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Creativity to the Core

Writing Throughout the Day in Kindergarten

Literacy Centers, Misc

Writing throughout the day in kindergarten

When I taught third grade, my students whined and complained when I asked them to write. They struggled to write when directed and when working independently. They lacked experience in sentence formation and frequently struggled with spelling. It pained me to watch them get frustrated, and it pained to me edit their work and ask them to write it over yet again. I was determined to make my students enjoy writing, and to produce quality writing in the process.

We are daily writers in Kindergarten. I strongly believe that if you encourage writing from the get go, students will naturally write. No stress, no frustration, no tears. I intentionally integrate writing all day long. This has developed a love for writing in my kindergarteners.

(DISCLAIMER – The first month or so of kindergarten is rough. I get that. Believe me, our first unprompted writing sample was no fun. I had criers and quitters. However, I teach writing in a teacher directed format during the first month or so, and then move toward independence. I differentiate in my classroom and within activities every day. The activities below are just samples. They are not necessarily completed by my entire class.)

Each morning, we begin with our morning journal. The kids come in, unpack, and grab their journal. We keep the lights low all morning so that we can “focus like scholars”. It is nothing fancy…just the date and a short sentence written on a hanging white board. The sentence is connected to our thematic unit. It usually contains one blank space for students to add their own word or phrase. As the year progresses, the journal becomes more open ended.

morning journal

Students are expected to use capital letters, commas, and periods to form complete sentences. I give a quick check and send them on their way to create an illustration. We focus on matching the illustration to the words. This friend drew a picture of bats in a cave with man-made bat screening and a “NO” sign. I was so impressed that he remembered these details from a book about protecting bats!

bat morning journal entry kindergarten

During literacy centers, the writing center is where most formal writing takes place. (However, students are also writing in the word work and fluency centers, as well as in small group.) I absolutely LOVE Sharing Kindergarten’s “Write Me Three” packs. I use the mini word walls she includes, cut them, and hang them on twine. We use her organizers to help us form complete sentences.

This center layout is the same each week, which I love! Students rotate through this center twice every 6-or-so school days. When all students are finished, I simply change out the graphic organizer and the word cards.

writing center kindergarten

Write me three sentences kindergarten

I also use the graphic organizers occasionally in small group to reinforce sentence formation in a more directed format. The “Write Me Three” format has given my students a fantastic foundation. They are able to write simple sentences and are now working to extend them further. After creating a directed drawing of a bat, this friend introduced her writing, gave the reader four sentences about bats, and then closed out her writing.

bat directed drawing and writing kindergarten

A handful of my kindergarteners are great readers. They are able to write independently, and are beginning to use spelling patterns we have learned on their own. During small group time, we focus on reading comprehension and writing. Once a week, we complete a passage like the one you see below. The reading focuses on one specific short vowel sound. We discuss reading with fluency and expression. We look for picture clues. Then, students work to answer each question independently, as I float around as needed. Who, what, when, where, and why questions are included with every passage in this set. We work on underlining evidence in the text and writing in complete sentences. Recently, we even began labeling our underlined evidence with each corresponding question’s number (Look really closely at the first sentence. You will see the student labeled it with as evidence for question #1).

5W comprehension passages with short vowels

At the end of the day, we have about 30 minutes to solely focus on writing. Some weeks we are consistently writing in our “colorful journals” during this time. You can find these journals (named by my kids for the bright covers) here at Lakeshore. We write our weekly skill words and underline similar patterns. We make sentences with sight words. We write math sentences and solve them. We learn how to slow down and think through sounding out unknown words. And sometimes, we simply free write as you can see below. “School is so fun because I get to go to small group. I like writing in my books. I like to learn. I like to see Mrs. Nardone.”

kindergarten free writing during independent journal time

Some afternoons, I let the kiddos take the lead and we Write the Room. Everyone grabs a clipboard and they go anywhere and everywhere they want to. The only instruction: “Write as many words as you can find around the room! Go!” This is a HUGE hit.

write the room kindergarten

During certain thematic units, I incorporate separate journals. We planted pumpkin seeds at the end of October, and then wrote about what we saw each day as the seeds grew. (Click the picture below for a link to this unit.) After 5 days, students brought these plants and journals home. They were encouraged to continue keeping track of their plants each day.

