community.  We are involved in this process together, helping one another to sound out a word, or to spell a tricky word while writing. Children need opportunities to construct their own understandings of sound-letter correspondences and of spelling patterns.  What better way to do this than write about what's important to us, to share our stories, and gather together around a shared exploration of print?

Responding to a note 

Writing for fun

Writing the morning message

Writing in our "frog books"

Writing with our grandparents on Special Friends day 

Writing with our families

Here is more food for thought as we continue the debate about handwriting instruction. What really matters is giving students time to participate in real writing each day - something Parker students are fortunate enough to do.

We are readers!

Wow.....things have really been moving right along in our little K-1 community.  I use the word community, because, happily, that's what we've become.  Those early days of figuring out the rules, getting used to transitions, and that all important work of making friends, have led to a cohesive, settled classroom of confident, happy children.  They all arrive eager to start their day, greet their friends, and get right to the work of learning and playing.

An overarching theme within our school day has been creating a community of readers.  We started slowly by introducing the concept of Reading Workshop, DEAR time, and coming together for many, many read alouds.  This work has payed off - we have a class of excited readers.  Children who read during choice time, children who read to one another, children who talk about and borrow books from the classroom, and children who listen intently and carefully during story time.

One of my goals this year is for children to know what it is to open a good book and become lost in another world.  For them to connect with books on a personal level, for them to identify with characters, and feel that an author may be speaking directly to them.  I know these goals sound lofty for 5, 6, and 7 year olds, but they are not.  Whether or not children are formally reading, they are still surrounded by quality literature and exposed to its beauty and magic everyday.  For children, reading wonderful literature with friends in the classroom has the power to help us escape the boundaries of ourselves.  We feel less alone when we understand that our pain and joy are shared.  When we read Wemberly Worried, about a mouse who is nervous about starting school, suddenly our own worries do not feel so strange or isolating.  When we read Charlotte's Web, we watch as Wilbur the pig comes to realize that "friendship is one of the most satisfying things in the world,"  and we apply that to our own experience in the classroom.

By reading we cross the boundaries of time and space, we read the words and live in the worlds of people from long ago, of people on faraway islands, of people that may have lives totally different from our own. Reading allows us to walk down city streets and stand in fields of wheat, live inside skin that is black, brown, or white, or see through ancient eyes or those of a child.

We need to read and talk about books in the social world of the classroom for these very personal reasons, as well as for intellectual reasons.  When we teach comprehension, much of what we teach is a depth of listening, understanding, and response. Part of teaching comprehension is making a place for thoughtful and active listening.  If we want children to listen to an author, won't we also want children to listen to each other, and be able to solve problems with their friends?  If we want children to empathize with characters in books, won't we also want them to hear each other's ideas and perspectives, and show empathy with their classmates?

If we want children to read with wide-awake minds, then we need to invite them to use these skills in the dailiness of the classroom.  Teaching reading, then, is just like teaching living.

Here are some snapshots of the children enjoying D.E.A.R. (drop everything and read) time.

Next up!  Writing in the K-1 classroom.......

Farm to Table

Last week the K-1 class was fortunate to be able to spend the morning down at Katchkie Farm in beautiful Columbia County.  It is an organic farm with a children's learning garden, animals, an outdoor kitchen (and on-site chef!), and gorgeous views of the surrounding Catskill mountains.  We arrived at the farm and were given a wonderful overview of how a seed starts out, and what it needs to grow - air, soil, water, sun.  To reinforce this idea, the kids (and parents) played an interactive game together.  Next children were guided into a greenhouse where nasturtiums and all sorts of tomatoes were growing on trellises from the ceiling. They were encouraged to try the nasturtium flowers (which were declared a bit too spicy) and pick super sweet cherry tomatoes directly from the vines.   The kids loved walking through the "tomato jungle"  sampling as they went.

Getting an overview before exploring the "tomato jungle."

Here we go!

Peaking out 

After this we walked past rows of colorful zinnias, just beginning to fade with the cooler fall temperatures. These vibrant rows of annual flowers planted along the pathways attracted moths, bees, and butterflies. Children delighted in noticing the monarch butterflies darting and briefly resting on the beautiful blooms.  We gathered at a small area that held the farm animals.  There were chickens with beautiful feathers, pigs, and two friendly sheep.  We split into half groups - some of us were introduced to the chickens, having a chance to hold one and collect the colorful eggs inside the small, cozy chicken coop.  The other group met and fed the pigs and held out apple cores for the two sheep to enjoy.  Meeting and interacting with the animals provided yet another layer of learning on this interactive trip.

