Character Traits in Kindergarten and a FREEBIE

Today, I had the opportunity to introduce Character Traits to a Kindergarten class. I think one of the keys to character traits is helping the students start a vocabulary bank of character trait words and to think about what is "inside" the character. One of the students said it best--- "What is inside their heart".

We started with a very plain anchor chart with the definition and began to brainstorm character trait words.

Then, we began by talking about character traits focusing on the most important person to them -- their teacher. We used a graphic organizer. My goal was to get 3 strong character words with evidence. Evidence is hard but they did so GREAT!! They stole my heart as they described their sweet teacher.

We reread The Wild Christmas Reindeer by Jan Brett and worked on character traits some more. Our focus was on Teeka the main character. I was so proud of the kids and their "academic talk" as we tackled a very difficult story. They were using details and did an excellent job discussing the problem and solution in the story as well as making inferences about Teeka. We created another character trait map about Teeka with textual evidence. I thought they did really well for their first time.

Here is a free template to use for an independent activity.

Thank you for letting me visit in Kindergarten (crossing my fingers that I can visit again really soon)!!!

How Are You Anchoring Learning For Students?

We all know students do best when they have a touchstone or link to material especially when the content is abstract or difficult. We all know the standards are high and the content is tough but how are we helping children have an anchor to learning.

Anchor charts and word walls are very powerful if:

*Students help create them.

*Students and teachers use them regularly.

*They are meaningful to the students.

This leads me to thinking....

*Do I use signals or gestures to help embed the content?

Do I have portable academic word walls?

*Are kids referencing these anchors?

*Do I hear academic talk about these anchors?

*Are my tools kid friendly -- from organization to content as well as visually?

I saw some great examples last week in a Science class where her word wall was broken into subjects. There were also reference tools for the students desks. They were a really useful tool.

Leaves me to thinking.... Am I anchoring learning enough to support my students?

Absolutely Amazing!!!

Yesterday, I had the privilege to drop by a friend's classroom. I left in complete amazement and with excitement. She teaches 4th Grade Writing. We all know that is a hard job with our new standards. They were all working in workshop very diligently with independence. They are just learning about writing expository papers. There were 8 kids working in pairs about the same topic with a specific purpose such as similes, sensory language, experience, etc.... The partners brought their index cards back and were to assemble them into a paragraph. Talk about powerful and meaningful hands on revising and editing!!! It was amazing to watch and listen !! This activity was tough but made kids think. They had to talk to each other to find a way to merge these four cards into a sensible and cohesive paragraph. Watching them it was obvious that they gained more from this type of mini lesson than go work on your first expository paper. "

It makes me be reflective....

*Do I make writing hands on enough?

*How can I make my mini lessons more powerful?

*Do I have enough academic talk going on in writing?

*Am I using strategies in writing that require higher order thinking and are out of the box?

A huge thank you to my friend for inspiring me and for inspiring your crew of writer's!! I loved every single minute .

Awesome Readers for Beginning Readers

I am so excited to share this wonderful new site!  Unite for Literacy has an amazing collection of picture book readers for beginning readers.  All of the books are online and they are FREE!  They are of high quality and can even be read aloud.  Not only is this an excellent resource for teachers but for home as well especially with summer quickly approaching. 
Go check it out!
Unite for Literacy

Welcome to Purposeful Teaching and Learning

Welcome to Purposeful Teaching and Learning!  This is my 18^th year of teaching.  I have taught Kindergarten and 3^rd grade.  This year, I am doing Reading Instructional Support and Intervention K-6. As the expectations in education grows so does the demand of “Purposeful Teaching and Learning”.  Join me on my journey as I share exciting lessons, activities as well as tips to help you.