Kindergarten Pumpkin Plant Journal

We sometimes also use this time in the afternoon to dig deep into our specific weekly standards. Here we had read the book The Little Old Lady Who Wasn’t Afraid of Anything. We retold the story many times before this, so this was a review. We wrote a little in each space to retell the story together. After writing, students drew an illustration to match the writing. This activity was as simple as folding paper, but it was new and exciting to my kindergarteners. They were thrilled to share it with their parents!

The Little Old Lady Who Wasn't Afraid of Anything retelling

Writing has been a huge success in our classroom this school year! Students have moved from not being able to form letters to writing sentences. We have gone through more erasers than I can count. We have lost quite a few pencils. But we have worked really hard. We have tried our very best. We are becoming super writing scholars…and that is all this teacher can ask for!

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  1. Susan says

    December 6, 2015 at 12:36 am

    Great blog with ideas I am definitely going to use!

    Reply

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I'm Meredith, a South Florida teacher who loves coffee and creating.
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creativitytothecore

Keys to success when tutoring.🔑 ⭐️Plan in Keys to success when tutoring.🔑

⭐️Plan in advance. Write a lesson plan every time. Be prepared. Share a digital Google Doc with parents so that they can see what was done and what is to come along with comments.
⭐️Prep every single sound, word, or sentence you want kids to write. Write those down before hand. Set yourself up for success.
⭐️Organize your sessions so they follow a format. Students feel comfortable when they know what to expect. This also helps you to determine which sections of the plan are difficult or lack student interest or attention.
⭐️Use a variety of materials. Nothing fancy necessary, but using a group of materials each time diversifies the tutoring time and keeps attention.
⭐️Be flexible. If a student needs a break or an activity change, then be prepared for that. Including lots of hands on items allows you to make activities into games in an instant. Freeze dance is also a great way to get wiggles out midsession or as a reward.
⭐️Fill the time with many activities. I’m an hour session, I usually do 9-10 activities. Each takes about 1-5 minutes. They all build on each other and relate to the same skill and goal. Using many short activities keeps engagement up and gives you the ability to switch gears immediately if something isn’t working as you’d hoped.
⭐️Keep a folder of finished and unfinished work for the student. Date everything. Students can practice from that folder at home and always have something to reread as fluency practice. Dating papers allows you to see progress over time and works well when schools want to see progress.

📚Do you tutor? What tips do you have? Leave them here!👇🏼

#tutoring #tutoringtips #readingtutor #structuredliteracy #iteach #iteachfirst #iteachsecond #teachersfollowteachers #teachersofinstagram
👋🏼Let's chat about the Language Comprehensio 👋🏼Let's chat about the Language Comprehension part of the Simple View of Reading:

Word Recognition✖️Language Comprehension = Reading Comprehension

📚Language comprehension has an initial focus on vocabulary and background knowledge. These are two strands of Scarborough's Rope that are very closely linked and interdependent. Vocabulary knowledge is shown in reading and listening (receptive vocabulary📖) and writing and speaking (expressive vocabulary📢).

"One of the most well-established findings of educational research is that reading comprehension and vocabulary knowledge are highly correlated with one another, and that knowledge of individual word meanings accounts for as much as 50-60 percent of the variance in reading comprehension (Adlof & Perfetti, 2014; Stahl & Nagy, 2006). While the Reading Rope model indicates that other factors are also important in accounting for reading comprehension, 📣vocabulary is the most important single factor, once children have learned the alphabetic code."📣

⭐️Moats and Tolman explain that it is important to remember that sound, symbol, and sense are connected.⭐️ Great phonics instruction includes decoding and activities that explore word meaning. When we know a word well, we know all or most of the parts of the dimensions of the word's meaning. If we build a strong, well developed network of connections around each new word (swipe to see picture 3), the new word will be stored deeply and retrieved quickly. 

