Digital Story

Over April vacation I spent a lot of time with a second grader. In school she is learning how to do research to write non-fiction books. She wrote a phenomenal non-fiction book about elephants that is being turned into an e-book for school. With nothing to do over her break she wanted to write another book. She chose to write her book on walruses. She made an outline of what information she wanted to include in her book, then used her ipad to do the research. After the research was done she put it all together, the way her teacher had taught her.

Once she finished the hard copy of the book, we used VoiceThread to take pictures of the pages and record her reading her book. She is so excited that she was able to write this book for “college”.

I really enjoyed using VoiceThread for this project. It was very easy to use as an adult and child. I will definitely use this again for future video projects.

 

Storytelling

Recently I attended a professional development workshop on storytelling. The workshop was designed to help enhance the method and process of teaching and presenting through the use of storytelling. The presenter gave strategies to use traditional oral storytelling, reader’s theater and the use of props and puppets. Throughout the workshop the teachers were given the opportunity to get up and tell their story using one of the strategies.As a preschool teacher, storytelling is always a part of my day, but I am usually the one telling the stories. One of the suggestions from the workshop was to have a Tell Me A Story Time. This lets the students tell personal stories to a partner. You can give your students a story opener they can use to start their story. I loved this idea and thought I would give it a try in my class. I gave my kids the story opener of “Back in the days when animals could talk…” My four year olds LOVED being able to make up stories to tell their partners about talking animals.  As I walked around the room listening I couldn’t help but smile from ear to ear. Something so simple, opened up my kids’ imaginations and let them share stories with one another. I plan on doing this activity again soon and this time I’m going to try to record their voices and maybe turn it into a digital story! I’ll let you know how that turns out.

Storybox

Last week one of teachers on my teaching team made a storybox. She use the story Puppies in the Snow by James Young. In the box she included copies of the puppies and scenes from the book. She hung pieces of cotton from the top of the box to look like falling snow, and added more loose cotton to the bottom for snow. After hearing the story, our student were able to use the storybox to retell the story. They LOVED it. The students took turns telling the story of the puppies and then started to create their own story lines using the puppies and background. The next day one of the students came to school with pictures of the storybox he made at home with his parents. He was so proud of the jungle storybox he created. He shared the story and his pictures with the other students. By the end of the week half the class had made storyboxes at home and brought them into school to share. Every story we read, the students wanted to make a storybox. It was awesome to watch how such a simple box could spark such learning in my students. Will definitely add storyboxes to my toolbox of future use!

My First Animoto Video

After several hours I can proudly say I have created my first video. The first couple of hours I spent researching and playing around with different video formats. I do not consider myself to be very tech savvy in this area so I knew I needed a program that would be easy to use. After playing and starting to make videos through several different programs, I finally settled on using Animoto.

Animoto was very easy to use. Pictures, video and music samples were available to use, though none fit within the content of my video. While it was very easy to navigate the site, and upload personal pictures and videos, there were a few drawbacks. I made my video using a free trial so my uploaded video clips were limited to 10 seconds each. This made it quite difficult to add them in, as I had to upload in segments that I had pre-edited using iMovie. (This was also my first attempt at using iMovie so I am also very proud of my editing skills!) The other drawback was that the Animoto logo is across my video, again from using the free trial. Overall the experience of making my first video was great!

I hope you like it!

https://animoto.com/play/uZzqC2OKWlnrbNMG09KRjw?autostart=1

Ipad Reading Apps for Kids

This weekend my family has been on a mini-vacation to the Poconos. Knowing we had a 3.5 hour car ride with 2 kids to keep entertained I thought it would be a great time to download a few new apps on my daughters’ Ipads. I didn’t want to spend money on the apps so I only searched for free ones.  Here are the two that my kids haven’t stopped playing all weekend.

Pixel and Parker

Pixel and Parker is an interactive reading game that allows the user to spin a wheel to unlock new surprises along the way.  Parker is looking for his curious cat Pixel, with each spin of the wheel Parker completes a task to continue the story. The story ends when Parker returns home to find Pixel on the front porch waiting.

When I downloaded this story I thought my girls would lose interest quickly since it is the same story each time, the only difference is what side tasks Parker completes to reach home. I have been quite surprised at how often I hear them playing. My youngest daughter said she loves listening to the story because she loves Parker’s laugh!

Read Me Stories

Read Me Stories offers a new book every day for user to listen to and read along with. The story offered with the free version of the app is about a pony name Tuffy. Tuffy goes on an adventure to meet new friends and do good deeds. Your child can follow along as the story is read as the words are highlighted. If you touch the characters in the pictures the storyline will expand.

I thought this app would be great to get a new story every day. However to get more stories you have to make an in-app purchase. Again at this time I didn’t want to spend money on any apps but you can listen to a quick preview of other stories available and they do sound like fun books to read. My girls haven’t used this app as much as Pixel and Parker but it is still a great app for storytime.

Both of these apps are available through the app store on your ipad.

