1. Our Gift to You: A Year of Poetry

Poetry carries delight and promise through all of life’s seasons. So once again, I encourage you to give children the gift of our most beautiful language—poetry. Letter the words on language charts for shared reading. Invite children to memorize, recite, perform, and read the words; give them time to illustrate individual poetry pages. Gather the pages into their own “I Can Read” notebooks.

Our gift to you: All year, we have added new poems, songs, and rhymes to our monthly themed collection. We now have over 200 copyright-secured (or public domain) pages in this collection. These are 8.5" x 11" pages including enlarged print, poetry, and songs. They are ready for you to view, download, and use in celebrating language and accelerating literacy. See Poetry Collection.

Poetry Notebooks: Build Reading Fluency

• Memorizing short poems provides powerful and engaging practice in phonemic awareness, reading fluency, and high-frequency words.
• Personal “I Can Read” poems can be used during “read to self” time.
• Poetry and songs invite the use of imagery, drama, movement, and Sign Language to enhance and extend comprehension.
• When poetry notebooks go home for weekly sharing, parents become partners in the literacy process.
• Children’s art personalizes the rhyme and creates pride and ownership in the reading selection.
• The Poetry Notebook is an ongoing literacy collection; by the end of the school year, it becomes a treasured book to reread and recite with fluency and delight over the summer months.

For more information, visit our links: 
Photo Essay: How to Develop Poetry ("I Can Read") Notebooks
Kindergarten Poetry "I Can Read" Notebooks—Sample Parent Letter

Why not invite children to give the gift of poetry to their parents? 

Send home a little book with the first lines of some of the songs, poems, rhymes, and story excerpts your children have learned “by heart.” When the parent says the first line, the child gives the gift of reciting the entire poem. 

Here is a Sample Parents as Partners Poetry Gift Letter.

“Pretty things, well said, it’s nice to have them in your head.” – Robert Frost

2. For Your Winter Celebration: Performance Songs in
American Sign Language

A performance of songs about love and friendship provide a wonderful parent evening any time of the year. You Are My Sunshine; May There Always Be Sunshine; L-O-V-E Spells Love; Magic Penny (Love is something if you give it away...); I Love the Mountains; Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star; See Me Beautiful; and What a Wonderful World have been performed with singing and American Sign Language (ASL) to appreciative parent audiences—even earning standing ovations for the young performers. Here, you see Kathy Bridges’s kindergartners singing and signing Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star...

See instructional videos and literacy extensions:
Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
The Pledge of Allegiance

We encourage you to incorporate Sign Language and finger spelling into your classroom: All children benefit from multisensory and meaningful language. Our next Magic of Signing Songs Training Seminars are tentatively scheduled for June 29 and 30, 2009 in Portland, Oregon. This exciting, educational event is attended by teachers from all over the country, and no previous Sign Language experience is necessary. Confirmed details will be available on our website in January 2009. You will be energized, inspired and amazed at how much you learn!

3. Parents as Partners: Literacy Gift Ideas

Families often appreciate simple, inexpensive gift ideas that provide “scope for the imagination”*

• Old dress-up clothes (ask auntie’s and grandparents to help gather)
• Recycled paper, old cards, envelopes, and pens gathered into a writing tote
• Colored balls of Playdough (see recipe) packaged together on a tray with popsicle sticks, plastic animals, or kitchen utensils

For more information, see:
Literacy Gift Ideas
Colored Playdough Picture Recipe
Article: Tips on Using Playdough

*Anne of Green Gables fans will recognize this phrase...

Encourage Families to Sing Together

We often tell parents, “Learning many songs ‘by heart’ is the most joyful way to develop the language foundation necessary for successful reading and writing.” Here is a children’s CD list you may want to share or add to. You will notice that most of these are traditional folk songs and delightful new “classics” that are sung at a comfortable pace to enable children to more easily internalize the sounds and rhythms of the language.

