Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is a time when we reflect on all that we have in our lives.  I am thankful for so much!  This year I am especially thankful for the opportunity to teach the full day kindergarten children.  They make me smile every day.  They are an amazing group who have already learned so much!  We talked about all the things they are thankful for this week.  Here is what they shared.

Until next time...

Guest Readers

Yesterday, a group of Plymouth South High School football players and their advisor visited Cold Spring School.  These young men partnered up and visited a variety of classrooms.  Just before lunch the full day kindergarten students were happy to listen to several stories.

You should be proud of your children as they all remembered their best manners and how to listen with their whole bodies.  It was a pleasure to witness these young adults connecting to children just beginning their educational journey.  I'm not sure that my pictures do the experience justice.

Until next time...

Featured Article!

Cold Spring Elementary School News

Mrs. Egan's third grade class will be participating in a Book Buddies program with Mrs. Pagnotti's full day kindergarten class.  Every Thursday, the students will be getting together to read and talk about books.  Not only is the Book Buddies program a wonderful way to get students excited about reading, it is also a great way to help students develop reading and fluency skills, build confidence and self-esteem, and create bonds among schoolmates.   This article was published in the Voyager Express on Friday, November 15, 2013.  How exciting to be featured in this district wide newsletter.  I would like to thank Mrs. Dolloff for submitting these pictures.   Follow this link to sign up for a weekly update from Voyager Express.   Until next time...

Writing Workshop

We spend a good amount of time each day working on our writing practice.  Writing workshop provides the structure needed to implement direct instruction, modeling of writing, interactive writing, shared writing, guided practice and independent practice.

In kindergarten children practice oral story telling and move on to drawing a part of their stories.  As children become confident in their understanding of letter sound relationships they begin to label parts of their drawings.  Most of the children in the full day kindergarten are working on labeling drawings so that their readers can better understand their stories.  We are all writers in the full day kindergarten.

An important part of the writing process is sharing.  Children love to tell stories, draw parts of their stories and then share their stories with their friends.  In a class of nineteen students in class we rarely get the opportunity for all children to share.   This can be disappointing.   Today at the end of writing workshop I was preparing to have a few students share when I had an idea.  Why not have small group based sharing circles?  I suggested my idea to the class and they were thrilled.  Everyone would share!  Quickly I chose one student from each table to be the leader.  That friend would share first and then decide on the order in which the rest of the group would share.  It was amazing!  The children did a fantastic job sharing, taking turns, asking questions and attending to the task at hand.  I am so proud of these children for sharing their stories in such a grown up way!

This collage created with Smilebox

Book Buddies!

This past Thursday we began our Book Buddies program with Mrs. Egan's 3rd grade class!  Every Thursday before lunch the third graders will come to our class and read several books to their assigned kindergarten buddy.  This is a wonderful opportunity for kindergarten children to make connections in our larger school community.  It also allows our class to listen to reading and talk about books with children who have a bit more experience.

To prepare for our guests we spent time practicing with our own partners.  We brainstormed what reading with someone looks and sounds like.  The kindergartners know that we sit elbow to elbow, knee to knee with the book in the middle so that both can see.  The children know that when we read our eyes stay in the book the entire time and that we use whole body listening.  We have also been learning about how to think more deeply about books by thinking and talking about characters feelings.  The children were able to apply all they have learned as the listened to their buddies read.

Mrs. Egan and I were both so impressed with the hard work of our students!

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Until next time...

The Cape Cod Bear by Kathleen Dayan

On Wednesday, Mrs. Bramhall's morning kindergarden class joined us for a special reading of the book The Cape Cod Bear by Kathleen Dayan

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Ms. Dayan visited classes and read her book to the children.  She spoke to them about the process of researching and writing the book as well as her collaboration with her artist friend, Kate Walls.

The children were enchanted by the story and asked many questions.

Until next time...

Grandparents' Breakfast

This week has been very exciting.  Wednesday morning children and their grandparents came to Cold Spring School for breakfast, crafts and the book fair.  It was a pleasure for me to meet so many of my students' grandparents.  There is nothing like the relationship between a child and his or her grandparent.

I found the following poem online.  It made me stop and smile.

Grandma hold me

a little longer,

Rock me a little more.

Tell me another story...

(you've only told me four!)

Let me sleep

on your shoulder.

I love your happy smile.

I'll always love you Grandma

so stay with me a while.

These words also spoke to me:

I like to walk

with Grandpa…

He takes his

time you see

His steps are

little just

like mine;

He stops and

waits for me.

He lets me ask

him questions

He lets me hold

his hand.

He makes me

feel 10 feet tall

And I think that

he is grand.

He says there’s

no one like me

And gold is

what I’m worth.

When I get to

walk with

Grandpa

I’m the luckiest

kid on earth!

