Writing With Our Kinders

Writing can be difficult to do at home.  Parents and students alike can get frustrated, but it doesn't have to be a stressful event!  Your child writes every day.  Every day we are telling stories, and that is the first step.  

1. When your child is writing, they first need to come up with a story.  At this point we want their story to be about them, we are wanting them to make personal connections to things. Have them tell you the story first.  Ask them questions about their story.  Try to get them to verbally tell you a beginning, middle, and end.  Use phrases like; "Tell me more.", "What happened next?",  and "How did your story end?".

2. After they come up with a personal story, they need to illustrate it  We always draw with pencil so we can revise and edit.  Your child needs to add enough details so that a reader would have some sort of idea of what their story is about.  Have them pay close attention to facial expressions, people that were in the story, where their story takes place, and details from their story.  

Throughout this nine weeks we have been learning how to draw people, bikes, and animals.  If your child draws a stick figure, have them erase it and review how to draw a person.  We draw a head, body, arms, legs, and facial features.  Every child in our class can successfully draw a person! In the pictures below, we practiced drawing people.  I drew my person on the board, and they applied it to what they look like.

3. The next question we ask is, "How can you let the reader know more about your story?". Well, authors add words to tell the reader exactly what the story is about.  Some of our students are not ready for sentences, so we have been labeling to help the reader know what the story is about.    Labeling is also great practice for students sounding out words independently and writing the sounds they hear.  This will help your child so much when they start writing sentences.  

If your child has been practicing labeling and sounding out words independently, then it is time to move on to sentences.  A question you want to ask your child is, "What do you want your story to say?".  Make the connection to a book.  Show how words in a book go with the illustrations.  We talk about this in class, but it is great for them to make the home and school connection.  

Students can write the words on the lines, or if they are writing on a white piece of paper they need to pick out where the words will go.   

4. It is time to color!  We talk daily about 'quality work'.  This means they are taking their time and picking colors that bring meaning to their story.  A person should not be green from head to toe.  This usually tells me the student rushed through their work and did not try.  If your child needs to color a different day, that is fine!  We do not always complete a story in one day.  You know your child, and what they can handle after school.  Sometimes we have to separate the tasks to make sure they are benefiting from the practice.  

Warnings:

• Try to stay away from "I like ..." sentences.  When telling a story, one rarely says "I like...".  We want them to tell their own story and not to get attached to sentence stems.  
• Let them sound out their own words!  If your child is not ready, please only focus on them sounding words to label.  If you need to help them sound it out, let them write only the sounds they hear.  For example:  If the word they want to spell is tree, they will most likely write 'tre' because those are the sounds they hear.  This is a very good thing!  Giving them the 'correct' spelling can be very confusing to a student trying to understand the connection between letters, sounds, words, and sentences.  

I love to talk about writing and am always available to work with you and your student if writing is 'just not working' at home. Please feel free to contact me for any tips or suggestions you are needing!

Happy Writing!!

-Bennett

Boo!

Happy Halloween

Last week was a busy one with Red Ribbon week, pumpkin carving, and Halloween all in the same week.  Our kindergartners looked great in their costumes parading down the halls. 

Your Kindergarten Teachers:

Viola Swamp, Snow White, Miss Nelson, Viola Swamp, Cat in the Hat, Wonder Woman, and Fancy Nancy

Friday was also Pajama Day:

Here is to a great Week 11!

Bennett

Carving with Dads, Uncles, and Grandpas!

Happy Day

The Beach Buddies loved carving with their dads, uncles, grandpas, and other father figures!  We even had some awesome carving mom come up. 

Bennett

5 Little Pumpkins

It's that time of year when pumpkins have officially taken over our classroom.  Last Friday, we had so much investigating our pumpkins.  We observed the size, height, width, color, and the inside of a pumpkin.  Now, we can't wait to carve them! Pumpkins, Pumpkins 1,2,3! Pumpkin fun for you and me!

Our family carved pumpkins this weekend!  Mya picked Princess and the Frog for her pumpkin. :) 

Happy Monday!

Ms. Bennett

Bye-Bye Plants!

Let's Move It!

Last week, we had to say good bye to our science kit: Plants.  For the final project, students created their own plants including roots, stems, leaves, flowers, and seeds.  Their products blew me away!

We also compared what we knew at the beginning of the unit, and what we know now!  Most learned that plants do not need a gardener.

Next unit:  Let's Move It- a unit on force, energy, and motion

Bennett

Little Miss Muffet

Last week we started learning different nursery rhymes.  For each nursery rhyme we look at the sight words, point to each word, review the vocabulary within the rhyme, and practice retelling it.  Please practice retelling the nursery rhymes when they come home.  The ones that should have already come home are: Jack and Jill, Hey Diddle Diddle, Little Miss Muffet, 1-2 Buckle My Shoe, and Jack be Nimble.  

Yellow and Green Days

Bennett

1,2.....3,4,5

Writing Numbers

Something we are really working on right now in writing (besides storytelling and drawing our stories) is how to correctly form letters and numbers.  During handwriting we are using a resource called Handwriting Without Tears. The students are really doing a great job, and we would love to continue the same language at home. We will discuss Handwriting Without Tears a little more tomorrow night.  Today, however; our focus in math was recognizing and writing our numbers 1-5.  Please practice using this language at home! Our friends are having a hard time writing numbers, but responded really well to the little number rhymes. 

After we practiced writing numbers on the dry erase boards, they got to play a game called 'spill the beans'.  They would take turns with their partners spilling the beans.  They would then count how many red beans there were and write that number on the game board.  

Happy Orange Day and I hope to see everyone tomorrow night!

-Bennett

G is for Grow

Plant Pilot

Due to helping write the science curriculum in kindergarten, we are piloting the new science kit that will roll out to the district next fall.  I have to say before we started this kit, I was quite nervous.  I was able to pilot this last school year and the unit was amazing, however; I piloted it in February......meaning there was much growth at that point in Kindergarten.  I must say the students have blown me away this week with their engagement and the dedication they already have to quality work.

This week we learned about living and non-living things (quiz them: they should be able to give you a long list of both), planted lima beans, learned about the parts of a plant (roots, stem, leaves, and flower), planted grass seeds, and recorded observations of our lima beans from day 1 and day 5 (We are already seeing roots, stems, and one leaf).

This is a 5 week unit.  Lots of fun ahead!

-Ms. Bennett

R-E-D red

Red Week:

Each week we will be adding a color to our sight word list.  Our goal is to be able to read all our color words and eventually write them. :)  We sing songs about the color words, add the song to our poetry journal, and every Wednesday we will wear that color!  

-Bennett