Responding To Literature
We are reading lots of different books that are written and illustrated by Mo Willems. We are learning about reading while paying attention to punctuation and how we can include voice in our writing.
Persuasive Writing!
Today we began learning about persuasive writing. Persuasive writing is important because it can help us persuade others to change their mind about a topic that we care about.
When we write a persuasive piece we need the following things:
1. Think of an idea
2. Talk about it
3. Write about it
4. Draw about it
We all wrote persuasive pieces about why people need to know about the global goals.
How To Writing!
We are reading lots of different books that are written and illustrated by Mo Willems. We are learning about reading while paying attention to punctuation and how we can include voice in our writing.
Persuasive Writing!
Today we began learning about persuasive writing. Persuasive writing is important because it can help us persuade others to change their mind about a topic that we care about.
When we write a persuasive piece we need the following things:
1. Think of an idea
2. Talk about it
3. Write about it
4. Draw about it
We all wrote persuasive pieces about why people need to know about the global goals.
How To Writing!
We have begun a new writing theme. We are exploring How To writing. How To writing tells a story of how to do something. when we write How To stories we need to have:
1. a title
2. words that match the pictures
3. steps
4. illustrations
5. Our stories need to tell us how to do something
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We learned:
Writing about things you know and care about are important.
Share your ideas with others and reflect on what you want to say.
Get a notebook and write, draw and label ideas you have.
Perseverance is important and mistakes are okay because you grow from them.
Remember to get outdoors and enjoy yourself.
You can use lots of different tools when you write.
Be creative.
Creating Life Cycles of a Pumpkin
Today we are using a lot of the techniques that writer and illustrator Gail Gibbons uses.
We are creating illustrations that have lots of details. This helps us reflect on what we understand. We are also labeling our work. This helps others know what we are creating and learning about. We are using special felt pens to highlight our drawings to help make our meaning clear.
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Making Connections with Text
Today we created life cycles of an apple tree. One of the children discovered that when you write you write from the left to the right. This is just like when we read!
Reading Stories
Today Mrs. Huntington, our literacy coordinator visited Kindergarten to read us a story about friendship. As she is reading if we have a connection we use our hands to let her know. Afterwards we turn and talk to each other about the story and share our perceptions.
Please look here to check out our literacy wiki with what it looks like and sounds like during our literacy time.
Creating Books!
We reread a favorite story called Ok. Later we created our own Ok book. This is a wonderful way to begin to understand the different conventions we use when writing and creating a book.
"How To" Writing
Today we created life cycles of an apple tree. One of the children discovered that when you write you write from the left to the right. This is just like when we read!
Reading Stories
Today Mrs. Huntington, our literacy coordinator visited Kindergarten to read us a story about friendship. As she is reading if we have a connection we use our hands to let her know. Afterwards we turn and talk to each other about the story and share our perceptions.
Please look here to check out our literacy wiki with what it looks like and sounds like during our literacy time.
Creating Books!
We reread a favorite story called Ok. Later we created our own Ok book. This is a wonderful way to begin to understand the different conventions we use when writing and creating a book.
"How To" Writing
Today we explored "how to" create "how to" stories. We had a friend show us how to get ready for recess to help us explore this idea. We discovered that "how to" stories need to have:
1. a title
2. text and pictures
3. tell "how to" do something
4. have steps
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Using a "spaceperson" To Support Our Ideas!
Today as we explored writing we used a "spaceman" to help us remember to keep spaces in between our words. We thought that we would share some of what we created in our writing journals.
Exploring f, t and b!
Today we explored our "Echo" toolkits. They are tools that help us learn 'how to" create letters. We also used iPads and our Smart board to help us explore different types of lines to help our brains think differently.
We are exploring poems that describe living things in nature. Here are a couple of our newest poems.
We are exploring poetry this month. Today we talked about different types of poems, what a poem is and how they can tell a story. Be sure to ask your child about what we shared.
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Reading and Writing
We have been reading lots of books written by Mo Willems. We are exploring characters and talking about "how to" have a conversation. We are creating different pages for a book about stories we have read.
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Persuasive Writing!
Today we began exploring the idea of what it means to write persuasively. We talked about how when you are a persuasive writer you....
1. Have a Big Problem(you want to solve)
2. Think Deeply
3. Write
Today we turned and talked about what we want to persuade the world to do differently. We also created a paper doll of ourselves too! We will be adding dialogue bubbles as well about our thoughts about a big problem that is important to us.
Stay tuned....
Stay tuned....
