Sight Words and Writing Homework

Recently, we sent home two sets of sight word cards with each child.  These cards are for you to keep at home.  This is the list of 42 words that we expect our kindergarten students to know at the end of the year.


At my house, when the kids were in kindergarten and first grade, we would use these cards to play Memory.  Remember that game when you were little?  I would encourage you to start with a smaller number of cards.  Having 84 word cards on the floor in front of you seems quite overwhelming.  I would suggest choosing 10 words, to start, and finding their matches.  That way you only have 20 total cards staring at you. (By the way, I have found that my memory must be declining as I get older.  My kids would always beat me, even when I was truly trying.)

Another thing you may want to do, is use these cards as flash cards.  You can keep one set at home and one set in the car.  I found that this ended whining in the car.  As soon as my kids started to whine about being bored, I said, "Hey, let's practice those sight words!"  Voila!  No more whining!

One last tip for practicing sight words.
 (and I LOVE this idea)
Write all of the words on your child's pillow case, with a permanent marker.  (Buy a cheap pillow case first!)  Then, every night at bedtime, ask your child to pick a handful of words to read.  It's quick and easy, and you'll also have a visual reminder to practice the sight words every single night!  My kids loved this!

By the way, the green folders that were sent home are yours to keep.  We thought they would be a good place for you to keep your child's work.  The name cards are for practicing first and last name with proper letter formation.  The sight word practice sheets are something we are going to use in the classroom, but I accidentally copied a whole bunch.  Rather than recycle them, I thought you might want to have your child practice the words at home.  No need to return these two items.

Also, if the writing homework is too much, please feel free to modify!  You are your child's first and best teacher!  You know how much is too much for them.  Kindergarten homework should not be torture!  Have them do what they can and then set a new goal for the following week.  We will only have this writing homework for a few weeks.  That being said, I would certainly encourage writing at home even when the homework ends!  Kids love to write cards, books, notes to friends, and even grocery lists.

Happy reading and writing!

A Few Of My Favorite Things

It's conference week in kindergarten and it's one of my favorite weeks of the year!  I absolutely LOVE talking to parents.  A lot of teachers dread this week because it's a lot of sitting, a lot of talking, and they really miss the time with the kids.  As much as I love teaching, I love talking to families just as much.

One question that I'm asked every year is, "What can I be doing with my child at home?"  Well, that's a loaded question, and I could talk for hours on this subject.  While many of my suggestions don't include things you can simply go to the store and buy, there are a few products I TRULY could not live without. 

Here are a few of my favorite things!
(Now you have that song running through your head, don't you?)

First up is ANYTHING made by Leap Frog.  I especially love the DVD's.  The Letter Factory helped my own kids learn letters and sounds when they were in preschool.  The DVD is available though Redbox, at the public library, on Netflix, and on iTunes.  There are DVD's for letters, sounds, blending words, sentences, writing stories, and even math concepts. They are fabulous and strongly encourage you to at least find them at your public library.



The Playful Learning Ecademy is a fabulous tool for parents.

 

I've taken 2 of Mariah's e-courses and LOVE them.

LOVE.

THEM.

 I recommend them to all of the parents in my class (as well as Mariah's Playful Learning book). Playful Learning Spaces was my favorite course. As a teacher, I know what types of activities I should be doing at home with my kids.  You might be wondering why a kindergarten teacher would need to take this class. I can't even begin to tell you how inspired I was! Mariah gives you terrific background knowledge about what your kids need to know, what they should be doing at home, and many ideas on how to set up spaces in your home which encourage playful learning.   If I could convince every parent in my classroom to sign up for this course, I would be the happiest teacher alive.  It's that inspiring!

You can click on the link (picture) above to register.

If you're not up for taking an online class about creating playful spaces, then this book is a good option!  Mariah wrote a book on playful learning as well.  It's available at Amazon and Barnes and Noble.  $13 well spent.... enough said on that.



While you're book shopping, The Ready, Set, Go series (levels 1-3) are perfect for kindergarten.  I purchased these for my own children when they were in kindergarten.  They are the IDEAL books for young readers.

