Play Dough

Another kinesthetic learning activity I enjoy using with students is working with play dough.  Sometimes I buy the premade commercial version. (I admit it.  I like the smell!  It takes me back to my own childhood.)  Other times, I make my own.  Here are a some great recipes from a blog called Pre Kinders. 

I've taught students to roll the dough into "snakes"and then make letters, numbers and shapes.  They've made their names in dough and let them dry.  I have a set of alphabet "stampers" students can use to write words in slabs of play dough.  Other times, we've done life cycle representations, rock layers and other science concepts.  The possibilities are endless AND lots of fun, too!!

Finally, I wanted to share a great website with a wonderful play dough theme section.  I've used the emergent reader book and many of the activities with my kindergarten students with great success.  The website is Making Learning Fun. 

SchoolTube and Sight Words

Yesterday, we had a district technology expert spend the day with us.  She camped out in our computer lab and we had the opportunity to work with her during our planning periods on our school web pages.  The district provides a basic template we have to use for our web pages, but it's not terribly attractive, in my opinion.  Since I had started my web page early in the the school year, I worked with her on how to improve the appearance of my page.  My planning time is pretty scattered, so I started the day in the lab, spent about 20 minutes, popped back in again during lunch and then at then end of the day. 

While I had the technology expert there, I picked her brain about my sight word powerpoints and how I could get them to work for every child.  We discussed several ideas including putting together a YouTube channel.  I thought about it for a while and decided I didn't necessarily want my little ones on YouTube unattended.  There are some very good educational videos on there, but there is also a LOT of items NOT appropriate for children.  I shared my concerns with the expert. She listened and agreed. While I taught my classes, she did some investigating and when I returned at the end of the day, she showed me SchoolTube.   I had seen TeacherTube before, but wasn't familiar with SchoolTube.  She found some ESL sight words presentations posted there and shared them with me. 

The district expert and I want to work together (with any other district ESL teachers who might be interested) and create our own district SchoolTube channel where we can post our own videos and presentations.  Woooo-hooo!  It should be fun! 
 

I Love Powerpoint!

I love powerpoint!  It’s an exceptionally useful tool for teachers.  I use it for all sorts of presentations (including the Phonics Dance alphabet and the Phonics Dance Hunks and Chunks I wrote about in an earlier post), but as an English as a Second Language teacher I find it great for creating take-home study helps for my students. 

Recently, one of my second grade students was struggling to learn sight words.  Her teacher, Ms. Writer, requires all of the students in her class to work on increasing the number of sight words they can read.  As a good educator should do, Ms. Writer assessed her students at the beginning of the school year and set an individual goal for each second grader.  My student, Happy Girl, was working hard, but was progressing slowly. 

Ms. Writer expects the students to study their sight words at home for homework.  That’s fine for most students, but it’s more problematic for parents who do not speak or read English.  Happy Girl’s parents are wonderful and caring folks who will do anything they can to help their children succeed in school.  However, they can’t help Happy Girl with most homework.  Happy Girl could “study” her sight words at home, but if she wasn’t practicing them correctly, it wouldn’t do her any good.   

I thought about it for a while and talked it over with Ms. Writer.  She agreed with me and we came up with some ways to help Happy Girl.  We found a kind fifth grade girl willing to come to the second grade classroom for ten minutes each day to review sight words with Happy Girl.  Ms. Writer also has some parent helpers who review with Happy Girl a few days a week.

Finally, I came home and created a powerpoint with audio for Happy Girl.  I found a powerpoint of the Fry first 100 words online and then added my own voice reading each word.  Through a district interpreter, I made an appointment to make a home visit to Happy Girl’s house.  I knew she had a computer at home, so I was hoping to figure out a way to get the sight word powerpoint to work on her computer.  The interpreter and I went to Happy Girl’s home, met with her parents and I finally got the powerpoint to work on the computer.  Father and Mother were thrilled to be able to help Happy Girl!

Two days ago, I asked Happy Girl to read through the sight word list with me.  She zoomed through the list with lots of confidence.  The number of sight words she knows increased dramatically in just a few weeks.  She and I looked at each other when she finished and then I gave her a jubilant “high five”!!  I asked her, “Have you been practicing your sight words at home with Mom and Dad?”.  She flashed me a huge grin and said, “Yes!”

It’s times like this when I know why I love teaching English Language Learners.  Every day is a new challenge, but the rewards are great.  Now, I’m off to work on adding audio to the next powerpoint for the Fry second hundred words.   Happy Girl is almost ready for a new set of words!