First Two Weeks

We have survived the first two weeks of Kindergarten!  It is exhausting (for everyone) but we have had so much fun getting to know one another, learning all about our routine and classroom, and establishing our little "family" in Room 2.

We have been learning how to build stamina while reading.  I explained that stamina is being able to do something for a long period of time without getting tired or giving up.  Right now, we can read for 2 minutes straight.  I know most of you are probably thinking, "These little ones are only in Kindergarten and you are already making them read?!?"  To begin our building stamina lesson, we talked about the 3 ways to read.  We learned that you can read the pictures, read the words, or retell the story (usually with a familiar text that they have read often).  It is amazing what these Kindergarteners can do!  Here are some pictures of us building stamina in our classroom. 



Each child gets to pick a cozy spot in the classroom!

The key is to read the whole time!

Each child has his or her own book box filled with "just right" books!



 

This week we also began our Daily 5 Literacy Centers (it is a program adapted from the book The Daily Five).  We work on various literacy activities during this time.  We try to rotate to 3 centers each day, which means by the end of the week the kids have visited each of the 6 centers twice. 
In Read to Someone this week, the class read the weekly poem with their group members and put the poem in their poetry journal.  They also read a sight word story and highlighted our star words in the book. 

In our Listen to Reading center, the class listened to a book and drew their favorite part from the book.  This week they listened to Kindergarten Rocks! and Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. 

In the Work on Writing center, the class read and wrote words from around the room.  They will be working on this center for a little bit before moving into more intense writing activities. 

In the Read to Self center, the kids worked on ABC games on the iPads and they also worked on matching uppercase and lowercase letters.  this center will change to reading books that are on their reading level when we build our stamina and I assess each child's reading level using the DRA assessment. 

In the Word Work #1 center, the class put the letters of the alphabet in order. 

In the Word Work #2 center, the class worked on writing, stamping, and tracing their first names.  This is something that we will be working on in class until each student can write their name using an uppercase at the beginning and the rest lowercase letters.  It would be great if you had your child practice writing their name at home as well!

 In Math this week, we began learning about sorting.  We will be sorting by color, shape, and size.  You can practice sorting at home all you want!  Have your child sort the laundry, food, or anything else you can find around the house.  The kids have practiced sorting using various manipulatives in our classroom, like rubber farm animals, rubber vehicles, and buttons. 

Kindergarten is so much fun and I am looking forward to all of you visiting our classroom on Monday for Back to School Night!