Wednesday, April 27, 2011
The 411: THE EGGS HAVE ARRIVED!
The 411: THE EGGS HAVE ARRIVED!: "The eggs have arrived to room 411 direct from the farm! The children are excited and the teachers are excited. I am not too sure how excite..."
Thursday, April 21, 2011
kinderpendent: cardboard castle ..tutorial
kinderpendent: cardboard castle ..tutorial: "This cardboard castle is easy and inexpensive to make--and will provide plenty of entertainment. To make your own you will just need 2+ la..."
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Playing in the Puddles
Today we played in puddles. When it snows, we play with snow, when it rains, we play in puddles. I remember doing this as a child and I think children do not get enough opportunities to do these things in today's fast paced world. We took out orange cones and blocked off part of the parking lot that had puddles from the mornings rain showers. The children took off their shoes and rolled up their pant legs. We talked about being safe (Paws Laws) and staying inside the area marked by the cones. We worked on skills such as jumping with two feet, following the leader, balancing on one foot, running, galloping and skipping. We also worked on expanding our vocabulary by describing how the sidewalk and parking lot felt on our bare feet (smooth, rough, bumpy, warm, cold). We talked about how the water felt (wet, cold, warm) on our feet. We talked about making splashes, ripples and footprints. This is an example of learning through play. Many cognitive, social, physical and language skills were explored and practiced during this play activity. Children learn best through play. They stay engaged longer, remember the skills better and expand on the activity independently far better than when they are just drilling skills or working on worksheets or flashcards. We hope these pictures help to give you a glimpse into the fun and learning we experienced today.
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| Getting ready to go and play in the puddles. |
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| Feet, are you ready? |
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| SPLASH! |
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| Footprints and Shadows |
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| Where does the rain come from? Where does it go? Ask open ended questions (questions that cannot be answered with a "yes" or "no" response) to really get a child thinking, reasoning and using a variety of new and complex words. |
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| Research shows that children learn best when they have multiple opportunities to be involved in gross motor activities. This is why recess is so important to the curriculum though out a child's educational career. |
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| Follow the Leader! |
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| Friendships are often formed during quiet times of exploration. |
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| All in! Puddles aren't just for your feet. Sometimes you need to explore them with your hands too. |
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| Poetry in Motion |
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| I believe I can fly! |
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| I love this picture. I think it captures the wonder of the world from a child's perspective. The reflections of the world around the child, the shimmer of the water, the purposeful stride of the child as he explores the feel of the water under his feet. A child's world is truly an amazing one, isn't it? |
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| Ripples in the water caused by the child jumping into the puddle. |
Monday, April 18, 2011
Jumping Jelly Beans!
Today we painted with jumping wind up Jelly Beans and Easter Eggs. The children focused on fine motor skills, taking turns, mixing colors, color identification and vocabulary expansion. They had so much fun watching the Jelly Beans jump across the paper! They were able to explore what happened when the Jelly Beans jumped through thin paint and thick paint. The students made circle prints with plastic eggs and used fine paint brushes to paint with the remaining paint. Enjoy watching the video!
Thursday, April 14, 2011
A great video to share about the importance of Early Childhood Education
This is a great video to share with parents, businesses, legislators and community members about the importance of investing in Early Childhood Education. Please post and share. Keep educating everyone!
Monday, April 11, 2011
Sunday, April 10, 2011
little preschool on the prairie: tube and funnel peg board
little preschool on the prairie: tube and funnel peg board: "We definitely have some 'water babies' this year. You can always tell who needs more water play by observing the children who spend copiou..."
Saturday, April 9, 2011
AFT - A Union of Professionals - Funding Database
AFT - A Union of Professionals - Funding Database This site has a great list of free items and other resources for teachers. Great site. Check it out~
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Monday, April 4, 2011
Creating Effective Learning Spaces for Early Childhood Cognitive Development
Creating Effective Learning Spaces for Early Childhood Cognitive Development Many good webinars coming up. Go through this link and look at some of the topics.
