Happy (Almost) Valentine's Day

I love the approach of Valentines Day with all the colorful decorations, children’s artwork and the lovingly-made cards. I thought you might enjoy a peek at some of the decorations from around our school.

Hand-made cards

"Stained glass" window hearts 

I bet you can guess what these are. 

They are just waiting to be filled on Valentine's Day.

Our school librarian, Allison Brown, is in the spirit of the holiday. Take a look at our library:

And yesterday, I got to see her at work; it looks like she's having fun to me. She loves children's literature and children. It certainly comes through when you see her with students at story time.  Here she is introducing her favorite Valentine's book, Slugs in Love, by Susan Pearson. Illustrated by Kevin O'Malley.

And here she is with a happy crowd of First Graders listening to the story:

What a perfectly charming Valentines tale! It is full of poetry, love, devotion, and slug-slime. Who could resist such a combination; certainly not our kindergarten, first, and second grade students - nor those of us who work with them. 

The kids didn’t take their eyes off the book as Allison read about the shy slug, Marylou who “loved everything about Herbie—how his slime trail glistened in the dark, how he could stretch himself thin to squeeze inside the cellar window...." She was too shy to approach him directly so she used her slime trail to write secret poems for him. Marylou didn't see what Herbie wrote in return and so, like any good love story, the tension mounted. You’ll have to read the book to find out how it ends but since it is a picture book, you’ll probably guess - the ending is a happy one.

If you have any favorite Valentine’s Day books, I’d love to hear about them!

Super Snail

Last Wednesday, during my final speech group of the day, I played a board game with my students. It’s a simple game. It has a very short racetrack for six colorful, wooden snails. One of the students picked up a snail and started racing him down the track and the others soon followed his example.

 “You can’t make him zip down the track,” I told them. “He’s a snail, after-all!”

Their faces fell and began to get that glazed over look kids often get after a long day of instruction.

So I added, “That is, unless he has super powers.” You should have seen their faces light up. Suddenly they were engaged, fully.

I have to remind you, this group comes to me at the end of the day and focusing is not one of their strengths at the best of times. But they were focused now. All eyes were on me  - and they were very bright.

 “What kind of powers should he have?” I asked.

“A rocket,” one student suggested.

“What shall we name him?”

“I know, I know,” The student’s hand was waving frantically. “Lady Bug!”

“But he’s a snail,” I said. “Are you sure that name captures his personality?”

Another student’s hand shot up. His eyes went wide and he said, “Bumble Bee! Let’s call him Bumble Bee.”

At first I wondered, what they could be thinking, but then I remembered the book, Ladybug Girl and Bumblebee Boy by David Soman and Jacky Davis. This story has been very popular with the younger set around our school. In fact, the students have been introducing the book to their teachers. I can see the appeal - a playground adventure where imagination turns two young friends into super heroes. With bug-wings, they zoom around to save the world from scary monsters and terrifying robots. It’s no wonder kids enjoy the entire series.

In the end, (even though I thought Shelly was a girl’s name) he became:

Shelly the snail
with a rocket tail.
Who zipped and zapped
but never, ever napped.
Who slimed and climbed
Over words that rhymed . . .
                                  you get the idea.

Now if I were to analyze this speech session, I’d have to say the kids were so engaged they were saying their target sounds more frequently than usual. They didn’t even mind when I stopped them to correct their errors. And if we look at the content standards, we touched on phonemic awareness, building vocabulary, comparing and contrasting,  rhyming and following directions (or not).

At the end of the session, I had a hard time scooting these kids out the door – and the school day was over. I wouldn’t be surprised if, when I see them next, I’ll be hearing of Shelly the Snail’s weekend adventures.

Is it tomorrow yet?

Last Monday I was at my desk writing a report when one of my students peeked around the door and asked me, “Do I have speech today?”

 “No,” I answered, “You have speech tomorrow.”

“But it’s already tomorrow!”  

Most likely, the day before his parents had told him he’d go to school “tomorrow” and he was at school so he jumped to the logical conclusion. He stood looking confused (and in need of attention) so I invited him in, took out my calendar and gave him a quick lesson on, “yesterday”, “today” and “tomorrow” then sent him back out to recess.

Later, I looked for a picture book to help teach the concept but I didn’t find one. I did, however, find an excellent book on yesteryear, several of them. One of my favorite discoveries was, Verla Kay’s, Hornbooks and Inkwells.  It is beautifully illustrated and when read aloud its perfect rhythms and rhymes are an auditory delight.

I imagine many of you are familiar with state content standards for education; there are now numerous common core standards that have been adopted across the country. One of them is for students to identify and create rhyming words – what better way to teach rhymes than in an appealing story written in verse?

Another activity that is right out of the common core standards is to retell stories and to sequence the events. After listening to Hornbooks and Inkwells, my students had no trouble retelling many of the details. They loved hearing about the two brothers Peter and John Paul and the mischief they made. They were appalled by the neck yokes and they rooted for John Paul in his struggle to learn to read. And when . . . well I’d better stop there. I don’t want to spoil the story for you.

Speaking of stories, if anyone out there can recommend one to teach the concepts of “yesterday,” “today,” and “tomorrow,” I’d love to hear about it.

I’ve got to run now; I have a birthday party to attend. I’ll look over this note tomorrow, before posting it. But if you are reading this, I guess it already is tomorrow.

Twenty Thousand . . . What??

On Friday, during a speech session with a group of seven-year-olds, we had an interesting discussion about books. Our discussion of one book in particular I found VERY interesting (if somewhat hard to decipher). But let me back-track a moment.

