December Pictures

Module 2A

GET INTO THE BOOK!!!

What a WONDERFUL first quarter!  Now, in second quarter, we are more deeply getting into the book!  During this next module, we will use a variety of comprehension strategies (making connections, predicting/inferring, questioning, monitoring, summarizing, evaluating) as we listen and respond to a variety of literature.  We will read cumulative tales, circle stories, and animal stories.  We will discuss the roles of the author and illustrator as well as define characters and setting.  Students will retell stories in a logical sequence and ask and answer questions based on the text.  We will continue our study of identifying words and pictures that rhyme, as well as producing our own rhyming words.  We will compare and contrast our Jan Brett stories as we think aloud about the characters, setting, and major events of each story.  We will read about "juicy" (descriptive) words while reading The Napping House and will include juicy words in our own conversations and individual work.  

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Snappy Words

                                 and, are, do, for, have, here, look, play, she, he, was

Please continue practicing sight word cards nightly :)

In Readers Workshop we will:
- Close our books and retell what happened in the book using the words first, next, then, last
- Monitor if we are reading too fast, too slow, or just right
- Practice using ALL of our strategies to help us figure out tricky words
- Make connections to the stories by sharing with our reading partner
- Re-reading our books to sound fluent
- Predict what will happen next or even after the story is over
- Choose fiction books to read for enjoyment and choose nonfiction books to learn new information
- Read a book and then tell facts/things they've learned from the book
- Ask questions before, during, and after reading a book
- Increase our stamina while reading independently

Please continue reading books nightly with your child.  

Our New Favorite Books

                                      The Napping House by Audrey Wood

                                  If You Give A … stories by Laura Numeroff

                                           
                                            Today is Monday by Eric Carle



                 I Know An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly (and other versions)

                                                 
                                                   The Hat by Jan Brett

                                  Fritz and the Beautiful Horses by Jan Brett

                                          Honey, Honey Lion by Jan Brett

                                          
                                           Hedgie’s Surprise by Jan Brett

                                              Annie and the Wild Animals

                                              
                                             Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell

 In Writers Workshop, we will write narrative pieces again with a greater focus on print concepts, sight words, and awareness of sounds.  Students will focus on "true stories" about something that has actually happened to them.  We will work on:
- Beginning and finishing a new story every day (Beginning, Middle, End)
- Creating work that is "easy to read"
- Planning our stories first across our fingers or by touching our pages before we begin to sketch or write
- First sketching our pictures across pages so we don't forget our exciting idea
- Including the words "first," "next/then," and "finally/last" to show organization
- Stretching words out slooowly to write down one letter for each sound we hear
- Saying a sentence out loud before writing it down on paper
- Using finger spaces to make our writing "easy to read"
- Creating speech bubbles to make our people talk
- Including punctuation marks to show where the sentence stops
- Monitoring our own writing - writing a little, then re-reading our writing to see if what we have written makes sense
- Providing feedback to our writing partners to give tips on how to make our writing "easier to read"
- Including "juicy" words in our writing to describe people, places, or things
- Including sight words in our work and checking to see if we have spelled them correctly 
- Increasing our stamina while writing independently

Apples and Spiders and Bats, oh my!

Last week we finished up a nonfiction unit on apples, bats, and spiders.  We learned that readers read fiction books for enjoyment and nonfiction books to learn new things.  Unknown vocabulary words such as orchard, echolocation and arachnids were discussed.  Students created KWL charts where we discussed our prior knowledge, what we wanted to learn, and then what we did learn once the unit was over.  Diagrams and books were made to further our knowledge of each of these topics.  Our writer’s workshop unit also turned to nonfiction writing, as we were no longer writing about things that we did, but rather things that we know a lot about.  We look forward to future nonfiction units later in the year!