👩‍🏫👨‍🏫Teachers can help to create these networks by focusing new word instruction on the following:
1️⃣Talk about pronunciation, spoken syllables, phonemes (sounds), morphemes (base words & affixes)
2️⃣Look for graphemes (spellings)  or patterns/generalizations that you know
3️⃣Identify and talk about synonyms, antonyms, examples, categories.
4️⃣Bring connotations of words into discussion
5️⃣Talk about and describe multiple meanings in context

(Moats & Tolman, 2019, Volume 2, p. 6, 14)

#vocabulary #vocabularybuilding #vocabularywords #vocabularyinstruction #languagecomprehension #structuredliteracy #scienceofreading #iteach #iteachk #iteachfirst #iteachsecond #teachersofinstagram #teachersfollowteachers
The face you make when it’s time for your nightl The face you make when it’s time for your nightly Heggerty brain workout. 🧠🏋️

#musictomyears #parentsupport #parentadvocacy #phonologicalawareness #phonemicawareness #heggerty #primethebrain #structuredliteracy #scienceofreading 
*Shared with permission
The Science of Reading is not just phonics. I repe The Science of Reading is not just phonics. I repeat, evidence based reading instruction does not mean we teach only phonics.⭐️

Drs. Moats and Tolman describe all components of effective reading instruction: phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and language comprehension. These 5 components have been front and center since the National Reading Panel report in 2000. We should look at our instruction and our curriculum with this lens. Are all 5 components present and prominent?💭

It is imperative to develop word recognition in order to support students reading comprehension as they grow to be independent readers. Scarborough’s Reading Rope (2001) also shows that it’s imperative to build students’ language comprehension: background knowledge, vocabulary, language structures (syntax, semantics), verbal reasoning (inference, metaphor, etc.), and literacy knowledge (genres, print concepts, etc.).📚

We know from the Simple View of Reading (Gough & Tunmer, 1986) that reading comprehension is the PRODUCT of word recognition and language comprehension. This means neither word recognition or language comprehension can be lacking if we want to achieve proficient reading comprehension.🙌🏼

Word recognition & language comprehension are dual goals, as Moats and Tolman stated. They should be strengthened together. While it is necessary to focus more time into phonics instruction in the early grades, a phonics only lens will never support this dual goal.

#teachersofinstagram #teachersfollowteachers #iteach #iteachtoo #structuredliteracy #scienceofreading #wordrecognition #languagecomprehension
If you’ve been following along this year, you pr If you’ve been following along this year, you probably know that I homeschool for a family. I teach 2 siblings each day, full time.❤️

Well, this morning I walked into a classroom decorated with hearts and pink post it’s. They found all the pink and red books and put them up on the display shelves.📚

And...drumroll please...they made this hilarious shirt for me. Before to the word “Academy”, they wrote their last name. 😂 So now we have a legit one room school house. And I’m the ONLY teacher...soooo apparently I win Teacher of the Year at this school.😝

I’m still laughing, and my heart is full. Enjoying all the humor in this crazy year.
Happy Valentine’s Day, friends! 

#teachersfollowteachers #teachersofinstagram #iteach #iteachtoo #iteachfirst #iteachsecond
Drawing attention to the syllables, onset and rime Drawing attention to the syllables, onset and rime, or phonemes in words is extremely helpful when students are learning to orthographically map words AND when they are learning new vocabulary words. It helps the brain form a connection between the spoken word, and the printed word.🗣

We’re working on -EST in words, but I wanted to increase the difficulty by focusing on meaning a bit more. I chose words that had -est as the rime or word family unit. I also chose words that contained the suffix -est at the end of a base word.📚

Each time I said a word, they would repeat the word. I would give a sentence and then students would segment it into either onset and rime or into syllables, depending on the length of the word.🤍

If the word had an onset and the rime -est, they would quickly notice that the onset was not a word on its own (n - est). BUT, if the word had an onset and a longer rime (f - astest), we would try to divide it by syllables instead (fast - est). We would ask ourselves if the base word (fast) was a real word. If they said yes, we talked about how -est changes the meaning of that word and how it is a suffix.⭐️

