Literacy: Learning about Letters!

Hi parents!

If any of you are interested in listening to me talk about how the alphabet works (hint: it's more complicated than you think!) then feel free to watch my videos below. You may learn something new :) I think it could be helpful at home when you're helping your little one with their literacy.

If this is helpful in anyway, I'd be happy to do more... I have lots of time lol ;) Just let me know!

Literacy: Raz Kids!

Hi everyone! While we navigate through these crazy times together, I wanted to have something for your kids to do at home. I want to reiterate, do not stress out. These are unprecedented times and we're all in this together. I am working on some things at the moment to take the load off your shoulders as best as I can. 

Raz kids is a free online reading program. Watch the video I made below to learn how to sign up!

       

Literacy: Syllables!

This week we are practising hearing the syllables inside of words! We will sometimes call them "beats", or the "big" sounds in words. Syllables can sometimes be confusing for kids. They can sometimes add extra syllables in words that aren't there (i.e., saying the word house has 2, h-ouse). I redirect them to use the word in a sentence, or clapping it out. Sometimes students can get confused between syllables and segmenting. That means, for example, they think the word cat has 3 syllables, c-a-t, when in reality it only has 1, but has 3 sounds.

We started by practicing clapping the syllables in our name :) Most of our friends have 3... some have 2, and some even have 1! You can play a game at home with your family by practising everyone's name. Understanding syllables is important because it will help with the transition of spelling. We have to be able to identify the syllables in words, so we can then segment each syllable and spell it out. I made a quick chart below to explain.

By the end of SK, I would expect students to be able to spell simple, 1 syllable CVC (consonant vowel consonant) words.... real or nonsense, such as cat, dog, yed, soc. I would also expect them to be able to clap the beats in words up to 3/4 syllables. Some of our SKs sat down with me to play a game of "Syllable Smash"! It was fun! We also watched this fun video about syllables :)

Literacy: Special Letters!

To celebrate knowing our special letters, we made some crafts this week using them! We've also been practising learning beginning sounds in words. A fun activity to do at home would be to make an alliterative sentence using your child's name and their craft! For example, Sally liked to sing with silly snakes. If your child is past this, they can try writing their sentence down! We will be starting some small groups soon to continue to practise our literacy skills :)

Literacy: Sorting Sounds!

On Friday we played a game where we sorted sounds by short sounds and continuous sounds. Some sounds, like the sound that s makes, is a continuous sound, because you can keep making it, whereas the sound p makes is a short sound. Try playing this game at home!

Literacy: Letter Sounds!

We are continuing to practise our letters and the sounds they make! Watch this video to see our hard work :) We follow the characters in the letter factory! We watch this video a lot to help us remember!

We don't worry too much about the schwa that they make (the "uh" sound that comes after the /p/ and /q/ for instance). I don't find that is impacts students when it comes to spelling, etc. We do correct the /l/ sound as they make more of an "ul" sound in the video, and we correct the /r/ sound, as in the video they make an /er/ sound. Have your child practice with you at home! <3 

Literacy: Letter Factory!

Over the past couple of weeks, we have been learning about the letters in the alphabet! We learned that every letter has an uppercase and a lowercase, and each letter makes a sound! To learn our letters, we watch a Leapfrog video called "The Letter Factory!". We are almost through the whole alphabet. Once we're done, we will do a video to show you the actions that go with them! :)

Literacy: Listening Game!

Over the past month, I've noticed that students are raising their hands to answer questions before I even ask.... sometimes I like to trick them by changing my original question to something silly like "Who would like to...... clean my dirty shoes?" ;) To work on this, we played a new listening game :) I call it "Baa, Oink, Moo"!

I started off making 2 animal noises, such as "oink oink, moooo". Then I asked students, "Which animal did you hear first?". Then I would change it up and ask students, "Which sound did you hear last?". Thankfully, no students said any noises that I DIDN'T make, so we're off to a good start, hehe. But we definitely need to keep working on waiting until the question is asked, listening to what exactly is being asked, and answering appropriately. We added in a third sound, and then I asked students "Which sound did you hear in the middle?". We have a lot of work to do around this, considering knowing "first, middle, last" is a skill in itself. You can play this game at home quickly after dinner, or during bath time. If "first and last" is too hard, just ask questions like "Which animal sound did I just make?". We will keep working on it!

Literacy: Listening Skills!

When we think of literacy, we typically think of reading and writing, which is true! However, for students who are 4 and 5, there's a lot more that happens before that. The main component of literacy in Kindergarten is oral communication and listening. Listening is a skill! I can't tell you how many times during an assembly I've seen students stand up for "student of the month" despite being the student of the month, hehe. If we want to students to answer a question such as "What sound do you hear first?", they first have to be able to listen to the question, understand it, think about the answer, and then orally state it. It's quite the process!

Over the past week, we've been playing lots of listening games! Today we played, "Who!?", where the teacher asks questions such as "Who played at dramatic play today? Who is a girl? Who didn't play at the doll house today?" and students answered by raising or not raising their hand. We are also learning how to properly respond to questions. Feel free to practice at home! :)

Literacy: Segmenting Game

This week for our literacy lessons, we have been practising hearing each individual sound inside of a word. This is called segmenting! Sometimes, students will tell you the letter that corresponds with the sound. This will eventually help when it comes to spelling, but right now we are just listening to the sounds :) We have been doing CVC words (consonant, vowel, consonant). Each word has a beginning, middle, and end sound. The middle, or medial sound, is often the hardest to hear. We used hoola hoops today and jumped into each one for each sound. You can play this game at home! :)

Literacy: Pre-Reading Skills

Over the past two months, we have been working hard everyday to improve upon our pre-reading skills. For some children, reading comes very easily, and for others, it's more of a challenge. There are a few crucial skills that students must have in order to prepare them to be successful readers, and that's what we are focusing on in Kindergarten. When students leave Kindergarten, they should be able to do the following things:

1. Letters/Sounds/Words

- Children should be able to identify the difference between a letter, sound, and a word. Letters make sounds. Letters come together to make words, meaning sounds pushed together make words. Children should know the letters of the alphabet, uppercase and lowercase, and know the sounds that the letters make.