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Important facts about reading
STUDENT READING ACHIEVEMENT FACTS:
Only one-third of all students entering high school are proficient in reading -- only about 15 percent of African American students, and 17 percent of Hispanic students. (NAEP Reading_2009)
Two thirds of eighth graders do not read at the "proficient" level. (NAEP Reading_2009)
There is a significant economic reading gap for students: only 16 percent of students eligible for "free or reduced lunch" programs are proficient in reading, compared to 42 percent who are not eligible. (NAEP Reading_2009)
Boys lag behind girls in reading proficiency in all 50 states -- in some states by as many as 10 percentage points. (Center for Education Policy)
Between 1971 and 2004, the NAEP scores of 12th-graders showed no improvement. Further, the 2005 scores of 12th-graders were generally lower than their counterparts in 1992. (Alliance for Excellent Education)
Only 31 percent of college graduates have high level literacy skills. (2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy, cited by The New York Times)
47% of students who took the ACTs in 2009 did not meet the ACT College Readiness for the Reading section of the ACT Benchmark. (the ACT)
A study conducted in 2005 revealed that 33% of non-college students and 29% of college students who participated in the study felt inadequately prepared for reading and understanding complicated materials. (Achieve, Inc.)
In a 2005 study, 70% of 300 surveyed college instructors felt that students were unprepared to understand college level reading and comprehending complex materials. (Achieve, Inc.)
The 2009 SAT results revealed that students who had four or more years of English and Language Arts study scored over 100 points more in Critical Reading, Writing and Mathematics sections than students who had one year or less training. (The CollegeBoard)
In 2008, California reported that only one-third of students who graduated from California public schools were prepared to go to a 4-year college. (The Center for Future of Teaching and Learning)
Reading frequency declines after age eight – and boys are more likely to be low frequency readers than girls. (2008 Kids & Family Reading Report)
Parents are key reading role models. High frequency reading parents are six times more likely to have high frequency reading kids. (2008 Kids & Family Reading Report)
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WHAT HAPPENS IF KIDS DON'T LEARN TO READ AND READ WELL:
The Coalition for Juvenile Justice (2001) reports that 82 percent of prison inmates are high school dropouts, and a very high proportion of them cannot read. (Adolescent Literacy: A National Reading Crisis)
More than one third of all juvenile offenders read below the fourth-grade level. (Adolescent Literacy: A National Reading Crisis)
Every school day in America, 3,000 students drop out -- the majority of them are poor readers. Students with below grade level reading skills are twice as likely to drop out of school as those who can read on or above grade level. (Adolescent Literacy: A National Reading Crisis)
About one-third of all first-year college students took a remedial course in reading or math in 2007-2008. Students taking remedial reading classes in college had only a 17 percent chance of graduating, according to 2004 DOE data. (Alliance for Excellent Education)
Forecasts that by 2018, 63 percent of all jobs will require at least some postsecondary education. Employers will need 22 million new workers with postsecondary degrees -- and the report shows that we will fall short by three million workers without a dramatic change in course. This translates into a deficit of 300,000 college graduates every year between now and 2018. (Georgetown University, Center on Education and the Workforce)
Forecasters have predicted that if static literacy levels continue, then by 2030 the entire Literacy Level distribution of the U.S. population will have decreased, creating an American workforce that is unequipped and unskilled to work in the demanding global market. (Educational Testing Service)
In 2008, the California State University System, the largest university system in the country, recorded that more than 60% of its incoming freshmen student's required remedial coursework in English. (The Center for Future of Teaching and Learning.)
