Tech Tots

Kindergarteners logging on to computers? Kindergarteners understanding the SHIFT key? Kindergarteners typing in a web address? Who's heard of such things? WE HAVE!!!! This morning we took our friends to the technology lab to learn how to log on to a computer, understand the keys on a keyboard, AND type a web address to get somewhere! Mrs. Holtsman, our Technology Coach and Adminstrative Support person, helped facilitate the instruction with our Kindergarteners and explained the proper way to do things on the computer. As a reward, they got to play on a website. EVERY friend got logged on, learned about the appropriate use of the keys, and typed our blog address to get to a VERY fun website called Build Your Wild Self. The students learned how to get to the link on our blog, so ask them how to get to it and see what kind of "Wild Self" they have!

R-Controlled Vowels

We are SO proud of the excellent readers that our students have become during the first half of the year! They have really been working hard. As many of our friends move up in reading levels, they will begin to come across some unexpected vowel and letter combinations. In order to prepare our readers for this, we have introduced them to R-controlled vowels this week.

When a vowel is followed by an r, it makes a special sound. These are called r-controlled vowels. For instance, /ar/ usually always sounds like the -ar in 'car', and /or/ always sounds like the -or in 'for'. The /ir/, /er/, and /ur/ sound the same as in bird, her, and fur. These all make a /ər/ sound.

Please encourage your student to notice these r-controlled vowels in their nightly reading, as well as to use them in their writing.

Here are some links for extra phonics and phonemic awareness practice:
http://www.starfall.com/n/level-a/learn-to-read/load.htm?f
http://pbskids.org/lions/games/soup.html
http://teacher.scholastic.com/clifford1/flash/concentration/index.htm

When Santa Turned Green

One of our books of the month during December from 2 years ago, was a book called When Santa Turned Green. This book teaches students the importnace of keeping our environment "healthy"  by helping to control global warming. Global warming is a difficult topic for little ones to grasp, but this book puts it in kid-friendly terms to help them understand that if we don't take care of our Earth by recycling, reusing, and not polluting, then our Earth won't be able to last for a long time and even worse, Santa's North Pole will melt! We showed our friends a 6 minute video clip about global warmning and how it is affecting the glaciers in Alaska. We stopped the video to discuss what things like global warming meant. We wanted each friend to understand the impact that each person has on our planet. The students had a chance to finish our prompt in their Reader's AResponse journals I can help global warming by....

Ask them what they are going to do help keep Santa's house from melting!

Reading Strategies

As our students are beginning to comprehend books better and understand the story elements, we are moving into traditional reading with them. We have to start very basic, then build and build and build, so that they get the time to practice a new strategy and master it before moving on to a new one. So what are reading strategies? Reading strategies are like tools in a tool box. Each one is made to help with a particular job or skill. Reading strategies are the "tools" our friends pull out of their "tool box" when they get stuck reading. These are the reading strategies we've taught so far:

1. Look at the picture
2. Get your mouth ready
3. Ask yourself, does that make sense?
4. Point to the words

Looking at the picture is a strategy that we started the first week of school. The students have been telling or "reading" books by looking at the pictures and telling what is happening in the pictures. When we move into traditional reading, that strategy stays the same. They still will need to look at the picture before reading to get an idea of what words they might see on that page. From their, we teach them to get their mouth ready. When they use this strategy, their mouth is forming the sound the first letter in a word will make. They wait for a second before saying the sound, then look at the picture to guess what the word might be. This is where the third strategy comes in, does it make sense. If the first letter in a word they see is S, they might start thinking of words that begin with S. They then need to go back and look at the picture since they know the beginning sound, and think about what word matches the picture and makes sense. Pointing to the right word is very important. They need to use all the above strategies to be able to point to the correct word.

Ask your student to show you their reading strategies from their "tool box"! This is a GREAT thing to do with their leveled book in their book-in-a-bag every night.

Helpful Homework

Kindergarten Homework is a great time for parents to get a glimpse into their child's classwork. Skills that are included in your child's homework have been covered and practiced daily in class. For example, each day in Skills Block, we practice counting the number of syllables in the Star Student's name.



Homework is not meant to overload your child with work. They spend all day exercising their brains, so we do not want homework to be overwhelming. Homework is meant to be a fun time for you to share with your child. If the activities are challenging for your child, only select one other activity to do each night along with reading their Book-in-a-Bag. Homework should not take more than 20 minutes each night.



If you are finding that the homework is not challenging enough for your child, feel free to add other enrichment activities. Doing a page or two from a Kindergarten workbook would be great practice if your child is willing and able. However, also we encourage you to try to add academic practice into your everyday routines. If you are cooking, ask your child to help you think of the steps to making the recipe. If you are riding to soccer practice, ask your child to look for a certain letter or snap word as you drive. Every day moments can easily be turned into teaching moments for you and you child.

Kindergarten Kids

Literacy Stations

We started a very fun and exctiting new activity in our classroom this week! We began visiting literacy stations. Each day, small groups of students will visit a different reading station, which allows them to practice the skills learned during Readers Workshop. At this point in the year, most of our literacy stations are focused around retelling. Students are encouraged to retell the books they read to their neighboors or groups. Their retellings should include such story elements as the characters and setting, as well as events from the beginning, middle, and end of the story. Educational research supports retelling as a stepping stone towards conventional reading, and each of our students will be testing on their retelling skills within the next couple of weeks.

Here are some pictures from our first week of literacy stations:
Reading Star Books


Reader's Theater


Reading on Bean Bags


Partner Reading


Listening to books on tape