January 2014 ● Volume 3, Issue #6●

Happy New Year!

Welcome back! It’s joyful January and we are embarking on a new semester! I love January! It is the perfect time to re-evaluate and make changes. It seems like the entire world is focused on new beginnings. It is a great time for new beginnings in the classroom as well. Was there something about your classroom you wanted to change last semester? Now is the perfect time to make that change. One of my favorite quotes about change comes from C.S. Lewis.

It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad. (C.S. Lewis)

I am excited about the new year. It is a chance for us (and our students) to move forward into new opportunities for learning. I hope that the articles in the newsletter this month are helpful to you in your joyful January!

Austin ISD Prekindergarten Newsletter January 2014 Jacquie Porter, Director of Early Childhood Vol. 3, Issue #6

January 2014 ● Volume 3, Issue #6●

Looking for Dramatic Play Ideas for January? Jacquie Porter, Director of Early Childhood

Laundromat—Free This idea from Katherine Maries blog goes along with our January “Our Community” theme. If you are reading Knuffle Bunny this month, you may want to think about making a laundromat in your dramatic play center. It can be done with just a large box that could be covered with butcher paper and some holes cut in the sides and top to make the “washer” and dryer”. Add a set of doll clothes and a clothes line and you have this cute (virtually free) for January. This idea is illustrated at http://katherinemaries.com/blog/archives/tag/pretend-play-preschool

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January 2014 ● Volume 3, Issue #6●

Dramatic Play Ideas, continued Library Center—Inexpensive Thinking about setting up a library in your dramatic play center instead? Don’t forget the library card! This example came from mothersniche.com. Use your dramatic play furniture as book shelf displays and allow someone to be the librarian who shelves books, reads to the patrons (in a small area of the “library”). Other librarians can help check out books, look for books on the computer, and help patrons find books. Perhaps a puppet show or a felt story of a book will be taking place in the library today.

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January 2014 ● Volume 3, Issue #6●

SEL Corner: Getting back in the Groove! Sylina Valdez, Early Childhood Administrative Supervisor

Returning to school after a long break can be difficult for both children and teachers. Your students have been away from the school setting and because of the holidays, they may not have had any consistent routines and/or rules to follow over the break. You notice that some children have matured over the break and others seem like they have forgotten the routines, procedures, and rules completely. You may even begin to feel like your time

spent on setting up procedures in the fall was a waste. In order to help ease the transition for both you and the children, it is best to think of this as a chance for a new beginning. Be proactive by reminding children of the expectations and remodel what is expected in your class. This is a great time to revisit the class rules and you might even want to re-read some of those familiar beginning of the year stories like Pete the Cat to help children get back into the school routines. More tips to get you and your students rockin’ in no time:

• Give children time to talk about what they did over the holiday break. This could also be a great writing activity.

• Replace center materials with some new items. (i.e. new pencils or crayons in the writing center, a new puzzle in the puzzle center)

• Update the family tree. Have there been new additions to families? This would be a great time for families to send in updated family pictures or you could have children draw a picture of their new brother or sister.

• Review the safe place with children. Add some different stuffed animals and/or books. Printable posters for the safe place are available here: http://consciousdiscipline.com/resources/printable_posters.asp

As Pete the Cat says, “It’s going to be all good!”

You’ll be back to rockin’ in no time!

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January 2014 ● Volume 3, Issue #6●

Why is Classroom Organization Important in Early Childhood Classrooms?

How Does it Affect Student Learning? Robbie Polan, Early Childhood Childcare Liaison

Classroom organization is multi-dimensional and plays an important role in early childhood classrooms. Each dimension affects a child’s ability to learn and your ability to teach. The organizational chart below breaks down Classroom Organization into three areas: Behavior Management, Productivity, and Instructional Learning Formats. Providing clear expectations in your behavior management plan teaches your students how to act appropriately. Being prepared for your lessons makes you a more productive and effective teacher. Offering a variety of interesting instructional learning formats (centers and activities) will engage your students, which translates into a highly productive classroom. These components of classroom organization sound simple but are actually complex and require thoughtful planning and preparation. As you look at the chart below you can reflect on your teaching practice and classroom routines.

Classroom Organization

Are classroom rules and expectations clearly and consistently communicated? Is classroom behavior management proactive, rather than reactive? Are students provided with consistent praise for meeting expectations? When possible, are children redirected for misbehavior?

Do students know what is expected of them and how to go about doing it? Are there clear classroom routines? Do transitions happen quickly and efficiently? Are transition learning activities planned? Are clearly defined learning activities provided for the students throughout the day?