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Creating Books About Feelings
We are creating and designing books about the different feelings we can have. When we know how we feel it helps us know what we need to do. We are also reading many books by Mo Willems to help us explore feelings and the importance of friendship.
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Making A Difference In Kindergarten
In Kindergarten we have so many ways we can make a difference for others inside and outside of our classroom. This is a theme we weave into our days all year long. Today your child brought home a book they created with this theme in mind. I am grateful for all that you do to support Kindergarten.
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All About Books!
We are exploring all About Books in Kindergarten! All About Books are books about del things. We also call them non-fiction books!
Creating, Designing and Making A Theme Wall!
We are exploring all About Books in Kindergarten! All About Books are books about del things. We also call them non-fiction books!
Creating, Designing and Making A Theme Wall!
Today we began creating a theme wall. A theme wall is an idea of a lot of other ideas that we have been exploring. We are thinking about things we see and notice in nature. We will be creating labels and other text to highlight important ideas.
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Creating Book Covers and Title Pages....
Today we created book covers and title pages for our new pumpkin books. We have explored lots of different types of texts that have a variety of title pages. Title pages are a fun and easy way to highlight a book and who wrote it. We are excited to share ours with you!
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Writer's Workshop!
This afternoon as writers we explored some of the strategies and techniques that Gail Gibbons uses when she creates books. We created our own interpretation of an apple orchard and then created labels of the things we wanted to highlight! We worked hard listening and writing beginning and ending sounds of our words!
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Creating and Designing Places To Write!
This is a very exciting time of year. As we end our time together the children really are independent and understand "how to" write a story by themselves and collaboratively. We have been creating Kindergarten books and also writing about topics that interest us!
An Opportunity To Create!
This morning one of the students noticed a seagull outside our classroom window, so... we went outside and observed the gull for about 10 minutes. When we came back to Kindergarten we were able to write and create drawings about this bird. We were also wondering why it was at our school, so far from the water!
Creative and Independent Writers!
This is a very exciting time of year. As we end our time together the children really are independent and understand "how to" write a story by themselves and collaboratively. We have been creating Kindergarten books and also writing about topics that interest us!
An Opportunity To Create!
Creative and Independent Writers!
This time of year is so exciting for the children because they are becoming independent as writers and are also beginning to make choices about topics that are of interest to them. We write using lots of different tools in lots of spaces inside/outside of our classroom.
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Persuasive Letters!
This morning during our writers workshop time we wrote persuasive letters! Some of us wrote to our parents and friends.
We continue to work on details in our illustrations to help readers understand the meaning of what we write.
Using Google To Help Us Create Forest Animals!
This morning during our writers workshop time we wrote persuasive letters! Some of us wrote to our parents and friends.
We continue to work on details in our illustrations to help readers understand the meaning of what we write.
Using Google To Help Us Create Forest Animals!
This morning during our writer's workshop time we were beginning to create non fiction books about forest animals. Some of the children wanted to see a specific perspective of animals so we used Google to help us locate real images of real animals that we could draw and include in our writing!
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What Does It Look Like? What Are The Tools We Use?
Launching Writer's Workshop!
Launching Writer's Workshop!
Today we explored creating illustrations to tell a story! We are reading many familiar stories and books about nature. Our illustrations have a lot of comprehension in them! When we use details in our writing we create a story and then others can enjoy what we wrote!
Today we read an awesome story called;"ish" by Peter Reynolds. Afterwards we created our own -ish! An -ish is something that you enjoy and care about. Our "ishes" fill our buckets because we care about them!
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Today we created books about leaves! It was wonderful to see all of the children collaborating together about our topic and sharing what they noticed. Lots of great writing and reading strategies at work in Kindergarten!
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Writer's Workshop In The Beginning!
This is what it looks like in Kindergarten during our writing time. We use a variety of tools and collaborate!
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Scientific Writing About What Happens To Water and Salt!
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More of our How To Writing!
When we create how to stories we use a variety of paper and other tools to share our work. Sometimes we use illustrations and illustrations and words. As a community of writer's we decided that How To writing has a title, it tells about how to do something and it has steps.
How To Writing In Kindergarten!
When we create how to stories we use a variety of paper and other tools to share our work. Sometimes we use illustrations and illustrations and words. As a community of writer's we decided that How To writing has a title, it tells about how to do something and it has steps.
How To Writing In Kindergarten!
We started a new unit of study in writing called; "How To" writing. "How To" writing tells us how to do something. One of our classmates demonstrated "How To" get dressed for recess. This was so fun. We were able to watch and talk about the steps involved. "How To" stories help us sequence events too!
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How To Writing!