We would look at our T chart and decide if it should be written on the “rime unit” side or the “suffix” side. I carefully chose base words with a variety of endings so that we could practice doubling the final consonant (biggest), changing y to i (happiest), and dropping one e (largest). We did this entire activity guided and with manipulatives, talking through each word together.📝

#speechtoprint #phonologicalawareness #phonemicawareness #spellinginstruction #wordstudy #structuredliteracy #teachersfollowteachers #teachersofinstagram #iteachtoo #iteachfirst #iteachsecond
Teensy post-its make everyone’s day.📝 Word s Teensy post-its make everyone’s day.📝

Word sorts are a great way to practice new skills, review previous ones, or a combination of both! Here we reviewed many phonics patterns while working on syllable types.🔍

I like using word sorts when students do not have to write because it creates more time for me question. I’m constantly asking questions and providing clarifications. Students answer aloud and explain their thinking. I often think aloud with them to model how to analyze certain tricky words. Soon, they’re able to think aloud on their own which builds a deeper understanding.💭

Sort from Flyleaf decodable homework handouts (free online) which are provided for every digital decodable that they have.

#teachersofinstagram #teachersfollowteachers #iteach #iteachtoo #wordsorts #phonicsfun #phonicspatterns #syllabletypes #structuredliteracy #flyleaf
Flyleaf has the most beautiful and engaging decoda Flyleaf has the most beautiful and engaging decodable readers.📚

We love switching between their nonfiction and fiction decodables. The pictures and illustrations are beautiful. The fiction books have great story lines. The nonfiction books are so informative and fun! They have tons of real pictures and text features.🙌🏼

They are free online, but cannot be printed. There are weekly handouts supplies for each book. They include handwriting practice, orthographic mapping, syllable division, reading comprehension with text evidence, and essay prompts. My students do some of this work as independent work throughout the week.✏️

Swipe to watch my first grade reader.⭐️

#iteachtoo #teachersfollowteachers #teachersofinstagram  #iteachfirst #iteachk #iteachsecond #structuredliteracy #decodablereaders #scienceofreadinginstruction
Teaching reading IS rocket science (thanks, Dr. Lo Teaching reading IS rocket science (thanks, Dr. Louisa Moats!) but curling your hair doesn’t have to be. 📚😂

I know this isn’t reading or teaching related. I’m also not a fashion blogger. 🤪 BUT the gram needs to share this tip. Thanks to my friend @ally.applegate, I can do this more often because it’s speedy and it works!

I have THICK long hair. If I want to curl it, it could take 30 minutes! And it won’t hold longer than a few hours to a day. I have two littles (as you can hear in the background), so that doesn’t work. But this hack! This makes it doable in just 7 minutes!!! SEVEN! 🙌🏼 

It’s the little things. That is all. ❤️ 

And don’t worry. I won’t change from sharing reading tips to sharing beauty tips. Just this one.😝
Since I first started virtually teaching about fou Since I first started virtually teaching about four years ago, I have been amazed at how quickly relationships are built through a screen. When I first started with VIPKid, I had friends in China and students who are excited to learn every class. I’m not currently teaching for VIPKid, but still keep up with a few regular students and hope to meet them one day. 😍

Today I started virtually tutoring a kindergartner in Canada. 🇨🇦 We have only had an assessment and one session together & the same is true. We’re learning and giggling together. Having fun, getting to know each other, and learning to read.📚

Teaching is hard, but little moments make it so worth it to me!💓
💻DIGITAL PORTFOLIO🗄 In 2017, my husband was 💻DIGITAL PORTFOLIO🗄

In 2017, my husband was starting a new job in a different city and I needed a job. I wasn’t going to be able to travel there to interview as it was about 4 hours north of us. So I decided to create a digital portfolio to essentially allow principals to get an inside view of my classroom from afar. 

📸 I used @weebly because it was easy to create and free! I keep the URL to myself since there are some pictures of student faces. I organized my portfolio by Marzano domains (the teacher evaluation system in FL). Pictures were a must and I linked many videos as well. Essentially, I showed proof of each domain and many of the categories within each domain. ⭐️Swipe to see some snapshots⭐️

💌When I sent emails to principals, I included the link so they could view at their convenience. When I applied online, I dropped the link into the section labeled portfolio or even “Is there anything else you’d like us to know.”

