Reading and Writing List (Pattern) Books

Between now and the winter break our class will be learning to read and write many list or pattern books. These are books that repeat a certain phase related to a specific theme. We will be using the lists we generated in October and learn how to turn these ideas into our own personal books.

First the teachers will model pattern books by reading several to the class. We will examine the picture on the front cover with the title covered to predict what each book will probably be about.

This will involve the skill of thinking about catagories and how groups are related. Next we will read the title to check our predictions. Then we will brainstorm what may be on the pages inside the book. Reading the book will further confirm our predictions. Baskets of other books written with a pattern will be read frequently privately, with partners, and with the teachers throughout the month of December. The most common of these books is the all time favorite, "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?"

We will be relating our reading experiences with these patterns books to our work in the writing workshop lessons. We will begin our first books today around the assigned topic of school activities. Each student will design their front cover picture and create a title. Tomorrow we will begin to create the pages. The children will each decide what activities they want to include in the five pages of their personal booket. Related pictures will be draw, and sentences in the pattern each child chose will be written. Following this, everyday or two new books will be made around the topics each child selected.

Learning to Read!

Yes, all our kindergarten children enjoy books and are learning to read. By taking home nightly the many class books we have made in school, the children are able to read each others names and many of the titles, labels, and sentences included in these books. The children shop for five books each Monday from baskets of books on each child's reading level. These books are read in a variety of ways all week, and then are replaced by self-selected books next Monday.

In addition, Mrs. Kiernan and I meet with the children individually and in small groups to work on reading skills. Learning to be a successful reader is so much more than just being able to read words from memory. We are practicing word decoding skills by sounding out the letters and by deciding what word would make sense in this sentence. We are looking at picture clues to help with unfamiliar words, too.

Successful reading also includes predicting outcomes, being able to remember the story, and retelling the story in your own words. We will also be practicing reading silently to ourselves, reading orally with expression, and observing punctuation. We read from a variety of materials, including fiction and non-fiction.

Yes, much is involved in being a successful reader, and our class is well on their way to begin their exciting journey into the wide world of reading. One of the key factors is enjoying a variety a reading experiences and incorporating reading into one's daily life. As adults, our modeling of this will assist our children to become life-long readers.

On a different note, I returned Sunday from Detroit where I was taking care of my grandson, Jaxon. He is doing very well, and now weighs 6 lbs 11ozs. We are thrilled with his progress; however, he is still very small for his age. We continue to feed him every three hours around the clock. He likes to be held a lot! I return to Michigan after school Friday for the week of Thanksgiving. Fortunately, I will not be missing school until after the New Year. Thank you to everyone for your interest, concern, and patience while I have been out. A special thanks to Mrs. Kiernan for carrying out our plans in my absence. I return to a well-run classroom!

Savory Vegetables

It's harvest time, so we put away the pumpkins and made room for other savory vegetables of the season. A dab of dressing and a few minutes of blanching made for a hearty snack. Healthy foods come in great colors and make for a lovely plate. In the kitchen we will explore adding vegetables to some all time favorites.
The Scholastic Book Fair is underway. Our class is scheduled to shop for titles tomorrow from 10:15 - 10:45. Be sure to read today's letter for additional buying times and instructions.
We look forward to seeing a proud group of parents at Poetry in the Park.

November Math

This month in math we will be focusing on reading, writing, and using the numbers to 20. Earlier the children made number cards to 10 and worked on putting them in order from left to right. (Rather than from right to left!) Then they told the teacher what number comes before or after a given number, or what is one more or one less than that number. (This also was an introduction to addition and subtraction.) The children will be making number cards now for the numbers above 10 all the way to 20, and will be using these for similar activities.

We will continue using our individual calendar folders each day to record the date, the number of days we have been in school, the weather, and who lost a tooth that day. Ask your child to explain to you the work we do in these folders.

We will continue to work with patterns each day, first emphasizing simple patterns, called AB, using colors, shapes, numbers, letters, size, objects, and position. Later we will construct patterns that are more complicated, such as AABB, AAB, ABB, and ABC.

We will explore the various attributes of shapes, and where shapes can be found in the world. In addition, we will begin to talk about measuring: why we measure, the various way to measure, and the tools that are used.