We, too, begin our morning meeting time singing and reading poetry. Each child has a copy for his own Poetry & Song folder. And each song/poem is on a big chart stand. We get lots of uses for these as Kukonis mentioned. Many minilessons refer back to our songs, lots of word work but also including identifying theme. We integrated some social studies with several Patriotic songs ( when students chose their favorites to sing again and we held a Poetry Cafe for parents to attend they overwhelmingly chose songs like America, This Land is Your Land and Yankee Doodle). And like Debbie Miller, I use these songs to signal when to come to the carpet for read alouds and minilesson. Second graders love to sing! Linda/2/OH
On Sunday, May 27, 2007, at 08:36 AM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Just a reply to the concept of singing and fluency. > > I teach first grade and we begin each day with a morning sing... > something I > decided was a must after responsive training inservice. In fact, in my > old > district, morning sing was a school wide affair that began each day. > > Now I am not talking about traditional first grade ditties or nursery > type > songs. We sing popular songs of yesteryear and the here and now. > > Besides the community that it builds, I have found that it really helps > first graders in a number of ways.... > many examples of working with words are naturally built in..... > this was > eye opening to me when an emergent reader spelled the word beautiful > in > September... she just hummed "Oh what a beautiful morning" and when > she came to > beautiful she said she closed her eyes and pictured the chart....of > course > there are all the other working with words strategies that can be > used just as > well as configuration and visual imagery. > > Then there's all the reading comprehension strategies connections, > mental > images, determining importance.... in fact we just finished > inferences and > are now working on synthesis. The kids are singing "Let the day > begin" by the > Call a real happening now type beat......and are doing a marvelous > job of > inferring and synthesizing how they begin their days. Conversation > has been > going on for days about attitude, thankfulness, self-improvement, > perseverance, > cooperation.... we taken it to writing poetry as well as our own > songs... It's > also a good jumping board for our final unit in reading workshop: > planning > our lives as strong readers and writers ....lots of good stuff. > > Singing also helps with peer revision; our motto is ... if you we > can't sing > in front of each other, how could we ever peer edit? This sets such a > wonderful tone for respect and cooperation, and understanding when > kids come > together to help each other... rather than that "gotcha,I'm smarter > than you" that > I've seen happen with younger children. During our research reports > on the > rain forest, kids would spend their time printing out articles and > cutting > pictures they found for other kids' reports while searching for their > own info > rmation. > > Then there's the whole aesthetic stance to text... I love when the > kids pick > songs for us to sing. They have to tell why they chosen a morning sing > and > how it would help us as community member or reader or writer.... > > Finally, another very early benefit for first graders: stamina! > Children are > not afraid on longer text. In September my early readers often choose > books > that are tad longer in length and say.... well it is not as long as > our text > in morning sing. > > I love morning sing... it sets up my day as well. I just don't plow > into the > day... more reflective and hopeful... > > > > ************************************** See what's free at > http://www.aol.com. > _______________________________________________ > Mosaic mailing list > [email protected] > To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to > http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/ > mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. > > Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive. > > _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive.
