Within our kindergarten classroom, our goal is to provide a balanced literacy program. We focus on creating learning groups and activities to support each individual. Whole group activities are integrated into the day as well as small group, paired, and individual literacy learning experiences.
On a daily basis authentic texts are embedded into our kindergarten program through
interactive read alouds. Children become engaged in the story by sharing predictions, connections, and information about the story's content.
Share reading also happens in the large group through songs, poems, big books. Some examples of the poems, songs, and stories we have been working on are below.
Guided reading is integrated
into the kindergarten program through the creation of mini booklets. Children
act as the illustrators in the story and finalize the pictures. The class
practices the story all together to learn the pattern of the text. Then, the
children practice reading the booklet with their peers. They use their pointer
finger to guide them along throughout the story. Together students work in
small groups to practice reading and pre reading strategies like using picture
clues and noticing familiar words.
Independent reading happens
twice daily within the class. In the morning children enter the class and chose
a book from the bookshelf. They review the story by looking at the pictures,
noticing familiar words, and practice flipping the pages. Some of the students
discuss the story with their peers and others work on their own to create their
own story based on the pictures. This is the beginning development of a
fundamental life skill. Further, reading daily encourages children to discover
their passion for reading.
Guided Writing has been
modeled through the creation of anchor charts and will be further introduced to
the children through daily messages on the white board. We will begin this by
writing clues about who the special helper is. At other times we will write
about the day and the special activates planned. Together we will read the
message and modeling writing concepts, such as capital and lower case letters, periods
and exclamation marks.
Shared writing will also be
introduced as the year progresses through daily messages and whole group
experiences. When we create anchor charts children will have the opportunity to
come up and sound out their words. They will also help in writing stories and
messages as we collaborate and share ideas on a topic.
In kindergarten children
communicate by talking, listening, and speaking for a variety of purposes and
in a variety of contexts. They are able to comprehended and demonstrate an awareness
of written materials. Through various hands on experiences children are developing
reading and writing strategies to make sense of a variety of written materials
and share their ideas. By modeling and sharing in the various literacy
experiences children become stimulated by the learning tasks. Intriguing
literacy materials intrinsically motivate the children to explore new tasks!
