I wish you could watch me unpack my car, when I get to school, on Monday mornings. It's pretty hilarious! Sometimes I'm hauling in 20 pumpkins. Other times I have my arms full of flowers. This week I had Peanut, the turtle and all of the books I love to read to the kids in November. The reason I'm always carrying random items is that I love to provide experiences for the kids and every single experience leads to our literacy learning.
When we drew sunflowers, pumpkins, and apples we learned to draw by looking at detail and drawing what is actually there. This ties into our Writer's Workshop time, when we want to be sure our illustrations show what is actually happening and we add detail to our drawings. Those details will eventually end up in our writing. Our goal is for our pictures to become more developed and recognizable while students are also able to communicate their story before beginning to write.
When we made applesauce, it connected to books we were reading, but it also served as a springboard for some of our writers! Several kids chose to write about making applesauce.
One of our kindergarten standards is to use a combination of drawing, dictating, and
writing to compose informative/explanatory
texts in which they name what they are writing
about and supply some information about the topic.
I love having pets in our classroom. The kids love to watch Steve and Peanut. They're always doing curious things.
You can imagine my excitement when one of our kindergartners draws and writes about our pets during Writer's Workshop. I'm just thrilled when one of our experiences becomes writing or when we read a book and the kids run over to one of our pumpkins to show me what the book is talking about. This is why I haul in a bunch of random things on Monday mornings!
Another of our kindergarten standards is to participate in collaborative conversations about kindergarten topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups. This is what we do all day long in kindergarten! When I set these experiences up for kids, I want them to talk, discuss, think, share, and question. Often this talk will lead to writing and then some further reading. It's so exciting! This is something to think about when you're out and about with your kids. Every single experience your kids have will contribute to their literacy lives!
If you'd like to read a bit more about experiences and my inspiration for bringing them into the classroom, please check out this post on my early childhood literacy blog. http://lovelaughterandliteracy.com/reggio-inspired/
Happy learning!
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