SOME OF OUR MEDIEVAL TIMES LITERACY CENTERS IN KINDER 4

Q WRITING MEDIEVAL WORDS: Using magnetic letters we wrote medieval words. 

 Q MEDIEVAL BEGINNING SOUNDS: We stamped the first sounds in medieval words. 

Q MEDIEVAL SYLLABLES: Using first cards and clothepins and then do a dot markers we work in syllables in medieval words.

The cliping cards are from "a day in first grade"


Q MEDIEVAL WORD HUNT: In this activity kids had to find medieval pictures hidden in a boz with salt and then try to write them freely sounding out. 

  

LITERACY CENTER IN KINDER 4

During these months we have been exploring lots of different literacy materials both in the center and in group activities guided by the teacher:


- PRE WRITING PRACTICE WITH SAND
Writing shapes and letters with their fingers is very important to help kids understand how letters are built as well as getting used to directionality.

You can get the pre-writing cards here.
The letter cards here.  

 - LETTER HUNT
Using rice trays and list of words kids explore finding letters and placing them on the mats. We help them be aware of letters in words.

- RHYMING MATS
Working on rhyming is vital in kindergarten to help kids get a good phonological awareness. When older kids have problems reading or writing they may as well have problems with rhyming.

The rhyming mats 

- BEGINNING SOUNDS: SOUND MONSTER AND DOMINOS
When we start working on phonological awareness beginning sounds are a great way to start.
We usually do it with the sound monster: kids feed him with the beginning sound we are working on. Later on they have to find the sound in any part of the word. 

The beginning sound cards

dominos

- SEGMENTING CVC WORDS
The ability to segment words is crucial in order to be able to read and write. We star by segmenting syllables, then onset and rhymes and finally kids can be ready to segment sound by sound. 

We work segmenting through elkonin boxes, first by jumping hoops and later on using sound mats. 

- WRITING.
In the kinder 4 class, we star writing as soon as they want to, our intention is helping them see that they are capable of writing amd that writing is communication.
In the morning routines everybody segments words for the helper to write on the board.
On monday, if they want to we help them write about  their weekend.

ASTRONAUTS: TEACHING OTHER SCHOOL KIDS ABOUT FAMOUS ASTRONAUTS, ROCKETS AND SPACE SHUTTLES

As we were becoming experts in astronauts last week we shared our knowledge with 4th and 5th graders as well as with 4 year olds.


In class we did pair talking: the idea is to talk in pairs about as many things as we can about astronauts in 5 minutes to then share with the rest of the class

We also did some free writing on how astronauts travel and where they live.

We watched a fantastic video about space shuttles taking off that we played really loud it was like being there for real, we als olearned what happened to the boosters when they fell down.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnoNITE-CLc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gbtulv0mnlU 

                           OUR ASTRONAUTS HALL OF FAME:

TIME FOR THE 5 YEAR OLDS CONFERENCES. I am so incredibly proud of my  5 and 6 year old ESL learners being able to explain things about astronauts and about how rockets and space shuttles work in English.

 We taught the 4 year olds about astronauts and they showed us their inventions:

The las part of the project was writing about our favorite astronaut and checking what we have learned about astronauts as well as answering the questions we asked at the beginning of the project.

In order to take home all of our learning about space kids designed their own project covers