Encouraged by my teacher friends, I am running a Bundle-Up for Christmas Sale on our curriculum. These are absolutely our lowest prices of the year.
Here's to hoping that your Principals are feeling the Christmas Spirit!
http://www.readingreallyrocks.com/shop/bundleupsale.html
Give-a-ways every Friday between now and Christmas. Email me or send a comment, as to why Reading Rocks Santa should deliver to you a Classroom Kit, Magnetic Literacy Game Pack, or Bundled Workbooks. One will be chosen weekly. Also an assortment of flashcards, ABC Cut Paste and Staple books, and student workbooks to randomly chosen emails.
Blog@ReadingReallyRocks.com
Merry Christmas!
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
What Joanna taught me
Joanna always wore a smile from ear to ear, although slightly crooked and off to a side, it was there, that grin shinning through. Truly amazing girl, that Joanna. She stood in front of the class today with her mother looking on, rocking back and forth oh just a little bit, anxious for her turn. As I placed the magnetic flashcards up on the whiteboard to make a simple sentence, she waited, and rocked.
Without a word I put up each flashcard one by one. She follows the flashcards with her eyes:
Mother- is -in -the -red –car- with –the- little –girl.
“Will you read this for me please, Joanna?” She nods. As she points to each word and reads it to herself, the class knows to wait silently. She acts as the illustrator of this tiny story and needs to gather all the magnetic graphics that match the sentence. She reads silently and collects a graphic of a mother, a red car and a little girl. She turns proudly to the class and to her own mother; they applaud their friend’s success.
Mom cries.
Joanna at birth had had a stroke. Her mother was told repeatedly; Joanna would not ever walk let alone learn to read.
So guess who shows up in middle of the afternoon? Yup, Dad.
“Mom says Joanna can read.” He was a big guy, looming in the doorway, he came for proof. Naturally, proud Joanna stands up and goes to the board. I place a new sentence up.
The- boy -and -girl –are- with –the- brown -dog. Joanna points to each word but this time she speaks.
“The father and mother are with the brown cat.”
Her father shoots me a look of disapproval, as if to say ‘I left work for this???’ I explain to him to wait, just give her a moment. Then Joanna gathers all the correct graphics: a boy, a girl and a brown dog.
Dad cries.
Dad cries, because not only can Joanna read, she comprehends. And he wonders, how often was she disregarded because of the assumption that she was confused, when in fact, she simply could not find and verbalize the correct word? Joanna's life and the perception her family held of her forever was altered.
Determination coupled with an open mind can bring positive monumental changes to a child's life.
Without a word I put up each flashcard one by one. She follows the flashcards with her eyes:
Mother- is -in -the -red –car- with –the- little –girl.
“Will you read this for me please, Joanna?” She nods. As she points to each word and reads it to herself, the class knows to wait silently. She acts as the illustrator of this tiny story and needs to gather all the magnetic graphics that match the sentence. She reads silently and collects a graphic of a mother, a red car and a little girl. She turns proudly to the class and to her own mother; they applaud their friend’s success.
Mom cries.
Joanna at birth had had a stroke. Her mother was told repeatedly; Joanna would not ever walk let alone learn to read.
So guess who shows up in middle of the afternoon? Yup, Dad.
“Mom says Joanna can read.” He was a big guy, looming in the doorway, he came for proof. Naturally, proud Joanna stands up and goes to the board. I place a new sentence up.
The- boy -and -girl –are- with –the- brown -dog. Joanna points to each word but this time she speaks.
“The father and mother are with the brown cat.”
Her father shoots me a look of disapproval, as if to say ‘I left work for this???’ I explain to him to wait, just give her a moment. Then Joanna gathers all the correct graphics: a boy, a girl and a brown dog.
Dad cries.
Dad cries, because not only can Joanna read, she comprehends. And he wonders, how often was she disregarded because of the assumption that she was confused, when in fact, she simply could not find and verbalize the correct word? Joanna's life and the perception her family held of her forever was altered.
Determination coupled with an open mind can bring positive monumental changes to a child's life.
Friday, November 5, 2010
Marvelous M&M Cookies
Who could resist?
With so many M&M's and naturally, a good strong dollop of brown sugar, too, you'll see why these are simply irresistible. ‘Mm’ says more than monkey, it says “Mmm, more please!” These are our most requested cookies. A family recipe kept secret until now. We promise you will love them! A trick we have learned to bake up those nice plump cookies, is to refrigerate the dough for an hour or two prior to baking.
Marvelous M&M cookies... PowerPoint for our visual learners can be viewed here, page by page or downloaded and viewed later. Remember to close a PowerPoint you may need to hit the escape button. There is music that accompanies this PowerPoint, for it to play you must click on the speaker icon on the title page. I hope you all enjoy them!
With so many M&M's and naturally, a good strong dollop of brown sugar, too, you'll see why these are simply irresistible. ‘Mm’ says more than monkey, it says “Mmm, more please!” These are our most requested cookies. A family recipe kept secret until now. We promise you will love them! A trick we have learned to bake up those nice plump cookies, is to refrigerate the dough for an hour or two prior to baking.
Marvelous M&M cookies... PowerPoint for our visual learners can be viewed here, page by page or downloaded and viewed later. Remember to close a PowerPoint you may need to hit the escape button. There is music that accompanies this PowerPoint, for it to play you must click on the speaker icon on the title page. I hope you all enjoy them!
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
What My Grandmother taught me
When I was four, I sat up on a stool in my mom's kitchen while my grandmother taught me how to properly level baking soda with the flat end of a knife for chocolate chip cookies. It's an important skill, because if it's not measured accurately your cookies will only be good for hockey pucks, and since we now live in Florida, there's not much call for those. Today, I teach the same technique to my daughter. And when I was ten, Grandma taught me the art of properly shadowing flowers when using oil paints. I took my masterpiece to school for show-and-tell where my third grade teacher, Miss Johnson thought I was Renoir! Miss Johnson then conspired with the art teacher for me to travel with her from class to class passing on Grandma's lesson. My grandmother believed that all one needs is patience to embroider, a good eye to appreciate the beauty in the subtle differences in color, and a little bit of extra brown sugar will make everything taste a bit sweeter. She was a wonderful mentor.
Somewhere between the daises and the brown sugar it became self-evident that the very fabric of my soul was that of a teacher, stitched by a teacher. It wasn't until I was older I understood the philosophical life lessons she was teaching me.
In life, as well as, in front of the classroom, these things I still hold dear:
One needs to practice patience,
Train your eye to the beauty of all those glorious colors,
Everything, absolutely everything is better with a little bit of extra brown sugar.
Somewhere between the daises and the brown sugar it became self-evident that the very fabric of my soul was that of a teacher, stitched by a teacher. It wasn't until I was older I understood the philosophical life lessons she was teaching me.
In life, as well as, in front of the classroom, these things I still hold dear:
One needs to practice patience,
Train your eye to the beauty of all those glorious colors,
Everything, absolutely everything is better with a little bit of extra brown sugar.
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