I'm super excited to share with y'all what we have been doing in class these past couple of days...
Daily 5
We started our Daily 5 lessons last week and talked about the importance of "Read to Self". We created an Important Chart (a.k.a I-Chart) that listed what read to self should look/sound like. The kids were so excited to be able to read by themselves, it made them feel like big kids!
1st...we talked about 3 ways of reading a book:
2nd...we continued talking about how reading the pictures alone can tell a story! Of course, words are very important...but so are the pictures! :) We read Pancakes for Breakfast and Chrysanthemum.
Pancakes for Breakfast is a wordless picture book that tells of a lady who woke up craving pancakes one morning. This book definitely gave our stomachs a growl! We were able to learn that pictures can tell a story!
Chrysanthemum was an excellent book that went along with our "Who We Are" IB Unit of Inquiry. I also used it to teach how to "Read the Pictures", "Read the Words", and then "Retell" the story. We made inferences about what was happening in the book by reading the pictures. Then, we went back to the beginning and read the words. The following school day, we were able to retell the story! It's one of my favorite books!
Stamina building was next on the agenda...
We talked about what stamina meant, and the everyday activities that require stamina. Then, we followed our discussion with this book:
It helped the kids see that stamina building takes practice and time. We created a class stamina chart which basically looks like a thermometer. We started the 1st day of "Read to Self" at 2 minutes...we're at a whole 6 minutes now! Woo-hoo!
We've been working on how to choose "Good-Fit" books. I related choosing books to choosing shoes. We always want to find the "Just Right" fitting pair of shoes. It can't be too big, it can't be too small, and it definitely needs to be interesting!
We followed this discussion with the following book:
Following the discussion and read aloud, the kids finally got their long awaited book baggies. They are allowed to go book shopping in our classroom library every Monday.
Rules for Book Shopping:
1. Only 3 books are allowed to be checked out of our classroom library.
2. Books that belong to the school (including leveled readers, school library book) may be brought home to be read, however they must be returned to school.
3. Books that belong to me (Ms. Shum) may NOT be taken out of school. They MUST be left on their table. If you see a white label on the bottom right hand corner of the book, it would be mine. :) Please make sure to double check your child's book baggies!
Today, we discussed about places they like to read at home. We had responses like "the kitchen", "the living room", "my bedroom", and "the bathroom". My favorite was the bathroom response. :)
We discussed that choosing "the best place" means picking a spot where we wouldn't get distracted from building our reading stamina. We followed our discussion with this book:
We had students sitting on the carpet in the classroom library, by the computers, a small cozy corner of the room, and even in their own seats. :)
Wonder Wall
Since we are an IB school, our students learn a lot of concepts through inquiry based learning. Beginning in Kindergarten, students are taught how to "ask questions" (Who, What, When, Where, Why, How). Based on the concepts we teach throughout the year, we post the questions students have on our wonder wall. Our wonder wall is located in the front of the classroom. I placed think bubbles on the wonder wall, along with the student's "thinking" picture.
I asked the kids to give me their best "I wonder..." face, and this is what I was given. It was absolutely precious!
Sight Words
We have been working with sight words these past 2 weeks, I will be sending home a list of the sight words to be practiced for reinforcement purposes. The following is a list of sight words we know so far:
I
am
can
little
a
have
to
red
like
the
me
