I feel like I am at a place in my teaching career where I am getting really tired of learning about how to be the best teacher I can be and then not letting that teacher shine through because I feel stifled by having to teach through a manual and stay on a pacing guide. Yes, routine has its place and it's great for kids, but I am kind of over it. I feel so rushed all the time and there is so little time for everything I have to do that I often don't even consider trying to think of something creative or innovative. I know you all feel it too, so I won't rant, but given these feelings, I have been trying to experiment with some different things in the classroom to really draw upon who the kids are and what they bring to the table instead of just teaching at them.
Each week we focus on a letter and do several activities related to that letter. One of the activities that we do is "letter looking" where we give the kiddos a poem that contains many words with our letter of the week and they go through the poem and highlight the letter of the week each time they come across it. I like this activity and it helps the kids recognize the letters, which is particularly good at the beginning of the year. Today, I decided to give this activity a little makeover and I want to share the results!
I started by gathering the kiddos in our reading circle and we read our "U book." We have letter books from Reading A to Z. They are simple books in the same format with four different images of things that start with each letter and simple sentences. Since our letter is U this week, I really felt it was important to start with that since there are not a ton of words beginning with U that are really relevant to the kids.
After we read the book, I had the kids go back to their table groups and take out their small whiteboards and markers. I asked them to write down 5 words they could think of that start with "U." This was challenging since U is a more random letter, yet I wanted them to have practice sounding out words as part of the activity. I gave them some time to write their words and then we started to create a group story. Instead of having them search for words within a poem that was already written, I set out to have them write their own! I sat at my laptop and projected the word document I was typing in on the big whiteboard. As I wrote, I asked the kiddos what should happen next and prompted them by describing certain words that start with U. The results differed a lot between the morning class and the afternoon class, but I wanted to share both of the stories :0)
Umberto and the Unicorn
By: Mrs. Sneaker's AM Kindergarten
One day Umberto found a unicorn under an umbrella. The unicorn was wearing underwear, so Umberto gave him a uniform. The unicorn really likes the Ducks, so Umberto gave him a University of Oregon uniform. Umberto tried to ride the unicorn, but the unicorn said it was unacceptable and he got mad. The unicorn flew up, up, up into universe so he could barely see the United States anymore. Umberto was so upset, he cried, but then he realized the umbrella was magical. He turned the umbrella upside down and the umbrella started to fly. He flew up, up, up into the universe and found the unicorn. Umberto said he was sorry for trying to ride on the unicorn and the unicorn forgave him. Then they flew together under the stars.
The End
Up Goes the Unicorn
By: Mrs. Sneaker’s PM Kindergarten
There was a unicorn and she found a mermaid under the water. Up the mermaid came and popped out of the water. She was cute. The unicorn was upset because the mermaid didn’t understand unicorn language because she only spoke mermaid language. The mermaid tied a balloon onto the unicorn and the unicorn went up, up, up into the universe.
The End
Cute, right? I think that doing the activity this way really allowed the kids to play a larger part and I also modeled the process of writing a creative story as well by thinking aloud as we came up with the story. After we wrote the stories, I used the highlight tool on my computer to highlight all the u's, so the original activity was embedded in what I did.
I am excited to see how this works when we do a letter that is a bit easier. After I read the story to the whole AM class, I told them I thought it needed some illustrations, so maybe it would be fun to have them do some drawings with captions tomorrow.
