Learning to Print in Kindergarten

Learning to recognize and write our letters is an important part of Kindergarten. For the majority of time, we do this through play.

However, every afternoon, we do our printing routine.  It goes like this...

Step 1) Mrs. Lowe announces the letter for the day (e.g. Z)

Step 2) Watch a Story-Bots video



Step 3) Brainstorm all the words we can think of that start with the letter of the day. When we first started we could only list a few, now we can list lots of words!

Step 4) Watch our letter rap video.



The students LOVE rapping along with these videos and practicing writing their letters in the air.

Step 5) Practice writing our letters in the air.  We use all sorts of imaginary paint including rainbow, swirl and even chocolate pudding!

Step 6) Practice printing our letters with pencils and paper. Mrs. Lowe watches every student to make sure they are forming their letters correctly. Students should start at the top and work down to the bottom (see the guide below).

Source 

Mrs. Lowe also helps students to hold their pencils with a tripod grip (using three fingers). This grip will help students to be more efficient at writing and drawing.

The video below is from the "Handwriting Without Tears" website and can be quite helpful if children are having difficulty holding writing tools correctly (Please don't worry about pushing children too hard, this is a skill that will develop with time and experience).

We have also been creating an alphabet scrapbook, using our iPad. The book starts with Aa and goes all the way to Zz.

 Each page has the letter in the middle (upper and lower-case) and pictures of things that start with that letter. We can't share the whole book on the blog because it has the students names and faces on it.

The point of the book is to help us form personal connections and associations with each other the letters and it's sound.

Our whole routine takes about 30 minutes. The students really enjoy this time and are learning more letters and letter sounds all the time!

Quiet as mice....

This week our class has been talking about what makes a great classroom. One of the things that came up with was that a great classroom should not be too loud. Here's what the students had to say about it:

When it is so loud, it hurts my ears. - Bryce 

When I scream it hurts my ears. You should be quiet. - Gabriel 

If we get smashes (too loud) we won't get a popcorn party. - Ethan 

I just want to go in my room if it's too loud. - Ellie 

If it's too loud, you can go in another room (when you're at home). - Essence 

When it's loud, it makes me cover my ears. -Cassie 

When it's too noisy you get really sad. - Chase 

When it gets too loud it looks like the screen is smashing. - Tanya 

When it's quiet we feel proud. - Denise 

It feels nice when it's quiet. - Cassie 

You feel proud and you will get super duper happy when it's quiet. - Dante 

When it's quiet you will get super duper duper happy. - Ethan 

When we have zero smashes we will get a popcorn party with a movie. - Leah

We have done many activities this week to learn the difference between quiet and loud sounds.

First, we sorted some sounds into loud and quiet groups. There were a couple sounds that we decided could be loud or quiet sounds so we made a special group in the middle.

We read a funny book called "The Loud Book," by Deborah Underwood.

We are testing out a special app called "Too Noisy Pro"
It uses our iPad and our SmartBoard to monitor our volume. When we get too loud, the smile turns to a frown, the screen smashes and a siren goes off.  We are working towards a day with no smashes. We have to work together as a team and remind each other to use quiet voices.

Mrs. Macdonnell came and taught us some signs. She taught us the sign for quiet and the sign for loud.

You can check out the videos by clicking on the links.

Sign for quiet

http://lifeprint.com/asl101/pages-signs/q/quiet.htm

Sign for loud

http://www.handspeak.com/word/index.php?dict=lo&signID=3253

UPDATE: Today we earned our popcorn party! We had zero crashes on our Too Noisy app. 

Discovery Time

If you walk into our classroom, first thing in the morning, you will see students engaged in a variety of activities at their tables.

We call this "discovery time." The students choose from one of four activities to participate in. The same activities are available all week, unless I feel it is necessary to make a change based on student interest. The students may choose to repeat the same activity for several days or try something different each day. If students arrive late or take a long time to undress, they may have to wait until there is room at the table of their choice.

As a teacher, I put a lot of time and thought into the activities and materials I choose to put out for the students to explore. Some of the things I consider...

