Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Keep a Poem in Your Pocket

What a great way to end April! Today my students held our 6th annual Keep a Poem in Your Pocket Poetry Day!

All through April we study poetry in Writers Workshop. Students write poems using the crafts of  rhymes, repetition, alliteration, and onomatopoeia. We used poetry all year during Shared Reading to help learn phonics and increase fluency. Today was the culmination of all the students work.

First students started as a group reading - It's Poetry Time By:  Lee Bennett Hopkins



"It’s poem o’clock.
Time for a rhyme—
     tick-tock
     ding-dong
     bing-bong
     or
     chime.
Poems are
     wistful
     wish-filled
     sublime—
Come.
Unlock a minute
for
poetry time."

Then students explained the purpose behind using poetry in the classroom and explained that this why we believe you should always keep a poem in your pocket. At which point students read, Keep A Poem in Your Pocket By:  Beatrice  Schenk de Regniers

"Keep a poem in your pocket
and a picture in your head
and you'll never feel lonely
at night when you're in bed

The little poem will sing to you
the little picture bring to you
a dozen dreams to dance to you
at night when you're in bed

So-
keep a picture in your pocket
and a poem in your head
annd you'll never feel lonely
at night when you're in bed."




Finally, students "mingled" around the classroom reading the poems in their pockets to parents and administration. The poems in their pockets were a mixture of poems they wrote and those we read throughout the year during Shared. 






Along with the "mingling" students' BioPoems with self portraits and I Wish Poems were displayed for students to read.

BioPeoms:








 I wish poems:






Sunday, April 28, 2013

Blogging Take 2

So . . . this is take 2 on "Keene on Education".  I started it once before and got so frustrated that I ended up shutting down and in my haste, I accidently deleted everything!  Well I've let some time pass and calmed down, and with the encouragement of my sister (visit her blog: weekly wanderlust) , I've decided to give it another go.

It will be a work in progress and I'm still not totally sure how I will utilize it, but I know it will focus around my work in Education. So check it out periodically, hopefully I get some good stuff up here soon.

Friday, December 21, 2012

Christmas Celebration

Before our Christmas party, we were working on letter writing in Writer's Workshop. Each student wrote a note to Santa and they were so excited to receive a response all the way from the North Pole from Santa!  Each notes was personalizes based on what the students' wrote along with some special information that there is no way Mrs. Keene could know (unless she talked to mom and dad. <insert smiley>.)






After we opened our letters from Santa we enjoyed some treats and then had our Christmas Book Exchange. Each student brought a wrapped book (under $5) for our book exchange:




Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! 




Friday, August 31, 2012

Back to School . . . Back to School

Yes, I realize it is April 28 - and the school year isn't starting right now. But - since I am restarting my blog, I think it makes sense to start from the beginning. So here it is .  . . the start of the 2012 - 2013 School Year.

Our open house is the night before the first day of school. Here is how I manage the very exciting but chaotic meet and greet!


 First I have parents sign in and tell me how their child will be getting home - both the usual method and the first day (as many have a different routine the first day of school).

Then I provide students and the parents with a Scavenger hunt.  Click here to download and edit it for your classroom! 

 At students' seats were grocery bags for them to drop off their supplies if they brought it. This made it easy to sort through who brought what on my own time and label it accordingly.












Also - I left back to school confetti at each seat for students to take home with them. Download my version here. 











As part of the scavenger hunt - students found out library and Daily 5 option board. On the board are contact magnets for parents. They included my name, email, and phone number.









In the hall - a "Look WHOOO's in First Grade" bulletin board welcomed students to their new classroom and my owl theme!




Some other products I use in the Beginning of the Year include:

Magnet Business Cards (template on Word printed on magnet paper)
Parent Survey (I use one made from another teacher - I believe I have it pinned on my pinterest)
Welcome Letter for students