Here I am, sitting on the couch again! Blog stalking, watching National Geographic Channel and blogging! Summer vacation is great!
Yesterday, I read an email from a teacher asking about Responsive Classroom training she had attended. I attended this 5 day training last year so I responded with my thoughts. I am planning a blog post about Responsive Classroom (especially morning meeting) later! Stay tuned! In her response, the teacher made a statement that sent my male kindergarten teacher brain into overdrive. A simple phrase. Three words. One AMAZING LIFE CHANGING product. And a new approach to sight words in Mr. Smedley’s classroom!
OK, so I totally just over sold that but here is what I’m thinking.
The phrase was “sticky note words.” The product is my all time most favorite required supply: POST IT NOTES! And sight words. We all have names for our sight words: heart words, star words, sight words, etc. Well, I’m going to combine my Post-It Note fetish (yes, fetish!) and my sight word instruction into “Post It Note Words” also to be known as PIN WORDS! These are words that need to be pinned into our brains for good reading and writing!
Here is something you should know about me: I am addicted/obsessed to Post It Notes. I truly have over 20,000 Post Its in my classroom as we speak. And I am constantly adding more. Every size, shape and color. I can’t help it. It’s almost like a fetish. I use the Post Its, the kids use the Post Its. They’re everywhere! And so useful. I use them for math scavenger hunts, labeling the room, name tags, story maps and even my lesson plan book! I wonder if someone could design me a Post It Note blog!?!?!
This is all in the idea/planning stages, but I wanted to share the idea and I plan to keep blogging about the progress of my exciting new approach to sight words.
Step 1: I am going to use Post It Notes to display my words on my word wall. My theme for next year is “Mr. Smedley’s Little Monsters” with the colors of lime green, neon blue and orange with some neon pink all on black backgrounds. My word wall will be black and I will use purple, green, pink and orange Post It Notes for the word wall. The colors will help the students remember the words and visualize the words. And it will look cute! Now, i’m trying to decide how to get the words onto the Post It Notes. Handwriting is out because my teacher handwriting is beyond atrocious (remember, I’m a guy…). I can print on Post It Notes….with a cute font so that is a great option. Does anyone have other great ideas?
I also display our 40 Kindergarten words on the ceiling so i’ll use Post Its to add those words to the ceiling!
Step 2: I plan to train the students to use Post It Notes to write down Post It Note words that they locate when reading. This will be focused on our Post It Note WOW (word of the week). These words will be displayed on large Post It Notes each week. And sincce we focus on 1-4 words a week so this will also be a great way to incorporate graphing. As they locate PIN WOW words (Post It Note Word of the Week) they will write it on a Post It and add it our graph. On Friday, we will discuss the graph.
That’s my plan for now! It’s still a work in progress and something I am VERY excited about. I’d love to hear your thoughts on my very oversold sight word plan using Post It Notes!
Ok, I really am going to get off the couch now and go for a run! I have until 10/6/12 to get my six pack abs for our wedding!