2. Syllables

- Children should understand that each word has syllables, and they can tell you how many syllables or "beats" are in a word. They can do this by clapping it out, or doing it in their head. They understand that syllables are different than the individual sounds in a word (i.e., the word 'dog' has one syllable, but 3 sounds).

3. Rhyming

- Children can identify words that rhyme, meaning words that sounds the same in the middle and the end. They can tell you if words rhyme when you ask them, and they can generate rhyming words on their own.

4. Beginning Sounds

- Children can tell you what the beginning sound in a word is. In our class, we say, "What is the first sound you hear come out of my mouth?". They can tell you what letter makes that sound. 

5. Ending Sounds

- Children can tell you what the ending sound in a word is. In our class, we say, "What is the last sound you hear come out of my mouth?". They can tell you what letter makes that sound.

6. Blending

- Children can hear what word you are making when you slowly say a word. Eventually, they can blend out a word on their own (i.e., seeing the word "hat", making each sound, and hearing what word it is).

7. Segmenting

- This is a very difficult skill for children to acquire, and it requires a lot of work. Segmenting is being able to hear the individual sounds in a word. For example, when you say the word "me", it has two sounds: /mmmmm/ and /e/. The word "farm" has 3 sounds: /fffff/ /ar/ /mmmmm/. This is a powerful skill to have, especially when it comes to writing. Sometimes, students get confused and tell you the letters instead, because they may know how to spell it (i.e., in the word 'my', they said /mmm/ /y/, instead of /mmmm/ /i/. 

8. Experimental Writing

- Children can spell basic CVC words (consonant, vowel, consonant). They have the understanding of letters and the sounds they make, they can hear the beginning, middle and ending sounds, and they can segment the word. All the skills come wrapped up in this major skill! When you ask your child to spell simple words, even "nonsense" words like "lug", "zop", or "geb", they can write the corresponding letters.

This is a brief explanation of the skills that are necessary to achieve reading success, and we are working on them everyday during our literacy lessons. There is still an importance of knowing sight words (popcorn words), as this will help when students are finally ready to read. As mentioned above, these skills are important to have before leaving year 2 of kindergarten. 

There is something else that JK parents can also work on at home, as these are also important to master as we begin to learn to read!

Basic Print Concepts:

• Identify the front of the book
• Can point to where you should start reading (the words on the first page)
• Can show you with their finger which way you read (left to right)
• Can point to the words when you read to them
• Can do a "return sweep", meaning when the first line of text is done, they move to the first word in the second line
• Knows to read the left page before the right
• Knows to hold the book upright, and how to turn the pages

I hope this gives you a better idea of what you can be doing at home!

Literacy: Letters and Sounds

For the past two months, we have been practising our letters and sounds! We have learned all the letters in the alphabet and the sounds that they make. We've used Leapfrog's Letter Factory video to help us!

Learning the letters in the alphabet and their sounds is a great starting point for learning how to read. We've been learning the difference between a letter, the sound that it makes, and a word. This would be a fun and easy game to play at home! Here are some other things you can work on at home to improve your child's pre-reading skills:

• practise holding a book upright and turning the pages
• listening for words that rhyme and trying to generate rhyming words (i.e., "Do man and can rhyme? What rhymes with dog?")
• asking what the beginning sound in a word is (i.e., "What is the first sound you hear in the word 'monkey'?")
• asking what the individual sounds in a word are (i.e., "The word 'moon' has 3 sounds. What are they?") - m/oo/n

Keep up with your home reading on a weekly basis, reading to your child at home every night, and writing your name!

Literacy: The Pirate Sounds!

This week and next, we are learning about our pirate sounds: oi/oy, and ar! This week we learned all about the /ar/ sound. Check out the video below to help you learn more about it!

Literacy: January Literacy Bins!

Tania and Olivia are using the word wall to print popcorn words. Jersey is writing letters in shaving cream! 

Stuart and Alessandra worked together to read and write some popcorn and balloon words. Gurshaan used the whisper phone while reading a book.

Wow Stuart! Great work!!! 

Hasan is practicing his printing by writing words he sees around the classroom.

    

Ava and Clarissa are practicing identifying their popcorn words.

 

Literacy: Eyewords

Hi everyone,

I'm not sure if many of you know that I have tons of how-to videos on YouTube that you can watch to help your child with their reading and mathematics. I've recently made a new video about "eye words". Check it out below :)

Click here to take you to my playlist of reading videos. You can also find some math ones on my channel too :)

Literacy: All About the Vowels!

Vowel Sounds vs. Vowel Names

Last week was an important week during our Literacy time, because we are learning more about the vowels/"sticky letters". Vowels are important letters! They stick words together... every word and syllable needs one... and they make more than one sound! This week we are learning the two sounds that each vowel makes. These are called short and long vowel sounds. However, we will refer to them as vowel name and vowel sound. Although they are technically both sounds, vowel name refers to the name of the letter /a/ and vowel sounds refers to the sound that that letter names /ah/. 

We learned that "A can say /ah/ and A can say /a/". 

We learned that "E can say /eh/ and E can say /e/".

etc.

This is more directed toward SKs, but so many of our JKs know their letters and sounds that this would be a great next step :)