Word Families

This past week and next week I am introducing word families. The word family I am beginning with is 'at'. These are words such as:

• Cat
• Hat
• Sat
• Mat
• Rat

I believe teaching word families will also help children produce rhyming words, as it will give them more exposure to similar sounding words. However, my main focus on this lesson is to teach onset and rhyme. For example the onset in these words are:

• /C/
• /H/
• /S/
• /M/
• /R/

And, the rhyme is /at/ for each word.

In my lesson, I will be introducing this lesson by using a Christmas tree which says _at in the middle. There will be five different ornaments on each ornament will be a beginning letter sound such as, C, H, S, M, and R. Children will place the initial letter sound to the word family 'at'. Then say the word outline. I will ask children to identify each word. Then, next week I will place this at the literacy center and they will work independently or in pairs to identify each word.

Rhyming Assessment

While doing progress report cards and assessing  whether or not they can recognize and produce rhymes I noticed children can recognize rhymes, but cannot produce rhymes. I am surprised by this, I would assume that if children can recognize whether or not two words rhyme they would be able to produce rhymes as well. Is this an issue of articulation or are they not fully understanding what rhyming words are.

We do a lot of activities in the classroom that teaching rhyming. We are always singing song and reading books that rhyme. Although I think it's good that they are having indirect exposure to rhyming I think they need more direct exposure. I was thinking of ways to increase their ability to produce rhymes such as rhyming bingo and repeating the rhyme if they have it on their board. Also, at circle, I could have children go around in a circle and see how long they can rhyme with a specific word.

Within the next month, I hope that all children will meet standard RF.PK.2a I can recognize and produce rhyming words (e.g. identify words that rhyme with /cat/ such as /bat/ and /sat/).

Name Formation

While completing progress report cards and assessing name formation, I noticed that most children are able to write their name, however, the formation of the letters need some additional practice. Some children are writing letters backwards and others are writing in all capital letters. I understand that these are pre-writing skills they are demonstrating and that is typical for their age, but still think they should have the proper formation down pat by the end of the year.

I have been brainstorming some ideas to help them have more exposure to the proper formation of their name. For example, I wanted to begin a sign in book. Children will look for their name and then copy their name-- indicating they are present in the classroom. However, I am still looking for more ideas.

Also, RF.PK.1d. states, "I can recognize and name some upper and lowercase in the alphabet and can name the letters that are in my own name." I am noticing that children are identifying more letters that aren't in their name vs. that are in their name. I would think it would be the opposite.
I plan on sending home a letter to parents discussing the importance in teaching proper formation of letters in their name as well as being able to identify each letter.

Wrap-up of Shel Silverstein

Having had exposure to multiple pieces of poetry by Shel Silverstein, children will recap what they have learned about Shel Silverstein and poetry in general. With completion of this lesson children will have met the following Pre-K Standards:

• RL.PK.9 I can identify several books on a favorite topic or several books by a favorite author or illustrator
• RL.PK.1 I can ask and answer questions about a story or poem

In order to meet these standards, we reviewed the titles read in the classroom and discussed what their favorite poem was and why. Children were given a book of poems we read for the week and new poems as well to read at home with their parents. Parents thoroughly enjoyed the poetry book they received. After reading the new poems with their parents, children described what they read. Reading these poems provided parents and children a better understanding of what children have been doing in school. As well, I think there is great importance in parents reading to their children. If this activity helped to achieve this, I will send home other pieces of literature to help foster this.

Dancin' in the Rain by Shel Silverstein

In this lesson children used self-reflection to describe what they would do in the rain. We also discussed words with similar meaning-- also known as synonyms. As a group, we read the poem and asked the following questions:

-          What does drizzles means? What do you think is drizzling?

-          W hat does dribbles means? What do you think is dribbling?

-          W hat does drips means? What do they think is drips?

-          Do you think these words have similar meaning? Why or why not?

-          Have children share what they like to do when it’s raining (e.g. dance in the rain, stay inside, play outside)

Once children had participated in our discussion children were to go back to their seats are illustrate a picture of something they like to do in the rain. All children were to describe and illustrate pictures of something they like to do when its reading. Half of the class illustrated pictures of them inside their houses playing with their siblings or parents, watching TV, or laying in bed. The other half drew pictures of them playing sports, riding their bike, or dancing. Their illustrations and descriptions prove that they were able to complete the assignment with success.

Carrots by Shel Silverstein

In this lesson children examined the difference between figurative and literal thinking. Children also practiced making predictions on what they thought the text would be about solely looking at the illustration. I asked children if they knew what bodily function carrots help with. Some knew that they help with eye sight. Some children then made changes to their prediction. Others still unsure why their are carrots as eyes in the illustration.

In order to expand their knowledge of figurative speech were examined the following pieces of figurative speech:

·         Her hair was soft as silk.

·         Her eyes were like fireflies.

In order to expand their thinking during the book I asked some of the following questions:

·         Do you think your eyes really turn into carrots if you eat a lot of carrots?

·         Why or why not?

·         Do you think he’s using the carrots right by putting them into his eyes?

·         Why or why not?

·         What do you think people really mean when they say “carrots are good for your eyes”?

 

 

Jumping Rope by Shel Silverstein

Above is a copy of the poem I read to my class by Shel Silverstein. The goal of this lesson was for children to make text-to-self connections and display their comprehension skills.

Children reflected upon the following: why they think he got tangled? Did he really know how to jump rope? Why does he have no hope anymore after jumping rope? How will he get untangled? What would you do if you were tangled?

Children also explored using emotion to describe how they would feel if they got tangled. We wrote the emotions they felt on the board. Children came up with emotions such as "mad", "sad",  "frustrated", and "scared"

The children in my class did a good job at making text-to-self connections. They were easily able to identify what they would do if they got tangled in a jump rope. In the future I would like to see children in the classroom make other connections such as text-to-text and text-to-world. These may be more challenging (especially text-to-world) however, with the appropriate text and prompting I do believe that they could make such connections.