Teacher Tip Tuesday--Get Your Lips Ready!!

Happy Tuesday!!  

We have been doing LOTS of reading in Kindergarten, and I think everyone has become a master of using their Eagle Eyes to help them read pictures.  

Now it is time for us to attend more closely to letters and sounds in the words we read.  The first step to successfully reading new words is to increase letter sound fluency.  Using flash cards and/or alphabet magnets is a great way to practice letter sounds.  

Once your child is confident with letters and sounds they are ready to read more words more independently using the Lips the Fish Strategy!

When you come to an unknown word, stop and get your lips ready to make the beginning sound.  Once you have made the appropriate beginning sound, check the picture for words and/or actions that begin with that sound.  Make sure the word you pick makes sense in your sentence, and continue to read!

So, next time you read with your child, practice getting your lips ready to make a sound like Lips the Fish.  Have your child help you scan the pictures to determine unknown words.

Don't forget to record your reading on your Reading Log and/or photocircle.  

Happy Reading!

Happy Dot Day!

We had a great week exploring the works of author Peter H. Reynolds last week in honor of Dot Day-an international celebration of creativity and "can do" attitudes. 

From The Dot to -ish to Happy Dreamer we enjoyed stories about children who learned to believe in themselves and their work--even if it wasn't perfect or look exactly like someone else's.  We learned that we all have something special share--so we stepped out on faith, made our mark, and created some really great work!!  

We started with one of the most special things about us--our names!  We had great fun using dots to practice identifying letters and add a little pizzazz to our names. 

 

Then we used a few dots and our imaginations to create a picture on paper.  We had everything from Bulldog snowmen to pigs on skateboards! #KindergartenCreativity

Next, we made dots--with dots!

 

  

We even used some spheres (marbles) to create some "not dot dot art." #paintfordays #nohands

 

We had a great time creating with dots--but we also spent time connecting the ideas found in these inspiring books to our reading and writing as well. 

If you and your family are not familiar with Peter H. Reynolds be sure to look him up--or let some of our favorite Mustangs read to you!

The Dot

-ish

Sky Color

Rose's Garden

Happy Dreamer

You can also check out our Dot Day kick off car pool karaoke here.  

Work hard, have faith, and make your mark! 

Mud and Tubs and Cows: Oh my!

We continued our Farm Unit by reading all about Joy Cowley's, Mrs. Wishy Washy.

Mrs. Wishy Washy has her own farm with a cow, a pig, and a duck who LOVE mud!  But, Mrs. Wishy Washy loves to give her animals a good scrub in her old tin tub!

We decided to take a look at this mud/tub issue from both sides of the debate.  First, we made some lovely (chocolatey) mud of our own.  We let our little pink pigs, made from shapes we have been studying in math, get in on the action too!

Then we worked with aluminum foil to create a tub of our own that could hold enough water for a good scrub.

You can enjoy Mrs. Wishy Washy at home by listening here, here, or here.  Or, you can sing and dance with the Wishy Washy Washer Woman here.  

After enjoying the silly antics of all the animals on Mrs. Wishy Washy's farm, we began reading about Doreen Cronin's Farmer Brown and his cows that can type!

If you have not read any of Doreen Cronin's silly farm books, you should!  These are some of my favorite books to share in the classroom--they have enough humor to satisfy your little one and put a smile on your face too!

                

We also learned about some real cows this week!  You can check out some more information about cows here.  (user name:  colham   password:  ferry)

We learned all about how cows make milk and about many of the different products that come from milk, and just to make the learning seem a little more real we gave it a try.  

We milked our cow.

Then we shook, shook, shook our way to some fresh butter--that was delicious on our crackers for snack!

                                                 

It has been a MOO-velous couple of weeks in Kindergarten!

Teacher Tip Tuesday: It's in the Signs!

These first few weeks of Kindergarten our academic focus has been on letters, letter sounds, and shapes.   We are learning what makes each letter and shape different from all the others.  Giving your child opportunities to practice and hone these skills does need to be overly complicated, costly, or high-tech.  The world around us is full of letters, shapes, and words just waiting to be discovered!  Try some or all of the following while driving to and from school, waiting in line at the grocery store, or taking a walk through your neighborhood.  

1.  Go on a shape/alphabet hunt:  Take turns looking for letters and shapes.  You can turn it into an ongoing activity by using a notebook to keep track of all the shapes and letters you find, or turn it into a competition by seeing who can find the most of a particular letter or shape in a given amount of time.