A Twist on Book Buddies

Last semester I came across this article and I loved it so much I had to share it again. The article,  is about a book buddy program with an animal shelter in Pennsylvania. The program allows children to read to cats in shelters. Reading to cats or dogs or any animal really can help boost a child’s reading fluency. This buddy system is great for a struggling reader,  the child can read without judgement. Bonus to this article is the pictures are super cute!!

There may not be shelter near you that offers this type of program but your child doesn’t need a shelter to read to an animal. Have your child to read to her own cat or dog. Don’t have a pet? Ask a relative, friend, neighbor if your child can read to their pet. Or if all else fails, have your child read to their favorite stuffed animals. Allowing children to read to any pet (real or stuffed) is allowing them to practice their reading skills, build confidence and develop a love for books!

Never Too Young to Read a Chapter Book

As you know from last week, early literacy is extremely important to me. While many people may think young children should only be reading picture books, I think children can enjoy an assortment of books from many genres. For Christmas my daughters, age 3 and 4, received two chapter books. Upon opening them they flipped through to look at the pictures, as they do with any new book, but they were surprised to see only a few pictures throughout the book. Still they were very eager to start reading them and I was just as eager to read to them. Chapter books allow a child to use their imagination. Without pictures showing them what they should be envisioning with the words they are free to create whatever images in their minds. One of my favorite activities to do with my children after reading a chapter is to give them crayons and a blank paper to create an image from the chapter. I love seeing them depict through their drawings what they thought the chapter was about and how different their images are. Both my children love to talk about and draw what they have just heard from the books. So for all those that think chapter books are for older children, I say no way. Give it a try; young children can learn so much from listening to chapter books being read to them.

One of the greatest gifts adults can give—to their offspring and to their society—is to read to children. —Carl Sagan

Kim

Family Literacy

As an early childhood educator I know the importance of early literacy. Children begin to develop literacy skills well before they enter school. It is important for families to promote literacy from the start. Children that grow up in a home rich in literacy become better readers and do better in school than those who come from homes which do not promote literacy. Reading storybooks at home with young children is one of the most important activities for developing the knowledge required for success in reading. Children that are frequently read to have a strong foundation in early literacy can benefit from formal literacy instruction once they enter school. These children have increased motivation to interact with books and learn to read. However not all families have access to storybooks for their children. A great way for teachers to reach out to all families is to have literacy bags available for their students to bring home. Making literacy bags available to parents is a simple way to assist families in supporting their children’s literacy development. Literacy bags help empower parents to teach their own children. Literacy bags make it easy for busy parents to become involved in their children’s learning and help them understand the importance of reading and interacting with their children. So you may be asking what is a literacy bag?

A literacy bag is special backpack that can contain activities, books and a stuffed animal/character that students can take home on a weekly basis. These bags are designed to be fun and informative ways for families to share literacy and learning experiences at home. They are also a great way to connect school and home in meaningful and enjoyable ways.

The first literacy bag I made was for the story The Crayon Box That Talked by Shane DeRolf. Here is the letter sent home in the literacy bag explaining what to do:

The Crayon Box that Talked

Family Literacy Bag

 The Crayon Box that Talked by Shane DeRolf, is a wonderful story about a box of crayons that doesn’t get along because they feel as if they are too different.  In the end they learn how they  can live and work together to create amazing things

 After reading this story with your child please complete some or all of the following activities. All the materials required are provided in the bag!

Crayon Portraits – Use the oval shape crayons to have your child draw a self-portrait.  These portraits will be displayed on a colorful bulletin board with the message of the book as the centerpiece in the classroom.

 Readers’ Theater Script – Use the simple Readers’ Theater script to help your child work on fluency, expression, speaking and listening.

 Rhyming Word Cards– Use the provided crayon cards for a quick activity to practice reading and rhyming skills.

 Color Matching Activity- Use the crayon cards to match color words to the correct colors.

Color Writing Prompt- Use the provided “We need many different colors because…” paper to have your child respond and write what they are thinking.

Color!- Blank paper is provided for you and your child’s imaginations to create a masterpiece.

The books and activities to use in literacy are only limited by your imagination!

Kim

My First Time Blogging

Until this time my interaction with blogs has been to read them. I like to read random blogs about parenting and teaching. Never in a million years did I consider writing a blog myself. The thought of blogging scares me. It makes me feel vulnerable to allow others to read my thoughts and opinions in such an open space. That said, for the next fifteen weeks I have been asked to blog weekly as part of a course assignment. I am a graduate student at the University of Saint Joseph working towards my Elementary Certification and Masters in Reading.  I am excited to be taking the course Integrating Technology and Literacy, as technology is always advancing and changing the way students learn.

I thought for quite a while about what I wanted to blog about each week. Two ideas immediately came to mind. The easy blog, a weekly entry on the happenings in my preschool classroom, or the more in depth but open ended blog about reading. In the end I feel I will benefit from blogging about reading. That is my passion and my future. My hopes for this blog over the next fifteen weeks are to discover and share books, activities, resources, and whatever else I find relevant to reading. I hope this blog can be a tool for myself and others to use in the classroom to help children appreciate books and foster a love for reading.

I will leave you one of my favorite quotes:

“The more that you read, the more things you will know.

The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”

-Dr. Seuss

Kim

@kimberwood08