Kacsko's Kiddos: All Fired Up

There was a definite theme this week - and you may have heard about it in song form.

We listened/watched this sing-along book everyday. It's very catchy. WARNING: Only click on the link if you want your child to insist upon watching and singing ALL of it - and probably multiple times.

We learned another poem this week. It was all about fire fighters.

We use poems in whole group time for lots of reasons. For one, it encourages us to use certain expression and rhythms/cadences which will make us better readers. It is also a great way to learn print conventions, work on sight words, and identify rhyme. We did all of these things with this poem and our Fall Poem from last week.

By the way, the students recited the Fall Poem for a fifth grade class today and I had my son record it so I could post it on here. The video, however, did not turn out. :( Sorry. But at least I got a pic of it.

Besides poems, here's some other ways we are learning how to read. I write the new letters on the students' hand each day and have them say the sound for me. I always stress the sound over the letter name since the sounds are what's needed to sound out words and write. For students who are already secure with the letter sounds, I write a pair of rhyming words using the new letters of the week.

They use the letters/words as the answers to their attendance question "Which hand says "/p/" (again, I say the sound, not the name). The student raises that hand. Then students have a visual reminder of the new sounds all day long.

We practice the letter sounds every morning as a whole group at the Smartboard. A student or I will tap to each letter as the class does the letter chants which include sign language and gestures. (For example - for the letter e, we shrug our shoulders and say "eh" and make a "who cares" kind of a face.

After checking the mailbox for items that start with the new sounds, we play a Smartboard game that concentrates on those letters. Many of the games are from Starfall.

After this, we usually need some kind of movement break. Sitting for more than 10 straight minutes in kindergarten is just ASKING for trouble. So, one of our favorite ways to move our bodies is by pulling out our imaginary light sabers and fairy wands and "writing" the alphabet with this video.

Now, if I'm' being honest. The man is pretty high on the cheese factor and can register a bit on the creepy scale. BUT, what he does is effective and engaging so I've started using a few other videos of his. Like this one, to teach which lowercase letters are "tall, small, and fall (go below the line)."

He has many videos on youtube and there are a few others that we use. But these have gotten the most play from us this week.

Since some students are working on identifying the sounds and letters and others are working on reading and writing words, the rest of the phonics lessons on the new letters are taught in small groups. The assigned reading, activities, and worksheets vary from group to group.

While learning phonics is an important part of learning to read, recognizing sight words is an equally important component to early literacy as well. I've shown you pictures of the sight word workshops we do three-four times each week, but during these workshops, they only work with the new words of the week. Students can practice all of the sight words at the sight word center during center time.

And we also practice all of the sight words as a whole group each day using flashcards, a game called "Quiz, Quiz, Trade" (which they just learned this week) and another game called "Gnilleps" (which is the word spelling spelled backward. They sit back to back and have their backward facing partner spell the sight words).

One last way we are learning how to read is through our whole group writing time. We make posters for our superstar of the day. They help me write it (What word should I write after "to?' "How do I spell "am?"). Then the superstar reads their poster (with a pointer of their choice and into the microphone!) and the class does an echo read.

Sometimes I get a little artsy and draw their pictures

Other times I run out of time and default to a photo

And all this reading they're doing is continuing when they go to the book area at center time. It's taken 9 weeks, but I FINALLY got a reading bucket for each student, labeled with their photo and name. Whenever they color a printable book (like the Fire Safety book we read this week) or a sight word flip book (like the leaf book they read this week), it goes in their own bucket so they can read it again and again.

They have also chosen books they liked from our little class library to keep in their buckets for the next several weeks. They get to choose one of those books as their "extra" reading assignments (on Tuesdays and Thursdays). These are the books that you have probably noticed that they need you to read to them. And that's totally fine. The more they hear you read it, the more they will learn it and learn how to read it. I also keep special books in the cloth book pockets on the wall that go along with our weekly theme.

In the above picture, you'll notice Audrey is doing some work with a clipboard. That's because today was our very first Write the Room activity. This will take several different forms this year, but today's was the most basic one that allows for the most freedom. The students simply walk around the room finding words that have a certain letter in them. This week, they had to find a word for each of the first 14 letters of the alphabet. They could choose whatever words they wanted from anywhere in the room. And nothing is cooler or more grown-up than clipboards!

Now let's wrap this up and get back to our fire theme. Today, for Fun Friday, we got a visit from the fire fighters from Fire Station #1. They brought a fire truck for the kids to walk through and demonstrated how they put on their gear and what it does.