WOW! I just adore these...

I am so happy that I have had the chance to read Of Primary Importance. It is a wonderful book about Writer's Workshop... and classroom community. I have also had the chance to learn from the {amazing} author, Ann Marie Corgill, first hand at a literacy workshop, through conversations, and during a recent webinar she hosted. 

If you have not read her book -you MUST check it out here.

I love that Ann Marie focuses on creating a community of writers and putting CHILDREN at the focus of our teaching :)

One idea she shared in her book was making self-portraits that hang in the classroom all year. I absolutely love watching my students as they create these. I also love walking into my classroom and seeing their gorgeous faces! A reminder of what is most important- THEM!!!

We make these portraits by drawing with soft pencil lines, outlining in black Sharpie marker, adding color with oil pastels, and filling the background with liquid watercolor paint. 

CHECK OUT EACH STUDENT'S SELF-PORTRAIT BELOW:

Free digital slideshow made with Smilebox  Ann Marie Corgill has two blogs that I love to read: Corgill Kids AM Literacy Learning Log She also recently hosted a GREAT webinar. Check that out HERE!!!

Beautiful Faces

Dear Kindergarten Friends,

Thank you so much for filling our classroom with laughter, questions, drawings and writing, with books, learning, smiles, thinking, excitement, and so much more! You are amazing, growing learners that make me smile.

Your beautiful self-portraits have really made our classroom brighter. Thank you for sharing them for a bit.

Mrs. Rider

This free scrapbook personalized with Smilebox

Have you checked your endpapers lately?

This summer I attended the Lakota Literacy View. This was a three-day professional development workshop on teaching Reading and Writing- an opportunity I simply could not resist! Spending time learning from Lester Laminack and Ann Marie Corgill was thrilling! (If you teach writing in the primary grades, you MUST READ Ann Marie’s book: Of Primary Importance.) As I watched video clips from Ann Marie’s classroom I was amazed at the rich language that her young first graders were using as they shared teaching points from their writing conferences. I challenged myself right then to always use every opportunity to teach the authentic terms that writer’s use as they brainstorm, write, edit, and publish books.

One such opportunity came as I read Little Pea on the very first day of school. As I opened the book I pointed out the beautiful endpapers that were lime green and covered with hundreds of little peas. Well, I am thrilled to report that in the first week and a half of school my 5 and 6 year old students now request that we check out the end pages of each and every book we read, are bringing in books from home with unique endpapers, and creating their own endpapers in Writer’s Workshop.(Wahooo!!) Thank you, Ann Marie, for reminding me that I must always give even my youngest students all of the TOOLS and TERMS they need to grow as writers. Check out some of the special endpapers that the children discovered this week