It has been a month since school began for our kindergarteners! We spent the first few weeks simply getting acclimated to school and learning procedures and routines. However, for the last two weeks, we have been exploring our first theme: bears!
Our first objective was to demonstrate the different types of books-- fiction and nonfiction. Sometimes the books we read are for fun (about pretend bears), but sometimes they are to help us learn about actual bears. We drew pictures of facts that we learned about bears from a non-fiction book, such as they catch fish, they climb trees, and they can stand up on two legs!
We used fiction books to help us learn how to effectively read a book by using pictures, sounds/words that we know, and retelling it if it is a familiar story. The two stories that we primarily focused on were:
Our first objective was to demonstrate the different types of books-- fiction and nonfiction. Sometimes the books we read are for fun (about pretend bears), but sometimes they are to help us learn about actual bears. We drew pictures of facts that we learned about bears from a non-fiction book, such as they catch fish, they climb trees, and they can stand up on two legs!
We used fiction books to help us learn how to effectively read a book by using pictures, sounds/words that we know, and retelling it if it is a familiar story. The two stories that we primarily focused on were:
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? helped us learn to write and say all of our color words. We drew pictures and labeled the colors as well as played with bear manipulatives in rice and tried to use letter toys to spell the colors that way!
With Corduroy, we practiced verbalizing what was happening in the book by talking to a friend about our thoughts and predictions and retelling the story as a class.
With Corduroy, we practiced verbalizing what was happening in the book by talking to a friend about our thoughts and predictions and retelling the story as a class.
We also used some bear-themed activities in various learning centers throughout the day! As we prepare for Daily Five, these were a few of our Word Work centers:
There was also some hands-on learning within our first week of math centers!
We also tied our stuffed bears from home into our first social studies unit on responsibility. We taught our bears how to follow the school rules and be a responsible student. Now we are ready to put what we've learned into practice for the rest of the year!