Ok, enough about things you can buy.  (But, I really hope you'll consider a few of these products.) I'll be posting about free activities you can do with your kids to encourage playful learning this week.

Happy conference week!

Sight Word Fun

I love it when we have helpers in the classroom.  Mrs. Gable and Mrs. V are both here, pulling small groups of kids, in the mornings.  On Monday mornings I'm lucky enough to have two more volunteers in the classroom.  It's the perfect opportunity to have some sight word fun!

One small group played Sight Word Bingo.



Another group built words.  My teaching partner made those great little beans with the letters on them.  It's something different for the kids and they enjoy building the words with the beans.

See that plastic craft box in the middle? It's one of these boxes you can get at Michael's to keep beads organized.  Each cubby is labeled with a letter and the beans are put back in the correct section when the kids finish making their word.  If you're looking for a fun new way to practice sight words at home, this is a quick and easy way to practice.  You can write the word for your child.  They build the word with their bean letters.  Then they write the word when they are finished. 

Here's the list of sight words we expect kids to be able to read when they complete kindergarten.

Kids are assessed three times each year.  Just ONE MONTH from now, we will be doing our final assessment.  How is your child doing?  We practice these words daily, during writing and phonics time, and on Tuesdays we practice the words through song and dance.  Volunteers and Para Educators work with small groups of kids on letters, sounds, and sight words as well.  We have sent home flash cards for you to practice with your child and hopefully they are enjoying the memory game too! Oh, and don't forget, the little books we send home also reinforce those sight words.  Keep practicing.  Only one month until our final assessment!

Kindergarteners Writing At Home

Last week we started having kindergarteners write at home, as part of our homework assignments. I believe writing at home, several times a week, helps students grow as writers. In half time kindergarten, we don't have as much time to sit and write as the full day kindergarten students. Writing at home, to help make up for lost time, is incredibly helpful as kids develop as writers. Over the past few years, I have observed, that having one on one support, in the home environment, has made a HUGE impact on confidence and ability of our kindergarten students.

Here are some examples of the writing kids have turned in this week.


"I had fun in the snow week."

"I built Legos in my room."

"I made 2 baskets at basketball today."

Kids should write at home, at least 3 times during the week.  As your child writes, try to encourage him/her to say the word slowly and write the sounds they hear.  In class, we use our letter sound cards for support.  Often times, kids will ask, "What does an 'm' look like?"  They may know the sound, but they are not able to recognize the letter.  Proper spelling is not as important as being able to sound out a word, the best they can, and writing the sounds they hear.  Sight words, on the other hand, ARE important to spell correctly.



I will send home 3 writing papers at the beginning of each week.  They need to be turned in at the end of each week.  (The first week, the papers were delayed in coming home because the printshop was backed up after the snow storm.)  Don't worry if your child hasn't turned any papers in yet.  Just turn them in as they go.

The goals of sending writing home as a homework assignment are to have consistent practice,  receive one on one support if your child needs it, and learn to enjoy the writing process.  If this isn't fun, FEEL FREE TO WRITE SOMETHING THAT IS FUN.  Have your child draw a picture and write a sentence to send to Grandma.  Write a mini-book and illustrate it.  Take photos on a walk around the neighborhood, glue the pictures into a book, and write about it.  It is important to keep writing fun!  If your child enjoys writing on their "homework sheet" and it makes them feel like a big kid, keep it up!  If your child would rather do their chores, brush their teeth, or pick up their room, please change up the assignment and do something your child enjoys.  You can send their assignment to school, or just write a note.  It's up to you!

Happy writing!

A Peek Into Kindergarten

Between the Holidays, returning back to school, and our week off during the snow storm, blogging has gotten away from me. I've been sharing lots of ideas for literacy in the home on one of my other blogs. (Love, Laughter, and Literacy) Finding time to take pictures in the classroom and keep you up to date on the happenings in kindergarten, hasn't been quite as easy. (Especially because we haven't been in the classroom.)