Do you evaluate your lessons and activities to determine if they are effective? Is instruction provided by using a variety of modalities? Does instruction allow students to be actively engaged? Are learning objectives clear to the students? Are lessons stimulating and are the materials interesting?

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Behavior Management

Productivity

Instructional Learning Formats

January 2014 ● Volume 3, Issue #6●

It’s Time for the Science Fair! Tips for Teachers

Robbie Polan, Early Childhood Childcare Liaison

This is the time of year when most campuses participate in the Science Fair. It can be a daunting process for teachers, but it should be an exciting process where children are allowed to wonder, question, and explore. In early childhood classrooms, authentic investigations are very important and they help develop all of the processing skills that children need for learning. In the early years, teachers are continually building and scaffolding student inquiry and this will be true for your Science Fair project. Dr. Karen Ostlund's Inquiry Process for Young Children is a very helpful format that is appropriate for pre-K and kindergarten children’s projects. You can find this in her book, Rising to the Challenge of the National Science Education Standards: The Processes of Science Inquiry. Most

campuses have this book, but if not, please contact me. The final Science Fair product always falls in the hands of the teacher, but I hope teachers will feel confident to allow the projects to be age appropriate by including student work, student writing, and quotes from the students.

The following are some tips and reminders as you work with your children on upcoming projects.

Science Fair projects should be based on the authentic questions/wonderings of your students.

To make science fair projects age appropriate, you may want to use questions and wonderings from a current or previous unit of study. Remember that this project benefits the children when it is based on their curiosities.

The children’s questions may sound simple, but there are many other things that the

children are learning in addition to finding a result and defining a conclusion for their question.

You will need to guide your students as they share the information from their

observations. Mini lessons will include instruction on recording observations through scientific drawings, labeling, sorting, classifying, and graphing.

Encourage the students to work together on your class project as they are learning to

collaborate and communicate their ideas. Keep it simple and authentic!

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January 2014 ● Volume 3, Issue #6●

Shared Reading to Build Phonological Awareness Melinda Servantez, Early Childhood Specialist

Shared reading using big books and charts (poems, songs, language experience stories) provide opportunities to focus on the development of phonological awareness skills. Once the teacher has shared the text several times and the students are familiar with the text, the various aspects of phonological awareness can be highlighted. Pointing to each word as it is read helps students to develop word awareness.

Picking a multi-syllable word and talking about how it has more than one syllable, but is

still just one word, also supports word awareness. Clap out the words of a familiar poem or story or they may also tap on the floor or their

knees, use rhythm instruments to keep the beat. Pick multi-syllable words, say them in syllable segments and have students guess what

the words are. If the text has examples of rhyme, point out which words rhyme and why they rhyme.

→ Talk about how all words sound the same at the end (-at, -id)

→ Segment the words at the onset/rime boundary so that students can hear

how the rime sounds the same in both words.

→ Read the story, poem, song again, but this time leave out the second rhyming word. Have students supply the rhyme. Ask them to think of other words that may rhyme with the first word.

Select some words from the familiar text that have three or four sounds. Say the words, sound by sound, and have students guess which words they are from the text. Initially, use concrete words such as names, nouns, actions, or descriptive words rather than function words (e.g., is, of, the, has) because function words do not carry much meaning for young learners.

If the text has alliteration, read it again and have students guess what the words have in common. Focus mainly on the sound rather than the name of the letter.

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January 2014 ● Volume 3, Issue #6●

Shared Reading, continued Here are a couple of poems to go along with the Community and Weather Unit to practice the above skills. Baker’s Truck (Fingerplay) The baker’s truck comes down the street, Filled with everything good to eat. Two doors the baker opens wide. (Stretch arms apart) What do you see? What do you see? Three big cookies for you and me. (Show three fingers.) (Adapt the number in the fingerplay to reinforce any number that you are teaching) Carro del panadero (Fingerplay) Tradicional, adaptado por Pam Schiller y Rafael Lara-Alecio Por la calle viene el carro del panadero, Lleno de pan para comer placentero. De extreme a extreme abre dos puertas. Qué nos puede dar de muestra? Qué vemos, qué vemos, qué vemos! Tres galletas que compartiremos!

Una tempestad por Rafael Lara-Alecio, Pam Schiller y

Beverly Irby

Bum, ban, bum, ban Rumpeti, lumpeti, bum! Zum, zam, zum, zam, Clipeti, clapeti, clum! Susureos y bullicios,

Chasquidos y zumbidos! Qué maravillosos sonidos

Que una tormenta con ruidos

A Thunderstorm By Pam Schiller

Boom, bang, boom, bang, Rumpety, lumpety, bump! Zoom, zam, zoom, zam, Clippity, clappity, clump!

