Posted by Teacher Ria in Teaching Resources, The Library | 0 Comments

Reawakening the Bookworm

TV. If kids are entertained by two letters, imagine the fun they'll have with twenty-six. Open your child's imagination. Open a book. ~Author Unknown

Not too long ago, I was tagged by several people over at Facebook with a note entitled “100 Books” (or something like that). The premise of the note was that majority of people would have been expected to read only an average of six books on that list. Me…um…I didn’t bother to see how many I had read haha.

I’ve never kept it a secret that reading is not my favorite thing in the world, right? Well, math definitely ranks number one as the academic thing I hate most, but reading is not too far down the list. To be fair, however, as a child I liked to read a lot, but the task was always a bit of a chore to me. During my middle childhood to early adolescence, though, books were a refuge for me. Growing up as a fat kid, after all, was not very fun. Add to that the fact that I am quite an introvert and quite picky with the friends I hang out with. Also, the books of my childhood were fun and as I grew up, romantic and idealistic. But then the world happened and work got in the way then things I have to now read are no longer fun so the bookworm in me kinda went on hibernate mode.

However, a few nights ago I was invited to the screening of The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader and out of the blue, that little bookworm in me kinda peeked out a bit Yes, admittedly I have not watched the first two installments of the film, nor have I read the series, but after watching the movie, I want to! While some of my friends did not enjoy the film (I honestly can’t fathom why!!! hehe…but, we’re all entitled to our own opinions, right???)  I fell in love with it. In the beginning, I wasn’t so sold on it first, but as it went on, I grew to like it more and more until the very end where I found myself drawn to the story. Add to that the theme song, There’s A Place for Us sung by Carrie Underwood, at the end moved me to tears. Well, that and some other things that happened towards the end of the movie

I truly, truly loved the movie, and I rarely ever say that about a fantasy film. Even though I’m into the whole fairy, synchronicity, signs and energy thing, I always liked my movies to be simple and…errr…real? Actually that’s why I never bothered to watch the first two films but since I’ve been working on trying new things, I figured going to see this movie would be a good thing. NO REGRETS I TELL YA!!! Oh…this is also one of those that I will say is so worth seeing in 3D (and yes, I don’t say that very often).

The Chronicles of Narnia, Voyage of the Dawn Treader opened in Digital 3D last Friday, December 3 and opens in regular theaters on December 9, 2010

Yes, C.S. Lewis reawakened my inner bookworm with The Voyage of the Dawn Treader Borrow book?

Posted by Teacher Ria in Arts and Crafts, Classroom Escapades, Lesson Plans, Outside the Classroom, Preschool, Teacher's Corner, Tips and Tricks, Toys and Playthings | 0 Comments

The Alphabet Project

...taking reading out of just books...l

Contrary to what would be assumed, given that I am a teacher who teaches preschoolers after all, learning to read did not come easy for me. For those who have been reading my blog for quite some time now, you probably are familiar with the fact that I was diagnosed with a mild form of dyslexia as a child.  Yes, early on, I couldn’t read. Lucky for me, I had a teacher who noticed the red flags very, very early on and thus I was able to receive interventions very early on.

Back then, I couldn’t learn my letters very well, much less put them together to form words. As I understand (this is based on stories told to me by my mom and people around me, because I don’t really remember first hand anymore what it was like in the beginning), I would write my letters in mirror image and I couldn’t identify them properly. As I grew up, I loved reading but in hindsight, I realize I never was really good at it. I tended to skip words and make them up as I’d go along. It helped, however, that I had a good grasp of the English language and I enjoyed playing word games that allowed me to make up the right words as I went along.

Speaking of word games, this was really how I learned to read. In many ways, I would have to say I was really lucky that my mom is not a very traditional mom, so she really went out of her way to find ways to make learning more interesting and fun for someone like me. One way she taught me the alphabet was through the use of shells and corals in the beaches we often would frequent when I was a child. It helped a lot, I would like to say, because looking for these letters allowed me to work on my perceptual reasoning skills and helped me be able to see how letters really look like. To this day, whenever I am in a beach, I go and collect these shells to spell out stuff, just like these:

So today, I was inspired to start a new project. I want to take my alphabet project outside of just the beach and be able to find letters all around me and take photos of them. Here are a few examples:

Let’s see what I can find! Do feel free to take photos and send them to me via my Facebook Page so I can add them up

To keep tabs on the project, please check out my Alphabet Project Flickr Set

Posted by Teacher Ria in Arts and Crafts, Teacher's Corner, The Library, Tips and Tricks | 2 Comments

My Concept Wall

It’s been over a month since classes started and I realized I still have not posted what my classroom concept wall looks like. With no further ado, here it is!
The caterpillar is actually a recycled one from my Toddlers days but I love it so much I decided to keep it, even if my students don’t really need it. For the calendar, I decided to up the ante by having the kids master the concepts of yesterday, today and tomorrow.

My favorite feature, however, is the reading train. My co-teacher painted that over the summer There are a series of pockets which currently hold our various word lists. An alternative I was thinking of is tracking titles of books we read throughout the month. Fun idea, huh?

Join in and jump aboard the reading train!

Posted by Teacher Ria in Tips and Tricks | 1 Comment

How My Mom Taught Me To Read in Cool Summer Classrooms

Maybe the words “learning” and “summer” do not make the most appealing combination. I’m sure for most students the idea of learning during the summer is the last thing on their minds. However, just because classes are out does not mean learning has to end. Summertime is a great time to explore other interests, talents and skills. Like I always say, learning should not be confined to the four walls of a classroom!

My favorite outside the classroom “classroom” is the beach.

While most parents opt to enrol their kids in sports, creative arts, or even reading/math enhancement programs, my mom used to take me to the beach for summer. We’d stay for extended periods of time, thus not allowing me to have enough time to enrol in whatever program during the break. However, it wasn’t always fun and games while I was at the beach. It was during these vacations that I learned that learning is indeed cool and fun, even in the summer.