Category: Beth Hankoff

October Update: Classes 5-9 Here are the lessons and activities we did this month: Using sensory details in writing and writing a Fall Sensory Poem (describing fall using each of the 5 senses) Playing theater games to loosen up our creativity and get out of our comfort zones Learning about the typical “Story Arc” in…

San Jose 9/19/18  Cupertino 9/24/18 Here is what we did this week: Journaling/Freewriting Mini-Lesson on Revising – learned the acronym ARMS: add, remove, move, substitute.  Practiced revising using the story we wrote together last week. Discussed oral storytelling and did a theatre warm-up called “Yes, but…”  The class really enjoyed this and you might want…

San Jose 9/19/18; Cupertino 9/24/18 OPENING ACTIVITY: Playdough letters – children rolled out playdough into “snake” shapes to form letters on cards.  The cards guide them as to how to form the letter. LETTERS: We learned B & R this week.  They are still frog jumps, but the R introduces a diagonal line.  We listened…

9/12/18 San Jose, 9/17/18 Cupertino Free writing in journals – I have a table set up with many writing prompts and story idea sources students can use if they choose to. Lesson – Drafting, the second step in the writing process.  I chose a writing prompt called “The Day I Shrunk.”  We did a brainstorming…

September 12 San Jose, September 17 Cupertino Opening Craft: Color by letter Seahorse (fine motor and capital letter recognition) Letters: D and P – we wrote them in the air using BIG arm movements; practiced on the chalkboards; practiced in the workbook Activity Table: we used tongs to put balls in tubes and small disks…

Sept. 5 San Jose/ Sept. 10 Cupertino This week I introduced Writing Journals to the class.  Every week when the students come in, they will grab their journal and begin writing for the first 15-20 minutes of class.  At first, it is tough for them, but in a month or so, they will be asking…

September 5 San Jose/September 10 Cupertino This week we learned about Mat Man – a cute little guy who can be built with the HWT Wood Pieces.  He even has his own song!  We usually make letters with the wood pieces, but Mat Man helps children learn to draw a person with the right proportions,…

August 27 & 29, 2018   Welcome back to class, families!  I will be posting a short summary here every week so you will know what was covered in class.  Here is what we did for the first day: I read the story If you were a Writer and we discussed what the main character…

August 27 & 29, 2018 Welcome to the fall semester at A-TEAM.  I will post a short update each week so you will know what we are doing in class.  For the first class we did the following: Played with activities that build fine motor skills and teach how the letters are formed Went over…

San Jose 5/3/18 & Cupertino 5/7/18 This week we made Mother’s Day cards for our fine motor activity.  We also learned the numbers 4, 5, and 6.  On the last day, we will learn 7, 8, and 9 to finish all the numbers. They have worked so hard to finish the whole book! Students get…