Dilly Days with Beth and Joellyn: Authors of The InvestiGator Club™ for Robert-Leslie Publishing

Joellyn managed to get in a quick phone call to me today. She, Beth, and the Robert-Leslie team are still going full steam at the National Head Start Conference. It sounds like the two workshops that she and Beth led were great successes, attracting 60-80 attendees per session. Wow! She also said that we needed to make their handouts available for download. If you came here looking for those, we’ll try to get them up soon. And thanks for choosing Beth & Jo’s workshops. We hope you enjoyed them.

Here’s a copy of the Anecdotal Notes Form that we developed for our prek program. Please feel free to use it if you like it. anecdotalnotes.pdf

It is easy to tell that teachers are stuck on Post-it® Notes. When I presented at the 2007 North Carolina Head Start Convention, the conversation kept coming back to those all-important, but rather cumbersome, anecdotal notes. Many teachers write anecdotal notes in journals, on mailing labels, on index cards, in official forms, or on class record sheets. But the majority of teachers said they used those temporary little sticky notes until they can finally get to those portfolios.

A portfolio is the physical “home” for a child’s achievements and records. It can be a folder, a box, or anything that contains information about a child’s progress. The task of organizing Post-its within all that content is tricky and sometimes overwhelming. There are many ways to create an organized system that works for you. Here are a few of my suggestions:

• Attach these notes to relevant samples, photos, audiotapes, or videotapes.
• Make a chart of outcomes and objectives. Leave a blank column that is large enough for whatever type of pad or label you use. Stick the anecdotal notes next to the appropriate item.
• Use a weekly or monthly calendar. Affix anecdotal notes to the days on which the observations were made.

What is your system for recording and organizing anecdotal notes? We’d love to hear from you.

It’s springtime, and many preschool teachers teach life science lessons that involve eggs. But it’s not just chicks that hatch! Take some time to talk with young children about egg-laying reptiles like alligators. After discussing alligators and their eggs, you can complete this integrated math/art lesson.

Help children cut out construction-paper rectangles, squares, triangles, and circles and glue them together to make an alligator. Be sure to name the shapes and discuss their attributes. Along the alligator’s back, have children arrange paper squares in an AB pattern, such as the pattern shown in the photo (black/black, yellow/yellow). Ask children to glue down the squares as patterned bony plates. When you’re done, you not only have adorable alligators, you have integrated your curriculum to teach shapes and patterns.

Curriculum integration is an important aspect of helping young children gain a variety of academic and social skills. Because Beth and I know this, integration is at the heart of The InvestiGator Club curriculum. For example, units like Finny, Feathery, Furry Friends help you use animals as a springboard to teach children skills in language, literacy, mathematics, science, creative arts, social and emotional development, approaches to learning, physical health and development, social studies, and technology. One lesson often incorporates more than one content area. For example, you might read aloud a picture book as an introduction to a math lesson. In this way, literacy and math are combined naturally. Integration is a wonderful approach to teaching!

On a fun note, It’s worth mentioning that at the InvestiGator Club, we are especially fond of alligators. Dilly Gator, the founder of the club, is an alligator herself.

March 24, 2007, Winter Park, FL: Nearly 100 educators gathered just outside Orlando for the first-ever Florida Prekindergarten Conference. Professional development for educators is nothing new, but this was the first time that the focus was solely on pre-K educators.

Educators learned about the latest trends in early childhood education as well as ways to improve the quality of their pre-K programs.

Sarah Sprinkel presented the keynote address, “Prekindergarten: What Difference Does It Make?” Sprinkel is a former director of Early Childhood Education, legislative liaison, national keynote speaker on brain development and early reading, and program adviser for The InvestiGator Club Prekindergarten Learning System.

Other presenters included respected early childhood educators:

Caren Abbott “Classroom Management”
Margrette Ackert “Developmental Play”
Christina Earley “Learning Differently”

Peggy Greene “Setting the Stage”
Sharon Jones “Social and Emotional Growth”
Karen Lindberg “The Importance of Oral Language Development”
Laurin MacLeish “Family of Fours”
Tiffany Taylor “amily Involvement”
Mary Williams “Art of Storytelling”
Beth Wise “Keeping Them Curious”

While visiting colonial Williamsburg, the kids and I got caught in a Nor’easter (a really big east coast storm). As you can see, it didn’t spoil our time.

Here is a simple and adorable bulletin board idea for the month of April. Invite children to bring in photos of their favorite cats and dogs. Children, friends, and family can be in the photos, too. Also have children draw and cut out pictures of cats and dogs. Attach each photo and drawing to a large raindrop cutout. Post the raindrops on a bulletin board titled It’s April, and It’s Raining Cats and Dogs!

When you’re working on this project, don’t forget to talk about weather and how the season of spring varies from place to place.

Hi, everyone. Since Jo and Beth can sometimes get really busy doing their experts-in-early-childhood-education thing, I (the behind-the-scenes admin) will occasionally pop in to let you know what they are up to.

On April 17th, they are leading two workshops at the 34th Annual Head Start Conference: “Building Relationships Between Schools and Families” and “Developing Social and Emotional Skills Through Language and Literacy.” You can also catch up with them at The InvestiGator Club booth #401. Please visit www.robert-leslieevents.com for more information. Stop by and say “hi!”

Hello, everyone. We decided to give you all a peek into what we do to get our entries up. Here’s our first planning session for your reading pleasure.

JO: So, how might we introduce ourselves to our fellow prek folks?

BETH: Hmmmm. Let’s just start. Jo, have you ever blogged before? I’d love to jump in and try it.

JO: No, but that’s never stopped us before. I’m looking forward to sharing our experiences in “preschool land.” Okay. So, I don’t want to sound canned, but I do want to tell everyone that we’re going to be discussing a lot of hot preschool topics as well as giving people activities that they can actually use tomorrow in their classrooms and homes. That sounds canned, but that’s what I want to say . . . hey, maybe I just said it.

BETH: We should have kept a journal or diary for the last few years to record our experiences in “preschool land.” With all the research, presentations, classroom visits, and incredible preschool teachers we’ve met along the way, do we ever have a story to share. Although, I’m a little worried about the stories you might tell on me.

JO: Don’t worry. I’ll keep those to myself. So, we’re authors of a comprehensive preschool curriculum. Our bios will tell how we got there, but they don’t tell why. I’m ready to tell. Are you?

BETH: Well, I never pass a 3 or 4-year-old cherub without stopping to

JO: Stopping to what?

BETH: Stopping to talk with them, watch what they’re doing, and in general, get an instant day brightener. There’s nothing more incredible than watching a curious child explore the world and the people and things in it!

JO: Yep, I agree. There is more though. I got into this because I think little ones deserve play, lots of play, but play with purpose. I think they deserve things like good literature, meaningful math experiences, and real science (that includes the scientific method at their level). And I think preschool teachers deserve materials and methods designed just for them.

BETH: How lucky we were to have the opportunity to work together and to really create a program that keeps the spark in every child’s eyes and supports the teacher to instill a love of learning and investigating the world!

JOELLYN: I do feel lucky. So, let’s ask the people what they want so we can continue supporting them.

Dear readers, what do you want to see in this blog? I’ll post our very first April activity soon, and we plan to offer more monthly activities. What else do you want to see? We’ll keep adding as we hear from you.