Transform Your Teaching!
Summer Seminars
August 1-3, 2011
Portland, Oregon
DAY 1: Begin the Year with "Best Practices" in Joyful Accelerated Kindergarten Literacy
DAY 2: Writing to Read in Kindergarten: Explore the Power of "Kid Writing"
DAY 3: Multisensory Teaching of Foundation Skills: Explore the Magic of Fingerspelling and Signing Songs
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| Web Seminars |
For those of you who are not able to fly out to Oregon and join us live, web seminars are the next best thing.
First we need to double our online readership.
We are very grateful for each colleague with whom you share our newsletter.
Send this newsletter to your friends! |
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Welcome ,
1. Poetry and Nature Connections |
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| Letter the words of poems on charts. |
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| Invite children to illustrate the poem. |
Lesson by Harry Behn from Nellie Edge Poetry Anthology, Volume II, Nellie Edge Resources, Inc., 1993. |
We hope many children will enjoy poetry and lessons in nature this summer. Planting seeds and watching them grow is a special childhood experience. In the words of poet Harry Behn, “To plant a seed and see it grow / Is something every child should do...”
What do Kindergarten Poetry “I Can Read” Notebook pages look like? See: Children Illustrate Their Own Poetry Notebooks.
Download over 200 complimentary large-print, full-page, copyright-secured poems and songs for non-commercial use only. These include:
- Apples, Peaches, Pears, and Plums, traditional
- Sunflower Children, anonymous
- I Love You Little, author unknown
- Leaves are Falling by Nellie Edge (used with permission)
- I Like Stars by Pamela Johnson (used with permission)
- Fuzzy Wuzzy, traditional
- Leaves Fall Down by Margaret Wise Brown (public domain)
- Weather, traditional
- Clouds by Christina Rosetti (public domain)
- See You Later, Alligator, adapted by Nellie Edge
- Reading is Fun by Nellie Edge (used with permission)
Children deserve the gift of delightful, memorable songs and poems!
See June: Simple, Familiar, and Traditional Children’s Songs
See September: Songs and Poems to Begin on
* See Nellie Edge Poetry Anthologies for favorite copyrighted poems that children delight in:
- Small Poems of Some Delight,
- Poetry Anthology Volume I, and
- Poetry Anthology Volume II.
Royalties are paid on these collections, so you can legally make copies of some of the best children’s poetry year after year. See online bookstore to get your copy of these quality collections.
For those of you who are pursuing professional development credits from our literacy seminars or kindergarten cadre meetings, consider organizing your Teacher Poetry Notebook and making Language Charts or Pocket Chart Poem Packets as a practicum project. (Tip: Invite parent volunteers to help you over the summer! See Parent Volunteer Letter:
Help with Summer Projects.)
See photo essay: Language Charts for Reading and Delight
See photo essay: Poetry “I Can Read” Notebooks: How to Use Them |
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2. Memorable End-of-Year Celebrations of Language and Videos |
What a thrill it is to watch memorable end-of-year kindergarten performances – truly celebrations of language! I am reminded again that children who learn to sing, sign, dance, and perform language (with rhythm, expression, and delight) have a lifelong advantage in developing strong speech and communication skills. Children got a taste of the power of beautiful language as they saw parents moved to tears by their ASL performance of See Me Beautiful by Red Grammer or What a Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong. Again this year, especially memorable was I Pledge Allegiance,
performed in ASL to the musical version by Lee Greenwood: Parents were deeply moved.
(These performance songs are from The Magic of Signing Songs Seminar and Distance Learning DVD package.)
Discover The Magic of Signing Songs in your classroom!
 See Kindergartners performing ABC Phonics: Sing, Sign, and Read!
See ABC Phonics Instructional Video Clips
See The Pledge of Allegiance Instructional Video Clips
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3. Common Core State Standards |
Teachers are asking, “Nellie, what do you think about the Common Core State Standard?” I am delighted to reply that joyful and rigorous learning within a writing-to-read framework is the best way to meet high academic standards. And yes, many of our colleagues produce year-end outcomes that meet the high Common Core State Standards.