Patsy Gaut

Thanks to all the grandparents who took the time to visit this week.  

Until next time...

The Wonder of Reading

"At one magical instant in your early childhood, the page of a book-that string of confused, alien ciphers-shivered into meaning. Words spoke to you, gave up their secrets; at that moment, whole universes opened. You became, irrevocably, a reader."  

 Alberto Manguel, A History of Reading

This is by far one of the best part of my job!  Every day I see the wonder of reading in the eyes of the full day kindergarten children.  They are all on the path to reading reading sentences independently and each will reach this goal in his or her own time.  Witnessing the sparkle in a child's eyes when he or she says, "I read the words!"  is priceless.  

Exposure to a wide variety of reading every day is essential as children learn to read.  They should hear and see stories, poems, rhyming books, informational books and other types of texts all around them.  Immersion in  a literacy rich environment coupled with balanced literacy instruction moves children toward the goal of reading words independently.  

Every child is already a reader in our class.  Children read pictures, popcorn words and retell old favorite stories.  Reading widens children's worlds each and every day.  I look forward to seeing all the reading children are doing at home for our incentive reading program at school.  Read, read and read some more.  

Until next time!    

Twin Day Pictures!

Until next time...

Twin Day!

We had fun dressing alike today!  There was great class spirit.  The children were thrilled to come into school and see everyone dressed in blue.  I was happy that everyone felt included.  On top of that I was thankful not to have another surprise fire drill.

I took pictures but have to bring my camera home to get them up onto the blog. Stay tuned.

Oh and in case you didn't know I love teaching your children.  They are learning so much every day.

My favorite quote of the day is this:

"Mrs. Pagnotti, you make my heart warm."

Until next time...

Guest Reader

Each week we welcome Grandpa Turtle into our classroom to share stories.  Grandpa Turtle has a long history with our school.  He spends time in several early childhood classrooms each week.  It is a pleasure to listen to him share favorite stories with the children.  They are always happy to see him return to our classroom.

Until next time...

Scientists Observe

We have talked about the importance of using our senses to make observations.  Students know that scientists observe and then record their findings.  Yesterday we took a field trip outside.  I asked the children to look carefully at the large oak tree next to the playground.  We talked about the colors and textures we noticed and then returned to the classroom to record our observations.

October Begins

It is hard to believe that October is here and we are beginning our second month of school!  The children are enjoying each other every day and feeling more comfortable in their classroom environment.  If you were to walk into our classroom at any time of the day you would see busy workers spread throughout the room.  We use the workshop model in both reading and math.  The workshop models allows for the children to work in small groups on either individual learning tasks or collaborative learning activities.  While the children are working in their groups I am able to meet with a small group to teach concepts, assess students' understanding or review what we have already worked on together.  It is a productive and fun way to learn and teach!

Our class has support in the morning and in the afternoon.  Mrs. Goodman is with us each morning for about forty minutes and helps the children gain independence in their workshop groups.  Mrs. Whitehouse also joins us most mornings.  She typically works with small groups to reinforce literacy skills.   Mrs. Williamson (Mrs. W) works with us on Monday and Tuesday during our math workshop after lunch. She also fosters independence in workshop groups. Four afternoons a week we are joined by Mrs. Blauss.  She has been working with students on oral story telling this week.  As we move forward she will work with small groups of children to reinforce skills they are learning in both reading and math.  We are fortunate to have so much help in our classroom.  

I found myself thinking about how much the children have already learned this year.  It is amazing how quickly children acclimate themselves to new situations.  While we have enjoyed  a relatively smooth transition to the school year, I know there will be bumps along the way.  I have an art piece in my classroom that states "Mistakes mean you are trying."  We will all make mistakes along the way.  Fostering a positive classroom community allows children to feel safe so that they will take risks, make mistakes and learn.  We are all on this journey together.  I am so happy to be learning with all of you this year!  

Until next time...

Open House 2013

Tonight was open house.  Open house reminds me a bit of a big holiday dinner.  You prepare and prepares some more and then all of sudden it is over!  Thank you to all the families who were able to come down and spend some time exploring the full day kindergarten class.  I even met some families who hope to get a spot in the full day class next year!  It was a pleasure to have our Title 1 teachers  Mrs. Whitehouse and Mrs. Blauss spend time meeting families tonight.  These dedicated educators work in our classroom on a daily basis in order to best meet the needs of all the children in our class.

I also want to thank all the families for entrusting their children into this program.  I know that it takes  big leap of faith to send your young child into the larger public school community.  Please feel confident in the fact that I have been in your shoes and understand.  Your children are making friends, learning routines and feeling comfortable in their environment.  Our days are busy with stories, songs, movement, scientific thinking, social learning and mathematical thinking.  The kindergarten year is one of much growth.  Hold on the ride is just beginning.

I am so happy to be partnering with all the full day kindergarten families.