A Read Aloud Snuggle

Titles for Our How-To Books

In this mini-lesson we talked about the importance of naming the activity we are teaching in our how-to books. I shared a how-to book that I had written and had the kids help me name it (give it a title). We then each went back to our own writing to make sure we named the activity. 

How-To Writing

We have started a new unit in Writing Workshop with a focus on writing how-to books. A recent mini-lesson involved generating some ideas for our books. We brainstormed in small groups and came up with some great ideas. Here are the lists we created:

How to play a game. . .

How to make . . . 

How to care for . . . 

Safety rules 

Classroom procedures 

Mathematics Within Our Morning Message

One component of our morning meeting is morning message. Each day this message provides the opportunity to learn and apply concepts about print. The common core says this . . . . 

Reading: Foundational Skills

Print Concepts

1. Demonstrate understanding of the organization and basic features of print.

1. Follow words from left to right, top to bottom, and page by page.
2. Recognize that spoken words are represented in written language by specific sequences of letters.
3. Understand that words are separated by spaces in print.
4. Recognize and name all upper- and lowercase letters of the alphabet.

On January 15th we also used our message to apply some mathematical skills. We gathered data, analyzed it, tallied it, compared it and discussed it. 

Literacy Skills in the Morning Message

This morning message was our opportunity to work on some serious phonological and phonics skills in addition to our regular concepts about print. We isolated beginning, middle, and final phonemes and then wrote the corresponding letter for each sound. The specific common core standard is: (letter d)

Reading: Foundational Skills

Phonological Awareness

2. Demonstrate understanding of spoken words, syllables, and sounds (phonemes).

1. Recognize and produce rhyming words.
2. Count, pronounce, blend, and segment syllables in spoken words.
3. Blend and segment onsets and rimes of single-syllable spoken words.
4. Isolate and pronounce the initial, medial vowel, and final sounds (phonemes) in three-phoneme (consonant-vowel-consonant, or CVC) words. ¹ (This does not include CVCs ending with /l/, /r/, or /x/.)
5. Add or substitute individual sounds (phonemes) in simple, one-syllable words to make new words.

21st Century Learning

Reading Coaches

Today during Reading Workshop our objective was: "I can be a reading coach!!!!"

Previously we learned how to be reading coaches for our buddies, today we put it into practice by listening and following along to our buddies reading to make sure everything looked and sounded right. Then we learned about a new strategy called stretchy snake. To use this strategy the reader slowly stretches each letter sound to read the word.

This activity helped us work on the following common core standards:

Speaking & Listening

Comprehension and Collaboration

1. Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about kindergarten topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups.

1. Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions (e.g., listening to others and taking turns speaking about the topics and texts under discussion).
2. Continue a conversation through multiple exchanges

UVM Basketball Game

Buddy Reading

There was some fantastic reading going on in the kindergarten classroom today! We each had a brand new "just-right-book" that we used to search for snap words (words we know in a snap) and tricky words (words that require us to use some strategies). Then we got together with a partner to talk about the words and read the books together. We did a great job, even boosting our reading stamina time to 13 minutes!!!!

What a great way to meet the following common core standards:

Speaking & Listening

Comprehension and Collaboration

1. Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about kindergarten topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups.

1. Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions (e.g., listening to others and taking turns speaking about the topics and texts under discussion).
2. Continue a conversation through multiple exchanges.

Speaking & Listening

Comprehension and Collaboration

2. Confirm understanding of a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media by asking and answering questions about key details and requesting clarification if something is not understood.

Morning Message

Reading Games

The objective of our Reading Workshop lesson today was: "I can play thinking games with my buddy to help me read!" We used this anchor chart to show us our first thinking game. First, we practiced as a whole group with the book "The Hungry Giant." Then we worked with our reading buddies to predict and then check our predictions. This activity supports the following common core standards:

Reading: Literature.3

Key Ideas and Details

3. With prompting and support, identify characters, settings, and major events in a story.

Speaking & Listening

Comprehension and Collaboration

2. Confirm understanding of a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media by asking and answering questions about key details and requesting clarification if something is not understood.

Morning Messages

The kids have requested that I post these so they could share them with their families.

Morning Message

More Reading Buddies

Which One Is Covered Up?

"Which one is covered up?" Is a memory game that provides excellent opportunities for students to practice reading numerals to 10 and naming positions, using such words and phrases as below, beside, above, on top, at the bottom, and the like. To play students partner up and take turns covering numbers while their partner closes his/her eyes and then opens to try to determine which number was covered. 

Reading Buddies

We started the year off by reading with our older book buddies.