It was estimated that a single state's employers will have to pay almost $40 million a year to provide remedial training in reading, writing, and mathematics to its employees if the current trends in secondary school preparation continue. (Achieve, Inc. 2004)
The United States placed 16th out of 21 OECD (Organization of Economic Co-Operation and Development) countries surveyed for high school graduation rates. (Educational Testing Service 2007)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN KIDS WHO CANNOT READ BECOME ADULTS WHO CANNOT READ
Among adults at the lowest level of literacy proficiency, 43% live in poverty. Among adults with strong literacy skills, only 4% live in poverty. (First Book)
Low literacy costs $73 billion per year in terms of direct health care costs. This is equal to the amount Medicare pays for physician services, dental services, home health care, drugs, and nursing home care combined. (The National Center for Family Literacy)
One in every 100 U.S. adults 16 and older is in prison or jail in America (about 2.3 million in 2006). About 43 percent do not have a high school diploma or equivalent and 56 percent have very low literacy skills. (The National Center for Family Literacy)
If the male graduation rate were increased by only 5 percent, the nation would see an annual savings of $4.9 billion in crime-related costs. (Alliance for Excellent Education)
The average annual income for a high school dropout in 2005 was $17,299, compared to $26,933 for a high school graduate, a difference of $9,634. (Alliance for Excellent Education)
If the students who dropped out of the Class of 2009 had graduated, the nation's economy would have benefited from nearly $335 billion in additional income over the course of their lifetimes. (Alliance for Excellent Education)
Unless major efforts are made to improve education attainment of US citizens, personal income will decline over the next 15 years -- by 2022. (Educational Testing Service)
There is a distinct correlation between the Literacy Levels (1-5, 5 being the highest literacy level) and participation in the workforce. While only 49% of Level 1 adults report being active in the workforce, in comparison 77% of adults in Level 3 and 91% of adults in Level 5 are participating in the workforce. (2005) (Educational Testing Service)
It is suggested that adults that place amongst the lower literacy levels are not only less-skilled for the changing employment environment, but are given less opportunities to engage in programs to acquire requisite skills and job training. (Educational Testing Service)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WHAT A DIFFERENCE READING MAKES
Children who grow up in homes where books are plentiful go further in school than those who don't. Children with low-education families can do as well as children with high-education families if they have access to books at home. (Family scholarly culture and educational success: Books and schooling in 27 nations 2010)
When children are provided with 10 to 20 self-selected children's books at the end of the regular school year, as many as 50 percent not only maintain their skills, but actually make reading gains. (Bridging the Summer Reading Gap, by Anne McGill-Franzen and Richard Allington)
Children living in poverty, on the whole, have a greater summer learning loss than do children from affluent families, and those students living in poverty who did have gains over the summer, had smaller gains than their peers whose families had higher incomes. (McGill-Franzen and Allington)
Ensuring that books are available to any child at any time of the year will be a good first step in enhancing the reading achievement of low-income students and an absolutely necessary step in closing the reading achievement gap. (Ameliorating summer reading setback among economically disadvantaged elementary students, Richard Allington, April 2007)
Students who read widely and frequently are higher achievers than students who read rarely and narrowly. (Scholastic: Classroom Libraries Work!)
Children learn an average of 4,000 to 12,000 new words each year as a result of book reading. (Scholastic: Classroom Libraries Work!)
