More Nursery Rhymes and Phonemic Awareness

 Nursery rhymes continue to bring smiles to our kindergarten students. We have been taking familiar rhymes to the next level with songs, dances, and art projects. What can be more fun that one "Jack Be Nimble?..."

...How about a wall full of Jack Be Nimble.  This is a great way to reinforce rhyming words and build phonemic awareness.

Decomposing the Duval Math Way

 Kindergarten students spent Math time decomposing the number 3 today with materials, drawings and expressions. One activity was for students to draw three flowers using two colors. Then they had to show the number card that represented how many red or yellow flowers they drew. In this picture, this student is showing the number card of the total number of flowers she drew.

Then students were invited to add the expression/equation that matched their drawing.

Reading in Reader's Workshop

Today students practiced reading privately (with their partners) back to back. Each partner set has time to "read" his/her own books before meeting and reading them together. Children may look closely at pictures, discuss favorite parts, or retell their "star" books. These are books they have heard many times and have no trouble picture reading the stories. They may include "Three Billy Goats Gruff, Caps for Sale, and Where the Wild Things Are. When private reading is over, they just turn, sit side by side, and share a book for partner reading time. This is fast turning into a favorite part of the day.

Humpty Dumpty - Phonemic Awareness with Nursery Rhymes

Rhyming words (phonemic awareness) is an essential ingredient in learning to read. One way we practice rhyming is working on one nursery rhyme a week. Humpty Dumpty is a class favorite. We read the rhyme daily (shared reading), dance to the song (movement), and then draw a picture for a nursery rhyme book. This a a great way for the children to have their own special copy of their books and read them to each other.

Writer's Workshop - The Beginning Lessons

Writer's Workshop is picking up speed in our Kindergarten room. Students are writing teaching books. This paper is teaching how to have a birthday party. Children are learning how to add details to their pictures and labeling beginning sounds to their pictures. It's all the little lessons behind these lessons that make our writers independent learners. They now know where to get their markers, paper, sharpened pencils and how to file their work in their folders when they are finished. All of these little "tuck in" lessons are what makes Writer's Workshop a time when students know what to do, what is expected and how to carry on confidently.