Writer's Workshop and Writing Center-

The first quarter in Kindergarten involves teaching students letter formation.  I spend a great deal of time teaching about the concept of writing.  I do Writer's Workshop with my class one time each week during this initial introduction stage.  I enjoy using the Teachers Pay Teachers author Ms. Lilypad.  I put up this sign each time we write.  The students know that we write until the sign comes down.  Each workshop allows me the opportunity to continue to build on concepts such as how to sound out words.  (I purchased the backing at Dollar Tree.  These posters come from Teachers Pay Teachers and several are original creations.)

  We begin workshop by thinking and talking about a new idea.  I usually read a trade book to get us excited and thinking about connections.  Then, we prepare to draw, label, and write.  Sharing will come as we progress.  We begin sharing with partners.

Each student has a writing folder.  When students hear the signal that workshop is closed they place writing in the green side if they wish to continue writing.  Finished work is placed in the red side of the folder.  Each folder has an alphabet helper chart.

Early writing includes more scaffolding.  Students begin by writing a few words to complete a sentence.  As we work through the early resistance to not knowing how to spell everything, we will begin to build stamina.  Then, we learn to write our own sentences.  This is an example of an early writing workshop that goes along with our Dr. Suess author study.

I plan to begin to conduct Writing Workshop several times each week as we finish our intensive phonics letter introductions.  Writing will also become part of our Language Arts centers.  I will ask the children to go to the writing center and write in journals.  Later, I will begin to give several choices for writing including letters, lists, stories, and poems.  This sign will help create a writing office.  Six children will attend the writing center during one rotation.  Each student will have his or her own lap desk.  (These were purchased at Hobby Lobby.)

This is my plan for storage and organization.  The children will have access to several writing options during writing center.  

We also enjoy making class books to keep in our classroom library.  I often place class books in the browsing book baskets on the student tables.  When work is finished the students enjoy looking through the books.  This helps the children understand that they are considered writers because they write and illustrators because they draw.

 

I created a costume to become the character Eddie Laugh Laugh.  Eddie comes with his giant elephant flashcards to teach slides.  I introduce slides as soon as I have taught /a/ and /b/.  We start with ba and add slides each time we learn a new letter.  Later, Eddie will bring his slide ladder flashcards.  These cards have each consonant matched with each vowel.  (ba, be, bi, bo, bu)

We do a slide dance each day as we chant the new flashcards.  The class moves and dips with each slide.  Then, the students slide back and do the next move.

This is our picture of Eddie.

Phonics Instruction-

I believe that early readers must develop a relationship with each letter.  I take a week to introduce the first few letters in my classroom-/A/, /B/, /F/, and /D/.  Then, we will begin to move through the alphabet covering two to three letters each week.

Each Language Arts block begins with a puppet, or character telling a story.  These are some of my friends from /F/ week.  The stories often include words and adventures that start with the current letter.

Then, we do our cheer chart.  My Super Student of the Day comes to the front and uses a pom-pom to lead the class.  We jump and cheer out each word on our cheer chart.

We follow our cheer with a Skywriting activity.  Students sharpen their imaginary skywriting finger and we draw the capital and lowercase letter using our story.  We pretend to write in a house.  The area above the dotted line on the printing paper is the bedroom.  The area below the dotted line is the kitchen.  The basement is the area below the writing lines.  For instance, the capital F story is slide down the pole, clean the ceiling, clean the floor.  The lowercase f story is start in the air, make a candy cane and put a cross on it.

Next, we get out our Magic Pockets.  We sit in our seats with great writing posture and use an Intensive Phonics technique.  The teacher says /F/ and makes the sound two times.  Then, the students say /F/ and make the sound two times.  We write the letter one time.  The class follows the procedure until we have written two capital and two lowercase letters.

Then, we look at Animals A-Z website to learn about an animal that starts with the letter that we are studying.  Other fun activities include counting objects into the counting can that begin with the letter that we are discussing.  We counted flies for the letter F.

We complete several papers each week that focus on the letter that we are focused on.  These are the letter F papers.

I wave my magic wand before we begin printing.  The magic helps us use proper posture and writing techniques.  The printing house is displayed on this magic pocket.  My magic wand is pictured to the right of the pocket.  

We enjoy reading books that begin with the letter that we are touching on each day.  The class enjoys checking the letter can to see what pictures are included.

Our class is working toward completing four guided reading centers each day.  Our centers are focused on the letters or skills that we are discussing. 

Our next letter will be /D/.  The children are sure to enjoy the new characters that they will meet!