Recommended Children's CDs for Language Learning and Family Singing

4. The Giving Tree: Let Families Know How to Thank You

Throughout the year Parents, Grandparents, and even appreciative Aunties and Uncles, love to contribute to a joyful kindergarten classroom. All we need to do is find a gracious way of letting them know what our needs and wishes are. Innovative teachers have displayed drawings of trees with detachable apples or hearts with a need/wish written on each. Some teachers attach wishes to chocolate kisses (“Take a kiss and grant a wish!”) Think about what you with you had to enhance your program:

• Teaching Peace CD by Red Grammer
• Bird Nests and photos of birds
• Set of gel pens
• Please make a set of 50 blank folded books (I have the 12" X 18" paper and a folded book pattern for you)

For more information see:
The Kindergarten Giving Tree (PDF)
How to Make Folded Books (PDF)

5. Kid Writing Workshop Video Clips and 2009 Seminars

See New Video Clips of the latest Kid Writing Workshop Strategies with kindergarten teacher and literacy coach Julie Lay . Julie studied with Eileen Feldgus, the coauthor of Kid Writing: A Systematic Approach to Phonics, Journals, and Writing Workshop, in January 2008. She implemented these newer strategies in her kindergarten and is excited about the results.

We hope many of you get to study with Julie Lay!

Writing to Read in Kindergarten: Explore the Power of "Kid Writing"

Presented by Julie Lay, facilitated by Nellie Edge and Tanya Wall
February 28, 2009 - Edmonds, Washington (Education Service Center Building)

Julie Lay is a mentor kindergarten and NBCT teacher who has developed a model “writing to read” classroom. Spend a day with Julie and learn practical tips for organizing the literacy environment. Let Julie show you why the “Kid Writing” approach is such a powerful way to systematically develop phonics skills and word recognition through journal writing. Learn multisensory ABC and phonics immersion strategies and how to create interactive word walls. Teach high-frequency words “by heart” and use Sign Language for classroom management while enhancing literacy acquisition. Explore writing and art across the curriculum. Includes beautiful, comprehensive handbook.

Download "Kid Writing" Seminar Flier and Registration Form
Professional Development Credits and six Washington Clock Hours Available

Download Writing-to-Read Seminar Sampler: Complimentary e-book. Thirty full-color pages from the 165-page seminar manual by Julie Lay and Nellie Edge. We invite you to share the "Kid Writing" Sampler with your colleagues.

Your colleagues evaluate this training with Julie Lay

See Photo Essays: “Writing-to-Read” in Kindergarten and “Writing-to-Read” in Kindergarten Part II

We are currently planning our Writing to Read seminar schedule for spring, summer, and fall of 2009. Please let us know by emailing info@nellieedge.com (or ask your district literacy coordinator to contact us) if you are interested in seeing a seminar in one of these potential locations:

Special group registration rates are available for collaborative trainings provided for school districts and kindergarten/early childhood organizations.

6. Salem Kindergarten Cadre: See The Daily 5 DVD

There is no December Cadre meeting.

Any teacher who has not scheduled a time to view “The Daily 5” DVD again, e-mail Janice Wurgler or Kathy Moran at the district office. Also, remember to use the new “Daily Café” website. (Subscriptions are available now at each elementary school.) The video clips inside Joan Moser’s kindergarten are really great!

January 26, 2009 4:30 to 6:00pm

Student-led Conferences with Lisa Young and Continued Dialog About Implementing “The Daily 5”
Marion-Miller Elementary, 1650 - 46th Place SE, Salem, OR 97317. (503) 399-3332.

Lisa will show her ongoing literacy assessment organization, which allows her to be ready for student-led conferences in the spring. You will also love seeing how Lisa organizes her songs onto an iPod for supporting her language-and music-rich “Kid Writing” environment! Nellie Edge and Janice Wurgler will continue the dialog about implementing “The Daily 5.”

Warm regards,
Nellie Edge