Rustles and bustles, And swishes and zings! What wonderful sounds A thunderstorm brings!

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January 2014 ● Volume 3, Issue #6●

Patterning in Kinder: A Thing of the Past? Brian Mowry, Early Childhood Specialist

With the disappearance of patterning from the revised Kindergarten Math TEKS, a large part of the responsibility now rests on the shoulders of prekindergarten teachers to make sure children have a conceptual understanding of this critically important foundation to algebraic reasoning. The new Common Core State standards, which Texas did not adopt, refer to patterning as an on-going mathematical practice related to an understanding of structure and repeated reasoning—two processes that should be integrated regularly throughout our math instruction. For example, our base-ten number system is built on patterns—e.g., after twenty nine, we say thirty. Keeping in mind that patterning is one of the knowledge and skills assessed on the third nine-week report card rubrics, I have included some suggestions on how to integrate this concept across all different domains, including literature and science:

Literacy: Goldilocks and the Three Bears

• Extend the story by leading the children to see the predictable structure of the on-going narrative: If Goldilocks were to enter the Three Bear’s garage, whose bike would she see first/ second/ last? How do you know?

Science:

• Bird Calls: Go on an environmental walk looking for patterns—e.g. birds have distinctive calls, which they repeat over and over. Since we cannot always see the birds, biologists study the pattern of their calls to be able to identify them. When you hear a bird, replicate and whistle the call so that the children can start to pay attention to the distinct differences. Extend to music by allowing the children to play different patterns on the xylophone.

• Seasons: Use models—e.g., color cubes, pictures, etc.—to represent the repetitive cycle of the 4 seasons: What season follows autumn? How do you know? How could we show the winter/ spring/ summer/ fall pattern with cubes for the next three years?

2013 2014 2015 2016

In the living room In the kitchen In the bedroom In the garage

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January 2014 ● Volume 3, Issue #6●

January Early Childhood Professional Development Sylina Valdez, Early Childhood Administrative Supervisor

Early Childhood Language Arts Section Description Date(s) Location Presenter(s)

Early Childhood Language Arts: Pre-K PRIDE

(62415)

This class is for teachers who are new to pre-K for the 2013-14 school year only. The class will meet in February, March, and April after school. The meeting in January will be during the day with subs paid for by the EC Department. Pre-K PRIDE (Purposeful, Ready, Intentional, Direct, and Essential) is a year-long book study of Literacy Beginnings by Pinnell and Fountas. This class is for teachers who are new to pre-K for the 2013-14 school year. Teachers who commit to the year-long book study will receive the book and other materials for classroom use. All sessions will be led by staff in the EC Dept. Some topics include organizing the environment for learning, the role of language in learning, phonemic awareness and phonics, supporting ELLs, supporting emergent readers and writers, and assessment of literacy learning. Literacy Beginnings is full of resources like songs, rhymes, and finger plays. The book also includes 35 ready to use lessons to introduce young children to reading and writing. No extra duty pay available.

Wednesday, January 22nd 8:30-3:30 (all

day, subs provided)

Sanchez, Portable 4

EC Staff

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January 2014 ● Volume 3, Issue #6●

January Professional Development, continued

Early Childhood Mathematics Section Description Date(s) Location Presenter(s)

Early Childhood Mathematics:

Classroom Vignettes (62403)

Participants will conduct a book study using a text that has classroom vignettes showcasing children engaging in purposeful and developmentally rigorous mathematics. For each meeting, participants will be asked to share stories and work samples of how they implemented the instructional practices introduced in the assigned chapter. A make-and-take session will follow. No stipends for after school duty will be provided.

Wednesday, January 22nd

3:30-5:30

Uphaus Brian Mowry

Team Leader Updates Section Description Date(s) Location Presenter(s)

Pre-K Team Leader

Curriculum Update: 3rd Nine

Weeks (62396)

Team Leader Meeting for Pre-K Teachers NORTH LOCATION

Wednesday, January 29th

3:30-5:30

Lucy Read EC Staff

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AISD EARLY CHILDHOOD

Brian Mowry 414-9683

Robbie Polan

414-7487

Melinda Servantez 414-7485

Diane Smith 414-9684

Irene Campos

841-4636 Carmen Alvarez

841-4636

Jacquie Porter 414-4740

Debra Caldwell

414-4790

Sylina Valdez 414-9682