🏆I got a phone call within an hour of sending the email to principals. And I was then hired immediately from that phone interview. I sincerely think that the portfolio helped my principal to “see me in the classroom” without physically seeing me.

👌🏻Ever since, I’ve updated it and used it in every job inquiry and interview. It works every time and I often get comments about how convenient it was for admin.

❤️Do you have a portfolio? Is it digital or in a binder? Has it helped you secure a job? I truly think that digital portfolios will be a huge benefit with interviews under cov!d regulations.❤️

#teachersfollowteachers #teachersofinstagram #iteach #iteachtoo #teacherinterview #teachingportfolio
Keep reading books to kids, no matter the age!🙌 Keep reading books to kids, no matter the age!🙌🏼

Do you agree? Like, share your thoughts in the comments, and share with anyone you know!!! 🥰

#teachersofinstagram #teachersfollowteachers #readaloud #listeningcomprehension #booklover #structuredliteracy #iteachfirst #iteachsecond #iteachtoo
📢Sound on📢 CC: Students are telling their mo 📢Sound on📢
CC: Students are telling their mom about the word “have”. They say “No English word ends in a V. So you have to put an E after it. But it doesn’t make it “hAve” (long A).🤩

Tonight when I received this video from their mom with the text “I learned something new from them today!” I laughed hard, but I was so so so proud!❤️

My students are continuing our homeschool routine via my lesson plans while out of town. So tonight they taught their mom about the orthography of the English language.🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼

💭No English word ends in V. They also don’t end in I, U, or J. (3 exceptions: you, thou, and I)
This explains why HAVE has a silent E at the end, but is not pronounced with a long A. Words that DO end in I, U, V, or J are loan words borrowed from other languages or abbreviations. For example, “menu” is French and “taxi” is an abbreviation.

🤷🏼‍♀️Did you know this? I did not know this until this past year...my 7th year of teaching. If you do know this...when did you learn it?

#teachersfollowteachers #teachersofinstagram #thelogicofenglish #structuredliteracy #phonicsinstruction #english #linguistics #iteachfirst #iteachsecond
This is what we call progress. Week 1 & Week 20. A This is what we call progress. Week 1 & Week 20. Almost 6 months to the day.🙌🏼

📝My second grader needed lots of phonemic awareness, phonics, and writing intervention. We have hashed out those skills nonstop since the first week of August. It’s been an amazing journey to watch. 

📚When I look at these two samples, I see text understanding, sentence structure and variety, written comprehension, and significant phonics growth. Both of these are reading responses to decodable passages. 

❤️On the first page, I had to assist with finding facts, writing sentences, and spelling words. On today’s writing, I only had to help with the EA in “defeated” and when to use -ED. I watched as a previously reluctant writer, finished an entire page of writing while I worked with another student. THAT is called a win.

🤩This is not to toot my own horn. It’s to celebrate my student and his hard work. It’s to focus on the fact that if we are CONSISTENT with foundational skills, they will translate into reading and writing improvements. 

📢Keep on keeping on, friends! Light that spark and watch for these moments that warm our teacher hearts. Progress over perfection!

(Curriculum is a phonics book titled: “From Phonics to Reading” by Wiley Blevins, Sadlier Publishing)

#teachersfollowteachers #teachersofinstagram #iteachtoo #iteachfirst #iteachsecond #phonicsinstruction #structuredliteracy #writeeveryday
🤍If there’s one work thing I’ve been thankf 🤍If there’s one work thing I’ve been thankful for over the last year in this pandemic life, it’s online professional development. Countless webinars, live chats, and courses are available digitally now for free or low cost. It’s been such a year of growth for me!

🤍During most breaks you can find me lesson planning or sitting watching a webinar of sorts (or doing both simultaneously). I enjoy the bit of quiet & cozy up in my swivel chair while highlighting or taking notes. Enneagram 3 for ya...always doing something. I can’t help it.

