Kindergarten - Settling Into Week Two

Wow!! Our second week of Kindergarten was loaded with work and fun. We don't have a minute to spare in our Skills Block. We start out with phonics, phonemic awareness, shared reading (morning message and nursery rhymes), and star names activities. Students learn most skills via singing and dancing. It's a great way to start off the day. After Skills block, we go right into Writer's Workshop. Children are learning what good writer's do. Did you know that good writers say, "When you think you're done, you've only just begun?" This is the answer we give children when they say that they're done with their "writing." Of course they are not writing, but they are learning the art of telling a story through pictures. Eventually, they will label their picture, for example, (s) for sun, and (f) for flower. This will grow into letter strings and magically, on one glorious day, they will write their first sentence. Today, we were busy painting self-portraits, sharing homework, and visiting the Library. The homework this week was for students to find items at home that begin with the first letter/letter sound of their first name (see above picture). These bags of items were shared with the class and proved to be a wonderful "getting to know you" activity. The Honky Tonk will be closed for a much anticipated three-day weekend! We will be looking for our little Mall-ards on Tuesday morning to start another great week!