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.

Determined in December

This month has been filled with determination! Students finished learning the names of the letters and we started producing letter sounds. We are segmenting letter sounds and listening for the beginning sounds of words. Children who can segment and blend sounds easily are able to use this knowledge when reading and spelling. Segmenting and blending individual sounds can be difficult at the beginning. We are using our arms, fingers, and colored counters to segment individual letter sounds in words. We also slowly say each sound in a word (c-a-t), and then say the sounds quickly together to "read" the word (cat).

Students synergized to put our alphabet letters in order.

Students created sight word snowmen.

Students work on their motor skills using chalk to form their letters.

We had fun making the letter S with glitter snow.

We practice putting the letters in our name in order with snowballs.

Finish Line

We are celebrating the end of the alphabet this week! Students finished identifying letters W-Z. Now we will begin working on letter sounds.

Students use finger lights to practice tracking print.

We used habit #6, synergize, to create the letter Y with yellow yarn.

Students read the book "Playing Dress Up" and then took time to play dress up! They compared and contrasted our dress up time with the costume in the story.