🤍I should’ve kept track of each session I watched, each course I attended, each article I read. That would’ve been a great addition to a digital portfolio. “The Pandemic PD.” 😂 But I didn’t.

🤍I have really loved The Reading Teacher’s Top Ten Tools course. YouTube videos from The Reading League & PaTTAN are also top notch. If it’s podcasts that you need, check my highlights for suggestions.

🤍The resource pictured here is The Reading Science Academy. It’s a monthly subscription created by Dr. Stephanie Stollar who is a professor at Mount Saint Joseph University in Cincinnati. (MSJ is well known for their masters and doctoral programs in the Science of Reading). The subscription is $9 and offers core and monthly content from experts in the field. I love it so far!

🤍Have you taken virtual PD this year? What has been your favorite? Let us know below so we can all share!👇🏼

#iteachtoo #teachersfollowteachers #teachersofinstagram #virtualpd #iteachfirst #iteachsecond #structuredliteracy #scienceofreading #growthmindset #alwayslearningalwaysgrowing
Just a reminder to myself and any other mamas out Just a reminder to myself and any other mamas out there - get IN FRONT of the camera from time to time and have someone else capture some moments for you. ❤️ You won’t regret it!
Sight word = ANY word that is orthographically map Sight word = ANY word that is orthographically mapped and permanently stored in memory so that it is retrieved automatically.

•Sight words are not only Dolch and Fry words. It is not as effective or efficient to memorize irregular words as whole words or by shape.

🎉Spellings of words are bonded to their pronunciations and meanings. (Phonemic awareness and vocabulary instruction are SO essential here!)

•Building your sight word knowledge leads to reading automatically, without decoding each word as you come to it. Reading automatically therefore leads to fluent reading which leads to higher comprehension of what you are reading.

💡When words are mapped and become sight words to us, the connections in our brains are activated EVERY time we see the word, REGARDLESS of if we want to read it or not. If someone flashes a word and takes it away immediately, you will still read the word automatically without even trying to. This is why we can look at something and know what it says before thinking, “Hmmm let me read that!” We cannot keep ourselves from reading a word that we see and we can also not forget how to read a word that we have mapped.🤯

Swipe to read each of the four quotes as they go together and are taken directly from her published work.

Source: Linnea Ehri 1992, 1995
Linnea Ehri is a well known psychologist who has developed and published research on orthographic mapping and the stages of reading (and much more!).
Merry Christmas from our family to yours! ❤️ G Merry Christmas from our family to yours! ❤️ Glory to the newborn King! 👑
We’ve been working on syllable deletion in three We’ve been working on syllable deletion in three syllable words this week and last. Students have been ROCKING it!🌟 

This specific example was our last of an E2 set from Kilpatrick’s Equipped for Reading Success book. I love how she, suddenly and unprompted, realized that the word was like another word she knew.❤️ I went with it and showed her how to manipulate one syllable within 3 syllable words as an intro.

This was randomly caught on video but made me so excited. It shows why phonological awareness is important. It helps students to identify, read, and interact with multi-syllable words.📚

We have manipulatives out and students can use them if they wish. Eventually I notice students rely less on tapping the manipulative and simply answer quickly and automatically.🙌🏼

💭How have you seen manipulatives help with phonological awareness instruction?💭

#iteachtoo #iteachfirst #iteachsecond #phonologicalawareness #equippedforreadingsuccess #syllabledeletion #syllables #multisyllablewords
Quick Tip!💭 Print out a one or two page versio Quick Tip!💭

Print out a one or two page version of a sound wall and use it to track the data from your auditory drills!📝

Auditory drills - ask the student to write all the graphemes or all the ways (that they’ve learned so far) to spell a particular phoneme.🗣 

I just date it and give it a check if it was correct or almost correct. Then I can visually see which sounds we haven’t practiced yet. We do auditory drills about every other day and I just had this idea last week. It’s now saving my sanity!🤣

#iteachfirst #iteachsecond #teachersfollowteachers #teachersofinstagram #structuredliteracy #auditorydrill #soundwall
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