2.  Play I Spy:  Include shapes, beginning and ending sounds, and rhymes in your clues.  (I spy something red that begins with a /c/ and rhymes with star.)

3.  The Name Game:  Look for all the letters of your name on signs, advertisements, or books.  Keep track of the letters you find, race the clock, or race a family member to see who can find all their letters first.

4.  Get your head in the clouds:  Take some time to watch the clouds as they pass by.  Look for shapes in clouds.  Be sure to talk about the corners, lines, and curves that your can see. 

Happy hunting! 

Solar Eclipse, Chromebooks, and Farmyards; Oh, my!

It has certainly been a busy week in Kindergarten!  We shared a lifetime first on Monday with the solar eclipse.

Then we shared some Kindergarten firsts with Chromebook center this week.   Your kids are becoming pros at using their clever badges to log-on to technology and are doing a great job navigating our beginning websites independently.  Right now, we are using starfall.com and abcya.com as our go to websites.  These are both free websites that are super user friendly and ready to use at home.  As we become more independent and confident with the technology in our classroom, we will begin to add additional websites that will require a specific student login.  I will make sure that everyone has that information as we introduce it.

And...we began our Farm Unit this week!  (This is one of my favorites!)  Students have been busy using their "Eagle Eyes" strategy to help me read some Kindergarten greats that take place on the farm.  We have been reading I Went Walking and I Went Visiting by Sue Williams along with some old favorites like Old MacDonald Had a Farm and Down on Grandpa's Farm.

After reading Margaret Wise Brown's Big Red Barn we decided to use our imaginations to create our very own barns that could hold one our favorite farm animals.  Then, just like Margaret Wise Brown and Sue Williams, we wrote some words to tell our readers what they could see in our barn.

 

But our farmyard fun did not stop there!  Ms. Cari helped everyone make a special farm animal animal of their own.

We engineered our own farms with blocks.

And we even made a barn you could eat!!

Be on the look out for more farm fun next week!

Teacher Tip Tuesday: Eagle Eyes

We have been talking about all the ways we can make sense of books for a couple of weeks now, but this morning we introduced our first, formal, go-to reading strategy--Eagle Eyes.  

Good readers use their "Eagle Eyes" to look at the pictures to predict unknown words.  

Today we read I Went Walking by Sue Williams and used our Eagle Eyes to predict what animals we would see on each page.  Then we looked for those words on the page, using beginning sounds to make sure we were making the right guess.

As you are reading at home with your child this week, encourage them to use their Eagle Eyes to help you determine "unknown" words as you read.  Give your child a beginning sound clue to help them determine if they are predicting the correct word or have your child find specific words on the page.  (ie If you see a cat in the picture, use your beginning sound knowledge to help you find the word cat.)

Books like I Went Walking, Old MacDonald, Pete the Cat, or ABC type books are great read together opportunities to practice using your Eagle Eyes. 

It may sound simple, but it is your child's first step to literary independence!  

Happy Reading!

Teacher Tip Tuesday: Pencils and Crayons and Markers--Oh, my!

As we are settling into Kindergarten, our Writing Workshop is in full swing!  We are learning about taking the stories and ideas from our minds and putting them onto paper.

The first step to writing good stories is drawing detailed pictures and correctly forming letters of the alphabet.  Encourage your child to create pictures with lots of color and details.  Show me more and tell me more are great prompts to keep your child thinking.

Beginning writers can get extra practice forming letters by writing, copying, or tracing their names.  Remember, you always have more lower case letters than capital letters on your paper!

Whether your child is an old pro at drawing pictures and writing numbers, or this is a developing skill, there are lots of fun ways that you can help your child strengthen their grip and build their stamina for paper pencil activities.  Try some of the following:

• Tweezer activities:  Practice picking up cotton balls, legos, or other small objects using a tripod grip.  Count as you go for some extra math practice! 
• Buttons and Coins:  Practice using a two finger pinch to pick up and sort buttons or coins.  Use this as an opportunity to practice colors, counting, and coin identification.
• Legos and Play-Doh:  Pinching, pushing, pulling, and forming Legos and Play-Doh are a great ways to strengthen little hands.

If your child is having trouble forming or maintaining a tripod grip, try breaking crayons or other writing materials into smaller pieces.  Having smaller writing tools will force your child to use a more accurate grip. 

Happy Writing!