THE.... and other important sight words!

High Frequency words are so important for young readers to learn. If they can effortlessly read these words, then they can spend more time decoding the more tricky words that will come up in their reading. Knowing these high frequency words is also critical in developing fluency in reading. If also gives the kids confidence in themselves as they look at a book and instantly discover words they know! Since we started learning these words, I have heard numerous times, "Teacher! I found 'THE' in this book!!" with so much confidence and excitement, it just brings me so much joy to hear them!

Here they are on a WORD HUNT... I never knew how much fun these word hunts would be to them, but the kids love them! They say, "Teacher! They almost tricked me! I almost circled "eht" but I know it's really spelled "the"!!" I love it!! Such little smarties!!

 We have been using the reading program called "Reading with Giggles and Games" which was designed by a kindergarten teacher here in our school district that has been SO great and SO fun for these kiddos in their early literacy stages!

 We used Shared Writing time as a perfect opportunity to write our newly discovered word!

 We also became "Word Detectives" and went on a hunt to find the word, "the" hidden in the books in our reading library!

  It's amazing how much more fun reading can be when we:

1) see some of our 'Word Wall Words' in the books, and;

2) have a MAGNIFYING GLASS in hand!

The Gingerbread Man

Positions.......

We used a Gingerbread Man and his house to help us understand POSITION WORDS today!

Mathematical learning in young children is strongly linked to sense perception and concrete experience. Children move toward an understanding of symbols, and eventually abstract concepts, only after they have first experienced ideas on a concrete level. The more avenues there are to receive data through the senses, the more connections the brain can make. The more connections that are made, the better a learner can understand a new idea. ~Sutton, J. & Krueger, A. (Eds.). (2002)

"On, Under, Above, Up, Over, Down, Behind, Below, Top, Bottom, In front of, Next to, Beside, Far, and Near" are some of the words we used while positioning our Gingerbread Man with his house!

 Afterwards, we were able to find some yummy gingerbread men to eat! They were hiding ON TOP of the shelf, BESIDE the window, ABOVE teacher's chair, and NEXT TO the white boards!

 We all took ONE bite! Then we used our paper gingerbread men to GRAPH our bites!

 See our results?! Which one had the most? Which one had the least?

  Run! Run! As fast as you can! You can't catch me, I'm the Gingerbread Man!

What a FUN story to tell and RE-tell!! We used props and puppets to help us tell this story!

We are getting pretty good at figuring out what happens at the beginning, middle, and end of our stories! What great COMPREHENSION these kiddos have!

Y is for Abiyoyo

If you have never read the story Abiyoyo by Pete Seeger you're missing out! I was introduced to this story by my fellow Kindergarten Teachers years ago, and I instantly fell in love! It's based on a South African Lullaby, and the kids love it!

We listened to Pete Seeger sing/tell the story, we talked about the characters and what happened at the beginning, middle and end. 

Then, we ACTED IT OUT! What fantastic little actors I have!!

Look at the Drama!! HA! I love love love them!

 We illustrated the beginning, middle, and end of the story after we acted it out.....

Afternoon Actors:

What a FUN and exciting day!!

Children acquire many skills from acting out stories. Children’s oral language skills—vocabulary and narrative understanding—are enhanced. These skills are identified as key predictors in reading skills; they are the basis for comprehension. In addition, children learn about sequencing and story elements. 

~Faith Polk, Ph.D. Education Consultant

K is for Katy No Pocket!

THE LETTER K........

K is for ________.

"Katy No Pocket" by Emmy Payne

The kids LOVED this book!

 It was such a FUN book to retell with Puppets!

By asking questions such as What happened first? Next? Last? Your child's comprehension skills will increase. Try asking questions along the way when reading aloud to your child. Then when the story is finished, ask more questions!

  Images from the book, helped us figure out what happened first, what happened in the middle, and what happened at the end! 

The students used different voices while retelling the story. It was so much fun to see them really get into the story! 

 Encouraging Emergent Readers to retell stories increases their comprehension and other reading strategies.