This summer seems to be flying by.  I am trying to wrap my head around teaching a K/1 combo this up coming year.  Have you ever felt like you were going around in circles?  Well that's where I'm at.  So I keep stepping away to do something else and then I go back and go in circles again.  Hopefully I'll have something figured out by August.  It's funny, there's not much out there on teaching K/1 combos. 

In the meantime I went to a seminar put on by Nancy Fetzer on writing in Kindergarten / First grade.  She firmly believes children need language before they can write.  She makes sure the children are very good at saying what they will be writing.  I have mentioned before I teach a majority of second language learners and the big problem for them is they have very little language in English and a lot of the time very little in their own home language.  Now I'm suppose to get them to write.  Seriously!!!!!  It was an enjoyable day learning with Nancy.  Her ideas, strategies, and methods really make sense.  She has books available as well as many videos. 

I already incorporated  her TPR (Total physical response) method for teaching beginning, middle, and end.  Just by watching her videos and finding some PDF print outs. My students sat on the rug and took notes on a blank piece of paper folded in thirds.  We worked together to figured out the beginning of the story (we had just read).  I drew a simple picture (they copied) and with hand motions we said what happened.  Next, her suggestion was to do the end of the story.  It worked brilliantly.  We did the same, figured out the end, drew a simple picture, and said it.  Finally, it was easy to put some middle part for the story down.  We drew again a simple picture and said what happened.  Finally, by looking at our notes we were able to say our story together in order with our hand motions.  If I asked what happened in beginning they could tell me, if I jumped to the end they could tell me, or middle of story they knew.  I checked again after lunch and they could still tell me.  It worked great.  I will start this earlier this coming year.  If you get a chance check her out. 

Enjoy the summer!