Hello Wonderful Kinder Families! Two weeks ago, we officially launched our first Kindergarten project with a special scavenger hunt around the school. Using our "letter knowledge," we answered a variety of clues hidden around the school. This launch was especially exciting as we found ourselves all over the K8 building! At each stop, we were given a letter, which would help us figure out the focus of our project. When we gathered all the letters, we went back to our classroom and worked together to unscramble the secret message. The focus of our project would be: The ABC's of Us! But what did that mean? We examined a variety of alphabet books to figure it out. Through our investigation, we discovered that alphabet books dedicated each page to a specific letter of the alphabet and that alphabet books could be about a certain topic. We also looked at the alphabet book that my last year's class had published. After looking through a book that was written and illustrated by Kindergartners, there was a special buzz in the air. Our Kinders were inspired! Several children asked, "Mrs. Rosemarie, can we do that? Can we write our own book?" The children got even more excited when Molly pointed out the barcode and said "Look! They made it so people can buy their book!" I responded, "Of course we can do that! And we can publish it so people can buy it!" And now, here we are! The ABC's of Us is in full swing! In this project, our Kinders will investigate the following Essential Question: Who are we? How can the ABC's help us express ourselves? Our Kinders will learn about one another, establish and practice community values (kindness, empathy, patience, flexibility, grit), and ultimately use this knowledge to write a community alphabet book. To prepare for the publishing of our first book, our Kinders write daily about our "Student of the Day" and practice letter sounds, sight word recognition, and writing in our Literacy Investigations. Everyday, our students get valuable letter practice by figuring our mystery Student of the Day. Students must unscramble the letters and use their deductive reasoning skills to figure out who the mystery student is. During this time, students are naming, matching, and having conversations around letters in their names. After they figure out the Student of the Day, they practice their questioning skills by interviewing the student. Afterwards, we work together on an interactive writing piece about the Student of the Day. The interactive writing process allows children to practice using resources, write high frequency words, and apply their knowledge of letters and sounds. The interview process allows them to find out fun facts about that person. Many children find out that they share the same favorite food, enjoy the same movies, or share a favorite song. We also use this time to discuss positive character traits such as kindness and flexibility. Afterwards, every student writes about our Student of the Day, which is then stapled together in a book that our Student of the Day can take home. Our students are working on adding to our ABC's of Us Word Wall. We are adding words that describe us as a community (Ex. A is artistic, T is for talented, F is friend). Here students are taking words from our brainstorm lists, writing them on a notecard, and organizing them under the appropriate letter on our wall. Here our students are sorting objects and words by initial sound. These sorts are also anchored by our past Students of the Day. On the left, M practices writing words that begin with the letter M like "Molly." On the right, J and D sort objects in the "D for Dylan" pile or the "A for Adam, Adeleine, Amber, and Alejandro" pile. This week, we introduced two new Literacy Investigations focused on sight word practice: Sight Word Stamp and Find the Button! In Sight Word Stamp, students practice reading, writing, and stamping sight words. Find the Button is another fun way to practice reading sight words. In this team game, one student hides a button behind a sight word written on a card. The remaining students have to guess where the button is hiding by reading the sight it could be behind ("I think it is behind the word like.") All of these tasks build the foundation towards our final product. We will continue our work in our Literacy Investigations, look more closely at ABC books, and learn more about the positive traits that describe our community. I look forward to starting our alphabet book! It will be Amazing!
With Love, Mrs. Rosemarie
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September 2017
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