Writing About Pow Wow

As we have been moving through our unit on Native Americans, the children have been working on reports about their Native tribes. Most kinder classes began with reports about themselves at the beginning of the nine weeks because there is nothing kindergartners know more about than themselves! During Readers' Workshop the children have been reading and investigating nonfiction text and learning about nonfiction text features such as titles, chapter headings, labels, Table of Contents, etc. The expectation is that children will begin to use these text features as they write their reports.

As the children were beginning to write about their tribes, they had many experiences to build their background knowledge. Each class studied the types of houses the Natives lived in and then built replicas of those houses with their families during Family Night. They learned about what their tribes wore and then helped to dress a cardboard cutout in tribal gear. They also made many of the pieces that they wore during the Pow Wow. The Nootkas learned, for instance, that the spears that they made were used to spear whales. The Seminoles learned that the ribbons they made were used for ceremonial dances. The children learned what the Natives ate and then tasted some of the foods during the Pow Wow activities. Throughout the activities, the stories that they read and the research that they did, each child learned so much that they could write about!

Teachers depend on our Kindergarten Native American wiki for the research about their tribes.  The information is continually updated by each teacher each year that teaches the tribe.  It saves teachers an enormous amount of time!

Below is just one example of a kindergartner's writing from Miss Sasso's Hopi tribe. Nate has a title for his book, Nate's The Hopi Book.

Miss Sasso gave each child a form to help them organize a Table of Contents. Nate's Table of Contents includes:
1. What did the Hopi eat? 1

2. What did the Hopi wear? 2

3. Where did the Hopi (live)? 3

4. How did the Hopi travel? 4

5. Snake Dances 5

Nate begins each chapter with a question. Notice also how he uses labels and in this chapter, a list.

What did the Hopi eat?

red beans

yellow orn

rabbits

deer

What did the Hopi wear?

Girls wear mantas and boys wear kilts.

Where did the Hopi live?

Indians lived in Arizona and adobe. To get up to the top they needed a ladder and windows.

How did the Hopi travel?

The Hopis walk in feet.

Snake Dances

The Hopis need snakes for the Snake Dances.

Long Night Moon: Book of the Month November, 2009

This month's Book-of-the-month connects the entire Chets Creek family by choosing content that weaves its way through each child's Chets Creek career. The Kindergarten tradition is to have students participate in an authentic study of tribal nations around the Thanksgiving holiday culminating in a Pow Wow celebration. First graders are invited to attend the actual Pow Wow, along with families, to commemorate and write about their memories of the Pow Wow experience. Fifth graders revisit the same tribes as part of their Social Studies requirement during November. Students individually and in small groups make glogs and as a class develop an authentic scaled representation of the tribal grounds for the tribe they are studying. They present these class dioramas to the individual Kindergarten class that is studying their same tribe and then present them again for family and friends at a Kindergarten-Fifth Grade Family Night.

To honor this Kindergarten to fifth grade connection Principal Susan Phillips chose as this month's selection, Long Night Moon by Cynthia Rylant. Watch her reading the story as Chief Jumping Frog. It's a beautifully illustrated poem in the Native American tradition. This is a book by a favorite author that will be read to legions of children who pass through our doors. They will first hear the story in Kindergarten, and before they leave on their final leg of their elementary journey, they will hear it again with a new depth of its meaning and beauty in 5th grade. 

Send them shopping?

Today a group of kindergarten and first grade teachers met to work on our wikis (it's hard to believe that just a year ago, I thought a wiki was some new game!) We looked at both the kinder and first grade wikis and discussed our intent - to gather together resources that would move our work forward. We decided on some guiding principals:

• We would decide on an organizing structure for each page so that items could be found quickly and efficiently.
• We would look at the quality of each item. The purpose of the wikis is not to find everything that has ever written about the subject, but to gather the fewer things that can move our work forward - resources of quality.
• We would describe each item so that a teacher could peruse the list quickly to find what she needs. We would think about our new teachers to make sure that the description adequately described each resource.
• We would be visual as much as possible, including pictures, videos, charts, etc. to make the resources come alive.

