1. Give Your Children this Delightful February Love-Day Song

Oh, My Darling Valentine (To the tune of Clementine) February is a short month 28 days or 29 In the middle is a love-day, Won't you be my Valentine? Oh, my darling Oh, my darling Oh, my darling Valentine. In the middle is a love-day, Won't you be my Valentine? —Author Unknown

This great song came to me from mentor kindergarten teacher, Joanie Cutler. “Clementine” is a contagious melody, so you may find yourself repeating, “In the middle, is a love-day, won’t you be my Valentine?” over and over again. What a memorable way for children to learn about February calendar skills, the concept of “middle,” and cultural traditions of love and friendship.

Download: Oh, My Darling Valentine for your Poetry and Song (“I Can Read”) Notebook.

Sing and dance everyday in kindergarten: It’s how the brain learns best!

We have redesigned our Poetry “I Can Read” Notebook pages making it easy for you to see all of the over 200 poems and songs before downloading individual pages.

View our enlarged collection of songs and rhymes: February Themes of Love and Friendship. (These are either in the public domain or shared with permission.) Here is the first page of what you’ll find this month. Just scroll down!

If we missed one of your favorite February songs, poems or rhymes, please send us a copy to info@nellieedge.com. Tell us where you learned it and how you share it!

2. Student-Led Parent Conferences: Video Clips and New Links

What an informative and exciting cadre meeting we had on Student-Led Parent Conferences with Lisa Young! Our Salem Kindergarten Cadre has truly become a professional (and playful) learning community, as we continued to refine and share our best literacy practices. We are excited to share a new video clip on Student-Led Conferences and we hope other teachers will benefit from our passion for excellence.

Glimpses of Student-Led Parent Conference Video Clip with Lisa Young

Teachers who use student-led parent conferences tell us, “This is just the best thing we do.” We Agree. Ongoing, authentic assessment leading to student-led parent conferences is one of the “Ten Best Practices in Joyful Accelerated Kindergarten Literacy.”

Consider the benefits of allowing young children to participate in setting goals, evaluate their progress, and communicate their new learning accomplishments—with great pride. Our goal is to place learning is in the children’s hands, so they become more self-motivated, responsible, and independent.

For more information, see the following:

• Teacher Stories: "Student-Led Parent Conferences are the Best Thing I Do!"
• Student-Led Conferences: What Does the Child Share?
• Tips on Creating a Celebration of Learning: Student-Led Parent Conferences in Kindergarten
• Student-Led Parent Conference List (PDF)
• Help Parents Use Active Learning and Encouraging Language
• Student-Led Parent Conferences in Kindergarten: A Celebration of Learning
• What Do We Read? We Read the Walls
• I Can Read Independently in Kindergarten: I am Building my Reading Stamina
• Video Clip: L-O-V-E Spells Love

Reach for the Stars With the Lives of Our Children

3. Download Chewy Yum Yums and Full-Color Play Dough Picture Recipe

Kids and cooking go together—what a delicious way to learn! 

Chewy Yum Yums with dates and nuts are easy, fun to mix, nutritious, and yummy to eat.  Consider making these for your Valentine’s party or student-led parent conference snacks.  You are welcome to make copies of our recipes for families.

Download Chewy Yum Yums and other picture recipes.

Our Play Dough Recipe is now available in Full-Color: You can enlarge and laminate this recipe for your classroom-cooking center.

Tip: Bags of pink play dough make a fun valentine gift for your children.

4. February Writing Ideas and New Curriculum Links

View our sign language video clip:

  L-O-V-E Spells Love
  M-O-M Spells Mom

Singing, signing, and spelling are powerful ways to learn high-frequency words.  

February card writing activities provide great practice in writing meaningful sentences and phrases:

I love you.     To _________.
I like you.      From _________.
You are my friend.

Keep sentence strips, photos/name cards of classmates, a variety of paper, pens and envelopes in your card-making center.  Children can practice writing a message and adding “To _____” and “From _____.”  Enjoy their delightful, creative designs.

See Becky Leber’s Literacy Centers Photo Essay (page 2).