Here's a sneak peak into a few things we've got going on right now.

We made snowball snowmen, which was a great activity for small motor development. The kids tore the snowballs and really had to use their hand muscles and fingers to make the balls.


We are deep into our Jan Brett unit of study. Jan Brett has a great website, if you haven't seen it. It is http://www.janbrett.com/. There are wonderful games, activities, printables, and videos on her site. We have been learning about how Jan Brett gets ideas for her books, finds new inspiration, researches her topics, uses borders and details in her illustrations, and uses interesting words in her books. We learned a really big, new word, too. Onomatopoeia is a word that means sound words. Kids might write, "Drip, drip, drip. The snow was melting." One of the boys in our morning class wrote about his power going out during the storm. He wrote, "We were watching T.V. Pop! The power went out."

We have moved into a new unit in math. This unit focuses on the larger "teen" numbers. We are learning that 15, for example, is made up of 10 and 5 ones.

In our literacy block, we are learning to determine importance in our text. We have looked at non-fiction books to see how text features are used to emphasize important words or phrases.

Continuing with our investigation into how to think like authors and illustrators, we are looking at books like Owl Moon, to see how illustrators make choices. We decided that the illustrator wanted to make the woods seem REALLY big and imposing, in this picture. The characters in the book look so small in comparison.

Of course, we've had lots of stories to tell about our week off from school and the big storm.

Kindergarten is a pretty great place to be!

Happy Wednesday!

Bees Please!

For the last couple of weeks we've been learning about insects. The kids have been really fascinated with bees. We have watched a short video about bees. We've also read a few books.

As great as it is to read and watch videos about something, it's nothing like seeing the real thing. We are so lucky to have Mrs. Zayats working in our classroom, and she just happens to be a bee keeper. She and her husband have two bee boxes in their backyard. Today, Mrs. Zayats brought in a few frames from her hives to show us the bees' work up close.

This frame shows how the bees cap off an area to let the baby bees mature.

Some of the baby bees didn't make it last year. We removed some of the combs and saw the baby bees inside. (This was a frame from last year, so the bees weren't actually alive.)

This frame shows the way the frame would look when it is covered with wax and filled with honey.

This was such an interesting experience for us! The kids were really amazed and nature's busy work!

Thank you Mrs. Zayats!

Naming the Work of an Illustrator

We're continuing to work in our illustration study this week. I have been absolutely thrilled with the connections kids are making between the work they see published authors and illustrators doing and their own work. Last week, we spent quite a bit of time looking at Jan Brett's illustrations, how she adds details, borders, and sneak peeks. This week we have been looking at a few new authors.


Here is an example from Gail Gibbons' book, Apples. I was astounded when the kids noticed that this was a sequence of events. (A connection to our new reading curriculum.) One student also found this magazine photo, during a different investigation. We loved the way the photographer/illustrator broke the picture into different sections, also showing a sequence of events. Simply pointing out to young authors that it is ok to divide up their page is eye opening for many!

We've also been noticing how speech bubbles and thought bubbles are used. These simple ideas are elements kids notice in books. They point out that it's neat or that they like it. They are drawn to these elements, but they don't really know why. Giving kids the language of authors and illustrators, by NAMING these techniques, makes the process more meaningful for our young writers.

As you are reading with your child at home, be on the lookout for interesting or unusual illustrations! We'd love to see them too, if you're willing to send the book to school with your child.

Happy reading... and writing... and illustrating!

Environmental Print

Tonight we had gymnastics. It takes fifteen minutes to drive each way. So, for thirty minutes my kindergartner practiced her reading skills this evening. Here is a little of the conversation:

"Mom, what does e-f-a-c-c spell?"

"Efacc. But that's not a word you'd find in the dictionary."

"How about this one. s-m-i-l."

"Well, if you add a silent e to the end, it spells smile."

"Hey, I can spell smile!"

"I know what s-a-f-e-w-a-y spells. Safeway! That's our grocery store!"

"How did you know such a big word?"

