It's Day 73 of kindergarten and in some ways our large paper calendar grid and all the ways we mark it are routine--and yet for many 5-year-olds, time and its rate of passing remain mysterious. Yesterday Eliana was the Afternoon Leader, whose job it is to write the date, continue the pattern, and add a straw and a penny and a dot on the ten-frame to count the days of school.
I have the holidays matter-of-factly marked on the calendar but am politely declining to engage in any conversations about Santa, etc. Just as for most of October and Halloween, I keep remarking that it's still a lot of days until Winter Break--it's not "almost Christmas yet in Room 166," and we don't have an elf on the shelf. But next week we'll start our Gingerbread Man work and I won't be able to hold it off any longer!
At dismissal as she waited to be picked up, Eli considered the calendar and said with a question in her voice, "My sister says it's almost Christmas."
Almost
My sister says
it's almost Christmas,
almost, nearly,
close to here.
What is almost?
All those boxes
full and empty--
is it near?
Today is 12.
There's 25.
We have an elf
up on the shelf.
He is watching.
I am waiting--
watching too,
just like the elf.
Almost, nearly,
close to now?
I have to wait,
I know--
but how?
HM 2014
all rights reserved
**************
The roundup today is with my new friend Paul at These Four Corners. Welcome to the hosting gig, Paul!
new posts in all blogs
By: Heidi Mordhorst,
on 12/12/2014
Blog: my juicy little universe (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: time, my own work, 5-year-olds, Overheard in Kindergarten, wheel of the year, Add a tag
By: Heidi Mordhorst,
on 9/11/2012
Blog: my juicy little universe (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: nature, educating the whole child, my own work, 5-year-olds, Overheard in Kindergarten, Add a tag
This afternoon the Mighty Minnows and I spent a lot of time considering our five senses, and there was a fantastic unexpected development when we closed our eyes and used our noses to smell the aromatic Mr. Sketch marker I grabbed. It happened to be light green, which smells like mint. Bertrand thought it was toothpaste, Karina thought it smelled like bubblegum, and Janie surprised me by naming it peppermint right away (or maybe not, since her family is Thai).
As we discussed minty things, I realized that I could walk them right out into our lovelier-all-the-time school courtyard where parent volunteers have planted a Sensory Garden full of herbs. We danced to High Five's "Five Senses" song and then we lined up and went--the real deal, only two minutes away! (Go Outdoor Education Committee.)
Cora had suggested basil when I asked if anyone knew what plant those minty smells and flavors came from, so first we all sniffed a leaf of basil. I was happy to find a great clump of flowering mint, so that everyone (all 16--am I lucky, or what?) could have a sprig to crush and sniff and nibble and take home. On the way back to the classroom we became the Minty Minnows instead of the Mighty Minnows. : )
Later, after the bus riders departed, the rest of us were singing requests--classics like "Twinkle Twinkle" and of course "Santa Claus is Coming to Town." Tonya had already taught us the sign language version of The Itsy Bitsy Spider, so I wasn't too surprised when Suzee made this announcement:
"I can sing the Alphabet Song in silent language."
*******************
Listen with Your Eyes
Secret clutched in a closed fist:
If you wait one pinky moment
Letting sounds slide towards your thumb,
Eventually they perch like birds on a fence,
Nesting two together on a quiet egg
Till the egg cracks and a beak of song breaks through
By: Heidi Mordhorst,
on 12/9/2011
Blog: my juicy little universe (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: art, NCTE, children's writing, Eric Carle, Douglas Florian, Leo Lionni, 5-year-olds, Add a tag
At NCTE I found myself laughing at myself, because with 700 sessions to choose from, I managed to attend a session that I had already attended last year! Not so surprising--the concept of "Picturing Writing: Fostering Literacy through Art" is right up my personal alley, and the collage-based approach called "Image-Making Within the Writing Process" is my back door. Thanks to Beth Olshansky and her teacher colleagues for leading me home (two years in a row).
So, in our new 2.0 Elementary Integrated Curriculum we are supposed, as winter sets in, to be studying plant and animal life cycles, planting seeds and learning about baby animals. (Never mind that all around us dying, darkening, sleeping.) To tie it all together and to lead us into a poetry project, I chose Leo Lionni's Frederick and Eric Carle's The Tiny Seed, which we have been comparing and contrasting, enacting and evaluating: which parts of this story could really happen? do Frederick and his family do what real mice do?
