Vision Boards-Even In Kindergarten

It is very important to me that my students are getting practice navigating the world of technology beyond the reading and math programs we use. Here we wrote digital stories. It was a vision board-what are their hopes and dreams for the future? Very open-ended-"I will live...", "I will drive" (some wrote specific cars others wrote where they would go), "I will.....", "For fun...."

The Value of Wordless Books

I facilitate a book club for students at my school. One year we had a wordless book on our list. A staff parent sent it back with a note saying "this wasn't challenging enough for my child". I was so surprised an educator would not see the value in wordless books. 

So every year I try to do at least a week of reading wordless books to my students. Some of my favorites are:

We use depth and complexity to analyze the books.

* Multiple perspectives-how would it feel to be a wordless book? Would you be jealous of books with words?

* Rules-what is always true about wordless books?

* Big Idea-what is the author trying to teach us? Was that easy or hard for them to convey that message?

And then their favorite part-they get to write their own books. It amazes me how they start implementing the dream bubbles and expressions on their faces. These are Kinder students.

Bubble Maps to Describe Rosa Parks

I LOVE using bubble maps to assess the knowledge of my students. It also helps them solidify what an adjective is.

We read my favorite book about Rosa Parks:

I really appreciate how it humanizes her-she was someone with a job, who made meatloaf for her husband. She wasn't just someone who would not give up her seat on the bus.

Kindergarten Blues

One of my favorite poets to use with Kinder students is Langston Hughes. He has a poem:

When the shoe strings break
On both your shoes
And you're in a hurry-
That's the blues.

When you go to buy a candy bar
And you've lost the dime you had-
Slipped through a hole in your pocket somewhere-
That's the blues, too, and bad!

We read it together. We discuss it. We listen to famous Blues greats. Then I ask the students to write what a Kindergarten Blues song would say. What gives you the Blues ( a lot of them dealt with friendship drama :) 

If I Were a King or Queen

We have a very scripted reading program which as you can probably guess, I dislike. I would rather read them actual books instead of passages and I would like to choose what books we read based on their interests. But I don't rule the world. :)

Speaking of our unit right now is Kings and Queens (very relevant to my Kinder kiddos right?). 

I did ask them to imagine they were a King or Queen. What would they see, do, feel and say. I was expecting them to apply some of what we have learned and they knocked it out of the park.