We can hardly wait!
It has been a long, cold winter with too many indoor recess days. The kids are antsy. The teachers are antsy. We are all ready for sunshine and warm weather. There are some definite advantages to all the cold. Every child in our class is now a zipper expert! Of course it might not be because of the weather. It is entirely possible that this class happens to be the most motivated group of students in the history of PreK4. We have been accomplishing some amazing things lately.
I am sure you have seen our 'Sight Word Crowns'. We can hardly walk through the building without a student pointing out a sight word. We have started a new game this week too. It is called "Secret Sight Word". Every morning (that I remember) there is a sight word hidden under the treasure map on our classroom door. The children peek at the word and commit it to memory. I erase the word and during play time, the children are allowed to find the secret sight word hidden somewhere around our room. What kid would give up play time to search for a sight word?! These kiddos are amazing.
We are also working hard to blend CVC words. We practice reading words one sound at a time. It helps the children to 'put it on their arm'. Children tap their arm, starting at the shoulder, with each sound of the word. Once the sounds are stuck they rub/blend the sounds together faster each time to read the word. They love this and are getting to be pretty amazing readers considering we are PreK4.
We have also spent a lot of time in Math trying to use our vocabulary. We really want children to be able to explain what they are working on. This particular group of kids seems to thrive on learning new words and using them. They can even distinguish between parallel and perpendicular. Try reading a bedtime story that is make believe and they insist on using the word 'fiction'. They are such a delight to teach. I can't wait to see what we are able to do the last few months of school.
If you click the link it will take you to a short video of students blending words and writing math sentences.
