Beginnings.

'The beginning is the most important part of the work.' - Plato

A few weeks ago, a group of bloggers (including me!) began a book study of the new Fountas and Pinnell book, Literacy Beginnings: A Pre-Kindergarten Handbook. When Vanessa from Pre-K Pages asked me to participate, I was unsure at first. The books subtitle after all is ‘A Pre-Kindergarten Handbook’ and I teach kindergarten. What would this book have to offer me? Well, five chapters in, I’m so grateful I decided to join the party.

If you teach kindergarten, or even first grade, why would this book be valuable for you? Here are a few reasons I’ve realized so far (I reserve the right to come up with more as I go deeper into the book):

1. I do teach Pre-K. Depending on what type of area you teach in, many of your students haven’t attended a formal preschool. Usually, close to half my sprouts fall into this category. They’ve either attended an in home daycare (not a preschool) or simply been home with a family member (awesome, but also not a preschool). It’s not unusual for many kindergartners to march in the first day not knowing a single letter, number, their name, or how to hold a pencil. Welcome to Pre-K inside your kindergarten classroom!
2. If you can’t walk, you can’t run. If you can’t run, you’ll never fly. Just like anything, the foundation of literacy is the most critical base of knowledge our youngest learners will build upon. As a teacher of young children, having a deep understanding the stages of literacy development will only help your planning and delivery of instruction.
3. Confirmation is key. Who doesn’t love knowing what they feel in their gut is right for kids (play, play, PLAY!) is the right way to go. Irene Fountas and Gay Su Pinnell are highly regarded as the experts on literacy instruction. Read the book. Know you’re on the right path.
4. Everyone can use more tools in their toolbox. The book is packed with ideas and activities to add to your repertoire. Containing countless songs, rhymes, poems, and book lists, you will not come away empty handed. It’s also filled with pages of student work examples and reproducible pages for you to use right away in your classroom. It’s worth the price of admission.

So there you have it. I truly believe any kindergarten teacher can feel confident in spending their hard earned cash on this resource… and I’m only about a quarter way into the book. I’ll be hosting a few chapters in the next few weeks and I can’t wait to read the rest of the book and see what my fellow blogger friends have to share with us. It's never too late to sign on.  Buy the book. Join the party. We’re having fun over the summer learning about literacy. I promise you won’t be disappointed.

Late!

It's never too late to join a party... The Literacy Beginnings book study blog part (that's a mouth full) started this week.  Even if you haven't purchased the book yet, it's not too late to join us!  Go ahead, ORDER the book and then just start with chapter one below.  Fountas and Pinnell have really written a wonderful reminder of how literacy learning is supported and successful when the basics of early childhood development are provided.

I will keep a list of all the chapters and links below to help you catch up when your book arrives.  The chapters are short and easy to read and enjoy.  Once you begin, click on the link for that chapter to participate and comment.

Literacy Beginnings Book Study & Blog Party
Chapter 1	Hosted by Pre-K Pages More thoughts from Brick by Brick
Chapter 2	Hosted by Teach Preschool More thoughts from Pre-K Pages
Chapter 3	Hosted by Brick by Brick
Chapter 4	Hosted by PreKinders More thoughts from Pre-K Pages
Chapter 5	Hosted by Pre-K Pages
Chapter 6	Hosted by Pre-K Pages
Chapter 7	Coming Soon!
Chapter 8	Coming Soon!
Chapter 9	Coming Soon!
Chapter 10	Hosted by lookatmyhappyrainbow!
Chapter 11	Hosted by lookatmyhappyrainbow!
Chapter 12	Coming Soon!
Chapter 13	Coming Soon!
Chapter 14	Coming Soon!
Chapter 15	Coming Soon!
Chapter 16	Coming Soon!
Chapter 17	Coming Soon!
Chapter 18	Hosted by lookatmyhappyrainbow!
Chapter 19	Coming Soon!
Chapter 20	Coming Soon!

Grab the button below:

<a href="http://www.pre-kpages.com/join-literacy-beginnings/" target="_blank"><img alt="Pre-K Pages" src="http://www.pre-kpages.com/images/bookstudy1.gif"/></a>

Literacy Beginnings

Summer has barely begun... Are you thinking about school already?  No?  Why not?!?  A little professional reading in the summer is just the way to keep your creative juices flowing.  I like to read three books simultaneously... One I consider 'literature', another that is fluff for my brain, and finally something to help my professional growth.  Right now that would be The Iliad, Bossypants, and Comprehension Connections: Bridges to Strategic Reading respectively.

