Friday Forecast
Hello all!
It's been another busy week in Kindergarten! This week we started to work on some new literacy strategies. Building on our initial use of "cover clues," students were asked to start using the strategy "activating prior knowledge" this week.
Activating prior knowledge/our brains is a strategy good readers use naturally - they use prior experiences to connect to and make sense of new literature. Prior knowledge can include personal experiences, other reading materials or movies/shows, or world events. It's important that students learn to "turn their brains on" while reading, so that as they grow as readers, they can understand what they are reading.
To practice this skill, students were read two books by the same author. First, we read "The Mitten" and then "The Hat."
In order to practice "turning on our brains," students were asked to make a prediction on what they thought "The Hat" might be about, based on their understanding of "The Mitten." We looked at both of the covers of the books, and reviewed what happened in "The Mitten," to think about what might happen in "The Hat." Students recorded their ideas in the visual journals.
We also practiced the letter H for hat - our first "corner capital" :)
We actually did this activity informally a few weeks ago (to practice) - and some students were able to remember what happens in "The Hat." This is great! If the student remembered what happens in the story, it showed they were able to specifically remember the plot to a story, which we call "retell."
After making our guess/retell, students were read the story "The Hat" and thought about how accurate their guess was. Each student had a conversation with me to reflect on their work, and we used our target to assess their work.
If they remembered the story, or made a good prediction, they were on the "bullseye" or right on the target.
Some students had good guesses, but didn't show their work very well, or their guess didn't have enough to do with cover clues or their prior knowledge, so they were almost there.
Some students need to work on their drawing skills, and are on the very outside because they need more practice.
Please log onto your child's Iris account to see a picture of their work - and ask them if they can remember what their prediction was.
Week Ahead
Next week we will continue to work on activating our reading brains by reading some more stories during carpet time. We will wrap up our initial investigation of numbers 1-10, and start to focus on shape and space. Throughout the week we will continue to discuss snowflakes and winter - we have now added a "winter center" to our big centers, where we will be exploring snow and winter activities. Please note, next week is a dress up day for each day of the week! See below for details :)
Reminders
1.) Next week every day is a "Spirit Day." If you are interested in having your child participate, please see below:
Monday - Crazy/Ugly/Holiday Sweater Day
Tuesday - Favourite Holiday Colour Day
Wednesday - Holiday Hat or Clothing Day
Thursday - Pajama Day
2.) No school Friday December 20th - PD day
3.) Please return all library books next week!
Have a wonderful weekend,
~ Ms. Weir
It's been another busy week in Kindergarten! This week we started to work on some new literacy strategies. Building on our initial use of "cover clues," students were asked to start using the strategy "activating prior knowledge" this week.
Activating prior knowledge/our brains is a strategy good readers use naturally - they use prior experiences to connect to and make sense of new literature. Prior knowledge can include personal experiences, other reading materials or movies/shows, or world events. It's important that students learn to "turn their brains on" while reading, so that as they grow as readers, they can understand what they are reading.
To practice this skill, students were read two books by the same author. First, we read "The Mitten" and then "The Hat."
In order to practice "turning on our brains," students were asked to make a prediction on what they thought "The Hat" might be about, based on their understanding of "The Mitten." We looked at both of the covers of the books, and reviewed what happened in "The Mitten," to think about what might happen in "The Hat." Students recorded their ideas in the visual journals.
We also practiced the letter H for hat - our first "corner capital" :)
After making our guess/retell, students were read the story "The Hat" and thought about how accurate their guess was. Each student had a conversation with me to reflect on their work, and we used our target to assess their work.
If they remembered the story, or made a good prediction, they were on the "bullseye" or right on the target.
Some students had good guesses, but didn't show their work very well, or their guess didn't have enough to do with cover clues or their prior knowledge, so they were almost there.
Some students need to work on their drawing skills, and are on the very outside because they need more practice.
Please log onto your child's Iris account to see a picture of their work - and ask them if they can remember what their prediction was.
Week Ahead
Next week we will continue to work on activating our reading brains by reading some more stories during carpet time. We will wrap up our initial investigation of numbers 1-10, and start to focus on shape and space. Throughout the week we will continue to discuss snowflakes and winter - we have now added a "winter center" to our big centers, where we will be exploring snow and winter activities. Please note, next week is a dress up day for each day of the week! See below for details :)
Reminders
1.) Next week every day is a "Spirit Day." If you are interested in having your child participate, please see below:
Monday - Crazy/Ugly/Holiday Sweater Day
Tuesday - Favourite Holiday Colour Day
Wednesday - Holiday Hat or Clothing Day
Thursday - Pajama Day
2.) No school Friday December 20th - PD day
3.) Please return all library books next week!
Have a wonderful weekend,
~ Ms. Weir
