Writing Is an Important Part of the Kindergarten Language Arts Program

Reading and Writing in Kindergarten

What I think I can say. What I say I can write. What I write I can read! There are many components of the kindergarten language arts program. This packet is designed to give you an idea of some of the activities we do as part of our curriculum in kindergarten to promote your child’s literacy. Reading and writing skills are immersed throughout the day in almost everything we do!

Special Student

In the beginning of the year, a child is chosen to be the “Special Student” each day. After interviewing the child with our pretend microphone, we count the letters in their name, cheer their name, cut their name into a puzzle, and put the name card on our Word Wall (with the small photograph you sent in to school). The names are displayed from A to Z. Throughout the year, we will add familiar words to the Word Wall with the hope that the children will learn to read them. Each child in the class draws a picture of the Special Student and the Special Student gets to bring the class set of drawings home. The Special Student draws a self- portrait and that picture is displayed on the Special Student bulletin board. The Special Student also receives a prize and gets to be a special helper that day. The children love this activity! What a fun way to learn about letters, words, and each other! Daily Message

Every day we write a message together on chart paper. At the beginning of the year, the teacher writes for the children as they watch. Children need to see writing modeled for them before they can write independently. We will focus on the following skills as we write Daily Messages this year:

 That what we say, we can write  That we read and write from top to bottom and left to right  Capital letters  Punctuation (period, question mark, exclamation point, quotation mark, comma)  The difference between a letter, a word, and a sentence  Spelling kindergarten sight words  Letter sounds  Rhyming words  Spacing between words

Gradually during the year, the Daily Message will change from writing for children to writing with children. We will ask the children to tell me what to write or have them do the writing themselves. Children will take turns bringing the Daily Message home! Open Court Reading Program

Before children can learn the sound/spelling relationships that constitute written language, they need to understand how individual sounds, or phonemes, work together to create spoken language. This awareness of how the system works is called “phonemic awareness” and is the first piece of the foundation children need in order to move on to assigning written symbols to these sounds. We use the Open Court Reading Program to help lay the foundation for both reading and writing. Open Court consists of various games and skills designed to help children identify letters, write letters correctly, use letter sounds, blend and segment sounds in words, and even use stretch spelling. We also play rhyming games, sing letter songs, clap syllables, and provide the children with opportunities to use their reading strategies during pre-decodable book lessons. The goal of Open Court instruction is to provide children with the tools they need to read with fluency. Phonemic awareness and phonics skills enable children to get beyond the distractions of decoding words and focus on the goal of reading-comprehension. Open Court allows us to teach these necessary skills in ways that keep the lessons fun and engaging for the children. Open Court Pre-Decodeable Books

Throughout the year you will find Open Court readers enclosed in your child’s folder, after we read them in class. The first one to look for is The Park. Open Court readers are a series of books that we will be reading that are designed to help your child learn a “sight word vocabulary”. Sight words are words that we encounter all the time in reading, that are often difficult to “sound out”. If we can read these words by sight, or by memory, we are usually able to become more fluent readers. The word that the children learn to read in The Park is “the”. A complete list of the 68 kindergarten core sight words is included in this packet. Please practice these words and have fun with them as you would with any other learning activity. Not all children will learn them at the same rate, but it’s something that is worthwhile to work toward. Watch for the Open Court readers to come home throughout the school year. Have fun listening to your child read them to you!

Poetry and Song Journals

We will be making a Poetry and Song Journal this year. As we learn to recite and even sing some poems this year, we will add a copy of the poems to individual journals that will be kept at school. We will be adding illustrations to the poems and also using skills like identifying sight words and finding rhyming words. By the end of kindergarten, we will have compiled a collection of poems that your child will hopefully be able to read! As we add poems to the Poetry and Song Journal, a copy of the poem will also be sent home for you to practice with your child. You do not have to send this back to school. Look for our first poem called “First Day” in your child’s folder. We will draw a picture of ourselves on the first day of kindergarten!

