In Kindergarten I introduce journals in the fall beginning with oral story problems. We act out the problems using props and sometimes just in circle using our bodies. Then just like writing workshop we use interactive writing to draw a response to the story problem. It begins as a fifteen minute block and then grows to about twenty five minutes including a mini lesson. In the journal children can use markers, pencil crayons or pencils to show their thinking. If they need to make a change we simply use label stickers. By October we have created an anchor chart for math showing tallies, draw it out or using objects to solve the math problem and are doing math problems two or three times a week. Then once they have a good understanding it settles into a weekly session, usually by November.   I like to introduce the journal problem as a whole group using the Elmo projector and we work altogether to solve the problem. As many of the problems can be solved with different stra...

This last month the children are really working collaboratively, enjoying these final few weeks together. The spring literacy program is designed to prepare the children for grade one by reviewing concepts and placing an extra emphasis on sight words and rhyme. If you are looking for some fresh ideas for your daily literacy play here are a few that the children are really enjoying: Roll & Write The children roll a die and print the sight word in the column. The object of the game is to fill all of the boxes. The children use skinny markers to write the words. I purchased my set at TPT and have a wide range of sheets including an editable one. This allows me to do rhyming words or sight words. Beginning Sound / Letter Match Up The children have a little board game from Orchard Toys which matches up pictures/letters with a board. One thing that I like is that the child can choose to match a picture with letters on the board or flip the board over ...