We have certainly been working hard over the last few weeks and really showing what we know and how much we have learned in kindergarten! This past week we started our new writing unit on Opinion Writing…I hope your kindergartener has been telling you about it. This unit focuses on writing to make the the world a better place. More specifically, we have been working on pieces of writing to help make KB and Horace Mann a better place to be. Kindergartners have been brainstorming problems they see in KB and at school and writing A LOT about why these problems need to change in hopes of convincing their reader to make a change for the better. This writing might be in the form of a poster, a letter to someone or to our class, or a book. Here are some of the problems we’ve been writing about so far:
-forgetting to put the caps back on the markers
-hitting others and/or not using kind words
-running in the hallway
-not putting books away in the correct bins
-not playing safely on the playground
Check out some of our writing:
This writer wrote a letter to KB:
“Dear KB,
Please can you stop taking the caps off the markers because it is bad because we won’t be able to color. If you take the caps off we would not be able to use them.”
This writer made a sign for the block center:
“Do not break this building. If it falls the blocks will fall on people. It will also get messy.”
This writer made a sign for the classroom library:
“Do not put the books in the wrong container or it will be hard to find them and then you might forget were you put it and then you don’t know where to find it.”
Ask your kindergartener about what kind of problems they have been writing about as well as what they’ve been writing to help convince their reader to listen to their ideas. They have truly been blowing me away with the amount they are able to write about these problems and why they need to change.
Home/School Connection: Brainstorm some problems you see at home and write to convince the people in your family about why this problem needs to be fixed. Remember you can make a sign, write a letter to someone in your family, or write a book explaining the reasons why the problem needs to solved.
Independent Reading:
Independent reading provides time for students to read books at their “just right” level. We have learning so many strategies to help us when we come to tricky words that we don’t. When you’re reading with your kindergartener you may hear them mentioning these strategies like “Owl Eyes”, “Lips the Fish”, “Stretchy Snake”, “Skippy Frog”, “Tryin’ Lion”, or “Helpful Kangaroo”. During independent reading students are encouraged to use these strategies and I love hearing them say, “Mrs. Bonzey I used ‘Stretchy Snake’ and it worked!” We have also discovered the magic that can happen when we use more than one of these strategies at the same time! I hope you will find them just as helpful when you’re reading with you kindergartener at home.
Source: http://mrsriccaskindergarten.blogspot.com/search/label/Literacy
