Sentences

I volunteered at Cavett's school today and afterwards in talking with another parent, I am the only one that has been allowed to stay in the room.  I'm not sure what this says about me and I'm not sure that it is because she likes me....  anyway.  I was able to observe Cavett's behavior and a little bit of teaching.  One of the things they did was "Writing Around the Room."  This is where they are given a word or a set of words and then they are to write down words from around the room that start with each letter of the word given.  For example, today's word was "Community Helper," since they have been talking about this in their social studies lessons and has had speakers from the community all week.

C-computer
O-Owen
M-Mom
Etc...

In the 5 minutes they were given, he got 5 written, but I also observed some talking with his best friend, Owen.  Other kids got 11!  The work sheet was sent home so we completed it at home.  It took him under 5 minutes to come up with all the rest of words, granted he didn't have to walk around the room and find stuff.  Afterward, we decided to try a "spelling test" of his sight words so far this year:  I, like, to, the, a, an, can, am, you, my, are. 

He did pretty well, except for knowing when to use a capital letter.  Next, I asked him to use each word in a sentence.  We didn't write them down, but I started to after a while, because they just kept getting better and better. 

I love you.

I like to play with this.  (knocked out two in one!)

The alligator is big.  (at this point we started talking about where the period goes.)

A pencil is writing on paper. (at first he gave the next sentence, but then I reminded him of the a/an rule.)

An astronaut went into space.

Can I borrow this?  (totally threw me off guard.  I was expecting a statement, not a question.  Then I asked him to use in like a statement.) 

I can open this can.  (uh, hello.  He used it in two different ways!)

Am I doing something wrong?  (yet another question.)

I am a superhero!  (now he wanted to use exclaimation marks)

You are the best mom ever!
My mom is awesome!
Are you my friend?

Gosh, I love this kid.  I don't care what grade there is on the report card or what his teacher says or whether or not he gets into the GT program.  He's awesome!

Literacy Thursday: Max's Words

**Welcome to Literacy Thursdays. This post is designed to highlight some of our favorite books in hopes that you will blog about yours. We are always looking for new books to discover. Literacy is so important and even at the youngest of ages is crucial to development. If you don't have children of your own volunteer at a school, read to a neighborhood child, but get involved. It's a great way to share quality time with the youngest of our society.

Here's the play by play: You blog about your book. Give me a shout out in your blog by creating a link to my blog and using my Literacy button. Then at the bottom of my post, you will find Mr. Linky. Sign your name and add the web address of your post. Your post will automatically be linked to mine leaving a list for all to peruse. I hope you will join us.**

This week, I am delighted to introduce "Max's Words" by Kate Banks and Boris Kulikov. This book is such fun. It is a great pairing of storytelling and pictures. Max has two brothers and they both have collections of things that they won't share with Max. So, Max decides to start his own collection of words by cutting them out of magazines and newspapers. He even uses the dictionary and writes words on slips of paper. As you see the words "cut out" they are in the shape of depict the word itself.


Max then realizes that when he put his words in different orders they had different meanings. For example: "A blue crocodile ate the green iguana. The blue iguana ate a green crocodile." He then began arranging the words to make a story. The brothers became very interested and wanted words to make stories of their own. Max shared and as a result, they shared their own collections.

We also made a collection of Cavett's words this past week. He cut pictures out of magazines glued them to an index card and we wrote the word on it. Then we rearranged the cards in different orders to make up our own stories. Great activity!

Teddy Bear

As we were about to walk out the door this morning, Kendrick starts turning around and then continues to do the motions of one of our SongPlay songs, Teddy Bear. This is sooooo exciting for me. We are really listening, understanding and comparing words and phrases. We are on the verbal brink!!! He is also trying to copy more of our words. Colors especially intrigue him.

This is such good news as this means that reprimanding for climbing on top of tables, chairs, counters and stools will become more consistent and possible punishment may insue. This climber has climbed my last nerve, but gosh, isn't he precious?

The Saga Continues with More Success

After waking from his nap, I offered Kendrick the rest of his bottle. Uninterested. Around 6:00, we began dinner: Cheerios, Kraft Singles Cheese, Turkey, Asparagus, Grapes, Yogurt Melts. He ate the majority of everything given. He asked for milk once toward the end, by opening and closing his hand. After the grapes and yogurt, he stood up and I swear he said, "All done!" and began clapping his hands (a modified move of the sign language for finished.) Too precious and our first words along with, Mama, Dada, and bye-bye. I think I even heard him the other day say, "I Love you, " too!