Monday, March 26, 2007

love those drama work stations!

Recently, in Lee County, VA I saw several wonderful drama work stations in action!

This kindergarten class is retelling a familiar story with felt pieces. After working with it several days in a row, the teacher puts the book and the pieces in the drama station for kids to use for practice.









In this photo, kindergarten students retell
The Great Big Enormous Turnip with pieces
that have velcro stuck on the back. They use
the book to help tell the story.




















Here, a kindergarten child reads the Mrs. Wishy Washy big book and then dresses up to play the role of the main character. Love the props that make this book come alive for the kids! Just add a wash tub, a sponge for scrubbing, and farm animals and watch those kids tell that story.



Guess I'm revved up by these ideas, since I just returned from a trip to NYC this past weekend. While there, I worked with teachers in West Babylon on Long Island. They were so excited about literacy work stations in K-6 and are interested in getting more out of small groups. For fun, I spent one day in Manhattan and another in the Hamptons!


Stay tuned to my blog. I finally figured out how to insert more than one picture. Hooray! Now to work on formatting.
Baby steps.

Happy Reading,
Debbie

Friday, March 16, 2007

Classroom Makeovers

Back home in Houston. Just missed all that snow falling on the east coast!

We are getting ready for "classroom makeovers" in Pearland ISD. Gretchen has been shopping at Home Depot getting lots of goodies to use in six classrooms. Can't wait to see the end results. Here are some photos of the stuff she got today!

Did you know you could find such cool stuff at Home Depot for your classroom? Rugs, bookshelves, pillows, and lamps for your classroom library. Paint buckets for storing materials. Chalkboard and magnetic paint for transforming ugly cabinets into useful spaces.

Stay tuned for photo updates of these classrooms... if I can figure out how to import more than one photo into these postings!

Debbie








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