We invite you to explore our framework for excellence:
What do joyful and rigorous kindergartens look like? Join us for summer seminars and browse our photo essays Photo Essays and Literacy Award Sites.
Visit all of our favorite annotated websites.
We encourage everyone to visit the Mentor kindergarten teacher chatboard this summer! Many wise National Board Certified kindergarten teachers, such as Jacque Verrall, Julie Lay (a.k.a. “Hedgie Haven”), and “KinderJane” post on this board. You can listen in to topics of interest or direct questions to these amazing teachers from across the country who generously support each other with teaching tips and thoughtful dialog.
Happy browsing! |
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4. Summer Seminars: Register by June 5th! |
Join us for all three days of our
Joyful and Accelerated Literacy foundation seminars.
(Appropriate for Literacy Coaches, preK-1, Special Education, and ELL Teachers)
The August 1-3 seminars are almost full. Please register soon so you won’t be disappointed.
See: Summer Seminar Invitation
Accepting Single Registration for the Final Day
We will set up a few additional chairs on the final day (August 3rd) for the Magic of Signing Songs. Email us at info@nellieedge.com immediately if you want one of those spaces. We will not be able to accept registrations for individual days on August 1-2.
- If you are not able to attend The Magic of Signing Songs, you may still pursue distance learning. Enjoy studying our seminar literacy manual and DVD at your convenience this summer. Complete a project to earn 1, 2, or 3 professional development credits. See details about DISTANCE LEARNING CREDIT.
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5. There’s an “ing” in King!: Sing, Sign, and Fingerspell |
 What a grand time I have sharing some of my favorite joyful writing-to-read lessons in local classrooms! An invitation to write a song that teaches “i-n-g” was all I needed for expanding my “King of ing” lesson with a new sing, sign, and fingerspell song:
There’s an “ing” in King: i-n-g. This year’s King of “ing” crowns were even more detailed and well-loved than last year’s. Once again, the children simply do not want to take them off. The reading/writing lesson that wrapped its arm around this time of pure serendipity was memorable and filled SMILES…
What did I learn?
- Kindergartners love making crowns!
- Music and sign language are powerful memory hooks.
- Writing teaches reading.
Read more about our joyful and rigorous approach to kindergarten literacy:
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6. Elephant and Piggie Book Club: Real Books Make Real Readers! |
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Be looking for the latest Mo Willems book this month: Should I Share My Ice Cream? (We bet he will...) |
Here is my reminder for parents wanting to nurture their child’s literacy development and teachers motivating early readers in summer school: Real books make real readers! We have seen the proof of this in our “Elephant and Piggie Book Club” which we introduce in the spring of kindergarten. The following are some documents that may help you get started. You will hear more details about this from Laura Flocker’s upcoming Literacy Manual.
Please notice, we are honoring children at all levels of the reading continuum by helping parents understand the best level of support to provide their young reader. Simply highlight in yellow, “Please read this book with me.” or “I can read with fluency!” Fluency is enhanced by the intentional requirement of three re-readings and accompanying initials.
For a look at some of our other favorite “Real Books” for Beginning Readers, see our Children’s Literature Book Lists.
Happy Summer Reading! |
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7. Salem Kindergarten Cadre and NBCTS |
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What an awesome year we had exploring best literacy practices in some of Salem’s beautiful, engaging kindergartens. Thank you for helping us develop a model kindergarten mentoring program and Professional Learning Community!
We look forward to seeing you at our summer seminars as we continue building a framework for Excellence in Kindergarten Literacy. We hope many of you will begin researching NBCTS. Here is a link to the site: http://www.nbpts.org/ and 2011 Overview of National Board Certification for Oregon.
I would enjoy working with NBCTS candidates next year: together we can keep making our kindergartens more joyful, more rigorous, and more intentional as we look at the Common Core State Standards.
There will be several NBCTS teachers at our seminars August 1-3, 2011 and we will provide opportunities for dialog. And yes—the kindergartners we study and write about meet and sometimes exceed the Common Core State Standards. That’s a good thing which we will continue to explore.
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Smiles!
Nellie Edge
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