Beginning,Middle,Ehd

In kindergarten we had 5 or 6 students share each day something they had brought from home. We started with the "color of the day' and students brought a picture they had colored or one they had cut from a magazine showing the appropriate color. A little later in the year we had a "letter of the day" and students would share something with that letter in the word. I would write the word on a big chart at the front of the class and students would tell me whether the "letter of the day" came at the beginning, middle or end of the word.
At first I thought this activity was for building self-esteem which it did, but I discovered I could get some learning mikeage out of it too.

What I learned: Students - even some adults, are not aware of the sounds they make in every day language. Knowing the sounds and their placement will help them in reading and spelling.

THIS IS A TEST

This is only a test. I am trying to see if my theory as to why my BLOG keeps posting to the wrong site. Sorry eveyone has to put up with my computer remediation.

One more note

What I learned: You can have fun while learning/ you can learn while having fun.

Oops again

This time I know I clicked on the right button but my BLOG was posted to the wrong BLOG site. Oh well, you can read it by going to foreverbooming.blogspot.com.

Mystery Shape

After I had introduced all the shapes, (circle, square, triangle, rectangle, oval, and diamond) we would play a game called "Mystery Shape". I would teach the students horizontal, vertical, oblique (slanted) left, (toward the windows) and right (toward the wall). We would practice horizontal and vertical by laying down and standing up.
Students would have to describe a shape verbally and I would draw it on the board. I would purposely draw exactly what they said even if I knew they meant differently. This way students would have to communicate clearly. The rest of the students would try to identify the shape.
Students would reaize as soon as I would take them literally if they did'nt tell me to stop and I would draw a line to the end of the board. They would realize they had not communicated clearly.

What I learned: Knowing something and communicating what you know are two very different things.