Happy Friday, everyone! Both of my kinder classes had gym and music today. For the time they were with me in the classroom we did math, Jolly Phonics review, and we read a mini-book with the sight word can.
In math, we talked more about the number 5 and the quantity of the number. We practiced the skill of crossing out things on the page when counting to ensure they are counting the objects correctly. Crossing them out signifies that they have already counted it and it alleviates them counting it twice by accident. They did a great job in math and had fun showing me what they learned in their math workbooks today.
In Jolly Phonics, I took some time with both of my classes to review all the letters and sounds we have learned so far. We have now learned 9 total letter sounds. With each sound we add to our vocabulary, my kindergarten friends are able to read more and more words! It is so exciting! I had so much fun doing review with them today and hearing them sound out the words that were written on their whiteboards. It was amazing! They were all waving their hands at me with excitement hoping I would call on them to answer. It was so much fun!
When we finished math and Jolly Phonics, we ended our instruction time with doing a mini-book called, I can move! In this book we talked about the sight word, can and we talked about what it looked like so they could find it on their own on each page of the book. To help it stand out on the page, we highlighted it with a yellow marker. We also talked about the sight word I. On each page of the mini-book, we discussed how many words were on the page and what kind of punctuation was at the end of each sentence. They liked learning about the exclamation point and learning that when they see it in a sentence, they get to read it with excitement or a little louder. With this book we learned that letters make words and words make sentences. We also learned that a few things "good" readers do:
1. They put their pointer finger under each word as they read them on the page finger hopping to each word. That helps them to ensure they are reading every word on the page and looking at the word as they read it.
2. We learned that if they come to an unknown word, they can use the picture to give them a "picture clue" to help them figure out what would make sense. I told them to look at the picture and look what letter the word begins with to see what word would make sense. They did a great job using picture clues as we read this mini-book together in class today!
For homework tonight, I asked them to read their mini-book to two people or things. I told them it could mom and dad, mom and grandma, dad and their dog, etc. I told them it doesn't matter who they read it to but I want them to read it to at least one person and have them sign it when they are done reading it. On Monday, I asked my kinder friends to bring the book back with their parent's signature to show me that they read it twice. I told them that the more they read, the better they will get! They were so excited to read their books to you this weekend! Many of them said really cute things like... "Mrs. Naughten...my mom is going to be so proud when I read her this book! She has never heard me read before!" They are ALL reading and it's so exciting!
Have a great weekend, everyone!