Research has found a relation between the amount of time that children read for fun on their own and reading achievement. (Handbook of Research on Teaching the English Language Arts)
Children in classrooms without literature collections read 50% less than children in classrooms with such collections. (International Reading Association)
Studies have proven that increased family engagement in educational programs is linked with increases in child reading achievement and other academic successes (such as high school graduation rates.) (Pre-K Now)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WHAT'S HAPPENING AROUND THE GLOBE
In 2006, UNESCO reported that there are still 132 million young people worldwide that are unable to communicate in a written language. (UNESCO)
According to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, there is an estimated 774 million illiterate adults in the world, in which 64% are women. (UNESCO Institute for Statistics)
From 2001 to 2006, 8 countries have recorded an increase in their average reading literacy scores, 6 reported decreases. And the U.S. and other remaining countries reported no change. (National Center for Education Statistics)
Around the world, 775 million adults are illiterate. (UNESCO)
Only one-third of all students entering high school are proficient in reading -- only about 15 percent of African American students, and 17 percent of Hispanic students. (NAEP Reading_2009)
Two thirds of eighth graders do not read at the "proficient" level. (NAEP Reading_2009)
There is a significant economic reading gap for students: only 16 percent of students eligible for "free or reduced lunch" programs are proficient in reading, compared to 42 percent who are not eligible. (NAEP Reading_2009)
Boys lag behind girls in reading proficiency in all 50 states -- in some states by as many as 10 percentage points. (Center for Education Policy)
Between 1971 and 2004, the NAEP scores of 12th-graders showed no improvement. Further, the 2005 scores of 12th-graders were generally lower than their counterparts in 1992. (Alliance for Excellent Education)
Only 31 percent of college graduates have high level literacy skills. (2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy, cited by The New York Times)
47% of students who took the ACTs in 2009 did not meet the ACT College Readiness for the Reading section of the ACT Benchmark. (the ACT)
A study conducted in 2005 revealed that 33% of non-college students and 29% of college students who participated in the study felt inadequately prepared for reading and understanding complicated materials. (Achieve, Inc.)
In a 2005 study, 70% of 300 surveyed college instructors felt that students were unprepared to understand college level reading and comprehending complex materials. (Achieve, Inc.)
The 2009 SAT results revealed that students who had four or more years of English and Language Arts study scored over 100 points more in Critical Reading, Writing and Mathematics sections than students who had one year or less training. (The CollegeBoard)
In 2008, California reported that only one-third of students who graduated from California public schools were prepared to go to a 4-year college. (The Center for Future of Teaching and Learning)
Reading frequency declines after age eight – and boys are more likely to be low frequency readers than girls. (2008 Kids & Family Reading Report)
Parents are key reading role models. High frequency reading parents are six times more likely to have high frequency reading kids. (2008 Kids & Family Reading Report)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WHAT HAPPENS IF KIDS DON'T LEARN TO READ AND READ WELL:
The Coalition for Juvenile Justice (2001) reports that 82 percent of prison inmates are high school dropouts, and a very high proportion of them cannot read. (Adolescent Literacy: A National Reading Crisis)
More than one third of all juvenile offenders read below the fourth-grade level. (Adolescent Literacy: A National Reading Crisis)
Every school day in America, 3,000 students drop out -- the majority of them are poor readers. Students with below grade level reading skills are twice as likely to drop out of school as those who can read on or above grade level. (Adolescent Literacy: A National Reading Crisis)
About one-third of all first-year college students took a remedial course in reading or math in 2007-2008. Students taking remedial reading classes in college had only a 17 percent chance of graduating, according to 2004 DOE data. (Alliance for Excellent Education)
Forecasts that by 2018, 63 percent of all jobs will require at least some postsecondary education. Employers will need 22 million new workers with postsecondary degrees -- and the report shows that we will fall short by three million workers without a dramatic change in course. This translates into a deficit of 300,000 college graduates every year between now and 2018. (Georgetown University, Center on Education and the Workforce)
Forecasters have predicted that if static literacy levels continue, then by 2030 the entire Literacy Level distribution of the U.S. population will have decreased, creating an American workforce that is unequipped and unskilled to work in the demanding global market. (Educational Testing Service)
In 2008, the California State University System, the largest university system in the country, recorded that more than 60% of its incoming freshmen student's required remedial coursework in English. (The Center for Future of Teaching and Learning.)
