Using Name Walls to Teach Reading and Writing

I am looking forward to reading this book. I hope that scholastic makes it available on Kindle!

The Kissing Hand

CHESTER THE RACCOON SCHOOL HUNT: 

Since Chester is feeling a little scared about school and wondering where his mom is, we go on a school hunt to look for her.

Before school starts prepare and label red hearts with places on the school campus you want to visit (make sure your tell the people you will visit too) such as office, principal, asst principal, secretary, nurse, cafeteria, lunch recess playground, restrooms, gym, music room, art room, counselor, social worker, prek classrooms, playground, fire drill area, etc.

Put the red hearts in Chester’s lap (the stuffed raccoon) and tell the students Chester wants to go looking for his mother.

Or put the the red hearts in a pile in the room with the book & “suddenly” find them.

Search for Chester’s mom and introduce adults and where they work. Adults all over the school love to play along as long as they are not surprised.  Make sure they know about the kindergarten visit. 

Take pictures of the special people ahead of time for the classroom book that you will read that day and lots of days after the first day of school.  I tried to take the pictures on the first day of school with my students.  ……It was awful!  If you want to take pictures this day, have an EXTRA ADULT who is CAMERA PERSON and NOT THE PARAPRO or AIDE or anyone who will get called away to do something else (like take a kindergartner to the bathroom during picture time!!)……

Return to the classroom. We don’t find Chester’s mom, but he realizes she is at home. He decides he really likes school after getting to know people and places on the campus.

If you have previously taken pictures (I always PREVIOUSLY TAKE PICTURES)  I magically pull out my book, and we read the book:

We see Mrs. ______, the secretary, in the office.

We see Mr. ________, the principal, in the office.

etc.

We will see mom at home.  (I put a picture of my mom here.)

http://littlegiraffes.com/kissinghand.html
http://www.atozteacherstuff.com/Themes/The_Kissing_Hand/index.shtml http://www.teachingheart.net/kissinghandideas.html

Games for the Classroom

Kelly has several games for her classroom that are easy to make.  As teachers are looking for RTI ideas, I thought many of these games will fit right in. 

http://www.kellyskindergarten.com/Games/GamestoMake/games_to_make.htm

Many teachers are asked to justify why we are doing what we are teaching.  Teaching how to play board games is important because there is plenty of life skills to learn.  Many students struggle to learn sportsmanship.  Learning to take turns and how the give and take of a game is one way to improve sportmanship skills.  Learning how to win gracefully or lose gracefully are also difficult.  Teachers can help our students learn to shake another child’s hand and say, “Good job for winning,” even when the disappointed child who lost wants to cry instead.  Children need to learn how not to gloat regardless if they have won or lost the game.  Whether students play store bought games or games made by the teacher for the classroom, they are learning how to interact with others appropriately.  Students learn to follow preset directions, follow the rules, and take turns.  There is often a winner and several losers.  Students also learn perseverance since many children want to win the game.  They may lose the first several games, but they do not give up.  Instead they master the game and eventually win it.   Or the child learns a more important lesson that life is not always about winning.  Instead the child learns to handle defeat and keep trying.  Sometimes students learn flexibility when game playing.  They learn that the rules can be bent or just out right broken for a frustrated friend or a younger player.  Children learn planning their moves ahead and thinking ahead.  They might even learn to pay attention to the moves the other person is making on the board.  Teachers should be encouraged to allow their students to play games in the classrooms and take class instructional time where appropriate to teach them games related to their curriculum.

Shared Reading: Learning to Read by Reading

Early Literacy Instruction in Kindergarten By Lori Jamison Rog

Shared Reading:  Learning to Read by Reading (Chapter 7)

Features of Shared Reading

When the text is large enough for the children to see it during the lesson.  This means that frequently Big Books are used.  Now that technology is catching up, a teacher can put a little book up and everyone can see it! 

Lessons are fast paced.  There is one teaching point per day, but numerous opportunities for learning.  For example, one child may learn about the concept of print of left to right while another child is learning about narrative story structure.  Another child might focus on one specific word.  The teacher demonstrates using Big Books, regular size books (with a document camera to enlarge it), a poem written on chart paper, or an interactive charts in a pocket chart.  When the teacher chooses a predictable text big book, the children will start to chime in with the teacher. 