Meanwhile, each child used watercolors to paint 3-6 papers for collage, in the manner of both Carle and Lionni. As the class worked to see what animals, plants and weather their unpredictable painted papers suggested, I learned quite a lot that will help me support the project next time! (Note to self: 20 collaging kindergarteners at once is too many.) Still, their collages are very pleasing, often striking, and most importantly, quite individual.
This week we're placing our collages in front of us and writing poems. While a couple of the 5-year-olds are able to write their compositions on their own, for most I'm scribing with strategically placed blanks for them to spell juicy words like fish, rain, float and lion. I cannot wait to share the whole collection with you, but for now I have only two to hand. Jordan cut 4 shapes from a pinkish-purple paper, arranged them as a fish on a stripy bluish sea paper, and then painstakingly cut and glued maroon and ochre spots from another paper to create a bubbly surface. Here is his poem.
Mighty Minnow
by Jordan
mighty minnow swimming fast
in a deep, deep sea
pinkish-purple spots and dots
do you see any more colors
or anything else on me?
Ezekial is my youngest nearly 6-year-old and My Project for the year. We worked very closely to make the lion he imagined out of a deep muddyish turquoise paper. Here is the poem we negotiated.
Lion
by Ezekial
the blue dad lion
is walking to his wife
the playground is their house
they eat leaves and grass
they climb up the ladders
and they jump!
Extra poet's note: My plan, of course, was to model the collage-to-poem move using my own giraffe-under-sunset collage...but as my colleagues often say, "Kindergarten happened," and I found myself sitting down to write with children without ever having modeled. Guess what? For this class anyway, it has not mattered. Perhaps the other poetry we've been reading (most recently Frederick's "Sky Mice" poem and Douglas Florian's Beast Feast) and all the singing we've done has been enough. Their words sing, too!
By: Heidi Mordhorst,
on 12/6/2011
Blog: my juicy little universe (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Leo Lionni, educating the whole child, 5-year-olds, OIK Tuesday, Add a tag
Back before Thanksgiving, when I asked the children to list what they were thankful for, I went for variety by specifying some categories: a person, a food, something in nature, something at school, something you like to play, a part of your body. Talia suprised me by writing "my intinestinse" (which, unlike the average 5-year-old, she felt confident to spell independently).
Clearly intestines remain of great interest to her. Having read Frederick all last week, we are looking forward to a visit from real pet mice and listing what we know and what we wonder about mice. On our KNOW chart, Talia's statement reads, "Mice have intestines." On our WONDER chart, her question reads, "Do mice have intestines?" She has a sense, very vague, of what intestines are for. But I think she could use some further information.
I'm working on a mouse intestines poem for Talia--do you have one too?
By: Heidi Mordhorst,
on 11/29/2011
Blog: my juicy little universe (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: my own work, 5-year-olds, MyPoPerDayMo, OIK Tuesday, Add a tag
By: Heidi Mordhorst,
on 11/9/2011
Blog: my juicy little universe (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: writing, Poetry Stretch, my own work, 5-year-olds, Overheard in Kindergarten, Add a tag
No one said anything ticklish in Room 144 this week.
Well, they did--lots of things--but it would be so burdensome to explain the context that the lightness of the tickle would be spoiled. And anyway, having embarked suddenly on MyPoPerDayMo (My Poem Per Day Month) on November 1, I now have a good handful of poems to pick from and post.
Here's #8, thanks to Tricia Stohr-Hunt's Monday Poetry Stretch at The Miss Rumphius Effect suggesting that we write a commemorative poem (happy bloggiversary, Tricia!). I ended up commemorating my favorite part of our classroom day.
2:27 pm
Each afternoon at this moment
if I could
I would kneel facing Mesopotamia,
touch my forehead to the clay soil
and honor the broad-shouldered,
tip-toeing gods of writing.
Instead at this moment
because I must
I bend facing Kindergartenia,
touch my hand to the fresh toil
and honor the tender-voiced,
heart-shouting words of writers.
Heidi Mordhorst 2011
all rights reserved
By: Heidi Mordhorst,
on 9/28/2011
Blog: my juicy little universe (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: OIK Tickle, 5-year-olds, Overheard in Kindergarten, Add a tag
This week's OIK Tickler is from Noah, who watched closely as I sorted a set of apples. We had already sorted by color and by size; "what's my rule for sorting this time?"
Pointing, Noah said, "Those are the sticking-up-things, and those are the not-sticking-up-things."
He was right: one group of apples had stems and the other didn't. What can we make of his general-yet-specific description? Post your responses in the comments!
