MOST RECENT VIDEOS

• 1:21 Our Week in Kindergarten

  Here are a few images from our week--including Math Workshop, Reading Workshop, and Pumpkin Day.

  Uploaded Nov 03, 2013
• 1:54 Writing Workshop Celebration

  Take a peek into our first Writing Workshop celebration! Students were so excited to share their writing with students in Mrs. Crump's kindergarten class.

  Uploaded Oct 20, 2013
• 1:49 Teaching Books
  Uploaded Oct 19, 2013
• 1:02 Science Lab

  This week in Science Lab with Mrs. Webb, students learned about ears and the sense of hearing. They listened to high-pitched sounds and then tried to create ears modeled after various animals to increase their hearing ability.

  Uploaded Oct 18, 2013
• 00:50 Word Work

  
  One of the activities I frequently do with small groups of students during literacy stations is Word Work. As you can see in this video, students can learn a lot about letters, sounds, and words by manipulating physical letters to change one word into another. Each word in the sequence gets slightly more complex to both support and challenge all students.
  Here is the list of steps I went through with this group of students:
  1. Make the word is.
  2. Take 1 letter away and change is to in.
  3. Add 1 letter to in to make win.
  4. Take the n away and add a different letter to make wig.
  5. Add a letter to wig to make wigs.
  6. Switch out one letter in wigs to make wins.
  7. Put all your letters back and make sing. Remember it has “ing.”
  8. Take the s away and add a different letter to make wing.
  
  At the end, students try to figure out my “magic word,” which is a word you can make using all the letters I have given them that day. On this particular day, there are 2 magic words (wings and swing).
  Word Work activities help students learn to use letter sounds and spelling patterns when decoding unknown words while reading. These types of activities help students realize that if they can read (or write) c-at, they can also read (or write) h-at, m-at, s-at, br-at, and on and on!
  

  Uploaded Oct 14, 2013
• 3:46 A Week in First Grade

  Take a peek at some of things we did and learned this week!

  Uploaded Oct 04, 2013
• 5:55 Science Lab

  Learning about animal groups in science lab on 10/4/13

  Uploaded Oct 04, 2013
• 1:00 A Day in the Life of a Second Grader

  Mrs. Smith's Week 6 Video Newsletter

  Uploaded Oct 04, 2013
• 1:10 Writing Workshop

  This week in Writing Workshop, we keep practicing the phrase, "When we are done, we have JUST begun!" This means, when you think you are finished with your writing you aren't! You can add to the pictures, you can add to the words, or you can start a new piece.
  
  We are learning to be problem solvers during Writing Workshop. The students realized how many problems they can solve without teacher help:
  What do I do if I can't find a pencil? --get up and find one quietly!
  What do I do if I think I finished writing? --add to the pictures, add to the words, or start a new piece!
  What do I do if someone is talking too loudly at my table? --say "Please be quiet!"
  What do I do if I don't know how to spell a tough word? --look at the word wall, say it slowly, and do your best!
  What do I do if I need a certain crayon? --say "Pass me the crayon when you are finished, please."
  
  As students become better and better problem solvers during Writing Workshop, that allows me to have more meaningful conferences with individuals to work on their writing. Instead of having to hop from problem to problem, I can spend quality time with a few students each day teaching specific writing strategies.
  

  Uploaded Oct 02, 2013
• 00:39 Literacy Stations

  Here's a quick peek at what literacy stations looked like this morning. We spend 20 minutes each morning doing a variety of different jobs, like the ones you see here. This is a great time for me to work with small groups and for students to get independent time to practice and reinforce important skills.

  Uploaded Oct 01, 2013