A Day in the Life: March 2013

Sunday, March 10, 2013

Saint Patricks Day

This month the theme has been GREEN. In my art class we have been talking about this Irish holiday and how we are each lucky. This past week each kiddo decorated a four leaf clover and wrote all the reasons they are lucky. The things they came up with we're very thoughtful and deep for little kindergarteners and first graders. This week we made leprechaun traps. I just put out a bunch of cereal boxes, cups, popsicle sticks, stars, paper, cotton balls, etc and let the kids create their own traps. They started out looking all the same but as the kids got into the activity the unique qualities began to show. We set all of the traps in my office since we use the classroom for lots of different classes. Those pesky leprechauns destroyed the traps and left a huge mess. They also left gold and green necklaces and tons of gold candy. I normally do not give my kiddos candy because they don't need anymore sugar and it's not good for their teeth. This is a one time event. Hope it doesn't backfire. The leprechauns also left a note for the kids in tiny tiny writing. I wonder what the kids will think....

GR8 Reader Projects

The past two years the Bridge Project has been participating in a program called GR8 Readers. It is a program based on the idea that the more access kids have to books, the higher their reading scores are. Our program is modeled after the research by Richard Allington and Anne McGill-Franzen of the University of Tennessee. Their study determined that students who received books for summer reading at home showed significantly higher levels of reading achievement. Check out the amazing article at:

University of Tennessee at Knoxville (2010, July 22). Summer reading is key to maintaining or improving students' reading skills. ScienceDaily. Retrieved February 1, 2011, from http://www.sciencedaily.com¬ /releases/2010/07/100721112234.htm

Many of the kids I work with do not have access to books at home. Each summer, kids select 8 books that they will read and create projects with. At the end of the summer they get to take the books and the projects home. The kids love, love, LOVE doing the projects. I try to select projects that cover all the story elements. These project include: puppets, story diorama, postcard from the main character, puzzle, picture collage, etc...