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By: Heidi Mordhorst,
on 12/12/2014
Blog: my juicy little universe (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: time, my own work, 5-year-olds, Overheard in Kindergarten, wheel of the year, Add a tag
0 Comments on almost as of 12/12/2014 6:36:00 AM
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By: Heidi Mordhorst,
on 9/11/2012
Blog: my juicy little universe (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: nature, educating the whole child, my own work, 5-year-olds, Overheard in Kindergarten, Add a tag
As we discussed minty things, I realized that I could walk them right out into our lovelier-all-the-time school courtyard where parent volunteers have planted a Sensory Garden full of herbs. We danced to High Five's "Five Senses" song and then we lined up and went--the real deal, only two minutes away! (Go Outdoor Education Committee.)
Cora had suggested basil when I asked if anyone knew what plant those minty smells and flavors came from, so first we all sniffed a leaf of basil. I was happy to find a great clump of flowering mint, so that everyone (all 16--am I lucky, or what?) could have a sprig to crush and sniff and nibble and take home. On the way back to the classroom we became the Minty Minnows instead of the Mighty Minnows. : )
Later, after the bus riders departed, the rest of us were singing requests--classics like "Twinkle Twinkle" and of course "Santa Claus is Coming to Town." Tonya had already taught us the sign language version of The Itsy Bitsy Spider, so I wasn't too surprised when Suzee made this announcement:
"I can sing the Alphabet Song in silent language."
*******************
Listen with Your Eyes
Secret clutched in a closed fist:
If you wait one pinky moment
Letting sounds slide towards your thumb,
Eventually they perch like birds on a fence,
Nesting two together on a quiet egg
Till the egg cracks and a beak of song breaks through
8 Comments on OIK Tuesday: hand-ear coordination, last added: 9/24/2012
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By: Heidi Mordhorst,
on 12/9/2011
Blog: my juicy little universe (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: art, NCTE, children's writing, Eric Carle, Douglas Florian, Leo Lionni, 5-year-olds, Add a tag
So, in our new 2.0 Elementary Integrated Curriculum we are supposed, as winter sets in, to be studying plant and animal life cycles, planting seeds and learning about baby animals. (Never mind that all around us dying, darkening, sleeping.) To tie it all together and to lead us into a poetry project, I chose Leo Lionni's Frederick and Eric Carle's The Tiny Seed, which we have been comparing and contrasting, enacting and evaluating: which parts of this story could really happen? do Frederick and his family do what real mice do?
Meanwhile, each child used watercolors to paint 3-6 papers for collage, in the manner of both Carle and Lionni. As the class worked to see what animals, plants and weather their unpredictable painted papers suggested, I learned quite a lot that will help me support the project next time! (Note to self: 20 collaging kindergarteners at once is too many.) Still, their collages are very pleasing, often striking, and most importantly, quite individual.
This week we're placing our collages in front of us and writing poems. While a couple of the 5-year-olds are able to write their compositions on their own, for most I'm scribing with strategically placed blanks for them to spell juicy words like fish, rain, float and lion. I cannot wait to share the whole collection with you, but for now I have only two to hand. Jordan cut 4 shapes from a pinkish-purple paper, arranged them as a fish on a stripy bluish sea paper, and then painstakingly cut and glued maroon and ochre spots from another paper to create a bubbly surface. Here is his poem.
Mighty Minnow
by Jordan
mighty minnow swimming fast
in a deep, deep sea
pinkish-purple spots and dots
do you see any more colors
or anything else on me?
Ezekial is my youngest nearly 6-year-old and My Project for the year. We worked very closely to make the lion he imagined out of a deep muddyish turquoise paper. Here is the poem we negotiated.
Lion
by Ezekial
the blue dad lion
is walking to his wife
the playground is their house
they eat leaves and grass
they climb up the ladders
and they jump!
Extra poet's note: My plan, of course, was to model the collage-to-poem move using my own giraffe-under-sunset collage...but as my colleagues often say, "Kindergarten happened," and I found myself sitting down to write with children without ever having modeled. Guess what? For this class anyway, it has not mattered. Perhaps the other poetry we've been reading (most recently Frederick's "Sky Mice" poem and Douglas Florian's Beast Feast) and all the singing we've done has been enough. Their words sing, too!
6 Comments on picturing writing: literacy through art, last added: 12/10/2011
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By: Heidi Mordhorst,
on 12/6/2011
Blog: my juicy little universe (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Leo Lionni, educating the whole child, 5-year-olds, OIK Tuesday, Add a tag
Clearly intestines remain of great interest to her. Having read Frederick all last week, we are looking forward to a visit from real pet mice and listing what we know and what we wonder about mice. On our KNOW chart, Talia's statement reads, "Mice have intestines." On our WONDER chart, her question reads, "Do mice have intestines?" She has a sense, very vague, of what intestines are for. But I think she could use some further information.
