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Mrs. Whitehead's
Reading Round-Up News
2001 - 2002 |
Mrs. Whitehead wrote a song about our Reading Round-Up time!
Mrs. Whitehead's Song
Mrs. Whitehead also wrote a song to help us learn some punctuation marks.
Sing Along:
The Punctuation Song
April 12
Mrs. Whitehead taught us about "sharks" and the "sh" sound. She and her husband swim with sharks! Click here to learn more about sharks! We also played "Sight Word" Bingo this week.
April 5
We are learning "Concepts About Print."
1. Point to the title of the story.
2. Can you show me a space between two words?
3. Can you point to an uppercase letter? lowercase letter?
4. What do we call the punctuation mark at the end of sentence number one? What does it mean for us to do?
5. Can you find all the "periods" in the story?
6. How many "sentences" are in the story?
7. Can you show me the first papagraph? 2nd? 3rd?
8. Can you find in the story another word that rhymes with ___?
In March we learned about the "at" word family: "bat cat mat sat fat rat hat pat vat brat and splat" after Mrs. Jones read The Cat in the Hat. We also listened for the short sound of "o" as in "hop." We learned about the period, question mark, comma and the exclamation point. Mrs. Whitehead wrote a Sing Along song called The Punctuation Song. Mrs. Whitehead also made up some hand motions for each kind of punctuation. Ask
your kindergartner what they are!
In January and February we practiced the letter names and letter sounds in many ways. We looked for a certain letter in sentences and circled them. Then we listened for the letter sound at the beginning of a word. We also practiced listening for the letter sound in the middle of a word and at the end of a word. We practiced making the letter sounds by singing our Sing Along "Letter of the Week" songs. We played "Beginning Sound" Bingo and "Match the Word" Bingo. We learned about the "ap" word family: cap lap nap map rap sap tap flap gap zap and snap.
December 17
We made a holiday graph and tried to read some "toy" words. Mrs. Brooks took pictures at our holiday party on Friday. Click on any picture in the photo album to see a larger version. The AM Class The PM Class
December 10
We made a book about the letter Rr. We used auditory and visual discrimination to review the consonants we have learned so far this year.
December 3
On Monday we went to the Delaware Museum of Natural History. We made a riddle book about the letter Dd. We learned the song Dd is For then looked at the words and letters in the song. We wrote a sentence "I see a ____." then substituted Dd words in the blank and tried to read them.
November 26
We made a rhyming book. We learned about bears for Bb week. We learned a song about teddy bears and looked for letters and words we knew.
November 21
On Grandparent's Day, Mrs. Whitehead read the story Just Grandpa and Me by Mercer Mayer. After the story, the children shared stories of fun things they do with their grandparents. The grandparents and grandchild then wrote a sentence and drew a picture of what they like to do together. The pages will be made into a book that each child can take home for one night to share with his/her family.
Mrs. Brooks, the reading specialist in the AM Class,
took photos while everyone was writing their sentence!
Grandparent's Day Photo Album
Please sign the guestbook in the Photo Album.
The children love finding out who has visited our class websites!
November 9
The Nice Nanny
By: Mrs. Whitehead
Nanny was a lovely gal, as friendly as could be.
When she was just a baby, she flew across the sea.
There are many, many, many things
a nanny's meant to do.
But of all the things she cherishes is to be a nan to you!
Visual Discrimination: Let's find the "n"
n o m p s n t n o l n m m n t n y
m n p e a g n m x n f n o p t m n
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I will say the following words.
If you hear the "Nn" sound at the
beginning, stand up.
naughty nuts neat necktie
bottle grow nurse rock
neck mop clock light
sticks nest never nuts
night home apple name
October 29
1. As a new letter of the week is introduced, I will introduce the
children to five pictures starting with that letter sound. The children
repeat the sound, as well as complete a riddle.
For example, the five pictures for the letter sound of "Hh" were:
hog, hen, hat, hand and horse.
The riddle was:
Down on the farm,
With a feast of hay.
Trotting through fields
With a whinny and neigh.
Saddle on top,
Shoes down below.
A mane so sleek-
Giddy-up--let's go!
What am I? Answer: HORSE
2. Auditory Discrimination Exercise:
After the first exercise is completed, the children are told to listen to a LIST of words I will read. Anytime they hear a word with the beginning sound of "Hh" they are to stand up. When they hear a sound other than "Hh" they sit down. A list of 20 words are read. The children are then able to discriminate the beginning sound of "Hh."
Horrible Hilda and Henry
Hilda and Henry were horrible children!
