reading partners

We have always talked about how we work together as a community to help or support all of our learning. When you have a question, ask a friend first, then ask the teacher. When you are part of an experience, make sure to be in the green zone, to help all of your peers learn. If you aren't ready, take a little break. Another way to support learning is through a partnership. Kindergarteners feel empowered when given the responsibility and trust to be a helpful work partner. 

On Friday, the children read one of their new books with their work partner. I watched, as the children sat close together, pointing to and reading each word. Partners give reminders to use strategies and can help develop fluency by echo reading - or rereading. I often find partner reading to be the most successful part of our workshop, as children want to share a favorite book or page with a friend, they want to talk about books, find sight words, and laugh at the silly or surprising pictures. Following our partner reading, one child mentioned bringing their book home to read to their family. From there, an idea was born! I quickly invited children to choose one book to bring home to read to their family. 

Of course, it is still important for children to be read to as often as possible. To engage with the colorful language or illustrations in a classic story. To talk about their favorite stories and make connections. To hear how readers read with expression. When I think about what Kindergarteners should be doing on the weekend or after school, I think about playing outside, building, and exploring. I think about being cozy with a loved one on a cold winter day, reading from a stack of favorite story books.

 

 

 

a glimpse into math workshop

Playing math games and engaging with manipulatives helps children to develop a deeper number sense. Through our workshop, the children are actively decomposing numbers, recording how many, developing strategies for grouping numbers to quickly recognize an amount, noticing similarities and differences in shapes, and setting the foundation for our work writing, reading, and solving equations.

 

 

Our workshop always starts with a mini lesson. Through the lesson, new strategies or games are introduced. Sometimes, the lesson is a math read aloud with specific math terms, other times it might be working with materials as a whole group. On this day, children built number racks. Number racks further support children's developing number sense. Our number racks will be an additional tool for encouraging children to think in groups of fives and tens, supporting their developing addition and subtraction strategies.

 

supporting developing writers

The Kindergarteners have been working on telling, planning, and writing true stories. We have worked together to create a culture of storytelling in our classroom. One way to support the children in putting their words - from speech bubbles to action words - on paper, is to work on a collaborative piece. With a little scaffolding, the children wrote a short story about the time we saw a chickadee on our bird feeder - the little bird was close enough to reach out and touch! It's important for the Kindergarteners to recognize you can take any small moment from your day - any little experience - and tell about it. You can make a reader or an audience feel like they were there by having expression, using detail, and making the characters talk.

All of our work during reader's workshop and writer's workshop has been connected. The children know that when reading a story, you try to sound like the characters. When writing a story from your life, you tell or write what the characters said! When reading a story you notice who the characters are, where the story is happening, and what is happening - when writing a story, you make sure to tell or show who, where, and what. The reinforcing of teaching points, and the making of connections, happens throughout each day.

 

 


When reading their writing after school and checking in with students throughout our workshop, I've noticed more and more children are trying to write full sentences. This desire to write a sentence is coming from the students, from their love for authoring their own work. One way to reinforce the teaching of writing a full sentence with spaces between words, is to build a sentence.

We reread our big book, I Went Walking. I took one sentence from the story and offered a sentence strip to each student. Some chose the challenge; a mixed up sentence for them to cut and put in the correct order. We have built letters, words, and sentences throughout the school year. This is one of my favorite learning opportunities, as children eagerly embrace the directions; point to each word and read the sentence, count the words and spaces in the sentence, carefully cut out each word, and put the words in order. As children worked around the oval rug, I explained how this practice will help make their sentence writing stronger; it helps to remind them to always have spaces between words and full sentences. It also helps to reinforce the importance of rereading and checking your work; Does your sentence tell what your picture is showing? Is there punctuation at the end? 

Perhaps the best part of this experience, is reading the mixed up sentences, as children enjoy playing with the word order to make a silly sentence. Learning should sometimes be a little silly!

 

 

 

Do you want the sentence already in order or the challenge? Kindergarteners make a choice in their learning.

 

 

The children were brave to try drawing something new. Many of the pigs were inspired by the pig character in Elephant and Piggie, while other pigs were described as a collection of different kinds of lines.

integrating sight words

I believe all parts of our day are opportunities for learning. When I was a student teacher in a preschool classroom, I remember my mentor told me, Don't waste their (children's) time.

