RING OF WORDS!

Here we go....finally a post about ROW.

We have been doing lots of Word Work at school. As your child shows me they are ready to begin working on real words they will earn a “Ring of Words”. Because this part of our day seems to be a favorite, I wanted to tell you a little more about it. This is a fun method of expanding our vocabulary, reading, and writing skills, that has proven to be very successful.

I will be sending home a list of words we work on in class. These words are taken from the Dolch Site Words. Students will receive the first set of words after showing me they know all the letters and sounds. I am excited that almost everyone has earned their ROW this year!

Each morning your child has a choice of about 15 different activities they can work on to help them learn the words. Ask your child what their favorite is!

Here are a few things we use...

(alphabet cards, big letters, alpha rubbings with crayons, magnets, lima bean letters, markers and colored pens for rainbow writing, letter stamps, letter blocks, playdoh, chalk boarda, and dry erase crayons on boards)

When they are able to read the set of words they will earn a sticker. When they can spell each word they will earn another sticker and a new set of words. They should be able to read and spell these words aloud without hesitation.

I feel this method works for several reasons but primarily it allows each child to work at their own pace. (Also, a little friendly competition can be quite amazing encouragement, especially for those boys!) As they quickly begin to learn the words they will also find that they can read and write stories of their own. As the students work through the words (Pre-primer through 3rd grade) I will personalize the list to include words they are frequently misspelling in their writing.

Although I don’t require it, it can be very beneficial (and FUN!) to work on the set of words your child is on at home as well. Maybe try making a ROW at home and adding that as part of your nightly homework routine.

If your child is still working on letter recognition and sounds please continue to help them at home as well. My goal is for everyone to be onto words by October!

I hope you will soon begin hearing your child talk with you about the words they are learning and using in class. I can’t wait to see where we go from here!

Thank you for your continued support at home and remember: the best way for your child to become a better reader and writer is to READ, READ, READ!!! If nothing else please, please, please read with your child every.single.night.

A little proof...

While I haven't had a free second to take pictures of students actually doing the work...I have taken a few pictures of the anchor charts we've been making together in class. These should give you a pretty good idea about what our morning look like right now. This year we are implementing the "Daily 5" in our classes. As it turns out I was basically doing this program all along the last 3 years, I just didn't know it was an actual "thing" teachers were doing, since it was something I just kind of started doing from the get-go without any real guidance, when I had no idea how to create a Kinder class my first year of teaching. (MAJOR run on sentance I just used...eek!) After reading up on it I changed my schedule a little and voila, we are officially a Daily 5 class!

Here's a little idea of how our mornings go....
Unpack, Morning Announcements

Sing our "good morning" songs (ask your kids to share!)

Go through the alpha chart daily like this:
"A says /a/ like apple" "B says /b/ like bear." etc.

(I will be sending home a copy of this very soon to practice!)

Read a story and fill out or discuss orally a chart like this:

Then we work on words. Many of us have earned a "ring of words" (which deserves a post of it's own in the near future, promise!) and others work together on letter recognition and letter sounds.

We've worked up to TWENTY minutes of independent work! WHOA BABY! :)

We then have a short lesson on whatever skill we are working on at the moment. Sounds, words, rhymes, etc. This usually includes working with a poem like this.

Then we grab our book baskets and read to ourselves for about 20 minutes.

We join back again and have some sort of short writing lesson like this:

Then we work on writing in our treasure books until it's time for lunch.

We also find time to throw in things like songs that get our wiggles out, a small activity here and there, and morning messages that will hopefully say this same thing every Monday...

GO TECH!!!

I only have about 901 things I want to add to our morning routine. The general schedule will remain the same but I will be changing things up as we go along.

Unlike your kindergartener who has built up stamina to work hard all day long, you are probably exhausted (or confused) just from reading all that!! I'm sure they'll be able to answer any questions you might have.

Peace!

**please excuse grammer and spelling...I was rushing! :)