At that point we divided into pairs and looked at the same items on both the kindergarten and first grade wiki so that the two would have some organizational similarities. For instance, the team that looked at author studies, looked at the Eric Carle page in kindergarten and both the Mem Fox and Kevin Henkes pages in first grade. We listed all of the pages on the board. Each team chose their own task and then checked it off when it was finished. This is an intense, detail-oriented, time-consuming task that can quickly numb the brain!

The team broke for lunch with most of the participants choosing to go off campus for lunch - a guilty pleasure for a teacher who normally eats very quickly with small children! After the group had been gone for an hour, I got a phone call! They were stranded at Panera's due to car trouble and needed a ride back to school. We hopped in a van to go pick them up and what do I find when I arrive? SHOPPING! This group uses every second productively so while they had to wait, some of the group decided to shop! While they bought a few things, they did assure me that they had worked on our project on one of their iphones during lunch to make sure they made the best use of their time! One of our newest hires was a little distraught that one of her first pictures on the web would be of her shopping instead of working, but she told me to assure Mrs. Phillips that she would work to make up the time! Too funny!

Actually it was a good break for work that is so intense and takes such focus and concentration. When we got back to school, the group buckled down and worked that with fervor. I think the entire group was pleased with our results. Even with the work today, the wikis are still just a work in progress. They will not ever be finished, but will continue to be a place where we can house our newest finds to make our work the most efficient and productive. Probably the best product of the day is teachers who have been given the time to really explore each resource and to think through the best ways to organize for the best usability. I am sure this group will continue to work throughout the summer and next year on adding and editing which, after all, is what this idea of a wiki is all about - a collaboration so that the final product is better than any of us could have done alone. Check out our kindergarten and first grade wikis. Let us know what you think!

Persuasive Writing

First grade is being required to add persuasive writing this year for the first time. The county provided five lessons that we could use... Not exactly the resources needed to teach a three week unit! So... as a collaborative community our first grade teachers decided to work together to write lessons that we could really use - lessons that we could love. We started with adding persuasive writing to our first grade wiki. Our wiki has become our place to house all of our resources in a single place that are available on-line! Then we began looking for resources and teachers added them to the wiki as they found them - books, chapters, blog posts about persuasive writing, PowerPoints from the Internet - resources that we could order, grab or steal!

We soon came upon the small, quick read, A Quick Guide to Teaching Persuasive Writing by Lucy Calkin's Reading and Writing Project. Our principal ordered the inexpensive books which we all read and quickly decided that persuasive letters would be a great first grade start into this new writing genre. Before long a couple of the first grade teachers agreed to write some lessons in the four-part Lucy Calkins' format that we have adopted. I admit our first lessons were hand-written notes that were typed into a Word document and then sent through e-mail for another to edit. Soon someone suggested that writing the lessons into Google Documents would allow real collaboration (wasn't me, but what a GREAT idea was that!) The lessons could appear as they were first conceived, then edited by all of the teachers as the lessons were taught! And that is exactly what is going on.

Today we met at the halfway point in the unit to share charts, books, ideas and student work. The charts that were shared have already been added to the wiki. The books that were passed around have already been added to the top of the lessons in Google Docs. The ideas will be added as the lessons are revised and examples of some of the student letters that were shared appears below! How cool is this!
3/23/09

Dear. Mrs. Phillips,
I think we need a water park playground. Dry playgrounds are boring. Dry slides are making you go slow. It is too dry. It is not wet. We cannot play in water. There is no diving. There is too much sun. We cannot swim.
from Carter
P.S. - This playground is boring.
3/19/09
Dear Mom and Dad,
I really want a puppy. I'll walk it. I'll bathe it once I finish taking a bath. I'll clean my room for a month. I'll feed it too. I really want a puppy, because remember when I went to Ariann's house? I spent half of all my day with Second. I loved it when I got to hold Second and we got to play together too even though he bit me a few times. I still want a puppy. Having a puppy will give me more responsibility. Thank you.
Love your baby girl, Jasmine

