First, I must note that some of this post may seem familiar. I give snippets of our days on our classroom Facebook page, and then I later go back and give more details through this blog. So, if you notice the pictures in the blog posts are sometimes repetitive, that's why. Now that we are back into a more normal school routine without many breaks/days off for students coming up, I should be able to do more frequent posts. It's been a busy few weeks since holiday vacation! I, for one, am excited to get back into a more regular routine with some five-day school weeks, barring any potential snow days.
Our Writing Workshop time has transformed! As detailed in my last blog post, I completely restructured our daily schedule, with the hope of gaining some momentum in our literacy learning, particularly writing. So far, so good! I think it's fair to say that our kindergarten learners are at their sharpest at the very beginning of our day. It's right after they eat breakfast and we have our classroom Morning Meeting. We usually begin Writing Workshop by 9:30 and keep going strong until 10:15 or even 10:30. This used to be our Math Workshop time frame, which I am happy to say is going well at the very end of our day in the afternoon. Yes! I am proud of the kindergartners for being so flexible about our schedule. I think as long as the structure of these time periods looks the same (and they do), they can go with the flow.
Currently, students are working on personal narrative writing--writing true stories of their lives. Sample recent mini-lessons have included:
Of course, that's just a sampling of what we've done in our mini-lesson work. For more information about our writing curriculum in general, please go to the Writing tab on this website.
I am eager to move on to our next two units of study--how-to (procedural texts) and persuasive/opinion writing. But, in them meantime, our kindergarten writers are growing in leaps and bounds in our current unit--Writing for Readers.
Our Writing Workshop time has transformed! As detailed in my last blog post, I completely restructured our daily schedule, with the hope of gaining some momentum in our literacy learning, particularly writing. So far, so good! I think it's fair to say that our kindergarten learners are at their sharpest at the very beginning of our day. It's right after they eat breakfast and we have our classroom Morning Meeting. We usually begin Writing Workshop by 9:30 and keep going strong until 10:15 or even 10:30. This used to be our Math Workshop time frame, which I am happy to say is going well at the very end of our day in the afternoon. Yes! I am proud of the kindergartners for being so flexible about our schedule. I think as long as the structure of these time periods looks the same (and they do), they can go with the flow.
Currently, students are working on personal narrative writing--writing true stories of their lives. Sample recent mini-lessons have included:
- planning our writing with a partner
- planning our pages on our fingers and with blank writing booklets
- stretching and writing many sounds in words
- spelling sight words correctly in our writing
- putting spaces between words
- using punctuation in sentences
- writing carefully to help others read our work
- organizing our writing folders to be sure we go back and finish old pieces
- adding words and details to pieces before declaring "I'm done!"
- writing stories across three pages with a beginning, middle, and end
- determining our progress towards our writing goal using our current learning scale
Of course, that's just a sampling of what we've done in our mini-lesson work. For more information about our writing curriculum in general, please go to the Writing tab on this website.
I am eager to move on to our next two units of study--how-to (procedural texts) and persuasive/opinion writing. But, in them meantime, our kindergarten writers are growing in leaps and bounds in our current unit--Writing for Readers.
Our newly placed Word Wall is easier for students to see from where they sit in the room during writing time. I have noticed students referencing it regularly. Please continue to help your child practice his/her sight words at home. This is so helpful to his/her development as a reader and a writer!