My ADD allows me to seamlessly navigate between all three texts with ease. See, being easily distractible has its advantages!

Anyway, my friend Vanessa over at Pre-kpages has organized a wonderful book study for the summer.  We're going to be reading and discussing Literacy Beginnings: A Prekindergarten Handbook.  Even if you don't teach preschool (I teach K), this book would be a valuable resource to anyone who works with children from preschool through first (or even second) grade.  As Plato stated, 'The beginning is the most important part of the work.' I truly believe the foundation we build for literacy is the most important work we do as educators.

The study is going to take place starting June 27th and run through July.  Don't worry about dates though, because being a blog book study, you can read and participate at your leisure!

Vanessa has much more information on her blog.  Check out the book study guide here.

I'll be looking for you on the other blogs and back here for Section Three.  

Haiku.

Summer vacation
Finally here, time to rest
Recharge and relax

Summer plans.

Well school is over. I spent the day screening new sprouts for the fall… we administer some assessments and score them to help with placement... it’s always a bit of a mixed bag of emotions. On the one hand, I’m excited to meet new friends… on the other hand, I am ready for summer vacation.

As I did last year, I’ll be taking a break from daily postings over the summer. Don’t worry, I’ve got a few special surprises up my sleeve. Some giveaways, a book study, and some other stuff you’ll just have to come back to find out about. How's that for a cliffhanger?

If you have the summer off, ENJOY. I’ll be spending the first half of my summer working with graduate students at the local university... spreading my love and enthusiasm for literacy. The second half will be spent traveling and RELAXING. I’ll be back soon with more information about the giveaways and book study.

Goodbye.

The last day is never fun. The kids are ramped up… feeling anxious, sad, excited, you name it. It’s not a good mix. At my school, my sprouts meet their first grade teacher on the last day too, which just works them up even more. It’s a fast, sometimes chaotic day and yet I’m sad when it’s over.

In what other grade but kindergarten do they kids say they are genuinely sad school is over? We tried to have as normal a day as possible, but really, it didn’t happen. The hugs were more frequent and much tighter. One little guy almost hurt me he hugged me so tightly… there were no complaints from me.

I almost started to cry at one moment… it was towards the end of the day, they were all shoving the last bits of paper and memorabilia into their backpacks… the classroom got very loud and noisy and I just stood there looking at them all and got overwhelmed with emotion. For the record, I snapped out of it, but it almost happened… almost.

To make matters worse, one of my dear friends was leaving our school today. I stayed to help her pack her room up and tried to bring a little laughter to the sadness of the situation… I got a few chuckles out of her and the others helping, but really, it was all just a show. When I finally got a moment alone with her, I gave her a big hug, kissed her gently on the cheek, and told her I’d see her soon. Goodbyes are no fun.

As luck would have it, the last few itty-bitty friends to leave are some of the most affectionate. No asking for hugs from these characters. They asked me to walk them out to the bus line, something I don’t normally do… today I did. As two of them took my hands, I thought, ‘Wow, another year gone.’ They will visit me next year early and often. I’ll have a new batch of fresh sprouts to nurture. I’ll miss my class, but I know they have the skills (academic and social) to be successful. I'm a teacher... I gave them my all.

Clingy.

"Affection is responsible for nine-tenths of whatever solid and durable happiness there is in our lives." - C.S. Lewis

As I prepare for my last day with my sprouts tomorrow, this quote from the author of The Narnia Chronicles, has stuck in my head like a jingle. Something happens the last few weeks in kindergarten… it didn’t happen when I taught second grade, and I suspect it doesn’t happen in most other grades, my students, all of them, become incredibly clingy.

Maybe it’s all the talk of ‘becoming a first grader’ or just the simple realization the end of our precious time together is near, but my itty bitty friends become, what my mother would refer to as, ‘Velcro puppies’.

The funny thing is, while they are hanging off me at every second possible, I’m finding myself feeling the same way. When they line up at Quiet Time to give me a hug, I’m squeezing them back with just a little more gusto. Grown men can be tenacious too.

There’s another powerful quote about teaching from Carol Buchner – ‘They may forget what you said but they will never forget how you made them feel.” I think it’s the same for teachers. As I look back on the year, it’s not the benchmarks, data, and test results I’ll remember (for the record, they were good), it’s the affection. The love. The way they made me feel.