That statement has always stuck with me and when I reflect after each day, using our experiences and learning to plan for the next day, I always keep that statement in mind. While I know the school day is long for young children, I also feel like our time is limited - so we must not waste it. We must also ensure that all of our experiences are connected, meaningful, and important - time is valuable and should be used in meaningful and authentic ways. It is essential to encourage learning as a challenging and joyful exploration - an exploration is never a waste.

Our morning meeting provides rich learning opportunities for the whole class. Our greeting is often a "find your match" greeting, an interactive and playful way for children to practice their developing reading skills. I pass out the pieces and sing, find and find and find your match now, find and find and find your match now, go and find your match!

The Kindergarteners may be looking for a sight word match, a letter ID and sound match, a sentence match, or a rhyming match. This week, we used a sentence including color words. These words later connected to our shared read aloud as well as sentence building and reading. A "find your match" greeting is a way to differentiate your teaching - I know what students are working on and provide the part of the match that meets their needs.

In the below photographs, children find their match for a color word sentence.

 

The morning message is a vital teaching tool and should always be part of the start of a school day - especially in Kindergarten. In the below photographs, children first filled in missing words and then circled noticings. We discussed letter partnerships - consonant digraphs - we know th works together to make the th sound. Many of the children know these partnerships and eagerly search for them, for other children, the question might be; What do you notice about the words with and the?

Following our message work, children use the pointer to point to and read the morning message.

 

Fundations is one part of the children's building of foundational literacy skills. We review and practice letter names and sounds every day, but also integrate sentence building and reading into our work. On this morning, we used the sentences from our shared read aloud. The children built and read the sentences. Rereading these sentences helps to make our reading stronger!

I then use the transition from Fundations to snack as an additional learning opportunity. In the below photographs, I invited one child at a time to the front to point to a word in the sentence, before going to retrieve their morning snack. Again, this is differentiated based on the individual child - while still working as a whole group.

 

During academic choice, one of our new choices is building sight words. We have practiced building letters, words, and sentences. As with all of our new choices, children were eager and excited to play. Following choice, I invited KC and OM to model engaging with our new choice and asked their peers to provide questions and comments.

I observed KC organize the sight word cards into two stacks - one stack of words he had built and one stack of words he hadn't built. KC has an appreciation for organization, but he also wanted to make his completed work visible. This made me think of the need for a checklist. After the child reads and builds a sight word, they find it on the list and either highlight it or put a check next to it. Another way to expand on this experience, would be to encourage children to grab a white board or piece of paper and record the words they have built. For a class passionate about building and literacy, the building of sight words has been joyfully embraced! 

 

During reading workshop, readers dove deep into their personal libraries to find sight words in their favorite storybooks, nonfiction books, and patterned books. Again, children eagerly embraced the challenge of being a sight word detective, of finding words they know.

 

This post provides a glimpse into some of our time together. I used a literacy lens for this post, but carefully woven into each moment are also ongoing opportunities for learning about community; what it means to be a helpful peer and recognizing the the choices you make influence others. Math concepts are also woven to all of these moments - How many letters in the word? How many words in the sentence? What was the longest word you built? The shortest word?

DON'T WASTE THEIR TIME.

As part of this belief, a young child's learning should be playful and fun, engaging and exciting, authentic and meaningful. They should be supported in recognizing connections across all content areas. Their time should always be full of love - a love for learning and a love for their community.

developing a storytelling culture

Children are natural storytellers. Every experience, structure, dramatic play script, painting, and little collection of found treasures holds a story. We have the opportunity to encourage children to tell their stories, to share and listen. Storytelling is an intimate experience between the storyteller and their audience. Through our stories we share a piece of ourselves. Through the sharing of our stories we connect, excite, and inspire. 

To develop a storytelling culture, we must start at the beginning - at the beginning of our year together! The teacher must ask questions, listen, observe, and document. The teacher must tell their stories, modeling the art of storytelling. My view of the child as a powerful storyteller and as an active participant in our world has encouraged the children to continue to share - this encouragement and recognition has further been supported by our classroom community.