Invite children to write love coupons and bring them home for Mom and Dad. This idea comes from the book
Kid Writing: A Systematic Approach to Phonics, Journals, and Writing Workshop by Eileen Feldgus and Isabell Cardonick (page 92)

See the Kid Writing Website

Children can write “I love you” messages to secretly hide around their homes.

Brainstorm where they might tuck them: Under Mom’s pillow? By the computer? In Dad’s shoe?...

Each child can write several notes on 4" by 8.5" paper and tuck them inside a business envelope to keep them safe on the way home from school. This is a great way to build fluency with high-frequency (“heart”)words and phrases.

Here are Our Current Favorite February Links:

• Kinder by Kim February
• Mrs. Flanagan’s Little Giraffes Valentine’s Day
• Mrs. Critchell’s Valentine Ideas
• A Wrinkled Heart– from Hummingbird Educational Resources
• Diane Bonica’s Kindergarten Galleries: Heart and Friends Quilt
• Kindergarten Homestead Valentine
• Calico Cookie Valentine’s Themes

Happy Browsing!

5. See Reformatted “Kid Writing” Video Clips

Kid Writing Workshop Video #1
In the first segment of this “planned demonstration,” Julie models the format of the beginning “Kid Writing” lesson. The goal is to help children see themselves as writers.  Children already know how to make wavy lines, zigzags, and “magic lines...”

Kid Writing Workshop Video #2
In the next short segment, Julie demonstrates how to help children formulate a plan for their illustration and writing—extending their thinking with what, why, where, and when questions. Julie Lay helps each child verbalize complete thoughts by identifying a topic and expanding on details.

Kid Writing Workshop Video #3
In this session with two different kindergarten writers, Julie Lay intentionally highlights the strengths shown in each piece of writing based on the state and district literacy goals.

You will see references to the “kid crown” hats (such as the King of “-ing”).  This is adapted from the Kid Writing website.  Notice the high-frequency “heart” word wall, which incorporates Sign Language, and finger spelling.

Upcoming Writing to Read in Kindergarten: Explore the Power of “Kid Writing” seminars:

• February 28, 2009,  Edmonds, WA (space is available)
• July 2, 2009,  Portland, OR (Airport Sheraton)
• May 2, 2009,  Spokane, WA (still tentative)

6. Kindergarten “Daily 5” Seminar - July 1, 2009 - Portland, Oregon

Thank You Brenda Power, editor of Choice Literacy, and “The Sisters” for granting our wish for a special Kindergarten Daily 5 Seminar. Many Oregon and Washington mentor kindergarten teachers will bring their joy and expertise to this gathering. We can’t wait!

For registration see: http://www.thedailycafe.com/Workshop_Registration_Form_2.pdf

We have scheduled our Magic of Signing Songs Seminar on June 29 and 30, so there will not be a conflict with the Kindergarten Daily 5 Seminar. See Nellie Edge Seminars for information.

I am amazed at how many of our best kindergarten literacy practices are made more effective within the literacy framework and management strategies described in The Daily Five: Fostering Literacy Independence in the Elementary Grades (book and DVD) by Gail Boushey and Joan Moser. Stenhouse, 2006. Many of our Kindergarten Cadre members are using “The Daily Five” model to build a culture of kindergartners who choose to read and write because they love to build their read and writing stamina.

As teacher-researchers, we are exploring:

• How does “The Daily 5” framework fit into a two-and-a-half-hour program?
• How do I make room for student book bags or individual book boxes?
• What are the best “Just Right: I Can Read!” books (a.k.a. good-fit books) to begin the year with?
• How do we quickly build a repertoire of books that children can read with confidence and fluency and a class library of quality fiction and nonfiction titles?

“The Sisters” have a website called The Daily Café featuring some great video clips, resources, articles, and downloads that continue to support our professional development. All of our local Salem Elementary schools now have a subscription: it is a valuable resource!

7. Salem Cadre Schedule

There will be no February Cadre meeting. Janis Wurgler will announce a March workshop on Enhancing Spanish and English Language and Literacy.

Wishing you a love-ly February,

Nellie Edge