Upcoming Parent Teacher Conferences

Upcoming Parent Teacher Conferences

REMINDER!!! Parent Teacher Conferences will be held Tuesday, November 18th and Thursday, November 20th from 3:45 - 7:30 p.m.  We are all so excited to meet with you to discuss your child's progress.  Please return any paperwork that your teacher sent home by the given date so that we can prepare for meeting with your family.  Thank you and see you in two weeks! :)  

Reading Super Powers!

You may be hearing your student say they are using their "Super Powers" while they are reading at home!  We are learning many different strategies during our Readers Workshop time that will equip your student to read and decipher new words and books when they are stuck.  Here is a quick look at the different strategies we are learning...

• Stretchy Snake- Stretch the word out slowly and put the sounds back together again.
• Lips the Fish- Get your lips ready with the first sounds of a word.
• Eagle Eye- Look at the pictures for clues to figure out a word.
• Peekin' Poodle- Look at the picture and words.  Does it look/sound right?  Does it make sense?
• Flippy Dolphin- Flip the vowel sound if the word doesn't make sense.
• Chunky Monkey- Look for a part of a word that you know.  (s+and = sand)
• Skippy Frog- Skip a word you don't know, and come back to it after reading the rest.
• Helpful Kangaroo- If all other strategies fail, ask for help!

Snappy Words

Snappy Words

 In the classroom, we have been practicing our snappy words!  Kindergarten students are expected to be secure in both reading and writing these words independently by the end of the year.  These words will be found in the leveled reading books and you will begin to see them in your child's writing.

 Please practice these snappy words with your child at home! :)  

I               a               see

to              said           are 

the            go              play

and            she            come

is               all              he

on              here           that 

for              am             have

be              my              went

like            will              get

yes            no               so

was           at                do

with           me

Kindergarten Spelling

Kindergarten Spelling

Have you wondered why your Kindergartener comes home with writing that looks, well, unusual?  You might see writing that looks something like this, "I wt to vu str to sop". (I went to the store to shop). Or like this, "Toda I pd n tu segs"--(Today I played on the swings). 

Kindergartners typically cannot spell conventionally. At this stage of learning, we are teaching students that they are writers---whether or not they can spell conventionally.  They have stories to tell, information to share and books to write.

As adults, we've been writing for a long time! We've had lots and lots of writing practice and can spell most everything conventionally.  For many Kindergartners, real writing, the kind of writing we do in workshop, is brand new. We cannot expect grown-up spelling from novice writers. However, with that being said, students are taught that there is a difference between "kid spelling" and "grown-up spelling". There is no confusion about the kind of spellers that we expect all students will eventually develop into, as they learn and grow as readers and writers.  

Kindergartners are being empowered to write, and to write independently.  Creating independent readers and writers is our ultimate goal.  We help students build confidence in themselves as literacy learners by teaching them from our earliest writers workshop lessons that they can write and they can spell!  

Our first spelling lesson (and one we revisit frequently at this time of the year) was that writers say a word slowly and write the sounds they hear. This is called approximation of spelling, or invented spelling.  Students practice this skill repeatedly and over time, they hear more sounds and write words that look more and more conventional.   With this and other lessons, students are taught that the stories they are writing as a whole are very important, and they cannot get hung up on the conventional spelling of each and every word, or their stories won't get written.  In this way, students typically produce quite a bit of writing at workshop time each day, giving them lots of practice with independent and teacher-supported writing. If conventional spellings were expected, very few students, if any, would get any writing done at all. 


As students are exposed to more and more texts, learn phonics skills, participate in more writers (and readers!) workshop lessons, and have more independent writing time with teacher support, you will see gradual changes in the writing that comes home. Students will begin to write in sentences instead of writing labels or individual words, they will write stories that span several pages and the words they write will begin to be spelled conventionally, or very close to conventionally.  You may already be seeing that your child spells sight words correctly in their writing, some of the time. Words such as "can" "go" "at" and "like". This is a good sign!  Your child is realizing that words have conventional spellings, and they are working to make sure that the words they can spell conventionally, are written conventionally. These writers are on their way!

Give your child time to learn and grow as a writer (and a speller!), and you will see amazing things happen over the course of the year!