Sequencing Events in Three Little Pigs

Several weeks back I taught a lesson plan on the well-known story, The Three Little Pigs. Most children have had exposure to this text-- however, I wanted to refresh their memory and reread this story so all children had an equal opportunity at sequencing the events. I have taught a lesson plan similar to this in a Kindergarten classroom and children responded well to the lesson. I made a few modifications such as the length of the lesson, to make the lesson more fitting to the children in my classroom (as I've learned their attention spans are very short!)

I used a guided reading approach when reading this book-- making sure to ask questions about different events in the books some of the questions I asked were:

o   Why do you think the house made out of straw fell apart?

o   What material would have been stronger?

o   Why do you think the house made out of sticks fell apart?

o   What house was most strong?

o   What would you build your house with after reading this book?

o   Why do you think the wolf decided to trick the pigs at the end?

I believe it was necessary to use a guided reading approach when reading this book with the expectation that they would be able to sequence the events. Children were able to review the sequence of events with ease. This reassured me that they would do well when they went back to their tables to sequence the events with their sequence cards-- which they did. :-)

Next time, I would like to choose a book not as common and see if they can still sequence the events. This will show truly where their comprehension skills stand.

Phonological Awareness in Four Fur Feet by Margaret Wise Brown

My main focus was to teach phonemic awareness in the initial letter sound /f/--  however in a sense this lesson also teaches alliteration. This provided a smooth transition in teaching a new lesson as it  incorporated some skills we had just learned.


In this lesson, children will actively participate in the read aloud of Four Fur Feet  by Margaret Wise then play a copy cat game which correlates to the text. The lesson was introduced by having the children repeat the title of the book after me. Then we established that the initial letter sound /F/ was heard most frequently in the title. I then read the book to the class and told them to pay close attention listening to the sounds heard in the words in the book. I stopped at certain areas in the book to go over some similar sounds. After reading the book, I used my word flash cards. Children would repeat the words I said, then answer if the words some similar or different. If the card is different, they would answer how/where in the word is it different?


Based upon my observations, children were easily able to participate in the copy cat game. I believe that this is because children have had a lot of practice identifying initial letter sounds and this has truly helped them to succeed with this skill. At this point, I have three children who are having difficulty but this may be related to their age or other additional factors which hinder their learning. I will continue to practice this skill with them throughout the year.

I feel that if I had worked in small groups opposed to as a class children who are struggling may have had an opportunity to succeed more in this activity. This way I could have spent longer periods of time explaining where in word sounds similar or different.

Building Aliteration Awareness

One of the lesson's I taught this month was about building alliteration awareness. When introducing this lesson and describing what alliteration is it was evident the children did not know what I was talking about. I then asked them if they have ever read or listened to Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater or Miss Mary Mack. A lot of children said they have listened to Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater-- therefore, having some indirect exposure to alliteration.

After reading the short stories we then went back to find words that either start with letter 'P' or 'M'. Children were easily able to find words starting with these letters. However, when I asked if words like 'Peter' and 'Pumpkin' (with emphasis on the /P/) sound similar some children said no. I then reworded my question and asked does the beginning letter sounds sound the same and then broke down each beginning letter. With guidance they were able to answer yes.

I enjoyed teaching this concept to the children and do believe with guidance they gained some knowledge on this subject.

Joseph Torgensen's Phonemic Awareness

On the same day as I researched Florida Center for Reading Research: Phonemic Awareness, I also looked into Joseph Torgensen's article on Phonemic Awareness. Fortunately, this provided me with insightful information, which I was in need of when planning my lesson plan for Monday.

When reading the article by Joseph Torgensen, he states “Phonological ability, or talent, is a trait that is strongly heritable. In other words, children can vary in their talent for processing the phonological features of language in the same way they vary among one another in musical ability, height, or hair color.” He also states that this has been proven in a study of twins shows variations in linguistically related to phonological skills in inherited.

 

I must keep in mind, that not all children at a preschool age or even kindergarten age will be able to manipulate phonemes. However, with practice they will be able to improve their ability to decipher individual phonemes. It is hard to believe that such a skill can actually be inherited, however as I read more in his article and my own personal reflection/experiences this does make sense. Just as some children perform better in writing versus reading-- some children have a greater or lesser ability to decipher individual sounds. 