Zinnias!! 

We meet some chickens

Look, I can hold one! 

Getting acquainted with a new friend

This is fun! 

I found a feather! 

View from the chicken coop

A friendly sheep

We then made our way down to the children's learning garden - an acre plot of all types of vegetables, flowers, and fruits.  The kids learned about the various things that were growing, and harvested kale, carrots, kohlrabi, ground cherries, and tiny, speckled cranberry beans.  Most of these ingredients would later be used in the lunch that we would prepare and eat as a group.  It was amazing to watch how fascinated the children became when given the opportunity to pick and subsequently try these vegetables.  After pulling a kohlrabi directly from the ground, the children were bursting with enthusiasm to try this new food.  Had this been given to them at dinner with no prior exposure or experience, I highly doubt their reactions would be the same.  Orange, purple, and white carrots were pulled from the ground, then sliced up and given to the children to sample.  Again, the kids acted as if these were the best things they ever tasted.  They picked tiny ground cherries off the ground - little jewels of fruit hiding beneath a papery husk. "Mmmmm......I love these!"  was the consensus from the kids.  We picked sunflower seeds nestled in the dried up flower heads of a sunflower - kids worked hard to crack open the hard exterior to reveal a tiny seed inside.  Again, the question was, "Can we eat these too?"  The enthusiasm for trying these wonderful things growing from the earth was clearly contagious.

Shelling the cranberry beans

Check out this carrot! 

Harvesting beans

Kale growing in the children's garden

Sunflower seeds

Cranberry beans 

Carrots! 

Picking a kohlrabi

After spending time harvesting and learning about the growing cycle of these vegetables, it was time to cook! We headed down to an outdoor kitchen - complete with a wood fired oven, multiple burners for cooking, work surfaces, and rows of bright orange picnic tables where we would later share and enjoy a meal as a community.  Children got right to work slicing apples and pears to be cooked down into a sweet apple sauce, and spiralizing the same brightly colored carrots they had picked only moments ago. Purple kale was washed and cut to be included in the soup, and eggs from the chickens were hard boiled to later be placed upon colorful carrot "nests." The children (and parents) worked under the guidance of the two farm chefs - learning how to properly hold a knife and the apples so they would remain stable on the cutting board, and how to use a spiralizer to create long, curly, strips of carrots.  Soon the outdoor kitchen filled with the delicious smells of soup and apple-pear sauce the children had helped to make.

The outdoor kitchen 

Cutting apples 

Spiralizing carrots 

Beans ready to go into the soup 

Beautiful, purple kale harvested for our soup 

Working together 

A peak into the applesauce

Ready to use the spiralizer

Slicing carrots 

Waiting for lunch 

Stunning views from the kitchen

We sat down to a first course of a perfectly hard boiled egg sprinkled with sea salt and then placed on top of a multicolored carrot nest.  Kids gobbled these up and lined up for seconds.  The kale and bean soup was then ladled into our bowls - steaming hot, with freshly grated Parmesan cheese floating on the surface.  It was amazing to see how much the children enjoyed a lunch prepared by them with the ingredients they had picked and learned about that very day.  Many of the children asked for seconds and thirds - hungry from our morning outdoors and eager to try something they had invested so much personal energy into.  We ended our meal with a wholesome dessert of warm apple-pear sauce - which was happily eaten by all the children.

Choosing the colorful carrots to create our "nests" 

Soup! 

Enjoying the applesauce

While this trip wasn't purposely planned to introduce and encourage children to try new foods, it definitely served that purpose.  Getting their hands muddy, digging in the soil to find a carrot, or opening up pods of beans or husks of ground cherries, inspired a curiosity that couldn't be ignored.  Tasting things that you've picked and sliced is something all together different that being presented with a meal that has no personal experience behind it.  I was pleasantly surprised to hear many of the kids declare kohlrabi as their favorite new vegetable, or find my own daughter asking for seconds of a kale and bean soup.  In addition, coming together as a community to eat and enjoy a meal that was prepared collectively is a worthwhile and powerful experience.  I'm confident this will be a trip that will be remembered for a long time.

The outdoor cooking and eating area

Breathtaking views from the farm

"The Sylvia Center at Katchkie Farm: inspiring children to eat well"

View of the pond, from the farm kitchen