letter work in multiple ways

Some of the children's work recognizing, learning, and writing letters and common words is through Fundations - a highly structured program designed to provide necessary foundational skills in literacy. As with many programs, there are useful parts. I find the consistency and predictability of the program essential - the continued reminder of always starting at the top and the use of specific lines to guide letters.

You may hear your child talk about these lines;

The Sky Line
The Plane Line
The Grass Line
The Worm Line

In Kindergarten we focus much of our letter work on recognizing and writing lower case letters. For example, the letter t starts at the sky line and is a straight line down to the grass line. You then make one short line across at the plane line. 

Fundations is language based. For some children, the use of visuals is more supportive, allowing for less language to be used. As with any program, it is not the only way to learn and should be one part of many different learning opportunities! I find that our most authentic and meaningful learning occurs throughout the day - finding letters or words we know in the morning message, recognizing letters in our favorite books, building letters out of blocks, making letter shapes with our bodies outside, finding letters in nature, painting letters...there are many ways to thoughtfully explore letters! This kind of learning is naturally differentiated - one child may hear the letter sound t in the word today and their peer may connect to their noticing by sharing that they hear the word day in the word today. While Fundations may be used to help provide foundational literacy skills, it is only one way to develop essential and meaningful skills and knowledge.


Writing letters on white boards - part of the experience is following directions. Keeping your work space organized, listening for the letter name or sound, practicing following the specific lines, and then stacking materials as part of the clean up transition.

 

 

This week, the Kindergarteners worked on letter books based on the letters we've been investigating. In the books, children traced the letter and added detail to the drawing. As with all of our experience, we ended with a share. For one share, children read their book to a peer  - following the children's interest in talking about the books, I introduced the idea of a partner share!

For another share, CM read her letter book to the class - pointing to each letter and word as she read.

 

 

During choice, many children built letters with blocks and wooden rods. Throughout the afternoon I heard, we're building t's! This is an example of an authentic exploration and construction of letters - coming from the children's interest and curiosity.

 




Reading the morning message is a rich time for children to find, point, and read letters and words they know - or to point to words they are wondering about! We share noticings, clap the parts in words, and count how many letters. It is again a time for building foundational skills in an engaging and meaningful way.

 

 

Following the children's interest and love for dot art, I offered dot letters as a choice on Friday morning. Children noticed the shape of the upper case letters, counted how many dots, and made patterns. I used the three letters we've been investigating this week, but some children were interested in making dot letters for their name. I offered them the collection of letters - a large pile for them to sort through and find the letters in their name.