"I know that it begins with ssssss and all of those other letters with it spell Safeway."

I could keep going with this, but I don't have thirty minutes to recount the entire conversation. The whole time we were in the car, my daughter was reading words, looking for letters, sounding out made-up words, and just having fun with language. I didn't push her into doing this. In fact, I could really have used a little quiet time in the car. But, playing with language and looking for environmental print is a natural thing for kindergartners to do. It's fun for kids and incredibly engaging.

Environmental print is just that, words all around us in our environment. It's everywhere. We find it on labels, signs, restaurants, food containers, logos, and advertisements. Kids this age are naturally drawn to this type of print. At first they just see the symbol. By age 2, both of my kids knew when we had arrived at Target and it wasn't because they were reading the letters and sounding out the word. The big red Target symbol is a dead giveaway. By age 5, they were interested in the word itself. We started talking about the sounds the letters made, or the blends that letters made when they were put together. Eventually they started to read the words.

Next time you're in the car (even if you were really wishing for a little quiet time) try playing around with environmental print and the words and letters you see all around. Your kids will love it, and they'll be learning at the same time.

Great Books for Kindergarteners

Hello families!

As you know, my daughter is in kindergarten and my son is a fourth grader. Yesterday afternoon my son was about to get started on his homework. He made a comment about how his sister was so lucky that she didn't have homework. I reminded them both that reading is part of homework and they are expected to READ EVERY DAY!!! Sometimes I think they forget that it's an expectation, because it's part of our daily life.

Last week one of our reading lessons was about how being good listeners during story time is the beginning of becoming a good reader. It is the foundation of literacy!

As our kindergarteners develop as readers and begin reading on their own, they will need books in which they can access the text. Last year one of our parents shared a book set with me. I purchased this set, by Nora Gaydos, at Barnes and Noble. My daughter loves it! She earns stickers each time she reads a book. (Stickers are included in the set.) The set for Pre-readers is fantastic.

 

While I was browsing, I found these sets of non-fiction books. I'm in LOVE with these books! The text is repetitive and easy for kids to access. The pictures are actual photos. The books are really gorgeous! My daughter really enjoys reading these books to me. She feels so proud that she is actually reading. She needs a little help with some of the vocabulary, but really enjoys these books. I purchased every set I could find. The structure of the books mimic the stories we write in class too!

 

If you are interested in finding books that your kids are able to read with minimal support, these sets are good suggestions. Even when your kids are reading on their own, please remember that reading TO your kids will always be an important part of your daily routine! If you have suggestions for other great books, please share them in the comment section or send me an email!

Happy reading!

Our New Phonics Materials

Oh, friends, I can't even tell you what a happy teacher I am. I've spent the past few days in literacy training courses, learning to use our new adoption materials. One of the best things about our new program is the comprehensive, systematic, plan for teaching phonics and phonemic awareness.



At the beginning of the school year our focus will be on letter discrimination and letter identification. We'll look at letters and see similarities and differences in the formation of the letters. We'll also take a quick tour through all of the letters of the alphabet.

The in depth study of letters and letter sounds will begin a few weeks into the school year. In this part of our instruction we'll be working on consonants and short vowels. We introduce a few dominant consonants first, then add a few vowels. Once we have a few of those basic letters, we can start blending words!

There are several components within a week's worth of lessons:

*Phonemic Awareness- how we hear sounds, developed through songs, rhymes, and poetry

*Sound/Symbol Relationship- using workmats and letter for hands on work

*Blending Sounds- sounding out words letter by letter (consonant, vowel, consonant words)

*Spelling- using boxes to help sound out individual words (boxes are called Elkonin boxes)



*Sight Words- basic words we should all be able to read quickly

*Decodable Text- reading books at home and in the classroom

I'm so excited about our new literacy materials. Phonics is just one small piece of literacy instruction. It will be taught for 30 minutes each day. I'm excited to share other components of our balanced literacy program with you. Information about shared reading, our writer's workshop, guided reading, how children read independently, and reading at home will be coming soon!