This month's learning fun!
January/February: After finishing up assessments for the January report cards, we will be focusing heavily on reading books. Each child will be reading at his/her own text level. This is the level where the child can read most of the words independently using letter sounds, pictures, context, and background knowledge. The children will also be using their knowledge of sight words to write complete sentences using spacing and punctuation. All of these skills will be worked on in conjuction with the Daily 5 program. At this time, children have learned how to 'read to self', 'read to someone', and 'listen to reading'.
December: This month we are reading books about a variety of holidays that are celebrated this time of year. The children are working hard to learn the lyrics to their holiday songs and to learn their lines for the Gingerbread Man play we will be performing this month!
October/November: We are finished reviewing all the letters of the alphabet and learning their sounds! Now we will focus on our kindergarten sight words. In these months we will learn to read, write, spell, & chant - I, a, A, see, my, like, & to. The children are practicing using these words in their journals to write a simple sentence. We are also learning how to spell, sing, write, & read these color words: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, black, brown, & white. CLICK ON COLOR POWERPOINTS ON THE LEFT TO SING THE SONGS ALONG WITH YOUR CHILD! We are now reading and learning classic nursery rhymes. During picture book read-alouds, we are working on re-telling the events of a story in the correct sequence using these terms: first, next, last, beginning, middle, and end. We are now working on Daily 5; read to self, read to someone, listen to reading, work on writing, & word work. Each aspect is explicitly taught to the children in a sequential manner to foster independence and good reading habits. We are off to a great start!
August/September - The themes we are working on in reading are, "Look at Us" and "Friends Together". We are focusing on the letters and sounds for Ss, Mm, and Rr. The children are learning to write and spell the following words; I & see. When reading books as a class, we are paying special attention to the sequence of events in an effort to be abel to re-tell the story in the correct order. In September and October, the children will be learning a song that teaches how to spell the following color words; red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, brown, black, & pink. We are using a weekly message written by the teacher to focus on the following skills; what is a letter and what sound does it make, what is a word, what is a sentence, how to read from left to right, return sweep, 'touch reading' words, using spaces and a period, and counting words in a sentence. We are beginning to work on 'Name of the Day' where we learn to spell and read a child's name by saying the letters, counting the letters, clapping the syllables, and puttin the letters in order. Also this month, the children will be making their first class book. Each child works on one page by putting together a sentence and adding an illustration. The pages are bound together so each child can have a turn to bring it home and read to his/her family and return it the next day.