We started a new unit of writing on Friday, "How To" writing. How To writing is when we create ideas and thoughts that give someone directions on "how to" do something. One of the children volunteered to demonstrate 'how to" get dressed for recess. We learned that their are many steps involved in how to do something. We talked about other ideas we had for how to writing with a partner during our turn and talk time too! Now we are beginning to illustrate our how to stories and sequence our ideas with at least 3 steps.
What Tools Help Us With Our Spelling?
We started a new unit of writing on Friday, "How To" writing. How To writing is when we create ideas and thoughts that give someone directions on "how to" do something. One of the children volunteered to demonstrate 'how to" get dressed for recess. We learned that their are many steps involved in how to do something. We talked about other ideas we had for how to writing with a partner during our turn and talk time too! Now we are beginning to illustrate our how to stories and sequence our ideas with at least 3 steps.
What Tools Help Us With Our Spelling?
Creating, Designing, Observing and Sharing!
In the slideshow you will see some examples of the wonderful writing that the children are doing. Every writer's workshop we focus on a craft. We have been thinking a lot about how people write ideas to share their thinking. We are creating illustrations with labels and lots of details. We have also been writing complete thoughts known as sentences when we wish to say something about what we know or have learned. The children are also creating a theme wall that represents what we are learning about forest life in Vermont.
Informational Writing
The Different Tools We Use During Our Writing Time!
We Can Learn A Lot Through Our Illustrations
Informational Writing
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| Noticing details in the illustration |
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| Creating and designing informational/non-fiction books about the forest. |
We have been examining
and reading lots of different types of non-fiction text in our current
study of the forest. The children have been creating and deigning their
own books about the forest. One of the authors we have been looking at
closely is Gail Gibbons. Her books offer a nice combination of
illustrating and text. One of the techniques we use is to create
illustrations that reflect our understanding of hat we hear and see in
different non-fiction texts.
During
our share session on Friday a few writers were able to use the document
camera in conjunction with our SMARTboard to capture some of the
writing features they noticed in the writing shared. The craft we were
focusing on was using words to communicate an idea, beginning and ending
sounds to write words as well as leaving spaces in between our words.
One of the children even made a connection with blogging! He said,"Mrs.
D. we leave spaces when we make posts too on our blog". The Different Tools We Use During Our Writing Time!
During our writing time the children have lots of different tools that they use to express and share an idea. In the slideshow above you will notice some of these tools and what the children are able to do with them.
As young writer's we use a variety of tools to express ourselves. Illustrating is wonderful because we are able to draw our ideas with details about what we understand. Paint, pencils, colored pencils, markers, "Echo Tool Kits', iPads, computers and other technologies offer us ways to think deeply about our ideas and also to share and reflect on what we understand.
We Can Learn A Lot Through Our Illustrations
Children using the Elmo and SMARTboard to share their writing during a sharing session during our writing workshop time. What a great way to reflect, share, collaborate and gain confidence!
Today the children continued to work on their non fiction books about insects. The children use a variety of texts to help them discover about the many different ways they can illustrate their ideas and what they have learned and what to share. In the videos below you will see 2 examples of how some kindergarten writer's choose to share their ideas. The tool we used to record this work was an iPad! Another great example of how we use technology to enhance our learning!
Creating and Designing Non Fiction Books!
The video is a great example of what we observe and create during our writer's workshop time.
Today we continued our exploration of non fiction texts. The children had an opportunity to work with a partner and look through a variety of non fiction texts. The children noticed that some of the texts had real photographs, arrows were used to point to words, some pages had numbers on them, some pictures looked looked they were drawn, some pictures had labels and even numbers, the information is all real or true and the children noticed how much information you can get just by looking at the picture. Wow!
Today during our writing time the children visited different stations that focused on a variety of writing activities. The children have been learning about how to write their name while only capitalizing the first letter. We explored and practiced this idea with foam shapes to help us remember to always capitalize the 1st letter of our name. The rest of our letters are lower case.
At another table we were creating an egg and a chrysalis for our life cycle mobiles. Lots of fun crushing up paper and making different sized shapes. This is great for strengthening our hand muscles too!
We had lots of fun tracing our words and pictures on the covers and dedication pages of our Monarch Life Cycle Books. We use thin markers to help make our words and illustrations stand out, like Gail Gibbons. Sometimes we use binders when we write. This gives us feedback so we know where our hands are.
Phew! We did a lot of wonderful things today during our writing workshop time.
Kyle has been coming home using some "scientific" words. My guess is that he has been learning alot about the butterfly and its growth cycle.
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