Learning to Read...

I am so excited to announce that we will be beginning our phonics progression this week! Beginning with the letter M, we will begin explicit lessons teaching letters and their sounds. We will also start learning how to divide sentences into words, words into syllables, and syllables into sounds.We will learn how to identify the first and last sound in a word, words that rhyme, and words that begin with the same sound. Here is a guide that will help to explain the skills and concepts being taught so that you can practice them at home.

Understanding Reporting of

Kindergarten Performance Standards

Area Related to Standard	Explanation
Reading
Phonological awareness	Phonological awareness refers to the child’s ability to realize that sentences are made up of words and that they can separate and identify these words; that words are made up of syllables which they can hear, clap, and blend; and that syllables are made up of individual sounds which they can hear, rhyme, and blend.
Phonemic awareness	Phonemes are the smallest units of sound in language (i.e.- ch- says /ch/,). Phonemic awareness refers to a child’s ability to hear, identify, separate, and blend the beginning, middle and ending sounds in words (example- bag has 3 sounds- /b/- /a/- /g/).
Applies letter/sound relationships	This standard refers to the child’s ability to match all 26 letters to their sounds, plus read and write these sounds. It also refers to the child’s ability to match letters to their sounds to read new words. Lastly, it includes the child’s understanding that print is read from left to right and that when the end of the line is reached that the reader must return to the left side of the page (i.e. “return sweep”).
Identifies upper and lower case letters.	Ability to name upper and lower case letters.
Demonstrates listening comprehension	This standard refers to a child’s ability to think about and retell a story including a beginning, middle and end. It also includes a child’s ability to make reasonable predictions before reading and to respond to reading by asking questions, talking about what was read, and connecting what read to their own lives.
Applies vocabulary	This standard refers to a child’s ability to express their thoughts and ideas clearly, in sentences, using vocabulary words they have learned in class.
High frequency words	High frequency words are words that occur many times in print. These words are directly taught to students. This standard measures a child’s ability to recognize and read these words in lists as well as in texts (stories, poems, nonfiction books, etc.).

Managing the Kinders

In college, a professor once told us that Elementary Education is 10% content and 90% behavior management.  Ironically, we only receieved 1/2 a semester of Classroom Management with an Early Childhood Education degree. This blew my mind at the time, and still does, as I continue to face challenging classroom management issues each year and search for tried-and-true methods of preventing and responding to behavioral issues in the classroom. {Soap Box: 20-25 kindergarteners to one teacher (with NO AID) is absolutely ridiculous and should not even be legal.. but that's another story}. 

After my first two weeks with this new class, I knew I needed to make some changes in my teaching procedures/techniques. This year, I have many children who are VERY easily distracted and many children who talk waaaaaaaaay to much. So I did some research. I wandered across a technique called "Power Teaching," and I watched a mesmerizing video of power teaching in action. I decided to adopt a few of the techniques and try it with my kinders. Thank you, Power Teaching.......it worked! Well, so far. 

Two points of focus for this year's class was transition times and attention-grabbers. Power Teaching introduced me to a solution to both of those problems. We now march to the carpet and back to our seat as we chant the name of the place we are going. For example: If we are leaving the carpet, heading to our seats, we chant "Seat, seat seat........ seat, seat, seat......" as we tap our legs and march to our seat. Each student stops chanting, sits, and puts their head on their desk when they reach their seat. Voila! No one got distracted on the way and started drawing on the floor with permanent marker. I'd say that's a win. The attention-grabber I adopted was "Class? Yes!" When I say "class," they say "yes." However I say "class," they say "yes." For instance: If I say "classity-class" they say "yessity-yes." Cute, huh? Second, we use "hands and eyes." When I say "hands and eyes" they repeat me, clasp their hands in their lap and focus their eyes on me. This one is done repeatedly during carpet time, as I have a lot of drifters. 

I'm still looking for a solution to the "busy hands" issue, as I have a few kids who always need something in their hands. I would have no problem handing the child a stress ball and letting them have at it, except they seem to be unable to fidget and focus at the same time. Thus my google research begins again. If you've got any suggestions, please share! :-)

-Ms. Taylor

Helping from Home: Name Writing

As you work with your child at home on writing his/her name, remember these 5 tips:

1) Supervise your child. Make sure they are using the correct pencil grip and not practicing a bad habit; muscle memory takes many repetitions.

2) "No letter, ever ever ever, starts at the bottom" - our chant when we forget to start a letter from the top.

3) Use an uppercase letter only at the beginning of your name.

4) Use the primary lined paper and encourage your child to "use the lines" as they write.

5) Writing is a process. We want to teach the correct techniques, letter formation, and pencil grip, but we don't want to overwhelm the child. I suggest practicing name-writing for a couple minutes each night with a positive attitude and lots of encouragement. If your child is frustrated, skip a night!

Pencil Grip Song

(to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle)

Pencil led is facing me 

(lay pencil down flat on table with pencil led facing toward child and eraser facing away)

I pinch the tip and lift to see.

(Pinch the pencil toward the led end and lift it - led facing down, eraser facing up)

Is it tired? It might be.

(Look at pencil to see if it is tired...shrug shoulders)

So I lay it down to sleep.

Take opposite hand's pointer finger and tilt the eraser end back toward wrist, setting the pencil in correct pencil grip position)

Pencil steady, now I'm ready.

Watch me as I write neatly!

Click here to familiarize yourself with the Developmental Stages of Writing.
Click here for Fine Motor and Letter Writing practice ideas for home.
Click here to generate your own Handwriting Worksheets for FREE.
         (I recommend using your child's name and having them complete one practice page each night until the skill is mastered.)