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!

Kindergarten Writers

I think Writer's Workshop is my favorite thing to teach young kids. I've never considered myself much of a writer. One of the reasons I started blogging, was to have writing experience to draw upon when we are talking about the things writer do. I want to be able to share my own thinking, as a writer. That's hard to do when the only thing you write is a grocery list, a note to a teacher, or an email to a parent. There are lots of reasons we write, but I wanted to find joy in my writing. (Not that I don't enjoy sending you emails!)

Blogging has helped me connect as a writer with my kindergarten writers. We need to make decisions about what to write, how to format our piece, which pictures or illustrations to use, or when a piece needs more work. Here are a few things our kindergarten students are working on now.


I like my cat.
This writer was in the middle of a piece of writing. He told me that he was going to add lots of details to the picture before he added his cat. You can see that he is using sight words and is also able to sound out simple words. This author doesn't quite have the idea of spacing or punctuation, but that will come as we progress through the year.

I Like Horses
This is the cover of a book that one of our kindergarteners is working on. Let me just say, most kindergarteners (and most of their teachers) cannot draw horses like this! She is an amazing artist! When I asked this little girl to tell me about her story, she told me about a magical Christmas horse. I find it very uncommon for kindergarten students to write fiction stories. They usually like to write about the thing they know best... themselves. I can't wait to see how this fiction story turns out!

I like my family.
Here is an example of a child who is transitioning into using punctuation. We often see young kids over use their punctuation when they first learn about it. They know that their teachers and parents praise them when they remember to put a period in their writing, so why not use it more often? I always try to remember that this is a developmental phase. I don't point out that this is wrong or incorrect. I use this as an opportunity to model. When I read a story to the class or do a demonstration, I point out the difference between a word and a sentence and show them where to put the period. Most kids are able to learn this concept through our modeling. Eventually, if students are still over using punctuation after a period of time, I will show them the proper way during a one on one conference. I always want to be careful not to crush the attempts of a beginning writer.

Christmas Eve
I love this piece. The girl who wrote this, found a book with the words Christmas Eve on it. She brought the book back to her desk and copied the words in the bottom corner. Earlier in the year, we had talked about putting labels on our picture. She has labeled the bed and the moon, using her best-guess spelling. Do you see those little circles on the moon? She explained to me that the moon has little circles on it, if you look very carefully, and she wanted to add that detail in her drawing. When I asked her to tell me more about her picture, she said, "It's Christmas Eve and my bed is in the living room because I'm waiting for Santa." At that point, I took some dictation. She had done lots of great writing, and I wanted her to remember this story.

Kindergarten writers are truly amazing. Our Winter Break is coming up and I'm sure many of you have adventures, family time, or celebrations planned. Please encourage your child to write about their experiences. I find that my daughter is more excited about writing when I write a book with her.We spend a lot of time writing side by side.  I always point out that my pictures aren't perfect, and that's ok.  You don't have to be an amazing artist to be a great writer.  My son, who is in 5th grade, really enjoys taking his own pictures. Sometimes he will add photos and writing to a scrapbook. Other times he will add to his own blog. However your child chooses to write, please encourage them! We'd love to see their writing when we return from break!

Gingerbread Friends

Kindergarten teachers love collecting different versions of The Gingerbread Man. Maybe we love it because we take the kids on a hunt for the Gingerbread Man on the first day of Kindergarten. Whatever the reason, when December rolls around, we break out the books.

The Gingerbread Baby, by Jan Brett, is one of my all time favorites. If you haven't seen it already, Jan Brett has a terrific website with lots of great activities and games for kids.

Recently, we read Gingerbread Friends, also by Jan Brett.

I think Gingerbread Girl is my #1 favorite. This little girl is smart and sassy. My daughter loves this book too. I think she has a lot in common with that smart and sassy Gingerbread Girl.

Our kindergarteners made some gingerbread friends of their own.  We invited families to help with this project at home.  The kindergarten gingerbread friends are SO much fun to see!

Thank you for helping your kids with this project!  We love encouraging projects that families can do together. 

Pattern Block Turkeys

We are starting our pattern work in kindergarten. We have talked about AB patterns, ABC patterns, and AABB patterns. Kids have had a little time to explore with our math manipulatives. Today we made our paper pattern block turkeys. Some kids really have a good understanding of how pattern blocks fit together. Many kids really understand the concept of a pattern.

You can see, in these two pictures, how kids are putting the pattern block pieces together.

Some kids are simply gluing pattern block pieces down in a way that looks "pretty" to them, with no pattern at all. That's ok too. Working with pattern blocks, construction paper, and glue sticks is fairly new to some of these kiddos. We let the kids explore and meet them where they are. We love the way their creations are turning out.

The Kindness of Strangers

I'm a book lover. I spend WAY too much money on books. The majority of the books I buy are for use in my classroom. I have a collection of thousands of children's books at school. I buy inexpensive books at garage sales and library sales, but I also shop the bookstores for newly released books. I love buying picture books we can use as mentor texts during Writer's Workshop. Last week, I was on the lookout for easy readers for my kindergarteners.


I stopped by Barnes and Noble and went straight to the children's section. I was down on my knees looking through some easy readers, when an older gentleman came up. He saw my pile of easy readers and said, "Oh, this is the same series I was just looking for. I'm buying some books for my grand daughter. " Well, I'm kind of chatty. I started telling him about my kindergarten students and showed him the books I had found.  As I was walking away, he asked if I buy the books for my classroom with my own money.  I told him that I did, but that it is something I really enjoy being able to provide for my students. 

At that very moment, he took out his wallet and handed me a twenty dollar bill.

 He told me that he'd like to buy the books for my students.  His wife came around the corner and chimed in, telling me that their son is a teacher and they know how much money we spend out of our own pockets for the good of our children. 

I was stunned.  Strangers don't do this kind of thing.  Sometimes parents will donate books to our classroom, but this was a couple I had never seen before and would probably never see again.

I told my kindergarten students, my girl scout troop, and my own children about the kindness of the couple in the bookstore.  I wish I had asked their names or gotten an address so I could send a thank you note. The only way I came up with to thank them, was sending a thank you to the Seattle Times.  Every Sunday, The Times runs a Rants and Raves section.  I looked up who to send this to and sent an email, thanking the kind couple in the bookstore.

I can't tell you how excited I was to see my message of thanks in last Sunday's paper.  I hope they read the newspaper on the weekend and saw my note.  Their kindness brightened my day beyond words.

Since then, I've been on the lookout for ways I can help others, in the same way they helped me.  One act of kindness leads to another.

Veteran's Day Butterflies

We met our buddy class! Our big buddies came over to help us with a project for our Veteran's Day assembly, later this week.



Every child in our school is creating a butterfly out of red, white, and blue paper. We decorated our butterflies and they will be used to make an American Flag to honor our veterans.

Be sure to ask your child about our buddy visit today!