Just so you don’t think we waste time in speech, I’d like to explain that, to begin with, when a child is learning how to pronounce a certain sound, I teach them how that sound is made. Here is a child demonstrating how to make the “ l” sound – at least she is heading there.

(Photos of children on this blog are used with parent permission.)

Once they can produce the sound with their own mouth, they practice it in words, phrases and then sentences. Finally, they need to carry this new skill into conversations, and what better conversation to have than one of books? Book discussions are full of language-enriching possibilities. And they have an added benefit for me - I write stories for children so I love finding out what is currently popular with the younger crowd.

And that brings me back to the group of seven-year-olds in my speech room on Friday. They were at the conversation level in working on their "L" sound so I asked them to tell me about their favorite books. One child told me his was, “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea”. (At least I thought that’s what he said.)

“Isn’t that kind of hard to read?” I asked.

“No.”

Before he could say more, another seven-year-old interrupted. “I love that book!”

“You’re reading it too?” I know the educational standards are getting fairly rigorous but this seemed a bit excessive. I was amazed but doubtful, so I asked, “What is ‘Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea’ about?”

One child told me it was about an octopus with LOTS and LOTS of legs but the first student looked a bit confused and asked, “What’s a League?”

“A measurement,” I told him, “a large one”.

“Not League, - legs! You know. Twenty Thousand LEGS Under the Sea.” Then he walked his fingers across the table to make sure I got the point. (This is a speech group after-all and we are used to using alternative forms of communication when necessary.)

I have since searched the Internet trying to locate this book and have found a children’s version of Jules Verne’s original but I have not located, “Twenty Thousand Legs Under the Sea”. Does anyone out there know if it exists? If not, I know a couple of young authors with great imaginations who would be willing to work on it.

Rules Rule!

Last week I introduced you to our cat, Solomon. Looking back at the photos, I realize you can’t see his adorable face so I’ve added another:

Of course he didn’t belong in the cupboard. In fact he didn’t belong on the kitchen counter, which he used as a launching pad to reach the cupboard. But we were in the middle of a remodel and he seemed to think the rules no longer applied.

Speaking of rules and adorable faces, take a look at one of my students:  

He wasn’t supposed to put on my reading glasses either but then again, I hadn’t created that rule yet. I must admit, I hadn’t even thought of it until he was wearing them.

But there are rules I had thought of and those are rules of conversation such as: respond to greetings, answer questions when someone asks them, take turns speaking, introduce topics so the listener can follow along, stay on topic instead of continually shifting to one of your favorites.

These rules may sound extremely basic but they can be challenging for some of my students. And those children who have the most difficulty with this area of communication often respond most favorably when they are given explicit instruction. They like to know the appropriate parameters of conversation. They may not always follow the rules but they often do with a few reminders.

And once again that brings me back to Solomon. He doesn’t always follow rules either, even with reminders. Then again, maybe I hadn’t communicated clearly that I didn’t want him in the bathroom sink!

Cat Communication

I had to sneak out of the house today. I slipped on my rubber boots, and trudged through our long grass on the back side of our fence to avoid our cat, Solomon. Well, I didn’t actually have to sneak out but Solomon has developed the habit of following us on our walks to the headlands. I’ve seen enough signs of missing cats in our neighborhood to know I’d rather have him stay safely within our fenced yard. He started this new habit over the holidays when our family took a long walk near the ocean. At the time, he was enjoying all the togetherness and didn’t want to miss out. At first he followed some distance behind but soon he was leading the way. Take a look:

And here he is stopping to enjoy the view:

Our cat is approaching 15 years, so he’s rather old for a cat. He’s never been too excited about exercise and he was panting like a dog before we got home. (We tried to carry him back but he would have none of that.) This made me think of how important relationships are to all creatures. Solomon was making a sacrifice to keep the family together. He can’t communicate using words, but he communicated through his actions. And when you think of it, we humans also communicate volumes to the people around us through our actions. Research has long shown that the majority of our communication is nonverbal. That includes body language, facial expressions, tone of voice, gestures, eye contact, posture, and proximity to others. Some children, especially those on the autism spectrum, need help with this area of communication so they can develop and grow in their relationships with others. Many adults, as well, need reminders about to use nonverbal cues effectively.

And that brings me back to my excursions through the long grass behind our home.  I wonder what my body language was communicating to the neighbors when they saw me sneaking around the back fence?

Post-Christmas Musings

The lights still shine on our Christmas tree, boughs of pine and cedar are scattered around the house and the fragrance of Christmas lingers. The carols on our stereo remind me – on Christmas Eve, my husband and I sat in front of our fireplace listening to music, sipping a cup of freshly brewed coffee. Away in the Manger began to play on the radio and for some reason I was startled by the words, “ . . . the baby awakes, but little Lord Jesus no crying he makes.”

I put down my fresh-brewed cup of coffee and turned to my husband, “I think he did.” My husband looked a bit confused and said, “who did what?”

“I think Jesus cried when he was a baby – how else was he going to communicate?” I went on to say, “crying is an infant’s first form of communication. They cry to let people know they are hungry, they need to be changed, or they just need to be held! Crying is not a bad thing. Besides, it’s right in the Bible. One of the shortest verses says, “Jesus wept.” Of course he was all grown up then, but he did cry. He probably still weeps over the suffering of others - those without jobs, those who have lost loved ones & those who are hurting just because they need to be held.

My husband picked up his not-so-freshly brewed cup of coffee & said, “I think I hear a blog-post coming on.”

He was right. He often is but he doesn’t always hear those words from me.

As December draws to a close and the New Year approaches I hope your life is filled with love, joy, peace, hugs and excellent communication.