3-23-09
Dear Mom and Dad,
Can you get me and Miles a puppy because we love puppies and we don't have one anymore and that makes us sad. I will help you take him or her for a walk, and I will help you when he or she is hungry. I will love him or her. I will help take care of him or her and I will help you with everything.
Love, Your daughter, Mia

First Grade Wiki

Several years ago we decided that we would develop a notebook of resources for our first grade teachers. Because we don't really have a Teacher's Manual for Readers' and Writers' Workshop, it seemed each year we were gathering the same things over and over before each unit. The idea was to put together a notebook of resources that we could look through before we taught each unit to give us ideas and resources for mini-lessons in particular. We kept the notebooks up for a few years but as so many of our teachers looped and came back, the notebooks became overwhelming. They became too big and too bulky. We got so we put in everything instead of just the "tried and true" stuff and we were limited by only being able to put in paper copies of things. Finally we went to a system of each teacher just keeping what she wanted, but we have realized, especially with our new teachers to the grade level, that we are still pulling together stuff before each unit and teachers will say, "I've never seen that" because they weren't on the grade level the year that particular thing was added.

This year, Melanie Holtsman introduced us to a wiki - a way to collaborate on-line. This seemed like the perfect venue to add, not only paper copies, but web sites, files, blog entries, slide shows, videos - well, the possibilities are limitless. We have closed this wiki so that it can only be edited by our community of first grade teachers, but we are certainly interested in sharing it with a larger community.  Check out our first grade wiki! This is our first attempt, so let me know what you think!

November 2008 Professional Development

Today first grade teachers met for a day of professional development to tie up loose ends and plan ahead. The morning started with teachers sharing with each other some of the lessons, students work and activities that are part of their non-fiction reading and writing reports.

Next Instructional Technologist Melanie Holtsman joined the group so they could work on adding web sites, files and videos to their newly designed first grade wiki space. The idea is to create a space where the teachers can house all of the resources that they use in first grade. With thirteen first grade teachers it gets harder and harder to share on such a wide scale so a place where everything is accessible is highly desirable. Each teacher brought at least five things to add. Some added web sites. Some added center ideas or resources they had created. Before long, they investigated taking a snapshot of student work using the document camera and how to add that type of document to the wiki. After a few months the teachers will open the wiki for public display!

During lunch the teachers viewed and debriefed short non-fiction conferences and mini-lessons by Lucy Calkins.

Next the teachers talked about the Pacing Guide and what they needed to be ready for lessons in the third nine weeks. A first grade tradition is the First Grade Sleepover in January that this year will include lots of read alouds - some narrative, some non-fiction in preparation. The time will also include a week of exploring writing in different genres. From writing stories and small moments about sleepovers to reports on "All About Sleepovers" to "How to Pack a Bag for Sleepover" students will immerse themselves in all the fun and excitement of preparing for the big event. Students will make stuffed bears as a home project and will come to school for a family night to make their own pillowcase to bring to the sleepover. Finally the sleepover event culminates in a Friday celebration beginning with a pajama parade and pancake breakfast and then centers to end with a pajama party in the Media Center! It's lots of FUN but takes lots of planning (and, in case you're wondering, the students don't really sleep overnight!)

After tweaking the pacing and inserting the Sleepover hoopla, the teachers previewed the Kevin Henkes Author Study emphasizing Response-to-Literature that will dominate the third nine weeks. Those teachers that have done the unit before shared an overview for those that would be doing it for the first time this year. The teachers planned a common Kevin Henkes Celebration Day to keep them all about the same place, finishing the unit at about the same time.

The teachers ended the day by stamping and leveling the 250 books that they received as part of the county's new book adoption. A few of the books were added to existing Science units or to non-fiction baskets, but our leveled libraries have become depleted so for us, we need the books to be leveled. It took an hour for each teacher to complete stamping and writing the levels on each book in her box. The collection is actually a little disappointing. The books are not what we would consider great literature, but seem a little like the company may just have cleaned out its overstock! The comment of the hour, "If the county paid $11,000,000 for this new adoption, you would think the books would come with levels already attached!" I couldn't argue with that!