Color words have been our focus in reading groups these past two weeks. We focused on the spelling patterns -ee, -ay, and -ow. Some of the color word activities included building each word with Play-Doh, reading multiple emergent readers with color words, covering color words with color stickers to create a rainbow gum ball machine, and color the illustrations in our readers to match the color words in the text. We incorporate coloring into many of our activities. Coloring has an important place in child development. It provides an opportunity to practice and develop many skills such as concentration, fine motor and coordination for early writing skills and correct finger grip.

We have been reading books from the amazing author, Mo Willems. There is so much we have learned from his writing and illustration techniques. We learned about speech bubbles, he uses them often in his texts. Another point of focus has been on Willems use exclamation points. When there is an exclamation point at the end of a sentence he makes the text really big. Or when a character is trying to be quiet, he makes the text much smaller. This small technique portrays a ton of emotions, especially to our young readers. They can tell that the character is really mad or excited if the text takes up the whole page, or they can tell if the character is sad if the text is written in a much tinier font.

Another major focus was the life lesson of friendships, how to be a friend and what that looks like. Willems role plays the thoughts and speech of friends throughout his books.

Mo Willems can also get a little sneaky with his techniques, when reading some of his literature that isn’t in the Pigeon Collection, sometimes if you look really closely you can find the Pigeon hanging out in some of his other books.

Each pic below is of each student with their favorite Mo Willems book!

Ms. Joanie joined our K Prep classroom today for a special Music Enrichment class! She brought her rhythm sticks and the children used them to create spooky halloween sounds! Incorporating music into the Early Childhood classroom has a variety of benefits:

• It provides means to communicate
• An opportunity to express emotions
• Develops social skills
• Provides opportunities to participate in groups
• Enhances self‐concept and self confidence
• Enhances sensorial skills
• Refines listening skills
• Awareness of movement and body positions
• Enhances creativity and imagination
• Learn new words and concepts
• Explore cause and effect
• Develop large motor skills
• Improves balance and coordination
• Helps develop fine motor skills

and of course……..it’s fun!!!

The developmental process of learning to read can be broken down into five stages of reading development.  1) Emergent Readers 2) Early Readers 3) Transitional Readers 4) Self-Extending Readers 5) Advanced Readers. All children advance through these stages at different rates based on cognitive development, early and consistent exposure to print, the development of basic reading skills at home and at school. Our class is currently made up of Emergent Readers, Early Readers and Transitional Readers. Many of the readers are sent home throughout the year for the children to keep and continue to read at home independently. As we get closer to November, due to the varying stages of development in our K Prep classroom, you will find that your child may be reading different texts than their classmates. It is so exciting to watch young readers develop the ability to read and become fluent readers!

Our early reading adventure began in K Prep this week. The focus during reading groups was how to use their “Magic Reading Finger.” Why do we have children use their finger to track the words while they read? The reason for this practice is because our eyes naturally follow movement, placing a finger, on a page and strategically moving it down the text, a reader will naturally keep their place and be more focused. This helps readers concentrate and understand what they read.

The book we started off with was, I JUMP, by Bruce Larkin.  This book introduced us to the sight words “the” and “I.”  By the end of the week we were able to identify the sight words we knew as well as use the first reading strategy we learned (use the picture to give us a clue about an unknown word).  The students did a WONDERFUL job!

Getting to Know our K Prep Classroom

K PREP GRADUATION PRACTICE IS UNDERWAY

Hands-on activities in math are vital for young learners. Using hands-on activities in math helps children to take an active part in their learning. Using hands-on lessons in our K prep classroom allows our students to use a variety of senses which encompasses all different types of learning styles (and makes learning fun!!) Creating an environment where children get to explore and master skills is so vital. Introducing addition and subtraction into our classroom allows the kids to “play” with the concept and hear the vocabulary they will hear in a more formal way in Kindergarten and 1st grade building an early foundation for them to build on through the year.