• Are there natural materials available (shells, stones, glass beads, sand)?
• Are there a variety of subject areas covered (literacy, numeracy, science, fine motor skills, art)?
• Are the activities open ended? 
• Are the students able to do the activities completely independently?
• Is there enough to keep the students engaged?
• Are all students able to challenge themselves with the activities and materials presented?
• Are the materials displayed in an appealing way?
• Will the activities help students to make connections to things we are learning in the classroom?

You may also wonder about what I am doing during this time.  I use this time to greet and welcome each student, greet any parents who come up to our room, and help students get organized and sign in on our Smart Board.

You might also observe that, during this time, I almost always have my iphone or ipad in my hand. I use these tools to document student learning through photos and videos.

I then use this documentation to inform my teaching. I can take note of what students are interested in, what they already know, skills that are challenging for them, and ideas for future learning.

The students and I also use these photos and videos to share their learning through our blog, twitter, and documentation panels that are posted in our classroom.

Recently, students have also been sharing their discoveries with their classmates using the document camera (it's basically a fancy overhead but projects in colour on our Smart Board).

This is my first year of testing out "discovery time" and so far I am extremely pleased with the results.  Students are constantly surprising me with the things they discover and the ways they choose to show their learning.

Here are just some of the discovery tables the students have explored.

Thinking and Learning Time

In our classroom we have Thinking and Learning time everyday. If you walked in during this time you would see kids playing everywhere. The secret is, we're not just playing, we are thinking and learning!

Just take a look...

These students are learning about primary and secondary colours by playing with play dough.

This student is beginning to create and extend patterns by creating beautiful swirls.

These students are learning to work together, share, and try again when things don't work the first time.

These students are developing their reading and writing skills.

These boys are taking turns and working together to solve a problem. 

Here are a few of my favourite quotes about play.

Source

Source

Happy Playing!

Routines

After 4 days of Kindergarten, students are starting to become more familiar with classroom and school routines.  We are learning that every day, we put our outdoor shoes on the mat "neat and tidy."

When students come into the class in the morning, they hand in their purple folders, sign in on the Smart board and move to the red tables for discovery bins.

Today we also practiced lining up and walking in a line with "personal space."

We also now have special spots on the carpet. We've practiced lots and now everyone remembers where to sit.

There is a LOT to remember in Kindergarten but we are getting better at it every day!

Stevenson School Library

Stevenson School Library has had the good fortune of being adopted by Chapters Polo Festival for the 2013 Adopt a School campaign. It will run in-store from September 15 to October 5. We are looking for your help of meeting our goal of raising money for 257 books, or one new book for every student in the school. 

• Follow this link - http://bit.ly/1dql4bh - to adopt Stevenson School. This is a FREE action and will help earn books for the library. From here you can also help spread the word on Facebook, Twitter and by email. If you have multiple email addresses, you can use them to adopt more than once. 

At Stevenson School, we believe that fun, quality literature fosters a life long love of reading. Please help us fill our library with books that will impact every child in our school. Know that Stevenson staff and students are grateful for your help.

Our beautiful library.

Today students were able to choose their own library books for the very first time! Inside of their books is a green paper explaining library procedures.

Please keep your child's library books in their backpack unless they are reading them.  Whenever they are finished they can bring the book back to school. We will have library every school day 1 (it will be noted on the calendar page of the blog). Please make sure that your child's book has been returned before day 1 so that they will be able to choose a new book. 

Personal Space

Today we learned all about personal space. Mrs. Macdonnell and Mrs. Lowe showed us that we could imagine that there is a hula hoop around our body to represent our personal space. Everyone needs personal space. We practiced having personal space in the classroom, in line and even on the playground.

We also talked about playground problems. We learned that if we have a problem outside we need to tell an adult on duty so that they can help us solve the problem.

We watched a video all about personal space.  You can view it here.

Perfect personal space in line.

Today we were lucky to have a special guest blogger. Here's what she had to say:

"Hi its Krystal. I do not know what to say about personal space. All I know is to imagine thare  is a hula hoop around your body ( your wlowe body).

PS I am 6 years old so I am almost in grade 1."

The hula hoop represents our personal space bubble.