They were mean to each other.
They were mean to their parents.
They were mean to the animals.
Hilda and Henry jumped on the furniture.
Hilda and Henry dumped food on each other.
Hilda and Henry punched each other.
They were horrible, horrible children.
by Mrs. Whitehead
3. Visual Discrimination:
Children are given a short exercise to see if they can visually discriminate their letters. They also complete several worksheets with the letter and beginning sounds of the letter. This helps with their visual discrimination and hand-eye coordination.
4. Story:
Every week there is a story that is read to the group. The title or theme has something to do with the Letter of the Week.
* Children retell a story
* Identify sequence
* Recognize a title
* Teach concepts about print (title, author, period, uppercase letters, lowercase letters, words, sentence structure, exclamation point, question mark, etc.)
5. Vocabulary:
Children are drilled on "sight words" on a regular basis.
Reading Round-Up News
October 1
This week The Afternoon Class learned about "otters" for the letter Oo. The children listened to a story about the life of an otter and answered questions. They did worksheets about the sound of short Oo. They played a game where they had to listen for the short and long sound of Oo.
September 13
Mrs. Whitehead made a game about the letter Aa. The kids had to find all the hidden big A's and little a's on their card. The first time they searched they took a long time. The second time they played they had to find them as fast as they could. It was fun!
September 10
Mrs. Whitehead brought in some really cool artifacts to compare the sound at the beginning of "S"eptember with the sound at the beginning of "snake, skin, spurs, sand" and a few other items. The kids loved seeing the snake skin!
2000-2001 Reading Round-Up News
We have been playing games with words and sentences. Mrs. Whitehead plays Bingo with us. She reads stories to us. We are learning how to make the sounds of the letters in a word to see if we can figure out new words. All month we have been learning to read little books. We love reading!
April 23
What Rhymes?
by Mrs. Whitehad
There was an old lady who swallowed a shoe.
Oh my goodness, what will she do?
There was an old lady who swallowed a cow.
Oh my goodness, what will she do now?
There was an old lady who swallowed a pie.
Oh my goodness, will she die?
There was an old lady who swallowed a boat.
Oh my goodness, will she float?
There was an old lady who swallowed a pin.
Oh my goodness, what shape she is in!
* Can you draw a picture of what the old lady did that rhymes?
April 2 to April 20
1. Go Fish Game (with "bossy r" words)
2. Concentration game with sight words; also finding rhyming sounds
3. Book: When will it be spring? Comprehension and concepts about print
4. Book: Dinosour Eggs
5. My Pet is a --------- (picture) Reviewing the short "e" sound
6. Sounds of short "u" up, tub, rub, mut, fun, tub, sub, hut, nut, but
7. Mix and Match letters and vowels: initial consonants, final consonants, use of vowels "a" "u" "o"
8. Bingo Game: review of sight words: cat, rat, the, take, on, mat, sat, etc.
9. Read Bunny My Honey Book Review the short "u" sound
10. Spring: list activities you can do in the spring; contrast to winter activities on a LEA chart. Compare/contrast winter clothes, sports, plant life, sounds, smells
March 19
The Sh--Sh--Sh--Sh--SHARK!
By: Mrs. Whitehead
One day as I was swimming in the ocean, I saw a shark.
I began to yell to everyone, "There is a shark in the water!"
No one looked at me or the water.
I began to think that the shark was not there, too. But
then the shark swam next to me. He got closer and closer.
I wanted to shoo it away. It still didn't move.
At last I swam to the shore. I was safe. That was a long time ago when I was a child. Now I love to swim with sharks. If a shark is not too big or dangerous, they can be a lot of fun.
The Sh--Sh--Sh--Shark
Comprehension Questions:
1. Who was in the water with the shark? (a little girl)
2. What did the little girl do? (she yelled)
3. Did anyone hear her? (no)
4. How do we know no one heard her? (It said in the story no one looked)
5. Did the shark swim close to the girl? (yes)
6. What did the girl do when the shark got closer? ( tried to shoo it
away)
7. Did the shark move then? (no)
8. What did the girl do next? (swam to shore)
9. When did all this happen? (a long time ago)
10. Does the author like to swim with sharks now? (yes)
Concepts of Print:
1. Point to the title of the story
2. Point to the first word in the story/ last word
3. Point to a space between any two words
4. Can you show me an upper-case letter? / lower-case?
5. Can you circle a period / exclamation point / question mark ?
6. When you see a period, what do you do if you are reading?
7. Can you count the number of sentences in this story?
8. How many words are in the first sentence?
9. Count all the words in the story that start with "sh"
10. Count all the words in the story that begin with the letter "s"
March 12
We've been working on the story "City Mouse-Country Mouse." On Monday we made a list of "things" we could find in the city/country on a chart. Then we made a list of what you would be doing for "fun" if you lived in the city versus the country. We listed games and how you would
play. For example, in the country you might swing on a long rope over a pond and in the city you might play on a concrete school yard.
