Learning is fun!
Posted in advocacy, grants, Pre-K, and reading skills
Both Pre-K classes were so excited to receive the new library books and stuffed animals from the Pre-K Zoo Buddies PISD Education Foundation grant! Each student will take his/her library book home to read to his/her new ‘zoo buddy’. The kids wrote and decorated thank you note cards in the library.
Thank you to the Plano Education Foundation and Toyota for the Pre-K Reading Zoo Buddies grant! This money will purchase board books for our Pre-K students and a mini stuffed animal. They will read to their stuffed animal at home. Awesome!
Proposal summary:
Since the Pre-Kindergarten class sizes at our campus continue to grow every year and it is important to encourage a strong literacy foundation for the youngest learners, the money for this grant will purchase Pre-K level library books to borrow and a mini stuffed animal (“Reading Zoo Buddy”) to keep at home. Since several students may be absent due to various illnesses, they will now have a “reading zoo buddy” to keep at home to encourage continuous reading. The student will return their book when they return to school but will keep their reading zoo buddy at home. Pre-Kindergarten library books will be purchased for students to check out to read to their zoo buddy. William Teale, president of the International Literacy Association, said that “when you pair reading with a toy or stuffed animal, kids become a part of the story. And they will start to show interest on their own.” (Teale, 2017) In the CNN Stuffed Animals Reading Study (Teale, 2017) he states that children reading to a stuffed animal causes them to… “look at pictures in a book, and they’ll start to use some of the words in the book.” We want the students to use reading to the stuffed animal at home to enhance their comfort with reading and to allow their skills to bloom.
Posted in advocacy, current events, and grants
Excited to receive a PISD Education Foundation Grant! This will be used to purchase bilingual books for the children who moved to Jackson this year from Daffron. Thank you, @PISDEF and @ParkPlaceTexas!
Posted in fun events, grants, and writing
Who is the masked writer? Students send in their guesses via the Jackson Library Google Classroom. Thanks to @MedCityPlano and @PISDEF for library books to reinforce writing strategies! In the fall, I wrote a PISD Education Foundation Grant for library books to use as mentor writing texts. Then I taught a series of writing strategy lessons to grades 3-5 during their library time. There were certain targeted writing skills they had to achieve in each piece. I chose a few papers for children to read while wearing a mask. (videos) The other kids in the grade level guess as to who is behind the mask. Fun!
Some other Masked Writer Contestants:
Some mentor texts used:
Twister – Beard
Sergio’s Bike– Boelts
Up North at the Cabin – Chall
Night Driving – Coy
Strong to the Hoop – Coy
Goal! Javaherbin
My Best Friend – Rodman
Google Classroom Guesses
Posted in fun events, grants, and writing
The Plano Education Foundation prize patrol just visited the Jackson Library! I won the grant I submitted for The Masked Writer: Using Mentor Texts as Springboards for Writing and the group grant I co-authored with Connie Matthews for more EV3 LEGO Mindstorm robots. Woo hoo! So excited!
