A few students in VVE Kindergarten classes have been doing some research on animals.  After they shared their research interests, we created this Padlet with links to research information.  Students then read, watched, and listened to information, and added their data to printed booklets.  As they wrote, students were encouraged to use emergent writing processes as they added text and hand-drawn pictures.  Emergent literacy allows students to make choices between when they wish to practice copying words with conventional spelling, and when they wish to use their own understandings of letter-sound correspondence to sound out words.  In the video examples below, you will see both conventional spelling and emergent spelling as these budding readers/writers develop their composition skills in developmentally appropriate ways.  Further, they are practicing their reading skills as they read back what they wrote.  Students then imported saved photos of animals and of their hand-written data into the Shadow Puppet EDU app and added voiceover to read and explain what they learned.  We look forward to more reports over time!

It is hard to believe that the Thanksgiving holidays are already upon us!  At VVE, we are taking time to celebrate together, through feasting together (Kindergarten Charlie Brown Feast), helping each other, writing about those things for which we are thankful, and even running and dancing together.  Cardinals are thankful for family, friends, and many wrote about being thankful for their teachers.  Our VVE teachers give so much to help our young learners, and I'm ever grateful for the many ways we learn and grow alongside one another.  Thank you, VVE, for being a school filled with care, support, and love.

Fifth grade Cardinals have recently begun their biography research project which focuses on learning and writing about a person who has made an important contribution to society.  Fifth graders selected a person they wanted to research, then each began a Padlet to collect research resources.  Ms. Moore came in and did a little research lesson on how to select key search terms, and then use them in the different databases we have access to at VVE.  We discussed how the resources at the top of the Symbaloo grid have the most simple, straight-forward information data and those lower on the grid have more complex search abilities and allow a researcher to find higher-level texts (e.g., more complex vocabulary, higher lexile levels).  In coming days, the fifth graders will write about what they learn and we will add QR codes that link to students' Padlet bibliographies.