March 5
The Story of a Little Child
by Mrs. Whitehead
Little Pat was living in a hut near the lake. He had no mom or dad. He was all alone except for a fox that came to visit him. He was so sad. Many times at night, he would lay under a tree and wish for a friend.
One day, a little child came walking in the woods and saw Pat. Pat and his friend Matt began to chat. Both were very happy to find each other. Never again were Pat and Matt lonely.
COMPREHENSION:
1. What do you think this story may be about?
2. What did little Pat live in?
3. Did he have a mom and dad? How do you know?
4. What did he often wish for?
5. Did the story say he was lonely? What does that mean?
6. What happened at the end of the story that made Pat happy?
CONCEPTS ABOUT PRINT:
1. Point to the title of the story.
2. Can you show me a space between two words?
3. Can you point to an uppercase letter? lowercase letter?
4. What do we call the punctuation mark at the end of sentence number one? What does it mean for us to do?
5. Can you circle all the "periods" in the story?
6. How many "sentences" are in the story?
7. Can you show me the first papagraph? 2nd?, 3rd?
8. Can you find in the story another word that rhymes with Pat?
January 29
Mrs. Whitehead met her new class and did an activity with the "at" word family. On Friday we played a concentration card game with the words.
January 22
Mrs. Whitehead did the "Concepts About Print" with all the kids. On Friday Mrs. Whitehead treated us to a pizza party on our last day with her.
January 15
No school on Monday or Wednesday. Mrs. Whitehead was absent on Friday.
January 8
Mrs. Whitehead gave us each a copy of the sentence:
"I have yellow yarn and a yo-yo in my yard."
We circled all the y's, copied the sentence then tried to read the words.
January 3
Ann (our high school helper) was Mrs. Whitehead's substitute and had us practice making the "Yy" sound. On Friday, Mrs. Whitehead read us a story about "snow."
December 18
Ann (our high school helper) was Mrs. Whitehead's substitute and had us follow directions to make an elf. On Wednesday, Mrs. Whithead read us a story about "Sarah's trash."
December 15
We played with the "Letter of the Week" letter sound in this sentence:
Roger rabbit runs real long relays. We read this story:
The Rat
I like rats very much! They are really funny.
They sit on mats and like hats. I think they are cooler than bats.
December 11
We made and read a book called Bears, Bears, Bears. Your child should read the book to a parent then write the title on our monthly Read-To-Me form.
December 4
We read the book My Spider Book. Your child should read the book to a parent then write the title on our monthly Read-To-Me form.
*****
Mrs. Whitehead has been playing with words that begin with the Letter of the Week. The children listen for letter sounds and match word cards.
*****
Mrs. Whitehead has been teaching "Concepts About Print." The children played a game identifying the parts of a story such as the title, capital letters, the story end, words that match, punctuation and other concepts.
*****
Mrs. Whitehead has been playing games and helping the children learn to read words in the "at" word family.
Here are the group stories the children wrote:
Kevin said, "The rat is fat."
Marissa said, "My dog is fat."
Nicole said, "The rat is fat."
Gwen said, "I sit on a mat."
Ruslan said, "I take a nap."
Amy said, "I sat on the mat."
Shane said, "I have a hat."
Monica said, "I am on the mat."
Franky said, "The cat is on the mat."
Sara said, "The rat is at the store."
Tyler said, "The fat man sat on the mat."
Hollie said, "The fat rat sat on the mat."
Annie said, "I put on the cap."
Maddie said, "My dad is fat."
Thomas said, "Rats are fat."
Staci said, "Someone sat on a mat."
Victoria said, Someone wants a nap."
Chris said, "You are fat."
Stephen said, "The cat is fat."
Here is a list of the "at" words from the sentences above for your child to read and practice. If your child is frustrated trying to read the words Many of the children CAN read them so please encourage your child to try. Praise all efforts!
The rat sat on rat sat mat fat
on The to mat on take to take
fat rat sat on fat sat take to
mat on sat rat to take a rat
a fat fat bat bat sat sat rat
mat a take to the the at at