I'm working on a mouse intestines poem for Talia--do you have one too?
0 Comments on OIK Tuesday: guts as of 1/1/1900
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By: Heidi Mordhorst,
on 11/29/2011
Blog: my juicy little universe (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: my own work, 5-year-olds, MyPoPerDayMo, OIK Tuesday, Add a tag
Part of the reading we do in Kindergarten is in “guided reading groups,” where I sit with a small group and a set of little beginner books such as Moms and Dads. I read it to them, they read it with me, they read it independently, and then they take it home to read with their families.
Moms and Dads was Group One’s greatest challenge yet:
“Mom is a bus driver.
Dad is a window cleaner.
Mom is a police officer.
Dad is a vet.
Mom is a librarian…”
On page 11 we learned that “Dad is a farmer,” and we had to look hard to see that he was a pig farmer, because only parts of various pigs were visible in the photo illustration. It was much easier to see that “Mom is a farmer, too,” because her cows were very apparent (and complete). However, for this group that includes four English learners, the tough part was remembering the vocabulary for all the jobs.
During the unison reading, I paused on page 11 to let the children refer to the photo and recall that “Dad is a… a…” Silence.
After studying the picture again, finally Marla said, “Pig!” We all laughed.
*****************************
Dads at Work (#29 in MyPoPerDayMo)
His dad is a window cleaner;
Her dad drives a rig.
Your dad is a dentist, and
My dad is a pig.
1 Comments on OINK Tuesday: Dad is a..., last added: 12/1/2011
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By: Heidi Mordhorst,
on 11/9/2011
Blog: my juicy little universe (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: writing, Poetry Stretch, my own work, 5-year-olds, Overheard in Kindergarten, Add a tag
Well, they did--lots of things--but it would be so burdensome to explain the context that the lightness of the tickle would be spoiled. And anyway, having embarked suddenly on MyPoPerDayMo (My Poem Per Day Month) on November 1, I now have a good handful of poems to pick from and post.
Here's #8, thanks to Tricia Stohr-Hunt's Monday Poetry Stretch at The Miss Rumphius Effect suggesting that we write a commemorative poem (happy bloggiversary, Tricia!). I ended up commemorating my favorite part of our classroom day.
2:27 pm
Each afternoon at this moment
if I could
I would kneel facing Mesopotamia,
touch my forehead to the clay soil
and honor the broad-shouldered,
tip-toeing gods of writing.
Instead at this moment
because I must
I bend facing Kindergartenia,
touch my hand to the fresh toil
and honor the tender-voiced,
heart-shouting words of writers.
Heidi Mordhorst 2011
all rights reserved
1 Comments on OIK: nothing to see here, last added: 11/9/2011
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By: Heidi Mordhorst,
on 9/28/2011
Blog: my juicy little universe (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: OIK Tickle, 5-year-olds, Overheard in Kindergarten, Add a tag
Pointing, Noah said, "Those are the sticking-up-things, and those are the not-sticking-up-things."
He was right: one group of apples had stems and the other didn't. What can we make of his general-yet-specific description? Post your responses in the comments!
0 Comments on OIK: what's my rule? as of 1/1/1900
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a beak of song
That's it exactly. Very nice.
What a great post! Say hi to the Minty Minnows from The Write Sisters!
-- Jet
I didn't know you taught the little ones, Heidi. It sounds like a marvelous day, capped by the poem. I like that 'silent language'.
Sounds like the Sensory Garden is doing well -- "Mint for everyone!" I have few herbs, but my parents have a serious herb garden. I "quizzed" my kids on the herbs in my parents' garden once...two of them knew quite a bit, and one of them had no idea, except possibly for mint. Sweet poem!
What an amazing post to follow Tabatha's!
LOVE the minty minnows!!
Oh, how I wish I had an Outdoor Education Committee...or even teachers who would bother to take their children to our Land Lab (maintained by this Committee of One) to taste the lemon mint and feel the soft of the lamb's ear or the pricks of the yucca...
Oh, can I come to your class? How wonderful this is.
Once again, I want to be a Mighty Minnow. Or a Minty one. You all have all the fun!
Hi, Heidi. I'm amazed at what you did with this little acrostic riddle. The last line -- wow, I hope your Mighty Minnows continue to sing throughout the year. Thinking of you, my friend!