Shared Reading

Another kind of reading we do in kindergarten is Shared Reading with predictable big books. Predictable books are books with repeated patterns, pictures, and rhymes. By using a big book, the children can see both the pictures and the print as the teacher reads the book. We spend four days with each big book we read, emphasizing different skills each day. We read, reread, and act out the story. Some children come to kindergarten already beginning to read and move even further along in their reading as they learn more words and reading strategies. Other children come to kindergarten with little or no print experience, and even those children will be able to “read” the predictable books. After two or three readings, many children chime in, having memorized many of the words. The repeated patterns, pictures, and rhymes enable the children to “pretend read” a book that has been read to them. This is a wonderful first step toward learning how to read independently! Shared Reading also helps children learn how to use the pictures, print, and key words in the story to learn more about reading. We demonstrate that there are 3 kinds of reading:

 Picture reading – the child looks at the pictures in a book and talks about the things that they see  Pretend reading – the child tells the story  Emergent or Fluent reading – the child actually reads all of the words

Our Literacy Center activities correspond to the book we are reading during Shared Reading. This helps children work independently to practice skills we learned during our group lessons. The books we read are motivating and become classroom favorites! The most important thing we hope to see happen is that the children will develop a love of books and build confidence while they are learning how to read. Story Bits

As we read various books throughout the year, your child will sometimes be given a Story Bit. Story Bits are small souvenirs to remind your child of a special book we read in class. When you see a Story Bit come home with your child, please ask them to tell you about the book. For example, your child could retell the story in their own words, name the characters, or even tell you their favorite part. This sharing experience will help your child’s literacy development and will provide a special time for the two of you to talk about books. Don’t forget to have fun!

Literacy Centers

As mentioned above, Literacy Centers are activities that go along with our Shared Reading books. Often they may focus on a skill that we taught in a group lesson either in Shared Reading or Open Court. The children are split into four groups to participate in these centers each week. Literacy Centers may include the following:

 Literature Circle/Guided Reading – we read a short book that targets certain sight words, letter sounds, or a specific skill. Usually this is followed by an activity sheet to go with the small group lesson.  Following Directions – reading a chart to make a craft.  ABC/Phonics, Letters, Words – activities may include rhyming, sorting letter tiles, matching capital and lowercase letters, listening for beginning or ending sounds in words, or stretch spelling  Writing/Bookmaking – sometimes creating a small version of the Shared Reading predictable book by using sight words. Other writing activities are also completed here.  Math and Science are also sometimes included as Literacy Centers depending on the Shared Reading book being used.

When children complete their activity at the Literacy Center they are assigned to for the day, they may then go to a free-choice center such as Fine Motor, Sand/Discovery Table, or Blocks. Throughout the week, each group rotates through the Literacy Centers so that every child has a chance to complete all of the activities that go with a particular Shared Reading book. At the beginning of the year the children are grouped randomly for Literacy Centers. By November, children are grouped into Literacy Centers by their ability and skill level. This time in our day allows the teacher to work individually (or in small groups) with children and target specific skills, needs, and strengths. It is also a time for the children to begin to learn to work more independently. You can see your child’s work at Literacy Centers when it comes home clipped together in a packet.

Stretch Spelling

Writing is an important part of the kindergarten language arts program. Children learn how to put print on a page in order to express their own ideas. When they write, children record their ideas using a process called “stretch spelling” or “kidwriting”.

How to Stretch Spell

Say the word slowly. S-t-r-e-t-c-h it.

Listen to the sounds in the word.

Say the letters you hear. Write them.

For a word like “boat”, the teacher would say the word slowly, stretching it out so that each sound is emphasized: b-o-t. The children would listen, say the word to themselves and write the letters of the sounds they hear. In order to stretch spell, children need to know 3 things. Since stretch spelling is an auditory skill, they must first be able to hear the separate sounds that make up a word. Then they must know the letters that go with those sounds. Finally, children need to know how each letter looks so they can write it. Children come to kindergarten at different stages of development, so levels of writing vary. Children may spell the same word in different ways depending on their level of development. “Boat” may be written as “b”, “bt”, or “bot”. Less experienced children may scribble or write random letters, but tell the teacher that their writing says “boat”. As children mature they may spell “boat” correctly. All of these forms of spelling are developmentally appropriate in kindergarten and are important steps in the development of writing.

Levels of Spelling “Boat”

Level 1 Picture Writing Child draws a picture and says “boat”.

Level 2 Scribble Writing Child scribbles and says “boat”.

Level 3 Letter Strings Random, recognizable letters. Child says “boat”. Level 4 Initial Letter Spelling Letter for initial sound is written for each word.

Level 5 Initial and Final or Middle Spelling Letters for initial and middle or final sounds are written for each word.

Level 6 Phonetic Spelling

Level 7 Conventional Spelling

All levels from picture drawing to phonetic spelling, are encouraged in kindergarten and depending on the time of the year, considered acceptable. Conventional spelling, spelling that is based on remembering how a word looks, is not expected in kindergarten. Many children, however, are using conventional spelling in their writing.