 

   

Phoneme Manipulation

Over the weekend I began researching the Florida Center for Reading Research website which provided meaningful lesson plans in teaching phonemic awareness.  Some of the lesson plans I looked at looked slightly difficult for some of the children in my classroom, as they are at the very beginning stages of gaining phonemic awareness. However, I know that this is a very important skill to obtain upon entering kindergarten and ultimately, it is up to me to foster this skill in the classroom.

On Monday I implemented the lesson plan, without high expectations. The lesson plan I chose was entitled Phoneme Manipulating-- Phoneme Swap.   In this lesson, students decide which phoneme has been changed by comparing two pictures. For example, students say the name of the picture ("boat" and "coat") and then determine what sound has been changed by saying those two sounds (/b/ to /k/). Then the child will state where the sound was changed-- in this case, the beginning.

Half of the class understood what was being asked of them, whereas the other half was confused and unsure of where the sound was swapped. Coincidently, the children who successfully completed this lesson plan was those whom associate letters with letter sounds. The others, who had difficultly, do not quite have this skill down pat.

I hope to continue implementing lesson plans such as this in the classroom more frequently and observe their progress.

Thematic Units: Fire Safety and All About Me

The week of 10/13-10/17 we did a unit on Fire Safety as it was National Fire Safety and Prevention week. A firefighter came to the school and taught the children about fire safety and gave them a tour of his fire truck. Our literacy curriculum consisted of writing the letter 'F' and learning new vocabulary words that begin with 'F', playing a game called Alphabet Siren, matching uppercase to lowercase letters with our fire truck alphabet matching cards, and of course, reading a lot of great books related to fire safety! Alphabet Siren is a game I found online on Pinterest. I wrote letters A-Z on separate small fire truck templates and wrote the word 'siren' on one of the cards. Then I placed all of the cards in a brown bag. Children chose a letter from the bag and said the letter out loud and it's letter sound (if applicable). If a child draw the 'siren' card all of the children make the sound of a siren and get to skip a turn. The children enjoyed this game and when it was over asked me when we would play again! Although the purpose of this activity was for our fire safety week, I have continued to use it during transition periods or if we have some extra free time.



The following week children learned all about themselves in our All About Me unit. Each child created an All About Me book. Inside the book children created a self-portrait, described what they live in (e.g. house, apartment, condo) and their address, how old they are, their favorite food, favorite color, and much more! Children presented their books when they were finished and then brought them home. Some children were able to write some of the words to their story while others needed more help and guidance. We also practiced writing the letter 'H' and shared our letter 'H' bags. Children remembered how to write the letter 'H' by writing two big lines down and one little line across. I have noticed that some children are struggling to remember how to pronounce and write some of our letters from the following weeks so this upcoming week we will be doing a review on letters L, F, E, and H  

Handwriting Without Tears

    Children are already making progress with the Handwriting Without Tears program! I love that we get to spend a whole week on each letter. This has really helped children truly understand what they need to know about each letter. As you know, we started with the letter L. We introduced this letter by having children find an object that begins with the letter L to put inside their Alphabet Bag. Children came back with lots of good examples of objects that begin with L. Some of the objects included a lollipop, lego, licorice, ladybug, lamb, lantern, and much more! After sharing our items, children practiced saying /L/ sound. I read out word cards and had children decipher by the beginning sound of each word whether or not it began with the letter L. Children also went on scavenger hunt in the classroom to look for objects that begin with the letter L. I had to give them a couple hints but they came back with the right objects. :-)
    On Tuesday, our Tuesday/Thursday friends shared their letter bags. Then children began working on an exercise where they trace the upper case and lower case l and then circle the letter L in various words such as ladybug and lollipop. Children learned letter L by making a 'big line' down and 'small line' across. Children did need some extra guidance with this exercise. Luckily, I had a small enough class size to support their learning. On Wednesday, students who did not do the letter L exercise did at this time. Also, children began forming the letter using play dough to form the letter.
    During circle time on Thursday and Friday children came up two at a time to write the uppercase and lower case L. All children were able to write the letter. As a center I put out various alphabet letters where children were to look for the letter L. This week we are starting letter F! Coincidently we are also doing a theme on Fire Safety. :-)