Fun with Phonics

We spent the first 9 weeks of school learning the names of letters. Now we are reinforcing letter sounds. Students are listening for the first sound they hear in spoken words. They are also beginning to recognize simple words by sight like it, am, and go.
We had fun painting trees in November when we learned about the letter n. Students put word cards in order to create sentences about Fall. This week, we read stories about growing flowers. Did you know that retelling stories can help students understand them better? We like to share five things we remember from each book that we read together.
One of our favorite activities this month was observing real worms. We are learning about the letter i and Inny Inchworm. Students made labels to describe the worms and created their own Inny Inchworm. Ask your child to tell you about all of the Zoo-phonics animals we have studied this year!

Outstanding October

We finished learning the names of all letters in the alphabet! Now we are learning about the sound(s) each letter makes. Students are making connections between letters and sounds by pointing to the print as we read. They are listening for the beginning sounds of words in the books we read together. This month, we shared the stories Room on the Broom and There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Leaves. We had fun listening to the rhyming words and retelling each story.

Matching letter beads to an alphabet card with friends

Putting Pumpkin Cards in Alphabetical Order

Working with partners to clap syllables in words

Painting our letters with watercolors

Super September

We have been very busy this month! We are learning to recognize and write the letters A-N. They really enjoy our letter scavenger hunts! We have also started our guided reading groups. Students are beginning to frame and count the words on a page. They can track simple sentences from left to right with their finger. My small groups of students especially enjoyed our first Flashlight Friday. They learned about reading "stamina" and how to focus on their books for several minutes.

Letter detectives are searching for the lowercase h. 

Location

Welcome to Kindergarten!

We are happy to have you in our Smyrna Elementary family! I am looking forward to a new year with our Smyrna Stars. We are beginning our journey to becoming readers. Not only will we learn to read and write, we will also develop leadership skills. At Smyrna, we believe that readers are leaders!
In our classroom, I will provide daily letter practice activities using Zoo-phonics. We are already learning to identify and name the letters in the alphabet with our large animal cards. This week, we reviewed the letters A-G, with a focus on the G in Gordo Gorilla. Ask your child to show you the signal for Gordo Gorilla.

We used Wikki Stix to form the letter G. 

We learned that letters are made of circles, curves, and sticks. 

Blending Sounds

Students are now using their letter sounds to segment and blend words each day. We are using letter tiles to build and read words. We also use sound boxes and magnetic letters to create words as we stretch out our sounds and combine them back together. This can be difficult in the beginning, but we are making progress each week. A fun way to practice at home is using robot talk to produce each letter sound in a three letter word (consonant/vowel/consonant), like mop. The student will combine the sounds to name the word. We are introducing new sounds and words each week. Our favorite part of learning new letter sounds is writing them in food, like jelly for the letter j.

We love to write our letters using food! 

February Fun with Phonics

We are flying through our letter sounds in February! Students are learning how to blend sounds together to read words. We have been singing about zoo animals and their sounds. Our favorite lessons include taste testing foods that begin with our letter sounds.
During reading time, we are practicing how to sequence the events in stories. We read "The Hat," and students used picture cards to recall and place the animals in sequential order. We will continue to practice this skill using fairy tales. 

Writing letters in sand trays.

Learning about letter B with banana pudding. 

We can put our letters in order and sing about zoo animals.

Doughnuts for letter D.

Fishing for sight words! 

Jumping Through January

This month, we are learning our letter sounds and how to use them when we read. Students are blending sounds to read 3-letter words(consonant-vowel-consonant) like big and man. After we read a book, we sequence the story, and talk about the order of events.
What's a great way to help your child become a better reader? Read to him or her! Reading aloud to your child while they listen can help them absorb the story. Asking questions about the pictures can build comprehension. We hope to see you at our Smyrna reading night on January 29th! Your family can listen to teachers as they read aloud from books that teach children about the 7 habits of happy kids!

Students made sound collages using pictures and letters from magazines.