As we begin writing true stories, we talk about the stories we have been telling all year long. The stories I tell from my childhood during lunch, the stories we tell together - like the time a chickadee landed next to our bus line - the stories from playdates and weekend adventures, and the stories from the holidays told during snack. When we support children in understanding that what they have to say is important and that they can make an impact on our world, a culture of storytelling develops. 


Children continue to practice telling true stories to their community;

 

On Tuesday, our first day back following break, there was a buzz in the classroom. As children pulled off boots and unzipped coats, you could hear the beginnings of stories. As with last year, I found this time in our year the perfect time to begin the process of writing stories. The children have practiced telling their stories out loud throughout the beginning of our year together. Now, with their developed writing skills and strategies, children feel prepared to transcribe these stories. 

During our morning meeting, I asked the children to close their eyes and think of their experiences during break - the family and friends they saw and the places they explored. 

"Describe your break using one word - think of it as a story, how would you describe your stories from break using one word?"

Children quickly opened their eyes, grinning at the opportunity to share one word, one word to make their peers want to know more. Some of their words included; snow, Beckett, countdown, beach, presents, sister, hatchimal, playdate...

Later, during writing workshop, OM expanded on his word; OCEAN.

In the above photographs, OM tells a story from his recent trip to Mexico; 

We went to the ocean, my mom got salt water in her eye, but my dad and I went back into the waves to play. My dad asked me to hold on to his glasses, so he could go swimming. But then, the biggest wave came, and his glasses were GONE! He lost his glasses in the ocean! But, he was able to get new ones. My mom was okay, too.

In the below video, CM tells a short story about losing her tooth during snack that afternoon. She uses words (and then, after that...) to connect the parts of her story together - just like we connect pages!

what does peace feel like?

One thing I find to be important to talk with children about before the holiday break - when there is an excitement and uncertainty about the celebrations ahead - is peace.

Such an important word, peace. It holds feelings of warmth and joy, stillness and strength, color and light, wonder and hope. I cannot think of a better time in our school year to begin such a valuable conversation and to encourage children to think beyond the celebrations of the holidays, to practice sharing peace with their family and community. I used our morning message work to scaffold conversations and reflections about the word peace, asking questions from a favorite book; What does PEACE feel like?

On the first day, Monday, 12-18-17, I asked, What do you know about Peace? Children nestled into the rug, closing their eyes to picture the word, to think about what they know. Children could tell that this was important work we were about to begin, their voices strong, but quiet. When sharing their thoughts, they asked if they could come to the front of the room.

 














On Tuesday, I began to invite the children up to write their thoughts on our morning message. Every morning message was a new question about peace, an invitation for children to come to the front and record their feelings - using our writing strategies, such as stretching a word, to write independently. If they needed help, they asked their peers.

In the below photographs, OM writes, sending warm thoughts. Before our morning greeting, we always look to see (and count) the community members not with us. If a child or adult is missing, we close our eyes and send warm thoughts to them. Recently, OM was out sick for a few days. When he returned we asked if he received our warm thoughts - he did! He said they helped him to feel better. How beautiful that a week later he writes; peace looks like sending warm thoughts.

What we do in Kindergarten is important.

 

 

 




On Friday, we reread the children's morning message work from the week, noticing their writing and thinking deeply about their words. I asked one final question, What is peace? I've transcribed their words below. Wishing you all peace in the New Year!


What is Peace?

JF - Peace, to me, is being kind and helping our community by doing my job. Oh, and my little dog!

WM - Peace is being kind.

AM - Peace is love.

ML - Peace is riding Tucker, being with horses, and being with my community.

OC - Peace is being in the green zone.

CM - Peace is snuggling with my mom and playing with Beckett. Oh, and listening to quiet music and being with our community!

AR - Peace is when everyone is calm.

KC - Peace is being quiet.

GK - Peace is being in the green zone and Christmas presents.

RC - Peace is being in a quiet room with my mom and dad.

TJ - Peace, to me, is quiet.

DM - Peace is laying on the snow and looking up at the sky.

ZM - Peace is sleeping and seeing unicorns in my dreams.

TW - Peace is sleeping with mom and dad at night and seeing the moon shining beautiful.