Most teachers reread the text at least once a day for a week so that the children start to partially memorize the text by the end of the week.

The teaching points include reading strategies and concepts about print throughout the week.

TEACHING POINT:  HIGH FREQUENCY WORD

Read the big book ________________.  Go back and look for this word (hold up the word card and).  Can anyone read this word?  Can you find this word on the word wall from last week?  Let’s call out the letters —- A-N-D.  Would someone lead us in a word cheer?  (Sing “AND” to the Tune This Old Man song.       http://www.songsforteaching.com/folk/thisoldman.htm  Another option is to call out the letters.  “Give me an A.”  “Give me a N.”  ”Give me a D.”  What have you got?  AND!  Teacher asks, “Can anyone come up and point to the word AND?”  A child uses a pointer or a wand to point to the word, AND.  Or the child will use a word frame to isolate the word AND.  Teacher reviews the letters A-N-D.  Do you notice there is a space before A and after D?  That tells us that this is a WORD.  Let’s highlight AND with highlighting tape.  Show me a thumbs-up if you see another AND on this page?  Oh, do you notice that this one has a capital A?  We put it first at the beginning of the sentence or the beginning of the line.  In the air, let us all make a capital A.  (Describe making a handwriting letter capital A however you feel comfortable … start at the top pull down and stop,  start at the top pull down and stop, cross it in the middle).  Students find all of the word, THE in the selection.  Students are provided with a small copy of selection in a center or even a big book so they can repeat this exercise.  Some teachers provide a high frequency book that has multiple opportunities to practice the same high frequency word.  I use http://www.readinga-z.com/  where there are perfect books to send home with my students.  How many THE words can you highlight?

Kinder Wiki Spaces

Nursery Rhymes ideas

http://kindergartencce.wikispaces.com/Nursery+rhymes

The Very Hungry Caterpillar celebrates 40 years

Today is The Very Hungry Caterpillar Day, a celebration of the 40th anniversary of the publication of The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle.    Eric Carle’s official website http://www.eric-carle.com/home.html 

The caterpillar is 40!  Let’s celebrate!  http://www.eric-carle.com/events.py

Picture book art is here:  http://www.picturebookart.org/Exhibitions/Current_Exhibitions

Lesson Ideas

http://www.dltk-teach.com/books/hungrycaterpillar/index.htm

http://www.teachingheart.net/veryhungrycaterpillar.html

Writing in Kindergarten

I find one of the questions I am asked frequently is, “What does writing look like with kinders?” This writing teacher has lots of great writing going on!

Kindergarten site with writing examples from her kinders

Shared Reading Meanies Day 5

Before Reading
Students preview the story with the teacher creating the Q and A sentence strips that will be read in the during reading portion.

During Reading

Students read with the teacher. Half of the students read the question. Half the students read the answer. The question is written on one color sentence strip. The answer is written on another color sentence strip.

After Reading

Make a Book -

Does Debbie (student name) want to be a meanie?

(This is written on strips of paper and provided to students to glue stick on paper.)

Not me!

Students glue the words Not me! and their own picture on their paper.

Shared Reading Meanies Day 4

Before Reading
Discuss the difference between mean and nice.

Setting Purpose
Today while reading the students will rewrite the Meanies version into the Nicies version by adding sentence strips.

What do meanies do? Meanies drink their bath water, but nicies drink clean water.

During Reading
Read each page chorally, then discuss what the nicies could do. Teacher writes the sentence strip.

After Reading
Every student is given a picture of what the nicies do. As the teacher turns the pages, the children put their picture in the pocket chart.

Shared Reading Meanies Day 3

Before Reading
Ask the students to think about, “What do meanies do?”

Have the students look at the chart where the teacher has listed the actions of the meanies: sleep, wash, drink, eat, drive, do.

Setting Purpose During Reading
While we are reading, think about what do meanies do.

Look at your meanie. What is your meanie doing? When you see your meanie in the story, hold up the stick with the meanie on it. Think about ‘how do you know.’

During Reading
Shared Reading – Teacher reads the question. Students read pages chorally with the teacher.

Hold up your stick with your meanie on it (all children have a stick with a meanie on it).

After Reading

Quickly page through again. Stop quickly on each page. Students hold up the stick and all students say, “Meanies sleep in trash cans.” “Meanies eat old bubble gum.” Meanies drink their bath water.” Etc.