Little Readers

I did not have a specific title to give away so I let families choose from a variety of books. I let families pick their book as they came in. It was really great to see that some of the children, especially some boys, were SO in love with their books that they just carried them on the play structure and held them throughout the class, stopped doing the project to read, and just sat down immediately to read their book as soon as they picked one.

-Laura Hecht

One on the way...

Grecia is my only student turning three before the start of next semester, which means she will be graduating and moving on :(. She has been with us for the three years I have been teaching. I jokingly asked her mother if she had thought about having another baby so she could keep coming to my classes. Turns out, there is indeed another baby on the way! (Here she is by the way - this year, getting ready to turn three, and three years ago in our Babies class with mom.)

-Dawn Noelle

Prints

We had a fun time making print using a variety of tools. We used cookie cutters, spoons, forks, corks and paper cups. We only used three colors, but the prints created by the children were interesting.

I read aloud ¿De que esta hecho el Arco Iris?, which I thought fit nicely since we did prints with colors and have had rainy days. Unfortunately, we didn’t see a rainbow in the sky that day.

-Laura Hecht

Signature Songs

Some teachers seem to have a signature song. Norma's Tick-Tock class at City College is named for the song in which each mother lifts up their baby at the "cuckoo" chime, once, then twice, and finally three times in the third verse. Margaret starts her class in the Tenderloin, with uno-dos-tres CHO! separating the syllables of the word cho-co-la-te as each child gets to hold the mexican molinillo, the kind that is actually used to mix or wisk chocolate in Mexico. The wooden wisk spins when it's handle is held between flat palms that are rubbing together, back and forth, in opposite directions. Rubbing our hands together with an imaginary wisk can even help to warm us up on cool days.

Over my three years of teaching Growing with Books classes, I have settled on my own signature song that I use as a cue to get babies and toddlers ready for storytime. We sing "Ahora Vamos a Leer / Now we're going to Read a Book" as we get ready to "sit right down...use our eyes...use our ears". The last verse about listening is sung in almost a whisper, and now that my students are used to it, it really helps them to quiet down and be ready to engage in the story. (We also start off our circle time with the same tune: "Now we're going to sing a song...")

-Dawn Noelle