The Dot.. Just Make Your Mark And See Where It Takes You

Currently: 

I am listening to the news as I attempt to prepare this weeks blog. I am absolutely loving the idea of spending time with all my kids, this long weekend. I am thinking about Labor Day weekend. I am desperately anticipating the cooler weather ( I love the fall).  I am needing new glasses.  My goals for this school year are much the same as every school year: Have patience, stay organized and believe in yourself, students and family this school year. 

In The Library:

The Dot by Peter Reynolds has to be one of my favorite children’s books of all time. If you only read one art-themed book to your stu­dents or child this year, this should be the one! This is the story of a young girl named Vashti who, intim­i­dated by a blank piece of paper announces, “I just CAN“T draw!”. Her very wise teacher is able to get her past her artis­tic block through the use of inspi­ra­tion and encour­age­ment, and then instill in her the con­fi­dence to keep going. This is a book you can (and will!) refer back to many times, so it’s a great way to kick off the new school year! I read this to my first graders, then use it as inspi­ra­tion for dec­o­rat­ing their own dot. See the video of The Dot by Peter Reynolds below.

  I really enjoyed working with some of the other specials teachers in an effort to bring this book to life. We read the story, sang the song, watched the video, created our own dots and shared them in the hallway. It wouldn't have been as effective with out all the support from Art, Music and Character ed. teachers, Mr. Ward, Mrs. Christner and Mrs. Coup. Big Thanks to all!

The quote from the book..."Just make a mark and see where it takes you". Then we also shared all the classes down this hallway: Library, Art, Music, Reading, Character Ed. Science and Booster. 

We also worked on taking good care of books in the library this week.

We discussed the process of checking out books and also shared this anchor chart. We then were able to check out on Thursday. We each received a bookmark and a letter was sent home, explaining that kindergarten has checked out for the first time. It really is an exciting time. Many of my kindergarten friends have never been to a library. They did a fantastic job!

Some smiles after kindergarten friends checked out books for the first time.

We then shared the book A Bad Case Of Stripes by David Shannon. 

We created books for our class, see them here:

 

 We also have a new area we will be creating a garden in, it will be a prairie garden. In our science rotation, with Mrs. Goodman and in our classroom we will be working on the garden and learning about the garden. This is a photo of Mrs. Smith's 1st grade class taking their first look at the garden. 

 

 

My Current Read:

 

This week I am reading a wonderful book called Eight Hundred Grapes by Laura Dave   

Happy Reading,

Tula Shamhart