Annotate

Students will be asked to respond to something they have read.  In order to do this, it is important for them to read closely and think about what they have read.  A strategy called “annotating” can help them read and remember. Annotating is simply marking up the text and adding notes.   Here is a simple way to even start pre-k with annotating.

 

Prepositional Phrase Word Wall

When teaching prepositions, write the alphabet on bulletin board paper and display it as shown. Each time a student finds in his reading a different prepositional phrase, he lists it under the appropriate letter. Until then, a letter is “on vacation.” The resulting word wall becomes a handy student reference.

It was really exciting when we received our first parent response to the "Friday Letter"!!!!

“Friday Letter”

Each Friday, your students can write to their parents sharing what they have learned during the week along with any special highlights that occurred.  Students will communicate with their parents by sharing their behavior and academics for the week in a “Friday Letter”.  This unedited piece of writing is meant to help students think about the week’s learning while practicing written language skills. Students are given the freedom to choose what they would like to share in the letter as choice provides motivation to complete the letter each week.  

At the preschool and kindergarten level, the “Friday Letter” will need some modification.  Students may draw pictures that express events from their school week and/or a teacher or aide should scribe for the child.  

Some suggested sentence starters are listed below if needed. 

I am confused about

I did very well

I love the way

I still need to work on

I was surprised

I wish you would look at

I’m not sure

I’m very proud of

The hardest thing

This week I learned

What was most important to me was

Here are the fundamentals of writing. We will focus on these throughout the year:

capitals

complete sentences

cursive writing

grammar 

indenting paragraphs

periods

spelling

Great Groundhog Literature 

Teacher Hub.com

• “Substitute Groundhog” by Pat Miller – Mr. Groundhog has an important job on Feb. 2, but unfortunately this year he is sick. Children in grades K-3 will love reading about the substitute groundhog.
  
• “Groundhog Gets a Say” by Pamela Curtis Swallow – This year the groundhog has decided that everyone needs to know that there’s much more to being a groundhog then just showing up once a year.
  
• “Geoffrey Groundhog Predicts the Weather” by Bruce Koscielniak – Geoffrey is a local celebrity for predicting the weather, but now his fame has grown out of control. 
  
• “It’s Groundhog Day!” By Steven Kroll – Worried that Godfrey Groundhog is going to predict that spring will arrive early and his ski resort business will be in jeopardy, Mr. Raccoon takes some dramatic steps to hindering him from looking for his shadow.