A Birthday Wish

It never ceases to amaze me how gratifying teaching can be. It is all by itself a satisfying and driving career for me. Then I check my email and get a message like this:

"You are probably one of the most dynamic people that I have met, in a long time. If anyone would have ever told me that my daughter's Kindergarten teacher would be life changing to my family, I would have said, "Doesn't everyone cry on their kids first day of school?" Thank you so much for the last 1.5 years. What you give back to these kids is once in a lifetime. Happy Birthday to one of the best people that I know!"

Yeah, that makes it even better.

Contrails and the Light

Bright white beams

stripe the sky 

contrails wisp

and climb up high.

Yellowed light beams

stripe the grass

coming then going

in daylight's pass.

I am excited to be visiting Amy at The Poem Farm today with my students. We celebrated poetry month with our Chalk-A-Bration on April 30th and Amy is featuring it there on her blog today. You too can join the Chalk-A-Bration on May 31st to share your original poem, a favorite or an illustration--or get really ambitious and do all three with chalk! See you there.

What did you say? You want to know the history of Chalk-A-Bration? Here is the link.

Poetry Friday is hosted by Ed at Think Kid, Think! Be sure to drop in and comment on the many wonderful poetic offerings. 

Think...Snail

Kind of feeling like everyone might be feeling a little like this...or maybe at some point in your life you have. Such a busy time, busy thoughts, busy...busy. What more is there to say.

Two Writing Teachers Stacey and Ruth host the Slice of Life!

Slowing down my thinking

as words swirl in and pool

I drown in thoughts and feel their drag

as under currents pull

I will them to surrender

I wish them not to stay

I fight against erosion

but words don’t wash away

Their waves roll in like thunder

Though silent unto you

Like beating drums inside me

Vibration can’t undo

No fibers can divide them

No sun to dry them out

No better way to spite them

than better words to sprout

Winter Memories

Elizabeth Steinglass is our Poetry Friday host on this early day in May. 

I attempted to write a poem using the starter, "wanting memories." It is from a song that my husband sings around the house and constantly has in his head (therefore it is in my head as well).

However, wanting memories soon became winter memories.

Winter memories 

replaced with blooms

puddles pinked

with sunset hues

~Betsy

As you can see my poem has been chalked in celebration of a very fun week with fellow chalkers. If you have a moment you can check out the other chalk poets who contributed to CHALK-A-BRATION 2013. If you have a hankering for dusty palms join in on May 31st!

CHALK-A-BRATION 2013

Today is CHALK-A-BRATION and Slice of Life! Two things that put an instant grin on my face. :)

 If you can't chalk today and want to link later this week I will still add you to the post. On Poetry Friday, unless the weather is uncooperative, I will be chalking again and link back to this post for blogosphere friends to see.

 My students will be doing their chalking during the day so I will update this post as the day goes on, comment on other chalkers and add their links.

Here are my a-brations to chalk about:

 I love the shadow on this one. Below the chalk is the typed version of this quote from Osho's book, Courage: The Joy of Living Dangerously. There were no line breaks in the text of the book but I broke it up to fit my canvas.

"A poet lives through the heart and, by and by, in the heart he starts listening to the sounds of the unknown." ~Osho



Here is a notebook peek into my chalk poem:

 Wet pavement put a damper, literally, on my chalking all of April. It was a clear beautiful weekend until it started raining AGAIN! But, got my chalk done and only had to endure a little sprinkle.

I wipe my head clean

erase the stain

paint the moment

and write the day

~Betsy Hubbard

MY STUDENT'S CHALKING

Drum roll...finally...here is my class and their chalk-a-bration poem with pictures and words!

BLOG LINK CHALKING

Linda from TeacherDance improvised her chalk today using an app (smart idea). Here is her poem about the appreciation of bees.

All the way from Singapore some first graders from The Learning Adventures of Grade 1AC chalked some Haikus. Check out their hard work and beautiful chalky words.

Mary Lee joined in to share a poem about Oak Pollen, quite clever she is. Take a peek here.

Robin, at Teaching Tomorrow's Leaders chalked with her students today...with a very nice improvisation on the canvas! She also added her own poetic words, that are well, chalk-tastic, you'll see what I mean. 

Cathy at  Merely Day by Day also had a chalky share about capturing moments, it is a beauty.

AND...now Ms. Mere's students add their poems to the mix and there is a lot to celebrate when it comes to their poems! 

Mrs. Frazier's first graders from Ohio got their hands dusty with some great chalketry. Check out their awesome work here!

Ms. Mac's emerging writers share their experience and their chalk. You have to see these little ones working and writing, great stuff.

Slice of Life is hosted by Ruth and Stacey at Two Writing Teachers.

Writing a HOW TO...with Kindergartners--Stage Two

A few weeks ago some HOW TO writing was tried out in my kindergarten classroom. In the beginning we read examples, talked and did a shared writing example. Students explored the HOW TO's with hands on activities and we really immersed ourselves into teaching someone else how to do something.
Then we got further into the process.

Students were able to talk with partners and with the group in our "sharing circle" about their ideas. I had modeled the planning process of the HOW TO with both words and pictures. It was now their turn. Here is one example of what a student did with the plan. I am a bit partial to this story since it is about writing a book. Sigh...

Everyone filled out the plan and talked about it with a "knees and noses" partner. Then each got started on their booklet.

"How to Make a Book"

 "First you talk."

(I think it also says, "about writing" but she did not say that when she told me and I didn't notice right away...ugh, opportunity missed).

 "Then you get a piece of paper. Get a pencil and crayons."

(It is fun for me to notice what she needs here. She has it organized for herself but not with her reader in mind. Some lines might be a good next step for her when she has multiple things to say on a page).

 "Then you color."

(Did you notice the perspective here. She has done the drawing so we see the back or above the writer. I loved that).

"Then you write."

"Then color."

It took about two-four days for students to do their plan and then transfer it to a booklet. I modeled this process and showed student models who had moved quickly into this phase of the writing. It went quite smoothly and the students seemed very satisfied with their work. Then we moved into stage three...publishing and celebrating. Coming soon.

Writing a HOW TO...With Kindergartners--Stage One

We started working on HOW TO non-fiction writing about two weeks ago. The students did better than I expected...it seems like that happens a lot! I should start by saying we read some HOW TO books prior to starting this process. We began by taking a subject they knew a lot about already, hand washing. We made a plan that matched the format they would receive in a few days.

The students watched and participated in planning a HOW TO shared writing using words/phrases. Below is the chart of this work.

 Then we continued to read books that taught us something new! You can see we also tried out these fun projects.

After reading about slime we made a short plan summarizing the steps we would use when making the slime using words and pictures.

This slime recipe was what I always called Oobleck. It is corn starch, water and food coloring. This was the recipe in the book so we went with it!

It was a fun day to start thinking about what students would want to teach someone else. Can't wait to share  Writing a HOW TO...With Kindergartners--Stage Two.