It was estimated that a single state's employers will have to pay almost $40 million a year to provide remedial training in reading, writing, and mathematics to its employees if the current trends in secondary school preparation continue. (Achieve, Inc. 2004)
The United States placed 16th out of 21 OECD (Organization of Economic Co-Operation and Development) countries surveyed for high school graduation rates. (Educational Testing Service 2007)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN KIDS WHO CANNOT READ BECOME ADULTS WHO CANNOT READ
Among adults at the lowest level of literacy proficiency, 43% live in poverty. Among adults with strong literacy skills, only 4% live in poverty. (First Book)
Low literacy costs $73 billion per year in terms of direct health care costs. This is equal to the amount Medicare pays for physician services, dental services, home health care, drugs, and nursing home care combined. (The National Center for Family Literacy)
One in every 100 U.S. adults 16 and older is in prison or jail in America (about 2.3 million in 2006). About 43 percent do not have a high school diploma or equivalent and 56 percent have very low literacy skills. (The National Center for Family Literacy)
If the male graduation rate were increased by only 5 percent, the nation would see an annual savings of $4.9 billion in crime-related costs. (Alliance for Excellent Education)
The average annual income for a high school dropout in 2005 was $17,299, compared to $26,933 for a high school graduate, a difference of $9,634. (Alliance for Excellent Education)
If the students who dropped out of the Class of 2009 had graduated, the nation's economy would have benefited from nearly $335 billion in additional income over the course of their lifetimes. (Alliance for Excellent Education)
Unless major efforts are made to improve education attainment of US citizens, personal income will decline over the next 15 years -- by 2022. (Educational Testing Service)
There is a distinct correlation between the Literacy Levels (1-5, 5 being the highest literacy level) and participation in the workforce. While only 49% of Level 1 adults report being active in the workforce, in comparison 77% of adults in Level 3 and 91% of adults in Level 5 are participating in the workforce. (2005) (Educational Testing Service)
It is suggested that adults that place amongst the lower literacy levels are not only less-skilled for the changing employment environment, but are given less opportunities to engage in programs to acquire requisite skills and job training. (Educational Testing Service)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WHAT A DIFFERENCE READING MAKES
Children who grow up in homes where books are plentiful go further in school than those who don't. Children with low-education families can do as well as children with high-education families if they have access to books at home. (Family scholarly culture and educational success: Books and schooling in 27 nations 2010)
When children are provided with 10 to 20 self-selected children's books at the end of the regular school year, as many as 50 percent not only maintain their skills, but actually make reading gains. (Bridging the Summer Reading Gap, by Anne McGill-Franzen and Richard Allington)
Children living in poverty, on the whole, have a greater summer learning loss than do children from affluent families, and those students living in poverty who did have gains over the summer, had smaller gains than their peers whose families had higher incomes. (McGill-Franzen and Allington)
Ensuring that books are available to any child at any time of the year will be a good first step in enhancing the reading achievement of low-income students and an absolutely necessary step in closing the reading achievement gap. (Ameliorating summer reading setback among economically disadvantaged elementary students, Richard Allington, April 2007)
Students who read widely and frequently are higher achievers than students who read rarely and narrowly. (Scholastic: Classroom Libraries Work!)
Children learn an average of 4,000 to 12,000 new words each year as a result of book reading. (Scholastic: Classroom Libraries Work!)
Research has found a relation between the amount of time that children read for fun on their own and reading achievement. (Handbook of Research on Teaching the English Language Arts)
Children in classrooms without literature collections read 50% less than children in classrooms with such collections. (International Reading Association)
Studies have proven that increased family engagement in educational programs is linked with increases in child reading achievement and other academic successes (such as high school graduation rates.) (Pre-K Now)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WHAT'S HAPPENING AROUND THE GLOBE
In 2006, UNESCO reported that there are still 132 million young people worldwide that are unable to communicate in a written language. (UNESCO)
According to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, there is an estimated 774 million illiterate adults in the world, in which 64% are women. (UNESCO Institute for Statistics)
From 2001 to 2006, 8 countries have recorded an increase in their average reading literacy scores, 6 reported decreases. And the U.S. and other remaining countries reported no change. (National Center for Education Statistics)
Around the world, 775 million adults are illiterate. (UNESCO)
The 411: Allie Magnuson: Teach ABCs With Ease: Lists for Te...
The 411: Allie Magnuson: Teach ABCs With Ease: Lists for Te...: "Allie Magnuson: Teach ABCs With Ease: Lists for Teaching the Alphabet Classroom Solutions Great resource for teaching alphabet sounds. She h..."
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